The next iteration of this table led me to consider how to make the best use of empty space. While going about solving the problem of expanding the table length, I found another fantastic solution on the interne...
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Game Table Ideas III
Here’s the next iteration of my game table. Found some truly ingenious ideas from websites like instructables.com and videos posted by makers. There’s so many awesome features I want to add, but first thing’s first. This table needs a skeleton, which needs to be done before adding on all the extra bells and whistles (like making it glow!...
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Game Table Ideas II
The holiday season is coming up and guess what Santa, I want a game table! Well, maybe this one is too big for the fat man in red to deliver, so this’ll be a gift from me to me. I went back to the drawing board and came up with two new designs. Let’s dive i...
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Erebus Player's Guide
Hi folks! It's been a few of weeks. RL got a little too hectic, but now I'm back! Got some really cool content for you today and in the coming weeks. I'll be going back and concluding a few posts that were left as cliffhangers, like the Ultimate Bard, my Gaming Table, and most recently World Spells. Today's post has a Player's Guide for the World of Erebus with 50+ pages of lore and info for creating characters. I've also edited it to omit some of the larger world secrets so that your players can enjoy Erebus' epic twists and turns. These omitted...
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
World Spells
The Civ IV mod Fall from Heaven II introduces a new feature to the base game: magic. But this ain't your uncle's spellbook. These spells affect entire cities. Then there's this really cool feature each civilization has called World Spells. They are literally spells which affect the whole of the game world. As far as I can tell there isn't any kind of spell system for 5e that covers magic on such a large scale. It's a really cool idea so I'm...
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Journey's Quest II
After obtaining some additional information about the temple and what was there, the crew set out into the desert to find the Celestial Compass that was in the hands of the Yuan-ti. A full day of travel later the crew reached their destination. Andargo rushed ahead (as usual) and was quickly attacked by the snakes warriors guarding the entrance. With a swift victory, the crew ventured inside. The entrance was, surprise, more warriors, but...
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Journey's Quest
Last session Journey, a player in my Pirates of the Aegean campaign, wrapped up his quest. It gave me a nice break to recharge from all the Dungeon Mastering I’ve been doing this year. It was a ton of fun to see him take the reigns and deliver up an epic tale. I also got a little munchkining out of my system by playing a Tiefling Weretiger. Here’s how it went.
After the crew of the Ever Valiant landed at the Malakim port town of Baldurham they...
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Gritty Realism
Short rest = 8 hours
Long rest = 7 days
Ever since I read the passage on Gritty Realism in the Dungeon Master’s Guide I’ve wanted to try this. Imagine a game where going to sleep doesn’t heal every wound. Imagine a game where getting hit by an ogre with a greatclub matters. I think it’d be pretty cool. My players, on the other hand, had different opinions...
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
The Travels of Alistair
Ten years passed. Alistair lost count of the souls he’d sent to rest eternal. Like his youth spent chased through the wilderness, it was all blurring together. No matter where he followed the ill winds, nor how many cultists of Entropis he reaped, Alistair was no closer to finding the source of the ethereal storm.
It was like chasing a hurricane. Whenever he seemed to get close, the winds would change direction. Sometimes they’d disperse...
Friday, September 18, 2015
The Secret NPC: Ephenia, Cursed Druidess
Here’s an NPC I thought up last year. The idea came to me as a question. What if a Warlock used Voice of the Chain Master to portray themselves as their familiar? It was my first quest in 5e where I introduced her as a witch living on a lonely island. She presented herself to the heroes as the pseudodragon, but was actually nearby and invisible. Originally, I thought it’d be interesting to have the pseudodragon occasionally turn up while the...
Monday, September 14, 2015
City Squares V: Haven's City File
Today I’m going to share with you my city file of Haven. This is what I referred to during my players’ time there. I’ll be using the format I’ve described previously (1. District, I. Location, A. Contacts, i. Information, a. Leads). As of now the heroes have left the port city with no plans to return. Just in case my player’s do check this out, I’m going to leave the portions of the city they didn’t investigate whited out so highlight for...
