• Rebranding Downtime into the Fourth Pillar it deserves to be

    Rebranding Downtime into the Fourth Pillar it deserves to be

    D&D and its variants are often referred to as “combat simulations” or “tactical combat games” or “dungeon crawling miniature games” in a somewhat dismissive way that seeks to reduce the other things that players have their characters do during sessions and campaigns.

    These mostly heroic characters do have a lot of combat support. A vast majority of the rules support violence portrayed in what is now six-second rounds. Combat’s scenes in 5th edition are done in expanded time taking many real minutes for less than thirty seconds of cinematic action.

    But combat is not all of modern Dungeons & Dragons. Other pillars are supported.

    The three main pillars of D&D play are social interaction, exploration, and combat.

    5.2.1 SRD / Wizards of the Coast / CC BY 4.0

    Social interaction in the modern game is mostly done in scenes lasting a few minutes. These scenes take place in real time at the table. Ritual spells do not make sense in the context of social interaction because of the nature of social interaction. Other spell casting is less frequent than in combat, while it can still fit. The main engine of social interaction within the rules are skills (Charisma, Wisdom and Intelligence) and a light dusting of feature from class, archetype, feat or species.

    Taking a longer period of time, historically measured in ten-minute chunks, is Exploration. This is abstracted in an opposite fashion from Combat in that where combat sees time expanded, Exploration compresses it. Some, but not all travel makes sense as exploration. Rituals are frequently used. Spells are common. Certain spells and features may make classic exploration challenges meaningless (Goodberry or Find & Remove Traps). But Exploration, the delve into dungeons, the searching the wildes, the entry to a wondrous temple or the site of a majestic floating city is and always will be a part of the D&D genre.

    There’s a fourth pillar.

    It’s so hidden, it’s not even part of the SRD.

    — Downtime —

    A person in shining medieval-style armor sits on a grassy hill under a dramatic sky, holding a large flagpole with a flag waving in the wind. The flag features a bright red dragon silhouetted against the setting sun, which casts a warm glow over the scene. Beside them on the grass rests a sword and helmet. The background reveals a panoramic view of a small coastal town with a river flowing into a bay, surrounded by rolling hills. The sky is mostly clear with some clouds catching the golden light of the sunset, creating a serene and picturesque atmosphere.
    (Arthurian symbolism by That Girl from Avalon)

    Between the 2014 core books, and Xanathar’s there are 37 sometimes overlapping options for what can be done with Downtime. The 2024 core books and the Forgotten Realms expansions add many Bastion and Crafting options onto this.

    Most downtime choices are measured in weeks, though small projects are within days. These scenes are time-compressed frequently taking only a roll or two per character to resolve as weeks, months, maybe even seasons pass. In film, TV and books the montage is how downtime is presented. Pick your favorite heroic montage — we’ll get back to it.

    Every class supports downtime activities in some capacity, especially with the 2024 ruleset adding on Bastions. Skill challenges, as adopted to 5e by some homebrewers, make sense as resolution systems for downtime, exploration and sometimes social events.

    But downtime is often viewed by players and DMs as accounting, boring academics, spreadsheet management.

    Even the name is boring.

    Downtime has a branding problem

    Stories and adventures are an assembly of beats, eventually leading to rising action, climax and resolution. There are sometimes downbeats, setback.

    Downbeats.

    Who wants downbeats? Who wants downtime.

    Even how downtime is presented, either by name or by style of play (Bastions and Crafting), it is shown as an appendage with little support. Downtime is a thing to rush past, not to enjoy.

    A Bastion offers a character temporary refuge from the dangerous world of adventuring, and it provides opportunities for a character to craft magic items, conduct research, harvest poisons, build ships, and carry out a range of other activities.

    2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide

    Heroes do not want a refugee from danger!

    They do want the ability to craft magic items, research mysteries, harvest fantastic elements, carouse, gamble, set sail across an astral sea, or plot the overthrow of a corrupt regime.

    Those are all upbeats, not downtime.

    Downtime also a massive part of the game

    Acquisitions Inc combines D&D and modern franchise capitalism for fun. It contains franchise rules. It also lists every one of the 2014 options in downtime at its point of publication.

    DOWNTIME ACTIVITIES This section introduces the following new downtime activities, all of which can be used as franchise tasks in an Acquisitions Incorporated campaign: explore territory, franchise restructuring, headquarters modification, marketeering, philanthropic enterprise, running a franchise, scrutineering, shady business practice, schmoozing, team building. Other downtime activities can be found in the following books: Player’s Handbook (chapter 8): Crafting, practicing a profession, recuperating, research, training Dungeon Master’s Guide (chapter 6): Building a stronghold, carousing, crafting a magic item, gaining renown, performing sacred rites, running a business, selling magic items, sowing rumors, training to gain levels Xanathar’s Guide to Everything (chapter 2): Buying a magic item, carousing, crafting an item, crime, gambling, pit fighting, relaxation, religious service, research, scribing a spell scroll, selling a magic item, training, work

    These choices are things heroes do!

    The options above belong at your table. At some tables the options in Dragon Heist, Acq Inc, Tasha’s (Group Patrons), Strixhaven (schooling) and other official and unofficial books expand your campaign in ways that make sense too.

    Think of your favorite montage scenes in your personal Appendix N. Do they involve plotting the overthrow of a corrupt leader? Do they involve building a guild? Do they involve carousing to gain information? Do they involve long study to craft a previously unknown spell? Do you have a favorite montage that includes sowing rumors? Or mayhap one that involves training for new skills? You probably have one where the heroes prepare for a test of skill, chance or magic?

    In traditional D&D that’s downtime.

    In the fiction these things advance the plot and add excitement.

    Downtime has a branding problem.

    That’s why you are going to start scheming.

    Scheming

    From the 2014 DMG as an example of studying Lore
    • making intelligent, secret plans, often to deceive others
    • behaviour or activities that involve making clever secret plans intended to deceive people

    In British English schemes aren’t necessarily deceptive or secret. They are plots and advancements, plans and procedures. They are the many days, weeks, months processes.

    Both versions work for modern D&D, but the American concept of intelligent, secret plans especially fits my preferred themes.

    Why Scheming? Other considerations

    Concerns – while this captured the idea of the character being in charge of things it felt less involved in the plot and continued the ‘set aside’ concept of Downtime.

    Occupations – but who wants to do work? That’s spreadsheet life, not plot advancement and fantastic discoveries.

    Rejuvenation – is wonderful for healing, but poor for plot advancement and heroic actions over time.

    Strategic play – this conveys the proper tone and your schemes should be strategic while other pillars are tactical.

    Schemes involve rising action by heroes and antiheroes to get ready for the messy work that needs doing. Schemes are active plots and machinations (maybe that belongs above). Sometimes they are down notes, sometimes they are upbeats. They build rising action.

    Unifying disparate subsystems into Scheming

    Oracles ready to provide advice after a sacred rite (Photo by Dave Clark)

    Crafting, Bastions, Franchises, Group Patrons, Schooling, Carousing, Sacred rites, Grand rituals, Research, Business operations, Running a faction, Guild matters, Training militias, Communal defense, Grand voyages ….

    The list goes on.

    When these are schemes they are multi-check montages where failure matters and the results fuel the story. They either help or hinder a character or party on their quest. They take time.

    Whatever you take to calling downtime (and do include Bastions and Crafting when appropriate for your campaign) you need to unify this set of systems together.

    1. Describe the quest with the amount before the pace of action changes again. Set the expectation that there is time to Scheme.
    2. Players describe their goals using the above activities or a combination thereof to achieve that goal within the amount of time (measure in weeks).
    3. Narrate the results of the actions. These may require skill checks, use of various features or cooperation in the party. If there isn’t meaningful failure there is not a check unless extraordinary success matters. Use an odd number of checks (3 or 5 are best) mimicking skill challenges or use group checks if everyone is cooperating. Or combine the two.
    4. Move on from the Scheme into action with a faster pace taking note of how much time passed and what that means for those that oppose the group.

    If that resolution system feels familiar it is because it is the basic rhythm of play at the table, while capturing the montage and compressed time nature of a Scheme.

    It’s not a scheme if the activities are passive. It’s not a scheme if it doesn’t advance a quest or plot. It’s not a scheme if it is fast. It’s not a scheme if it is tactical.

    Frankly it’s not worth doing at the table if the activity is passive and/or doesn’t advance the quest

    Schemes are strategic, long-term, montage-y activities that advance the action fitting a rising narrative building the eventual heroes towards a climax. They should not be the climax, nor the resolution. A denouement can be a scheme as it preps for the next campaign.

    Ways to add Schemes to common campaign types

    Try working in schemes into your campaign. Use a timehop that creates challenges because the enemy is building a grand army. The timehop also gives the heroes time to train a militia (as in Wheel of Time).

    In a heist adventure use a scheme as the way to collect the necessary materials or information, setting up the background before the strike on the location (as the Crows in Shadow & Bone).

    Maybe the scheme is to collect a group of allies to help the party cross a perilous ocean or astral sea, commissioning a ship and its crew (as in One Piece).

    Play a scheme at your table inspired by the fictions that inspire your D&D.

    Fediverse reactions
  • Using Feats to expand your setting: Church of Quar

    Using Feats to expand your setting: Church of Quar

    In the new Forgotten Realms books, Strixhaven, 5e Dragonlance and a recent Unearthed Arcana official D&D is using Feat trees/chains. Every published instance so far is a set of two.

    While there are mechanical reasons to have tiered Feats every expression to this point also leans quite heavily into the story elements added. In Strixhaven the feat-taker goes from early student to late in the class. In Dragonlance a squire becomes a knight. In the Realms you are early in a Faction and then a powerful member of it.

    The Feat helps tell the story in ways that a subclass wouldn’t because in all cases the feat has two expressions in Tier 1 available where a subclass gets a single expression. By the end of Tier 2 a subclass gets two expressions while a Feat chain can be up to four. There’s more space for story.

    An initiate becoming an expert is the most common example. The chain (I prefer that to tree as the published versions are two options linked) naturally fit this.

    Let’s explore how a Feat chain could tell a story in my homebrew world by looking at three feats connected to the Church of Quar.

    In the Six Kingdoms of the World of the Everflow the Church of Quar is a hybrid church-healing center-merchant guild. It controls access to the healing waters of the Everflow at the Font of Two Paths in Telse. Their tongue became the common language of the Six Kingdoms because of the strong influence of their healing elixir in a world without magic.

    No faith, no kingdom, no magic school after magic returned to the land has the influence of the Church of Quar. They’re in every town. That does not mean that every town has an Acolyte, a formal role represented by a member of the faith who is becoming a hero.

    The following three feats expand the story of the Church of Quar for heroes (and villains) using the Feat system.

    Acolyte of Quar

    Origin Feat

    You gain the following benefits.

    Cultured. You learn an additional culture (or language).

    Balm of rest. During a Short Rest you create a balm using a Healing Potion that removes one level of exhaustion and grants the creature advantage on a saving throw versus one condition with a save.

    Blessing of the Everflow. When you administer a Healing Potion to a creature they may use a Hit Die to heal as well as gain the benefits from the Healing Potion.

    Minister of Quar

    Feat (prerequisites: Acolyte of Quar, 4th+ level)

    You gain the following benefits.

    +1 to Charisma or Wisdom

    Oratory. You have Advantage when using Influence Action with Indifferent or Friendly peoples with which you share a culture or language (and Hostile creatures who are members of the Church of Quar).

