Behind the Screen: Regarding Battle Mats...

Let me begin this post by being very clear: as a rule, I generally dislike battle boards/mats/etc. I find them too time intensive to use "on the fly" and I have difficulty with matters of scale when forced to draw a scenario quickly. Most of our encounters happen on the road or in the wilderness, and drawing a believable landscape quickly is often problematic. Instead of using these products, I would prefer to describe the battle scenario ("you have three bandits surrounding you to fight, to your left you can see two more in the bushes") and allow the players their own input.

If only it was this easy every time!

This week I had a chance to set up an encounter in a closed location. We have one player that is more visual than most, and he often requests a description or quick drawing of the ensuing battle. I grabbed the battle mat, drew out the room (it was a small room with a dias for giving a speech and some benches, so it it was easy) and away we went. It went much better than I expected, and the visual layout actually brought the characters more into the details of the battle which was nice. It did take considerably longer than I like to spend to keep it updated and move my bad guys around (there were many of them), so that part remained an annoyance.

Several years ago, we bought some "Dungeon Stamps" from Green Dragon Studio, These are extremely cool, they are small rubber stamps that represent common dungeon objects, such as crates, rocks, and other goodies.

By the time I would remember that I had them, the encounter was over and inking the stamps and laying them out tended to take quite awhile. The results were always extremely cool when we would decide to use them, but the added time investment in laying things out was almost always too much to bear and keep the session moving. As a result, we never really took to using them regularly.

You Tell Us: How do you use battle mats?

How do you handle performing DMing duties using a battle mat, and how do you handle drawing a suitably detailed wilderness environment on the fly? Are there any neat products or techniques that help expedite this process?

Color us Stumbled Upon!

Once again, we would like to stop and say thank you to everyone that comes to us each day and reads what we have to say. We are nearing our second month of operation and today we passed the 10,000 pageview mark.

Just two weeks ago we were celebrating 3,000 pageviews and we were ecstatic, imagine how we feel getting to come back and share some love so soon!

Our analytics point toward a pretty healthy influx of new readers, which means that you all are telling friends about us. We appreciate the "positive buzz" and feedback that we have been getting on how to improve the site.

Last time we blogged, we received several queries regarding how we achieved the amount of readership that we currently have, and the answer is simple: we have a great community to live in.

One need look no further than our featured and favorite links to see the very welcome community of excellent gaming resources that help to make this site a success, I ask that you take a few minutes to visit a few new gaming blogs that you see to your right and get some of the good stuff that they're laying down.

Thanks for everything, hopefully we're on our way to 100,000 pageviews! As always, keep those suggestions and ideas coming!

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Amazing Feats of Ability

Recently, Jonathan Drain posted his picks for Top Five Fighter Feats. I like his picks... these are some really great feats! And I was inspired to share of some of my own favorites - for both fighters and non-fighters.

1. Weapon Finesse - I've said it before and I'll say it again... this is a must for those characters whose Dexterity is better than their Strength. Add your Dex bonus to your attack to give yourself a better chance to hit the Big Bad. It doesn't add to your damage, but it's still a nice option for those Dex-based characters.

2. Dodge - How many times have you wished your AC was just a little higher? Dodge gives you that +1 that can help you keep you just a little bit safer. It's not a huge bonus, and you do have to declare against which single target you set your Dodge, but it's a little extra something.

3. Combat Casting - A nice addition to the spellcaster's arsenal. Gain +4 to Concentration while casting defensively. That extra little bonus may make the difference between actually casting your spell off and letting it fizzle from lack of concentration.

4. Point Blank Shot - Your ranged weapon with melee capabilities... how awesome is that?! Even if you prefer to stay a nice, safe distance away from the chaos of melee fighting, this gives you the security that if melee comes to you, you're not completely handicapped.

5. Two-Weapon Fighting - My newest favorite for melee fighters. In my mind, there's something very poetic about a fighter wielding two weapons in a dance of deadly grace. The feat reduces the penalties to only -2 for each attack with two light weapons, and if you follow the feat ladder, you can add additional off-hand attacks.

Behind the Screen: DMs metagame too...

In our new campaign, us two DMs are in uncharted territory: we have a 17th level party. In only one session, we've had to make adjustments on several occasions because some different challenges exist when attempting a campaign at this level.

