30 Day D&D - Best DM You've Had

My wife, Carrie.

She does so many things better than me. Her ability to roll with whatever her players throw at her is astounding. Sometimes I think she completely runs her games off the cuff, but I know she has a world written up. Everything stays coherent and cohesive even when she is running on the fly.

She is able to provide her players with unique and interesting encounters and NPCs. She can also make us care about things we normally wouldn't...like the Mule. We once had a mule with us and as time went on we became more and more attached to the point where we decided the campaign would end if ever the Mule died.

She has so many other excellent DM qualities, (like being great at making up names, providing fair but challenging encounters, not letting us always win, etc) that she is the best DM I've ever had.

30 Day D&D - What is the number you always seem to roll on a d20?

2.

I wish I could expound on this one, but it is the weakest of the questions. However, in for one question - in for them all. 

30 Day D&D - A character you will never play again

I do not have a specific character I played and didn't like. Rather I have a style of play I do not like and will avoid as much as possible, so it amounts to much the same thing.

I do not like player vs player (pvp) D&D. To me D&D is a cooperative game where you want to hang out with your friends overcoming challenges. PvP is the opposite of that concept. Whatever benefits that pvp may bring to a game (fear of the unexpected, great storylines) is not worth the damage to the game (derailment of plot/story, hurt feelings, not being to trust your fellow players). It's just not worth it. PvP is all about having fun at the expense of your fellow gamers. It removes the shared aspect of gaming. It is not for me.

30 Day D&D - A character you want to play in the future

Bloodmage.

The Bloodmage is a variant spellcaster that has been around in various editions of D&D in various versions. It is not a core class though I do believe it has appeared in some "official" splat-books. The basic concept is of a mage that either sacrifices part of themselves or others for more power.

Why would I like to play a Bloodmage? I think walking a fine line between the desire to gain more power and still being a hero would be an interesting exercise in role-playing. How far would the character go? What lines would he not cross? It would be fun to explore such a character.

30 Day D&D - Favorite nonmagic item

The horse.

This was always the one "item" that had multiple uses and variety. In most starting games none of us could afford a horse (heck, we couldn't afford the armor we wanted), but we still wanted a horse. The horse was one of the first things we would buy when we "were rich". We knew we had made it once we each owned a horse.

Horses also act as companions. We always named them and those names were a reflection of ourselves and/or our characters. They gave us something more to worry about, something to care about. Somehow this gave our games more meaning. In our games the horses often had personalities and provided a limited form of role-playing.

Side Note: I detest the 10' pole. I don't care what people say; no one in reality would ever carry one nor use it. It would be tossed aside after about 10 minutes of hiking or riding. It is a metagame tool and I don't like them.

30 Day D&D - Favorite magic item

Hand and Eye of Vecna.

I'm not messing around with any wimpy magic item, I'm going straight to the epitome of artifacts. This was the set that every player in our games wanted. Sure it had a bunch of drawbacks, like needing to lose your hand or eye, but we were more than willing to make that sacrifice. None of us ever got one, but it didn't stop us dreaming about it.

These items had a wonderful background to them. While the story behind them is only briefly mentioned in the item's description, there was enough there to envision mighty battles and epic stories. That is the way magic items, or at least the artifacts, should be presented in a book. They should be more than just a set of stats but rather a catalyst to more adventures.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Energy Type

Electricity.

I tend to find the other energy types to be fairly mundane or boring. However, electricity is wild and random and powerful and really comes across as something other than mundane. I envision a lightning bolt streaking across a battlefield, an iconic vision when it comes to fantasy. Electricity is not something a person can do naturally and thus it squarely falls into the realm of fantasy. While such things as cold or sonic are also something a person can normally do, they lack ooomph and power. Electricity is where it's at!

30 Day D&D - Least Favorite Monster Overall

This is going to be a hard one to explain because on a fundamental level I am crazy for thinking this...but to me it makes sense. My Least Favorite Monster Overall is the Dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs have been a part of D&D and pulp fiction (from which much of D&D has sprung) but I just can't get myself to like it. First I was never the dinosaur-o-phile like so many other kids that also liked fantasy and science-fiction while growing up. Second, dinosaurs are too real for my fantasy...which makes little sense, but does in a round-about sort of way. Let me explain where I am coming from on this...

