Getting Started with the Starter Set, Part 4: Wave Echo Cave

Hello, and welcome to Pact of the Tome. This article is the sixth and last in a series written for new Dungeon Masters who have picked up the Dungeons & Dragons 5E Starter Set and are planning to run a game with it for the first time. The first two articles cover the process of bringing a gaming group together and building characters, and each article after that covers one "part" of the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure. I will not assume any prior knowledge about Dungeons & Dragons aside from information in the Starter Set rulebook.

In this article, I'll cover the fourth and last part of Lost Mine of Phandelver, "Wave Echo Cave." This large, abandoned cave complex in the Sword Mountains is the site of the legendary Lost Mine itself, and has been the object of the Black Spider's search for some time. In the final dungeon of this adventure, your players will face fearsome undead guardians, uncover the wonders of the Forge of Spells, and confront the Black Spider in an epic battle. This is the end of the adventure, but it could be just the beginning of your journey as a Dungeon Master.

Part 0: Gathering a Group

Part 0.5: Creating Characters

Part 1: Goblin Arrows

Part 2: Phandalin

Part 3: The Spider's Web

Part 4: Wave Echo Cave

Preparing the Dungeon

Mike Schely's cartographic skill is on full
display in Lost Mine of Phandelver. As a
reminder, you can purchase high-resolution
copies of the maps (with DM annotations
removed) at his website.

Despite its expansive nature, Wave Echo Cave is actually fairly easy to prepare as a Dungeon Master. The dungeon's inhabitants aren't working together for the most part, so you won't need to keep their responses as a group in mind like in Cragmaw Castle. Furthermore, the dungeon is large enough that your group probably won't be able to explore it in one session, so if you're short on time you can focus on preparing areas closer to the entrance.

With the time you've saved, think about how you can make the adventure location come to life in your players' minds. As the ruin of a mine created by the collaboration of dwarves, gnomes, and humans, Wave Echo Cave is a location filled with history. The booming sound of waves from the northeast is a good starting point to develop atmosphere, but spend some time thinking about other ways you can emphasize the adventure and mystery of this place in your descriptions.

Dungeon Master Techniques: The Flashback Adventure

Hello, Dungeon Masters, and welcome to Pact of the Tome! Today, I'd like to discuss a technique that helps your players get more invested in the game. This technique, the flashback adventure, is especially appropriate for longer campaigns where you need to convey a lot of information to your players all at once.

To start off, imagine this situation:

It's game night. You've spent hours concocting the perfect backstory to tonight's adventure, and your players have just fought through an orc warband to rescue the sage who will tell them all about it. As the sage, you begin the tale of the secret history of the fall of the Golden Kingdom five hundred years ago.

Halfway through, you look around. One of your players covers his mouth in a deep yawn. Another is playing Temple Run on her phone. The rest are stacking dice towers, doodling on their character sheets, and generally acting like they're bored out of their minds. Where did you go wrong?

If you've been a Dungeon Master for a while, you've probably been in a situation like this one before. It's a lot of fun to create your own world and story, but getting your players to care about it can be a huge challenge.

Instead, picture this:

Getting Started with the Starter Set, Part 3: The Spider's Web

Hello, and welcome to Pact of the Tome. This article is the fifth in a series written for new Dungeon Masters who have picked up the Dungeons & Dragons 5E Starter Set and are planning to run a game with it for the first time. The first two articles cover the process of bringing a gaming group together and building characters, and each article after that will cover one "part" of the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure. I will not assume any prior knowledge about Dungeons & Dragons aside from information in the Starter Set rulebook.

In this article, I'll cover the third part of the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure, "The Spider's Web." When your group reaches this part of the adventure, they'll have some goals in mind - most prominently, finding and rescuing their kidnapped patron - but they won't have a clear method to achieve them. Instead, they'll follow up on several leads that they've gathered, exploring various locations near Phandelver to work their way toward Cragmaw Castle. By the end of this chapter, they'll have explored several of the locations around Phandalin, found and stormed Cragmaw Castle, and uncovered the location of the Lost Mine of Phandelver itself - and you'll have brought them there!

Part 0: Gathering a Group

Part 0.5: Creating Characters

Part 1: Goblin Arrows

Part 2: Phandalin

Part 3: The Spider's Web

Part 4: Wave Echo Cave

Where to go?

In the last part of Lost Mine, your group most likely explored the Cragmaw Hideout, got to know the town of Phandalin, and delved into the dungeons underneath Tresendar Manor. Unless things went differently than the adventure expects, they likely did these things in a predictable order. In this chapter, your players will get to choose what leads they pursue and what parts of the adventure they'll tackle first.

What does this mean for you? You'll have to be more prepared and willing to improvise than previously. There's a list of information the characters may have gathered on page 27, and it'll be worthwhile spending some time reading up on each of the different locations mentioned - Agatha's Lair, Old Owl Well, the Ruins of Thundertree, and Wyvern Tor. Except for the Ruins of Thundertree, each of these locations is fairly straightforward to run so long as you're prepared.

Which adventure to play?