We are faced with the conundrum of metagaming as DMs vs. creating an enjoyable and challenging campaign.

Culture Shock

Essentially, what we've got here is learning a new mode of game balance. Now our characters have the ability to inflict a fair to significant level of damage, heal quickly, and immediately neuter encounters that should've been very difficult. Case in point: we had a gathering of heroes to prepare for a coming war. The room was filled with "adventurers of note" from the realm, and we decided to have the whole shebang ambushed by a band of hired assassins.

These assassins had a series of nefarious goals, so they were adequately outfitted with various poisonous implements. They succeeded in offing several of the NPC heroes before our bard realized that he had a song from his Seeker of the Song prestige class that would grant immunity to poison. After he blew that off, my assassins quailed under the onslaught of our party (and a few of the other remaining heroes that were left over).

Operating in a mode where your players have abilities that can immediately nullify the challenge of your encounter is a two-edged sword.

Building a Better Bad Guy

I could sit and write a long diatribe on how to tailor your bad guys to suit the environment they are made to fight in, however I don't feel that this is always the correct path. You need to do this intelligently... if your character discovered a rare artifact that gives them immunity to fire and keeps it secret and does not flaunt it around, then will the evil evoker that they are fighting know to energy admixture his spells to ice? Not unless he makes on HELL of Gather Information check or decides to scrye in the appropriate way.

Personally, I like to operate in the following mode for directed encounters:

Create motive - Your individual or band of bad guys should have a reason they are doing what it is that they are doing. Without this, they'd be at home on their couch eating chips.

Create skills to fulfill that motive - This can be done on the fly, but should be done with what the NPC KNOWS about the party if they are the intended target. If they are not the intended target, then the NPC skills should be selected to perform whatever task they were bent on performing in the first place (such as a targeted assassination from my example above).

If they should know something, make them try at it - Simply put, they have to gather information or hire minions to do this for them... build your plot by having the NPC Baddie go through the effort of gathering information... leave clues to this end if the baddie or his minions do a poor job of gathering info, that way it won't be a major surprise when the bad guy shows up with admixtured iceballs.

Finding balance

I feel that the best solution for this is a justified balance of metagaming and plot-related preparation. There will be times when you will be required as DM to make a few things happen to ensure that the party is challenged or certain events take place, but I feel this should be done as organically as possible within the constraints that you have placed around your plot and NPCs.

By thinking about the motives of your NPCs, you will find much more success in making them seem like believable foes (or allies, as the case may be). Just remember, the bad guys that get away are usually good for a lot of information!

Whenever you run into a situation like the assassin scenario I explained earlier, try to learn from what happens. The characters got a great opportunity to annihilate some bad guys and I learned a few lessons about what they are capable of at their new higher levels. Sounds like a win-win situation to me!

The Power of Zero

There came a certain point in my gaming life over the last couple of years where doing big giant things got boring. That is, I'd been in a couple of campaigns where the characters got to epic levels and were throwing down ridiculous amounts of damage. It becomes an arms race, and the monsters and you progressively get tougher and more able to kill each other. It's fun sometimes, but it lost its luster after awhile. So I decided to step away from the large and look at the small.

Paradise By The Continual Light

In the last campaign I played in (and that Dante and Kanati are continuing), I played a kickass bardic rock star named Bat Loaf. His stats, skills, and spells were not really set up for combat. He was a lover, not a fighter. I mean that in a very literal sense. In every town, he was hooking up with every hot barmaid he could find. I would add that we never got too far into roleplaying the details of these encounters -- because, well, EWW. Suffice it to say that the process was abstracted into a series of Perform checks. Heh heh.

My bard's love life is a tale for another time. What I will talk about, however, is how you can produce some very powerful results out of seemingly nothing if you just use your imagination. Being the lecherous dog that he is, Bat Loaf had a veritable arsenal of spells designed to aid him in his chosen lifestyle, including:

• Feather Fall - Let's suppose that Bat's current bedmate sleeps on the second floor, and her husband walks in. There will be no hastily-constructed bedsheet rope and probable falling damage for this bard! He will float gently to the ground and hope he remembered all his clothes.