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Cooperative Worldbuilding
Last night hit the local gaming store with my buddies from the Pirates of the Aegean campaign - Kintaro, Journey, and OrkbossJo. My group got in a game of Elder Signs, and then Vampire: Prince of the City. Wouldn’t recommend the first; love the second. Also, ran into Wargamer Fritz who was trying out the Spanish Civil War game with Prima Lucem. I didn’t quite pay attention to the mechanics of that one, but the setting is incredibly interesting....
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Games within Games
Previously, I’ve talked about using 4x video games (like Sid Meiers Civilization IV or Civilization V) as the world map. Currently, I’ve been doing some research for my next PDF which touches on this topic, and it got me thinking about interfacing Dungeons and Dragons with other game systems. As part of my research I played The Quiet Year. It was fantastic....
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
The World of Erebus
If you’ve read my blog, then you know I’m a fan of Fall from Heaven II. It’s the best dark fantasy setting you’ve never heard of! The setting’s foundation is based on the Princess Rule: princesses do not find their prince charmings and there are no happily ever afters. In this world, angels fall from heaven while the God of Hope is presently planning the slaughter and damnation of every man, woman, and child. Hence, dark fantasy...
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Start Your Squarecrawl
Hi folks! I’m working on something that’ll make it easier to run your own Squarecrawl. But first you need to start one, so let’s talk about mapping your Square/Hexcrawl. There are a variety of tools out there to buy or download free. The problem is those all require work. To state the obvious, Dungeons and Dragons is a game. It should be fun, so why shouldn’t worldbuilding be a game, too? I think it should, that’s why I use Civilization IV...
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Multi-Square Megadungeon II
My journey in dungeoncraft has finally led me back to crafting that megadungeon. Except this time it’s for my Glorious Bastards campaign instead my first and still ongoing Pirates of the Aegean game. Turns out my pirate players decided to sail west and leave Haven behind. I find the player’s of my Glorious Bastards game in the sewers underneath Kwythellar, one of Erebus’ largest metropolises. Since the it’s one of the largest cities, I think...
Monday, August 24, 2015
Oath of Reaping
Last time you got to read about my character concept - a man who's been possessed by a demon since childhood. Throughout his life Alistair experienced incidents when the demon was let out and caused great tragedy. This ultimately leads him to attempt the unthinkable, except the demon won't let him die. Alistair is convinced he is unable to die (and in 5e it can be pretty hard), so after receiving a life changing vision he dedicated himself to the...
Friday, August 21, 2015
A New Hero
One of my players, Kintaro, is starting a new 5e campaign in his homebrew setting. Sadly, that werewolf game never took of so I still haven't gotten to be a player yet in a serious campaign this year. I've talked with Kintaro about my character concept at length, and he's allowing me to do some really cool things. In a few days I'll post a new paladin Oath I put together, the Oath of Reaping. For today here's the introduction to...
Sunday, August 9, 2015
Advanced D&D 5e: Skills
Hi folks! The other day I was talking with one of my players, OrkBossJo, and one of things we discussed was how great it’d be if there were more choices in the skill system. As is, you pick your skills at character creation...and that’s it. Unless you want to spend a feat (no thanks). I fondly remember the skill system from 3.5. While some might complain about the book keeping, every time you gained a new level there were a variety of things...
Monday, August 3, 2015
The Middle Muddle
Learned some lessons today. Too many plot threads leads to none of them getting resolved. Second, quest hooks need to have a specific way to be solved. Leaving it wholly up to the players to resolve things can lead to an unsatisfying experience, and players leaving the game frustrated is something I aim to avoid. There has to be a way to determine in advance how quest hooks/plot threads can be resolved without railroading the players...
