Dungeon Master: DM Min-Maxing

Dungeon Masters, like anyone else, can fall prey to the allure of min-maxing. And just like anyone else, it can happen unintentionally. However, it comes with many down sides. It takes focus away from the collaborative storytelling, encourages players to Min-max and metagame, as well as often punishing players for trying out new things. It is for this reason I hope to get my thoughts on the matter in text. That way I can reflect on the situation. Hopefully it helps someone out there too.

What Do We Min-Max?

What I find typically happens is that when I feel the pull of min-maxing, it's in a combat encounter. Often the problem is very similar to when we railroad. We want the combat encounter to be interesting and challenging so we set it up to be so. The problem is that we, as the Dungeon Master, have more information than players will. Making a combat encounter that is optimized to be difficult when approached correctly can and probably will be frustrating when approached in another way. Often times characters in a combat encounter aren't outside of it. This also means we often don't have the same checks and balances a player does. A player will need to use their character out of combat as well to role-play. Many of the things we put our players against won't be seen outside of combat, allowing us to min-max purely for combat. This is especially true if you use the player character rules as inspiration but also comes up when making stats for creatures.

I almost think of this as a particular kind of railroading. Only in this case, we are restricting a combat encounter unintentionally. We can also design an encounter to hit our players right in their weaknesses. Every party will typically have something about it that can be exploited. Now, an occasional encounter that reminds players of their weaknesses and forces them to overcome them or tough through isn't bad. However, we also don't want to only hit them in their weaknesses either. Sometimes we'll want to play to their strengths, or both at the same time in creative ways.

The Long View

It's also important that often, even when I min-max, I do it for a single encounter. The further issue is that a gaming session tends to be more than one encounter. If you prefer to have a single set piece battle for your games, it'll be easier. It'll be a hard fought battle that will end and allow a chance to rest. However, if there are multiple encounters such as occur when going on a dungeon delve, it might not make sense. We want to think about the entire period before the players get a chance to rest. If we don't, we can't be surprised if the players want to try and rest after every room. After all, with our encounter building there aren't too many other options (excluding unreliable accidents such as players getting lucky or out thinking the Dungeon Master). Thinking of the entire session or campaign from time to time is a good idea to try to avoid this kind of optimization on our part.

Players Make Trouble Themselves

Another issue comes up quickly when we move beyond theory and throw some players into the mix. Play a tabletop role-playing game long enough, though it won't take very long in my opinion, and you'll run across a situation where player ingenuity can make the impossible trivial. However, there is also the other side of the coin. Players can, and will in some cases, turn a trivial situation into a serious one. Clever players can do this too by over-thinking things or things just not going according to plan. If we try our best to give our players hell and min-max our encounters, we run the risk that they'll dig their grave even deeper instead of climbing out of it.

Min-Max Arms Race

Where this gets tricky is who did it first. There is a bit of a feedback loop that takes place here. I think I've mentioned it briefly before. If our players think we are being unfair, they very well might start min-maxing. Then we will raise the difficulty in order to challenge them and everything can spiral out of control. Things get a bit more complicated because some players get a real sense of enjoyment from min-maxing. However, I'd be weary of doing this in kind. The other players who don't like to are unlikely to be happy. Instead, though it isn't ideal either, finding a separate way to challenge the min-maxed player is usually a better way from my experience. Also making sure that the other players have a role to play goes a long way too.

Chance

Rolling is part of the game and combat in general. This means we also need to consider the impact of bad luck. Of course, there's the small chance everyone rolls 1s for the entire session. However, that's unreasonable to expect. Instead, we need to remember to expect some failures. Some attacks will miss, even if their expected value is above the AC of a creature. This little feature of statistics, combined with min-maxing an encounter, can lead to massive issues that I've seen too many times. Instead, when looking at how much damage your party can dish out, look at the average damage weighed by their chance of success. This gives a more realistic expectation of damage. Don't forget to factor in the possibility of certain actions doing half damage as well. I've seen many encounters that turned out easier than expected because of that overlooked detail.

Closing Advice

Consider the background of your characters before throwing them into an encounter. Just because we can move stats to Dex, Con and Str for a new creature/character doesn't mean we should, even if we are outside of combat. I find it helps to realize these things tell an implicit story. If the guards of a town in the middle of nowhere outclass your player characters, the implication is different than if they come across veterans coming back from a war or the body guards of a rich noble. Again, I prefer to design a scenario for my players to encounter. I usually don't want to force my players into a particular solution. I do make exceptions for situations that they created for themselves through unreasonable actions (if you try to hunt down and fight a dragon at level 1, you better run unless that was the point of the adventure from the start). Don't forget about the compounding effect that encounter after encounter has as well.

