First up, my real world timeline. I wanted to give you all a quick update on the Exploration Age Campaign Guide. Most of the history, description, and fluff has been written. That’s all being looked over by a group of close friends, pretty much all of the guys who play in my campaign. I’m taking the comments left on the blog into account as I revise and edit as well, so please keep them coming!

Right now all mechanics are still being tweaked. Obviously, I’m waiting for the release of the fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons core rule books before I lock it all down. I won’t be able to release anything for sale until the Open Gaming License is revealed in 2015. That’s good, because it gives me more time. I’m only one person and I can only do so much, especially when I want any modules and supplemental rules to be fair and balanced.

All that being said I know I can start finalizing some of the mechanics I’m creating starting July 3rd when the first set of D&D Basic rules drop and my local friendly gaming store will put out the D&D Starter Set. Wow that is close!!!

A Special Sneak Peek?

I also know that a lot of folks out there are eager to start a campaign around August 19th when the Player’s Handbook drops. Maybe, if I’ve done my job right, there are a few of you eager to play in the world of Exploration Age? Maybe with a less complete campaign guide lacking art and layout, but for free? A manuscript version of the Exploration Age Campaign Guide, if you will. If you are interested in that sort of thing, keep checking back here and follow me on Twitter for updates. It’s going to happen, but I won’t be giving it away for free for long so keep your eyes and Twitter feeds open.

And now a bit about my own process of creating Exploration Age and some excerpts…

Starting Point

When I first began getting into the details of Exploration Age, I wasn’t sure where to begin. If you’ve been following this blog for a while you how I determined the ideas and themes of the world as well as the major events inspiring Exploration Age. But what led to all of these events and got Canus into its current state? I needed some help and inspiration.

I looked at the timelines of my favorite campaign worlds like Dark Sun , Forgotten Realms, and Eberron. In looking at these timelines I realized something huge. Timelines are outlines. They give readers and authors the significant events in a world’s history. These events are deemed significant by the fact that their impact is still being felt in some way in the present. I didn’t just need to write a history, I needed to start with a timeline to help me mold the rest of the world.

All of these timelines begin with big, broad strokes which paint the settings’ most important beginning events with hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of years in-between events. Heck, Eberron’s first event in its Age of Demons is 9.5 million years away from the next.

That’s a big jump.

This is to say, only the really big events of the far past still matter today (for the most part). In general, when we look back in Earth’s history, it’s the real game changers that matter and for which we can still find evidence. Your ice ages, your rise and fall of the dinosaurs, and your big bangs fall into these broad strokes categories. Here’s what the beginning would look like for Exploration Age. (Note: BF stands for Before Findalay – since the formation of the countries and continent of Findalay are the defining moment in Canus’ history according to the people making the calendar. More on that below.)

• ??? Aberrant beings rule Canus. The first dragons hatch from eggs buried deep within Canus’ core and the tunnels they dig to climb out become The Underdark. The Chromatic Dragons bleed from the effort, lacking the hard scales of their metallic brethren, and their blood turns into the drow. Somewhere in the present day Damned Lands, a psionic race of peaceful humanoids has shielded their lands from the aberrant influence.
• 500,000 BF In present day Findalay and Parian, Chromatic Dragons, coveting power for themselves, war with the huge population of aberrants, but become locked in a bloody struggle in which no side ever has the clear advantage. Metallic Dragons in Verda form a less straight-forward plan to beat the abberrants and begin experimenting with planar magic.
• 300,000 BF Chromatic Dragons create the shardminds who, enslaved by the dragons, destroy the aberrants in Findalay and Parian. The remaining abberants flee underground. The Damned Lands earn their name as an unknown tragedy envelopes the land. For hundreds of millennia its skies and lands glow hot with psionic energy, changing the land and destroying all civilization within its borders. Metallic Dragons open a portal to The Nine Hells, releasing legions of devils upon Verda to battle the aberrants. While many devils are subservient to the dragons who summoned them, others are able to break free of their bond and form alliances with the aberrants. The devils and the aberrants mate, creating the morchia.
• 100,000 BF The shardminds rise against the Chromatic Dragons in a surprise attack, releasing two races of their own creation – the dwarves and the gnomes. Canus is completely devastated by the attack. The shardminds are spread far and wide as are the dragons, with most of their civilization in ruins, few of either ancient race remain after the war. Some gnomes and dwarves are driven deep underground and welcomed by the drow, while others begin to build new lives on the surface once the war settles down. The Metallic Dragons of Verda create a race to uphold their ideals of learning from the devils still loyal to them known as the tieflings.

Then, People Showed Up

Eventually people show up in the world and that’s when the timeline becomes less broad. As people, our personal history is more important to us and has more of an impact on our present. Still, the far past of human history is painted in broader strokes with more time between events than the more recent past. The rise of Christianity, the fall of the Roman Empire, and the Norman Invasion are events in our own distant events which shaped our world today. The period of time between events could be hundreds of years, decades, or less.

These medium-broad stroked events are also part of the history of fictional campaign worlds. Again, I’ll use the Eberron example.

These are still pretty big jumps, but smaller than above.

Exploration Age has some similar jumps in its timeline as it comes closer to the present year – 403 FF.

• 4,000 BF A sect of devout humans on Parian, now an established, powerful nation, face religious persecution from their emperor. The remaining gnomes face racial persecution. Together they board a boat in search of safer lands and come to present day Aeranore. The dwarves welcome the humans and gnomes, who, in exchange for land of their own, promise to aid the Bragonians in a renewed fight against Taliana and Marrial. Tieflings, fearing their own destruction at the hands of the morchia, begin to research a way to seal the morchia in The Underdark.
• 3,500 BF Parian declares war on Aeranore, seeking to punish those who left. Bragonay turns to the powerful Parian, offering to help destroy the inhabitants of Aeranore in exchange for help against Marrial and Taliana. Aeranore joins forces with Marrial and Taliana against Bragonay in return for aid against Parian. The First Great War begins. On Verda, the tieflings use The Reckoning Spell to bind the morchia back beneath the ground. The ritual is so powerful, they break it into many pieces and hide it.
• 1,000 BF Parian declares a truce with Aeranore, Marrial, and Taliana in exchange for trade rights. Bragonay now faces a war against the other three Findalayan nations alone, but is aided when Taliana’s capital city is swallowed by a massive earthquake.
• 500 BF Desperate, Bragonay makes an exclusive treaty and trade agreement with Marrial to remove them from the war. Taliana’s capital is rebuilt on the site of the old.

It is usually during this time that many histories have their defining moment of the current age. In the real world for many cultures this defining moment was the rise of Christianity. BC standing for Before Christ and AD standing for the Latin phrase Anno Domini meaning “in the year of the Lord,” are good examples of that. All other events in many of Earth’s cultures are defined by their temporal relation to the birth of Christ. Regardless of your beliefs, that’s some lasting influence right there!

In Exploration Age the defining moment for the calendar is the founding of the continent and nation of Findalay. For tens of thousands of years the various nations of Findalay were at war with one another. When the leaders signed a (temporary) peace and officially created their borders, that moment was huge for the people of Exploration Age. It has helped define the current age in a major way. Thus everything in the Exploration Age timeline is either BF (Before Findalay) or FF (after Findalay’s Founding).

Details of the Recent Past

When one thinks of the recent past, he or she can name numerous defining moments of the world’s history. In the United States we still feel the effects of slavery, World War II, the moon landing, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and more. I could name a bunch of events in the past few years we’re still feeling. That’s how it goes when you’re looking at the recent past. Even smaller events have an impact if they’ve happened recently. Again, let’s look at Eberron, who’s starting campaign year is 998 YK. Not only is the distance between events much shorter, some years have multiple significant events.

Less than 10 years between jumps here.

So for Exploration Age the trend follows. When I got to this point in the time I began with broad strokes. There were major events I knew I wanted to have happen – like the cooling of The Damned Lands, the creation of the Explorers’ Guild and The Society of Seekers, and of course, the discovery of Verda. Then I put random placeholder entries between the years of major events I knew I wanted. In those placeholders, I began placing minor events. These were usually events that I wanted to happen that would create interesting organizations, adversaries, conflicts, and adventure sites for PCs in Exploration Age. Some of these events were ideas I had in my head for years and some were things I thought of on the spot as I was filling in the spaces I had created for myself.

As I’ve used the timeline as an outline to flesh out the actual Exploration Age Campaign Guide, events have been added, subtracted, and modified. I love coming up with another cool idea and then finding a place within Exploration Age’s history for it. Take a look at some of Canus’ recent history.

• 377 FF The Plague of Twenty Cycles comes to Verda and decimates the tribal population for twenty years.
• 384 FF Parian discovers Marrial’s involvement in the freeing of slaves and joins Bragonay in battle due to Marrial’s breaking of the Pardalay Treaty.
• 387 FF Desperate to remove the pressing grip of Parian and Bragonay, Aeranore makes a deal with Parian and provides them with slaves to replace those lost to Marrial. Parian agrees to the terms and leaves the Fourth Great War.
• 392 FF End of the Fourth Great War as the warforged rise up against the dwarves.
• 393 FF The Explorers’ Guild discovers Verda. Findalayan countries and Parian rush to establish colonies.
• 397 FF The Damned Lands finally cool and exploration begins… and most end badly.
• 401 FF Ragorn Zhul Prison has a massive riot and the guards stay on the walls. The prisoners stay inside and run the prison city.
• 403 FF The campaign begins…

So that’s the Exploration Age timeline! Take a look and let me know in the comments below if you’re toying with the idea of playing a few sessions in Canus.

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcast on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

This month’s RPG Blog Carnival theme is a great one – “What’s in the hole?” This theme is both oddly specific and wonderfully broad. Metaphorically, the inside of a hole could be any place unknown! I’ve already written a few posts about the blank spots in the world of Exploration Age and how some people in the world want to adventure for profit, power, knowledge, or the sake of discovery itself. All those blank spots in Verda, Glacius, the Poles, The Damned Lands, and The Underdark are really just big holes. Heck even portals are holes to other planes.

What’s down there?

Too bad I already tackled a lot of these topics before this theme was brought to my attention. Dang! So I decided to go less metaphorical and more literal with this one. What’s in the hole in Exploration Age? An enormous, hungry shark.

Remember the Icebreaker Shark?

Remember me?

Some of you may remember my post on Glacius and the Poles. It was there that I introduced the world to the icebreaker shark. A man-eating, cold water fish with bony protrusions on its head and tail used to break the frozen layer of ocean beneath the feet of unsuspecting prey. Its finely tuned senses allow the shark to feel vibrations of prey moving on the ice above. This allows the shark to weaken areas of the frozen ocean and prepare a killing ground into which unsuspecting victims will walk.

Thus the icebreaker shark of the North Pole has options. It can wait until the moment is right and then break the ice beneath the feet of its prey or it can prepare a trap and when a potential meal arrives break pieces of the frozen ocean around its victims, trapping them in a maze or on an island of ice. Big meals don’t come around for the shark often, so when it can it eats its fill, knowing the next big meal could be a month or longer away in the frozen polar climate.

The icebreaker shark eats mostly seals, polar bears, fish, and any other arctic life which crosses its path. They are solitary hunters, but do meet once every Winter beneath the ice to spawn. A typical icebreaker shark can is 20 – 30 feet long and weigh 2,000 – 3,000lbs. They are characterized not just by their enormous size, but by the bony growths on their faces and tails, which resemble that of Ankylosauruses. These growths are what the creature uses to smash through the ice and prepare it’s killing grounds.

If one listens very carefully, the smashing and ice cracking of the shark can be heard, but often this sound means it is too late for those hearing it. The howling winds of the North Pole often drown out these warnings for all but those with the keenest hearing.

Icebreaker sharks have been known to migrate South as far as Glacius, though such sightings are rare.

As far as holes and the RPG Blog Carnival theme go, icebreaker sharks make their own. Sometimes you don’t chose to go down the hole, rather the hole swallows you instead.

Game Statistics

Dude is RIDING a shark. RIDING A SHARK.

Here’s what I’m thinking the game statistics for the icebreaker shark will be. The math is subject to change with the release of the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual.

The icebreaker shark is tough and clever. It believes in ambushing its prey in a prepared killing ground. Should its prey manage to get away, the icebreaker shark will stalk it for days or sometimes even weeks on end, waiting beneath the ice for its victims to drop their guard. It is rare to encounter more than one of these beasts at a time, unless an unfortunate victim unwittingly passed over their spawning grounds in the Winter. Woe to any who make this mistake, for they will find themselves the main course in a shark banquet.

Icebreaker Shark

Huge beast

Armor Class 17

Hit Points 158 (16d10 + 70)

Speed 0 ft., swim 60 ft.

Senses blindsight 60ft., darkvision 100 ft., tremorsense 100 ft.

Str 29 (+9)

Dex 14 (+2)

Con 20 (+5)

Int 2 (-4)

Wis 12 (+1)

Cha 4 (-3)

Alignment Unaligned

Languages -

Traits

Aquatic: The icebreaker shark can breathe only while underwater, and being underwater imposes no penalty on its attack rolls or ability checks.

Actions

Multiattack: The icebreaker shark can make a bite and a tail attack, a bite and an ice smash attack, a tail and an ice smash attack, or two weaken ice attacks.

Melee Attack – Bite: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 36 (6d8 + 9) piercing damage. If the target is Medium or smaller, it must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or be swallowed by the icebreaker shark.

A swallowed creature takes 21 (6d6) bludgeoning damage and 21 (6d6) acid damage at the start of each of the icebreaker shark’s turns until is escapes. A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained, but it can use its action to cut its way free by dealing 50 slashing or piercing damage to the gizzard (AC 15). A creature that frees itself falls prone (or more likely finds itself afloat in the ocean) in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the icebreaker shark.

An icebreaker shark can swallow up to four medium or small creatures, and 16 tiny creatures at once.

Melee Attack – Tail: +11 to hit, reach 15 ft., one creature. Hit: 27 (4d8 + 9) bludgeoning damage and the creature is knocked prone.

Ice Smash: The icebreaker shark can smash adjacent ice in a 15-foot cube, creating a hole through which the shark can attack. Any creatures standing on the ice must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or fall through the ice. Any creature who succeeds on the save ends up in an unoccupied space adjacent to the smashed ice.

When the icebreaker shark uses this ability on a cube of ice adjacent to any weakened ice (see below) the weakened ice is also smashed. Any weakened adjacent to the smashed weakened ice is also smashed, and so on for any touching patches of weakened ice.

Weaken Ice: The icebreaker shark can weaken adjacent ice in a 15-foot cube. This ice counts as weakened for the purpose of its Ice Smash ability.

So that’s the icebreaker shark and it’s what’s in the hole. Does it sound terrifying? Would you use it in your game? Did I get the mechanics right? Let me know!

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcast on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

I love strange fantasy races. The more bizarre the better. The grognards may shake their heads at shardmind, kalashtar, and dragonborn, but I say bring them on and keep them coming!

So needless to say I was a little disappointed, though not wholly unsurprised when I saw this list of Player’s Handbook races tweeted out by Wizards of the Coast last week.

I need some more weird!

Time to Steal

I’ve written about my good habit of stealing ideas from those smarter than I. My favorite fantasy races are not the elf and dwarf (though I do enjoy a playing pointy eared or bearded PC from time to time). My favorites are the warforged, mul, genasi, and other races of setting specific campaigns. So I say, why not steal them for my own game if I love them so much? Yeah! Why not?

Well, many of these races are specific D&D licensed property, meaning they are the original intellectual property of the company, meaning they were made by D&D for D&D (unlike elves, dwarves, orcs, and more which existed before D&D came along). That means they most-likely won’t be covered in the forthcoming OGL. That means I probably shouldn’t put them in products I’m planning on selling, like the Exploration Age Campaign Guide.

However, it does not mean that I can’t incorporate these races into my home game or include them in a FREE supplement for folks who want to play a game in Exploration Age… Hmm…

Incorporating the Bizarre Races

Here’s my way of incorporating some of the more unusual PC races into the story of Exploration Age. I’ve already written about the shifters and warforged, but here are some others. Their behavior and ecology may differ from their original settings in order to bring them into Canus, but I tried to keep the heart and soul of the races intact. I want a thri-kreen to still feel like a thri-kreen.

At some point, I’ll be creating mechanics for these races, but this post is all about making the races of other settings work in your story. This is just a taste.

Kalashtar

Like their githzerai parents, kalashtar are calm and contemplative, and like their human parents, inquisitive and curious. Such a combination marks these rare humanoids as ripe for a life of adventure.

Kalashtar serve a vital role in the tribes. Often they act as emissaries, carrying a chief’s message across the neighboring lands, or as neutral mediators, negotiating peace between two warring tribes. Kalashtar often break off on their own when they come of age, hoping to see all that Canus has to offer. More than any other race, they are willing to travel to West Canus. The furtive stares and pointed questions of the locals do not bother them, since the Kalashtar are just as eager to stare and question them back.

Kalashtar adventurers could be druids wandering the wider world cataloging all manner of flora and fauna, mages studying the origin of magic, paladins who believe all life is beautiful and worthy of protection, or anything you dream.

Muls

If half-elves are rare in Exploration Age, then muls are practically unknown. These half-human, half-dwarves are met with pity, fear, and disrespect across West Canus. Mul struggle and often fail to find belonging among either their human or dwarven kin. Like half-elves, this not-so-subtle poly-ethnic persecution is at the heart of their racial identity.

In Bragonay, muls are not brought into the caste system. They are treated as outsiders and have no access to the services of the region. Unlike Kalashtar, these half-dwarves, do feel the burn of the many eyes that glare at them with suspicion. As a result, they speak little and do all they can to blend into the crowd. However, muls are not pushovers. They end conflict swiftly, usually with a harsh word or solid hit to the mouth.

The life of a mul is usually one of lonely wandering. They are occasionally accepted by bands of half-elves and could live a more stable life in Marrial or somewhere in Verda. For the most part muls serve as self-taught mercenaries and thieves, making their living off their strength and resilience.

Mul adventurers could be wandering thieves, battle-hardened professional fighters, demolitions experts, or anything you dream.

Shardmind

If you like weird, you’ll love the shardmind.

Amongst the rare races of Canus, sharmind are the most uncommon. These crystalline beings were created long ago by the chromatic dragons of West Canus. No more have been made since the shardminds rose up against their creators. Despite their infinite life-spans, many met their ends in that uprising, and throughout the millennia others have fallen admist adventures and battle. This dying breed is made up of wandering hermits, secluded scholars, and nihilistic daredevils.

The shardminds alive today have forgotten more years than most other humanoid races have lived. Some shardmind let their long lives fuel them, diving into research and training to hone their abilities and become the best they can be at a particular discipline. Others have given up and now seek a glorious death in an adventure. They want to go out of this meaningless life in an explosive finale, often battling against their most hated foe – chromatic dragons.

Contemplative, quiet, and patient are the virtues of these crystalline people. Shardminds are often loners, and many members of other races go their entire lives without ever seeing one. Unless they are adventuring with a party, they tend to avoid populated areas and make their homes in the wilderness so they might be alone with their thoughts and projects.

Sharmind adventurers could be scholarly mages unlocking the secrets of the universe, fighters seeking their glorious end, hermit clerics who have tapped into the power of the divine, or anything you dream.

Svirfneblin

Deep gnomes, or svirfneblin, live with the drow and duergar of Quatus. They share the same brotherhood and loyalty of these peoples but they have something the too-practical duergar and devil-may-care drow lack – a sense of hope. While duergar have accepted their war with the aberrants as eternal and the dark elves bury the issue with partying, the deep gnomes believe that someday they could beat the aberrants. The svirfneblin have not lost sight of what makes life worth living.

Deep gnomes work hard; they are tinkerers and inventors who love working the stone and metals of The Underdark. They take great comfort in spending time with family and friends, drinking good tea, and eating good food. They understand the complex and take joy in the simple. The gray dwarves would say the svirfneblin are naive, while the drow would say they are too boring, but there is a reason all three of these races live together. In the darkest hours of Quatus, the hope that the svirfneblin provide is infectious to the other races of the war-torn country.

Amongst the people of the surface, svirfneblin are met with kindness. They are honest merchants and well-mannered diplomats, but they do not often serve in these rolls since they can be easily pushed around since they are too willing to trust. A deep gnome merchant is usually a good thing for a consumer looking to make a dishonest deal.

Svirfneblin adventurers could be crafty rogues, curious tinkerers, mages out to end the aberrant threat for good, or anything you dream.

Thri-kreen

GIANT BUG-PEOPLE! Badass!

Thri-kreen tribes have been stalking The Sprawling Jungle of Verda for as long as humans have been on Canus. These bellicose humanoids answer almost any threat or annoyance with battle. Thri-kreen are bitter toward enemies, suspicious of outsiders, and take extreme all-or-nothing solutions to most problems. However they are also loyal allies and friends.

Thri-kreen enjoy battle and take pleasure in the thrill of placing one’s life on the line. To them, the best and most honorable death is one that comes from an enemy blade. The strongest warriors are always the chiefs of their tribes. Thri-kreen are taught the ways of battle from the time they are little. Even when a thri-kreen tribe isn’t at war, it trains with other tribes and within its own people. Thri-kreen warriors and mages fight one another for entertainment, an activity which guests of the tribe are expected to join. Other than battle and the study of war, thri-kreen take pleasure in nature. They find it peaceful to commune with plants and animals after a long battle and are taught the names and behaviors of all the all that lives within the jungle.

Thri-kreen treat most other races suspiciously, particularly folk foreign to Verda. Their trust is hard to earn and usually won through battle. Once that relationship is earned, thri-kreen will die for their friends.

Thri-kreen adventurers could be honorable barbarians, wise druid shamans, fierce rangers defending the jungle, or anything you dream.

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcast on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

Several months ago, I published a post with a module for firearms I was going to include in the Exploration Age Campaign Guide. Some kind folks in the Wizards D&D forums pointed out to me that Chris Perkins has also released his own rules for firearms in his new Valoreign homebrew setting.

Similarly, Mike Mearls and the rest of the Wizards D&D R&D team have mentioned several times that an optional rules module for firearms will be in the Player’s Handbook or Dungeon Master’s Guide. These may be very close to the rules I proposed months ago, especially when I look at what Chris Perkins has already created and consider he is part of the aforementioned R&D team.

Excerpt from Chris Perkins’ Valoreign document

So they got to it before me, and I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that their design is probably better realized and tested than my own. I’ll wait to see it completely before I pass judgement though, because I may still like my own way better for reasons listed in the initial post. Whatever the case may be, at the very least I will be keeping the rules for magical aberrant firearms in the Exploration Age Campaign Guide, if not the rules for gunpowder weapons, since it seems that their rules module deal only with the latter. Based on what Wizards of the Coast throws out there and the size of their weapons cache, I may even add a powder weapon or two of my own.

Things That Make You Go Boom

When I posted On Firearms, I got a great comment from a reader that gunpowder changes things in a world. It means cannons, grenades, and more are available for armies, mercenaries, bandits, and evil-doers. The comment was meant as a caveat, but for me it was a good thing. There was always a plan to put these weapons in Exploration Age.

I know a lot of you are probably groaning and saying, “I was ok with firearms sorta, kinda, but now you’ve gone too far, Introcaso.” Well, just remember that firearms and explosives are all optional. The Exploration Age Campaign Guide can be used as a bible for your world, but I welcome and encourage stealing, scavenging, harvesting, and modifying any and all ideas you please from the text. That’s what tabletop RPGs are all about! So get those imaginations flowing. If you do anything like that, drop me a line and let me know how it works out!

Grenades

As you can see above, Mr. Perkins has already supplied us with a grenade in his setting. This beast does a whopping 4d6 piercing damage (half damage on a successful DC 10 Dexterity saving throw) in a 20-foot radius. I like this model, since the grenade doesn’t outdo the fireball spell in terms of damage. I’d never want the classic fireball to feel like it has been replaced by a (even possibly uncommon) item, because the magic-using classes would feel less powerful (and the PCs would be too powerful with easy access to weapons like that).

Fireball spell from Basic D&D

In Valoreign, the grenade has no price, meaning it must be found or specially made. In Exploration Age, I’m thinking grenades may operate a little differently, with grenades for sale, but at a high price, so adventurers can’t stock up on them easily, but powerful governments and mercenary groups, like the Explorers’ Guild and The Society of Seekers, could. Also, I wanted the save DC to be related to the skill of the attacker and not just have a static number.

Also, why have one kind of grenade when you could have a whole bunch of bombs? Check out this excerpt from the Campaign Guide.

Your classic bomb.

Explosives

Grenades and bombs are martial weapons, with a special exploding feature. Use the chart and descriptions below when attacking with these weapons.

Since all grenades and bombs have fuses which must be lit before being thrown, you may only attack with one grenade per turn. Grenades have a range of 50 feet.

Special Bombs

Fire Bomb. When a fire bomb explodes, any unattended flammable objects in the radius of explosion ignite.

Frost Bomb. Creatures who fail their Dexterity save against cold damage in the radius of the frost bomb’s explosion have their speed reduced by 10 feet for 1 minute.

Thunder Bomb. Creatures who fail their Dexterity save against thunder damage in the radius of the thunder bomb’s explosion are deafened for 1 minute.

New Weapon Property

Exploding. A weapon with this property doesn’t require an attack roll. Instead you throw the weapon within its range and the weapon explodes within its given radius. Creatures within the radius of the explosion must make a Dexterity saving throw DC 8 + your Dexterity modifier + proficiency bonus if applicable. Creatures take full damage on a failed saving throw, half on a successful one.

Variant: Oops, Explosion

Grenades can be a hazard to the user – especially in the hands of a novice. Each time you throw a grenade, roll a d20. On a roll of 1 the grenade explodes in your hands. If you are not proficient with grenades, then it explodes in your hands on a roll of 1 or 2.

Pretty fun, eh? Picture a halflings rogue running in circles around and chucking bombs at a big dragon or an elf lobbing fire bombs into a zombie throng. That’s the stuff legendary sessions are made of! Hope this makes you think imaginary explosives are fun. You can even see that if gunpowder isn’t your scene, Exploration Age has some more alchemically charged bombs for your enjoyment.

Cannons… and More!

Obviously cannons are also a huge advancement in the world of warfare which came after the invention gunpowder. I was told by others I would need rules for these as well, though I’m not sure I do. Cannons are siege weapons and the same way you won’t find catapults and ballistas in the equipment section of the Player’s Handbook, you won’t find cannons in the Exploration Age Campaign Guide…. unless I’m also including statistics for catapults and ballistas in said Exploration Age Campaign Guide… which I am ! (Go ahead and pickup those pieces of your mind. I’ll wait.)

So I wanted to share with you some ideas I had for siege weapons in the wonderful world of Canus. Take a look at the excerpt below.

Here is a ridiculous cannon.

Siege Weapons

Siege weapons are an enormous part of Canus’ war-torn history. Take a look at some of the types of siege weapons PCs may come across in their travels. The chart below indicates their size, damage, range, required number of crew to operate, and rounds between reloads.

While price is also indicated on the chart, siege weapons are not easy to buy. In general an independent buyer needs to purchase them on the black market, where prices could be marked up as high as five times the indicated value. Adventurers with international reputations on the side of a specific recognized government or global cause may be able to purchase such weapons for market value, and large, legitimate mercenary operations and federal armies may also purchase siege weapons for their indicated price.

Unless otherwise indicated, siege weapons have a hard time with smaller, moving targets. Any time a siege weapon is used to target a single creature of Large size or smaller, the attack roll has disadvantage.

Each siege weapon’s crew has a designated leader who decides when to fire and aim the weapon. Each member of the crew must use his or her action to attack with the weapon. The attack bonus of a siege weapon is calculated by using the leader’s Intelligence modifier and adding it to the leader’s proficiency bonus (if applicable). The leader’s Intelligence modifier is also added to the damage of the siege weapon.

Once a siege weapon is fired, it’s crew must remain adjacent to the weapon and use their actions for the number of reload rounds indicated before the weapon may be fired again.

Siege weapons which require a crew of two may be operated by one person, but reloading takes three times as long.

Cannon. These muzzle-loading cannons can be mounted on a ship, castle, or wheeled around slowly, by person or by mount and fire various kinds of shot (see below). They are powered by gunpowder.

Catapult. This onager model catapult is winched down, loaded, then released. It travels on four wheels and is usually pulled by horse or other pack animal. Sometimes diseased bodies of humanoids or animals are loaded into the catapult and fired over the walls of enemy forces with hopes of infecting their soldiers. A target must be at least 30 feet away in order for a catapult to attack it.

Trebuchet. This trebuchet catapult is larger than a onager model and has a much longer range. It uses a counter-weight system to hurl its ammunition great distances. These wheeled behemoths require teams of humanoids or pack animals to be moved. A target must be at least 50 feet away in order for a trebuchet to attack it.

Ballista. Basically a ballista is a giant crossbow, which can be mounted on the wall of castle or deck of a ship. These siege weapons can also be wheeled around by pack animals and shoot large, iron-tipped arrows. Ballistas are more accurate and do not have the usual siege weapon disadvantage when attack single target creatures of Large size or smaller.

Arcane Cannon. Special alchemical canisters developed from aberrant technology are loaded into these jeweled cannons, which hurl elemental and arcane energy at foes on the battlefield. The cannons are wheeled, like their mundane counterparts, and can be transported similarly.

Siege Weapon Ammunition

Round Shot. Round shot is a large metal ball, which is loaded into a cannon and fired at a single target. Round shot deals 6d6 bludgeoning damage to a target.

Chain Shot. Two small balls linked together by a length of bladed chain, often fired at sails of enemy ships in order to cause maximum damage. Chain shot deals 2d6 slashing damage, and deal quadruple damage to cloth targets.

Canister Shot. A large canister full of small bullets which immediately explodes when fired. Instead of a normal attack, the bullets spray an area within a 30-foot cone in front of the cannon. Any creatures within the cone must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC 8 + the siege weapon’s crew leader’s Intelligence modifier + proficiency). Creatures who fail the save take 4d6 piercing damage, creatures who succeed take half damage.

Shell. Shells are explosive rounds which detonate on impact. Instead of a normal attack, the shell can be fired 1,000 feet and explode in a 20-foot radius. Any creatures within the blast must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC 8 + the siege weapon’s crew leader’s Intelligence modifier + proficiency). Creatures who fail the save take 4d6 piercing damage, creatures who succeed take half damage.

Stone. These are literally big, heavy stones hurled from a catapult or trebuchet and deal 5d6 bludgeoning damage to a target.

Fire Barrel. Flaming barrels of oil and pitch can be thrown from a catapult or trebuchet. Instead of a normal attack, choose an area within the weapon’s normal range. The barrel explodes in a 20-foot radius. Any creatures within the blast must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC 8 + the siege weapon’s crew leader’s Intelligence modifier + proficiency). Creatures who fail the save take 3d6 fire damage, creatures who succeed take half damage. Unattended flammable objects within the area ignite.

Acid Shot. Acid shot is a green canister which explodes upon being fired and sprays all over enemy forces. Instead of a normal attack, the acid sprays an area within a 30-foot cone in front of the arcane cannon. Any creatures within the cone must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC 8 + the siege weapon’s crew leader’s Intelligence modifier + proficiency). Creatures who fail the save take 6d6 acid damage, creatures who succeed take half damage.

Force Shot. A humming blue canister, force shot is the strongest type of siege weapon ammunition around. It deals 10d6 force damage to a target.

Fire Shot. A warm, red canister which glows, fire shot explodes on impact. Instead of a normal attack, choose an area within the weapon’s normal range. The fire shot explodes in a 20-foot radius. Any creatures within the blast must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC 8 + the siege weapon’s crew leader’s Intelligence modifier + proficiency). Creatures who fail the save take 6d6 fire damage, creatures who succeed take half damage. Unattended flammable objects within the area ignite.

Frost Shot. A cold, black canister, frost shot explodes on impact. Instead of a normal attack, choose an area within the weapon’s normal range. The frost shot explodes in a 30-foot radius. Any creatures within the blast must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC 8 + the siege weapon’s crew leader’s Intelligence modifier + proficiency). Creatures who fail the save take 4d6 cold damage and have their speed reduce by 10 feet for 1 minute, creatures who succeed take half damage and no penalty to speed.

Lightning Shot. A white canister, lightning shot attacks in a single line which is 100 feet long and 5 feet wide. Each creature in the line must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC 8 + the siege weapon’s crew leader’s Intelligence modifier + proficiency). Creatures who fail the save take 8d6 lightning damage, creatures who succeed take half damage.

You can see a few things going on in the excerpt above. First of all, siege weapons have several types of ammunition, which really determine how their attacks plays out. Siege weapons meant for brining down walls, ships, large groups, and big baddies – not attacking just a few humanoids. These are crazy mechanical machines, so their attack and damage bonus come from an operator’s Intelligence modifier – representing the crew leader’s knowledge of the mechanics of the weapon.

For the most part, I imagine many PCs will not encounter siege weapons often. When they do, they’ll more likely be on the business end of a cannon or catapult. Still, I could see PCs investing in their own ship or castle and outfitting it with some siege weapons. The encounters that could come from a battle on the high seas or defending a fortress could be memorable indeed with some cannons in the mix! Or imagine the PCs turning the tide of battle by commandeering an enemy ballista for themselves.

Siege weapons and PCs seem perfect for each other in the proposed Battlesystem rules, which we will see fully in future D&D products. In this Legends and Lore article, Mike Mearls tells us each turn in the mass combat rules are a minute, which means a PC could lead a crew in firing a siege weapon several times on his or her turn. Not to mention mass combat seems the most-likely place you’d find one of these siege weapons.

Let me know what you think! What did I get right? What can I do better? You guys rock!

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcast on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

On Thursday last week I wrote a post about the nature and game mechanics of aasimar in Exploration Age. In that post I hinted briefly that deva PCs would be available to my players as well. This was not the first time I mentioned deva – they also made an appearance in a post I wrote about the multiverse in Exploration Age. So now, let’s get a little more in-depth with the deva as a PC race in Exploration Age.

The Eternal War

Reborn and ready for war.

No one is sure which came first – the demonic rakshasa or the angelic deva. Both claim to have given rise to the other. It certainly is a chicken and egg situation. A deva who lives an evil life will be reborn as a rakshasa and a rakshasa may defy its nature, live a life of selflessness and charity, and be reborn a deva. These two races, who are so connected, also hate one another. Both will stop at nothing to see their enemy’s complete obliteration. Of course each race’s immortality makes that nigh impossible, unless all deva are reborn as rakshasa or visa versa.

Deva live on the plane of Biatopia, fighting a never-ending was with the rakshasa as both races are eternally reborn. Deva have bards who sing at the top of their voices in battles. These bards focus on songs of selfless heroic deeds and the value of good. It is the hope of the deva forces these songs will change the hearts of the rakshasa before their deaths in battle and bring the demonic beings back as one of the good guys. This tactic rarely works, but it is only one method the deva use to convert their foes. Many defeated rakshasa are taken as prisoners of the deva, confined to small, anti-magic cells, where they are shackled. The deva then engage the rakshasa in a sort of conditioning to try and make them see the light. This tactic seems to have some success, but the rakshasa actually seem to be slowly winning the war.

The rakshasa tactic is very straight forward. They commit acts of atrocious evil against the deva and try to make the deva retaliate in kind. The eternal war has broken the spirit of many deva and some are pushed over the edge when rakshasa openly torture their friends.

Some deva (and rakshasa) are so weary of The Eternal War and so these renegades have left Biatopia in hopes of seeking a better life on the Material Plane.

Deva Religion

Most deva believe their immortal souls are actually a piece of a soul of one true creator god who they call Zaxa. Their religion is known as Zaxism and they believe this god was benevolent. It is said when Zaxa created the multiverse, the effort tore his soul asunder into many small pieces. These pieces fell into Biatopia and became the deva. As deva lived their lives, those who were wicked were reborn as rakshasa. Zaxists believe if they can convert all rakshasa to deva they can enact a ritual in which they will sacrifice themselves and restore Zaxa to existence.

Zaxists are told that Zaxa’s heart survived the creation of the multiverse and was forged by a deva master craftsman into a hammer. This hammer, Zaxa’s Heart, is said to be able to remove both deva and rakshasa who are slain by it from existence. Those laid low by the hammer will not be reborn. If this is true, there is no way to know. Zaxa’s Heart was lost long ago in a battle during The Eternal War. Ranmar, the first deva to wield the hammer was captured by the rakshasa in battle before he got to use it. Before his capture he teleported the weapon away to an unknown location. Ranmar has not been heard from for thousands of years.

Deva as PCs

Just checking out my orb. Like ya do.

Many deva worry that they are forsaking the cause of their people when they head to Canus seeking a life of adventure and leave the front lines of The Eternal War. Biatopia’s deva citizens are warned that this act alone is selfish enough to fate them to a rakshasa rebirth. Though many now know truth is much more complicated.

Some deva adventure so they might experience new worlds and cultures. Others leave Biatopia in the hopes of actually accomplishing something in the multiverse as opposed to fighting a desperate, never-ending war. Then there are those who strike out on their own for a greedy purpose. They don’t wish to be part of The Eternal War any longer because they don’t enjoy working with a group and want to live a life at the expense of others. These devas often feel they are owed something for their service and are usually the ones reborn as rakshasa in Biatopia when they die.

A deva’s life on Canus is one of discoveries both wondrous and disappointing. The variety of experiences and the moments of life’s pure joy astound and delight most deva, while the cruelty of non-demonic humanoids disgusts them. Deva often find themselves fighting a different sort of never-ending war, against the cruelty of civilized humanoid races. This can make some deva jaded, broken, and world-weary. Too many lifetimes with such cruelty has turned more than one deva toward alcoholism and orange spice addiction.

For other adventuring deva, this is not their first lifetime on Canus. They have been in the Material Plane and other places in the multiverse for as far back as they might remember. These deva usually have a pleasant outlook on the world and sometimes travel with the ancestors of people with whom they adventured lifetimes ago.

A deva adventurer might be a wizard traveling the multiverse in search of the origin of magic, a cleric searching the Material Plane for rakshasa to kill, a barbarian tired of The Eternal War and hoping to do some real good in Canus, or anything you dream.

Deva Traits

Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 1, your Wisdom score by 2.

Age. Devas are born as humans and have an immortal life span. They do not die of old age, but can be killed by disease or by wounds.

Alignment. Most devas tend toward good alignment. They may have been first made that way, and now lifetime after lifetime has taught them that being virtuous to others has its own reward. Many deva are also lawful. They follow their own codes of conduct so they don’t slip into a wicked life and return as the thing they hate most.

Size. Deva range from 6 to 6-and-a-half feet tall and weigh as much as humans do. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Astral Resistance. You have resistance to necrotic and radiant damage.

Cantrip. You know one cantrip of your choice from the cleric spell list. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability score for it.

Memory of a Thousand Lifetimes. When you make an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check and dislike the result, you can roll 1d10 and add it to the result. You must complete a short rest before you can use this ability again.

Worldly Knowledge. You have proficiency in the History skill.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Celestial and Common.

The End… Or Is It?

You know what? You guys are awesome. Thank you for reading, sharing, and commenting on my blog. Last week was my most successful week ever and that is thanks to you all.

Since you have been so awesome, I actually want to share a few more of the game mechanic I created for some more D&D races which won’t be in the player’s handbook. Say hello to the mul, shardmind, and thri-kreen. You can read more about these races in Exploration Age in my previous post Stealing Races.

Mul Traits

This guy is pumped to be here.

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2, your Constitution score by 1.

Age. Muls mature a few years before humans, and have a slightly shorter lifespan.

Alignment. Muls usually to keep to themselves and not get too involved in the matters of others, so they tend to be more neutral rather than good or evil. They run the gamut with respect to law and chaos. Some lawful muls have personal codes which guide their adventuring, while chaotic muls live life without caring what others may think of them.

Size. Mul range from 5 to a little over 5-and-a-half feet tall. Your size is Medium.

Darkvision. Thanks to your dwarven heritage, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 30 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Dwarven Toughness. Your hit point maximum increases by 1, and it increases by 1 every time you gain a level.

Incredible Resolve. You can end any incapacitated, paralyzed, or stunned condition effecting you on the start of your turn. You must complete a short rest before you can use this ability again.

Mul Vitality. You gain an extra hit die.

Tireless. You have advantage on saving throws and ability checks against increasing your exhaustion level.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Dwarven.

Shardmind Traits

Fancy!

Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 2, your Wisdom score by 1.

Age. Shardmind are forged as fully-formed adults and have an immortal lifespan.

Alignment. Shardminds tend toward neutrality on both the good and evil scale and the law and chaos scale.

Size. Shardminds are the same height as and slightly heavier then humans. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Construct Rest. Instead of sleeping, you enter a sleep‐like state. You need to remain in it for only 4 hours each day. You do not dream; instead, you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal. After resting this way, you gain the same benefits a human does from 8 hours of sleep.

Crystalline Mind. You have resistance against psychic damage.

Living Construct. Even though you were constructed, you are a humanoid. You are immune to disease. You do not need to eat or breathe, but you can ingest food and drink if you wish.

Shard Swarm. As an action, your body breaks apart and moves 15 feet and reforms. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks. Every creature adjacent to you before you move must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC 8 + your Intelligence modifier + proficiency). Creatures who fail the saving throw take 1d10 piercing damage. You must rest before you can use this ability again.

Telepathy. You can communicate telepathically with any creature within 60 feet of you that understands a language.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice.

Thri-kreen Traits

Look, Ma! Four hands!

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2, your Wisdom score by 1.

Age. Thri-kreen have short life spans. They mature around five years of age, and only live about 30 years.

Alignment. Many thri-kreen are lawful neutral. They are loyal to their friends and tribe, but suspicious of those they do not know well.

Size. Thri-kreen are usually around 7 feet tall and weigh between 400 and 500 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Darkvision. You have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 35 feet.

Multiple Arms. Thri-kreen have two large arms and two smaller arms. Your large arms function as a human’s normally do, and the smaller arms can be used to wield light weapons in combat. As a bonus action, you may use your thri-kreen claw attack or attack with a light weapon wielded by of the smaller arms. You do not add your ability modifier to the damage of this bonus action attack.

Natural Jumper. Whenever you make a Strength (athletics) check to jump, you have advantage. In addition, you are always considered to have moved at least 10 feet on foot whenever you jump, even if you have not (in other words, you always jump as if you had a running start). You can long jump a number of feet equal to 5 + your Strength score and high jump a number of feet equal to 5 + your Strength modifier.

Thri-kreen Claws. Thri-kreen have claws. These natural attacks count as light, finesse melee weapons which deals 1d6 piercing damage. All thri-kreen are proficient with their claws.

Torpor. Instead of sleeping, you enter a state of torpor. You need to remain in it for only 4 hours each day. You are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal when you are in this state. After resting this way, you gain the same benefits a human does from 8 hours of sleep.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Thri-kreen.

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcast on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

Hey all. Short update today. This week has been pretty insane with work and some other stuff (my brother had a baby). I’ve been cranking on the Exploration Age Campaign Guide. My hope was to share a module for ship combat today, but it isn’t quite ready so look forward to that in the near future.

Instead, I wanted to share with you some more excerpts from the Exploration Age Campaign Guide. We’ll be talking about something key to all D&D campaign worlds – cities!

Making a City

Look at all these cities!

When I sit down to create a city for Exploration Age, I try to think about three key questions.

1. Why is this city important? In other words, why is the city still standing? What is its main industry? What defines this city as compared to others, even those within the same country? For instance, Los Angeles is a very different city from Chicago which are both very different from Boston. Each has its own architecture, its own layout, its own people and personality, and its own reasons to thrive.
2. Where is the city located and why? Is this a port city? Is it near a body of water so its people can drink? Is it near a natural resource which fuels its main industry? Think about how location would influence the day-to-day lives of the people living within a given city. Icewind Dale’s Bryn Shander is very different from Calimport because of their locations in Forgotten Realms.
3. Why would adventurers want to come to this city? Beyond passing through, what might make this city attractive to adventurers? Perhaps it is close to or contains some adventure sites, has a rare magic shop that specializes in items found nowhere else, is home to a guild or government that might hire the PCs, or is a great place to gather rumors and information. Maybe its a great vacation spot where they can spend their down time! There’s loads of ways to make a place attractive to adventurers, but remember to include those details. This is an oft overlooked question.

If you need a city and you’re stuck, get inspired by looking at the real world. Jot down your top three favorite cities, all the things you like about them and then mix and match details to make a great city on the fly!

And Now… Some Cities

The following are excerpts from the Exploration Age Campaign Guide. It’s two cities from the human nation of Aeranore and one from the dwarf nation of Bragonay. Feel free to steal these cities for your own worlds if you don’t want to set your game in Canus. Let me know what you think!

Oliath (City Population 120,000)

The capital city of Aeranore is where Queen Icillia IV makes her home and holds court. Oliath is built upon a large hill, sprouting up on a lonely, flat plane. Atop the hill are the city’s most important buildings which can been seen throughout the land, The Grand Cathedral of Immortality, The Royal Palace of Reganta, and The Castle of the Council. At the bottom of the hill are the docks, welcoming boats that have come by various rivers after journeys on the Elma Ocean. All manner of residences and shops are layered between the top and bottom of the hill. As the saying goes in Oliath, the higher up the hill you live, the higher your income must be. Nobles and the upper class live at the top of the hill and folks become poorer as one gets closer to the docks. The massive city is known for the hill’s steep, winding roads and the massive, fifty-foot high, semicircular wall around the base where Oliath does not touch its namesake lake.

People of Oliath are all business. They hurry from place to place with little regard for the people around them. Many visitors think this behavior is quite rude, but the people of Oliath would tell you that getting in the way of someone with important business is more impolite. Its not that they are mean, its just that they have more important things on their mind.

Oliath is also home to Aeranore’s largest military compound and prison. All new recruits are trained in Aeranore and the military leadership lives and works within the city so they can be close to the queen. The military’s campus, Reganta Grounds, takes up almost a full eighth of the city. Massive dormitories, training grounds, mess halls, offices, stables, and equipment bunkers make up most of the area.

The city’s prison, Queensgard, is actually built into the hill itself. There is only one known entrance, but there are whispers of an Underdark passage into Queensgard that is known only by the military’s highest officers. Literally, the city of Oliath sits atop its prisoners.

Vacurion (City Population 90,000)

Aeranore’s Vacurion is often called The City of Pleasures and it truly delivers. During the day a traveler might want to experience one of Vacurion’s spas, parlors, or bathhouses to relax and prepare for the night. At night music, theatre, food, drinking, gambling, and other entertainments are all available for a person who is interested. The town even has special pleasure resorts in upscale neighborhoods instead of inns and taverns. These resorts will take care of all a traveler’s needs during his or her stay. The excitement doesn’t end there. Vacurion is full of exotic marketplaces and rare goods for sale thanks to it being on the Brellonic Coast. The city itself is a vibrant pink color, thanks to the unique sandstone used to make many of its buildings. Most of the residents of Vacurion don’t enjoy such a lavish life-style, since they are providing it to travelers, but they do live fairly well on the tips and kindness of patrons. They live in Vacurion’s towering pink apartment complexes and are usually as pleasant off duty as they are on.

In addition to being a place known for wild or relaxing vacations, Vacurion is also a place where many expeditions and immigrants leave for Verda. Mercenaries come to relax before heading out on a job across the ocean or after getting back from one. The rare goods found in the markets are alongside all manner of adventuring gear. Plus, there are always captains looking for crew and protection.

Because it attracts many wealthy people, Vaurion is also a target for pirate raids. As such, they have built a wall mounted with cannons around their dock district. The gates into and out of the docks can be dropped at a moment’s notice, trapping the pirates, and anyone with them, inside the district to be pummelled with cannons. This has prevented many raids, but they do occasionally still happen. Still, the rent is dirt cheap in the docks district as a result, so it’s not all bad!