    Lord of Life. You learn the Aid spell and may cast it one time a day without using a spell slot. It becomes a known spell for you.

    Lord of Rivers. You know how to create a Healing Potion (vial of Everflow) with only water and herbs. This lesser potion costs only 5 gp and can be created during a Short Rest. This potion is only half as effective as a standard Healing Potion. Sharing this concept is forbidden.

    Free Minister of Quar

    Feat (prerequisites: Acolyte of Quar, membership in the Reformed Church, 4th+ level)

    You gain the following benefits.

    +1 to Charisma or Constitution

    Rivers and Roads. You learn two cultures or languages and the Religion skill (or another skill if you are already proficient). You have Advantage on Constitution checks brought about by Environmental Effects.

    First Aid: Taking one minute you can grant a Hit Point to a stabilized creature. They are also subjected to Blessings of the Everflow if you have a Healing Potion available.

    Together these dual Feat chains tell the story behind the Orthodox and Reformed Churches of Quar.

    In just the tiniest bits of flavor text you see examples of how two branches of the faith are different, not just in their ability to be heroes, but what is expected from their most ardent believers.

    Where a subclass gains features at 3rd, 6th and 10th level (mostly). Classes have feats at 1st, 4th, 8th, 12th (mostly). By 8th level a member of Quar’s faith could take all three faith feats, going on a journey from being part of a merchant-church to dedicated hedge healer.

    This story doesn’t need to be connected to a class because they aren’t spellcasters. Plus, in the fiction inspiring the game contains people who are faithful without being clerics or druids or paladins.

    Maybe another feat deals with Quars pantheon. After being an Acolyte of Quar the individual is a Devotee to Belsem the Untamed (leaning into animal companionship?) or a Teacher (adherent to Glight becoming an expert at knowing things). These would emphasize branching, which fits the pantheon.

    The other pantheons may start dispersed and then unify (The Siblilngs) or emphasize bonding (Az and Sel) or only be about fellowship (Mehmd’s faith).

    Maybe an aspect of your world is a military organization and feats could be ranks or branches. Does your world lean into magical schools like Strixhaven? A feat chain from underclass, to senior student, to teacher, to dean could work. A setting that anchors the horrors of the environment could use feats as a way to describe various paths to survival (water, shelter, food, community).

    Feats are a discreet, light space that empowers all classes to carry bits of lore that connect to the world mechanically.

    Fediverse reactions
  • Professional failure

    Professional failure

    Professionals fail all the time — in roleplaying games, in elite athletics, in special operations, in life.

    The idea that they shouldn’t miss in a game is built on a foundation of water, not even sand.

    There are still some valid reasons that one wouldn’t roll to hit, but they have nothing to do with professionalism.

    Matt Colville on Mastering Dungeons

    In a recent edition of Mastering Dungeons Matt Colville talked extensively about the business of RPGs. It’s a wonderful listen.

    Something stood out to me though.

    “You’re professionals; you shouldn’t roll to hit.”

    Now, the idea of not rolling to hit is part of Colville’s quite intentional design. I’m certain he’s said it before and will say it again. There are reasons in games to not roll to hit.

    They have nothing to do with the character being a professional.

    Let’s break down the idea of professionals not needing to roll to hit.

    Elite Failure

    Elites fail regularly. They fail when contested. They fail when on their own. Failure at elite levels may not be as common as for us normal people, but it happens.

    This is true for the real, actual elites, not those mere professionals. My personal history is blessed to experience a few elites in fashions that many do not.

    Special operations

    Assigned to 5th Special Forces as a peacetime soldier my Army days were defined by the Quiet Professionals — the Green Berets. Working alongside these masters in warfare I saw failure every single day.

    On the range those trained to be snipers, an uncontested contest in gaming terms, missed. There are reasons for each miss, but missing happened.

    When soldiers, even in highly trained units such as the Special Forces, go to war they miss even more. The human brain does not like to kill things, plus there is chaos all around you. Errors happen. They always will.

    Elite failure isn’t limited to elite warfare.

    High-level sports

    Leaving 5th Group I decided I wanted nothing to do with my high school dreams or hard journalism. I turned to sports. During that era I worked as a producer for the Sonics broadcasting network, baseball’s best postgame show, as an on-air analyst for soccer and founded Sounder at Heart.

    At the field and court level I’ve watched Ichiro, Ken Griffey Jr., Gary Payton, Michael Jordan, Megan Rapinoe, Kasey Keller and many others.

    The list of these Hall of Fame talents failing would be immense.

    But let’s use hard numbers.

    Ichiro is the best contact hitter of the modern era. The ten-time All Star and MVP had a batting average on balls in play forty points higher than his contemporaries, but it was still only .338.

    Jordan’s shooting percentage was just under 50%.

    Now, both of those are contests. What about the best athletes when uncontested? Steph Curry makes only 91% of his free throws.

    It doesn’t matter which sport we consider. Kasey Keller stops 74% of shots he faces. Megan Rapinoe put ~40% of her shots on frame, and scored even fewer of those.

    Failure among the elite is regular and normal. They roll to hit and fail.

    Business

    Pick your favorite business leader and their success rate is higher than average, but whether its Howard Schultz launching a magazine, or Steve Jobs launching NeXT, or Warren Buffet investing in a shoe company, they fail too.

    Gaming reasons to not roll to hit

    So professionals do miss. Elites miss.

    Are there good reasons to not roll to hit? Yes, absolutely, as part of intentional design choices for a style of play that has nothing to do with professionalism of the character

    Hit points vs meat points

    The long standing D&D debate about hit points being more than meat points can be ignored here. Games developing to-hit rolling or direct-to-damage techniques do not need to burden them with Gygax’s decisions.