• Percussion - Used during concerts.... and for mood music after the concert!


• Easy Math - Used to quickly count the proceeds from his concerts, because he was always running away from someone due to his after-concert escapades.


• Ventriloquism, Minor Image, and Ghost Sound - great for stage effects - and for convincing distractions when he needed to flee a lover's room in a hurry.


• Contraception - Surprisingly, the only spell I chose from the Book of Erotic Fantasy for Bat Loaf. He was, if nothing else, very practical in these matters. I'd have taken Remove Disease too, but it was not available to bards -- so he found himself at the temple a couple times begging for forgiveness and relief from burning sensations.

By now you may be wondering what all this has to do with getting "powerful results". Watch and learn.

Lost Boys and Gladiatorial Girls

One night, our party came to a village and Bat immediately set about his usual business of getting loaded on ale and taking the hottest woman he could find to take to his room in the local inn. The paladin of the party always spent the night in a local temple, cleaning everything to atone for his sins. It was at this time that our illustrious GMs decided to have the party captured and taken off to fight in some secret gladiatorial games run by an organized crime syndicate. Problem was, they just got everybody in the tavern at the inn - not Bat or the paladin. So, one GM went upstairs with the captured players, and it was up to Bat and the paladin to launch a rescue mission!

Once we found the place (it was secret, after all), we started talking to the people there. We weren't getting a whole lot of answers because most were just there to bet on the games, but one guy told us the city guard shows up and runs everybody off sometimes. The place was heavily guarded and had wards against spells, so here I am thinking this is the clue to freeing my comrades -- I have to make the bad guys think the city guard is coming so they all run away!

I don't exactly remember what Plan A was for accomplishing this. I do remember it resulted in a big mess where I was confused about where the guards (who helped enforce the no-spellcasting rules) were relative to Bat and it ended up with him getting killed with a battleaxe after he cast a spell. Fifteen minutes of argument later, the GMs and I had successfully made our Craft(Compromise) check and they used their godlike powers to reset time to right before Bat cast his spell. In this new and improved timeline, I metagamed slightly and knew the guards would totally kill Bat with a battleaxe if he cast a spell inside the arena. (It's just common sense, after all.)

Thusly, Plan B was born!

Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through

Bat went outside the arena, rolled around in the dirt a little bit and messed up his hair and clothes, and pretended to collapse at the feet of one of the guards outside the arena gates. But not before wheezing "the city guards.... they're coming... RUN!!.....". The guard didn't so much believe him, which I found a little strange, but I went with it anyway. Not to be stopped, he crawled off and hid behind a nearby tree. Then he cast Ghost Sound. At Bat's level, he could create as much noise at twenty normal human could with the spell, which was perfect for a believable city guard facsimile. Definitely enough to convince a gate guard that the sounds of angry soldiers coming over the ridge were very much the real deal - especially with Bat now screaming and running toward him yelling "I TOLD YOU!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!!"

Everybody at the arena had a protocol for when the city guard showed up - they dropped everything and ran like hell. And so it was a fairly simple matter to free our friends, because they were still locked up in the fighters' quarters near the ring and there was nobody guarding them anymore. A few monster encounters later and a ton of looting and we were on our way. We figured out the puzzle and won the day! Right?

Well, as it turns out, Dante and Kanati had an entirely different night planned for us. The captured PCs would get to fight and show off their skills in the ring, and exciting monster battles, lots of cool stuff. And it also so happened that they had a very special encounter planned in case of emergency to give the PCs a way to get free -- the owners of the arena, knowing that the standard protocol when the city guard showed up was to drop everything and run like hell, would hire some mercenaries to pose as the city guard, not even telling their employees the truth. And then they'd pocket all the money people had placed as bets. All this was to have been revealed to us at the end if we'd talked to the right NPCs. But instead, my 0 level spell brought everything crashing to the ground, and we ended three hours earlier than we usually do.

This story has been clinically proven to stop "power gamers" dead in their tracks, and I have learned no fewer than three new four-letter words since it happened. This, my friends, is the power of roleplaying!

Use it wisely.