Kerdabi (City Population 85,000)

Bragonay’s capital began deep inside The Spine of Bragonay’s Ahdagah Mountain which borders The Rocky Wastes. The sprawling city has since grown beyond the inside of Ahdagah Mountain. Its tunnels and structures spill out onto the mountain’s sun-baked surface.

Outside the mountain, things are a bit more lawless. This is where the peasant class and some artisans live and work. The soldiers do not patrol the area as much as inside, so criminal activity is far more commonplace. The black markets have goods rare and illegal, orange spice dens hide in plain sight, thugs intimidate shopkeepers for collection fees, and cutpurses stalk the crowded ledges along the sides of Ahdagah Mountain. The structures and traffic on the narrow ledges of the mountain, make living in outer Kerdabi a congested experience. To avoid disease being spread, the dead are burned as quickly as possible. The very top of Ahdagah Mountain is actually home to the world’s largest funeral pyre. A group of volunteer peasants keep it running all day and night. Kerdabi’s famous adamantine mines are accessible by tunnels separate from the inner city, so some of the peasants have never even seen the inside of Ahdagah Mountain.

Inner Kerdabi is another world. The air is better, the temperature is cooler, and the streets are less crowded. This is where the upper castes make their homes and conduct business. The most successful artisans live and work here, soldiers train for war here, and the fate of Bragonay is decided in these halls. Empress Najwa’s palace and the Warlord Chambers sit in a gated compound in the center of town. Once a year all of Bragonay’s noble caste is invited to come to Kerdabi and appeal to the warlords and empress in a summit on the first day of Summer. Kerdabi’s most famous attraction however, is its indoor arena, where volunteer gladiators are welcome to take on one another as well as monsters and beasts. The arena can even be flooded for naval battles.

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcast on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

“Given the necessity for ships in exploration as well as the likelihood that those ships could get set on fire in ship combat, it would probably be useful to have rules for ship combat in the Exploration Age Campaign Guide.” John Fischer, creator and player of Oruk the half-orc mage.

I have a Forgotten Realms game I’m running using the final D&D Next playtest packet, not the basic rules. We didn’t switch over yet, since our story is close to done and the party includes a monk, a bard, a druid, and three half-orcs – none of which are included in the basic rules. I asked my players if they wanted to start over and they preferred I not leave their current characters sailing off the Sword Coast in pursuit of pirates, forever wondering about their fate.

So last Monday they finally met those pirates and we had a battle on the high seas! Both boats had cannons and crew wielding firearms using the rules I had posted earlier this year. Both boats also had spellcasters shooting fireballs at one another, with sails and wood catching aflame. I winged the rules for ship combat and fire on the fly, and it went ok. Clearly though, I had some work to do considering the comment I got from John (because his opinion and criticism mean much to me). Now I’m going to present some optional rules for you which John and I created together for the Exploration Age Campaign Guide. Check it out!

Seriously, how great are paintings of ships?

General Rules for Ships in Combat

There are several ship offerings in the Player’s Handbook. Take a look at the chart below for a list of boats and their game statistics.

AC, HP, and Resistances. All ships have an Armor Class, Hit Points, and are resistant to all damage from nonmagical weapons which are not siege weapons.

Minimum Crew Required. This number on the chart above is the number of sailors with proficiency in vehicles (water or air) required to keep a ship moving. During their turns, these crewmen can do nothing with their action other than tasks which keep the ship moving, such as rowing or sailing.  Most ships bring on at least double, if not triple, the number of required crew so that they can share shifts during travel and have extra hands during combat to work siege weapons and board enemy vessels.

One of these crewmen is considered the captain, who decides where and how the ship moves. The captain’s proficiency bonus and relevant ability modifier is applied to any checks required to control the vehicle in difficult circumstances.

Unmanned. When a vessel does not have the minimum number of crew using their actions to keep the ship moving, it is considered unmanned. If the vessel is anchored before this occurs, the ship stays where it is. If no anchor was dropped, the boat is adrift and subject to the wind and water currents at the GM’s discretion. The captain can no longer choose the direction of the ship. In general a strong water or water current might move a ship 40 ft. per round, a medium current might move it 30 ft., and a light current might move it 20 ft. per round. Sometimes there may be no current or little current and a boat may stay in its place.

Cannons Per Side. This is the number of cannons that can reasonably fit on the port and starboard sides of a ship with the space for the siege weapon crew to use them without getting in each other’s way. Some larger ships, like the warship or galley may be outfitted with a single cannon on the fore and aft decks. In order to attack a creature or object with a siege weapon aboard a ship, the appropriate side of the ship must be facing the target.

Sinking. When a ship’s Hit Points reach 0 or less, it begins to sink. When it begins sinking, there is a 50% chance that the ship may tilt in a random direction (the GM decides or rolls 1d4 to see if the ship tilts and sinks aft first, fore first, starboard first, or port first). Creatures must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw to hang onto a fixed, adjacent object or be thrown overboard. The ship stays in this position while sinking. A sinking ship can still be attacked and dealt damage.

Obliteration. If a ship’s Hit Points reach negative their max HP, the ship is obliterated. The vessel is completely destroyed and its cargo and crew find themselves in the water.

Repairs. A damaged ship cannot have its Hit Points restored the way a creature can, since it is an object. In general, ship repairs cost 5 gp per 1 HP restored and take a number of hours to complete equal to the number of Hit Points restored.

Special Boats

Rowboat. The rowboat is so small that siege weapons (such as cannons) have disadvantage when attacking a manned vessel. A rowboat’s crew need not be proficient in vehicles (water) to move the ship.

Longship. If a longship dips below its required crew of 26, it does not suffer normal unmanned conditions. Instead, the ship begins moving at a speed of 15 feet, as it is rowed. A longship being rowed is considered unmanned when it has less than 13 crew.

A longship has one sail which it can use to move with a speed of 10 ft. If the longship has less than 5 crew and is being sailed, it is considered unmanned. Unless it is sailing, a longship’s crew need not be proficient in vehicles (water) in order for it to move.

Galley.  If a galley dips below its required crew of 120, it does not suffer normal unmanned conditions. Instead, the ship begins moving at a speed of 25 feet, as it is rowed. A galley being rowed is considered unmanned when it has less than 60 crew.

A galley can be sailed instead of rowed and move at a speed of 30 ft. If the galley has less than 20 crew and is being sailed, it is considered unmanned. Unless it is sailing, a galley’s crew need not be proficient in vehicles (water) in order for it to move.

Airship. An airship is a magic, flying warship, which is propelled by the elemental force of lightning. An airship does not sink. Rather, the vessel and every creature aboard it without a fly speed begins to fall per normal falling rules when its Hit Points are reduced to 0 or less.

From D&D Basic rules – the price of boats!

Special Movement and Attack Rules

Seriously, how great are paintings of boats on fire?

Ships are vehicles which are difficult to control under the best circumstances. They are also surprisingly delicate when it comes to their masts and fire.

Turning

When it comes to turning a ship, the larger it is, the less mobile. Most ships can turn no more than 90 degrees in one direction during a move. Longships, warships, and galleys can turn no more than 45 degrees in one direction during a move.

Changing Direction

Row boats, longships being rowed, and galleys being rowed can move backwards. In order to change direction from forwards to backwards and vice versa, the vessel must spend one turn still in the water, steadying. On its next turn the vessel may move backwards or forwards as the captain chooses.

Attacking Masts

Masts of a ship can be singled out and attacked. A mast has one-tenth the hit points of the entire vessel. Any damage a mast takes, the vessel also takes as a whole. Siege weapons have disadvantage on attacks against masts.

If a ship’s mast is destroyed and it is being sailed, its speed is reduced by 10 feet. Once all of a ships masts are destroyed, the vessel is considered unmanned, unless it can be rowed.

Attacking with Fire

Certain siege weapons, spells, and magic items have the potential to light a vessel on fire, though many seafaring vessels are crudely fire-proofed. When a vessel is dealt fire damage, there is a 20% chance the area of the ship affected by the attack will light on fire.

Every round at the top of initiative, the fire deals 1d6 (3) fire damage to the vessel for every 25 square feet of the ship which is on fire (rounded down). After the damage is dealt, there is a 50% chance the fire spreads 5 feet in a random direction determined by the GM (consider the wind when using thinking about spreading fire, or roll a d8 to determine the direction the blaze moves).

A creature can use its action to put out a 5 x 5 foot area of fire, using an object to smother the flames (such as a tarp or blanket) or a gallon of water to extinguish the blaze (the water is consumed in this action and more must be obtained before the creature can put out more fire). Certain spells, such as create water, have the ability to quench fires in their description. Any spell which deals cold damage can be used to extinguish an area of fire equal to the spell’s area of effect. If the spell deals cold damage and attacks a single target, like ray of frost, then it can be used to extinguish a 5 x 5 foot area of fire.

Alchemist’s paint is a special, clear substance which can be applied to wooden vessels to prevent them from catching on fire. It does not come cheap, however. A barrel of the stuff costs 1,000 gp and is enough to cover a single rowboat. Alchemist’s paint not only prevents fires from breaking out on boats, it also gives a vessel resistance to fire damage. The benefits of alchemist’s paint last one year.

Below is a table which gives the number of barrels of alchemist’s paint required to completely coat a vessel. Each barrel takes one creature one day of work to apply. Multiple creatures can paint a vessel at once, decreasing the time it takes to fire-proof a ship.

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcast on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

So it occurred to me that while there’s quite a few backgrounds out there, there are not many which focus on non-magical healing arts. I’m talking about physicians, medics, nurses, barbers, vets, and the like. It may have occurred to me because I have a grandfather, father, and sister who are doctors along with a brother in nursing school and several members of my extended family who also work in the field. Heck, back in the day my grandmother worked for the World Health Organization like the boss she was. So you can see why I noticed the lack of medical professionals in D&D, as I have never been without.

There is something else at play here too, beyond my personal family history. In a recently recorded, soon-to-be-aired Tome Show podcast review of the Player’s Handbook, Jeff Greiner mentioned that while he really liked the fifth edition rules and classes, he missed the warlord class from the fourth edition days. I’m in agreement with him. Now, I can already hear your brain telling Jeff and me that the warlord lives on in some builds of the tactically minded Battle Master fighter archetype. I agree with that as well, but if you look hard, that build is focused on movement and giving allies attacks, not healing. It would be great to have a martial healing option. I used to dream about that before fourth edition came out and was excited to see a nonmagical healer as an option.

I understand, though, that not everyone was thrilled with the fourth edition inspiring warlord. How could his inspiring word with no magic behind it close wounds the same way a cleric’s healing word might? It’s a fair question, and some (like myself) might say hit points aren’t just your your body’s ability to take a beating, but also your endurance, etc. Yet, when dealing with an ally that is unconscious and bleeding out with a loxo tusk through his or her belly, the warlord’s healing becomes a little harder to sell. You can see why Wizards did away with that idea for fifth edition, because mechanically it works the same as a cleric’s healing which is magic. I say we still need (or at least it would be nice to have) a true nonmagical healer.

I wanted to see someone who could really heal an ally once the battle was over and aid in recovery in down time. Heck, if you had the right rules you could create a gritty world and do away with healing magic all together. With short rests, the Healer feat, and Hit Dice working the way they do in fifth edition, I thought for sure we’d see a doctor background. Well, we didn’t, but that’s ok. I can make it myself. This bad boy is going in the Exploration Age Campaign Guide for sure.

New Background: Doctor

You were a surgeon, barber, country doctor, field medic, nurse, or other medical professional. Healing wounds, treating diseases, and creating medicines for others in need was how you spent your days. While illness and injury make many uncomfortable, they are areas in which you thrive. When others panic, you’re working on a cure or stopping the bleeding.

Skill Proficiencies: Investigation, Medicine

Tool Proficiencies: Herbalism Kit, Poisoner’s Kit

Equipment: A preserved medical anomaly (such as a deformed skull or appendix), an herbalism kit, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a belt pouch containing 15 gp.

Feature: The Doctor Is In

If you work as a healer during your downtime from adventuring you are able to afford a modest lifestyle for yourself. In addition, whenever you and your allies are in a civilized settlement, you are able to provide them with free medical care and hospital beds, provided they are sick or injured. This is provided as a professional courtesy from your others in the field of medicine.

Suggested Characteristics

Many doctors share a passion for healing the human body, whether or not they have bedside manner. Their studies and experiences have given them an edge and they are often the smartest person in the room. This quality can make some haughty know-it-alls, but those who are kind are often mentors who are sought out for advice by others. Many societies hold their healers in high esteem for good reason. It’s up to you if this goes to your head or not.

Variant Doctor: Veterinarian

If you want to play a doctor who treats animals instead of people, you gain proficiency in the Animal Handling skill instead of the Investigation skill. In addition give yourself the Sure Thing, Doc background feature in place of The Doctor Is In feature.

Variant Feature: Sure Thing, Doc

If you work as a vet during your adventuring downtime you are able to afford a modest lifestyle for yourself. In addition when you require an animal (such as horses for mounts or bloodhounds for tracking) you are able to borrow them from a client, provided you return the animals in good health. The actual terms of the agreement with the client are between you and DM.

So there it is! The doctor!

No, no not THAT The Doctor, you nerds. This is the cool-guy D&D fifth edition background doctor. Let me know what you think and enjoy!

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

The RPG Blog community is awesome. I have found a lot of really wonderful, supportive folks out there with their own blogs in the 7 months I’ve been doing this thing.

They do bring you the best in RPGs!

I bring this up because it is the theme of this month’s RPG Blog Carnival. I thought I’d let you all know what blogs I like to read so you can discover some other cool people if you aren’t already following them. It’s all about the love and support. Reading these blogs gives me ideas for posts of my own and has allowed me to meet a bunch of new friends.

• Dice Monkey Hosting this month’s carnival, the blog covers everything from comics to D&D. Mark Merdith reviews, designs, inspires, and creates. He’s prolific, smart, and kind. Check him out. He’s even got a lot of great products and supplements up on his site. Odds are if you’re playing a tabletop RPG, he’s written about it.
• Sly Flourish If you’re a DM or GM, Mike Shea‘s site is for you. He has all kinds of great tips and advice which run from system specific (including Fate, Dungeons and Dragons, 13th Age, and more) to general DM advice. He’s actually the guy who inspired me to start blogging and podcasting so I can’t recommend him enough.
• Gaming As Women I’m a feminist and a nerd. I can’t say enough how much it irks me when I see hateful comments and brohams trolling women in gaming. People, isn’t the gaming community marginalized enough as it is? So do yourself a favor, check out this blog. Gaming As Women is a great blog full of interesting essays, where women talk about their experiences in games, studies done in the industry, and review products. The many authors on the site are all women and as a man who plays mostly with other men, it’s great to see things from a different perspective.
• Newbie DM Enrique the Newbie DM has been playing D&D for years, but only really began DMing when fourth edition came along. He has some great advice on his site for new DMs and old alike. He also comments on the news of the day with a wise eye and swift pen. I’m looking forward to the return of his fabulous minicast with the release of fifth edition D&D. So check him out already!
• Old Dungeon Master Another great blog for DMs and GMs out there. Ronny Hart has been a DM for 30 years and right now he’s covering the release of fifth edition beautifully, giving us an inside look as his game and dolling out sage advice.
• Gaming Ballistic People of the world, Douglas Cole is here for you! My man is mainly a GURPS guru, but his blog covers a wealth of topics! If you need someone to really break down an idea or concept, you cannot beat Mr. Cole. He does deep dives into all sorts of ideas, including some he did for the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons. He also does in-depth interviews with people in the gaming industry, including this one he did with me:

• Dungeon Fantastic If you like old school dungeon crawls (and who doesn’t?) Peter V. Dell’Orto is your man. His system is GURPs, but his ideas and advice are universal. He loves hacking things and taking traditional fantasy ideas and turning them on their head. Check him out! This is a great resource for all fantasy RPG DMs.
• Sarah Darkmagic She’s written for Gaming As Women, but this one is the fantastic Tracy Hurley‘s personal blog. Her passion for equality amongst all people knows no bounds and her blog posts make a person think twice about their own games. I can’t say enough good things about Tracy and her blog, so do yourself a favor and check it out for yourself. I bet you come away more thoughtful and open-minded than you did before. She’s also a Wizards of the Coast insider, so you get a good behind-the-scenes look into the industry and the folks who make D&D.
•  5 Minute Workday Do you like your RPG news, reviews, and GM advice with a hilarious web comic? Then you have to check out Jester David‘s blog. He’s a man you can trust and does his research. His pen is solid, people. Check him out, especially if you like Pathfinder and D&D!
• RPG Musings I share a similar philosophy about gaming with author Sam Dillon – play the game you want to play. I’ve never met a person who can really evaluate and see an issue from all sides the way Sam can. If you like level-headed, even-handed, brilliant GMs, check out his blog for advice and thoughts on D&D products. If there’s one GM out there I want to experience more than any other, it’s Sam the man.
• Acts of Geek In the style of Nerdist, Acts of Geek covers everything in nerd culture. Check out their column by Joe Lastowski, Draggin’ Through Dungeons, to keep up with the latest D&D products. Joe’s reviews are thorough and tend to highlight things I would miss on a first read, so keep this page bookmarked and be sure to check back whenever a new D&D product arises. When he isn’t writing about products directly, Joe is commenting on the rules and giving us an in-depth look at fifth edition!
• The Gaming Blog of General Tangent If you want to hear the musings, advice, clever game designer, this is the blog for you. The posts are generally shorter, but packed with solid information. General Tangent hits hard and fast, so check out the blog and enjoy. It’s really good, especially when you don’t have time to read a long post from somewhere else.

