Dungeon Master’s Guide®
ROLEPLAYING GAME CORE RULES James Wyatt
CREDITS
D&D® 4th Edition Design Team Graphic Designers Rob Heinsoo, Andy Collins, James Wyatt Keven Smith, Leon Cortez, Emi Tanji
D&D 4th Edition Final Development Strike Team Additional Graphic Design Bill Slavicsek, Mike Mearls, James Wyatt Karin Powell, Mari Kolkowski, Shauna Wolf Narciso, Ryan Sansaver Dungeon Master’s Guide Design James Wyatt Concept Artists Rob Alexander, Dave Allsop, Christopher Burdett, Dungeon Master’s Guide Development Adam Gillespie, Lars Grant-West, David Griffith, Lee Moyer, Andy Collins, Mike Mearls, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, William O’Connor Peter Schaefer, Stephen Schubert Interior Illustrations Dungeon Master’s Guide Editing Rob Alexander, Steve Argyle, Wayne England, Jason Michele Carter, Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, Julia Martin Engle, David Griffith, Espen Grundetjern, Brian Hagan, Ralph Horsley, Howard Lyon, Lee Moyer, William O’Connor, Dungeon Master’s Guide Managing Editing Wayne Reynolds, Dan Scott, Ron Spears, Chris Stevens, Kim Mohan Anne Stokes, Eva Widermann
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Dedicated to the memory of E. Gary Gygax
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1: HOW TO BE A DM ...... 4 Outdoor Terrain ...... 66 9: THE WORLD ...... 148 The Gaming Group ...... 6 Light Sources ...... 66 The D&D World ...... 150 The Players ...... 8 Vision and Special Senses ...... 67 Civilization ...... 152 The Dungeon Master ...... 12 Sample Fantastic Terrain ...... 67 Mapping a Settlement ...... 154 Table Rules ...... 14 Teleportation Circles ...... 156 5: NONCOMBAT ENCOUNTERS 70 The Wild ...... 158 2: RUNNING THE GAME ...... 16 Skill Challenges ...... 72 Weather ...... 158 Preparing ...... 18 Running a Skill Challenge ...... 74 Environmental Dangers ...... 158 Getting Started ...... 19 Opposed Checks ...... 74 Starvation, Thirst, Chronicling a Game ...... 19 Interrupting a Skill Challenge . . . 75 and Suffocation ...... 159 Modes of the Game ...... 20 Sample Skill Challenges ...... 76 The Planes ...... 160 Narration ...... 22 Puzzles ...... 81 The Gods ...... 162 Pacing ...... 24 Using Puzzles ...... 81 Artifacts ...... 164 Props ...... 25 Designing Puzzles ...... 82 The Axe of the Dispensing Information ...... 26 Traps and Hazards ...... 85 DwarvishLords ...... 165 Passive Skill Checks ...... 26 Using Traps and Hazards ...... 87 The Eye of Vecna ...... 167 Informing Players ...... 26 Sample Traps and Hazards ...... 87 The Hand of Vecna ...... 168 Rituals ...... 27 The Invulnerable 6: ADVENTURES ...... 94 Improvising ...... 28 Coat of Arnd ...... 170 Published Adventures ...... 96 Ending ...... 29 Languages ...... 171 Troubleshooting...... 30 Fixing Problems ...... 98 Teaching the Game ...... 33 Building an Adventure ...... 100 10: THE DM’S TOOLBOX ...... 172 Quests ...... 102 Customizing Monsters ...... 174 3: COMBAT ENCOUNTERS .....34 Encounter Mix ...... 104 Increasing or Combat Fundamentals ...... 36 Adventure Setting ...... 106 Decreasing Level ...... 174 Monster Readiness ...... 36 Setting Personality ...... 108 Adding Equipment ...... 174 Surprise ...... 36 Setting Details ...... 110 Templates ...... 175 Roll Initiative! ...... 38 Furnishings and Features ...... 111 Functional Templates ...... 176 Running Combat ...... 40 Mapping the Site ...... 112 Class Templates ...... 182 When Is an Encounter Over? ....41 Outdoor Settings ...... 114 Creating Monsters ...... 184 After an Encounter ...... 41 Event-Based Adventures ...... 115 Monster Design Steps ...... 184 Additional Rules ...... 42 Cast of Characters ...... 116 Elite and Solo Monsters ...... 184 Actions the Rules Don’t Cover . . 42 Allies as Extra Characters ...... 116 Creating NPCs ...... 186 Cover ...... 43 NPC Design Steps ...... 187 7: REWARDS ...... 118 Forced Movement and Terrain . . 44 Level Bonus and Experience Points ...... 120 Aquatic Combat ...... 45 Magic Threshold ...... 187 Quests ...... 122 Mounted Combat ...... 46 Creating House Rules ...... 189 Milestones ...... 123 Flying ...... 47 Rules Design 101 ...... 189 Treasure ...... 124 Disease ...... 49 Example House Rules ...... 189 Monetary Treasure ...... 