Dark is the Sun - August Ed.

It has been many a moon since my game group visited the desolate waste of Athas. We rolled our dice against the old Gods in June and took off the month of July. So a return to our Dark Sun game was in order this past weekend. Not having played in so long I sent a quick refresher to the group the week before and tried to give my best summary before we got started.

Back in May the group was seeking out the fragments of ancient artifact (Crown of Dust), but had the two pieces they had acquired so far stolen from them. The Templar that pick pocked the artifacts serves a powerful sorcerer king who means to get even more powerful once he controls the crown. Now it is up to the group to stop him. They sought allies in that fight in May and thought they were going to be on the hunt for more on Saturday.

They thought wrong. I added a sixth player (Wayne) to the table for Cthulhu in June with the intention of him staying at the table once I took the DM reigns back. Enter Alek, rogue, explorer and grave robber treasure hunter. I knew it would not be a natural fit to shoehorn him into the faction politics from the last game. So I sought a more natural introduction.

An article by Robert Schwalb that was a supplement to the world of Dark Sun seemed like a perfect fit. Elaadrich, a city referenced on the map of Athas, but never mentioned in the book. Schwalb did a fantastic job of describing a mad king who shuttered his city 800 years ago and only recently opened it's doors. I loved the concept, but for my re-purposing it didn't need to be alive. So I added a plague to the timeline that killed or mutated most of the citizens. Those that were left alive were either docile, but intelligent creatures or feral beast.

After reading various articles on 3D terrain at Roving Band of Misfits last month, I tried my hand at it for Saturday night. The first being a cliff side ambush encounter on the way to the lost city (see the pic above). The second was a confrontation with the mad sorcerer king. Who took the party to be his thieving templars, come back for more of his power. The terrain was a hit and the encounters that took place on them were pretty fun too.

Hits: Getting back to 4E, adding a 6th player, 3D terrain, peach crumble bars

Misses: Forgetting creature powers, encounters that were too safe

The rest is in the pictures...

Dark is the Sun - May Ed.

Long stretches between games can mean ample time to plan and prepare. That or time to procrastinate and rush through planning in the week before game night. I thought I was doing the former this month and it turned out to be the latter.

The story so far has been a hunt around Athas for an artifact of great power "the Crown of Dust". Why the party was looking for it originally was not super clear. Unpaid debts and missing family members tied to the ancient item was all that was driving them. So I added some context. Now a Sorcerer King wants it to destroy their home city with the Crown. So it is either gather the fragments before him or kill him before he finds and assembles it. The group has been set on the path to kill him and now need allies to do so.

Last Minute Changes
I had this game planned since the last time we played. Not on paper mind you, but it was kicking around in my noodle for nearly two months. When I finally got it on paper last week I wasn't happy with it though. So I went into edit mode to try and take it off the rails. By Wednesday I still wasn't happy. So I decided two days before we played, that I would blow out the ending from one possible outcome to three.

All with their own map, monsters and plot points. I got it done, but after the last dice was rolled Friday night I didn't feel like I had done it well. The answer could be not procrastinating, but it could also be spending more time on my encounters. Thankfully the two encounters on deck are already done. Now I can take the next month to sharpen them to a fine point.

Motivation
Being heroes who want to do heroic things isn't always enough. Maybe it should be. Sometimes I can't get a read on what motivates the party though. It could be me doing a poor job of setting up plot hooks for them. This isn't specific to one player or one event, but it is something I need to do a better job of in general. Part of me wants to just say the hell with it and wait for the next campaign to get the hooks right, but I know I can salvage this one. Overall things are going well, it just needs some tweaking.

Friday Games
Ugh, the bane of our group so far has been Friday night games. We learned a while ago not to do them. Everyone has worked a full week and comes in tired and edgy. With families, friends and careers it can be tough to be free on a Saturday though. It can't be helped sometimes. The answer could be postponing to the next free Saturday or planning lighter for these off months. Neither option sounds great.

The rest is in the pictures...

Dark is the Sun - March Ed.

The third evening of our Dark Sun campaign kicked off this past Saturday night. We ate subs as a substitute to "crappy" pizza. We had four iPhones at the table and not one of them snapped a picture. The story of Fire Watch plodded forward.

Motivation
Back in October of 2010 I wrote, in the wrap up of my first D&D campaign, that I wanted to "Establish my villain sooner". I thought I was on the road to doing that with this game, but after Saturday I don't know that I am. I have an NPC the players hate, which I as a DM love. I have a few other evil NPCs that are plotting and scheming, but have not made their presence felt enough yet. Without an imminent threat I find my players lacking the get up and go I want from them. This is something I plan to rectify in the coming game nights.

Four Encounters Too Many
Our game nights usually consist of 4-5 hours of actual play. It can seem long, but considering we only play once a month it is warranted. Knowing this and knowing that encounters, no matter how you shorten them, take a hour or more, it is silly to plan more than three. Apparently I needed that lesson repeated for me as I planned to run four on Saturday. We never got to the fourth encounter, I glossed over it and spent the rest of the evening wrapping up the story elements I wanted to convey. Lesson learned...maybe.