I will use wolves and bears are combatants in my D&D games because they are real hazards that we all can understand. That would imply that I would also use dinosaurs as they are also real and once were real hazards. Except they weren't, at least not to humans. And we know so much about dinosaurs now that using one as a one-shot monster makes no sense to me. I envision dinosaurs as living in groups, with a tight ecosystem of predator and prey...an ecosystem that dinosaurs are the dominant species of...unlike reality where humans are the dominant species. If I include dinosaurs into a D&D setting then by default they would be the dominant species and they would trump every civilization in my fantasy world. Reality dictates they can not be in a fantasy setting. (Yes, I know reality has little to do with fantasy but when mixing real life with fantasy I prefer to err on the side of reality. To do otherwise can cause the players to question the underlying immersion of the setting.)

Now I could have a Lost Valley with Dinosaurs, but if I'm going to do that I would prefer to use the fantastical. I'll add in flying lizards that shoot lasers from their eyes before I use something as "ordinary" as dinosaurs. I am not against using dinosaurs in rpgs, just not in my D&D.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Monster Overall

One thing I have always loved about D&D is its diversity of monsters. There are so many of them to choose from. I may not always get the latest character splat book for the latest edition, but I do always get every Monster Manual that comes out. As a DM I can present my players with a wide range of monsters without ever running out of new ones to throw at them. With that knowledge, it makes it very hard to pick just one. However, there was one monster that lept into my head all on its own...the Kobold. Kobolds are devious that way.

Kobolds are the throw-away monsters. They are what you use as filler or to let the players beat up on something. And Kobolds do that job admirably. Of course, there are those times when the Kobold surprises the party and those sneaky little pests start getting all tactical and trappy on the party. Kobolds can quickly go from cannon fodder to TPK.

And that's why I like them. They actually do have a wide range of uses in a campaign. They can be the focus of a low level adventure. They can be comic relief. They can be the minions of something truly nasty. They do tend to fall behind in their usefulness as a campaign progresses in level, but until then they can be put to many uses.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Dragon Color/Type

When I was younger I always liked the Shadow Dragon; black was cool and they were way cooler than the Black Dragon (who was stuck in the swamp). However, they are kind of wimpy. Of the evil dragons they tend to have the least hp and do the least damage. Their "perks" don't measure up. Therefore, my favorite dragon is the Red Dragon.

The Red Dragon is the most powerful, or so they would tell you. They tend to be the most evil as well. Out of all the evil dragons I feel they make the best adversaries tugging at the fantasy underpinnings of most gamers. Maybe it's just a Smaug thing, but Red is the new black.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Monster (Humanoid/Natural/Fey)

When I saw this one my mind immediately went to Fey. I find most humanoids and natural creatures fairly boring. After all, they are too akin to what we see everyday and D&D is about the exciting and fantastical. Sure orcs are not something we see everyday in real life, but then again, they are common in most fantasy settings. From there most humanoids are nothing but a variation on a theme. Drow are evil elves (and done to death as well), Aarakocra are flying people, Derro are dwarf variants, Merfolk are fish-people, etc. So my mind went to the Fey. From there I chose the Dryad.

Thus far my Favorite Monsters have been those that I like to use against the players. The Dryad is the "monster" that I would like to meet as a character. And this all stems from boyhood fantasies. As a young boy, as with most young males, there is the dream of meeting the girl who wants you. The first time I read about the D&D Dryad, I instantly zeroed in on the fact they are beautiful and then to the fact they like to charm males to live with them. Sounded like a win-win to me. Since then they have been my favorite fey.

(For the record, Githyanki almost came in first but puberty won out.)

30 Day D&D - Favorite Monster (Elemental/Plant)

Treant.

This harkens back to my love of the Lord of the Rings. The Ents of LotR were some of my favorite parts of the books. It really brought out the fantasy aspect. Could trees talk? Could we hear them? In addition, I always liked the scene from the Wizard of Oz movie with the trees that attacked. This carried over into my D&D games where my players could meet Treants both as possible friends but also as tenacious enemies.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Monster (Immortal/Outsider)

Azmodeus.

