Author Archives: Michael the OnlineDM

Speak Out With Your Geek Out: D&D of course!

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It’s Friday night, but since I’m in the Mountain time zone it’s not midnight yet. Thus, I’m not too late to Speak Out With My Geek Out! #speakgeek

The basic idea is for bloggers to celebrate their “geeky” hobbies without shame, celebrating that which others may consider uncool.

I’ve written about this topic before. Originally, I was in the RPG closet, especially among co-workers. Now I’m out of the closet, and even farther out than I was at my last post. Today, even the people I work most closely with know that I play role-playing games and that I spent the first weekend of August at GenCon and Labor Day weekend at TactiCon.

I’ve only been playing D&D for less than two years, but it’s become my number one hobby by far. I still enjoy board games, too, but I spend the vast majority of my hobby time on Dungeons and Dragons. I mainly run games as the dungeon master, whether at a home game for friends, an online game for strangers who have now become friends, an online game for family members, or public games at the local store or at conventions.

I run published adventures, and I also write my own adventures. I’ve even published adventures on my blog and am planning to submit my next adventure to Dungeon Magazine! If that adventure ends up being published (a long shot, but you never know), my actual full name will be linked online to this geeky hobby. When co-workers or clients Google my name, they will see not just my work profile and articles I’ve written professionally, but also a Dungeons and Dragons adventure by this otherwise serious finance guy.

And I’m okay with that. I’m having fun with D&D, and I’m proud of it!

Guest Post from Paul Baalham: MapTool ongoing damage tracking macro

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Editor’s note from OnlineDM: Today we are lucky to have another guest post, this one from Paul Baalham (@paulbaalham on Twitter; you can also find him at Daily Encounter).

Tracking ongoing damage and conditions with MapTool for 4E

As a DM that wants to use MapTool to handle all the boring stuff of D&D fights, to leave the players and me more tim for the fun stuff, I realised very early on that I wanted to create a system that would track ongoing damage and conditions so that we wouldn’t forget about the ongoing damage or that the slowed condition actually ended on the PC’s last turn. I managed to get the ongoing damage tracked quite easily so here is what I have done. Could it be improved? Almost certainly. If you can improve it then PLEASE let me know in the comments.

Campaign Properties

The code in this post require the following properties for the tokens that will be using it (i.e. players and monsters).

Acid:0
Cold:0
Fire:0
Force:0
Lightning:0
Necrotic:0
Poison:0
Psychic:0
Radiant:0
Thunder:0
Untyped:0
SEAcid:0
SECold:0
SEFire:0
SEForce:0
SELightning:0
SENecrotic:0
SEPoison:0
SEPsychic:0
SERadiant:0
SEThunder:0
SEUntyped:0
IsWarden:0

The SE variables are to help determine whether there is a Save Ends condition. I think there is probably a way of eliminating these, but I haven’t thought of a way yet (it works currently so I don’t want to break it!) The ISWarden may look out of place, but as Wardens can save against ongoing damage at the start of their turn, this variable helps in keeping track of the initiative.

The “Place Ongoing Damage” Button

I created a button for placing ongoing damage to tokens. This was situated on my Campaign macros window, but where you put it is up to you,

First of all, in the States section of the Campaign Properties the following states should be present:

Acid
Cold
Fire
Force
Lightning
Necrotic
Poison
Psychic
Radiant
Thunder
Untyped

Each one of these states should be in the Group called “Damage”.

This allows us to collect together all of the ongoing damage types like this:

[h: dmgList = getTokenStates(",","Damage")]

We then need to get a list of all of the tokens that are on the map:

[h: tokenList=getExposedTokenNames()]
[h: imgList = tokenList]
[h: Num = listCount(imgList)]

We need to create a list of token names and create a list of images to display.

[h,COUNT(Num),CODE:
{
  [h:tokenName=listGet(imgList,roll.count)]
  [h,token(tokenName): image=getTokenImage()]
  [h:imgList=listReplace(imgList,roll.count,tokenName+" "+image)]
}]

Next we display a pop up window that shows a list of targets (including images) as well as a list of the types of damage. Finally the value of the ongoing damage needs to be typed in by the DM.

[h:status=input(
"Target|"+imgList+"|Select Target|LIST|SELECT=0 ICON=TRUE ICONSIZE=30",
"damageType|"+dmgList+"|Select Type of Damage|LIST|SELECT=0 VALUE=STRING",
"amount| |Enter amount of damage"
)]
[h:abort(status)]

We now know the name of the target so we can switch the focus to that token:

[h:targetName = listGet(tokenList,Target)]
[h:switchToken(targetName)]

The following looks at what type of damage it was, sets the value of the appropriate variable and then creates a string to be dsiplayed at the end. This is the bit of code I think is the most likely that someone could improve upon.