Fatigue
My players and I all seemed to be yawning and glass eyed by the end of Saturday night. Blame too much beer, sickness, lack of sleep or any number of reasons. The result was a general feeling that the game was dragging. Something that really bugged me as I headed to bed post midnight. I awoke feeling sick and even more bummed by the prior nights game. Emails from my players with a positive outlook on the night and my own chance to reflect have since changed that bummed feeling. Now I just want to make the next night even better.

Dark is the Sun - February Ed.

Round two of our Dark Sun campaign went off without a hitch earlier this month. Unfortunately it did so with one chair empty. Mike could not make it and for the first time since I started running a game for family and friends I played without a player. Outside of figuring out the logistics of a missing Spitfire though the game went great though.

Quiting WoW really allowed me to pour a ton of time into this one. It was mostly a dungeon crawl, but I managed to introduce enough real choice and role playing to not make the whole night feel like one big dice role. I had fun running it and seeing my players wonder aloud if they were breaking my planning. I planned enough to account for most of their actions and even threw out whole encounters if need be.

Players as NPCs
I made the mistake of letting my players dictate the actions of an absent character in this past game. I was not prepared for it in that I did not have crunch for him and did not want to make choices that might effect his story. In the future when I have an empty chair that character is either out of the picture completely or I will let another player run them. I want no hand in it.

Off the Rails
Playing off the rail either requires more planning or the ability to improvise like a pro. As I am still wet behind the ears I am doing it through planning. Not getting attached to my encounters or a completely fixed story is tough, but ultimately makes for a better game. You can't plan for everything though, so I am flexing my improve muscles more and more often. I like where this is all going.

Skill Challenge Free
After stewing over skill challenges in my mind and on the web for a week I decided to bench them for the February game night. I made good use of skills in role play and in combat, but I think I am over official skill challenges. Even skill use without story or combat implication is out. My game and players will be better for it.

How I DM: Skill Challenged

How I DM, is a series of articles that reflect back on my time as a dungeon master over the past year plus. I am currently DMing a Dark Sun 4e campaign for a group of friends and family. Today's article will focus on my use and experience with skill challenges.

I mentioned in the recap of my first Dark Sun game night that I was frustrated with the way skill challenges are presented by WotC. As a DM, who is still learning the ropes, I shied away from using them at first. I wasn't quiet clear on how they would fit into the story. My first attempt at using them was four or five game nights into the Bloodlines of Fate campaign I ran this past summer and fall.

Assuming that the company that puts out the game I run for my players knows what is fun. I ran it word for word like they write it. The group needed to get behind a tavern to stop a weapons deal a cult was brokering. So I presented them with a pass/fail criteria like every module I have seen come out of Dungeon magazine. Something to the effect of "you need to make six success rolls before three failures and here are the skills you can use to do that: 2x Stealth, 2x Bluff, etc...". My players were confused. I ended up explaining it two more times before they ever rolled a dice.

It didn't add to the story and felt shoe horned into the evenings other events. Afterward I determined that I must have been doing something wrong. So for the game this past Saturday I took the the approach of wrapping it in story. I started by letting my players know they had 3 days of rations each and that traveling to their destination would take 3 days. Each day I presented a scenario that was coupled with a skill check.

On the first day of your journey you all come across a fork in the path. One way leads into a valley and the other over a craggy slat flat. Go ahead and roll a nature check to determine what you might know about these two terrain types.

If they passed, they add no time to their trip. If they failed they would add a day to the trip and increase the chances of sickness or death by travelling without supplies. I allowed both trained and untrained rolls, but noted that any untrained failures would cancel out successes. It worked fine I guess, but still felt like it was not a part of the game or story. After that night I think I have finally determined where they fit and don't fit at my table.

During Combat
Using multiple skill checks or challenges during combat can build drama, risk and role play into an otherwise boring encounter. The best experience I have had with it are traps that round after round will damage the players until disabled. An arcane based trap that requires 3-4 successful skill checks before it is disabled forces a player to choose between killing creatures or deactivating a constant source of damage.  Better yet a trap that works like an alarm system. Allow it to go off long enough and it will bring more enemies to the fray.

During Role Play
This is how I always have understood skill checks. Want to lie to a town guard, skill check. Want information from the town drunk who isn't cooperating, skill check. It plays out naturally on it's on and usually falls to me to be reactive to player decisions. On occasion I have a few planned out ahead of time. E.g. A NPC will lie to the players and not reveal his/her true intentions unless they call him on it. If it takes away from the story or leaves out a crucial piece of information I might lead them to it. They usually are quick enough to ask on their own. "Can I roll insight to see if he is telling the truth".

Crammed Between
The formality of either announcing "this is a skill challenge" or putting book ends on the mechanic by changing tone is what makes them feel out of place. To my mind all of the fun that a formal skill challenge should offer is already covered by skill checks in combat and role play. So why have them at all? The more I think about their inclusion into 4e, the more I think they were added as a way to make sure skills got used. Not to justify the inclusions of skills, but as an easier way to present skill use to first time dungeon masters. It's a poor substitute for just integrating it into regular play.

