Want to play yourself? Melbourne University created an app that converts your face into the six attributes and a suggested class. It thinks I am a CE, Cleric with STR 15, DEX 9, CON 12, INT 9, WIS 15, CHA 9. Maybe. Probably not, as I haven’t been close to a STR 15 since my 20s.
As always, maps
Here is a map of mine on the @roll20app I have up, with more on the way!
Summerfort is a city of intrigue, a city of traders, explorers, madmen, and murderers, against a backdrop of rolling hills and luscious woods.
The biggest news related to D&D the tabletop game is the upcoming setting book Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. If all you know is Barovia, the new book is about to add many more varieties of horror to your table or video chat games. The Black Dice Society is the perfect stream to introduce you to some of them, but it’s more than that.
On Tuesdays Lore Collage focuses on the D&D game of dice and paper.
Previewing Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
The official intro to the full book includes thoughts from the designers.
Lysa Penrose threaded snapshots from her advance copy over on Twitter.
HEAVY BREATHING!!! Some ravens dropped off a surprise package (Thanks @Wizards_DnD!!) of the upcoming Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft!! It even includes some delicious (or cursed) recipes.
Fans of Tales from the Mist, Haunting is Good Society, and horror in general, prepare!!! pic.twitter.com/UtvBxps7h4
— Lysa Penrose (fae/faer) (@lysapenrose) May 1, 2021
Polygon, Forbes, and SyFy each were given an in-depth advance preview of a non-Barovia Domain of Dread. With over 30 Domains available, you can craft the perfect story for your table, even if you have players who follow all of the previews out there. There are still undead, constructs, cosmic horrors, and more lurking behind every page.
One of those Domains is Eberron’s Cyre, which disappeared after some kind of apocalypse during the Last War. Not only covered in Van Richten’s Guide, Cyre is also getting a deeper treatment from Keith Baker.
The survey is up to review the various Draconic races, feats, and spells in the April Unearthed Arcana. There were a bunch of intriguing ideas, but at this time they feature major changes to a PHB race, as well as one of my favorite little peoples. When I filled the survey out I suggested that these draconic races should follow the subrace format of other races, rather the confusing way orcs exist.
"No standard spell could take out a dragon this size. This was clearly the work of a Kolvoord Starburst. Our first duty is to find out the truth of who's performing such a spell" -Paladin Joanne Pikeman @roll20apphttps://t.co/zXDzwq0QUm#dndpic.twitter.com/PdxwECu4tH
Lore Collage is shifting to a regular posting schedule with the aggregation of links having a specific focus. With more and more press being generated by the game, past links posts would have several dozen items, which is just too much.
That breakdown is;
Monday Movies and other franchise news.
Tuesday Tabletop – Official D&D games news and reviews.
Wednesday Playdates in Pandemic – library games, mainstream coverage of socialization via D&D, and advice for your table.
Thursday Third-party – promoting discovered homebrew and professional content
Friday – General geekery that I enjoy unrelated to D&D
Dark Alliance looks like it is going to capture the hack-and-slash style that some tables prefer. Light on the roleplay, the heavy combat game fits a specific gaming niche. Gamerant likes Dark Alliance for those reasons.
Rick and Morty versus D&D special release
Not the boxed set, which isn’t part of my collection, this is the comics series featuring Rick and Morty with a Dungeons & Dragons twist. This special collector’s edition seems like a great gift for the right person (one of my earliest 5e players would dig it).
Hasbro D&D adjacent news
eOne, more well known for it’s movies (like D&D) and TV shows (like Grey’s Anatomy) is selling off its music assets for $385 million in cash.
With a week away from collaging about Dungeon lore and Dragon news, this collation of links, videos, podcasts, and maps is bigger than every. It may be the last in the weekly collection. They are becoming too hefty. Maybe a scheduled day for the major topics of the Collage makes more sense? We’ll see.
If you’ve ever wanted to play a carnival barker or newsie you had to reskin other backgrounds. Until now. The Crier/Herald/Barker is what you are looking for.
I started listening to The Black Dice Society because I wanted to prepare for Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. What wound up happening is me discovering a layered horror show with excellent characterization and a creep factor that hits me just right.
Just so you don’t forget, the Derek Kolstad TV project isn’t the only D&D TV project. It is merely the only one with a known personality attached to it.
Yawning Portal Opens for Virtual Weekend Play May 7-9
Event Grid for the May Virtual D&D Weekend? Why of course.