To me he was always the demon/devil that was the most powerful. However, while he is certainly powerful in might, he also does a lot through subterfuge, guile and diplomacy. I liked that aspect of a powerful being who uses his intelligence as well. It meant he was more than a hp meat bag. It also meant I could also use him in a variety of ways and the players wouldn't know it was him until it was too late.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Monster (Animal/Vermin)

Rat.

Actually a Moonrat but I like the picture

Rather uninspiring isn't it. The Rat is found as an adversary in virtually every 1st level dungeon at least once. All in all they are rather boring. But that is why I like them. They are a work-horse of a monster for low levels. You can throw them into any type of adventure from a city adventure to a dungeon crawl and they make complete sense for being there all without needing to provide a reason. If skeletons (another favorite low level monster) are in a dungeon you need to explain what raised them as undead and why they are still there. If you use kobolds in the sewer of a city you need to explain how they have lived there so long undetected. Not so with the Rat.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Monster (Abberation)

This is another category that is full of some excellent choices: Aboleth, Carrion Crawler, Catoblepas, Chuul, Cloaker, Gibbering Mouther, Intellect Devourer, Mimic, Mind Flayer, Naga, Neogi, Otyugh, Rust Monster, and Umber Hulk to name just a few of my favorites. However, my all time favorite is the Beholder.

Aberrations walk that fine line between the weird and the intelligent. They are not simply mindless creatures, in fact, many of them are highly intelligent. That is what makes them exceptionally dangerous; they have weird, unique abilities and the cunning to use them in strange and interesting ways.

Similar to the Lich yesterday, the beholder is good for both the one shot encounter or the main bad guy of a campaign. They also can be the antagonist of an adventure, but sometimes they may be the enemy that is willing to fight with the party against a greater evil. Their use is versatile...and they never fail to scare my players.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Monster (Undead)

Lich.

While I have always been fond of the undead as an enemy (I ran an 11-year campaign with the undead as the main enemy), the Lich is the one with the most versatility. Most undead are fairly mindless and can, at times, be uninteresting. The lich is an undead that still retains it's intelligence and cunning. They can serve as a single encounter or be the masterminds behind an entire campaign. Their challenge level also ranges from the baseline to almost god-like with the added abilities of magic and items.

30 Day D&D - Favorite NPC

Abner. He was from my home-brew world. He was a gold dragon that often appeared in human form (and Abner was his human-form name). He was often a guide and mentor for the player characters. In my world the main threat was Zermarx, a mighty necromancer under Orcus who was waging a war against the PCs kingdom after they released him. It was Abner who had imprisoned him after the last war and then built up defenses in anticipation of Zermarx's inevitable return. Abner was a fumbling wizard prone to having his spells go astray, such as the occasional fireball that would land in the middle of the party.

If any of Abner characteristics sounds at all familiar it is because I blatantly stole the ideas from Dragonlance and Fizban the Fabulous. My players had not read the books so I was free to pillage ideas and I liked the concept of a bumbling mage that was a random element with the party.

As time wound on Abner slowly changed from a bumbler to a competent quest director. However, he is my favorite D&D NPC because...
A) He was fun to play as I tried to come up with some outrageous antics he could perpetrate.
B) The players had fun interacting with him.
C) He was an excellent quest guide.

However, he is not my favorite NPC of all time, as that belongs to Hugo, from my Feng Shui game. Hugo is a demon conjured by the Eaters of the Lotus that the player characters befriended. But that is a post for another day.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Trap/Puzzle

When it comes to puzzles, for me there has to be the "ah, of course that is the answer" moment. If after the answer to a puzzle is revealed the players are still confused, then the puzzle has failed. Likewise with traps, there has to be the moment of "we could have avoided that trap".

Puzzles need to feel a part of whatever complex they are in. Puzzles randomly strewn around a dungeon does not make sense. There has to be a logical reason why a puzzle is where it is. Fortunately there are plenty of good reasons (excuses) for puzzles to be in a dungeon (hmmm this gives me an idea for a future blog article). Likewise, traps need to be a logical part of a dungeon. One basic underlying question for both traps and puzzles is - how do the beings that live there get around them? If a trap is a set of razor sharp blades that slice anything that walks down the hallway...how do the creatures that live there get down that hallway?