Also, if you’re out there thinking of starting you own blog, be it about RPGs or anything else, let me say this – do it. It’s free and it’s rewarding. Even if you only post a few times and decide it’s not for you, hey at least you tried it out and won’t be wondering. For me, it’s been a super rewarding experience and I have found a whole new community of folks who talk games with me! What could be better?

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

I have a friend who warned me after my second blog post that involving my players too much in the creation of my world was bad news. “Players will tell you what they want, but they have no idea really.” I’m delighted to report that I think this friend, great as he is, was incorrect.

Sitting down to create a campaign guide is no small feat and I couldn’t do it without the help of my friends and all you folk commenting on the blog. My players in particular have done a ton of work, helping me playtest and revise the various mechanics I’ve created. They are world builders and architects with me every step of the way. It’s thanks to suggestions and direct contributions from my players that I was able to create rules for naval combat and firearms. Not to mention my players helped create adventure sites via the Well of Heroes and suggested I create the Explorers’ Guild and The Society of Seekers.

Well I just read through a whole bunch of character backstories, some less than a page of bullet points, others 33 pages single-spaced. Now I have a lot more story material with which to play!

Encouraging Players to Create

Right now all my players have access to a rough manuscript version of the Exploration Age Campaign Guide. While I asked them to help edit the book, I also invited them to create their own cities, adventure sites, and whatever else they wanted to bring into the world. After all, the book isn’t close to being published and the earliest we may see any kind of OGL is December, and even then the launch wouldn’t be until 2015. So anything they add at this point I can actually add to the book itself. That’s pretty cool! Even if we did have a published book though, or we were playing in a setting someone else created, like Dark Sun, I would still invite my players to do this. These guys are doing the work for me and everything they create is a new and interesting story hook!

I suggest you do the same. I ask all my players for a backstory. The least I can do is let them write what they want within the themes of the setting. Writing a backstory should be fun, not homework. I don’t give them any restrictions in page count or format and I encourage them to let their imaginations run wild.

Usually, my players still clear anything major with me before they cement it into their backstories. I’m very cool with this, but it’s a courtesy, not a requirement. When they do ask about something I always use that old improv trick of saying, “Yes, and…” If you don’t know the concept, essentially when a player offers you an idea you say yes and build on the idea so it works within your setting.

I’d now like to give you a look at a few of the things my players brought to Exploration Age.

City of Autumn

My friend and frequent Round Table panelist Andrew was writing the backstory for his Archfey Pact Human Warlock, Nightshade, when he asked me if he could create a a city in the predominantly elf and halfling country of Taliana where Nightshade was raised. His thought was to create a city which spanned two sides of a major river in a forest. I thought that sounded interesting, so I said yes.

It doesn’t stop there though. Andrew also wanted to create Nightshade’s Archfey patron. He knew of the Summer and Winter courts in the Feywild, but wanted to know why it was more difficult to find information on the Autumn court. I told him I had never seen it fleshed out and so he took it upon himself to detail the Autumn Court and its queen, his patron, Messia. So not only did I get a city out of the deal, I also got a whole Feywild court detailed, which gives me plenty of adventure ideas and hooks for Nightshade as well as the rest of the party. Take a look at the description of Siannodel from the Exploration Age Campaign Guide.

For your reference. Note: Siannodel has not been added to the map yet!

Siannodel

Taliana’s City of Autumn sits on both sides of the Vumba River on Vacurion Bay. The city itself sits in an enormous maple grove and is most beautiful during the Autumn season when all the trees are changing and the river runs calmly. Twisting bridges made of orange, red, and yellow maple leaves held together by magic bring both sides of the city together. Perhaps this is the reason the city is favored by Messia, the Archfey queen of the Autumn Court. Since lumber is the city’s main trade, Messia is honored by the lumberjacks who try to make a point of planting trees each year to replace the ones they cut down, for fear of losing Messia’s favor. During the Autumn sacrifices are made and feasts are held in Messia’s honor and in exchange the city is warded to keep undead, vermin, and evil outsiders from entering Siannodel’s city limits. Giant vermin from the Arachna War are something the people of Siannodel are worried about these days, so it is important they keep Messia happy. Unfortunately, there is an indication that the city could be falling out of the Autumn queen’s good graces.

Siannodel used to always have a guardian, a champion warlock of Messia who would watch over the city and surrounding forest. However, it has been more than a century since Messia made a pact and the folk of the city whisper their corrupt ruling council is causing them to fall out of Messia’s favor. Heian Zeïtan, a longstanding council member, has recently begun throwing more gold around than it seems he takes in. He claims it is the inheritance of a distant relative, but others are not so sure. Siannodel did not participate as much as it could have during The Fourth Great War, and some whisper he was paid by enemy forces to keep Siannodel out of the fight as much as possible.

Because of its position on the on Vacurion Bay, Siannodel is a usually a stop for merchants and adventurers on their way to other parts of Findalay or Verda. As such, the city has thriving local blacksmiths, shipwrights, carpenters, artisans, and hospitality establishments.

Just Sign Here

Sometimes players create a magic item in their backgrounds. It might be a lost family sword or a rumored suit of armor which can resist the breath weapon of the dragon which destroyed a PC’s hometown. There are some players who think way outside the box and give you a unique artifact to put into your setting. My friend John gave me the background for Oruk, the half-orc wizard, and included in his history was an (evil) artifact called The Death Note Scroll (and yep, it’s that on the nose). Essentially, this artifact allows a user to write the name of any living creature on the scroll, the creature then dies, and the scroll teleports away to a new unknown location. This note plays a huge part in Oruk’s history, though I didn’t get more specifics than this, so I’d have to create the mechanics myself. Now, I’d like to present to you the story and game mechanics for The Death Note Scroll.

The Death Note Scroll

Wondrous item, artifact

Made from the skin of a long-forgotten, dead archdevil, by a victorious demon prince in the Blood War, The Death Note Scroll still hungers for souls. Every time a new name is written on the scroll, a tiny black diamond appears next to it, holding the name bearer’s soul inside. The scroll never runs out of space, for every time a name is added it stretches and grows a little. The Death Note Scroll is constantly hungry and those who bear it feel a strong urge to add to it the name of their closest foe, annoyance, or even friendly rival. In the black of midnight each night the scroll whispers aloud the names on the scroll in a voice as dry as forgotten paper. It often appears in an unremarkable black case, but when heated by flame, red Abyssal script appears on the outside, telling of a powerful gift within.

Once a name is written on The Death Note Scroll, the creature who’s name is written dies if they have less than 200 hit points. Their soul is trapped in the diamond which appears next to their name and they cannot be revived or brought back in anyway, unless The Death Note Scroll is destroyed. Once a name is added to the scroll, it teleports away to a random location (DM’s choice).

The Death Note Scroll is forged by powerful demonic magic and can only be destroyed by an archdevil or demon prince. Courting the favor of these beings is nigh impossible and those who do, must be prepared to give up much.

I Can’t Sleep

Sometimes players get a little more complicated than creating a city or magic item for your campaign world. My player Ray has a sorcerer PC, Ezra, who at times cannot sleep (he’s rather troubled). Ray took his PC and tied his background into that of Andrew’s Nightshade. Both have the favor of Messia, the queen of the Autumn Court. So sometimes Ezra is able to sleep soundly, for Messia takes pity on him and comforts him in his sleep.

Ray wanted to create an insomnia system which would put him at a disadvantage on the nights he did not sleep, but give him a slight edge on the night’s Messia, a powerful Archfey, showed up to help him sleep. I told him I would check it out to make sure it wasn’t giving him a huge advantage, and if it all looked kosher, we’d playtest the mechanic. Here’s what Ray created. Nice work!

Rules Module: Spellcaster Insomnia

You have trouble sleeping. Every time you take an extended rest, roll on the chart for the results below.

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

Artisanal is a word you hear a lot these days and it’s almost always applied to food. It used to be that the word was applied to handmade signs you would buy at a craft fair that you’d proudly display on your front porch or blown glass ornaments you’d hang upon a holiday tree. Now we hear about artisanal cheeses, breads, salad dressings, and all sorts of food. You need not travel far to view this word applied to edibles. Just walk into the closest supermarket or deli and I’ll bet you see the word brandished about in full force.

How’d we get here? Well I bet all the cheese, bread, and salad dressing makers realized they were putting in just as many hours to make just as little money as the glass blowers. Why shouldn’t they also get to advertise their products as artisanal?

When you hear that word, it conjures up a quality product made by an artist with a passion for the craft. This product wasn’t made by machines on an assembly line. Nay! It was lovingly formed by the hands of a master. It wasn’t mass-produced for just any old person, but rather made specifically for those who appreciate the art of the particular product as much as the crafter.

All this is to say that I can see why the word gets applied to our eats so often these days. As a big time lover of food living with an amazing woman who has a food blog of her own I have grown to appreciate quality ingredients and meals. That doesn’t mean I’m above eating some Cheetos with a can of Sprite, but I understand the appeal.

My Compliments to the Chef

When I looked at the Guild Artisan background and artisan’s tools in the Player’s Handbook, it was fun to see the cook’s utensils and the brewmaster’s supplies getting a piece of the action. It made me think of Samwise fighting with his pots and pans in the Fellowship of the Ring. It got me thinking about all the cooks and brewmasters who weren’t actually part of a guild out there. Why would the tavern cook or personal chef belong to a guild? Does the street vendor go to meetings or travel as a merchant or do they stay in one place? Selling pies and cheese is a little different from selling armor or barrels and so I figured I’d create a background to go along with that idea.

So it is without further adieu that I present the Cook background and a few new tools for your PCs to use.

Cook

To you food is more than just sustenance and pleasure. A great meal is great art which brings people together for consumption. You might have worked in a tavern, a bakery, as a personal chef to a family or noble, or within a military unit as they marched or set sail. Decide what kind of cook job you had or roll on the table below.

Something has called you away from full-time cooking and into the world of adventuring, but you still take pleasure in the craft. Preparing and cooking food is a big part of who you are and how you communicate with others.

Tool proficiencies: Any food-related set of artisans tools

Skill proficiencies: Deception, Persuasion

Languages: One language of your choice spoken by another civilized race

Starting Equipment: A set of common clothes, a set of artisan’s tools related to your craft, an iron pot, a book of recipes  you’ve gathered over the years, and a belt pouch with 10 gp.

Feature: Through Their Stomachs

You are able to earn a comfortable living during your downtime by working as a cook. In addition you are able to feed your adventuring companions modest meals each day for free. You are also able to use your talents to arrange meetings with anyone interested in a free meal. By offering to a cook a free meal for someone who would appreciate it (at the DM’s discretion), you are able to get a meeting with him or her over that meal.

Suggested Characteristics

Just like a sculptor understands clay, you understand ingredients. You appreciate a great meal and are interested in the science and finesse of your craft. You might be a bit of a snob when it comes to what you eat, or you may be fascinated by any dish, even that which others find vile. Through years of selling your edible creations to others you are a sly salesman, and able to work wonders on any tough customers, especially if they’re eating something you cooked.

Tools of the Trade

So this background called for a few additional artisan’s tools. Use the table below to help you out!

What do you think of the cook background? Let me know in the comments below before I add it to the Free Resources section of this site.

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

Perfect gift for a naughty PC.

First things first. Here’s my gift to all of you. The Legendary Lineage background and the Cook background. Check them out below. These will always live in the Free Game Resources section of the site. Thanks for the feedback on these!

Legendary Lineage Background

Cook Background

But Wait, There’s More!

My players are awesome. You’ve probably heard a lot of them on The Round Table podcast I host so you know that it’s a group of kind, hilarious, amazing people I am privileged to call my friends. I wanted to send them a little holiday gift so here’s an email I sent to them. This idea is taken from the The Geeky Hostess who was a recent guest on the Dungeons and Dragons podcast where she talked about giving D&D themed gifts. These cost nothing but a little of your time and are usually quite fun for your players. It was a genius idea so I stole it!

Hey People of D&D,

First of all you rock. Thanks for taking time to roll some bones with me once a week or so. I love the stories we tell together. The highlight of my week is sitting down and relaxing with all of you to play some D&D.

I wanted to give you all a little gift this holiday season to show you my appreciation. So, below are a few bullet points that you can each invoke one time during any fifth edition D&D game I DM in the future.

• Gain advantage on any d20 roll before rolling.
• Turn any roll of a natural 1 on a d20 into a natural 20.
• Gain 5 temporary HP.
• Add one potion of the DM’s choice to any treasure hoard.
• Automatically stabilize after failing a death saving throw.

Hope you enjoy! Looking forward to seeing all of you soon!

Love,

James

The gifts you give your players are FREE and very easy to scale up or down based on what you want to give your players. Maybe instead of all the idea above you grant them each an uncommon wondrous item. The options are endless and awesome. Let me know what you might give your players in the comments below! My players really loved this gift and have already used some of the benefits bestowed upon them. Just in time for all the D&D you’ll be playing over the holidays! Happy holidays everyone!

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

This month’s RPG Blog Carnival theme is How/Where You Write/Prep chosen by V.A. over at Leicester’s Ramble. So it’s all about where and how people like me and all the other creators and GMs out there write for tabletop RPGs. Whether you write homebrew adventures, a blog, novels, short stories, supplements, articles, or rule books, this information is for you.

My Schedule

Like most of you I have an insane schedule. I’ve got a full-time job, three regular podcasts, and freelance assignments. I’m in a committed relationship with an amazing woman that I enjoy putting time and energy into. I run two D&D games. I’ve got family relationships and friendships to maintain. I also have the human requirements of food, clean clothes, showers, exercise, and sleep. I don’t even have kids or school to attend like many of you and I’ve already got a full schedule. So when am I supposed to write for this blog and my campaigns?

My Happy Place – The Commute

I have a 20-minute to 30-minute (one way) commute to work that uses public transportation. While I’m waiting for and on the train, I write. That’s what I’m doing as I write this sentence. Even if if have to stand on the train and hang onto the bar over my head with one hand because all the seats are taken, I write. Even if my commute is as fast as can be each day of the work week (and that never happens with the Washington, DC metro), that’s 3 hours and 20 minutes of solid writing I can get done each week.

I do this writing on my iPhone using the Notes app. I can email, text, and copy/paste my words with a few quick finger motions. Notes is linked to my Google account so all the work I do is automatically backed up. Combine this with the WordPress app I also have on my phone and posting a blog update is a breeze.

Of course, using a smartphone is not ideal for editing. That’s why the man (in his corporate anti-rock-and-roll visage) created the lunch break.

Edit During Lunch

I’ll be honest. I hate editing. I’m sure Greg Blair can attest to this fact as he has found many a typo in my blog over the past year and emailed me about them. (Thanks, Greg!)