Monday, July 27, 2015
Barbarian Archetype: The Reaver
This here is a new subclass for the Barbarian put together by my friend Kintaro. It has some really interesting mechanics where the Barb generates temporary hit points while raging and can spend those hit points to do some crazy stuff. Check it out:...
Monday, July 20, 2015
Reader Mail Bag: July
Welcome to the next installment of answering your emails. First up a light one, then a good meaty one!
From Cat:
So, my girlfriend and I are playing D&D together. We both have two characters and change turns being DM. She is new to the game and I'm trying to keep her interested without being to pushy. I'm struggling with building a game she can enjoy. So far we've been playing adventures that are all wrapped up in one session and...
Friday, July 17, 2015
Winging It in a Sandbox
It's been a busy month. Work, write, work, convention, work, etc. When it came time to run the next quest in my Glorious Bastards campaign, I was exhausted. There was nothing special I threw together for that night's prep, but something special happened. Here's how it went....
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Injecting Emotion into Your Game
A murderhobo romp can become quite forgettable as every group of bad guys become little more than a target number of hit points to kill. Social interactions with NPCs can be reduced to mere receptacles for quest hook without emotional attachment. These problems started to coalesce in my mind when I needed to come up with an NPC on the fly, and while stumbling for a different name than I’ve used before one of the players said something to help...
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Multi-Square Megadungeon
Let’s make a Megadungeon! Add hype here! As I do before any major undertaking, I want to remind myself of the criteria for creating this: 1) Does the content provide an interesting choice giving the players agency? 2) Am I following the rules of dungeoncraft? 3) Does it show the uniqueness of the campaign world...
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
NPC: Agent of Esus
This is an NPC no player wants to run into alone. It's an assassin you'll never see coming, and if you do you might think you're looking in a mirror.Here's a passage from the Fall from Heaven Lore Compendium...
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
BfS Tournament this Saturday
Hi folks. First off, I got my Youtube channel up. More videos to come later today. Secondly, this weekend my local gaming club, the Battle for Salvation, is hosting an awesome event. If you like X-Wing or Warhammer 40k Apocalypse games, come on down to our tournament! Entry is $20, and is half off for members. The X-Wing tournament will follow all of the Fantasy Flight Games official rules, judged by UltraBob, and the 40k apoc game will be run...
Monday, June 8, 2015
How to Piss Off Your Dungeon Master
Sometimes people do things that simply make no sense. As a dungeon master I put in a lot of work into my games to try and create a great experience for my players. After putting so much work into a campaign, and each quest, encounter and NPC, every now and then a player comes along that makes you want to tear your hair out. I've had some experiences at the table lately that have really clarified my thoughts on this matter. If you are a player...
Friday, June 5, 2015
Trying the Other Side of the Screen II
I got bored with the first character concept so I put together this one using both Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Mage: The Ascension.
...
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Trying the Other Side of the Screen
A friend of mine is running a one shot in the old World of Darkness Werewolf system. I can't remember the last time I was a player, so definitely psyched for a nice change of pace. Here's what I put together...
Friday, May 29, 2015
Creating the Ultimate Bard
How do you optimize a build? I think there’s a little more to it than min/maxing. When optimizing you need to think about what roles to fill and how to efficiently execute those roles. Let’s take a look at an arguably weak class in 5e. He’s a jack of all trade and master of none. Introducing my take on the Ultimate Bard, level by level.
At first level you get cantrips, a couple of spell slots, and four uses of Bardic Inspiration assuming a...
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Do You Really Need a Cleric?
The other night saw the first quest of my new Glorious Bastards campaign. Throughout the course of the adventure, I realized something important. Clerics are NOT a necessity. My other 5e campaign, Pirates of the Aegean, has a cleric and with it I’ve found that the CR system is woefully inaccurate. Every encounter thrown at that group has to be a deadly encounter if I want to make even a small dent into the players’ resources. This other party...
