It's Better Cause It's Free! : D&D BASIC.

Hey folks!
I wanted to share this article with everyone because I think that this is the most definitive proof yet that 5th Edition will be the most inclusive, prolific, and user friendly rendition of D&D ever!

Wizards of the Coast Announces BASIC D&D. An ongoing and free to the public PDF with all of the basic rules, characters, monsters, and magic required to play: 

READ ABOUT IT HERE!

If Music Be The Food of Roleplaying...

Music has always been a powerful part of my life. It was a fun way to learn when I was a toddler; I sang solos in concerts, talent shows, and fundraisers in elementary school; it carried me through some dark times as a teenager; I took vocal and singing lessons in university and participated in a few musical stage productions; and even today, my music and signing is an important part of my personal identity. All of that background is to convince you that I have a deep appreciation for music. So, when I say that I’m very conflicted when it comes to using music during game sessions, you know where I am coming from.

Over the past eighteen years playing D&D, I have participated in both ends of the gaming/music spectrum. My early games in the mid-to-late 90’s were filled with the songs of Queen, Guns and Roses, Def Leppard, Metallica, and many others. For us at the time, these songs were meant to pump us up for the inevitable battle that would finish off almost every session. Then, as some of our regular members changed and I moved out of a player’s role and into a DM’s role, I kept the music but I changed the playlist to match my style. Soon the background was filled with soundtracks from Star Wars, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Braveheart, and classical pieces by Holst, Bach, and Grieg. I made this change because I was finding the music with lyrics too distracting and the instrumental stuff usually had a longer running time with fewer changes in mood and tempo.

During my university days, I started playing at other people’s apartments and homes so the music was left up to the hosts and that meant it was usually left out altogether. I slowly started to realize that some people preferred playing with nothing in the background and others missed it greatly. It opened my eyes to the idea that, just like particular styles of roleplaying, the enjoyment or dislike of the music while gaming depended completely on the individual players. In essence, there are some players who find music as an enhancement to the playing experience and are able to incorporate it into their “theater of the mind” and, on the other hand, there are also players who cannot enjoy the music because they find it far too distracting and disrupting to the roleplaying.

Presently and for the past two years, I’ve played a lot of my games in public places such as gaming stores and conventions. Having music in either of these venues is both difficult (due to the noise of others) and inconsiderate (for the other players outside of my game). Do I miss using music during my games? Yes. Does not having music during my games take away from my players’ roleplaying experience? Well that’s the real question! My first reaction is to say no. My players are having just as good an experience and having fun without the need of a soundtrack. However, from time to time, there is still a part of my brain that shouts out, “This would be so much cooler with John Williams!”

No matter what side of the argument you stand on, I think it is important to realize that music is a gaming tool. It can be used or not used depending on the preference of the DM and the players. It’s no different than a calculator, a map, or miniatures. Some people enjoy the add-ons and others prefer their D&D straight up. It’s also important to note that a DM’s preference in music may not translate over to all of his or her players. For example, when I do use music in my games I lean very heavily on movie soundtracks and classical pieces but I know for a fact that at least one of the groups I currently DM would dislike me using that style. And while I’m not a huge fan, I’m sure that there are lots of groups out there that blare out Rap, Death Metal, Techno, and possibly even Polka every night.  And there’s nothing wrong with that as long as everyone in the group is in agreement and having a good time.

Also, if music is a big part of your game, another thing to consider is how some of your players may react to certain types of music. For example, I know that a friend of mine is very attached to the Gladiator soundtrack and loves to play it for his games, especially during his combat scenes as it pumps him up. His players, on the other hand, may not feel the same as they are not nearly as attached to that music. As the entertainers say, “Know your audience”! An older DM might enjoy putting on a little 70’s/80’s rock but if all of his or her players are teenagers and didn’t start listening to music until the year 2000, the DM’s choice of music may not be very well received. Vice versa if the players are all in their 30’s and 40’s and the DM has just had his or her 20^th birthday. The best advice here is to open up the lines of communication, see what your player’s preferences are, and try to reach some sort of consensus. 

Another tricky aspect concerning music and roleplaying is matching the right mood of music with the right events in the storyline. Blaring AC/DC’s Back in Black during a friendly drink at the tavern might not be the best match-up. However, waiting another fifteen minutes and playing it when the bar fights break out sounds to me like pure gold! Similarly, try to avoid playing Howard Shore’s The Shire from The Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack during the middle of a massive battle scene. These out of place musical pieces might be funny at first but they will quickly become huge distractions. In the same vein, try to avoid random mixes and shuffles as they will betray you with glee.  