[h,switch(damageType),code:
  case "Acid": {
    [h: Acid=amount]
    [h: SEAcid=1]
    [h: stringToShow= targetName+ " has ongoing Acid damage"]
  };
  case "Cold": {
    [h: Cold=amount]
    [h: SECold=1]
    [h: stringToShow= targetName+ " has ongoing Cold damage"]
  };
  case "Fire": {
    [h: Fire=amount]
    [h: SEFire=1]
    [h: stringToShow= targetName+ " has ongoing Fire damage"]
  };
  case "Force": {
    [h: Force=amount]
    [h: SEForce=1]
    [h: stringToShow= targetName+ " has ongoing Force damage"]
  };
  case "Lightning": {
    [h: Lightning=amount]
    [h: SELightning=1]
    [h: stringToShow= targetName+ " has ongoing Lightning damage"]
  };
  case "Thunder": {
    [h: Thunder=amount]
    [h: SEThunder=1]
    [h: stringToShow= targetName+ " has ongoing Thunder damage"]
  };
  case "Necrotic": {
    [h: Necrotic=amount]
    [h: SENecrotic=1]
    [h: stringToShow= targetName+ " has ongoing Necrotic damage"]
  };
  case "Psychic": {
    [h: Psychic=amount]
    [h: SEPsychic=1]
    [h: stringToShow= targetName+ " has ongoing Psychic damage"]
  };
  case "Poison": {
    [h: Poison=amount]
    [h: SEPoison=1]
    [h: stringToShow= targetName+ " has ongoing Poison damage"]
};
  case "Radiant": {
    [h: Radiant=amount]
    [h: SERadiant=1]
    [h: stringToShow= targetName+ " has ongoing Radiant damage"]
  };
  case "Untyped": {
    [h: Untyped=amount]
    [h: SEUntyped=1]
    [h: stringToShow= targetName+ " has ongoing damage (untyped)"]
  }
]

Almost finished! We need to put the damage on the token.

[h:Condition=damageType]
[h:setState(Condition,1)]

And finally show the string that we formatted earlier that tells everyone who has been tagged with ongoing damage, the type and how much.

[r: stringToShow]

Now we have a way of placing the ongoing damage on a token, we need a way of automating the subtraction of the damage from tokens at the start of their turn and reminding them to save at the end of their turn.

The “Next Initiative” Button

I created a button that I placed on the Campaign group called Next Initiative which passes the initiative to the next person on the list. But before it does this it checks to see if the current token has any save ends conditions on it (I have only pasted the ongoing damage here as conditions will be in another post).

First of all, we need to determine who the current token is and switch the focus to that token:

[h: id = getInitiativeToken()]
[h: switchToken(id)]
[h: targetname=getName(id)]

Next we need to see if the token has ongoing damage it needs to save against. It will then ask if the token has saved against it. The DM will see a popup window asking if the player saved against the condition. The player should still be able to roll for the save while the pop up is on the DM’s screen.

[h:saveList=""]
[h,if(SEAcid), code: {
  [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Acid damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
  [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
  [h:abort(status)]
  [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
    [h:SEAcid=0]
    [h:Acid=0]
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Acid damage! :D"]
    [h:state.Acid=0]
  };
  {
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Acid damage! :("]
  }]
}]

[h,if(SECold), code: {
  [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Cold damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
  [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
  [h:abort(status)]
  [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
    [h:SECold=0]
    [h:Cold=0]
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Cold damage! :D"]
    [h:state.Cold=0]
  };
  {
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Cold damage! :("]
  }]
}]
[h,if(SEFire), code: {
  [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Fire damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
  [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
  [h:abort(status)]
  [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
    [h:SEFire=0]
    [h:Fire=0]
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Fire damage! :D"]
    [h:state.Fire=0]
  };
  {
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Fire damage! :("]
  }]
}]
[h,if(SEForce), code: {
  [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Force damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
  [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
  [h:abort(status)]
  [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
    [h:SEForce=0]
    [h:Force=0]
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Force damage! :D"]
    [h:state.Force=0]
  };
  {
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Force damage! :("]
  }]
}]
[h,if(SELightning), code: {
  [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Lightning damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
  [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
  [h:abort(status)]
  [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
    [h:SELightning=0]
    [h:Lightning=0]
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Lightning damage! :D"]
    [h:state.Lightning=0]
  };
  {
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Lightning damage! :("]
  }]
}]
[h,if(SENecrotic), code: {
  [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Necrotic damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
  [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
  [h:abort(status)]
  [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
    [h:SENecrotic=0]
    [h:Necrotic=0]
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Necrotic damage! :D"]
    [h:state.Necrotic=0]
  };
  {
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Necrotic damage! :("]
  }]
}]
[h,if(SEPoison), code: {
  [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Poison damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
  [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
  [h:abort(status)]
  [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
    [h:SEPoison=0]
    [h:Poison=0]
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Poison damage! :D"]
    [h:state.Poison=0]
  };
  {
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Poison damage! :("]
  }]
}]
[h,if(SEPsychic), code: {
  [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Psychic damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
  [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
  [h:abort(status)]
  [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
    [h:SEPsychic=0]
    [h:Psychic=0]
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Psychic damage! :D"]
    [h:state.Psychic=0]
  };
  {
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Psychic damage! :("]
  }]
}]
[h,if(SERadiant), code: {
  [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Radiant damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
  [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
  [h:abort(status)]
  [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
    [h:SERadiant=0]
    [h:Radiant=0]
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Radiant damage! :D"]
    [h:state.Radiant=0]
  };
  {
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Radiant damage! :("]
  }]
}]
[h,if(SEThunder), code: {
  [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Thunder damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
  [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
  [h:abort(status)]
  [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
    [h:SEThunder=0]
    [h:Thunder=0]
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Thunder damage! :D"]
    [h:state.Thunder=0]
  };
  {
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Thunder damage! :("]
  }]
}]
[h,if(SEUntyped), code: {
  [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Untyped damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
  [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
  [h:abort(status)]
  [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
    [h:SEUntyped=0]
    [h:Untyped=0]
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Untyped damage! :D"]
    [h:state.Untyped=0]
  };
  {
    [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Untyped damage! :("]
  }]
}]

