Rolling an ability check can often be the most rewarding and most challenging part of any game session. Let’s break down how to make this easy for Game Masters.

Very often as a Game Master, you will find yourself saying “Roll a Perception Check as you enter the room” or “Roll a Stealth Check to get past the guards.” But who rolls, and how do you resolve the check when it’s an entire party of adventurers?

Persuasion is the Ability Check to roll to convince an Non-Player Character (NPC) to do something.

Sometimes combat doesn’t go well for the players. Every once in a while, a monster will wear a party down, and with one terrible attack, knocks an adventurer unconscious. What happens then?

Getting from place to place in the Murk is much harder than it is in the surface world. There are no sun, moon, or stars to guide oneself, just endless darkness and fields of rubble.

Goblin is the primary language of the Murk, a region of underground caves, crumbling tunnels, and ancient mines that criss-cross the Northern Reaches of DnD Adventure Club Adventures.

Darkness counts as anything from a forest at night to pitch-black caves, caverns, and windowless interior spaces.

Survival is the multi-purpose ability check for navigating and staying safe in nature. Use Survival if the adventurers want to follow tracks, avoid getting lost, hunt for food, or watch for signs that monsters might be nearby.

An invisible creature is impossible to see, allowing them to go unnoticed even in close settings. But they are still physically present and still make noise.

Occasionally adventurers (and creatures and non-player characters!) are affected by spells, abilities, or other magical effects. We’ll always describe an effect in the text of an adventure, but here are two common effects.

The effects of poison are insidious. A poison will often cause damage if touched, ingested, or, worst of all, injected by a poisoned knife, claw, or fang.

Characters are always getting hurt, and any character who drops to zero hit points falls unconscious. Luckily, there are several ways to heal your wounds and gain back missing hit points.

Some adventures includes encounters that require the Game Master to improvise an ability check. This should be a helpful reminder.

Game Masters will often ask players to make PERCEPTION and INVESTIGATION ability checks as they enter a new area. It’s a handy roll to gauge how observant the adventurer is, whether they will miss vital clues or be surprised by a monster. 

If you want to bring in some normal-sized DnD creatures for your tiny players to battle, here’s a quick and easy way to do it.

Nature is the multi-purpose Ability Check for everything to do with the natural woods — identifying plants, finding rare herbs, and understanding the lore of the forest.

How do you Game Master contests that have just the right balance of luck and skill?

Sleight of Hand is the multi-purpose ability check for thievery — picking pockets, picking locks, and dismantling traps. Use Sleight of Hand if the adventurers want to open a locked chest or disarm a trap without setting it off.

Rolling with ADVANTAGE is the easiest tool a Game Master has to add drama and challenge.

Can you win a game of chess against a Wizard? Can you beat an Ogre at arm wrestling? It’s time for an Opposed Ability Check.