I suppose the moral of this article boils down to the following: If you are going to use music with your games, put a little thought into it. Make sure you are playing in an area that is conducive to music and is not disturbing others; have an open and honest conversation with your players about what, if any, music they would like to have playing; and do your best to match the music mood with the story mood. Finally, if you are still sitting on the fence about the whole music thing like I am, remember that a truly interesting game with a great storyline will make any music obsolete… although John Williams really does make almost anything cooler.

            

D&D Next is Now 5th Edition

So the last time I checked in on the D&D Next Playtest/Game was early December, 2013. What’s new over the past five months? Short answer: A lot.

Here are a few links to some of the bigger developments for those of you who missed them:

• Official press release announcing the Summer 2014 launch:  (See Here)

• Tyranny of Dragons, the first major D&D Next event, is announced: (See Here)

• It is announced that WizKids will be the official supplier of the D&D Next Miniature line: (See Here)

• Mike Mearls releases an in-depth look at Sorcerers,Warlocks, and Bards in D&D Next:               (See Here and Here and Here)

• D&D Next officially becomes D&D 5th Edition, Dungeons and Dragons gets a new "retro" logo, and the product release dates are announced as follows: Starter Set on July 15, Players Handbook on August 19, Hoard of the Dragon Queen (adventure) on August 19, Monster Manual on September 30, The Rise of Tiamat (adventure) on October 21, and Dungeon Master's Guide on November 19. (See Here)

• The cover art is released for all of the products previously announced: (See Here and vote for your favorite!)

• And finally, the new D&D Adventurers League is announced (organized play): (See Here)

Lots more to come as D&D 5th Edition ramps up! What do you think so far? Leave a comment.

7 Favorite Home Brew Creations

Hey folks, sorry about missing the past few weeks of Friday postings due to illness but we're back up and running this week! Here's this week's article:

Sometimes, right in the thick of things, a DM has to create a monster or an item that just doesn’t exist in any Players’ or Dungeon Master’s Guide. Maybe the situation calls for a unique reward, maybe the storyline demands it, or perhaps the DM just wants to lay the smackdown on his/her PCs. Whatever the reason, a DM should never be intimidated to go off the beaten trail and improvise a good original idea. You never know until you try, right?  In that vein, I thought I’d share with you seven of the more interesting items and monsters I’ve home-brewed when the situation required something completely different.

-          The Doppelganger Mirror  

This is one I made up for a dungeon many years ago and have brought it back at least two or three times since. It usually presents itself as a six-foot high floor mirror with some sort of canvas or sheet covering it. Once the PCs take the sheet off, the magic in the mirror activates and it creates a perfect, yet evil and violent, copy of the person/people that gaze into it, including their weapons, armor, items, and skills. In reality, these doppelgangers are just an illusion but can be deadly for those PCs that cannot disbelieve.

-          The Character in a Crystal

Here’s a convention I’ve used dozens of times. Need an NPC to show up instantly? Perhaps a new PC has just joined the group and you are wondering how to get them into the game? Use a Character in a Crystal™! These are usually gumball sized crystals with a tiny figure inside or sometimes they are regular gems that project a weird telepathic voice when held. Either way, when you break these suckers open or smash them on the floor, a perfectly preserved person is summoned. These make great vehicles to introduce new characters because, a) the freed person is usually very grateful to their emancipators and may even owe a life debt which is a perfect excuse for them to tag along with the group; and b) perhaps the freed person has some vital knowledge on the dungeon or quest in which the PCs are currently engaged. Also, a new PC or NPC joining the party makes for more dynamic treasure than a bunch of gold coins. It’s also a little fun to see a player, who knows that they are trapped inside a gem, squirm and beg the other players to let them out.

-          The Edible Spellbook

Alright, I have no shame in admitting that the idea for this one came from the animated Gargoyles television show, but I still think that it’s a cool idea. A Wizard’s spell book is the single most important item they will ever own and is one of the easiest items in the game to destroy/lose. Water damage, fire damage, acid damage, dispel magic, pick pockets, and many more threats are constantly trying to ruin your Mage career by making you bookless. Thus, my solution was to protect it in the safest place I could think of, my character’s own body. By placing a simple enchantment on the book, it would make it possible to ‘eat’ the book and regurgitate it back up whenever required. Maybe not the most elegant method but it worked for me. In recent years, I believe that this innovation has become somewhat replaced with the idea of tattooing your spells on your skin. Still, I find the notion clever and a lot less time consuming than putting on all that ink.