124 Poison ...... 50 Fumble ...... 189 Gems ...... 124 Critical Success and Failure . . 189 4: BUILDING ENCOUNTERS ....52 Art Objects ...... 124 Random Dungeons ...... 190 Monster Roles ...... 54 Magic Items ...... 125 Random Encounters ...... 193 Encounter Components ...... 56 Awarding Treasure ...... 125 Encounter Level ...... 56 Treasure Parcels ...... 126 11: FALLCREST...... 196 Target XP Reward ...... 57 The Town of Fallcrest ...... 198 8: CAMPAIGNS ...... 130 Encounter Templates ...... 58 The Nentir Vale ...... 206 Published Campaigns ...... 132 Battlefield Control ...... 58 Involving the Players ...... 209 Campaign Theme ...... 134 Commander and Troops ...... 58 Kobold Hall ...... 210 Dragon’s Den ...... 58 Super Adventures ...... 138 Double Line ...... 58 Campaign Story ...... 140 COMBAT CARDS ...... 220 Wolf Pack ...... 59 Beginning a Campaign ...... 142 Encounter Settings ...... 60 Starting at Higher Level ...... 143 INDEX ...... 221 Terrain Features ...... 60 Running a Campaign ...... 144 BATTLE GRIDS ...... 222 Terrain and Roles ...... 62 Tiers of Play ...... 146 Sample Mundane Terrain ...... 64 Ending a Campaign ...... 147 CHAPTER 1 How to Be a DM
Most games have a winner and a loser, but the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Roleplaying Game is fundamentally a cooperative game. The Dungeon Master (DM) plays the roles of the antagonists in the adventure, but the DM isn’t playing against the player characters (PCs). Although the DM represents all the PCs’ opponents and adversaries—monsters, nonplayer )characters (NPCs), traps, and the like—he or she doesn’t want the player characters to fail any more than the other players do. The players all cooperate to achieve success for their characters. The DM’s goal is to make success taste its sweetest by presenting challenges that are just hard enough that the other players have to work to overcome them, but not so hard that they leave all the characters dead. At the table, having fun is the most important goal—more important than the characters’ success in an adventure. It’s just as vital for everyone at the table to cooperate toward making the game fun for everyone as it is for the player characters to cooperate within the adventure. This chapter includes the following sections. The Gaming Group: Here you learn what components you need to play the D&D game. The Players: Understand your players, help them to assemble as a successful party of player characters, and run a game they want to play. The Dungeon Master: Understand the role of a DM in the game and what kind of game you want to make. Table Rules: Consider table rules you should agree on—guidelines for you and the players’ behavior during the game. RALPH HORSLEY RALPH CHAPTER 1 | How to Be a DM 4
THE GAMING GROUP
What do you need to play the D&D game? The heart of harder to get through combat encounters even if the a gaming group is the players, who roleplay their char- encounter is scaled down for your smaller group. acters in adventures set forth by the Dungeon Master. With more than six characters, the group gets Every player contributes to the fun of the game and unwieldy and tends to split into subgroups. We give helps bring the fantasy world to life. Beyond players, to you some tips and tricks for managing a large group play the D&D game you need space to play, rulebooks, in “Group Size” in Chapter 2 (page 31), but if your and supplies such as dice, paper, pencils, a battle grid, group gets too large, you might want to split into two and miniatures. Your game can be as simple as that, or more groups that play at different times. or you can add items for your convenience (character sheets, snacks) or to enhance the game with digital The Dungeon Master components (check out www.dndinsider.com). One player has a special role in a D&D game. The Dungeon Master controls the pace of the story and ref- Players erees the action along the way. You can’t play a game D&D players fill two distinct roles in a D&D game: of D&D without a DM. characters and Dungeon Master. These roles aren’t What Does the DM Do?: The Dungeon Master mutually exclusive, and a player can roleplay a char- has many hats to wear in the course of