Dark is the Sun - January Ed.

So way back in August I decided that I would sunset my 4e home brew game and start up a Dark Sun one. Planning complete, we rolled the first dice of the campaign Saturday (1/8/11) evening. I started my players off with almost an hours worth of role playing before they ever stepped into combat. Which I delegated mostly to the Marauders of the Dune Sea module. In total they got through bunches of role playing and two bigger encounters for the night. All in it was a success.

Story vs. Combat
I have limited time to prepare as a DM and I usually prefer to spend that time building cool encounters and creatures. After a gajillion hours worth of video games I have a good idea of what makes an encounter or mechanic fun and challenging. I have a lot less experience as a storyteller. Using the canned module gave me way more time to focus on my plot and it panned out. I spent at least two weeks before Saturday helping my players work on their back stories and design hooks that would hopefully be meaningful to them. Sure I tweaked the encounters to make them more interesting, but most of my time was spent telling a tale.

Committing to a First Person Voice
I have been building the courage to commit to only using first person voices for the NPCs in my games since I started. I have dabbled to some success with it in the past, but never committed for all of them. I did just that for our first Dark Sun game. I slipped once or twice, but got back on course as soon as I relazed I had. I liked it. It still feels silly, but I think it makes the game better.

Halved Hit Points
Big high level monsters create challenge and put the fear of failure into the players. They also come attached with loads of hit points that can drag an encounter out for hours. Reading about on Robert Schwalb's blog months ago and then seeing it in practice when Ethan DMed sold me on the practice. Beyond bugging my players to keep their turns snappy, this is the biggest improvement to overly long encounters in 4e I have seen so far. Highly recommend it.

Skill Challenges
Maybe it was my own fault, but trying to run skill challenges the way WotC prescribes them is both confusing and boring for players. Achieve 6 successes before 3 failures using the following skill checks: Endurance, Nature...blah blah...BLAH! It doesn't make sense in the context of the story and it destroys any immersion already established. Marauders third encounter called for one. It's intent was to play out the players trip across the desert (Athas), but did so in the manner described above. So I changed it. I tried to wrap it in story and things they came across on their journey. It was not as bad as what I have attempted in the past, but was still the weakest point of the night. I think I am done with them all together.

Dark is the Sun: Planning

Following my first and mostly successful local D&D 4e adventure, I've decided to try out Dark Sun. It is a campaign setting that was created in the early 90's for AD&D 2e and that was recently rebuilt for 4e this summer. Not that I don't enjoy a homebrewed campaign setting. It's just a ton of work. Planning for a night of BLoF takes about 20 hours. Writing, encounter building, map drawing, token making, etc. Factor in the time spent thinking about how it could all work in greater context of the world and it is a part time job. Hard work, but rewarding.

So I look to Dark Sun to alleviate my DM work load for a patch. It is not just laziness that drew me to a canned campaign setting though. Professional writers who are paid to make magic work on these things. What I have read of Dark Sun so far drips of that effort. The world of Athas is a harsh polar opposite of the standard high fantasy tropes. Up is down, down is up, halflings are cannibals. I'm really looking forward to exploring it with my players.

Not only the world is a change of pace though. Since I get a fresh start as a DM, I am taking the opportunity to apply some knowledge gained through my first adventure and to try out some new things...

Signature Item
Dealing out magic items has been a pain for me in my first campaign. They have no meaning to the characters except stats and the way they obtained them wasn't heroic. So to start out Dark Sun I am asking all of the players to come to the table with an item they already know. The gythka passed down through generations of clutches. The ancient shield pried from the sarcophagus of a dead hero. Give it a name, all the flavor you want and it will grow with you as you level like a heirloom item. See Ethan's blog for more.

Class/Role Changes
Since we are planning to return to their first characters eventually. I'd like my players to pick new classes and roles. It is fun to see how the other half lives and explore new mechanics in the game. So far it's...

• Crystal: Striker to Leader
• Ethan: Leader to Defender
• Mike: Defender to Striker
• Chuck: Striker to Controller
• Gabriel: Striker to Striker

Party Background
Bringing the adventurers together as a rag tag group of strangers made it easier for the beginner players. Less background and story to remember so they could focus on learning to play the game. Now they all have a dragon kill under their belt and I'd like them to flesh out why their group works together for Dark Sun. I'll shape the game around that and whatever individual story hooks they come up with.

Free Expertise

Signature items will give them some of the stats they need to keep being effective at higher levels and item expertises should give the rest. Making them free means they aren't bogged down by mandatory feats and instead can pick fun ones. Which is what the game is all about.

No Inherent Bonuses
Many DMs are looking to IB for their low magic Dark Sun campaigns as a way to make up for lost attack and damage stats. As my players will be getting signature items and free expertise I don't see the need for them. My campaign won't be low magic, but I will try to do a better job of passing out items that are meaningful.