    Direct-to-damage rolling is excellent when hit points are, as in D&D, a symbol of morale, luck, fortitude, energy and more than merely meat. Since every attempt to physically damage an opponent wears away at those elements you don’t necessarily need to roll to hit. Missing still costs luck, energy, mental health and morale.

    The meat of the opponent can be damaged eventually, even without rolling to hit.

    Speed of play

    Colville did this in MCDM monster design for his 5e books — minions and the like can be hit easily. And then eliminated easily. This speeds up the action at the table and mimics narratives from movies, TV, video games within role playing games. Slicing and dicing through waves of small threats feels great. Having that take only a few moments rather than many minutes is good.

    Additionally in games like Draw Steel, with extensive tactical choices being a goal, eliminating a set of rolling helps speed gameplay up. This is a wise and intentional design choice that amplifies the other intent of bundling morale with meat.

    This supports the designer’s desires for their game — and need not be connected to reality or even lore.

    A wrong justification, with the right idea

    Professionalism in the real-world elite activities includes failure. Even the arts that inspire our gaming include failure. Black Widow misses. Skywalkers miss. Robin Hood misses.

    Designers should embrace failure when missing, because Ichiro, Rapinoe, every special forces soldier, every business leader, every legendary hero misses.

    And when they do design away the miss they should do so with intent that supports their game, no matter what reality and lore suggest. Just as Colville’s done in Draw Steel.

    Fediverse reactions
  • Roleplaying games are stories

    Roleplaying games are stories

    They’re different from novels, short stories, comics, theater, movies, and most other forms of storytelling. That does not remove the tale being told nor the concept of story.

    If anything they are most similar to communal storytelling around a campfire and improv dramas. For the most part roleplaying games are communal events with a group.

    How did I bump into this well-worn debate? Via a recent thread on EN World, the rare bright spot in RPG discourse.

    Let’s talk about “plot”, “story”, and “play to find out.”

    My response there focused mostly on the story and plot aspects, and the power of having more voices (something rare in written fiction, but common in other forms of storytelling).

    There are people who are not good authors, nor good directors, nor good actors who are good roleplayers/gamemasters/etc. By leaning into the ways that community, plot and play-to-find-out work the creation displays, maybe even demands, story emerges.

    This is the Potential of games like D&D.

    Sometimes conventional Western storytelling formats can lean into the things that make the emergent and divergent story that happens in RPGs. This can be magical — because it shows how all story is really a reflection of point of view, or in our hobby — spotlight.

    RPGs-as-story feel messy when considered through a lens of a literature class or mainstream television.

    But, stories are quite messy

    Two people can read the same story, watch the same film, listen to the same podcast and come away with different meanings, see different main plots even.

    A campfire and a full moon

    To me, RPGs are stories in the way that campfire tales are. They involve a lot of wandering, forgotten threads, lack firm outlines and are at their best when the tale is woven through multiple voices providing input.

    Can they be a traditional novel after the campaign? Absolutely! But during the telling of the tale they are similar to writers who don’t edit as they go or a director who over films alternative concepts that aren’t on the script.

    One of the more thrilling things about RPGs is that it is an ensemble cast of both PCs and recurring NPCs. Together they’re important, but the tale and spotlight as to who is most important can easily shift. Use any of them as the point of view to change the story as you understand it. Each can be vital.

    The messiness is the fun part of RPGs as story.

    The messiness is what helps me discover tales I cannot tell on my own. That’s part of the power of the table and broad casts in ensemble stories.

    You think you’ve seen stories like this before, so you can guess what’s going to happen. Who’s important and who isn’t, but that’s because you’re trapped in your POV.
    – later –
    When you file people away as sidekicks you don’t realize their importance to the story, and this story belongs to a lot more people than you think. Where to shelve a book, it’s not a little thing. You’re telling the world what to value. Who to value.

    From The Magicians, Side Effect (S4, E7).

    RPGs are very much like that.

    They remove your assumptions. You don’t know what’s going to happen. The POV constantly shifts and the importance of the broader cast shifts constantly.

    From RPGs-as-Story we learn what and who to value by including others.

  • Spinebloom Farms, a riverside desert

    Spinebloom Farms, a riverside desert

    Not all desert communities are near an oasis. Long ago the Spineblooms settled in a desert area where the West Thundermoon River took a slow bend. Along that bend in the shallow salty marsh they do their best to raise some rice, as well as some fruited cacti, peppers, vines and largeflower onions in pods.

    Originally the Spineblooms were a group of goliath druids, frequently connected to storms and fire. For many generations they’ve lived on The Bend in earthen huts only partially protruding from the ground.

    Now, most are not magical. Instead they raise birds — herons (to fish), mynahs (pest control), bulbuls (warnings), waders (fishers) — in an aviary. They frequently trade their rice and catch upriver at the Multunyn Trading Post.

    The Location

    • Based on a sketch by the player that included domed buildings mostly underground
    • Using zone-based combat by Sly Flourish and enabling active locations similar to location moves.
    • Ensuring environmental oddities of The Ferments are included.

    Thundermoon River

    Slow, wide and muddy at The Bend, the Thundermoon River floods every early spring and during storms. It is the source of water which has to be filtered prior to use.

    Auntie Dauthia Spinebloom kée Dustcaller is here during the daytime, fishing.

    • Elemental affinity: Water
    • Hazards: People frequently get stuck in the sands, animals do not. Every second round in the river a person must make a DC: 12 Strength check or be restrained.
    • Allies: Birds from the aviary are common here.
    • Max occupancy: 10 medium creatures.

    The River connects to Spinebloom Commons (the main home) and lower river marsh.

    Lower rice marsh

    Less productive than upper marsh, the lower marsh is an edge of wild marsh plants and some rice that isn’t farmed. Within the plants one may find a mud mephit rehydrating, or the chwinga family that settled in the Farm.