a game session. acter today and run an adventure for the characters The DM is the rules moderator, the narrator, a player tomorrow. Although everyone who plays the game of many different characters, and the primary creator is technically a player, we usually refer to players as of the game’s world, the campaign, and the adventure. those who run the player characters. Who Should Be the DM?: Who should be the D&D is a game of the imagination, all about fantas- Dungeon Master for your gaming group? Whoever tic worlds and creatures, magic, and adventure. You wants to be! The person who has the most drive to pull find a comfortable place where you can spread out a group together and start up a game often ends up your books and maps and dice, and you get together being the DM by default, but that doesn’t have to be with your friends to experience a group story. It’s like the case. a fantastic action movie, and your characters are the Dungeon Masters Can Partner, Trade Off, or stars. The story unfolds as your characters make deci- Change: The role of Dungeon Master doesn’t have to sions and take actions—what happens next is up to you! be a singular, ongoing, campaign-long appointment. Six People in a Group: The rules of the game Many successful gaming groups switch DMs from time assume that you’re playing in a group of six people: the to time. Either they take turns running campaigns, DM and five other players. switching DM duty every few months, or they take More or Fewer than Six: Playing with four or six turns running adventures and switch every few weeks. other players is easy with minor adjustments. Groups that are smaller or larger require you to alter some of Supplies the rules in this book to account for the difference. What do you need to play D&D? With only two or three characters in a party, you don’t have the different roles covered (see “Cover- WHAT YOU NEED TO PLAY ing the Character Roles” on page 10, and “Character A place to play Role” on page 15 of the Player’s Handbook), and it’s Rulebooks Dice Paper and pencils TIPS FROM THE PROS Battle grid or D&D Dungeon Tiles In my years of playing D&D, I’ve played in college class- Dungeon Master’s Screen rooms, in a school and a public library, in my parents’ D&D Miniatures basement and in their dining room, sprawled out on couches and crammed in at too-small tables, at my house USEFUL ADDITIONS and at many different friends’ houses, and in company Character sheets meeting rooms. White boards (and the blackboard in that Snacks classroom) are quite useful. In general, I prefer a more pri- Laptop computer, PDA, smart phone, or digital camera vate spot where we can celebrate an important critical hit D&D Insider with appropriate volume. —James Wyatt
CHAPTER 1 | How to Be a DM 6 A Place to Play: The bare minimum of space you Character Sheets: All the players need some way need to play D&D is room for everyone in your group to record important information about their characters. to sit. Most likely, you also want a table for everyone to You can use plain paper, but a character sheet photo- sit around. A table holds your battle grid and minia- copied from the one printed in the back of the Player’s ture figures, gives you a place to roll dice and write on Handbook is more helpful—or use the D&D Character character sheets, and holds piles of books and papers. Sheets product. Some players put their powers on index You can pull chairs around a dining table or sit in cards instead of their character sheets to make it easier recliners and easy chairs around a coffee table within to keep track of which ones they’ve used. reach. It’s possible to run a game without a table for Snacks: Snacks are not a necessary component of the battle grid, but combat runs more easily if every- a D&D game, but they can be an important one. Food one can see where everything is. and beverages at the table help keep everyone’s energy THE GAMING GROUP Rulebooks: As DM, you need a copy of all the rule- up. If you start your game sessions in the evening after books you’re going to use to play. At a minimum, that work or school, you might want to eat dinner before should be a copy of the Player’s Handbook, the Dungeon you play. You can get