Zombie dragons: Totally awesome, mostly awesome, or just kinda awesome?
Mostly awesome, except in this context, where we actually got to see Xykon & Cronies waste the dragon in question. For me, that bumps it to "Totally awesome."
Xykon is a very eco-friendly villain. I've never seen a baddie so interested in recycling.
Even undead might be willing to change their ways, but MINDLESS undead lack that ability. Being mindless, they obviously have no mind to change, and being undead, they were created through the use of evil magic. Therefore, they are clearly evil and can safely be destroyed.
Heh heh heh.
Want to give your IEB a treat? Then Google
"Scarred Lands" Hollowfaust and get with the clicking.
Warning: your IEB may insist you make an Amazon.com purchase today.
Do you have any other DMing tips? (not that I'm likely to DM, but the intersection betwen DMing and writing fantasy novels is an interesting one.)
(Not directed at me, but I'll butt-in anyway. Hooray for the internets!)
Know your audience -- and in this case, your audience is the people sitting across the table from you.
If they're bored by combat, then an "action"-heavy campaign is a bad idea.
If they're bored by sitting around and talking, make sure they have something to do. ("Something" defaults to combat in most games, but a good breaking & entering session can be tense and fun as hell without a single shot being fired or sword being swung.)
If you have a heterogeneous group of players with differing standards of fun, you have some juggling to do. Accept that you're going to drop the balls every now and then, but also know that it can be done. Some of my proudest moments as a GM came from sessions where the Gun Bunny, Sneaky Martial Artist, Fireball Machine, and Turbo Schmoozer all left the table smiling and eager to return next week.
Don't be a pandering pushover, because they'll lose respect for you, get bored, and go do something else.
Don't be an iron-fisted hardass, because they'll get frustrated, get bored, and go do something else.
Cheat like crazy.
Never never
never let them catch you cheating.
Enjoy the "Oh, shit!!!" looks on their faces when they realize the villain (you) has outsmarted them.
Let them revel in their hard-earned glory when they manage to outsmart the villain (you).
Never mistake "hammering them with your infinite pool of resources until they crack" for "outsmarting them."
Never forget that actions have consequences. And when they forget, enjoy finding ways to remind them.
And always look for opportunities to either show them or let them do something they've never seen/done before.
The last extended D&D campaign I was in as a player, I had some differences in style with the GM; he had a strong tendency towards overpowered munchkinism, and tended to have so many side-quests brewing that the campaign felt like it had Attention Deficit Disorder. But there were enough brilliant moments that he kept me coming back for more. One of my all-time favorites was when half the party got their heads infested by a dream demon.
The GM took each of us aside and did a brief 5-10 minute solo mini-adventure. We knew we were dreaming, and our dreams put us in some situation where we either had to accept the aid of this very scary-looking demon dude or die. I plummeted to my "death" (when I woke up I was fine), as did the party cleric. The ranger and the combat mage accepted the help, and wound up with terrifying dreams every night that they couldn't distinguish from reality.
Now, telling the players that they're having trouble telling when they're awake and when they're sleeping is one thing -- the two affected players were cool with role-playing it, but mostly they just dealt with some "Slept Like Shit" penalties to their dice roles and moved on. It's not like they had any trouble telling what was "real" and what wasn't.
Or so they thought.
The GM pulled me and the cleric aside before a game and told us this afternoon, we'd be role-playing their demon-driven dream. He told us that if we stayed in-character and managed to cause their messy, unpleasant deaths, he'd give us a little in-game perk for it. Bonus points for making our ultimate betrayal as shocking and unexpected as possible.
Short version: we pulled it off. (When the combat mage is expecting you to cast Cat's Grace on him, hitting him with 20' Radius Silence instead is one hell of a practical joke -- and if you time it right, a fatal one.) All of a sudden, getting that demon's hooks out of their skulls became Priority A-#1 for those two players.
It was one hell of a memorable stretch of role-playing.
(And one that had a very amusing coda involving a vaguely-worded wish, my character's roguish notion of get-well presents, and a pair of high-priced escorts. But that's another story.)