[h:stringToList(saveList, " ")]
[h:number=listCount(saveList)]
[r,if(number>0),code:{
  [r,foreach(var,saveList),code:{
    [r:var]
    <br>
  }]
}]
<br>

Pass the initiative onto the next token.

[h: nextInitiative()]

And here is where it starts to get a bit messy. My wife plays a Warden in the game. Wardens get to save against conditions at the START of their turn.

Get the token that now has initiative and switch the focus to them.

[h: id = getInitiativeToken()]
[h: switchToken(id)]

If they are a Warden then repeat the code from up above:

[h,if(isWarden==1),code: {
  [h:saveList=""]
  [h,if(SEAcid), code: {
    [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Acid damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
    [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
    [h:abort(status)]
    [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
      [h:SEAcid=0]
      [h:Acid=0]
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Acid damage! :D"]
      [h:state.Acid=0]
    };
    {
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Acid damage! :("]
    }]
  }]
  [h,if(SECold), code: {
    [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Cold damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
    [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
    [h:abort(status)]
    [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
      [h:SECold=0]
      [h:Cold=0]
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Cold damage! :D"]
      [h:state.Cold=0]
    };
    {
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Cold damage! :("]
    }]
  }]
  [h,if(SEFire), code: {
    [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Fire damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
    [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
    [h:abort(status)]
    [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
      [h:SEFire=0]
      [h:Fire=0]
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Fire damage! :D"]
      [h:state.Fire=0]
    };
    {
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Fire damage! :("]
    }]
  }]
  [h,if(SEForce), code: {
    [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Force damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
    [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
    [h:abort(status)]
    [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
      [h:SEForce=0]
      [h:Force=0]
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Force damage! :D"]
      [h:state.Force=0]
    };
    {
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Force damage! :("]
    }]
  }]
  [h,if(SELightning), code: {
    [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Lightning damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
    [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
    [h:abort(status)]
    [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
      [h:SELightning=0]
      [h:Lightning=0]
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Lightning damage! :D"]
      [h:state.Lightning=0]
    };
    {
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Lightning damage! :("]
    }]
  }]
  [h,if(SENecrotic), code: {
    [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Necrotic damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
    [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
    [h:abort(status)]
    [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
      [h:SENecrotic=0]
      [h:Necrotic=0]
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Necrotic damage! :D"]
      [h:state.Necrotic=0]
    };
    {
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Necrotic damage! :("]
    }]
  }]
  [h,if(SEPoison), code: {
    [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Poison damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
    [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
    [h:abort(status)]
    [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
      [h:SEPoison=0]
      [h:Poison=0]
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Poison damage! :D"]
      [h:state.Poison=0]
    };
    {
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Poison damage! :("]
    }]
  }]
  [h,if(SEPsychic), code: {
    [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Psychic damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
    [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
    [h:abort(status)]
    [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
      [h:SEPsychic=0]
      [h:Psychic=0]
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Psychic damage! :D"]
      [h:state.Psychic=0]
    };
    {
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Psychic damage! :("]
    }]
  }]
  [h,if(SERadiant), code: {
    [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Radiant damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
    [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
    [h:abort(status)]
    [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
      [h:SERadiant=0]
      [h:Radiant=0]
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Radiant damage! :D"]
      [h:state.Radiant=0]
    };
    {
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Radiant damage! :("]
    }]
  }]
  [h,if(SEThunder), code: {
    [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Thunder damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
    [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
    [h:abort(status)]
    [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
      [h:SEThunder=0]
      [h:Thunder=0]
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Thunder damage! :D"]
      [h:state.Thunder=0]
    };
    {
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Thunder damage! :("]
    }]
  }]
  [h,if(SEUntyped), code: {
    [h:stringToShow="Did " + targetname + " Save against ongoing Untyped damage? (1=yes, 0=no)"]
    [h:status=input("hasSaved|0|"+stringToShow)]
    [h:abort(status)]
    [h,if(hasSaved), code: {
      [h:SEUntyped=0]
      [h:Untyped=0]
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " has saved against the ongoing Untyped damage! :D"]
      [h:state.Untyped=0]
    };
    {
      [h:saveList=saveList+" ,"+targetname + " did not save against the ongoing Untyped damage! :("]
    }]
  }]
}]

[h:stringToList(saveList, " ")]
[h:number=listCount(saveList)]
[r,if(number>0),code:{
  [r,foreach(var,saveList),code:{
    [r:var]
    <br>
  }]
}]

Next. we display the name of who has initiative and display the current conditions effecting them.