    • Elemental affinity: Mud, water, salt
    • Hazards: Some chwingas settled here after the mephit flood.
    • Allies: The chwingas may insist they are allies while acting like foes, or they are foes acting like allies.
    • Occupancy: 5 medium creatures.

    Lower rice marsh connects to the Upper Marsh, Spinebloom Commons and to Thundermoon River.

    Spinebloom commons

    The main home is inside the Commons. It has a large kitchen and a conversation pit with several small beds cut into the earth at the edges. These ‘rooms’ are frequently sectioned off with blankets or robes, with only a tiny shelf for personal goods. At the entry to the hut is a placement for staves, cudgels and gardening equipment.

    Every member of the Spineblooms spends significant portions of their days in the Commons. They will clean items, repair them, play, and gather. All property is communal and the next person will want to use it shortly — it gets left there.

    • Elemental affinity: Hearth, dust, earth
    • Hazards: Interior has several changes in elevation. The kitchen has many flare ups that could occur. During certain lunar conditions the conversation pit has a dust devil in the center.
      Exterior is cluttered with loose tools, toys, cleaning pans and other small chore sites. It is difficult terrain and an improvised weapon is always at hand. Creatures knocked prone may take damage from the clutter.
    • Allies: There are always Spinebloom children present. Roll 2d4 to see how many. Half will be small. 1d4-1 adults are also present.
    • Occupancy: 8 medium creatures outside and 8 medium creatures inside.

    Spinebloom Commons is centrally located and connects to every other zone, except the Path of Dragons.

    Upper rice marsh — also known as Marsh Chwinga

    Once upon a time the upper marsh was highly productive for rice, eels and herbs. Now it has long furrows of damage from two dragon/ken invasions and the curse of the chwingas make it flourish for foods while everyone dreads entering the space.

    • Elemental affinity: Water, mud, plants
    • Hazards: Chwingas may take a soul. When a creature drops to zero HP and fails two or more death saves the chwingas can choose to stabilize it, mud wrap the body and have it kept until the mud breaks.
      There is currently an elven mage encased. The Spineblooms have not attempted to free the elf as its group tried to damage their home.
    • Allies: In this space the Chwingas act through their blue thoughts, sideways from morality of people.
    • Occupancy: 7 medium creatures.

    Chwinga marsh connects to the lower marsh, the Commons and the aviary.

    Unkie homes

    Adult and middle aged men are the Unkies. They are kept aside from the Commons and the Aunties. They maintain the extremely competitive nature of goliaths, using their abilities and size to show off during the days.

    Most of the Spinebloom Unkies came of age during The Awakening. The elements rage within them, frequently out of control. Lalok is peaceful. Others have wandered away with the few that stay not quite fitting in with the farm’s demeanor weaving with nature and kin to grow and thrive as one.

    • Elemental affinity: Hearth, fire, air, water
    • Hazards: These homes have doors with locks and they can be barred from the outside. Random spouts of elemental anger pop up regularly.
    • Allies: Unkies are usually around, but disorganized and will wrestle solo.
    • Occupancy: 5 medium creatures outside. Each hut fits 1.

    Unkie homes connect to the Aunties, to the Commons, to the River and to the path.

    Auntie homes

    Most of the women of the family live in smaller huts here by ones and twos. These small dugouts are protection from the elements, but few have cooking hearths.

    Two took significant damage during a dragon attack, one of which collapsed and is now a pit.

    • Elemental affinity: Hearth, dust
    • Hazards: The pit-home is a ten-foot fall.
    • Allies: Aunties are frequently in the area able to help with militia actions.
    • Occupancy: This is a larger space able to hold 12 medium creatures outside.

    Auntie homes connect to the Unkie homes, the path, the aviary and the Commons.

    Fruitful Aviary

    A mix of cacti and spined bushes the aviary is the home of the non-waterfowl that companion with the Spineblooms. Some of the cacti have fruits that the family eat, turn into jam, and use for meads.

    Unkie Lalok Goateye Spinebloom is found at the aviary most times of the day, sometimes sleeping near the spiney bushes. He can create a small pool of water for the bird bath if need be.

    • Elemental affinity: Plants, water
    • Hazards: The maze of briars and cacti are spiny everywhere. Those knocked prone will take damage.
    • Allies: Many birds and Unkie Lalok are present
    • Occupancy: 4 medium creatures usually separated by the plants.

    The fruited aviary connects to the Commons, the Path of Dragons, the auntie homes and the upper marsh

    Path of dragons

    A few months ago this path was simply “the path.” It is bare trail with scratched ruts in hard dirt that heads towards the West Thundermoon Mountains.

    Then dragons and their ken attacked. They attacked again. Since the river is where the Maltunyans visit, the path is now the Path of Dragons. Everyone assumes more dragons are coming soon. They left one of their own behind.

    • Elemental affinity: Dust, sand
    • Hazards: Drakes, dragons and their Ken may come at any time.
    • Allies: None
    • Occupancy: There is no limit.

    The Path connects to the Auntie and Unkie homes.

    The image is a stylized fantasy map depicting a region with diverse geographical features. The terrain is primarily sandy with scattered trees and mountain ranges. At the top left corner, the title "The Ferments" is displayed, with the region stretching across to the "Thundermoon Range" at the top center. Various areas are marked, including "Fatwoods" and "Palemarsh" to the west, represented with dense forests. "Sands Of Ar" is a large desert area in the center. To the south lies a large body of water labeled "Dark Wassr," depicted in a light blue-green color. Key locations such as "Raven Watch," "Sanctum Of The Black Witch," "Brightshelt," and "Ourten" are marked with symbols like houses or skull icons. A compass rose is placed near the water, aiding orientation. Paths, indicated by dashed lines, connect various locations.
    Created using Perilous Shores

    Allies

    Auntie Dauthia Dustcaller

    Ask a Spinebloom and Auntie Dauthia is a Spinebloom. If you can convince Duathia to talk she may, eventually tell you she’s a Dustcaller, a separate desert goliath collective that lives even more remotely. She’s mastered the ability to use small dust devils to carry fishing lures and nets around the river, until she catches something.