My Inner D&D Character

Thanks to Yax, I no longer have to ponder what my inner D&D character is. Yax's survey revealed the following:

After analyzing your answers with state-of-the-art medieval fantastic psychology profiling tools, Dungeon Mastering is confident that your inner D&D character is a Neutral Good Half-Elf Fighter!

Though I must say I'm not completely surprised. Most of my close friends already think I'm an elf... so that part is "half" right. And after a rather startling revelation a few weeks ago, it's no surprise I'm not a spellcaster. And neutral good... well, that's subjective I suppose, but I like to think I'm a generally nice person, though I do have a few chaotic tendencies.

The only change I would really make in this is that I'm more of a ranger than a fighter. I like the slashy-slashy but I also like tracking and slaying my sworn enemies. But then, I'm sure that's not really a surprise! :)

Evensbrook #11

New Evensbrook comic every Monday!

Behind the Screen: Improvising NPCs...

Well, I am pleased to report that the Second Act of our campaign began on a very good footing Saturday night. It was very rewarding to settle back in and watch our player characters settle back in with one another, much good roleplay was had.

As mentioned before, I had been struggling to find a way to engage myself as DM in a new and exciting way for my players. I decided to do something different this week: I completely improvised an NPC on the fly.

The Scenario: Our Bard Meets A Fan

Our intrepid group of adventurers were on the road to the big city to hear a lord speak of impending war. Many of the realm's greatest heroes were summoned in addition to our party, and they were beginning to cluster and travel together on the road.

Vanir's character, Bat Loaf (yes, styled on Meat Loaf), had used his down time to become a Seeker of the Song and was trying to find ways to fully embrace his rock-style persona. He had clad himself in the most fitting magic items he could find, such as Cloak of the Bat, and had built himself an academy dedicated to sharing his love of bardic rock.

I figured it was time for him to meet a fan. At first, I thought that perhaps he would just be a mundane fanboy but I decided to up the ante a bit after Vanir started interacting with him further.

I decided to paint this fan up like a somewhat baked, hippy artist type. I named him Armond (a fact that the characters never found out) and after a few minutes of getting to meet his idol, Armond decided to ask Bat Loaf for an autograph on his arm. Armond then touched the fresh signature on his arm and had it pulse white.

"What did you just do?" said Bat Loaf, cautiously. "Oh, I just made it so it'll never go away, man" replied Armond. Then Armond asked to return the favor, offering to do "something awesome" but flatly refused to tell Bat Loaf what he was going to do.

After a few minutes, Loaf agreed and Armond went to work creating a chest sized firebreathing bat image. While he was making it, Armond told Bat Loaf that his marks always do something cool. After his image pulsed white, Bat Loaf asked what it was that his tattoo would do and Armond replied "oh, you'll know when it happens!" as he walked away, air luting his favorite Bat Loaf tune.

You don't even need the facts, ma'am.

I intentionally decided through this encounter that I would not look up the rules for Magic Tattoos, instead I kept the entire encounter roleplay based. The flow was natural and extremely fun, and the back-and forth between the two characters drew in several of the other party members. They didn't necessarily want to trust this person, however one of the other party members did a Sense Motive and rolled a 20, knowing that Armond was 100% sincere.

I had no stat block for this character, nor did I have a particular background but one of the voices in my head was saying "MAGIC TATTOO" so I went with it. By playing short and quick with the rules and long with the roleplay, I think the encounter really went well.

The takeaway from this example is simple: build NPCs with roleplay in mind and fill in the specific details later. You don't need all the facts laid out in front of you to make a satisfying moment in your session, and trusting your instincts can go a long way.

Why I Hate Alignment

If I had to pick one concept in D&D that has always driven me completely insane, I would have to pick alignment. How many times have you had a discussion with another player about something his or her character did and whether or not they played their alignment correctly?

Chaotic Retarded

The rules for alignment are JUST vague enough to be confusing, and are frequently the subject of some very... shall we say.... liberal interpretation. Here are some of the doozies I've heard over the years:

• Lawful -- Always obeys laws, no matter what.


• Lawful Neutral -- The ONLY thing this person ever cares about is laws. Always.


• True Neutral -- Can't decide what to do because they're always on the fence. Actions that require a decision must always be taken at random by a roll of the dice. Frequently switches sides in the middle of a battle.