[r: getName(id) + " has Initiative"]
[r:strlist = "and currently has"]

The next line just sees whether there is any ongoing damage at all (this could probably be used further up, but I haven’t done this yet).

[h:OD=Acid+Cold+Fire+Force+Lightning+Necrotic+Poison+Psychic+Radiant+Thunder+Untyped]

If there is ongoing damage then cycle through the damage types and subtract the value from the token’s HP.

[h,if(OD>0),code:{
  [h,if(Acid>0):strlist=strlist+" ,"+ string(Acid)+" Acid damage"]
  [h,if(Cold>0):strlist=strlist+" ,"+ string(Cold)+" Cold damage"]
  [h,if(Fire>0):strlist=strlist+" ,"+ string(Fire)+" Fire damage"]
  [h,if(Force>0):strlist=strlist+" ,"+ string(Force)+" Force damage"]
  [h,if(Lightning>0):strlist=strlist+" ,"+ string(Lightning)+" Lightning damage"]
  [h,if(Necrotic>0):strlist=strlist+" ,"+ string(Necrotic)+" Necrotic damage"]
  [h,if(Poison>0):strlist=strlist + " ," + string(Poison)+" Poison damage"]
  [h,if(Psychic>0):strlist=strlist+" ,"+ string(Psychic)+" Psychic damage"]
  [h,if(Radiant>0):strlist=strlist+" ,"+ string(Radiant)+" Radiant damage"]
  [h,if(Thunder>0):strlist=strlist+" ,"+ string(Thunder)+" Thunder damage"]
  [h,if(Untyped>0):strlist=strlist+" ,"+ string(Untyped)+" Untyped damage"]
  [h:HP=HP-Cold]
  [h:HP=HP-Fire]
  [h:HP=HP-Force]
  [h:HP=HP-Lightning]
  [h:HP=HP-Necrotic]
  [h:HP=HP-Poison]
  [h:HP=HP-Psychic]
  [h:HP=HP-Radiant]
  [h:HP=HP-Thunder]
  [h:HP=HP-Untyped]
  [h:strlist=strlist + ", and now has " + HP + " HP"]
  [state.Dying = 1 - max(0,min(1,HP))]
  [state.Bloodied = 1 - max(0, min(1,HP - Bloodied))]
  [setBar("Health", HP/MaxHP)]
}]

Finally display the ongoing damages that the token is suffering from.

[h:stringToList(strlist, " ")]
[h:number=listCount(strlist)]
[r,if(number>1),code:{
  [r,foreach(var,strlist),code:{
    [r:var]
    <br>
  }]
}]

I hope someone finds this useful. I am not a software programmer by trade (although I do have to occasionally write code), so I am sure this code could be improved. It would be awesome if someone took this and made it better and allowed OnlineDM to post it on his site.

Tweaked puzzle – looking for private feedback

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A few weeks ago I posted a puzzle that I’m using in my newest adventure. I haven’t been totally happy with the original version, so I created a new version.

I’d like to get some feedback on this new version of the puzzle, but I’d rather get it privately instead of on the blog (so that comments from one person won’t affect another person’s thoughts on the puzzle). It isn’t the kind of puzzle that will take a long time to work on; a few minutes will be enough to tell whether you get it or whether it’s too opaque. It comes with hints, too.

If you’d like to help me out by looking at the puzzle and offering me your thoughts, please send me an email at OnlineDungeonMaster@gmail.com.

Thanks!

-Michael, the OnlineDM

How should a DM handle a monster who’s marked?

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Most of my RPG experience so far has been with Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition, and I believe 4e was the first edition to introduce the concept of “marking” a monster. Defenders all have some type of marking mechanic, in which a marked monster takes a -2 penalty to attack anyone other than the defender who has marked it (unless it’s part of an attack that includes multiple PCs, and the defender is one of them).

Defenders also have some type of “punishment” mechanic attached to the mark, which will have an additional negative effect on the monster if it “breaks” the mark by attacking someone other than the defender. Sometimes the punishment is built into the marking ability itself; sometimes it’s a separate ability that says “When a creature marked by you is naughty, you get to beat it up.”

The usefulness of these marking and punishment mechanics depends to a large degree on the dungeon master and how the DM plays the monsters. There are two extremes the DM could follow (as well as points between): Ignore the mark, and always obey the mark.

Mark? What mark?