    Every member of the family has a different tale about what Auntie Dauthia did before they found her injured along the path. She was a thief, a sorcerer, clergy with the Reformed Church of Quar, a warrior of the wilds or some other mystical thing. They all agree that there is no better fisher in all the land and likely the world.

    Unkie Lalok Goateye Spinebloom

    Lalok once left the home to work in a caravan. He’s wandered the Ferments and Western Wildes, seen Telse and the Evereflow, visited the Cliffs of Galinor, and Fort Ooshar. He’s seen everything.

    He’ll never tell you about his encounters protecting the caravan. It”s the cities and his friends he tells tales of while sipping on cacti mead and with a flutter of sandpipers around him. He still has a massive pike, a shield the size of a table and a helm missing a third of an eye ridge where is slightly bulging ‘goateye’ is.

    Adversaries

    Chwingas

    These elemental sprites act on their own will, with purposes that center the elements, not people. Though intelligent, it is impossible for normal kin to understand what the chwingas want. They are extremely active when Unkies or ken are in the area. If someone tries to visit the encased elf the chwingas attempt to block that path through mischief and thievery.

    Dragons and their ken

    Twice ken and dragons struck at the Farm. They damaged upper marsh while attacking the Auntie homes and the Commons. These powerful magic users are not local to The Ferments and remind most of the myths of a time unification, before companionship.

    Downtime and Quests

    Guarase is searching for answers as to why the dragons and their ken came to the Spineblooms. The two attacks leave few clues and lots of damage.

    There is a body and two members of the family were away during The Awakening when magic came back to The Ferments

  • Protected: RPGs as Natural Disaster Prep

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  • The D&D Stranger Things boom is bigger than you think

    The D&D Stranger Things boom is bigger than you think

    This post will not contain spoilers for Season 5 because I haven’t yet watched Season 5 of Stranger Things, though I do know it features more Dungeons & Dragons than Seaons 2-4 combined.

    If you were to go into Target this fall you’d see a massive Stranger Things display somewhere in the store. Part of that display would feature the D&D boxed set Welcome to the Hellfire Club, which is a continuation of Eddie’s D&D campaign. It felt late, because Eddie isn’t part of season 5.

    It was not late.

    Welcome to the Hellfire Club sold out at Target. It sold out on Amazon. A light informal survey of local-to-me stores have it as sold out. The physical boxed set can still be ordered on DnDBeyond.

    Sure, that could be a lack of ambition from Wizards of the Coast by not manufacturing enough of the sets.

    It’s much more likely that the heavy lean back into D&D by Stranger Things Season 5 drove more desire for D&D the game than previous seasons, Critical Role and Baldur’s Gate 3. BG3’s drive of interest into D&D is hard to quantify, but has an extended window over several years.

    Google Trends can show you.

    A chart showing the popularity of search for Stranger Things and D&D. The D&D element is tiny. Stranger Things had a big surge in Fall of 2022 and a massive surge in Winter of 2025.

    Search trends for Stranger Things

    Here are the four adjacent media and D&D

    Chart showing search trends for Stranger Things, D&D, Baldur's Gate 3, D&D: Honor Among Thieves and Critical Role. The Stranger Things spikes are in Fall of 2022 and Winter 2025. Baldur's Gate 3 spikes in Spring 2023. There are small increases in interest in D&D and Critical Role scattered on the chart.
    Stranger Things is more popular than the others by far.

    D&D, the game, had its biggest boom from the movie, but…

    Google trends chart for D&D, the game. It's biggest spike is Spring 2023 when Honor Among Thieves, the D&D movie released. It's next largest spike is from Stranger Things Season 5 and Season 4. BG3 increased it a bit.
    Stranger Things Season 5 nearly matches D&D: Honor Among Thieves

    There’s one major difference — lack of tie-in gaming products.

    Rime of the Frostmaiden contained a single adventure related to the movie. There was a boutique NPC download related to the movie, but nothing like the amazing boxed set Stranger Things got. Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus was barely related to the video game and its release timing was horrible.

    Nothing sold out because of Honor Among Thieves, the best D&D marketing in the history of the game, because D&D wasn’t run as a franchise system with business units failing to talk to each other.

    Both the current starter set and Welcome to the Hellfire Club are selling out.

    What’s that mean for us Dungeon Masters?

    1. Be welcoming to new and returning players.
    2. Reduce house rules when they join you.
    3. Talk about the intent of your table and what type of play you focus on .
    4. Be familiar with the most popular products.
    5. Help teach your current players to DM.
    6. See if local cafes, libraries, schools, pubs, etc need DMs.

    We are responsible for growing this glorious hobby. Thanks to the Creative Commons, various SRDs, the eternal nature of homebrewing and the thousands of other roleplaying games there is always something that’s right for someone.

    Find what’s right for your family, your friends and your community.

    People are interested. It’s up to you to be the reason they stay interested.

    Fediverse reactions
  • My best of 2025

    My best of 2025

    As seems to be a now-trend, I published fewer articles and stories in 2025 than I did in 2024. That drift towards being a consumer of writing more than a writer is one that challenges me in my soul.

    Upon reflection unlike other slow periods of publication this is not because I microblog on social media too much. Instead it is a combination of stressful but wonderful work and helping Aslan recover from a back injury. Our beautiful red lab is now walking again, but it’s taken 90 days to get close to normal and will take a few weeks more.