Dungeon Master: Sub-Optimal Actions

There are many actions we can take in a tabletop role-playing game, both as players and as Dungeon Masters. However, many will be sub-optimal. Such options aren't a bad thing, since they will often make sense due to the characters involved or situational reasons. They also help add character to a game, since there wouldn't be much of a point if players always just did the optimal thing in every situation. However, managing and account for them can be a bit of a challenge. With that in mind, I hope to share some of my thoughts on the matter.

Players Will Naturally Do So

When you design a combat encounter, in particular a challenging one, there will often be things we include that can be exploited to make things easier. Even more generally, some creatures have strengths and weaknesses which also account for their difficulty. However, we can't reasonably expect a player to just instantly know the weakness of the creature. In some cases they will because they have experience, but they might still act otherwise since it makes more sense for their character.

Dungeon Masters Often Optimize

I know that when I'm doing a combat encounter, I can optimize when I don't really want to. When fighting an intelligent creature there should definitely be a feeling of intelligence in the opponent. However, intelligent doesn't mean omnipotent. It can be immersion breaking if the opponent seems to perfect. Even worse, it can force your players to optimize as well. While combat is also about choosing a good option, it's also a way for a player to bring their character to life. The more optimized our Dungeon Master plan, the more players tend to optimize as well since players typically don't want their characters to die. They aren't against an honest loss or death, but they will try to keep their characters alive. This also includes meta-gaming. I find it's far more likely to have players use their out-of-game knowledge when they know they'll need it to have a fighting chance.

Account In Difficulty

I think I've made it known that my opinion on encounter difficulty is that the rules provided are guidelines. They can be a good place to start, but the situation will also greatly contribute to the difficulty or ease your players encounter. The more intricate the encounter, the longer it might take to find a solution. Again, I say a solution because there should be multiple. Otherwise it gets too rail-road-y and too optimized, running into the issues from the previous section. What it means in practice is that there may need to be a turn or two in order to let the players fumble for an answer.

How long of a buffer we should give or how to adjust difficulty is not an easy question and again, is very situation dependent. It also depends how clear things are. Having part of the encountered enemy fall back to a better position allows the players to take out some of them isolated, making the encounter easier. However, they then have to solve the issue of the superior position. They may choose to wait for the enemy to leave or attack. They could also spend a couple turns scouting and coming up with a solution. Weaknesses, such as areas of sunlight (particularly good against vampires or shadows), particular kinds of damage (anyone who has fought a troll will know this one), may also take some time to effectively exploit. If we also want to have players take sub-optimal actions because their character wouldn't know about the weakness, it might make sense to send a couple fewer enemies or at the very least have them act in such a way that they have a chance. Part of it is trust. If the players trust that things are still do-able even if they don't optimize as much as possible, they'll for more comfortable with improvising and fumbling for a solution. Turns tend to go faster too, since they feel more comfortable acting instead of deliberating as a team .You can of course try to force them to act quicker, but combined with everything else this can lead to resentment.

Optimization Feedback Loop

I briefly touched on it, but these kinds of situations can form a bit of a feedback loop. You'll optimize all your encounters, which forces the players to optimize theirs, which forces you to optimize again in order to challenge them, and so on. As players get more accustomed to the rules you'll see this as well. This case is to be expected. However, it's important not to go too far and take away player choice and expression. The problem is in the freedom. It constrains things further because sub-optimal actions are always to be avoided in this case. Anything else is probably death. There is, of course, always some wiggle room too because of the element of chance. However, that can go in either way.

Rewards

We can also reward sub-optimal actions. If we are playing D&D 5th edition, we might give inspiration for them every now and then if it still is inline with the character. Another one I've seen is extra experience. The problem here is that it can shift things too far the other way because the external rewards make it more advantageous to take the previously sub-optimal action. If required this can be solved with keeping the danger real, forcing a choice between the rewards and staying alive. Not consistently rewarding the behaviour may also be enough. These considerations are why I personally find this method of encouraging sub-optimal actions to be difficult to employ, though I've seen them work well as a player before.

Clear Optimal Actions

A big issue here is that an encounter or situation has an optimal action. I designed it like that, but I really didn't want to. It just happened. What I find is it often helps to either design the encounter with multiple in mind, or do a quick check at the end that there are at least a few. If we can quickly think of a bunch, most often there are many more that are there as well from my experience.This is important since it will still allow a situation to be fun even if optimization occurred on both sides. This is because it's still a problem to be solved instead of a solution to be applied. Having an encounter that is nothing but applying a solution isn't fun. Even if they have some item that should be exploited, getting themselves in a situation to do so will require the players to solve a problem first. It also might mean that a sub-optimal action this turn may lead to a better optimal action next turn, forcing a trade-off. An obviously easy encounter may also provide situations for players to express themselves, while also saving resources for later.

The Marble Sanctum Battle Map Review

Review copy courtesy of Black Scroll Games.