On this end of the spectrum, the DM has the monsters act as if they’re completely oblivious to the existence of a mark. Maybe they’ll attack the defender, or maybe they’ll attack someone else. The mark has no bearing on their actions. It’s a pretty stupid way for a monster to act, especially after it gets punished a few times, but hey, some monsters are stupid.

You must obey!

This other end of the “mark obedience spectrum” is where I fell when I first started DMing. In this mindset, the monster knows that it’s marked and that bad things will happen if it attacks someone other than the defender without also attacking the defender, so it attacks the defender. In this way, the defender is doing its job of keeping the scary monsters from attacking the rest of the party. Yay, right?

Don’t ALWAYS obey

Well, no. It was an article on Neuroglyph Games that got me thinking about this a few months ago. The author of the article ranked the Battlemind’s punishment mechanic as being outstanding compared to other defenders. The Battlemind, as you may know, has the ability to punish an adjacent enemy that deals damage to the Battlemind’s ally by dealing an equal amount of damage to that enemy. You hit my friend; I hit you. Bam.

Now, it’s true that this punishment mechanic can deal a whole lot of damage to a monster, especially compared to some of the other punishment mechanics out there. But the problem for me as a DM is that I had been running a game for several levels where the defender was a Battlemind, and her punishment mechanic never, ever did anything.

Why not? Well, she had to be adjacent to the monster in order to punish it. And if she was adjacent, the monster would obey the mark and attack her! The only time the monster ever broke the mark was if the Battlemind wasn’t adjacent, in which case there was no punishment involved.

It’s fun to disobey!

Defenders feel good about themselves when they protect their squishy allies, true. But they also feel good about themselves when they get to beat the crap out of a monster for daring to go after their allies. If the defender’s punishment mechanic never triggers, the defender’s player is having less fun than they could have. And I do believe that the DM should try to help the players have as much fun as possible.

The evolved approach: Role-play the monsters

So what’s the right answer? Remember that this is a role-playing game, and role-play the monsters!

A mindless zombie or single-minded beast is likely to act stupidly or instinctively. This might mean attacking the closest PC or attacking the PC that hurt them the worst or going after the PC who hit it most recently. This monster will fall on the “ignore the mark” end of the spectrum to start with. However, after it gets punished once (or twice, in the case of a really dumb bad guy) it will probably realize that ignoring the defender hurts, and it will start focusing on the defender instead.

Most monsters won’t know exactly how a defender’s punishment mechanic work, and I run it this way even if the rules as written technically say that the monster DOES know (as in the case of a mark power where the punishment is part of that same power). Most monsters at my table will say, “Hm, that fighter is calling me out. But I don’t feel like trying to chew through that armor, so I’m going to eat this tasty-looking wizard instead. OUCH! The fighter hit me when I tried to eat the wizard! Well that does it – you’re gonna get it now, armor boy!” They learn what the punishment mechanic does after it hits them (or one of their nearby allies).

Now, some monsters will be intelligent and may even have experience with battling adventurers. If you have a master tactician going against the players, it can be reasonable for that tactician to instruct its allies to avoid breaking the defender’s mark unless it’s really worth it. If that’s the case, it’s important for the DM to role-play this out at the table. “Ah, I see that your pathetic warden has tried to convince my hell hound to attack it instead of the dazed cleric. Do not be fooled, my minion! Destroy that horrid Pelor-worshipper, no matter the cost!”

The bottom line

Throw the defender a bone now and then by letting monsters discover what the defender’s punishment mechanic can do. Allow the monsters to learn from experience. And if the monster is really smart, have it show the players how smart it is by only breaking marks when it’s advantageous to do so – and make it clear that this is happening because the ENEMY is a tactical genius, not because the DM is.

Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle of the online D&D community

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Well, I’ve gone and ruined things now, haven’t I?

On Wednesday, I put up a post musing about the online D&D community and the fact that I didn’t exactly feel like I was a part of it. This was partly because I got to meet several well-known D&D bloggers and podcasters at GenCon, and they had no idea who I was.

I concluded that I needed to do a better job of reaching out to the community.

Apparently this topic touched a nerve with other people like me – bloggers and online community members on the fringes of the group. Adam Page (@blindgeekuk on Twitter) asked if he could put up a guest post here on Online Dungeon Master on the same topic (my first ever guest post), which went up on Friday. More commentary followed, including on Twitter (where Adam is much more active than I am, and he did a great job of drawing attention to the post).

Now here’s where the uncertainty principle comes in. One way Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle is sometimes phrased is that you can’t observe something without changing it. In this case, I observed that I felt that I was a bit on the outside of the online D&D community looking in. In the process of discussing this phenomenon, I inadvertently changed it.

By the end of the day Friday, I had a guest post on my blog, lots of blog comments, and some new Twitter followers. This started with @NewbieDM, whom I’d exchanged messages with before on Twitter but who hadn’t actually followed me back. Then Adam’s tweets ended up getting @ThadeousC to both follow me on Twitter and comment here on the blog. Finally, I got a message telling me that @SarahDarkmagic herself was now following me on Twitter.