    The biggest win of the year is not something written — my presentation on how to use RPGs as training aids prior to natural disasters. I’ve now delivered it at AIRIP, GSX, the Global Security Briefing and in just over a week I’ll present a version to OrcaCon, a local-to-me gaming convention.

    Let’s review my favorite writings of 2025

    Full Moon Storytelling

    These selections may not be what was most read on the blog. They are what I enjoyed writing the most.

    Your players aren’t supposed to die – one member of my D&D campaign passed away last year. We celebrated his life by playing a multi-table, public session of the game he loves in public.

    Potential – a personal essay on what it means to be anti-completionist, an essay writer, a blogger, someone with narrative thoughts without a novel.

    Pencil sketch of a tiny dragon resting on a book. The pointy tail arches over the back with drips of ichor coming out of a feathered tip. The arms seem to be vestigial wings with opposing fingers capable of handling obects
    Art by Dragons of Wales in the forthcoming book Dragons of the Dwindling

    Inkling Dragon – when Dragons of Wales offered sketched commissions I had to take part. A goal of mine is to eventually replace every standard D&D dragon in the World of the Everflow with Dragons of Wales’ style of dragons, particularly those from Deep Time. The Inkling Dragon is my dream of what a dragon who works as a writing assistant would be.

    The Ferments: A campaign one sheet – my regular D&D group transitioned to me being a player, but we weren’t playing enough. Borrowing from the West Marches concept The Ferments has the action come to the players, who defend their homes from a world with threats like fire tornadoes, earthquake swarms and mud mephit slides. A large part of The Fermends involves Militia Actions, a way to include local forces in larger combats while centering the player characters.

    Capturing the magic of the mundane Utilize action – the main campaign still runs with the 2014 5e rules as the baseline, but The Ferments uses a foundation of 2024 with dashes of Black Flag, Advanced 5e and 2014. One thing that’s fun about 2024 is that the Utilize Action can become a Blades in the Dark style clock. My review of the 2024 Player’s Handbook was my most read D&D writing of the year.

    Review: Sanguine by Found Familiar Coffee – getting back into cupping at home reminded me of tasting something like 350,000 roasts and origins back in my coffee quality days. I’m doing this without publishing, but if people want me to cup more coffee and share my thoughts I’d love to do it again.

    Published again with Homebrew & Hacking

    PJ Coffey invited me back to write an essay about how to create backgrounds for the 5e ecosystem, including new creations for Crafting Heritages, Cultures and More: Worldbuilding. The two sports (The Pentiad and Throwing Stars) shared in that book are now my default to how I integrate sports into 5e D&D. They are a divergence from sports as a tool.

    Sounder at Heart

    A composite image that includes the Ship's Log branding with a notepad and a quill. There is also a photo of Sounders leadership with the Leyva family holding up a Sounders jersey numbered 75. Below that is a photo of Danny Leyva in a black Defiance top.

    My weekly column, the Ship’s Log continues. The nature of a weekly column is that most subjects are only relevant weekly. Four of the newsletters this year felt bigger than that.

    Watching them grow up – when Danny Leyva transferred to Necaxa it was a crisp reminder that the young talents that came through Defiance, where I used to work, were teens, but now they are men, full on adults with wonderful path in front of them.

    Humanity requires that we care – watching Reign FC lose in the playoffs I cried tears of joy. My home team, another former employer, lost. But I was happy because it was a symbol of the joy available in soccer when the world can be so harsh.

    The Campaign of 2025 – of course I did a D&D+Sounders mashup. Similar to what happened the last time Wizards of the Coast released a new set of core books I created the key players for the Sounders as if they were D&D characters.

    Factal

    Work is mostly leading the blog, writing marketing emails, producing/presenting the Global Security Briefing and managing social (yeah, I’m a marketing generalist who does a little of a lot on a small team).

    There are two things I helped write that I want to share with my D&D readers.

    I didn’t write Security at the core of Amnesty International’s human rights work, but I was part of the interview and editing process. Factal helps more than 300 human rights and disaster relief NGOs for free. Knowing that we help tell these orgs where they are needed and help keep their people safe gets me excited to start my work days.

    Why the LA fires have been so hard to respond to – and how Factal members met the challenge – between misinformation, information overload, false alerts Factal’s editors and platform helped those NGO partners and huge enterprise companies keep their people safe.

    Factal North America lead editor Joe Veyera was on shift during Factal’s earliest alerts. “Finding information about the LA fires isn’t the hard part, but parsing what’s real and what’s not can be far more difficult. As a team of experienced journalists with experience covering large-scale disasters, we know which sources to trust and our members know they can trust our updates.”

    I love what I do, because we are that wonderful intersection of ethical company that does lifesaving journalism. I complete year four there in just over a month.

    Finally, I repeat my annual call to get rid of linktree or any of its competitors. Your link in bio should be to a place you own and control.

    Where to Follow Me
    Fediverse reactions
  • A letter to the workshop

    A letter to the workshop

    TO: Flasfur Wreltor with Blackbirds and the gobkons Chofs Chupmolea badged al-Chems and Bolnis Abica nox Qawaha via Artok at the Keep

    Aboard the ship you’ll find a vial of the corruption I discovered. Additionally this letter’s addendum includes a report of testing as well as a sketch-print of a mechanical hand discovered on this long journey. When I return is unknown. This journey shall be long and ideally fruitful. It is also violent and absurd. Tsavancoast is a land of extreme wealth and extreme poverty, with many artificers, tinkers and crafters mostly gobkon with a few goliaths, plus you wouldn’t believe if but I think there’s a human using cattle to turn wheels like we might a mill. I saw a monkey pushing bellows.

    It’s a large city. Where Sheljar is one with the land and full of righteousness Tsavancoast is bright even at night, garish. There’s gambling where we stay. I win regularly.

    Sorry. Too long. I get distracted.