-          The Lepreling       

This was a creature/race of my own creation and it was born out of a simple question: What would happen if a Leprechaun and a Halfling had a child? My answer was a Lepreling! They are a slightly smaller version of a Halfling with many natural illusion abilities and an insatiable desire for collecting gold. They received bonuses to both dexterity and intelligence and were damn proficient with a sheleighleigh. Unfortunately, my prototype was very short lived due to his far too curious/greedy nature.

-          Hat of Projected Thoughts    

This was a cursed item that I came up with on the fly one day. Basically, whenever a PC or NPC puts the hat on, it immediately projects all of the wearer’s thoughts directly into the brains of any other person standing within ten feet. This could be handy if someone has information you desperately need and it can also be hilarious if someone is thinking about someone else in a less than flattering way. The only catch is, once the hat is worn only a powerful remove curse spell can get it off and eventually hearing everything someone else is thinking can get very annoying.  

-          The Wagon/Carriage of Holding   

To quote Dr. Who, “It’s bigger on the inside.” I’ve used this creation many times usually when the PCs are going to be ‘on the road’ for a long periods. Although it may look like a normal covered wagon or enclosed carriage, the extra-dimensional space on the inside can be as large as a tennis court and is sometimes divided into inn-sized rooms so that each PC has their own personal space. The downside to this practical transportation is the fact that they seem to have a knack for falling off cliffs, bridges, and ravines or being stolen/borrowed by pesky NPCs with most of the player’s gear inside (wink).

-          Displacer Dragon   

I’ll admit that I created this horror to deliberately humble a party whose egos had inflated to roughly the size of New Jersey. As a lesson, I wanted to confront them with a nasty original creature with some unexpected powers and abilities. Thus I gave birth to the Displacer Dragon. This was an adult Black Dragon who had managed to blend its powers with that of a Displacer Beast. The result was a massive, spell wielding, multiple attack per round Dragon with the ability to blink in and out of existence and appear almost anywhere on the battlefield at any time. To make matter’s worse, this dragon was also capable of teleporting a random PC away into the void for a round at a time. In the end, the party settled for running away with only two of their five members unconscious. Mission accomplished.          

Can D&D and Religion Get Along?

If you are a regular reader of this Blog, you may recall an article I did a few weeks ago entitled “D&D’s Dark Past”. If you missed it you can find it HERE. After writing that article, I noticed that much of the opposition that exists to playing D&D came from one of two places: a) people’s uninformed fear; and b) religion. Since I already try to address people’s uninformed fears by giving them weekly articles on, about, and concerning D&D; I figured I would take this week’s article to address the second topic of religion. Don’t ever say that I shy away from the tough issues.

So what can I say about D&D and religion? Well I suppose it depends on what religion you subscribe to, if any at all. Although I’m no expert and don’t scour the internet for evidence of how all of the different religions feel towards D&D, I get a distinct feeling that only Christianity (and even then only a small portion) has any measurable feelings on the subject. I’m personally a Buddhist and, other than an argument that could be made about D&D being a wasted effort, I don’t see or hear about any issues on our end. If there are any Muslims, Jews, Hindus, or other denominations out there that take offence to Dungeons and Dragons, I invite you to drop me a line and enlighten me.

So that being said, let’s get back to the arguments from that minority of Christians. I believe the main issues that cause the divide between D&D and religion can be boiled down into three objections: Firstly, the many references to demons, devils, and the occult; secondly, the fact that D&D encourages players to assume character roles that involve magic and some of that magic could be considered to be ‘dark magic’; and thirdly, the inherently violent nature of the game. In examining these three things, I can understand the foundations for the religious argument but I’m not quite sure they fully understand the harmlessness of these things from a player’s perspective.