What is the world coming to? 🙂

Honestly, I didn’t put up my original post as a way to fish for attention or to convince people to follow me; I was just trying to share my thoughts. Apparently I’m not alone in feeling like an outsider, and after all of the discussion in the last few days I actually feel like less of an outsider.

In any case, if there any podcasters out there who want to talk about this as a future topic, I’m happy to join the conversation – and clearly lots of others are as well.

As always, you can find me on Twitter as @OnlineDM1 or on Skype as OnlineDM. And I’m certainly open to the idea of more guest posts here on Online Dungeon Master in the future.

Thank you for reading!

Guest post from @blindgeekuk: Becoming One of the Community

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Editor’s note: My post on my feelings about my place (or lack thereof) in the online RPG community from Wednesday sparked a fair amount of discussion, most of which made me feel better! As part of that discussion, Adam Page (@blindgeekuk on Twitter and a contributor to Daily Encounter) asked if he could put up a guest post here on Online Dungeon Master talking about his feelings regarding the online RPG community. I was pleased that he asked. His post follows.

Becoming One of The Community

I wanted to write this post to tie it into OnlineDM’s comments from Wednesday, touch on my experiences, and emphasise why an existing member of the D&D community, like @ThadeousC getting the job at WotC is not only important, but is crucial.

I’ve been a gamer for 20 years. I was writing my own 2e and SLA Industries stuff before I knew that mailing lists and BBS hosted fan books existed for these games. It was only when I got a data connection for my cheap nokia phone, that let me dial up to the internet at a staggering 9.6 kbps that I was enlightened.

I only recently got involved in the D&D 4e community, but for most of the 00’s was a major figure in the SLA industries fan scene, publishing, at my last count, about 600 pieces of material for that game, and helping to form Team8, a group of UK rpg’ers that support the hobby. At the time, that community was effectively lead by a couple of well known names, and the goal of Team8 was to publish material without the stigma of a name attached to it… everything would be anonymous… The theory lasted 1 issue of our fanzine, before the names stepped in again to promote it and take control of the group. I left/was forced out, and to be honest, it was one of the best moves I made, because it showed me that I wasn’t after the glory or recognition, I just wanted to support my favourite game.

Having missed most of 3e, and the rumours of 4e, I checked it out when it hit the torrent site’s and I loved it, and have picked up pretty much everything since, spending several thousand dollars on minis and books in the 3 years i’ve been DM’ing. I reformed my old 2e group, I started up a roleplaying group at my FLGS because there was nothing for gamers there, and I heavily promoted that. In order to do so, I built a website…

And suddenly, unbeknownst to me, I was part of the community, people would google stuff and end up at my site, which I had intended just to be for my local players. When the rumours about Dark Sun started to hit, I collected them, and people like @Alphastream linked to them. I posted some rough ideas for content on there as well.

But it was the Encounters program, with it’s Twitter buffs that was the final transition. I’d checked out @wilw’s timeline a few times, and watched #gencon tweets flood in each year, but Encounters convinced me to create an account, and follow a few well known uk tweeters like @symatt and @greywulf. From there, the #ff system gained me followers, AND people to follow, and Twitter is all about the interaction with these people. I was starting to tweet to people whose blogs I read, and they were tweeting back… I was becoming one of their community.

After a year of this, I suffered a serious case of depression, and I decided to stop tweeting as me, and tried an experiment: was quantity, or quality a factor in getting recognised in the community, and how quickly could someone get accepted as being a contributing member of the community. I created a fake persona, twitter account, email, wordpress blog, and started filling it with content, from themes, to mundane descriptions to encounter summaries. I was surprised by the response. While it wasn’t the amazing ‘welcome to the community’ I was hoping for, some content did get discussed by people that most of us consider to be important tweeters (e.g @ChrisSSims).

I ended the blog early, scared of the implications if people found out, and because @SarahDarkmagic gave me a perfect opportunity. She had finally gotten the recognition she deserves with Lost City, and articles in Dragon, and she was discussing how she had become accepted into the community by basically introducing herself to people. My fake persona, and the real me grilled her on this, and we came to the summary that to be acknowledged in the community you need to:

“you have to write a regular schedule of good quality material, which shows attention to detail and a clear understanding of the game world/rules, it needs to show your passion for the game, you have to promote yourself in various places including twitter, the forums (enworld and wotc) and be heard on podcasts, and you need to build relationships with other bloggers by guest posting for them”

I closed down the persona, and started up my own blog, again, posting content until another bout of depression saw me slim down my online presence. However, prior to that, I was spotted doing stuff with Hirst Arts bricks by @mikemearls, opening up the chance to make the 3d version of Lair Assault.

Since closing down my own blog, I’ve taken that summary to heart. I’m posting here, there, and everywhere. While I don’t want the massive recognition, or to be named as one of the top ten D&D twitter people, I’d like to know that what I write is read and appreciated, and if anything, that’s something we fail in as a community, thanking each other and praising each other on a good blog post.

So yeah, thats my summary of how I became a member of the D&D community.

