Adventure Introduction

If you are a player, stop reading here! The rest of this document is for the Dungeon Master only.

In "The Pseudodragon's Riddle," a whimsical pseudodragon with a penchant for puzzles and wit challenges the players to a series of intricate riddles and tasks. This adventure is designed to test the players' intellect, resourcefulness, and moral compass, leading them through a variety of settings and encounters. The ultimate goal is to assess their suitability for a more significant and perilous quest the pseudodragon has in mind.

<aside> 🗣️ Text that appears in a box like this is meant to be read aloud to the players. You can read boxed text word-for-word, or use your own words.

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To begin the adventure, show your players the character sheets. Then read the following passage aloud to your players:

<aside> 🗣️ We’re going to play a short game of D20. These character sheets have information about your characters on them. You can each have one character to play.

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You can let the players choose their characters, but if you're time is limited, consider choosing characters for them.

Once each player has a character sheet, read the following:

DC20_fillable_Alpha_0.4_Character_Sheet_with_back_page.pdf

<aside> 🗣️ Write your name in the space where it says “Player Name.” Your character already has a name, which you can use if you want, or you can change the name.

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Feel free to assist players in going over their character sheets as required. Endeavor to address player inquiries to the best of your ability, though certain questions may be more suitably addressed during gameplay as they arise. Inform the players that you'll provide additional information as the game progresses, but be prepared to pause after presenting each section to address any questions that may arise.

<aside> 🗣️ Let’s go over other parts of the character sheet. There is some information you should know before we start playing. Ancestry, Background and Class: Each character in DC20 has a ancestry, background and class that helps to shape what things your character is good at.

Combat Mastery, Attributes and your Prime Modifier: Combat mastery (CM) is what defines you in Combat and what your character is good at when they are fighting for their life. Your CM is your half of your characters level rounded up. There are 4 Attributes in DC20 that represent your Physical (Might & Agility) and Mental (Intelligence & Charisma) abilities. Your Prime Modifier is equal to your highest Attribute and represents your overall experience as an adventurer.

Physical Defense and Mental Defense: Each character has a physical defense (PD) and a mental defense (MD); The PD tells how hard it is to hit your character with physical or energy attacks that affect the body, while your MD relates to hitting you with supernatural sources of damage that affect the mind or soul. The higher the number is, the harder it is to hit you. The Heavy and Brutal in the defense is what happens when the result of an attack is 5 or more above a targets Defense. An Attack Check or Spell Check deals +1 additional damage for every 5 points above the target’s Defense and also ignores a creatures damage reduction (DR).

Health, Stamina and Mana Points: Health Points (HP) are a game statistic representing a creature’s ability to sustain damage. Once your HP is equal to or lower than 1/2 its maximum HP this is called being Bloodied and when you hit 1/4 of your HP you are now considered Well-Bloodied. If it so happens that one of you drops to 0 HP we’ll go over the details of what happens then. Stamina Points (SP) are what martial characters can spend on techniques, class features and may also use in place of action points when performing Martial Maneuvers. You Martial classes will have a way to regain the spent SP or you can spend two AP to regain one SP. You also regain all spent SP at the end of combat. Mana Points (MP) are what Spellcasters use to cast or augment their spells and abilities. Mana points have a spend limit that is equal to your CM. You regain all spent MP at the end of a long rest. Action Points: You have Actions Points (AP) which you can spend in Combat. You can spend AP on Actions, Reactions, or Features, such as Maneuvers, Cantrip Enhancements, Class Features, and Ancestry Features. Your Action Point maximum is 4. Action Points can’t be spent outside of Combat. Instead, a creature declares what Action it will take and performs that Action.

Skills, Trades and Languages: These represent a creature’s ability to perform certain activities. Every Skill is tied to an Attribute (Might, Agility, Intelligence, or Charisma). The number before a skill shows what the player adds to a d20 roll to determine a skill check. Trades are representative of a creature’s ability to perform with certain tools and professions. Language Mastery grants you levels of proficiency speaking different languages. If you don’t have Language Mastery in a given language, then you are unable to speak or understand that language.

Attack/Spell Checks: When a creature attempts to hit a target with an Unarmed Strike or Weapon, they make an Attack Check to determine if their attack hits the target and when a creature casts a Spell, they make a Spell Check to determine the potency of the Spell or if the Spell hits its target.

Save DC: Every creature has a Save DC that represents how difficult it is to resist effects that it attempts to impose on other creatures.

Features: This represents what your class, ancestry, spells and maneuvers can do.

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Now we can get this party started.