Pros

• Visually, we know what to expect by now. It's the style we are used to, however with the added bonus of having water in parts of the map. It's a very nice detail.
• 3 levels of map composed of about 56 tiles (some edge pieces are a bit smaller than a page and are put on the same page).
• Made for the 1 inch is 5 feet standard scale.
• Isometric visual aid provided (as Black Scroll Games often does, and did again).
• VTT jpgs provided.
• Both broken into pages and single poster versions are provided for easy printing.
• Layers are present to allow the option of grid lines and no grid lines. If the area has natural grid lines due to the stone work or other means, grid lines aren't added.
• Area descriptions and background story is included, and it's pretty good for getting the creative juices flowing.

Could Go Either Way

• Just like last time, this map is also done in the same 3D style that other Black Scroll Games maps and tiles are done.
• Like with their work that I reviewed just recently, the majority of the map uses the shapes of the stones in to denote squares for movement. This once again looks great but isn't applied for the entire map, though it is for most of it. If you don't like grid lines on your map and prefer for squares to be denoted by the design of the location, you might not like those areas.
• The map is specialized, but not as much so as The Portal Under The Stars. The size and fact that it's broken up into different levels makes it a bit easier to steal from. However it's also arguable not as useful straight out of the box since it isn't based on an adventure. This leaves it somewhere in the middle between

Cons

• The same grid issues I mentioned in my review of The Portal Under The Stars are also present here. I'm hoping it'll get updated in the future, and will update this if it occurs. I've been told this isn't the case on the card version of the tiles (the ones for $40.00 USD), but I have not seen them myself.
• Secret rooms aren't noted. Not noting secret entrances could be a plus if you prefer coming up with that part yourself, but not noting the secret rooms is a different situation.

Note: Everything below is about the PDF version of the battle map.

I reviewed of a Black Scroll Games release right before this. However, given that they had 3 releases there is more reviewing that could be done. And more reviewing I shall do, this time taking a look at The Marble Sanctum. What can I say, I like battle maps. It follows the established tradition of Black Scroll Games previous work, though as I said before every map comes with it's own strengths and challenges. This one in particular is quite large compared to other maps they've released previously. 

The Tiles

Well, there's quite a lot of these guys. Assuming you don't print it as one massive poster, it comes out to 56 tiles. Of course, with how maps are broken some pages are only partially filled. However, that is still an impressive number. The map is further broken up into sections. In total there are 4 spread across the three levels of the sanctum. This is because the second level has 2 disconnected parts.

The areas of the map themselves are quite varied and well done. The flooded areas in level 3, the hidden lake, the foliage areas (really only around exits and entrances), and the status field alcoves are my favourites. There are also little details that caught my eye. The bones, and rusted weapons are a nice touch and help add character to the area. The entrances are also done nicely with loose rocks and vines being detailed. It's the kind of things that you wouldn't expect to find in a generic map or a map tile set. Those tend to be more general and less niche. However, sometimes you want that niche but unique room and for that purpose these kinds of rooms are useful. Tile sets don't tend to have a flooded version either. As you'd expect, there are also some rooms that are more plain. In a map these kinds of rooms are important to flesh out the location (not every room can be the throne room), but the ratio between them and the more unique rooms is also important. I'd recommend a look at the images provided on the product page in order to form your opinion on that topic. The images there are a bit small but should be enough to get an impression of the layout.

There is some rubble detail on the map. However, if you wanted rubble piles that could be used for cover and other things, you'll probably have to add it yourself. The same is true for traps, though there are plenty of areas where they could easily slot in. I would recommend thinking about these carefully, since sources of cover can be hard to come by. The secret doors will also require a bit of work since they aren't noted and neither is the mechanism by which to open them. This is another thing where your opinion will vary based on how much you like pre-done for you when you buy this kind of map. Instead a room without an obvious entrance is a secret room and will require a secret door. This will mean you'll spend some time staring at the map to find the secret doors. I would have preferred them to be noted on one of the visual aids.

Background Story

The addition of descriptions and adventure inspiration is a nice touch. It also hits me in the right spot since the story involves undead, and by now you should all know my stance on them in adventures. Having a springboard like this to help create an adventure is definitely helpful. It has some very cool options. It also isn't authoritative, aiming to inspire by giving different ways to take things on more than one occasion. The result is that it feels you can take as much or as little as you want, which is my preferred tone for this sort of thing. The writing in general is done well for what it is. The final room where everything builds to is potentially really cool encounter (Dungeon Master skill obviously a factor). I don't think you'll buy the map just for the background story, but it is well done and definitely is a welcome addition. It's just that it's not a complete adventure. Some products are adventures that happen to feature some maps (usually to small to make useful in combat, but that's for another review and another product) but this is a map that happens to have some adventure hooks.