On the first matter, dungeoneers (again, that’s the term I use to describe people who play D&D) don’t engage in D&D for their characters to become demons and devils, nor do they aspire to become evil and perform unholy acts. Even in an adventure where the DM permits the players to roleplay “evil” characters, I would submit that very few groups take the notion to a dangerous or detrimental level. And I would also submit that playing out one's darker fantasies in a roleplaying situation is an excellent way of exploring one's darker side in a very safe and forgiving environment. However, in most campaigns, characters engage demons and devils in combat to rid the “world” of their evil. How is that such a bad thing? And, to be perfectly honest and avoid any naivete on my part, if there are any groups out there engaging in active demonic/unholy practices while playing D&D, they are the few exceptions that prove the rule and I encourage them all to seek professional help. But the bottom line is D&D does not promote or encourage that behavior on any level.   

On the second matter, the characters in D&D do dabble in actions that involve magic and yes, some of it could be interpreted as “dark magic” from time to time. Such things may include mind control, bringing a dead character back to life, or talking to the dead. However, in my experience, this is on such an innocent level it’s almost laughable. And honestly, are these things so off-putting? I see most of these acts on your average night of PG-13 mainstream television. Also, from an in-game point of view, many of these acts are done to gather information, stop an evil person from doing something horrible, or to save a party member from missing out on the fun of an adventure by being unfortunately dead. Personally, I would do all three of these things in real life if I thought any of them would work properly! But again, the bottom line is all of this is done in fun and usually for the greater good of the players. I see no threat towards corrupting our youth here unless you also feel that Harry Potter may be promoting Satanism.    

The last objection/accusation is one that D&D as well as many other media outlets (rap music, video games, movies, television, etc.) have fallen prey to: they are violent and are gateways to more violence. And I’m not going to mince my words here: D&D is violent. There are weapons, fighting, wounding, and death on almost a nightly basis. It exists and it is an inseparable part of the game, no excuses. However, I want to direct your attention to the following research that shows a lot of study has gone into violent games over the past few years and there is virtually no link between the violent games people play and violent acts in real life:

"This analysis does not find support for either a causal or correlational link between violent media and subsequent aggression in viewers. Why the belief of media violence effects persists despite inherent weaknesses of research is somewhat of an open question."          

-Ferguson, Christopher J. and John Kimburn. "The Public Health Risks of Media Violence: A Meta-Analytic  Review." Journal of Pediatrics 154 (2009): 759-763. 10 Aug. 2011.

"The strong link between video game violence and real world violence, and the conclusion that video games lead to social isolation and poor interpersonal skills, are drawn from bad or irrelevant research, muddleheaded thinking and unfounded, simplistic news reports."

-Kutner, Lawrence, PH.D. and Cheryl K. Olson, ScD. Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Video Games And What Parents Can Do. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.

"Two studies examined the relationship between exposure to violent video games and aggression or violence in the laboratory and in real life. Study 1 participants were either randomized or allowed to choose to play a violent or nonviolent game. Although males were more aggressive than females, neither randomized exposure to violent-video-game conditions nor previous real life exposure to violent video games caused any differences in aggression. Study 2 examined correlations between trait aggression, violent criminal acts, and exposure to both violent games and family violence. Results indicated that trait aggression, family violence, and male gender were predictive of violent crime, but exposure to violent games was not. Structural equation modeling suggested that family violence and innate aggression as predictors of violent crime were a better fit to the data than was exposure to video game violence. These results question the common belief that violent-video-game exposure causes violent acts."

-Ferguson, Christopher J., Stephanie M. Rueda, Amanda M. Cruz, Diana E. Ferguson, Stacey Fritz and Shawn M. Smith. "Violent video games and aggression: Causal relationship or byproduct of family violence and intrinsic violence motivation?" Criminal Justice & Behavior 35 (2008): 311-332. 10 Aug. 2011.

I know that studies by themselves don’t amount to a whole lot but ask yourself these questions: How many wars do you think have been started over roleplaying games? And how many wars have been started over religion? I know that may be putting too fine a point on it but people in glass houses…

Nevertheless, it would be remiss of me to end this article here. While I can find no reasonable argument for religious groups to despise D&D and vice versa, I can site many things that both institutions have in common. For starters, many religions and D&D preach the morals of courage, honor, self-restraint, and putting the needs of others ahead of your own. Many religions and D&D thrive best when their practitioners support each other with a sense of community and inclusion. Many religions and D&D have distinctive cultures and people who are passionate about what they represent. And here’s the real shocker: I’ll bet that a huge number of people who have strong support of their faith also love to play D&D. I know I do and I’ve known many others who have no qualms with going to their weekly religious service and their weekly D&D game within hours of each other. There’s nothing wrong with that and you can tell anyone who says otherwise to drop me a line because I’d love to debate it with them! As far as I’m concerned, D&D and religion are a lot more alike than either of them would like to admit and after all things are considered, perhaps that observation is both the cause of and the solution to the problem.