all the socializing out of the way Master’s Guide, and the Monster Manual. Your players while you eat, and hunker down for some serious die- each need the Player’s Handbook, since every char- rolling once everyone is finished. acter’s broad assortment of powers, feats, and items Computers, PDAs, Smart Phones, and Digital means the game runs more smoothly if all the players Cameras: If you own a laptop computer, a personal bring their own copies of the Player’s Handbook to the digital assistant (PDA), or a smart phone, you can use table. it to keep notes and track items instead of paper and Dice: You need a full assortment of dice. It’s helpful pencils. Players can use their computers to store and to have at least three of each kind. (That might seem update copies of their character sheet in a number of to be a lot, but when you have to roll 4d12 + 10 fire file formats, and you can keep notes about your cam- damage for the ancient red dragon’s breath weapon, paign and encounters you’ve built. You can also use a you’ll be glad you have more than one d12.) A lot of digital camera as an easy way to keep track of a fight powers use multiple d6s, d8s, and d10s. Each player that you have to stop in the middle of. You just look at at the table should also have a set of polyhedral dice, the picture to replicate the positions of the player char- since most players get very attached to their dice. acters and monsters to resume the battle. You could Paper and Pencils: Everyone should have easy also snap pictures of the game in progress to post in access to a pencil and paper. During every round of your blog or website to share with members of the combat, you need to keep track of hit points, attack group or their friends. penalties and defense bonuses, use of powers, spent D&D Insider: Finally, you can enhance your game action points, the consequences of conditions, and with a subscription to D&D Insider (D&DI)—www. other information. You and your players need to take dndinsider.com—an online supplement to the pen- notes about what has happened in the adventure, and and-paper game. D&DI gives you a ready source of players need to make note of experience points (XP) adventures, new rules options to try out, and an array and treasure their characters acquire. of online tools to make your game go more smoothly. Battle Grid: A battle grid is very important for run- You can use D&DI to play D&D over the Internet, ning combat encounters, for reasons outlined in the bringing friends scattered across the country or the Player’s Handbook. D&D Dungeon Tiles, a vinyl wet-erase world back together around a virtual gaming table. mat with a printed grid, a gridded whiteboard, a cut- ting mat, or large sheets of gridded paper—any of these Fun! can serve as a battle grid. The grid should be marked The last essential component of a D&D game is fun. in 1-inch squares. Ideally, it should measure at least 8 It’s not the DM’s job to entertain the players and inches by 10 inches, and preferably 11 inches by 17 make sure they have fun. Every person playing the game inches or larger. is responsible for the fun of the game. Everyone speeds Dungeon Master’s Screen: This accessory puts the game along, heightens the drama, helps set how a lot of important information in one place—right in much roleplaying the group is comfortable with, and front of you—and also provides you with a way to keep brings the game world to life with their imaginations. players from seeing the dice rolls you make and the Everyone should treat each other with respect and notes you refer to during play. consideration, too—personal squabbles and fights Miniatures: You need something to place on the among the characters get in the way of the fun. battle grid to mark the position of each character Different people have different ideas of what’s fun and creature in an encounter. D&D Miniatures are about D&D. Remember that the “right way” to play ideal. These prepainted plastic figures are three- D&D is the way that you and your players agree on dimensional representations of the actual people and and enjoy. If everyone comes to the table prepared to monsters involved in the battle. contribute to the game, everyone has fun.