Reuse

The map has quite a few interesting rooms that can be reused in ways the original design did not intend. Quite a bit of it would require use of scissors, but it's still fairly easy to do. The way certain parts are broken or combined means that sometimes parts of other rooms are on the same page or that a part that would have been nice to have on the same page is on another. That's not so unexpected, given that it's meant to be used as a whole map. Still, I was able to run part of the second level and part of the third level for my campaign last Friday. The fact that it's broken into three levels, or 4 sections, means that those individual parts can quite easily be reused.

The Art

I still feel that the best way to get a full impression about art in this kind of thing is to see some of it. That's why I'd recommend looking at a Black Scroll Games map. You can get their free map here (you'll need to enter your email) or can look at their product page. However, some of the stand out things about this map are the lighting and water. By this point I've come to expect great lighting from Black Scroll Games. Water can be quite tricky to get right, and also changes appearance based light. Having the water looking this good was a nice surprise for me. Take a good look at that water on the third level, since it's shown off on the product page. This map in particular also has quite a few nice other details, such as drag lines, rusted weapons and skeletons.

There is some over extending of grid lines, like I pointed out in the other product I recently reviews, but I don't think it was as noticeable here. I think it's because of the colour. The darker brown of the rock and vines together make for a background that makes the grid lines stick out less. Still, the larger chunk doesn't require the grid lines and like before, grid lines aren't added when they are already built into the design of the floor. It's still not perfect, but I think this version is closer to what I prefer.

Other Considerations

This map is quite big but it also is quite expensive compared to some others. I don't normally comment on price, but in this case it might be hard to justify if you are not looking for a pre-made map. You can buy 2 tile sets from the same company and still have some money left over. Of course, if you wanted a ready to use map and instead focus on filling out the adventure, it would be exactly what you want and tile sets wouldn't be a replacement. You'd need to design the dungeon first and then fill it in. If a ready map is what you wanted, than taking a look at the layout of the 3 levels on the product page will give you a good impression if it is right for you. Of course, since this map is more specific it also tends to have more details. Depending on what kind of map you want, your opinion will differ.

What I felt was Missing

Black Scroll Games are basically one of the standards I use for what I consider a complete map package. See? This is how you do it. Make it easy to print as a poster, to print in pages (especially important given how this is the most likely used method), to use in VTT, provide backstory/adventure hooks, and provide overview pages for Dungeon Masters. 

That said, it isn't an out-of-the-box ready to run adventure. It'll need work to turn those ideas into a fully fleshed out and ready to go state. This can go either way. Some people would prefer to do it how they like it and have full control. Some people want something mostly done. Some people like something ready-to-run and then tinker with it until they are happy. Depending on which of those people you are, you might see the lack of fully fleshed out adventure as a con or not mind, since you would've ignored it anyway if it existed. However, if you wanted a full adventure you won't find it here. You'll need to fill it in yourself.

I would have also liked to see the entrances labeled on the cross-section visual aid. It just helps give a better sense of the space as it was imagined originally, especially for the second level. Since you can rearrange the relative layouts of the separate sections however you want easily, it's not much of an issue. However, since we have the visual aid it would have been helpful without sacrificing anything.

Price

The digital map is available here for $19.99 USD. It costs $45.00 USD to get both the digital and printed map and $40.00 USD for just the printed map.

Summary

It's a big map that has almost everything, like Black Scroll Games always does. VTT, poster maps, map broken up into pages, isometric view, vertical view, and back story/plot hooks. It's all here. And it's also good. The visual style is great as well and the water in particular almost feels like showing off. This map also has nice added touches and details. The drag lines in particular are one of my favourites as well as the water effects. The grid lines being overextended again is disappointing since it looks so good otherwise. There is also the opportunity costs. It's a good set but you could buy two tile packs from Black Scroll Games instead and have money left over due to it's high cost. Those sets won't have as many small details, but they still look great. If you want a battle map with the adventure left you but with basically everything else you could hope for in an adventure included, you'll probably like this. Just look at it and I think you'll know if it's for you.

The Portal Under The Stars - Battlemap Review

Review copy courtesy of Black Scroll Games.

Pros

• The great looking style of map Black Scroll Games does. When looking at their previous work I felt that lighting was one of their big strengths and this map shows it off again. The stone floors are also very detailed looking as are the other little touches and details.
• 15 pages and 17 pieces worth of map (not counting the one statue counter)
• Made for the 1 inch is 5 feet standard scale
• Isometric visual aid provided (as Black Scroll Games often does)
• VTT jpgs provided
• Both broken into pages and single poster versions are provided for easy printing.
• Layers are present to allow the option of grid lines and no grid lines.
• Shortened area descriptions from the adventure are present.