Campaign Building 101

So, if you’re a newbie DM, or maybe a long-time DM that just can’t seem to get a good campaign down on paper (or on word-processor), this week’s article is for you! I’m going to take you through my step-by-step process for creating a great campaign and show you how it all comes together in the end. So take notes (or cut and paste) and enjoy!

Step 1

Decide if you want to make your campaign a) character based or b) plot based.

What is the difference? Well a character based campaign is where you are building the campaign around a certain type, race, combination, or class of character. This could be an all Dwarf campaign, or all wizards, or all knights, or all evil alignment, or no magic, or only Gnomes and Halflings, or any other combination you wish. These can be fun because they usually unite the players on a different level and have some purpose beyond an adventure's normal goals. On the other hand, a plot based campaign is where the races, classes, and types of characters don’t matter because the plot will generally work for any character the players wish to make. This is much more open for the players to be creative and make the characters they really want to play but it also requires strong storytelling to keep things moving.

Step 2    

What’s the big idea?

Every campaign needs a big idea. The world is about to be taken over by black puddings! A Demon Lord has possessed the King! A massive earthquake reveals a lost dungeon! Some madman is out to rid the world of all of its cheese! Big ideas don’t need to be pages long. As you can see above, I put four big ideas into about a dozen words or less. It’s the same process that authors and script writers have to go through then they are asked to “pitch” their ideas. What is the point of your campaign in one or two sentences? If you’re having trouble coming up with your big idea, I usually go to a few regular places for inspiration such as movies, television, theatre, anime, comic books, video games, and novels. Still stuck? Try going to some of the online D&D forums and websites such as Wizards of the Coast (here) and EN World (here) and you’ll find hundreds of people sharing their own big ideas. No shame in swiping one and making it your own!

Step 3

What do you plan to accomplish?

If you can answer this important question you can also answer many lesser ones. Depending on your big idea, you now have to decide on how your characters are going to deal with it. Are they going to tackle the main problem directly with no side steps (thus making a shorter campaign with less experience and levels gained), or are they going to have to work their way through several smaller issues before they get to the main problem (extending the life of the campaign and thus more experience and levels). Also, ask yourself: how much time do my players and I have to devote to this campaign? If you know you can only play three hours a week for two months, plan accordingly. Oppositely, if you have no limits to your time, go nuts! There is no rule set in stone that says how long a campaign needs to be. I’ve seen ones that lasted as little as twelve hours and ones that went on for years.

Step 4

Who’s pulling the strings?

Every campaign needs an antagonist and preferably more than one. Who or what are they? Why are they causing trouble for the PCs? What motivates them or is forcing them to act? Is there a major antagonist pulling the strings behind a minor antagonist? And whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of making one-dimensional villains. “They are doing evil because they are evil” doesn't cut it in my world. What went wrong with their lives to make them the way they are? How did they fall from grace? How were they betrayed or abandoned?  How did they rise to power and what did it cost them? Don’t forget that many of the best villains of all-time started out as heroes and were forced somehow to become evil.

Step 5

What is the character starting point?

If you've come to some firm decisions on the previous steps then you should be ready to build your setting/starting point for your characters. How are they starting off? Where do they begin their adventure? Are they already heroes or are they nobodies? Are they criminals? Have they been tarred, feathered, and kicked out of the village? What level will they be? What gear/items will you give them? Do you want this to be a slow start or a fast one? Remember, first impressions are usually the most powerful. If you show your players that this campaign is going to be violent, harsh, and nasty right off the top, your players will expect that type of game to continue and they will adapt their characters accordingly. Similarly, if you show them a comedic, silly, laid-back opening, that’s what they will roll with. Beginnings are important!

Step 6

Putting it all together.

Now take everything you've decided on thus far and smash it together. How does it look? You might be surprised how much two of your previous ideas clash with each other when viewed side-by-side. Don’t be afraid to go back and change it up. Better now than in-game and on the fly. And who knows, maybe you’ve uncovered two ideas that go together so well you’re suddenly filled with more ideas and plot points. I know that’s happened to me so it can happen to you. Sometimes these things take on a life of their own.  