Through the years I have used many puzzles and traps. However, my favorites are always the ones that play off of the foibles of the players - the ones that make the players reassess their "standard operating procedure". Also, sometimes the most simple traps are the most diabolical.

The trap I use the most (and by default is my favorite) is the Double Pit Trap. The "normal" adventuring group will often find a trap in a hallway fairly easily. After finding the first one they then jump over it or pole-vault with their 10' pole if the trap is sprung by them or they walk over it with confidence if they disabled it. And then the second pit trap is directly after the first one. They invariably fall for the second trap every time.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Dungeon Type/Location

Wizard Towers.

The Wizard Tower is an iconic adventure location. It is my favorite because it allows the most variety when it comes to adventure design. When I am designing an adventure for my groups, I want to keep throwing new things at them. Kicking in doors, killing orcs and taking their treasure is fun, and I certainly make sure to include those sorts of things, but I also like to include puzzles, traps and different sorts of challenges. A Wizard Tower allows me to break the "normal" rules of dungeon design and throw oddball or the unexpected into the mix.

Everything can be explained with "it's magic" no matter how unusual it is. If I want an impassable wall that can only be bypassed by solving an intelligence puzzle, it is impassable because of magic. If I want an 8-headed Hydra to appear out of a small orb that falls to the ground and breaks after the players fail to correctly navigate a trap, it works because of magic. The magic of the Wizard allows me to do just about anything. I can present my players with a wide variety of challenges while still retaining some level of plausibility.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Adventure You Have Ran

My initial gut reaction is to say one of the 1E modules; there are so many good ones to choose from. However, I've never run any of them. Back in the day, I wrote up all my own adventures. It wasn't until much later that I started running pre-made adventures. However, my overall favorite, that I have actually run, has to be the Vault of Larin Karr. This was a 3E adventure/setting from Necromancer Games.

For those who do not know, this book included a broad mix of setting and adventures. The setting featured a valley complete with villages, towns and other locations players could make into their bases of operations - and also locations that needed protection. Spread around this valley were various dungeons and other adventuring locations waiting to be explored, including a complete system of underground passages that ran the length of the valley. Along with standard dungeon fare there were personalities to interact with and puzzles to challenge the players.

Vault of Larin Karr was a large sandbox ripe for a long campaign. While there was an over-arching threat there was no singular way to go about keeping the valley safe from the machinations of evil. It was an excellent setting waiting to be explored.

I really enjoyed running the setting/adventures. It allowed me to entertain my players with a wide range of different styles of play (rping, puzzles, dungeon crawls) without me having to do all the preliminary work (other than reading the material). I would certainly recommend it for any D&D system.

Side Note: My second favorite is The Lost City of Gaxmoor, a 3E Troll Lord Games sandbox adventure. It was also a lot of wild fun and definitely evoked my old-school sensibilities. 

30 Day D&D - Craziest thing that's happened that you saw

Back in the early days of my playing D&D we didn't run storied campaigns. We ran dungeons. Dungeons that required no logic or continuity. All that mattered was fun and keeping the players guessing.

The craziest thing I remember happening was the day our adventurers approached the entrance to a dungeon. Out side of it was a glass phone booth (for the youngsters reading this I have included a picture of what a phone booth is). Next to the phone booth was a spray can of blue paint.Then the phone inside the booth rang and a kobold came out of the dungeon entrance and went into the phone booth. Then one of the players ran up and sprayed the outside of the booth with the paint. The kobold failed his saving throw and died of fright.

Sure, none of it made any sense at all, but it was wacky and fun.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Character You Haven't Played

This is an odd one to me because I do not tend to make characters unless I play them (I did make a bunch of Shadowrun characters back in the day though). I also am usually the DM; the only games I have played as character in over the past 20 years have been non-D&D games.

So I'll turn this into a "Favorite Character I Wish I Could Have Played More"...

Miles (last name forgotten). Fighter/Swashbuckler.