Could Go Either Way

• Again, this map is also done in the same 3D style that other Black Scroll Games maps and tiles are done. If you like it as I do, then it's a plus, but if you don't it'll obviously be a drawback.
• A majority of the map uses the shapes of the stones in to denote squares for movement. This looks great and work well but it doesn't fully carry through the entire map. Though this is the exception and not the rule (and only present on the second level), this may be a con if you don't like grid lines on maps.
• Unlike the modular inn set I covered and many of their other sets, this one is obviously meant for a particular adventure. This makes it perfect if you want all the bells and whistles for running that adventure, but does hamper the reusability compared to a tile set. That said, you could quite easily use the maps to suit your own purposes.

Cons

• There are some places where the grid lines seem to extend a tiny bit too far on the second level of the map. It's not obvious but I wish it wasn't an issue at all.

Introduction

This week has been a good week for Black Scroll Games. Though they had a total of 3 releases this week, I'll be looking at the map for the Goodman Games adventure The Portal Under the Stars first. I've given my opinion on their maps before and it should come to no surprise that I like their work. However, every map is something new to look at and has areas of strength and weakness. So with no further delay, let's take a look at this new map. With this kind of thing, seeing proof of work really helps to get a good understand of the product. If you are at all curious, I'd recommend taking a look at their free map as well. You'll need to enter your email to receive it though. Otherwise, their page has quite a few images of the map. 

The Tiles

This map is really 2 maps connected via staircase. It's made up of 8 rooms, an entrance area and multiple connecting hallways. The end result is a map made up of 17 tiles, not including the one counter used for a statue. Seeing it assembled really helps bring the scale into perspective. It's not a small map. In particular, the starting area to the dungeon, the ending room and the gazing pool are standouts. The rooms I find myself liking the best are the ones with extra details such as lighting or special items. The final room in particular really looks great. Human shapes can be among the hardest to get right in that kind of situation and I think it nailed it.

Of course, the purpose of this map is to bring to life the Goodman Games adventure. In that regard, it does a very good job. The original adventure provided a drawn map but I really like the way it is brought to life here. Since the adventure is being sold, the addition of descriptions for each room are appreciated. That way the map has a life outside the adventure as well.

Typically Black Scroll Games maps come as a complete map set. Here it's no different. There are VTT files ready to go. There are poster and broken up versions of the map. There is an isometric view (I always liked this addition). There is a tactical map. There are also filters in the PDF to enable and disable grid lines. This last area is where I find an issue. There are a few cases where I think the grid line extends a bit too far, particularly on the gazing pool. It's not that noticeable but I really wish it wasn't the case. There many areas that don't use the lines at all because the stonework design makes them redundant as well. It's just a little thing that doesn't need to be there. Some areas really benefit from the grid lines so turning them off isn't a perfect solution either.

Reuse

You can still get some mileage out of the map without the adventure. The second level could easily be reused as the resting place for an evil undead. And given how often that situation comes up in games I'm a part of or generally in the near vicinity of, I reckon that it makes it quite useful. The entrance is also easily reusable as is the gazing room. Really, almost all of the rooms can find a new home. The way the map is broken up means that there will often be pieces from other sections include in a tile. However, using the magic of scissors, this problem is easily ratified and allows for some clever reuse for your own games. Being that it has a few different paths and some very nice rooms, you can make use of what's here. It seems clear to me, however, that it wasn't the intention and more of a happy accident. The focus is still on bringing the original adventure to life.

The Art

I have a soft spot for the art style of Black Scroll Games tiles and the same style is applied here as their earlier work. The perspective gives a nice depth to the tiles and remind me of 3D printed tiles. There is also special attention paid to lighting, which enhances the effect. Together they give a good impression of depth. However, there is an astounding amount of extras that further show off the art. The isometric view is a nice addition and looks really good. It hits me right in the old CRPG nostalgia. The tactical map is also very nice to see. Really, I feel every map should have one of these. It makes planning things for the Dungeon Master so much easier. I could try describing it further but I really do think seeing some of the images(http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/219022/The-Portal-Under-The-Stars--Battlemap?manufacturers_id=7523) or their previous map(http://www.blackscrollsgames.com/#openModal) is the best way to understand.

Other Considerations

Of course, to make full use of the map you'll need the adventure or the core rulebook which also includes the adventure. That's assuming you don't have the adventure from a Free RPG Day gone by. I'd recommend the full RPG book since it's a better value between the 2 and it also has a kind of important part: the rule system.

Black Scroll Games has quite a few other tile sets and maps at this point. Choosing this one over the will probably mean you want to run the deluxe version of the The Portal Under the Stars adventure. However, you may be tempted to buy a different one of their sets. In a way, you can reuse parts of the map for your own adventure. In another, it isn't as versatile as their Modular-Inn set which allows you to buy many different sets using their tiles. They are also the same price.