Still, editing is one of the most important parts of the writing process. Editing is shaping your lump-of-clay words into a beautiful statue. It never takes as long as you think and if you can find time to write, you can find time to edit.

I like to edit my work during my lunch hour. This works out well for me since I don’t need to edit every single day. I usually need only two hours of edit time a week, depending on how many projects I have going and how many PDFs I’m trying to put up on the Free Game Resources section of this site. That gives me three hours for whatever I need to do, like grab lunch with a friend, catch up on work for my day job, run errands, write podcast notes, etc. Giving myself two guaranteed hours of edit time is great and I try to use them at the beginning of the week. That way if I need some extra edit time I can try to use my lunch hours later in the week to help me out.

The Editing Exception

I must admit that there is one thing I never edit and that’s my home campaign notes. Good lord are they riddled with typos and mistakes, but it doesn’t matter! Those notes are just for me and I know what I meant. Unless you’re planning on sharing your home campaign notes, don’t worry about editing. Save yourself some time (and also use helpful organizational tools and improv techniques to cut down on your prep time).

Best Laid Plans

Sometimes all the lunch hours and commute time in the world aren’t enough to get a project done. Sometimes life gets busy and all your time free time is spent doing stuff that isn’t writing. In these cases I still have my favorite time to write, which is the early morning.

Starting the day off writing is like starting the day off with a great workout. You feel accomplished and ready to face the rest of the day once the task is complete. If you can wake up and get going before anyone else in your household, that’s even better. Your distractions are limited because the rest of the world is sleeping or just waking up. Email, Facebook, Twitter, texts, and more are just as sleepy as the rest of the world. The quiet and the good night’s sleep you just had put you at the top of your writing game. The anxiety you felt the day before as stress built up over work, family, etc. is gone or at least lessened at the start of a new day.

There’s another great reason I like to write at the start of the day. The work gets done sooner. That writing is no longer hanging over my head. Even if you enjoy writing, waiting until the last moment to complete something makes it feel like a chore. It can conjure up bad memories of pulling all-nighters to finish a school assignment. Write in the morning and you’ll be less stressed the rest of the day.

Music

When I’m writing I tend to like music without lyrics or music with lyrics I know by heart. For me lyrics I don’t know very well become distracting. (Did she just say she wants to see my peacock?!?) Depending on what I’m writing I usually opt for something thematic for fantasy, like a John Williams and Hans Zimmer station on Pandora, or I go with something upbeat to help the words flow and keep me in a good mood. That’s where my favorite bands The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Action Slacks help out. I’ve been listening to them forever so the lyrics don’t trip me up and their fast-paced songs help the words flow like ambrosia.

Listening to music can help you get inspired and write faster, so if you’re on a schedule grab a favorite album or appropriately theme soundtrack and get rocking.

What About You?

How do you like to write and what helps you be super quick? I’m always looking for more tips so sound off in the comments below!

If you like what you’re reading please follow me on Twitter, check out my other podcasts, Bonus Action and Gamer to Gamer, tell your friends, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

I originally wrote this article for Johnn Four’s free roleplaying tips newsletter you can and should sign-up for over at roleplayingtips.com.

There is no task for a game master more daunting and gratifying than worldbuiding. Creating a universe in which a group of PCs can romp around in is very gratifying, but the seemingly Herculean effort it takes to get there can be miserable especially if you have many life commitments outside of gaming. For the last decade I’ve been running Dungeons and Dragons and other RPGs in published campaign settings, but it was always a dream of mine to create a new world. I mean a full, rich world with a huge history. We’re talking original rules modules, big honking maps, new monsters, intrigue, dungeons, rivalries, and more open-ended story than the closing chapter of a Goosebumps novel. The kind of thing I had the time to do as a kid but could now tackle with the wisdom of an adult.

Last year I finally embarked on creating that new world. With the impending release of fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons I set pen to page and began creating a world from the top down. With so much going on in my own world and the promise of an Open Gaming License from Wizards of the Coast I’m still working on my 300+ page campaign guide that I’m preparing for my first self-publishing venture. I’ve been chronicling my efforts on this blog since January of last year. During that journey I’ve picked up a few tips and tricks that can help you build a RPG world of your own, no matter how fleshed out you want your own campaign world to be. Your world might be built top down or bottom up or half off the top of your head and one session at a time. If your world is an original (or modified from an existing) creation these tips will help you out. Here they are in no particular order.

Take Notes

You are going to have ideas for your campaign. Lots and lots and lots of ideas. They might come at work, during your commute, during dinner, or another time a pen and paper aren’t handy. If you don’t write ideas down, they’re going to fade away. Your phone is your friend. Most mobile phones, even those of the non-smart variety, have a notepad feature. So when you get a great idea jot that sucker down and you’ll have it as long as you have the phone. If you want to backup your ideas copy and pasting them into an email or text message is super easy. When you sit down to flesh out your world you’ll know exactly where to find your awesome ideas.

Know Your World’s Central Idea

What makes your world special? Does it feel like a Lovecraft story? Is it recovering from a recent war? Is it in the middle of one? Does one oppressive (or benevolent) ruler have absolute power? Do the gods come down in person and give decrees to their worshippers? Is it a whacky place where every natural landform is made of candy?

Your world should have a central idea which sets it apart from the rest. In Exploration Age, the central idea is that there are unmapped areas of the planet that the civilized world is racing to uncover and colonize. I hold onto that idea and wonder how it affects everything else happening in the campaign world. How do the “uncivilized” peoples react to the colonization of their home by others? How do competing countries negotiate different land grabs? How will the new resources discovered in the new world affect the old? What struggles do the colonists have? Let your central idea permeate through all aspects of the world. Whenever you’re creating a new place or person within your world as yourself how it relates to your central idea.

Have A Map

I’m not an artist, but good lord it helps so much to have a map. Being able to visualize the world is not just a help to players, but to you as well. Everything becomes so much clearer and the world feels more real once you have a map. This is because most people are visual learners and need to see something to understand it. You can start small, just what you need for your first session, or build out your whole world at once. Knowing how close a city is to an ocean or orc infested mountains can help you discover what is unique about that settlement. If you’re like me and can’t draw freehand I recommend checking out some software. For free there’s Hexographer (which I use and is worth buying a few extras) and Stone Sword, or you could be fancy and buy Fractal Mapper, Campaign Cartographer, or Mapdiva.

Have A Timeline

Even if it’s very rough make a small timeline of your world’s history. Think about how major events would shape your world and adventure sites. How do these events tie into the central idea of your campaign? In my world aberrations used to rule the land before they were wiped out by dragons. Their magic technology can be salvaged within the ruins of their former empire, many of which are hidden deep in the uncharted wilds. These ruins are blank spots within blank spots! The events of my timeline inform the current world and relate back to the central idea. The rise and fall of nations and rulers, the birth of races, the discovery of new lands, the creation of important technologies, wars, treaties, and the like are the sort of events to consider adding to your timeline.

Steal and Twist

When it comes to stealing ideas for your world, don’t be afraid. Let literature, video games, film, television, art, and other campaign settings inspire you. When you do steal an idea go one step further and twist it. Add something to the idea or turn it on its head and see what happens. That idea is putty. Play with it until you’ve made something you think is interesting and original. Let’s take the giant spider infested Mirkwood of The Hobbit. Maybe you want to add a similar forest to your realm, but instead of spiders, it’s crawling with giant snakes, or undead animals, or enormous bees. Maybe falling into its rivers and streams doesn’t induce a magical slumber, but rather the waters keep people awake, slowly driving victims insane with deadly exhaustion. Perhaps instead of a forest it’s a desert, swamp, jungle, or arctic wasteland. Stealing is just step one. Challenge yourself and twist the stolen goods. It’s far more rewarding for everyone.

Ask Your Players What They Want

Before you embark the incredible worldbuilding task before you, start by asking your players what sort of game they want to play. I sent my players a brief email asking them about their preferred genre, tone, magic level, intrigue level, and play style for in D&D. Even though I’ve been playing with my groups for years some of the feedback was surprising. Have a chat with each of them, give them a quick questionnaire, or lead a more organized group discussion. It matters what your players want since they’re going to be playing in the world with you. Your gothic horror game could cost you some friends at the table if they’re not really into undead and lycanthropes.

Let The Players Do Some Work

Like I wrote above they’re playing in the world too, so let players shoulder some of the worldbuilding responsibility. I give my players a basic description of the world and then they create their PC backstories. In the process they’ve created cities, fantastic locations, artifacts, and even rules modules for the world. Encourage your players to do the same once they have a good idea of the tone and central idea of your world. Anything they add will just make the game and story richer and more interesting. Don’t worry. As the GM you reserve the right to nix anything that doesn’t make sense in your world. (e.g. The Kingdom of Bubblegum in your post apocalyptic zombie game)

Share Your Stuff

Don’t keep all your information too close to the vest, especially if you’re building a world from the top down. Share it with your players and other gamers you trust. Since a lot of worldbuilding isn’t game rule specific sharing the information with people outside of your gaming circle who appreciate fiction. My girlfriend has never played D&D, but she reads a lot of what I create. Having her outside-the-industry perspective is invaluable. All she cares about is story which should be the focus of a RPG world. The more input you can get, the better. Just remember that all feedback does not need to be taken to heart. Listen to those who are kind enough to offer feedback, but only implement the ideas they provide which sound good to you. I often link this blog in gaming forums and various social media sites and solicit feedback from strangers. I’ve gotten some of the best insights into my work this way.

Having people provide feedback can also keep your worldbuilding on schedule. It’s my mission to share updates twice a week on my blog which keeps me writing and worldbuilding. You could keep a similar schedule with whomever you are sharing your world. Maybe it’s the first of each month, or every Wednesday, or every day. Giving yourself a deadline and having others hold you accountable will keep you writing.

Write Everything You Ever Wanted

Put anything in the world you ever wanted to create. Stuff that thing full of all you ever wanted in a campaign world. You’re not going to run out of ideas. Take it from a man who has been a GM for 20 years. More ideas will come so don’t save anything. You might never use it if you keep hanging onto it. If you write what you want to write the work is worth. That’s sort of the point, right? These are games and are supposed to be fun. Let your imagination run wild and get a little crazy. Happy worldbuilding!

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

Recently I found myself in a situation where I had to submit an original medieval fantasy TRPG setting for some work. Ultimately I did not get the job, but my submission got me in the door and helped me make it to the final round of interviews. I’m pretty proud of it. The best part about the rejection is that now I get to share my work with all of you.

I only had an hour or so of free time between the time I got wind of the assignment and the time I had to submit. No problem. Creating, outlining, and describing an original world in a short amount of time is exactly what I do. Let me show you how.

1. Get An Idea

This does not have to cut into your designated hour of worldbuilding. Sure, you could sit down and have a quick brainstorm but you could think about it while you go about the mundane. Instead of watching Netflix while you do the dishes or catching up on your favorite podcasts while showering or working out, let your mind wander about the world you want to create. Think of a strong central idea like, “Dragonborn run an evil empire and are more numerous than any other race in my island world,” or, “A century of warfare has changed everything,” or “There are huge blank spots on the map and everyone wants to be the one to fill them.” Feel free to start by stealing an idea from somewhere else to get inspired, and then twist the idea to make it your own. While running a cool five miles I came up with my central idea for this pitch, “Monsters rule the world below, the undead rule the surface, the civilized races are trapped in the sky.”

2. Outline in Bullet Points

Now that you’ve got a good idea it’s time for a rough world outline. If you’re limited on time, just write out your big ideas and any details you’re afraid you’ll forget while writing the rest of the world’s description. Then go back and quickly put the details of your world in some sort of chronological order. My world outline for this pitch looked like this.

• In the beginning humans, elves, half-elves, halflings, and dragonborn ruled the surface in 13 cities.
• 13 cities form a nation ruled by a council of 13 mage governors.
• In the beginning dwarves and tieflings lived together in one massive city underground.
• A mage governor fears death, becomes a lich, makes undead army.
• Undead army takes surface city, many dwarves and tieflings get away, undead have harder time chasing them down in the monster infested tunnels.
• 6 remaining surface cities are lifted into the sky by their mage governors and now float safe above the undead.

3. Come Up With A Campaign Arch Outline

Once your bullet point outline is ready, make another. Think of your campaign’s potential arch within the world. The story might change as your game goes on since it hinges on the actions of the PCs, but it’s good to think about your campaign’s overall arch before you put meat on the bones of the world outline. Why? Because your campaign’s outline could affect the world outline. Maybe your campaign calls for a villain or earthshaking event you haven’t included in the world outline. If you add details to from you campaign outline to your world outline, those details will feel less tacked on (e.g. suddenly wand theory is a huge plot device which shows up in the final book of the Harry Potter series). Here’s what my campaign outline looked like for this pitch.

• PCs start transporting goods for a mage governor and have to fend off sky pirates.
• PCs find sky pirates which attacked them part of some greater plot.
• PCs slowly uncover the secret plot – the pirates and others (including high-ranking public officials) are feeding intelligence about the people living in the sky cities to the undead below, but why?
• PCs investigate plot by exploring the surface world of the undead and are aided by the dwarf and tiefling survivors who have evaded the undead by living a nomadic life underground.
• PCs discover the undead are building their own airships and making dracoliches to attack the sky cities.
• PCs return home to defend against the attack and discover the attack is only half the plan. If the undead get close enough to the cities they can enact a ritual that will crash the sky cities into the ground, killing many. Battle may be won or lost depending on the actions of the PCs.
• After the battle PCs discover the location of the leader lich’s phylactery.
• PCs must go back to the surface to destroy leader lich once and for all.

Once I outlined this possible campaign arch, I went back and added these bullet points to the world outline:

• After being in the sky for 50 years, resources for the sky cities are limited and a large economic gap forms between the wealthy and the poor.
• Some of the poor turn to piracy for money and others enlist to fight the pirates and protect the goods of the rich.

4. Describe the World (and the Campaign Arch)

Now that you’ve got your outlines, that may be all you need to run your first session. If you want to share the world information with your players, post it on Obsidian Portal, or submit it for a job, you’re going to need to flesh it out a little more. With an outline in chronological order, it’s easy to throw down a few paragraphs to describe your world.

There is one main hang-up I have that stops my writing cold – coming up with proper names. I like to keep my flow while I’m writing so I use simple placeholders. Then I go back and replace those placeholders after I’m done the lion’s share of writing. This seems to make everything go a lot faster since I can be focusing on fleshing out the outline and then switch over to proper name mode. I simply write NAME in all capital letters when I need a proper name I haven’t thought of yet. This makes it easy to find later when revising.

Write no more than 5 – 10 paragraphs. Time is of the essence, pitches should be short, and if you’re writing this for your PCs or Obsidian Portal, know that most folks won’t read pages and pages of description.

Here’s the description of the world I created for the pitch.

Six floating cities hover above the darkness of Enora in Bound Sky. Once a prosperous nation, Enora was home to humans, elves, halflings, gnomes, and dragonborn. The country was run by the Dordune, a council of mage governors, each acting as the leader of one of Enora’s thirteen major cities. Beneath Enora’s surface, the nation’s dwarf and tiefling allies lived happily in the kingdom of Drakefire. Except for the occasional marauding gnoll pack or angry dragon, all was well in Enora. Any threats which appeared were dealt with swiftly and efficiently by the Dordune.

Fifty years ago Governor Kira Vae, an elf wizard, was nearing the end of her long life. Some say fear of death gripped the governor, others say it was an unsatiated lust for power. Whatever the reason, Vae transformed herself into a lich. The transformation warped her mind, seeding a dark hatred of all life in her heart. The lich declared herself Empress of Enora. Empress Vae turned the citizens of her city, Cambor, into an undead army. The rest of Enora tried to stand against the threat, but so sudden and severe did the undead strike that seven of Enora’s cities fell to Vae.

Every victory added more soldiers to her undead ranks. Messengers were sent to Drakefire, asking for military against the undead legions, but the underground kingdom was already over run by Vae’s minions. Any survivors from Drakefire had already fled even deeper underground by the time the messengers arrived.