ThinkDM has a review of MCDM’s Illrigger, their first custom class. It’s an evil leaning class that has some flavors similar to Paladins, Warlocks, and blood magic.
Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent is the heavy metal, overpowered D&D setting from the creator of Warcraft. The Kickstarter will hit One Million Dollars shortly.
ThinkDM expands on the discussion of the Illrigger. The class may echo other class themes, but takes a unique mechanical approach that amplifies the story elements.
Calendaring is the number one death of any D&D campaign. One way to reduce that impact is through Duet-play. That style does take an even more character-centric approach to design, luckily the experts at Duet have a guide for you.
D&D is too often seen as an American phenomena. That’s lazy. The game is popular throughout the English speaking world with it continuing to rebuild in Spanish, Portuguese, German-speaking countries and more. | Rolling with it: Ottawa’s Dungeons and Dragons community thriving online – Capital Current
Remember when everyone in geekdom, and mainstream, cared about Game of Thrones and now no one does? It’s ten years old and the world has forgotten.
Are you a comics fan that’s into D&D? IDW has a Humble Bunble of up to 100 titles starting at just 1$.
Amazon Prime’s Second Age telling of JRR Tolkien’s saga of The Rings will cost over $465 million in season one. To put that in some perspective that’s more than WandaVision and The Mandalorian season ones, combined. We are in peak fantasy in TV and movies.
There are lighter fantasy tales to tell. Wanderhome is an RPG about sentient animal folk living lives that aren’t necessarily violent, but still quite dramatic.
Someone needs to invite me into a Strixhaven D&D campaign, because that world s amazing.
I owe Jeff a review of Blue Planet: Recontact still. For now, here’s an interview about the sci-fi setting that combines David Brin’s Uplift world with heavy doses of environmental stewardship.
As Always, Maps
Your next trip to the feywild or Domains of Dread needs a dungeon where you are going both up and down at the same time.
What happens when the lich doesn't follow the Ikea dungeon assembly directions properly…
The quiet little cottage sits on the lakeside, smoke billowing from the chimney and plants steadily growing from the personal garden tucked away on the side. Wouldn't you like to come for a swim? pic.twitter.com/qW95JhJcow
Embrace NPCs that have bad vision. Orne Willowrush is ready for your campaign. He’s a dude that’s bad at fishing, but likes it. Wearing glasses Willowrush crafts fine barrels and can be found buying his friends beverages.
Paramount is delaying the D&D movie by a year-and-a-half. This is almost certainly due to the continuation of the Covid-19 pandemic and how crowded the big-budget movie release schedule will be in 2022. The wide slate of TV shows has no announced delays. Derek Kolstad’s project is the only one with an announced showrunner at this time.
Regé-Jean Page was nearly in an upcoming Superman project. One of the hottest (in demand) actors in Hollywood these days Page will be in the D&D movie. He won’t be in that Superman project, because some idiot seemed to think that Superman can’t be related to a Black man.d
The latest Lore You Should Know is all about one of the reworked Domains of Dread.
Third-Party Products
Venture Maidens is the latest podcast to release their world as a sourcebook. Their DM is also the head of the book project, and that bodes quite well for the quality of the product. Celeste Conowitch has credits with Wizards of the Coast, Kobold Press, and is now with 2C Gaming. The Kickstarter is up through May 10.
Solasta is nearly a ‘finished’ product. The D&D OGL video game is leaving early access. Solasta is more focused on the 5e D&D rules than the official games.
Tribality reviews the upcoming character and scenery art generator Neverending. Finding a tool that you can use, that helps non-artists changes your table atmosphere. Toss those creators some money, because they earned it.
Advice for Dungeons & Dragons Payers and DMs
Every week Alphastream and Shawn Merwin go deeper and deeper into what Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything empowers players to do. Their podcast might be the only digital enterprise still talking about the dramatic story and rules expansion from last fall.
Game Rant goes over how to use Feats in 5th edition. For me, in my world, I enjoy granting Feats at first level. But I drop the power-gamey ones from the list of options. There is a lot of story creep available in 80% of Feats.
Playing D&D in Civic Spaces During the Pandemic
Whereas most libraries are hosting games to play, at the Topeka Library the focus is on teaching people how to play the game. They have a monthly series that focuses on specific aspects of play. Up next is Character and Combat.
The Johnston Public Library, in upstate New York, is reopening to the public, and continuing virtual D&D for teens in two age groups.
Add fjords and mountains carved by gods to your game.