What I felt was Missing

They've included basically everything I could ask from them for this kind of product. The wide number of options is really impressive. VTT? Battlemap? Poster form? Cut up for 8.5”x11” paper? With grid lines and without? All are here. This is what I want to see in a map. That said, there is still one thing I would have liked to have added. One of the maps is full of statues but there is no marker or token for them like their is for a different statue in the encounter.

Price

The digital map is available here for $7.95 USD. It costs $19.99 USD to get both the digital and printed map from the same link.

Summary

I'm beginning to feel that this is my standard response to Black Scroll Games maps and tiles, but they really are nice. Overall, I would say the set isn't as versatile as same other sets such as the Modular-Inn set I reviewed earlier but that's also not the point. This time the point is to create a beautiful map specifically for the adventure The Portal Under the Stars. In that goal I would say it succeeds, though with the blemish of grid lines that are slightly off in a few places. If you are after a nice map to run the adventure, this is for you. If you won't be getting this map I think it's because there are other maps that you want instead, and not because this isn't a good map. It also has to be noted that you will need to get the adventure separately.

Haunts Review

A quick look at and miniature review of the free product Haunts from the Dungeon Masters Guild.

Pros

• Some nice and creepy hauntings to add to your games
• Simple application that uses already existing rules
• Just plain free!

Could Go Either Way

• Not much in the way of artwork
• Method for scaling haunts for higher levels could provide uneven results
• 6 pages including leading cover, advertisement and FAQ

Cons

• A few grammar and spelling errors despite its small size, though they don't detract from understanding

Introduction

As someone who includes undead and horror elements often in their games, I couldn't resist grabbing Haunts when I was browsing through the Dungeon Masters Guild. It's a nice small collection of haunts with clear and simple guidelines to make your own. Having read it over quickly, I decided I'd talk about it a little bit since despite having some typos, it has good ideas for adding that paranormal element to your undead campaigns. It's quite short, simple, and provides pre-made options to drop into your games. I'd also be lying if I said it didn't give me some ideas. 

The Overview

The rules that are used are simple and rely on the already published rules. What it really does is provide an easy framework that you can use to decide what triggers the activity, what result is created, as well as what can be used to dispel it. The thing I really like is that it doesn't really add new rules. It uses the existing rules to model the situation. Since it's the spell section of the rules, many effects are at our disposal. It's really quite nice. Each section is short and it makes it a quick read. I'd say treat it as a starting point. If you've never run a game before but want an undead and paranormal themed adventure, this is a great place to start.

There are 10 hauntings contained inside and the guidelines are really simple. They fit into half a page (it takes up exactly one column in the document). It really is perfect for new Dungeon Masters wanting to add some creepy to their adventures in an organized way. In general I also like the system used. The hauntings presented are a mixture of beneficial, no effect beyond being creepy, and malicious. I'd have liked a little more that are just plain creepy, but I've got no problem thinking of those on my own.

What To Add?

The document does a good job of outlining the mechanical elements of a haunting. However, you will still need to think carefully about what kind of character who want your haunting to be, if any, as well as the exact circumstances of the trigger. These guidelines make for good starting points. However, as the adventure or exploration of the area commences, you may want to evolve the haunting and make it a bit more complicated.

Variability

I will say, though, that using spells like this can make it a bit hard to estimate damage and produces quite a bit of variability compared to the rules for traps in the Dungeon Master's Guide. A table is provided to help scale the haunts based on level. However, due to the inherent nature of spells, I think this can result in uneven results. A haunt based around magic missile will be far more of a threat for a lower level party, even when scaled using the advice provided. Of course, the level of the spell also has a large effect on its effect. Even with a lower DC, this can result in uneven results. The scaling advice also isn't the clearest I've ever read. For this reason I'd recommend a sanity check before running them and to only treat what's provided as guidelines. What's provided may require fine-tuning.

Dungeon Master: Restricting Movement

Movement is an important part of combat. It can keep you out of harms way, it can allow you to take on massive odds otherwise not possible, or it can doom you to be ripped apart by a group of zombies. It's also one of the major decisions, along with your action, that you can make in a round of combat in Dungeons & Dragons 5^th edition. However, keeping it interesting can be a bit of a challenge. Often players will come up with a formation and stick to it. For that reason, I hope to share some of my thoughts and twists for making movement play a bigger role. In retrospect, I really should have done this topic before confined spaces and many enemies. Alas, here we are.

Reason to Move

From the start, there needs to be a good reason to move. Standing still can be the right choice in some cases. As a fighter, you might want to protect your wizard from arrows. However, in these cases movement options still need to look attractive or there really isn't a choice being made. What often tends to happen, from my experience, is that combat will start and something will happen. Maybe the enemy is primarily melee based and they will try to charge forward. However, after that the fight locks in place and stays static until something dies. Again, fights can go this way, but I think it should be a choice made by the players instead of simply the default and best option.