Miles was a devil-may-care, swashbuckler who loved to live life to the fullest. There was no danger too great and no task that could not be accomplished. He was also one of the most vile persons on the planet. He wasn't evil for evil's sake, rather, he was exceptionally vain and selfish. He felt the world revolved around himself. He also liked to be in charge and if he could not be then other people must suffer.

I played him so he would not conflict with the other party members, but he was a cruel individual to the NPCs. He was truly horrible to women; one time he was about to bed one only to leave at the most moment saying she was too ugly. The height of his vanity and cruelty was when he went to bed a princess and she spurned him (rightly so). He decided then and there to create a war between her father's nation and the neighboring kindomg, all to get revenge on her; he would see her kingdom destroyed for his own petty vengence.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) the campaign ended the next week and I never got to see how far I could push Miles.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Character You Have Played

Brie Wildways, a druid whose highest stat was his Wisdom at 10...and an Intelligence of 6. I believe it was 1E (AD&D).

I was part of a campaign being run at the local university. As such there were about 12 people playing one night a week. I rolled abysmally on the stats and druid was the only class available to me. I did a character straight from the books, unlike the player with the Githyanki or the Dwarf Vampire.

I played Brie as a very simple person, caring about nature and animals. With my stats so horrible I had to come up with inventive (and challenging) ways to be the brains of the group. There were many times when I (the player) would know the solution to a problem, but there was no plausible way my character could have come up with the answers.

One example is when we were trying to cross a long room with a magical fumes that made it impossible to breathe while crossing the area. I quickly figured out that the solution was that the walls were made of a substance that we could put over our mouths that would allow us to breathe safely. However, there was no way with my Intelligence that Brie would make that connection. Thus I started picking at the wall "in boredom" causing flakes to fall to the ground until someone else noticed. Once someone noticed the flakes, I "accidentally" spilled some water on them making a paste. It was then that one of the other players had the brilliant plan to take the flakes from the wall, turn them into a paste, put the mixture on a cloth and hold the cloth over our mouths as we traversed the dangerous area.
There were many times when I had to "accidentally" find a solution.

There were many other cool scenes with Brie, like when he jumped into the mouth of a dragon with an acorn that could turn something to stone...and the dragon failed its save. Or when the Githyanki in the party (the player was a power-gamer jerk who liked to show his power by being abusive over the other characters/players) decided he didn't like me and started killing trees. He knew there was no way I could beat him in a fight; Brie was a very pathetic character. However, there was no way I could let his actions pass no matter the consequences. It was nice when the majority of the rest of the party sided with me and attacked the Githyanki, driving him off. The other player didn't come back after that.

It was a fun challenge to play someone with such pathetic stats. However, despite the fun I had, it was my experience with Brie Wildways that makes me prefer to run more balanced systems. I feel it's better for a group, especially if there is player-vs-player conflict.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Edition

This is a seriously tough one.

My game playing has gone in a fairly predictable cycle through the years.

I played Basic D&D and then moved to AD&D (1E). As time went on I would start playing other rpgs that were not D&D. After a number of years I'd want to play D&D again so I picked up the latest edition, which was 2E. Did that for a number of years until I started playing other non-D&D games...and then I picked up 3E when I wanted a D&D fix. Played 3E...then other games...then 4E...and right now I'm playing other games again...and will likely try 5E a couple of years after it comes out.

The thing is, I do not go back to play earlier editions. Every edition has its good points and its so very bad points. I have never felt the need to play D&D because it was D&D. I am not some sort of D&D loyalist. I play it because I think it will be fun...and it has been...every edition.

However, it would be a cop-out if I didn't answer the question so...

2E is my favorite edition.

I liked the fact that character options were a bit more vibrant than 1E, but not as complex as 3E or 4E. It also had some of the best settings ever with Dark Sun, Birthright and Al Qadim. I like all the editions, but if you're going to make me choose, 2E would be it.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Diety

Cat Lord

I'm not sure he is exactly a deity but he certainly seemed that way to me. And that is the way I ran him in my D&D world. I usually run deities as hands-off, "don't-interact-with-the-world" beings, but in this case he came and had a "chat" with one the player characters in the campaign I was running.