    You are probably wondering what’s happened with the corruption. It’s a much bigger problem than we or Le Remoden Eisha or the Dragon Council thought. There’s also a local leader in Tsavancoast who is working to spread the corruption while supposedly being in Le Remoden Eisha.

    I found that out after repelling an army of walking trees and this weird elf-insect hybrid creatures. Yes, others helped, including some great dwarven sappers who brought down a bridge, scouts that helped save outlying communities, a lot of wizards. It was a staged battle. Midqh helped quite a bit. I learned how to make even bigger fire and booms through its apparatuses.

    Anyway, after that massive series of battles — yes, we won, that’s how you’re getting this letter — we chatted with the leaders of the wizard and dragon groups, plus a gent named Ryghast. Don’t ask me the order of who talked to who and when it happened. We were in a casino! I won a few games, many games.

    Eventually we chatted. But chatting with Ryghast was difficult. He took me into a magical silence to spill secrets. I tried and tried and tried to break his spells with my own systems. A wizard of his power is well beyond my teknical abilities.

    BUT, in his confidence he told me of his double-crossing ways. I immediately told Amos, Rolf, Crag and Nandi, who passed the information around.

    Probably created a big enemy. Hopefully he didn’t follow the Sadijh back to the keep. If he did please flee. Artok cannot defend you on his own.

    Anyhow, we’re back off to the wilds. The source of the corruption that created that army of trees is our goal. I don’t know when I’ll see you again. I have ideas about what we can do with this hand and I’ve started to work on armored carts with Rolf. There’s also a clockwork amulet that can give one a second chance. My latest invention is to burn a bit of corruption to power our items.

    See you again under the Dragon Moon.

    Xabal Gaitee Quarter-Flagged Optigraph Balaneer nox Free Tink and non-Commissioned Officer of the Sadijh (on leave in absence)

    This recap of the Defense of Tsavancoast is written in first person by Xabal, a gnome artificer, to their hirelings at Xabal’s Workshop set in the Age of Myths campaign.

  • Lore collage: Inspirations, disasters and conventions

    Lore collage: Inspirations, disasters and conventions

    The irregular column where I share links to the things that inspire me is back!

    Today, I’m writing while a third atmospheric river in a week passes over my home state. It offered a new twist, a levee break near where I go shopping and attend Sounders practices. The repair seems to be going well and the flooding there is only bad enough to wet parking lots. Up in the North Sound things are not simple, nor easy. Their recovery is going to take a long time. The communities up there will learn on each other and those of us that can help, because it’s bad.

    Working in a field adjacent to disaster prep I’ve given some talks about how RPGs can help people learn what to do in crisis through short games that are D&D adjacent (ability+skill/class, d20). Next month I’m giving a different but similar talk at OrcaCon in SeaTac.

    Attendees can find it in their schedule as: Special Event: RPGs as Natural Disaster Prep Tools.

    Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Volcanoes! Learn how to prepare using TTRPGs. Themed around community, and helpful for memory retention, these small, educational TTRPG games can help a community prepare for the natural hazards that are impacting them more than ever.

    There’s obviously going to be an example about floods, bomb cyclones and atmospheric rivers too. If you are in the South Sound come to OrcaCon. I’d love to meet you.

    A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry takes a deep dive, in series, into the lives of peasants. The hard work of the pre-Industrial Age by those nameless families who make up the majority of those humans who have ever lived is modeled and described.

    Much of it runs counter to my previously cited works about the amount of leisure time available that should inspire characters to have hobbies.

    There is almost no dedicated leisure time during the day. There is a regularity to the cycle, a monotony – each day more or less like the one before it and the one after – one imagines it was comforting to some peasants and deeply constricting to others, shaped by the continuing demands of peasant labor (itself structured by the heavy extraction regime they operate under, which consumes the leisure time they might otherwise have).

    But your characters should still have hobbies — even if they are peasants.

    1. Modern D&D is mostly in a near industrial format that allows for specialization.
    2. Wide magic definitely enables specialization and light.
    3. It’s more fun to have.
    4. ACOUP also points out that days may not have breaks, but weeks likely do and there are fest periods annually.

    In any case, for those long days in the fields or the long hours of spinning thread while keeping one eye on the large pot and the other on the tiny tot, our peasants would be looking forward to the next festival, the next feast day, the next major event…

    But also, games are common, everywhere.

    Ancient Maya game board with unique mosaic design discovered in Guatemala

    This board is different than previous finds in that it was built in to the floor in a mosaic rather than on benches or tables. It was large and meant to be permanent.

    People like to play games.

    Sometimes people play games to avoid thinking about the Apocolypse.

    When You Say, “Thermonuclear War,” I Think You Mean “the Call to Adventure”! The Twilight: 2000 Tabletop Role-Playing Game and the Postapocalyptic World’s Imaginary Spaces

    Or to learn about how to behave during natural disasters.

    A few months ago this beat wound up in my reader. I still haven’t used it in a game, but need to do that soon.

    New Monster – Blighted Bird of Prey

    Now, normally I love to add more dragons to a fantasy world — I prefer Dragons of Wales for my non-traditional dragon art.

    What if you wanted an armadillo looking thing with a humanish face smoking something?

    The history of oddities that aren’t natural beasts is vast and open to your use. Public Domain Review shared a selection of them recently.

    Does your fantasy world include smog-punk goblins, artificers, or take place in Eberron?

    You may need Gadgets From A Parallel World by Pantograph.

    A tube amp wireless router? A binary code typewriter with only a zero and one? A record player that can play 4 records – vocals, guitar, base and drum – at the same time? These are all gadgets that almost seem like they could exist, but of course they don’t.

    The binary typewriter is going into my world right now.

    Work passed 300 disaster relief and humanitarian aid NGOs supported for free. I’m proud to work at a place that lives its values and helps humanity. Factal produces free resources for the public too.