DM of the Rings

I was looking at Treasure Tables today and came across a link to one of the funniest commentaries on D&D play I've ever seen, all using The Lord of the Rings movie as a template for a comic book version of a role playing game. The website is the hilarious DM of the Rings, and I'd encourage anyone who has ever DM'd to read it. It is very funny for everyone, of course, but especially for DMs.

The strip is by Shamus Young, and he's a genius. The comments from viewers are intersting, but what really sells the strip for me is how each installment sets up some pithy commentary by Young on the art of DMing. Be sure to scroll down far enough to read each one.

If you are a DM, Treasure Tables is an excellent blog, and knowing it is there is easing my frustration that Paizo won't be publishing Dungeon or Dragon magazines any more. Even though for the past few years those magazines were using 3E and higher, it was nice to have a monthly magazine to remind me that there is a gaming community out there interested in learning more about that thing we do.

Adding in weather to the Forgotten Realms

Realms Helps

I'd found this site a while ago, but haven't had a chance to incorporate it into play yet. Thre are a lot of really useful "helps" on the site, but probably the most useful is the weather determination program. It is really a godsend in terms of adding the element of weather to the game without having to make it up on the fly.

Dandello's Faerûnian Almanac.

You enter in the date, the relative climate of the area your PCs are in, and then make sure you click on the button for effect on characters. Then submit and in the blink of an eye you get the weather conditions for that day in that area with complete stats for the impact on characters.

For example:
The Weather of Flamerule 21, 1368
From Dandello's Faerûnian Almanac

Temperature
Low: 55
High: 70
Effective Temperature: 75
Precipitation: Moderate rain
Relative Humidity:
Morning: Moderate
Evening: High
Winds: From tropics at 10 mph.
Phase of Selûne: 1st Qtr
Number of daylight hours: 14.2
Dawn is at: 4:54

No wind effects

Visibility reduced due to rain (-4 on listen and ranged attacks, exposed flames extinguished).

Everything is geared toward 3rd Edition, of course, but most of the really helpful tools work no matter what edition you're using.

Shandar's Spell Books

As I'm working my way through the Publisher 2000 Monstrous Manual with my minis as illustrations, the Tome of Villains and Book of Heroes, I have also started doing a compiled series of Spellbooks for my character.

The image I'm using for the cover of each book is taken from a Wiccan website selling a spellbook: The Wytch Shoppe. It is a great illustration. Hopefully driving traffic to their site from this link will keep them from hexing me for using the image for my own private home use without permission.

On the inside pages I used a free illustration from WOTC they offer from their downloads page of archived Map a Weeks.



One of the great things about the old Core Rules CD Rom was that it included text files of all the TSR rule books. Using those text files I took all the spells from the PH, Tome of Magic, Wizards Handbook, and others and then put each of them on a page over top of the parchment image in Lucinda Caligraphy, trying to use a 14 point font for the text and a 25 point font for the spell names.

This is going to be an excellent DM's tool, because each time a PC discovers a new spell scroll or buys one in the game, I can go to Shandar's Spellbook, print it out, and the PC gets a handout that looks like scroll. If they keep a 3-ring binder for their own spell book, all they have to is use a 3-hole punch to "write" the spell into their spell book.

It is a fun, easy way to enhance the feeling of role playing.

I exepct that I will eventually do something similar with a listing of magic items as they come into and go out of Shandar's Magic Shop.

Tavern Maker, a wonderful DM utility program

I don't know about you, but for me, one of the most frustrating things that can happen in a gaming session is the players suddenly deciding their characters are hungry and tired and in need of a little social interaction--so they say, "I inquire as to the nearest inn or tavern."

Having had no idea when they might get tired or hungry, you invent a tavern location on the fly. Why is it that PCs only want to investigate the things you have not planned for them to investigate? Is it that players can smell fear in a DM?

Sure enough, as soon as they walk inside the "I Just Made It Up" inn, they want to know who is sitting at every table, what they are all talking about, who looks like the best target for pick pocketing, where every door leads, what the locals know about the price of tea in Calimshan, how hot the fire is...etc.