As the armies of Empress Vae closed around Enora’s six remaining cities, the Dordune made a decision to enact a powerful ritual which raised the cities and their people into the sky away from Vae and her undead. Away from a fight they knew they could not win. As the cities rose, Vae swore to eradicate the rest of Enora’s living. She is eternal as is her hate for all people who defy her.

Now the six floating cities of Deldoroth find themselves safe from Empress Vae’s undead, but they have their own troubles. With limited land to produce resources, the six cities have begun treating each other more like separate countries than one cooperative nation. The Dordune have disbanded and each governor acts as a city’s monarch. As competition for food, water, and shelter grows each day, many less fortunate turn to a life of crime or legal savagery to survive. Airships transporting goods from one city to another are wary of pirates, and many make a killing or die trying in the cities’ gladiatorial arenas (which were introduced by the governors to help control population growth).

Beneath Deldoroth, dead Enora can no longer be seen. Thick layers of black clouds hang between the floating cities and the surface. The undead built massive stoves and constantly pipe ash into the sky to blot out the sun they hate so much. Sometimes at night the victorious howls of the undead can be heard through the blackness by the people of Deldoroth. It is an unsettling reminder that Enora is no longer their home and what drove them out long ago still hungers for them.

If you have the time, go ahead and flesh out your campaign outline too. I wanted to do this for the pitch to give an idea of the adventures I’d create, but even if you’re not pitching it will be helpful to have a fleshed out description of your potential story to refer to. This is less necessary for home campaigns since you won’t be sharing it, but still helpful to you as the GM.

Over-the-top action and sprawling mysteries will be the hallmarks of Bound Sky. The campaign opens with a massive airship battle. The players, hired as merchant guards, encounter pirates and battle for their lives. After the battle the heroes discover a mysterious message to the pirates from a higher power. These aren’t your normal pirates. They’re part of something much bigger.

The story unfolds in Deldoroth’s soaring cities as our heroes uncover a conspiracy. The first learn that some of the pirates and then that some of the officials in Deldoroth have been working with the undead armies of Empress Vae. She’s planning something big, but to learn what will require closer investigation.

The heroes journey down to the undead-infested Enora and navigate the dangerous territory by disguise or by stealth. Diving into old ruins, gathering intelligence from enemy-infested cities, and aided by the nomadic survivors of Drakefire, the PCs discover Empress Vae has begun building airships of her own and converting dragons to dracoliches. She is planning an enormous attack on Deldoroth.

It is up to our heroes to convince the people of Deldoroth to work together to defeat this incursion. As they work to negotiate with various leaders, the PCs uncover another mystery. Empress Vae has discovered the source of the magic which keeps the cities of Deldoroth afloat. She plans to disrupt this magic and crash the cities. If she succeeds, the death toll will be catastrophic.

The heroes stop Vae’s forces from destroying Deldoroth, but the victory is costly and the empress could return at any time with more forces. Thanks to a captured dracolich lieutenant, the PCs learn the location of Vae’s phylactery. The heroes must make another perilous journey into Enora, this time into Vae’s stronghold in Cambor. It is up to them to destroy the phylactery and slay Empress Vae once and for all to save their homes.

Check it out! I’ve even got a description of my first encounter in there. There’s enough information I could improv my way through the first session or possibly the entire campaign if I have no more free time to dedicate to preparation.

5. Got a Little More Time? Map it Up!

If you have some more time, maps are great worldbuilding resources that help make your setting come to life for both you and your players. They’re also a good tool for judging travel obstacles and distances from one place to the next. I created the two maps below in less than hour using roll20.net, but you can checkout any number of easy to use resources to create a map quickly.

So there you have it! One-hour worldbuilding. Simple stuff!

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

Sometimes you just want to shake things up. You need to spice up combat and add a few hazards to keep players on their toes. Sometimes you want to go further and do something really crazy. In keeping with Sam Van Der Wall of RPG Alchemy‘s Blog Carnival theme, “The Combat Experience,” I’m going to show off one of my favorite encounters. One where I turned the battle mat on its side. Keep reading. You’ll see what I mean.

Mario and Luigi

When we play Dungeons and Dragons with a battle mat and miniatures we are usually dealing with two dimensions, just like most old Nintendo games. Often in D&D those two dimensions are an overhead or bird’s eye view like in The Legend of Zelda.

We see Link and octoroks as if we were above looking down on them.

Yet many other Nintendo games had a side view like Double Dragon.

We see Billy Lee kicking some butt as if we were standing to the side.

I began to imagine what a battle in a side view might look like on a battle mat. In order to get the most out of the map, I’d need the battle to have a lot of vertical levels, otherwise the encounter wouldn’t be very dynamic and all of the non-flying creatures would just hangout at the bottom of the grid. I also wanted the encounter to be contained on the battle mat. When flipping things from bird’s eye to side view, it becomes very easy to run out of map space as creatures move around. The map doesn’t follow you like a camera in a video game.

There might be a few of you who remember the old Mario Bros. game. I’m talking arcade style before the Marios were going into castles to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser. I’m talking two dudes facing off in the sewers trying to kick over as many koopa shells as possible to get some points to win a game. If Mario ran off one side of the screen, he appeared on the other (which solves my running off the map problem). It looked like this…

I’m sure the older gamers among us remember.

Well that game inspired an encounter with my players that I designed and we throughly enjoyed.

The Ladder of Insanity

The PCs had to make their way to the Underdark via a massive column known as The Ladder of Insanity. The huge column plunged miles underground and its face was marked with crumbling 5-foot wide ledges and stairs, which are just wide enough for a creatures to travel single file.

The characters found the further down The Ladder of Insanity they got, the more ruin and disrepair became obstacles. Whole sections of ledges and staircases were missing or ready to plunge into the darkness. As the PCs negotiated these hazards, a crew of drow bandits lead by a werespider appeared and attacked. The battle mat looked something like this…

Behold! The Ladder of Insanity!

Now I made that map in Roll20 and used digital tokens for the PCs instead of their beautiful array of bird’s eye view digital miniatures.

Miniature on the left, token on the right.

I recommend using tokens instead of minis in a side view encounter. You could use miniatures, but they are made specifically for bird’s eye view encounters. It is going to be more difficult for your players to wrap their minds around a side view encounter with miniatures unless you place them on their sides, but that could damage some more delicate minis.

After the map was created I wrote down a few quick mechanics for the battle.

• The map wraps around the column. So if PCs ran off one side of the map they would appear on the other. It works just like Mario Brothers of Pac Man.
• The column is curved. A creature is granted half cover from attacks made by any creature more than 20 feet away, three-quarters cover from any creature more than 30 feet away, and total cover from any creature more than 40 feet away.
• Climbing the walls at half speed requires a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check. Creatures who fail this check by 5 or more fall onto the platform directly below their space and land prone, taking fall damage as normal.
• Jumping up and grabbing a higher platform works as normal. In order to pull itself up to the new level a creature must succeed on a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check or end its movement in the first space it entered on the new, higher level.
• At the end of a creature’s turn if it is on one of the platforms it must roll a d20. On a roll of 1, the ground beneath its feet crumbles. The creature must make a DC 10 Reflex saving throw to jump to an adjacent unoccupied space of its choice. If it fails it falls, landing prone and taking fall damage as normal. Wherever the creature ends up after rolling a 1 it must roll another d20 to see if the new ground beneath its feet crumbles and repeat the saving throw if it gets another 1. This continues until the creature rolls a number other than 1.

Bam! There you have it. The mat is flipped and a fun encounter is had by all.

Werespider Stats

I figured I should share the drow werespider stats with all of you. This way if you want to run the encounter you can really do it up right!

Werespider

Medium humanoid (elf, shapechanger), neutral evil

Armor Class 14 in humanoid form, 15 in spider or hybrid form

Hit Points  71 (11d8 + 22)

Speed  30 ft. (clim 30 ft. in spider or hybrid form)

Saving Throws  Dex +7, Con +5, Wis +4

Damage Immunities bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons that aren’t silvered

Skills Perception +4, Stealth +10

Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive perception 14

Languages Elvish, Undercommon (can’t speak in spider form)

Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

Fey Ancestry. The werespider has advantage on saving throw against being charmed, and magic can’t put it to sleep.

Innate Spellcasitng (Humanoid or Hybrid Form Only). The werespider’s spellcasting ability modifier is Charisma (spell save DC 12). It can innately cast the following spells.

At will: dancing lights

1/day: darkness, faerie fire, levitate (self only)

Shapechanger. The werespider can use its action to polymorph into a spider-humanoind hybrid or into a giant spider, or back into its true form, which is humanoid. Its statistics, other than its size and AC, are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.

Spider Climb (Spider or Hybrid Form Only). The werespider can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.

Sunlight Sensitivity. While in sunlight, the werespider has has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

Web Sense (Spider or Hybrid Form Only). While in contact with a web, the werespider knows the exact location of any other creature in contact with the same web.

Web Walker (Spider or Hybrid Form Only). The werespider ignores movement restrictions caused by webbing.

Actions

Multiattack. The werespider makes two attacks: two with its shortsword or one with its bite and shortsword.

Bite (Spider of Hybrid Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw, taking 9 (2d8) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. If the poison damage reduces the target to 0 hit points, the target is stable but poisoned for 1 hour, even after regaining hit points, and is paralyzed while poisoned in this way. If the target is a humanoid, it must succeed on a second DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be cursed with werespider lycanthropy.

Shortsword (Humanoid or Hybrid Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage plus 10 (3d6) poison damage.

Hand Crossbow (Humanoid or Hybrid Form Only). Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 hour. If the saving throw fails by 5 or more, the target is also unconscious while poisoned in this way. The target wakes up if it takes damage or if another creature takes an action to shake it awake.

Web (Spider or Hybrid Form Only). Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 30/60 ft., one target. Hit: The target is restrained by webbing. As an action, the restrained target can make a DC 11 Strength check, bursting the webbing on a success. The webbing can also be attacked and destroyed (AC 10; hp 5; vulnerability to fire damage; immunity to bludgeoning, poison, and psychic damage).

Reactions

Parry (Humanoid or Hybrid Form Only). The werespider adds 3 to its AC against one melee attack that would hit it. To do so, the werespider must see the attacker and be wielding a melee weapon.

Werespider Template

See “Player Characters as Lycanthropes” on page 207 of the Monster Manual.

Werespider. The character gains a Dexterity of 19 if his or her score isn’t already higher, and a +1 bonus to AC while in spider or hybrid form (from natural armor). Attack and damage rolls for the natural weapons are based on Dexterity. For the poison of the werespider’s bite attack the DC is 8 + the character’s proficiency bonus + Constitution modifier. For the Web trait the DC is 8 + the character’s proficiency bonus + Strength modifier.

PDFs!

I’ve put the werespider into a PDF for your enjoyment along with adding it to the full list of Exploration Age Monsters. You can get it in the link below or feel free to head on over to the Free Game Resources section of this site to grab it whenever you like along with tons of other monsters, D&D fifth edition rules modules, backgrounds, spells, magic items, and more.

Werespider

EA Monsters 

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The story of The Wubba Wubba is not my own. In fact I have to give credit to master storyteller R. A. Salvatore for this. The creator of Drizzt Do’Urden, Cadderly Bonaduce, Cattie-Brie Battlehammer, and so many more of fantasy’s greatest always gives this response when asked why he loves games.

For those who don’t have the time or patience to watch I’ll sum up (though you should really watch it because it is a fun story told by a master storyteller). R. A. Salvatore had a D&D character who found a modified wand of wonder which had more options and randomness than the original. He kept killing a friend by accident and it was hilarious. He loves those kind of random events in games and that’s why he plays them.

I love R. A. Salvatore so I’m going to make my own version of the wand of wonder which he dubbed The Wubba Wubba (because the DM required he yell “Wubba wubba!” whenever he used it). I want to make an updated version of the item which works with the fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons rules.

Crafting The Wubba Wubba

The challenge of making The Wubba Wubba is that rolling on a bunch of different random tables can really slow game play. Yet the new edition of D&D is all about simple, fast results. How does one combine the two and get them to play nice?

I thought of a quick solution that generates 1 of 160 results. Roll two different dice together whenever The Wubba Wubba is used. Because the dice are different the person rolling them knows exactly which die pertains to which table, like when rolling attack and damage dice at the same time. You’ll see exactly how it works in the item’s description below.

The Wubba Wubba should encourage its wielder to get mischievous. I mean that literally so I made the item intelligent and gave it a provocative personality. Take a look below and let know what you think in the comments!

The Wubba Wubba

Wand, legendary (requires attunement by a non-lawful spellcaster)

At a glance this wand appears to be a normal wand of wonder but closer investigation reveals the multicolored gems along its length spell out the phrase, “Wubba Wubba,” in Common.

The legend of The Wubba Wubba is known far and wide, initially told and spread by epic poet Bob the Bard who wielded one of the wands. Only three were crafted before their creator, Michael the Prankster, disappeared in a planar magic accident. The item is both feared and sought after by scholars, for it is ever unpredictable, but holds great power.

While attuned the caster has advantage on all Charisma (Deception) checks and Charisma saving throws. Unlike a normal wand, The Wubba Wubba has unlimited charges.

Chaotic Magic. While holding the wand you can use an action to target a creature within 60 feet, shout, “Wubba wubba!” and then roll 1d8 and 1d20 on the tables below. The d8 corresponds to the first table, Schools of Magic, while the d20 corresponds to the table indicated by the first table. The Wubba Wubba uses your spellcasting ability modifier, spell save DC, and spellcasting attack bonus. The Wubba Wubba can only maintain the magic of one concentration spell at a time.

The Wubba Wubba Schools of Magic

The Wubba Wubba Abjuration Effects

The Wubba Wubba Conjuration Effects

The Wubba Wubba Divination Effects

The Wubba Wubba Enchantment Effects

The Wubba Wubba Evocation Effects

The Wubba Wubba Illusion Effects

The Wubba Wubba Necromancy Effects

The Wubba Wubba Transmutation Effects

Sentience. The Wubba Wubba is a sentient chaotic neutral wand with an Intelligence of 16, a Wisdom of 10, and a Charisma of 19. It has hearing and darkvision out to a range of 120 feet.

The weapon can speak, read, and understand Common, and can communicate with its wielder telepathically. Its voice is energetic and cartoony. While you are attuned to it, The Wubba Wubba also understands every language you know.

Personality. The Wubba Wubba exists to have a great time. It cracks bawdy jokes and then laughs out loud at itself. It encourages its wielder to prank friends, engage in revelry, and above all use the wand’s Chaotic Magic feature as often as possible.

If the wielder is a true partier and friend to The Wubba Wubba, the wand will fiercely defend the wielder from any japes or cutting remarks. The Wubba Wubba is quick to judge and if it doesn’t like someone that person will certainly know it, since the wand doesn’t keep its mouth shut. The wand does not suffer bullies of any kind and has no respect for authority.

The wand has an irrational fear of spiders. Any size spider within the wand’s sight causes the wand to howl in fear like a small child. In battle with arachnid foes The Wubba Wubba prefers its wielder to keep a healthy distance away but cheers with delight when all enemies are vanquished.

PDF

Yes, I did indeed make this very special item available as a PDF. You can download just The Wubba Wubba or get it along with 82 other magic items I designed for Exploration Age. You can get it all in the link below or feel free to head on over to the Free Game Resources section of this site to grab it whenever you like along with tons of monsters, D&D fifth edition rules modules, backgrounds, spells, and more. 

Wubba Wubba, The

All Magic Items

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Last year I created some siege weapons using only the Basic D&D rules and some information I had in the final D&D Next playtest packet. A lot of the weapons I gave statistics for are now part of the official fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons rules because they made an appearance in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.

Update Time!

Siege weapons inspired by Labrynith are good, right? Right?

Well I’ve decided to update the arcane cannon and create a new weapon dwarven drill into the upcoming Exploration Age Campaign Guide. I’ve also added some new ammunition for the cannon, mangonel, and trebuchet in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Take a look at the rules below and let me know what you think.

New Siege Weapons

These new siege weapons are meant to be used with the rules found on pages 255 – 256 in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. They can be added to any game at the DM’s discretion.