Avoiding

A classic reason to need to move is that something will happen if you don't. Maybe you'll get charged at by a giant creature. Maybe you need to duck down and move so that the wizard's fireball has a chance of missing you. In these cases, there is often a need for cover to hide behind or something special about the creature in question that can be avoided through movement but not by standing still.

Goal

A goal can force different kinds of movement and formations. If the players are chasing after someone who has something they need, they will be forced out of a static formation. Likewise, if they need to get something in the hands of one particular bad guy, it gives an incentive to break formation and go after the objective. When being used, I find it's better when breaking formation is a tempting option but not the only option. Perhaps they can go from rooftop to rooftop trying to shoot them down with an arrow. Perhaps they can chase after them on the streets. They can also try to get into formation and throw insults at the bad guy, hoping it'll force them to move. In this last case, they'll still be in formation but other options will probably at least be thought of. It also still something the players thought of and tried to do.

Environment

There are plenty of things you can throw into the environment in order to make movement look tempting. Adding some form of verticality to the encounter can give new tactical options. However, to employ them the character needs to get into position first. You can also have your encounter take place in a collapsing tunnel, forcing a weird encounter where both sides are running away while still trying to off each other. Another option is to have cover that might get destroyed if it takes too much damage. One of my favourites is to include environmental hazards or traps. Things such as drops, holes in the floor, or actual traps that might be noticed in combat and exploited all setup interesting encounters. Maybe the players will fake a retreat in order to get their pursuers to trigger a trap they noticed when fighting. Maybe the enemy will.

Direction

A common reason for a static formation is that the enemies always come from one direction. This means that the players can just set up their formation, block the tunnel and slog through the rest. When multiple directions are used, things tend to get more interesting. Even in the worst case scenario, the formation will need to turn to face the new threat. This can still be a tense moment due to the order things happen (initiative order can make things tense in such situations), unnoticed threats or simply being unable to respond completely perfectly in time.

Why Standing Still Is Bad

If you want to have elements of combat that prevent movement, then it should be a real loss. If you prevent a character from moving when they'd just rather stay in formation anyway, they haven't really lost anything. For this reason I like to consider why I'm adding an encounter feature that prevents movement. If I can't think of one, I don't put it in. If players are moving to areas of light and getting caught by a shadow hand coming from the ground will allow the shadows to catch them, there is a reason to move. Of course players can attack the hands and set each other free. However, when they know they have to in order to survive and need to consider giving up their important action to regain their ability to go to safety, both options can look tempting.

Forcing Movement

Built into D&D 5^th edition are multiple things that force movement for players. I've seen far too many times when a Dungeon Master forgot about the ability to shove creatures or grab them and drag them out of the way. This is especially true where zombies are concerned. However, there are other such effects too. From feats to spells such as Thunderwave, there are many ways that movement might be forced on players or creatures alike. However, we can also do it in other ways. I'd call falling a method of forced movement. However, being on a ship as it's tilting can also end up forcing movement when the angle is too steep. Flying in a storm can do so as well. However, when I do so I don't want to just take away the players ability to move. I find that it works better to force players to trade something in order to move, or still allow them to move but shift it a little. If the player tried to fly 15 feet to the left, the wind might shift their movement path but they still moved. This means moving and dodging things can still be done, but there is a risk associated with it. For this reason I thing being careful not to take the option away completely, particularly when often holding formation is the go to choice, is important.

Enhancing Movement

You can also create special effects or conditions to increase movement. Getting double the movement speed or being in a special location where they can fly gives them new tactical options. Having these options lost to you makes the impact bigger.

Novelty

Many of the things I mentioned earlier will come off as novelties. However, it can depend heavily on your type of campaign. If your campaign is more horror oriented and players will often need to avoid contact with things or flee, it can be a reoccurring feature of your combat encounters. The big ones that apply most of the time is the direction the players are being attack, stealth, goals, cover, and environmental hazards. The other cases are nice and make combat memorable but don't feature as often unless your campaign is based around them from my experience.

Dungeon Master: Many Enemies

A Dungeon Master has many options and many decisions to make when designing combat encounters. One such decision is about how many enemies to include in an encounter. Large groups of enemies can give a feeling of tension while also making the players feel powerful. However, there are some possible issues with the approach. Rolling can take a while, and it's possible to end up with a combat encounter that isn't all that different than fighting one enemy with many attacks, among other things. Having seen many such situations, I hope to get my thoughts on the manner recorded. It helps me think through the topic for my own benefit and hopefully someone, somewhere, finds it useful.