They also want every inn they visit to have unique menu items and my players will actually go to the trouble of COMPARISON SHOPPING from inn to inn in order to get the best deal on a bed and a meal. They want to know what the locally brewed beer tastes like and where the wines are imported from....I can only testify that the role playing habits of 30 and 40 year olds are much different from those of 13 and 20 year olds.

My players...gotta love them...because without them, I'm just an old guy sitting in the basement with a very expensive toy collection.

Well, friends and fellow Dungeon Masters, if you have these troubles, as I have had these troubles, fear not! Your troubles are over!

Yesterday, while I was scrying with my Orb of Omniscience (aka "Google Ball"), I discovered discovered through a link on D&D Adventures: Dungeon Master Resources one of the most useful utility programs I've ever encountered: Project Tavern Maker v5.0. (By the way, the rotating d20 is by the same person who created Project Tavern Maker, Bernhard Schaffer.)

How Tavern Maker v5.0 Works

This is a Team Ware utility (mixture of Freeware and ShareWare) which, when downloaded and installed, allows you to pop in some parameters (normal clientel, size of tavern, etc.) and then with a click of a button it gives you a map, player descriptions of all the patrons and DM information such as what is in their pockets and what they might be up to in this establishment.

There is no money required to download the Tavern Maker, you only have to register to use it. Registration requires that you submit 5 seperate patron descriptions and DM information sets which will then be reviewed and integrated into the program. Thus, all the content in the program is user generated!

I downloaded it last night and have been playing around with it a little. Most of the descriptions are pretty short and bare bones...I think because, like me, most people aren't prepared to come up with 5 sets of detailed descriptions when they register and are downloading this thing precisely because they are frustrated by having to come up with detailed tavern descriptions on the fly. But, if you decide to take your time, or if you come up with your five descriptions before you register, you should avoid any real frustration. As they say on their site repeatedly, the more detailed and interesting the user entries, the more detailed and interesting the program becomes.

I'm going to put a few screenshots here, to give you an idea of what the program looks like and can do, as well as give you some examples of what the descriptions might look like so that you can come up with something to top them. You may also notice that in addition to taverns, the Tavern Maker tool can create forests and villages on the fly with the same magical ease!

I want to thank the makers of this program, all the users who have helped make it such a great tool and also you, if you decide to add to the content.

The folks at Tavern Maker have a few interesting hooks to increase user activity, like they don't let you have a user avatar in the chat forum unless you are a regular poster or have contributed significantly to the content of the program. Hats off to them!

As a disclaimer, and because this is an executable program you have to download and install, I do have to say that I am a new user of Tavern Maker and can not guarantee that it contains no malicious badware or that your registration information won't be abused. But I can tell you that I am a registered user, have so far suffered no ill effects, ran a full system scan with Norton after downloading and found no threats, and my impression from reading the website is that they are good natured folks who honestly want to contribute something positive to the global gaming community.

From what I have seen so far...they have. Of course, let me know if Shandar has made a mistake or if you have any troubles with the program. Post them in the comments section and people can read your review before they decide to download it themselves. Also, you should go to the Tavern Maker website and read it all thoroughly before making your own decisions, at your own risk.

Textfiles for D&D

Well, I'm crawling through the never ending re-organization of the D&D room and I can't find half the files I thought I had in different piles. The price of a disorganized mind is a disorganized environment. At any rate, as I'm entering in NPCs into my Publisher document I'm discovering that I can't find any of the paper NPC sheets I know I had here somewhere....so I did a google for Rogues Gallery to see if I could download the PDF of it from RPG Now or someplace because several of the characters I have figures for were from that supplement.

I couldn't find it, but I did find a great website with a collection of nearly 300 very useful text files for use with D&D and AD&D. I'll clue you in that at the bottom of the page is a link for downloading all the files in a zip file, so don't do what I did and spend an hour opening each file to see if you want to download it individually.

The site is: TEXTFILES.com

Enjoy!