OnlineDM’s comments about not feeling part of the community mirror my own feelings until very recently. To me, there seems to be 3 levels in the community. You have your big names: @NewbieDM, @SlyFlourish, @SarahDarkmagic, people whose opinions are listened to and who are respected. Then there’s a middle tier, full of people who post regularly, but who don’t get the recognition they deserve: @ObsidianCrane, @PaulBaalham, @WastexGames. Finally, there is an outer tier, which is where many like OnlineDM feel they are. In this tier, you post but people never seem to respond, you tweet replies at people and never get re-tweeted etc. To me, it is important that people in here are supported, because there are a lot more of them than there are big names, and often, it’s these people who have the best content, but it’s just never seen…

At the start, I mentioned that I think a member of our community, like @thadeousc being WotC’s new social/community manager is important… There are lots of reasons why someone who understands twitter should get the job, but Thad is a known member of the community, and trusted by us all. If it came down to a situation that the community had reacted to, such as the announcement of Essentials, him saying ‘Trust me about this’ in a tweet would probably calm most of the raving fans down.

WotC have acknowledged that they lost touch with the fan base, that they have failed to communicate with us properly, and I think that reaching out to the community and hiring someone from there, who knows how we perceive things, and has the contacts amongst the twitterverse and blogosphere is the right thing to do.

Updated adventures: The Stolen Staff and Tallinn’s Tower

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Edit 9/15/2011: Based on some play-testing feedback from an awesome reader named Jeff, I have made some improvements to Tallinn’s Tower (mostly just clarifications and clean-up edits; nothing transformative). Thank you, Jeff!

Edit 9/8/2011, evening: I changed the low-level monsters in the first encounter of Tallinn’s Tower to something more interesting. I guess I’ll never be done tweaking these adventures!

After running my own adventures at TactiCon last weekend, I’ve finished tweaking them based on my play testing. The new versions are formatted much better and should be easier to use at the table.

I’ve renamed the first adventure in the trilogy from The Staff of Suha to The Stolen Staff. This is because I’ve decided The Staff of Suha makes more sense as a name for the whole trilogy, while the Stolen Staff is just the first part. I’ve also totally revamped the skill challenge into a series of scenes that I think you’ll find easier to run and more fun for your players. There’s also an alternate encounter for entering the stronghold.

As for Tallinn’s Tower, the main changes are to the formatting; the core content is mostly the same.

The third adventure… well, I’ve decided that I’m going to submit Descent Into Darkness to Dungeon Magazine because, hey, why not? But since they won’t accept anything that’s been previously published elsewhere, I can’t post it on my blog if I want it to have a chance of being accepted.

Based on the odds, I’m guessing they’ll reject it, at which point I’ll publish it here. But until that happens, I’m going to hold off.

Download The Stolen Staff PDF.

Download Tallinn’s Tower PDF.

Maps for the adventures are below, scaled to a 50-pixel grid for use in programs like MapTool (both with and without a grid).

If you run either or both of these adventures, please let me know how it goes! And if you want to playtest the third adventure, drop me a line at mailto:onlinedungeonmaster@gmail.com.

Stolen Staff - Lair Exterior - Gridded

Stolen Staff - Lair Exterior - No Grid

Stolen Staff - Garbage Tunnels - Gridded

Stolen Staff - Garbage Tunnels - No Grid

Stolen Staff - Shrine - Gridded

Stolen Staff - Shrine - No Grid

Stolen Staff - Grak Chamber - Gridded

Stolen Staff - Grak Chamber - No Grid

Tallinn's Tower Level 1 - Gridded

Tallinn's Tower Level 1 - No Grid

Tallinn's Tower Level 2 - Gridded

Tallinn's Tower Level 2 - No Grid

Tallinn's Tower Level 3 - Gridded

Tallinn's Tower Level 3 - No Grid

Tallinn's Tower Level 4 - Gridded

Tallinn's Tower Level 4 - No Grid

Being a part of the online D&D community

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I’ve been writing about D&D since April 2010, and I’m quite happy with my blog. Not a ton of people read it, but some do, and that’s enough for me. I blog for myself, not to please others, and when I look back at what I’ve written and ahead at what I’m planning to write, I feel proud.

However, I’m starting to become more aware of the broader RPG community online… and the fact that I’m not really a part of it. At GenCon this year I wanted to meet several of the people whose D&D blogs I read or whose podcasts I listen to, and I was happy to meet them. It was clear, though, that none of them had the foggiest clue who I was after I introduced myself.

Now, if I were talking about meeting celebrities in film or music or something like that, I would expect that the people whose work I follow wouldn’t know who I was. But in the RPG blogging community, well, we’re a smaller group. I thought of myself as being part of that community, but I later realized that I’m on the outside fringes.

It’s a bit of a strange feeling. The feeling is magnified now that I’m on Twitter (OnlineDM1, in case you were wondering). I see conversations go back and forth among RPG bloggers, and I occasionally toss in a comment here or there, but I realize that I’m an outsider in that community.