• Chaotic Neutral -- Always does the first thing that pops into their heads. Always chosen by the guy in the group who doesn't want to be labelled as "evil" but never wants his alignment questioned.


• Chaotic Evil -- Enjoys killing everything. On sight. Always murderous.


• Lawful Evil -- Always obeys laws, but has to find loopholes to still do evil.

And these aren't just from one poor misguided gaming group I was in during college. I still hear these things from time to time, and it's a wonder I have any hair left.

Never Always

See the common thread between every stupid thing said above? Every last one of them has the word "always" in it. Nobody always or never does something. People are much more complex than that, and under the right circumstances, you can see people do some pretty unexpected things.

The problem with alignment is that it's a label. And the problem with labels is that one can be stuck on something complex and people will only see the label. Even if the label is pretty accurate, most people will never ever be able to see beyond what is printed on it.

Let's take a guy who would be, by most definitions, a good guy. He goes to church every weekend, loves the wife and kids, gives back to the community, and goes the speed limit. But he steals money from his workplace and kicks his dog too. Is he Good? Evil? Chaotic? I'd say he's got some of each in him. ALL people do, to a certain extent. But what label do you slap on him? You can't slap "Good" on him, he's a thief. You can't slap "Evil" on him, he's good most of the time.

I'm expecting emails from some of the rules lawyers out there saying "He's OBVIOUSLY Neutral!" or "He's Neutral Good with Evil Tendencies!" or something like that. But you're missing the point -- why are we working so hard to classify something that defies classification? Emotion is notorious for being wildly irrational, and human behavior is largely based in emotion. I submit that it doesn't matter one bit what Official Alignment someone is -- they are who they are. And no two word description can accurately portray that.

This Dial Goes Up To Eleven

Another problem with labelling something with an alignment is that in not seeing past the label, they also exaggerate what it means. So if someone is "good" they hug puppies, shit candy canes, and are Dedicated to the Eradication of Evil. On the other hand, Evil people rob the elderly blind for fun and always have at least two people killed before 11am. I'm exaggerating, of course, but raise your hand if you've ever been in a party where somebody does something slightly morally questionable and another party member immediately drew their blade and tried to kill them on the spot BECAUSE OMG THEY ARE EVIL!!!!!

That's a lot of hands.

OMG But What About Classes And Other Things That Are Alignment-Specific??!!?

I think those rules are silly!

I can understand the spirit behind wanting paladins to be Lawful Good or they lose their paladinhood. But paladins are holy warriors, and it really ought to be up to their chosen deity whether or not they're doing what they ought to. Especially in groups with.... interesting ideas on alignment, if the paladin doesn't see a "keep off the grass" sign, they could wind up a fighter in fancy armor in short order.

Monks have the same problem, and if they're not always "lawful" they lose their monk status. If the Lawful part that needs preserved is all about discipline, then if someone doesn't obey laws or does "something chaotic", how does that mean they don't train every day? Now, I understand the monk's powers in D&D are supposed to be supernatural abilities. That's fine. But I've been in martial arts every bit as long as I've played D&D and I mean to tell you there are some seriously chaotic martial artists out there. And last time I checked, they all still train and none of them lost the ability to do Flurry of Blows.

A Helm of Alignment Change? Start acting more evil. DUH.

The Heart of The Matter

I was once in a campaign where I was playing a monk, and something happened in battle where the DM thought I was being "chaotic". I think I jumped over a short party member, accidentally knocking him over in the process. And I got warned that if it ever happened again, I would be stripped of my monk status. I thought that was completely ridiculous, and we got into a big argument over it.

And it was after that when I realized why I really hate alignment. It is really vague, open to interpretation, and regarded with incredible importance for some unknown reason. It's the D&D equivalent of talking about religion or politics at your in-laws during Thanksgiving dinner, and somebody's going to get their panties in a wad.

Sure, I think all of the things I said above are true. But so does everybody else who has an opinion about alignment. It has a tendency to bring out the worst in D&D players. And for something that can be so easily overcome by good roleplaying, I see no reason why we should trouble ourselves further with it.

But then, the problem really isn't about alignment, is it? As always, talk to your friends at the table, and try to reach a reasonable consensus. Once you have, stick with it. It's the Lawful Good thing to do!