One of my players was a

rather clever man. He was always coming up with ingenious ways to avoid the traps I set up. One of his favorites was the day he bought a bag full of cats before the group entered the dungeon. Every time they suspected there was a trap door, he would throw a cat over the floor first. Whenever they came to an electrified floor that the group would have to figure out how to cross safely, he would toss cats onto the tiles until they discovered the safe way across. He went through a lot of cats.

I didn't like the way he was easily circumventing my clever traps, so I sent the Cat Lord to "chat" with him. Basically the Cat Lord said to lay off using the cats as trap detectors. He got the message because he stopped buying cats.

30 Day D&D - Your favorite set of dice

I hate to do this, because this is supposed to be all about D&D, but my absolute favorite die are my TORG dice. They are 20 sided die, 1-20, with a wonderful red/blue swirl coloring to them. One came with each TORG boxed set of rules; I liked TORG and the dice so much I bought two box sets.

In my head these are also my best rolling dice. They seem to consistency roll high. And this is why I'm okay with including these in this D&D post. Whenever I play D&D these are the dice I bring out when I need to put fear into the players.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Gameworld

Birthright.

The ability to changing the world is what draws me to a gameworld. Birthright has that in spades. The ability to play the head of a kingdom is inspiring. The best part of Birthright is that along with playing the leader of a nation, a character can be the head of a thieve's guild, control the magic in a region or be the head of a church that sways the mind of the populace. I like this because it allows for diversity of play styles; you can be a thief while still affecting the world.

Birthright also allows for multiple players to integrate their leadership roles into a cohesive whole. Instead of one player character "ruling" the other player characters, they can actually work together with common goals they can share. They can do this while still being individuals. The ability to mesh personal drives, and play styles while retaining the party mentality is a major strength of Birthright.

Birthright also has a rich back-story and history that is engaging and an excellent catalyst for adventure, both for the typical "dungeoneering" variety and the "lead nations" variety. The villains are great - they are devious and deadly as well as being unique. There are also world mechanics in play such as Bloodlines.

Overall, I always enjoy running Birthright.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Playable Class

Magic-User.

I actually like all the classes and look forward to playing each one, but if I could only play one forever after, it would be the magic-user. The sheer variety of tricks they can bring to the table is what I like the best. You can burn groups of the enemy with fireballs. You can cross that chasm with a fly, a teleport, dimension door or a wall crawl spell. You get a friend with your familiar. You get to change the world through the spells; earthquake and create magic item.

Magic-users are the one class that is truly limitless. Magic-users have the widest range of possibilities and that is what draws me to them.

30 Day D&D - Favorite Playable Race

Elf.

I always loved the elves of Tolkien and the D&D elf was a pretty good facsimile of that. They are alien but still retain some human qualities. They are also beings of grace, style and mystery. I have always liked the more cerebral characters, those given to logic over raw emotion (such as Sherlock Holmes), and I feel as if elves fit that concept, certainly more so than the hard-drinking dwarves and the "flighty" halflings.

30 Day D&D - How you got started

The Holmes edition of D&D was the first one I personally bought. However, I was playing before then with some friends and I can only assume they were using the same edition.

I started out as a player. I was part of the usual clique of "nerds" in high school; we liked fantasy, science-fiction and computers. We would hang out during our free time at school talking about books, comparing which ones were the best, etc. We'd share computer code as we wrote various games (despite the fact games were disallowed on the school computer system).

A friend, one grade ahead of me, was friends with a person, one grade ahead of him. This friend had D&D. One day a couple of us were invited over his house after school to play some D&D. Needless to say we loved it. Thereafter you would see us playing during lunch and after school. During "senior skip-day" instead of heading out and getting drunk, we went to the local park and played D&D all day long.

From there I learned where we could find the books and anytime my mother was shopping in the same shop plaza, I'd spend my time at the shop (a camera and hobby shop) looking at the new books. I'd talk my mother into getting me selected rpg books which she did (though she had no idea what they were). I started with the Holmes edition and then the hardbound AD&D books. And then onto other rpg games.

My mother was a tax preparer on the side and she had a copy machine as part of that occupation. I remember making copies of all the books for my friends and we would share the books that way since we were too young to have much money ourselves. Fresh copies still reminds me of D&D to this day.