CHAPTER 1 | How to Be a DM 7 THE PLAYERS
Everybody plays D&D to have fun, but different people The explorer wants to experience the wonders the get their enjoyment from different aspects of the game. game world has to offer. He also wants to know that If you’re preparing and running a game for a group of there’s more out there to find. He presses for details: players, understanding player motivations—what they proper names of characters and places, descriptions enjoy about the game and what makes them happiest of the environment, and some idea of what’s over the when they play—helps you build a harmonious group next hill. He’s sometimes interested in the adventure of players and a fun game for all. plot and his character’s motivations. (The explorer is close kin to both the actor and the storyteller.) The Player Motivations wonder of new discoveries is what is key to keeping the explorer happy. Most players enjoy many aspects of the game at dif- ferent times. For convenience, we define the primary AN EXPLORER . . . player motivations as types of players: actors, explor- Seeks out new experiences in the game’s setting. ers, instigators, power gamers, slayers, storytellers, Likes learning hidden facts and locating lost items and thinkers, and watchers. places. Enjoys atmosphere as much as combat and story. Actor Advances the plot by being willing to move ever on. The actor likes to pretend to be her character. She emphasizes character development that has nothing to ENGAGE THE EXPLORER BY . . . do with numbers and powers, trying to make her char- Including encounter elements that call for exploration. acter seem to be a real person in the fantasy world. She Rewarding curiosity and willingness to explore. enjoys interacting with the rest of the group, with char- Providing rich descriptions, and using cool maps and props. acters and monsters in the game world, and with the Recruiting him to map for the party. fantasy world in general by speaking “in character” and describing her character’s actions in the first person. BE SURE THAT THE EXPLORER DOESN’T . . . The actor values narrative game elements over Use knowledge of the game world to his own advantage. mechanical ones. Unlike the storyteller, she values Bore the other players or exhaust you with his thirst for her character’s personality and motivations over other detail. story elements. Instigator AN ACTOR . . . An instigator enjoys making things happen. She has Provides PC background, emphasizing personality. no patience for careful planning or deliberation. She’ll Plays according to her character’s motivations. open an obviously trapped chest “just to see what Prefers scenes where she can portray her character. happens.” She provokes authority figures and opens Often prefers social encounters to fights. dungeon doors to bring more monsters into an already difficult fight. The instigator loves the vicarious thrill ENGAGE THE ACTOR BY . . . of taking enormous risks and sometimes just making Facilitating her PC’s personality and background bad choices. development. The instigator can be disruptive, but she can also be Providing roleplaying encounters. a lot of fun for the other players. Things rarely grind to Emphasizing her character’s personality at times. a halt with an instigator in the group, and the stories Recruiting her to help create narrative campaign elements. that get retold after the game session often revolve around whatever crazy thing the instigator did this BE SURE THAT THE ACTOR DOESN’T . . . week. Bore the other players by talking to everyone and everything. AN INSTIGATOR . . . Justify disruptive actions as being “in character.” Likes to make things happen. Takes crazy risks and makes deliberately bad choices. Explorer Thrives in combat and dislikes having nothing to do. An explorer loves to see new places in the fantasy Takes decisive action when things grind to a halt. world and to meet the residents of such places, fair and foul. All the explorer needs is the promise of an inter- ENGAGE THE INSTIGATOR BY . . . esting locale or different culture, and off he goes to see Including objects and encounters that invite that place. experimentation.
CHAPTER 1 | How to Be a DM 8 Letting her actions put the characters in a tight spot but not ENGAGE THE SLAYER BY . . . kill them all. Springing an unexpected battle when the slayer looks Including encounters with nonplayer characters who are as bored. feisty as she is. Making some battles simple and others more complex. Vividly describing the havoc the slayer wreaks with powers. BE SURE THAT THE INSTIGATOR DOESN’T . . . Recruiting her to track initiative during combat.