With Wizards of the Coasts’ recent policy of releasing just a few big adventures each year, Dungeon Masters who want to run a published adventure for D&D Fifth Edition have a choice to make. I've written this article to help DMs make informed choices about the adventures they'd like to run. Since we're approaching the holidays, this is also an excellent opportunity to pick out the perfect adventure for the DM in your life. Take note, players!

Why listen to me? While I haven’t played through each of these adventures to completion, I’ve read through them all along with reviews and actual play reports of each campaign. In addition, I’ve played through most of Lost Mine of Phandelver, all of Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat, and about a third of Princes of the Apocalypse.

One last note: all of these descriptions are, by their nature, likely to spoil the content of the adventures discussed. I’ll try not to be too specific about plot points, but if you want to play through any of these adventures blind, don’t read ahead!

Breaking Down 5E Class Design, Part 1: Defining Class and Class Archetypes

Hello, and welcome to Pact of the Tome!

The fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons has been critically acclaimed, winning numerous awards and bringing many new gamers into the hobby. In particular, it's been lauded for having exciting, engaging character classes. What makes them so great? In this multi-part article series, I'll break down the elements and design choices of a fifth edition character class.

The first post in this series will take some time understanding what a class represents in fifth edition and defining the broad archetypes each class draws from. Follow-up posts will break down the mechanics of class features (including spells) and subclasses, showing how these elements fit into the overall picture of a 5E class.

Analytical Methods
Our first step to understanding class design will be to examine the definition of a class. We'll then take a look at the elements of character building that are independent from class in order to understand the traits that class can't define. Next, we'll take a quick look at the three "pillars" of D&D play. Finally, we'll construct a model for four broad class archetypes - Warrior, Skilled, Mage, and Support - and discuss how each of the twelve Player's Handbook classes fit in.

Throughout this article series, expect references to the D&D Player's Handbook, the primary resource for D&D 5E classes. I've also drawn from Wizards' Unearthed Arcana series, a monthly column that releases playtest rules - including new classes and class options! In particular, Rodney Thompson's article "Modifying Classes" contains some very valuable insight on class design.

What defines a class?

Every adventurer is a member of a class. Class broadly describes a character's vocation, what special talents he or she possesses, and the tactics he or she is most likely to employ when exploring a dungeon, fighting monsters, or engaging in a tense negotiation.

 - D&D Player's Handbook, page 11

Since the very first incarnation of D&D, character class has been arguably the most important defining trait for a character. Referring to your character as a "Wizard" or "Bard" immediately sums up your character's skills, abilities, and role in relation to other characters. More specifically, class in 5E has a large influence on combat style, problem-solving abilities, distinctive talents, and resource management. Class also plays a role in a character's story, background, and place in the world.

Quick Fix: The Inn's On Fire Problem

Hello, and welcome to Pact of the Tome! The Quick Fix series of posts covers common Dungeon Master problems along with my solutions to them. The goal is to keep each piece to 500 words or fewer in order to improve readability and hone my writing and editing skills.

The Inn's On Fire Problem
The party has gathered in a tavern, looking for adventure. "Would you like to talk to the hooded man in the corner?" asks the Dungeon Master. Within minutes, the quest-giver's been stabbed, all the money's been stolen from the till, and someone's set fire to the inn.

The Core Issue
It's a problem that's plagued Dungeon Masters for decades: the players just aren't interested in following your adventure plans. Instead, they decide they'd rather assume the role of "murder hobos," running around the world and causing chaos. D&D is a game about doing whatever you want, right?

A common reaction to this problem is to try and stop the players within the game. This could involve sending town guards and bounty hunters after them, telling your players they can't take certain actions (perhaps referencing their character's alignment), or punishing them with arbitrary penalties and bolts of blue lightning from the sky.

These approaches can occasionally be effective. Sometimes players just need a gentle nudge in the right direction. However, they're very risky: once the players and DM start fighting for control of the game, everything falls apart.

Here's the real problem: the players above haven't agreed to the "social contract" of the game. As the Dungeon Master, you've presented them with an opportunity to go along with your plans and they've ignored it.

Five Lessons from playing Rise of Tiamat in 24 hours

Hello folks, and welcome to Pact of the Tome! Today I'm going to report on my personal experience playing through the official Rise of Tiamat adventure in 24 hours - straight!

Fighting Tiamat, helping kids. All in a day's work - literally!
Artist: Unknown

For the last two semesters of college, my friends and I have gotten together to play D&D for 24 hours without stopping. Through the Extra Life charity, we created a drive where we play through the official D&D adventures - Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat, so far - to raise money for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Last April, we ran through Rise of Tiamat, beginning with a deadly iceberg expedition and ending with the final battle against Tiamat herself. (If you want to read our live blogs of Hoard and Tiamat, feel free. Be warned - they're a bit incoherent, and tend to peter out halfway through as we run out of energy. Also, there's a bit of language.)

The charity drives have led to a lot of crazy adventures for us, but the latest session made me realize that there's a lot to learn from our experience as well. When you've already been playing for 18 hours, it's much easier to notice what you dislike about your game. Conversely, there are so many awesome moments that it's easy to pick out what made them memorable.

Before you read further, be aware - spoilers for Rise of Tiamat lie beyond.

Here's what we learned: