PAX East 2012 DM Challange

Pregame setup

PAX East 2012 has come and gone in a whirlwind of activity. Among my favorite events this year, as was last year, was WotC's DM Challenge. Although I found many of the same troubles and frustrations as before, this time around proved to be at least a little more fruitful, in no small part to hard work done at Dungeon Oracle.

D&D Open Tournament - post game pictures

I was scrubbing through my hard drive and found a bunch of the pictures I took at this past year's GenCon D&D Open Tournament. Here they are, annotated for your reading pleasure.

Do you not know about the D&D Open? Read about it here. It inspired me to put together FTDM.

Fourthcore Team Deathmatch: Pre-Tournament Analysis

Introduction & Rules + Maps + Ladder & Teams + Frequently Asked Questions

The Fourthcore Team Deathmatch (FTDM) has been my pet project for a few months now, and I have poured quite a bit of thought and energy into its design and implementation. Originally inspired by a chat with Sersa V, it has taken on a life of its own and promises to be an amazing event. My mind was filled with visions of blood and glory, and I could already hear the screams of both triumphant victory and devastating defeat. With GenCon fast approaching, I wanted to take a little time to explain my motives and reasoning behind many of the decisions made on FTDM.

Mission Statement

I know, how corporate, right?

FTDM has had an unofficial mission statement since Day #1. What this means is that I started the design with a number of goals I wanted to achieve with this event. They were:

+ Create a large event where many Fourthcore Fanatics could gather together and hang out at once; a Fourthcore Community Gathering

+ Use the tools of the internet to help organize and promote such an event

+ Capture the frantic, break-neck-speed feel of 90’s-era first-person deathmatch shooter games, such as DooM, Quake, and Heretic/HeXen; using the 4E D&D system.

Fourthcore Team Deathmatch: Character Sheet Contest!

Introduction & Rules + Maps + Ladder & Teams + Frequently Asked Questions

I'm officially announcing a new contest related to the Fourthcore Team Deathmatch: Character Sheets!

Many D&D enthusiasts have come to me, excited and bubbling over the idea of a D&D team deathmatch. However, they are saddened, as their schedule simply cannot allow them to come to GenCon and participate in the bloodbath. Now, those who cannot be there in person have a way to influence the deathmatch.

At GenCon, a stack of approximately 20 pre-generated character sheets will be available for anyone playing in the Fourthcore Team Deathmatch to use. These characters will be designed by you, the reader, to help your fellow Man in their epic struggle for survival.

I am looking for pre-generated 1st Level character sheets, following the rules stated for the Fourthcore Team Deathmatch. All character sheets must have a custom layout, such as those created for SND-02 PreGens. Any direct, unaltered printings from DDi Character Builder is lazy and unbecoming of a serious 4E player. Optimization, creativity, and ease of use are the three most important criteria.

The author of any character sheet used by any of the players in the final match will receive full scale, color print outs of each of the three maps used in the Fourthcore Team Deathmatch. A small memento, and a way for all of us to say 'thanks'.

When accepted, character sheet will be made available here for preview.

Deathmatch Podcast & Updates

A 4th Edition podcasting blog, A Roving Band of Misfits, has posted a podcast where they start out excitedly talking about the Fourthcore Team Deathmatch. All this support and excitement has gotten me very encouraged! I can't wait! There has also been talk from Benoit's side about some very special treats for some lucky teams in the Deathmatch. More details will be dropped as things progress!

As I write this, we're at 23 31 players signed up! Only 1 ticket remaining! I see this event easily selling out by the end of the week. I thank you all for your love of killing your fellow man.

With that in mind, please make sure to get in touch with me and get your team squared away. I'd hate to have to do all that messy administrative juggling at GenCon, splicing together teams and all, when we could be better spending our time telefragging.

Register for the Fourthcore Team Deathmatch!

Fourthcore Team Deathmatch is a go!

https://www.genconreg.com/events/27820

Sign up tomorrow, May 1st, when GenCon Events Registration goes live. I look forward to seeing your splattered dungeoneers' gibs cake the walls of the Slaughterhouse.

Don't forget: once you've secured your spot at the table with GenCon, get in touch with me to get squared away in the Competition's Ladder.

PAX East Revenge of the Iron Lich

This shirt has a hymn written on it in gothic-font German. Very appropriate. 

At PAX East, I ran a session of Revenge of the Iron Lich for a group of D&D players that weren't afraid of a little risk and danger, heroics if you will, in the face of true victory. I feel like everyone loved it, and welcomed the fresh change to a dungeon with some real chance of defeat, and that really challenged the player and not just the number crunch on their sheets.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead!

PAX East DM's Challenge: The Adventure

from http://www.jengajam.net/2010/03/157-d-and-pax-east-preview.html

UPDATE! I fixed the links.

This past weekend, I attending the mega gaming convention: PAX East. I signed up to run quite a few delves for WotC, and in doing so met a lot of really cool people. One of those events was the PAX East DM's Challenge. I've wrote about it before, which you can see here and here. The game was a ton of fun, I felt like I had a great group, and it was well-received. The following are my thoughts on the whole matter, the adventure itself, as well as what I'm planning for the future.

(A note to my regular players: Do not read this until we’re done with ‘Iron Lich!)

PAX East DM's Challenge: Intro and PC Backgrounds



I only have one week left to finalize all of my notes for the PAX East DM's Challenge. I intend to win. You might even say that I am addicted to winning. I'm on such a roll now. The preliminary draft of the adventure will be done either today or tomorrow, looking at around 30 pages printed out, including all the accessories. I'm blasting through this thing lightning fast. It's like I have tiger's blood. I have magic in my fingertips. I'm a vatican warlock assassin.

Seriously though, this is really getting my competitive spirit up, and I love it!


I wrapped up the introductory spiel, as well as the background/story information for the pregen characters, see below. Look for the complete adventure to be posted after I get back from the con.

PAX East Dungeon Master's Challange PreGens

from saundby.com

PAX East is barreling down on me ... fast! I feel like I'm under considerable pressure, and for me , that helps kick my creative juices into high gear. I work great under pressure. The largest threat looming on my mind is the DM's Challenge. However, today I've crossed off a considerable hurdle: pre-generated character sheets.

Revenge of the Iron Lich / PAX East

I've been totally blown away this week, overwhelmed, by the Revenge of the Iron Lich fourthcore adventure put out this week by Save Versus Death. It is all-encompassing, so much so, that I had to add in a little bit of something ... here.

On a related note, I'll be the Dungeon Master to at least one group of dungeoneers attempting to plumb the utter depths of darkness and despait of the Iron Lich at PAX East (March 11-13, Boston). Get in touch with me if you'll be there and want to sign up, I'm taking names!

And related to that, I got an email last night from WotC's RPGA Manager, Willi, reminding me that I had signed up for the PAX East DM's Challenge and telling me of the details of said challenge.

Wow, talk about a wake up call!

I had not spent one iota of thought on that thing, and now I need to design the best adventure (and related pre-gen PCs) of my life, competing with other DM's from around the country. I can't just crap out a quickie delve and be done with it. This thing has to be good. Good as hell. The theme is a "dragon BBEG and its lair". I plan to have a lot of tricks and surprises for the players. I plan on breaking the standard Encounter mold. I hope I didn't bite off more than I can chew.

If only the theme was "Artificer-Lich"!

I'll be posting all my notes and pregens after I get back from PAX East. Hopefully, it will be something I can be proud of.