Ultimately, if I want to be a part of this community, it’s up to me. I’ve reached out to a fellow blogger whose work I admire to help out with an adventure he’s writing. I think that’s the kind of thing I need to do if I’m going to be anything other than a fringe member of the community. I need to make myself available to help others. People don’t notice me just because I write and am on the RPG Bloggers Network and the RPG Blog Alliance. To be a part of the community, I need to offer something to that community. They’re not going to just invite me in.

I guess my goal is to look back on this post a year from now and laugh. “It’s so funny to read how I used to feel like an outsider in the RPG blogging community! Ah, how times have changed.” Making that happen is up to me. I’m always open to advice, though!

TactiCon 2011 – LURU 2-4 Need to Know

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LURU 2-4 Need to Know – Spoilers ahead

The final adventure I ran at TactiCon 2011 was LURU 2-4 Need to Know. I had a full table of six players, including my friend Nate, another couple of players who I knew from Enchanted Grounds, a player I knew from other convention games, and a couple whom I hadn’t met before.

I began by asking the players to introduce their characters to one another, and Nate led things off by doing so in-character. This set the tone nicely for the rest of the table, as all of the PCs came to life. All of them mentioned their race (although the changeling in the party explained that she claimed to be an eladrin, hinting that she wasn’t really), though most did NOT mention their class. Instead, they let this become clear from the way they behaved in battle. One introduced himself as an actor (later revealed to be a hybrid bard-warlock), one as just an adventurer (later revealed to be a rogue), one as bloodthirsty bug (a ranger) and one as a princess (a hybrid bard-warlord).

The princess in the party is my favorite PC I’ve seen so far in an LFR game. She rode around on a Tenser’s Floating Disk and made excellent use of Direct the Strike to boss people around and make them attack. It worked really well. She was also able to leverage her “royal status” to bluff her way into a guarded city along with some of her allies during the adventure.

The best part of this adventure was the opening combat encounter, which took place in an inn that was soon set on fire. The growing fire and the lava elementals that arose from it were a ton of fun.

The final encounter was less fun, as it involved a beholder in a pretty boring 10 square by 10 square room (with an attached sewer area). Every time a player started their turn, they were subject to an eye ray attack (unless they ran into the sewers). They couldn’t flank the beholder, nor could they take opportunity attacks against it when it used its eye rays.

It got frustrating, but having learned my lesson from an earlier adventure I started changing the beast up a little bit. I tried to cut way back on the most devastating control effects from the beholder – the sleep ray knocked out the fighter for several rounds, and the petrification ray took away at least two PCs’ entire turns. The adventure made it clear that you need to go easy on those during the beholder’s turn, which I did, but when it rolls a random ray at the beginning of a PC’s turn, the odds are good that a controlling power is going to come up. So, I switched to more damage and less control later in the combat, even on the random rays.

Ultimately, everyone had a good time, and using MapTool and the projector to project the spreading fire onto the map in the first encounter was a big hit. It was a good way to end an awesome TactiCon.

TactiCon 2011 – MyRealms adventures

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MyRealms adventures – Spoilers follow

All day Friday at TactiCon 2011 was devoted to my MyRealms adventure trilogy: The Staff of Suha in the morning, Tallinn’s Tower in the afternoon, and Descent Into Darkness in the evening. I only had one player who played in all three adventures, but my tables were full throughout.

I feel confident in saying that these were a hit. I’m constantly tweaking my own adventures, and I was taking notes as I ran them, but they were all little things to tweak here and there – nothing that needed a complete reworking.

My favorite moment of the convention came in the final battle of Descent Into Darkness, which involves facing a beholder in a room that includes a river of magma. The party was doing their best to keep the beholder locked down, and at one point a rogue decided to jump onto the beholder’s back. He stayed aboard for four rounds.

In the first round, the beholder was stunned, so the rogue stabbed away.

In the second round, the beholder got up from prone and tried to shoot an eye ray at the rogue (tough to do when he’s on top of the beholder) and missed.

In the third round, the beholder flipped upside down and flew just over the surface of the magma, but the rogue made a great Athletics / Acrobatics check to scramble around the ball of eyes as it rotated and avoided the magma.

In the fourth round, the beholder had had enough of this nonsense, decided that it could handle the magma better than the fragile humanoid on its back, and dove into the river and back out. The beholder and the rogue both took 30 fire damage and ongoing 10 fire damage (save ends).

The rogue’s player asked me, “So what happens if that takes me below zero hit points?”

The whole table replied with “Oooooh….”

Yes, he fell unconscious while in the river of magma, which meant that he lost his grip and floated just below the surface. The beholder survived the bath, but the party ran out of options to rescue the rogue without killing themselves. Thus passed the short-lived rogue, may he rest in peace.

I’m not much of a killer DM, but PC do die at my table from time to time. In this particular case, it was worth it. I knew that was true Sunday evening when some players at a different game I was running said they had already heard that story about the beholder and the rogue and the magma river. When your players are telling stories about your games to their other friends at the convention, you’ve done something right! Well, unless they were saying, “This jerk of a DM killed my character…”