One Enemy

We could approximate some large groups of enemies by using one that has multiple attacks. As it takes damage, it gets fewer and fewer attacks until it finally dies. Now, that can make for an interesting single creature encounter. The issue I see, however, is that in these cases there often isn't much of a difference. It would be best if when we use one or the other, there is a marked difference. The one difference that does exist is mobility. Many enemies allow you to restrict movement and also to position them in ways that threaten multiple people. One enemy fighting a party is the opposite situation. It is your single enemy that is or can be restricted.

Movement

There is a lot of potential for enemy movement and clever use of positions when many enemies are encountered. Some could try to go into tactical positions, block access to certain routes and force players to hack their way through, or go around and flank. They don't all need to move in the same way either. Some can attack at range, some close up, some could be flying, as well as many other options. This is one of the major differences from using one enemy. It also means that multiple people can be engaged while also avoiding opportunity attacks. If it was one creature attacking everyone in the party, it would need to move between them and possibly trigger an attack from every one of them if using melee. It's a bit different with ranged attacks but we could still get into such a situation when cover is used. It would also tend to go after one goal, where a large group lets you go after 2, 3 or even more. I find that a static encounter is what we want to avoid here. For more on that topic, you can check my other post here. That one was about confined spaces but the central issue is being locked down in an encounter in both cases.

Carving a Path

When surrounded and forced to move, not every creature necessarily needs to be killed. Also, not every goal needs to be chased. The players could pick one and pursue it fully. They could also choose to escape. In this kind of case, hacking their way through to escape is a valid option that isn't otherwise available. A crowd of weaker enemies, however, makes this a tactical option. Where this can get a bit tricky is when movement is included. How does it interact with their attempt to hack through? It's also worth noting that moving through like this triggers opportunity attacks as well. And with a large crowd, it would be quite a lot of them. This makes it a rather risky tactic, though in such a situation risky may be better than certain death. It's part of the reason why them being weaker is necessary. It tends to work best with creatures that fall from a single attack or at least have a good chance to. Player multi-attack, area of effect spells, or other means to attack more than one creature allow the players to go through more than one square at a time this way.

There is another issue when trying to do this. When they break an opening, initiative order and movement rules can result in a case where the crowd just catches up to them and tries to swallow them again. There isn't much of an easy solution in these cases beyond moving away from combat at that point and handling it as a chase. However, it can sometimes work out anyway. It partially depends on initiative order. If it happened just right, the enemies could end up blocking their own from moving and allow the party to get a good lead on most of their pursuers. This was a rather cool situation in a game I was a player in. However, it was probably largely due to luck on our part and also because zombies don't get as much movement. In our case the party outpaced the entire group of zombies except one or two. The other thing to keep in mind is that it would take the enemies more movement to move around the front of your players. Of course, it also takes the players some of their movement to escape too. The deciding factor then comes down to terrain features. A choke point after they break out can ensure they no longer get surrounded.

Too Many Layers

If we have too many layers of enemies, it's theoretically possible to create an encounter where everyone is stuck. It is sort of like the stalemate situation in the Carving a Path section above. The difference, however, is that in this case escaping may not be the goal of the players. However, this can still be a problem because it restricts movement and therefore tactical choices. You probably don't want to lock down all your players in a large crowd of enemies that they can't ever break out of. For this reason just keep in mind how many layers of enemies you'll be throwing at your players. There is such a thing as too many at once and I believe this is when it happens. To avoid this but still throw large groups at your players, you'll probably need to break them up somehow.

Break Em Up

Having many enemies allows you incredible freedom in deciding how many will arrive and when. They all don't have to arrive in a massive crowd. The encounter can be in multiple waves, or at least what seems like multiple waves due to initiative order. This allows a turn or two for players to strategize, get better positions, pick off a few at range, maybe have a couple rounds of skirmishing, and do whatever else they need to do.They might still be able to see all the enemies at once. It just might take some of them 3 turns to arrive as opposed to 1.

Identity

Of course, having more enemies means you have a chance to give each one their own identity and character. This may make some of them more obvious targets. It also gives things more personality and allows some of them to get killed in combat while others retreat. The impact of this won't be combat related or tactical but it's important all the same. Some could even turn on each other mid-combat if things aren't going well. 

Rolling A Lot

Many enemies tend to mean a lot of rolling on the Dungeon Master side. It also isn't as easy to handle as other situations. Rolling many dice at once is a common way to speed things up but we'd need to think of ways of assigning the dice to players. If you have 4 or less, having different colour dice ready to go works well. Each colour corresponds to a player so after you roll, you don't need to decide which dice corresponds to who. This way you aren't playing favourites. Of course, you'd need to plan and prepare the dice ahead of time to make sure you have enough. Otherwise, you'll be taking quite a bit of time rolling. Rolling a lot of dice in these cases is unavoidable, just like with enemies that have many attacks. However, how we actually roll them can help save time.