And that’s basically the whole process in a nutshell. Once you’ve gone through all six steps and are happy with your decisions, your campaign is more than half planned out. What remains are the details about monsters, traps, dungeons, and NPCs. I realize that seems like a lot but it all comes together much quicker and easier once the rest of the foundation is in place.

So, to demonstrate, here’s something I whipped up using this exact system in just fifteen minutes:

Step 1: Plot based campaign with all characters as young wizards.

Step 2: An elder wizard, the players’ mentor, dies horribly and his apprentices must find out how and why.

Step 3: The characters will go at the problem directly, played over six 3-hour sessions. By the end, they will have discovered that their mentor is still alive.

Step 4: The wizard never really died, he just faked his own death to test his apprentices. Thus, he is the one pulling the strings.

Step 5: Characters will start in the wizard’s tower which is hidden in a forest. They will begin at level 1 with basic gear and regular spells.

Step 6: Everything seems to fit.  

Try this system out for yourself and tell me how it goes!    

D&D Campfire Stories: Goblins Abound!

Image: forgottenrealms.wikia.com

I asked my Facebook community to tell me their best Goblin stories. Here are a few of the responses:

-        I like playing my Goblin PC with his "ridiculously wide brimmed hat" and scabbard that's too big for his sword. He believes he's a Goblin paragon who stands for what all Goblins should. He's super effective at killing horses and is afraid of written words of course.

-        Long ago we forced some Goblins into a small cave and then proceeded to hole them up in it. We build a massive fire and wanted to deal with them via smoke inhalation. It took out a good 15 of the buggers before the rest stumbled outside to be cut down.

-       Our party needed to investigate an unfinished tower used by a necromancer to instill eternal night. Me, being a rogue, sneaked my way to the top, accompanied by the Shifter warden. On the top floor we see two Goblins crouched over a book, studying it. The warden and I run up to the two Goblins and threw them off the top floor of the tower. The warden rolled a 20, which essentially reduced his Goblin to a puddle, and I rolled a 16, landing the Goblin pretty much at the entrance to the tower. We healed up that Goblin, who had only suffered a broken arm, leg, and a couple ribs, and he became a wonderful minor ally.

-        Some very funny scenes but I think this was the best: The low level magic user in the party was running out of spells in front of an attacking group of Goblins. He panicked and dove down a well screaming "Why am I out front!!?". The Goblins never touched him, but he took 10 points of damage from the fall into the well.

-       I was running a generic dungeon crawl into a Dwarven mine overrun by the loathsome vermin. Now when the party came up to the entrance they saw that there were some Goblins guarding the cave with lots of mining equipment and barrels lying about the base of the rocky mountain side. The party noticed that the rocks on the mountain seemed a little loose so of course their first reaction was to hurl a fireball at it to "make it rain" for the unfortunate little green cretins. They successfully created the avalanche and killed most of the Goblins but the boulders kept coming towards the group. As I advised the group to start making Reflex rolls the Warforged member of the party asked if he could try catching the boulders instead and knock them away. It peaked my interest so I allowed it and like a strongman/magic-robot hybrid he used his strength to knock them out of the way, actually rolling high enough on the last boulder that he caught it and then threw it at the last living Goblin, leaving a red and green stain

-       I had a friend which I played D&D together with when I first started playing. We had a lot of trouble with the Goblin layer in B2 "Keep of the Borderlands". When he ran it for his grandfather who had been in World War II, he did amazingly. He showed us the efficiency of Molotov cocktails and how to take cover. Oh, and we found out the importance of having some sort of ranged weapon.

-       I recently had a segment of a dungeon full of Goblins. I gave the team a puzzle to solve, but they were having trouble with it. They decided they would interrogate a Goblin for the answer to the puzzle, but decided that "keeping one alive" meant "burn him until he has 1 HP left and then ask him questions". By the end they were left with a gurgling, charred Goblin clinging to life by a thread because it kept making a constitution save and not dying from fire damage. It was quite funny, in a very schadenfreude kind of way.

-       During Seekers of the Ashen Crown, my PCs actually sprang for a Raise Dead for a Hobgoblin. If you know the module, it makes you absolutely love those Goblins.


-       I was DMing a short adventure for my twelve year old daughter who was playing for the first time. She was going solo into a Goblin’s den to retrieve a child who had been kidnapped from the local village. Roughly half-way in, she discovered a crudely made wooden cage with a Goblin inside who seemed to have been captured by the others. Figuring out that he was more friend than foe, she got him out and together they rescued the child and sent the other goblins running!