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Thursday, May 14, 2015
State of the Blog
Hi folks. Recently, blogging had to move to the backburner for the past week due to an unexpected family tragedy, after which I came down with a nasty cold. Now that a particularly bad week is finally behind me I can get back to blogging. Let’s start with a couple of updates....
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
A Pirate’s Life V: Ships of the Line
We’re back to the high seas! Today I have around twenty ship stat blocks for you from the Age of Sail. Starting with the stat blocks from Sid Meier’s Pirates! and the Dungeon Master’s Guide, I tinkered with the statistics to come up with a meaningful manner of integrating ships into the Naval Travel & Combat system put together so far. First, let me walk you through the DMG’s ship stats, where it’s lacking and what’s needed to fix it....
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Game Table Ideas
Been a little obsessed this past week drawing designs in sketchup. I want a gaming table. Not only do I want one, but I want it all. The table I want has to accommodate any kind of game. The problem was the space where I can put it is a little cramped. A full table would work for gaming, since you don’t need to move around much. Basically you’re standing in place or sitting in a chair while moving the minis around. But then I have to live with a monster table in this small space. What to do? The first idea that came to me is to make it fold...
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Breaking the Game III: Deviating from Established Lore
At the start of my Pirates of the Aegean campaign, one of the players came to me with the concept of a Tiefling Druid. The problem was that there were no such things as Tieflings in the Fall from Heaven setting. My options looked like I could either tell the player there are no Tieflings in my Special Snowflake Setting so go make another character, or work it in. What was I to do? I dug into the lore of the setting and with a little elbow grease...
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Heroic Journey II: Rising Action
The next stage in the heroic journey is often called Tests, Allies, & Enemies. As it relates to Dungeons and Dragons, it's that time after the hero leaves the ordinary world for the extraordinary. The bulk of a hero’s adventures occur in this stage. On his travels he meets new people, making friends and enemies all the while facing challenges which not only test his skills but his perseverance to achieve his ultimate goal....
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Dangerous Treasure: The Necronomicon
Today I'd like to share with you a very special magical artifact from my campaign. It's full of evil goodness and ready for you to drop into yours. Have fun watching your PCs try to get rid of this!
***Spoilers for my Players in the "Pirates of the Aegean" Campaign***...
Thursday, April 23, 2015
City Squares IV: The Sixth Rule of Dungeoncraft
Today I’m gonna go through making a lead and how I use it to provide my players with clues pointing towards a secret. These are going into my game. Feel free to use them for yours or as examples for making your own. We’ll connect the leads and determine which of those treasure-boxes-disguised-as-NPCs-filled-with-info (which is the treasure) is the most interesting. After finding the best ones that simply scream, “Investigate me!” we’ll drop the...
Breaking the Game II: The Secret Player
This is a really fun way to trick the rest of the party (while still maintaining player agency), and will instantly turn your next adventure into a thing of legend. Start by getting in touch with one of your players and ask them verbatim, “I got something cool planned for next adventure and want to know if you’re up for a role-playing challenge?” I’d be surprised to hear if this ever gets a negative response. Then let the player in on the secret...
Saturday, April 18, 2015
It's NOT Better to Burn Out!
Today I want to talk about how NOT to burn out as a Dungeon Master. This won’t be your typical trite 10 tips to avoid burnout garbage. I want to tell you how I am constantly inspired to create and run a campaign so you can do the same. It’s not something that comes naturally but takes effort, although not hard effort. Maybe effort is the wrong word. What I’m trying to say is it merely takes Action. I think I’m going to channel Yoda here: Do...
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
City Squares III: The Fourth Rule of Dungeoncraft
On my second attempt at making a city square I now have some experience to refer to. Got some ideas where the gameplay worked well and where things got clunky. The layers worked alright. What needs to be polished is the investigate action. For some reason my players aren't taking to the idea of investigating to explore a city like they do when moving on the battlemap to explore a dungeon. It might be because they see the city as a treasure...