Arcane Cannon

Large object

Armor Class: 20

Hit Points: 100

Damage Immunities: poison, psychic

Special alchemical canisters are loaded into the muzzle of these magically reinforced cannons. The gems along the the barrel of the cannon can be charged with magical energy which is used to propel and explode the canister.

An arcane cannon is usually supported in a metal frame with wheels. Before it can be fired the cannon must be loaded and aimed. It takes one action to load the weapon, one action to aim it, and one action to fire it. The weapon must be fired by a spellcaster, who feeds an amount of magical energy akin to casting a cantrip into the cannon.

Acid Canister. An acid canister explodes as soon as it leaves the cannon’s muzzle, spraying acid in a 30-foot cone from the front of the cannon. Creatures in the area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw. Creatures who fail take 22 (4d10) acid damage and can use their next action to roll on the ground to wipe the acid off their bodies. Creatures who do not use their action to wipe the acid off their bodies take another 11 (2d10) acid damage at the end of their next turn as the acid continues to each at their flesh. Creature who succeed take half damage and do not need to wipe the acid off their bodies.

Fire Canister. The fire canister explodes as soon as it leaves the cannon’s muzzle, shooting fire in a line 100 feet long and 5 feet wide. Creatures in the area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw. Creatures who fail take 33 (6d10) fire damage. Creature who succeed take half damage.

Force Canister. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 800/3,200 ft., one target. Hit: 55 (10d10) force damage.

Frost Canister. The frost canister can be shot 800 feet. It explodes in a 30-foot-radius sphere on impact. Creatures within the area must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. Creatures who fail take 22 (4d10) cold damage and have their speed reduced by 10 feet for one minute. Creatures who succeed take half damage and do not have their speed reduced. A creature whose speed is reduced in this way may repeat the saving throw at the end of its turn, ending the reduced speed effect on a success.

Lightning Canister. The lighting canister can be shot 800 feet. It explodes in a 20-foot-radius sphere. Creatures in the area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw. Creatures who fail take 33 (6d10) lightning damage. Creature who succeed take half damage.

Poison Canister. A poison canister explodes as soon as it leaves the cannon’s muzzle, spraying poison gas in a 30-foot cone from the front of the cannon. Creatures in the area must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. Creatures who fail take 22 (4d10) poison damage and are poisoned for 1 minute. Creatures who succeed take half damage and are not poisoned. A creature poisoned in this way can repeat the saving throw at the end of its turn, ending the poisoned condition on a success.

Dwarven Drill

Large object

Armor Class: 20

Hit Points: 150

Damage Immunities: poison, psychic

This tread-lined wheeled vehicle has an enormous, rotating wheel covered in drill bits large and small. It was originally designed for digging large mining tunnels, but the vehicle has proven effective in destroying enemy walls and breaking enemy ranks so it is now used in war.

The drill can seat up to two creatures in an enclosed, window-lined carriage and requires at least one creature to operate. A creature seated in the drill can use its action to make the drill move forward 80 feet in the direction it is facing or it can use its action to turn the drill so it faces a new direction.

Drill Press. When the drill runs into a large structure (such as a building, mountain, or wall) it deals 1d10 piercing damage to the structure for every 10 feet of movement it has remaining. If the drill runs into a creature or smaller object, the target must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw. Creatures who fail are pushed along for the rest of the drill’s movement and take 1d10 piercing damage for every 10 feet of movement the drill pushes them. Creatures who succeed dodge out of the way into an adjacent space the drill did not pass through. If they are unable to get out of the drill’s way, a creature automatically fails this saving throw.

New Siege Weapon Ammunition

The siege weapons on pages 255 – 256 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. The listed weapon can be loaded with the proper ammunition and then fires as described. The ammunitions can be added to any game at the DM’s discretion.

New Cannon Ammunition

Canister Shot. This canister is full of bullets and explodes in a 30-foot cone immediately when it exits the cannon. Any creatures in the area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw. Creatures who fail take 22 (4d10) piercing damage. Creatures who succeed take half damage.

Chain Shot. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 600/2,400 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (4d10) slashing damage. Special: This attack deals triple damage to cloth targets such as a ship’s sails.

Shell. A shell is a special cannon shot which can be fired 600 feet and explodes in a 20-foot-radius sphere on impact. Creatures within the area must make a DC 15 Reflex saving throw. Creatures who fail take 22 (4d10) piercing damage. Creatures who succeed take half damage.

New Mangonel Ammunition

Mangonel Flaming Barrel. Flaming barrels of oil and pitch can be loaded onto a mangonel and up to fired 200 feet (and no less than 65 feet). The barrel explodes in a 10-foot-radius sphere on impact. Creatures in the area must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw. Creatures who fail take 16 (3d10) fire damage. Creatures who succeed take half damage.

The ground in the area where the barrel exploded is filled with burning pitch and oil until the start of the turn of the creature who fired the mangonel. Creatures and objects which start their turn in or enter the area take 5 (1d10) fire damage.

New Trebuchet Ammunition

Trebuchet Flaming Barrel. Flaming barrels of oil and pitch can be loaded onto a trebuchet and fired 300 feet (and no less than 65 feet). The barrel explodes in a 15-foot-radius sphere on impact. Creatures in the area must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw. Creatures who fail take 27 (5d10) fire damage. Creatures who succeed take half damage.

The ground in the area where the barrel exploded is filled with burning pitch and oil until the start of the turn of the creature who fired the trebuchet. Creatures and objects which start their turn in or enter the area take 5 (1d10) fire damage.

PDF!

Did you like these rules? Hey, if you did, go ahead and use the link below to grab these siege weapons in a free PDF.

Siege Weapons

If you want to grab this PDF at a later date, it will live in the Free Game Resources section of this site along with monsters, D&D fifth edition rules modules, backgrounds, spells, magic items, and more.

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

So it probably goes without saying, but in this post I’ll be discussing trigger warnings at the game table. While I won’t go too in-depth into any one topic, there will be mention of some topics that might make people upset. Just a heads up because I love you all and don’t wish to offend.

So on Thursday of last week my latest blog post caused quite a stir on social media. It was all about how to use trigger warnings and why they’re important at the table. It seems like trigger warnings are a hugely controversial topic and I did not quite realize the reactions I’d get. Looking back I could have given some better clarification.

Before I move on with the rest of this post I just want to say to those of you who come here looking for fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons resources and worldbuilding advice – have no fear. On Thursday  we’ll get back into the swing of those things with a post I’m currently writing about the lingering injuries module in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.

You May Not Need Trigger Warnings

I saw A LOT of people decry the entire notion of trigger warnings and X-cards. While some folk could have been a little less flippant (and in a very few cases less graphic or bigoted) in their responses, I get it. Many people don’t want to compromise their story and have been playing in the same group for years. They already know the limits of their friends and have an open dialogue about everything in the game which comes naturally. In other words everyone is comfortable with one another. I have this kind of relationships with two groups that I’ve been GMing since college. I don’t need to give trigger warnings and they feel comfortable telling me, “Yeah, I’m uncomfortable, move on,” on the rare occasion that it happens.

I would say that if you’re GMing a game with a new group, especially if it’s in a store or at a convention and you’re covering something questionable (like sexual assault), consider giving a warning (or better yet put it in the description of the event if there’s a posting for it). It will take 30 seconds and there’s a strong likelihood the group won’t care and you can move on without changing a thing in your game. If someone says, “I’m not cool with that,” then you as the GM have a choice to make. You can change the game or let the person know you’re going to proceed as is and let them bow out. In any case doing this before a game with strangers starts will save you and your players time and anguish in the long run.

Do I Have To Give Warnings for Everything?

I got a lot of sincere questions from people asking if they were expected to give trigger warnings for everything. One trusted friend gave a great example saying some people have serious issues with food addiction and did that mean he should be giving trigger warnings before playing a game in which he as GM gave a description of a feast?

My thought is that, no, you do not have to give trigger warnings for everything. I think most people sitting down to play a game have some assumptions about the content that game. For instance in Dungeons and Dragons players expect to have at least a PG-13 level of fantasy violence where they’re slaying monsters and villainous humanoids a la The Lord of the Rings. In a Cthulhu game players can assume all of the horrors and mental instability which comes in one of the works of H. P. Lovecraft. You don’t need to give a trigger warning for every little thing, but you should give warnings for the sensitive stuff that doesn’t happen in every game session of the system and setting your group is using (like sexual assault in D&D).

Just make sure that any new players know what they’re getting into. If you don’t know the person well and they’ve never played or heard of Monsterhearts or Cthulhu, a little advanced warning is courteous and only takes 30 seconds. Again this kind of thing is perfect for conventions and public play.

The food addiction example above is trickier. That’s the kind of thing that’s unexpected at many tables, but for some people is a serious trigger. The best thing you can do is create an environment of open communication and let your players know they can bring anything to you even if it seems trivial.

You Don’t Have to Change Your Game

In response to last week’s post I saw some people say, “I tell people if they need a trigger warning not to play in my game.” Flippancy aside, this message is actually a trigger warning and it’s a fair one for private home games. If you feel the story you’re trying to tell is more important than another person’s particular sensitivity, it’s good to be upfront about that. Don’t waste their time or your own and get into a situation where a person can be hurt or made upset. Odds are if you don’t want to adjust your game for a player with a particular sensitivity or trigger, that player doesn’t want to play in your game. If you can hash that out before rolling any dice, you’re both better off for it.

I’d advise courtesy and manners while giving this message to players, since a lot of flippancy may leave you with no one to play with. Not everyone needs trigger warnings, but most people hate playing with jerks.

X-Card Abuse

A few GMs out there hadn’t heard the concept of the X-card and it made them nervous. They were worried players might abuse the card to skip through difficult combat encounters and other challenges, especially because the X-card comes with a no questions asked policy. While I’ve never heard of or experienced a player abusing an X-card in such a way, we’ve all been burned in the past by players abusing a rule to the point of ruining the game’s fun. It wouldn’t surprise me if this happened, especially if someone wanted to drive a GM crazy for choosing to use an X-card in the first place.

If you feel someone is abusing an X-card, talk to them about it. Ask them, “Hey you seem to be using the X-card a lot. Is there anything in particular that’s coming up in our games that’s making you use it?” If they don’t have a good answer, explain to them that the card is there to avoid upsetting situations, not as a cheat to get through challenges. If the abuse continues, tell the player you’re not sure that they’re the right fit for the game your playing. It doesn’t matter if they’re using a cheat or using the X-card all the time for legitimate reasons because in either case the statement is true.

Communication is Key

At the end of the day communication is key. I think people see the phrase, “trigger warning,” and it sets something off in them. Yes, that’s irony. I saw a lot of hate for trigger warnings followed by statements like, “My players and I talk through issues because we’re adults.” That’s awesome, people! If your communication is open and honest, you’re doing it right. So if your group is experienced, new, young, old, bawdy, family friendly, comfortable friends, or a group of strangers at a convention the most important thing is you have a great time gaming together.

I’m Not Trying to Ruin Your Game

I think I owe many of you an apology. When I posted about this on social media I let my inner marketing copywriter get the best of me and used the phrase, “Why you should use trigger warnings in your game.” As stated above not everyone needs them because they already have a gaming group full of friends and honest communication. I’m not here to ruin your games. If I give some advice on the blog that you don’t like, you don’t need to take it.

Sorry if you felt like I was shoving my apparently game-ruining (and according to some life-ruining) philosophies about tabletop games down your throats. Surely, that was not my intent. My intent was to provide advice for those looking for it and let people get a look into how I run games with questionable material. I’d love to hear what others do when they want to run a game with some more serious themes with groups of new people. Sound off in the comments below.

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

One of my favorite books for fourth edition Dungeons and Dragons was a little number called Dungeon Delve. The book was simply 30 three-room dungeons complete with traps, encounters, a few story hooks, and advice for continuing the story or further fleshing out the dungeon. It was basically a tome of a single, four-hour, one-shot adventures for every character level in the game (each of which could be turned into something more if so desired).

Fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons plays a lot faster than fourth, particularly where combat is concerned, which is a good thing. I regularly play D&D on Monday evenings but the sessions are only about three hours long. On average it seems the combat encounters I plan take 30 to 40 minutes. I know that seems a little long but because of our limited time I usually plan only hard encounters to force the players to use up some of their resources and feel a sense of challenge. That means smaller dungeons in fifth edition are perfect for my game because they pack in enough action and my players still get to interact with NPCs and get in some exploration.

I know there’s a lot of other adults out there who have similarly tight schedules, so I’m going to share with you how I craft tiny dungeons for my games.

Why Tiny Dungeons are Great

One of the best things about tiny dungeons is they’re designed to be completed in one session or less. If your group doesn’t meet weekly, completing a longer dungeon can be daunting. When too much real world time passes between sessions in a single dungeon, players can lose track of the story and the point of being in the dungeon in the first place. They forget why they’re holding a key and which door they were saving it for. If the last session didn’t end with an extended rest, they might forget how many resources they’ve spent. So for my biweekly games huge dungeons aren’t the best. Tiny dungeons, by design, are perfect for games that meet on a less-than-weekly basis.

Another win for tiny dungeons at my table is that my players don’t really enjoy long dungeon crawls (and maybe yours don’t either). They like to get engaged in the story and interact with the cultures and societies of the world. Most dungeons are a lot of exploration and combat, with only a little interaction here and there. They get bored if I lock them in a dungeon for multiple sessions so our play style is suited by tiny dungeons, since they can be explored in a three-hour session. Maybe they’ll suit your play style too.

Finally, tiny dungeons are great for us Dungeon Masters! Making a big, sprawling dungeon crawl is really good fun, but there are occasions where I have less time to prepare than I like. Designing a tiny dungeon is quick and easy. These little nuggets pack a lot of punch and allow for some really creative thinking as you’ll see in the next section of this blog post.

Designing Tiny Dungeons

Here are some guidelines for creating a tiny dungeon. Remember the guidelines are just that. They’re meant to help you out when designing. Feel free to break the mould! That’s what D&D is all about. The guidelines are the ones I use specifically for designing dungeons for my typical three-hour sessions, so if you have sessions which are longer or shorter adjust accordingly.

Tiny dungeons…

1. … consist of three to five rooms. Sticking to this guideline keeps the size of your dungeon manageable and quick to explore, but also big enough to present multiple combat encounters and interesting exploration challenges. Some of the rooms can be enormous if that helps make sense. For instance the soldiers of a bugbear warlord might hide in a ruined temple submerged in a swamp. The complex holds many bugbears, but most of them sleep, eat, and live in the temple’s spacious grand cathedral. Just as many bugbears as might be in a sprawling cave complex, but in this case they’re all in one room.
2. … contain no more than three combat encounters. If you’re trying to get through a dungeon in a three-hour session and still want some time for the PCs to interact with NPCs back at the ranch, you won’t have time for more than three combat encounters. Depending on how much time your PCs are spending in town, on the road to the dungeon, etc. you might be able to get away with one more combat encounter if the dungeon is right next door and they’re headed there as soon as the session starts. If the PCs are going to spend more time in town, and maybe get caught up in a combat encounter on the road, consider capping the in-dungeon combat encounters at three or possibly bumping it down to two.
3. … contain combat encounters of a hard or greater difficulty. Since you’re limited on time, to give your PCs a challenge, crank up the difficulty on those combat encounters. Get your PCs to use up some of those resources and bring ’em to the brink of death because that’s dang good drama! Seriously, don’t be afraid to turn up the heat since the combat encounters are limited. When you’re experience budget is bigger, you can dream bigger. Go nuts! Give that orc chieftain the wyvern mount she deserves!

What Can Be A Tiny Dungeon?

Any complex with a few rooms can be a tiny dungeon. Get creative when you’re thinking about yours! Here’s some examples of a tiny dungeon.

• A necromancer’s five-story tower, wherein each floor is an entire room.
• A small, fortified outpost of violent separatist wood elves hidden high atop the trees.
• An underground bunker full of goblin cultists convinced the end of days is coming.
• A genie’s extra-dimensional pleasure den hidden in a small demiplane.
• A small tavern run serving as a front for a wererat criminal enterprise.

Next Week…

How about I give you a look at a tiny dungeon? Maybe one that lives on the Free Game Resources section of this site as downloadable PDF? Sounds good!

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!