Greetings, worldbuilders! Today I have released a new unmarked region map for you to use as a canvas. Worldbuilding pop quiz – What do you imagine the dominant export might be?
This map has an old school styling to it. I want to move to this town.
Ultimo Riparo, by Simkin
"a map I made for my own campaign. Ultimo Riparo is the last town in the north of the Nordarn Kingdom. Far away from the limit, between this village and Ironclaw ther is a big wild and dangerous plateau…"https://t.co/WUBeVFrId5pic.twitter.com/unSuOjfXca
Before we get into the gossip around Page, Adventurer’s League, great D&D podcasts, and a video game where you can play D&D inside the game, I’m going to remind you that travel distances in D&D should be about time, not distance. Use leagues, use daylong journeys, and add to the immersive and simplified feel of 5th edition.
If you need to run a naval skirmish with 2-6 ships on each side, here’s a rule set for you.
Official D&D Product Releases and Reviews
D&D Virtual Weekend Signups Start This Week
On Virtual Weekends you can play in Adventurer’s League, or in custom worlds from professional DMs.
With Regé-Jean Page leaving Bridgerton, maybe for good, the Hollywood gossip and news services are all over where you can catch him next – in Dungeons & Dragons.
Over in Tarrytown, New Jersey, a youth organization launched to keep kids creative during the covid-19 pandemic. They are, of course, using D&D as one of those paths.
Local multiplayer video games, that’s ones where you are on the same couch using the same console and screen, are increasing popular during the pandemic. Like Dungeons & Dragons (mentioned in story) these games give you social interaction when it’s difficult. | It Takes Two proves that couch co-op games are back for good – Wired
New York City Comicon is going to allow people in attendance in October. They will also have virtual events.
As Always, Maps
Need a city or dungeon on the spur of the moment? Use your favorite shopping mall.
If you ever have to completely improvise a megadungeon (for some reason, may god have mercy), find a map of a large, asymmetric shopping mall, preferably with multiple levels for the layout. pic.twitter.com/ie9MktLAXu
— @prismaticwasteland.com on bluesky (@PrismaticWastes) April 4, 2021
How would your PCs solve the problem of a boat blocking the main shipping canal in your world?
With access to campus TV the LGBTQ+ community at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is putting on a D&D themed show since the pandemic prevents their normal annual fundraiser. | Dungeons & DRAGons – Royal Purple
The din of the crowd can be heard from the very outskirts of the city streets as the marketplace comes alive with the sounds of exotic animals, performers, and a crowd teeming with excitement! But is the circus all that it claims to be or are there secrets to be uncovered? pic.twitter.com/hlnS3mh6Ox
Over the weekend I ran my first livestreamed D&D show. It was part of YachtCon, a charity convention for Seattle Sounders fans that raises money for the Autism Center at Seattle Children’s Hospital. DDD:253 – Invasion of the Trees may just be the oddest thing I’ve done related to my blogging, podcasting, and broadcasting related to Seattle soccer. We’ve made scarves, shirts, hoodies, beers, conventions, tours, parties, and much more, but playing D&D with sports fans and even a head coach was not something I expected to do back in 2008 when I launched Sounder at Heart. Maybe there will be more. Here’s the 3-hour adventure.
In Justice Smith’s press junkets about his upcoming movie he also mentions the D&D movie role, but without much detail.
After that, audiences will see him reprise his role as Franklin in Jurassic World: Dominion in 2022. That film will be followed by the anticipated adaptation of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, which has lined up an all-star cast, including Chris Pine, Hugh Grant, Michelle Rodriguez and Bridgerton breakout Rege-Jean Page. “The character I play, again, is very different from someone I’ve played before,” he teases.
Product release week is on us again — these will speed up, per the recent quarterly earnings review. One of the benefits to Wizards/Hasbro having so many new freelancers on the Candlekeep Mysteries project is that they have an extra couple dozen voices who can hit the promotions circuit, and many did.
As a reminder, I’m running DDD: 253, a charity game, Sunday March 21 at 7p. It is part of YachtCon: Back to School, the Puget Sound’s largest annual soccer convention. Sign up to watch for free, or sign up for our other “classes” and commune with Seattle’s soccer scene about pizza, beer, art, wine, cocktails, trivia, and more.
With Candlekeep Mysteries releasing this week the internet is full of preview material. Some focuses on the individual writers, as diverse a group as Wizards has ever put forward on an official product, and others give broad overviews of the product.
Drop the Die’s reviews their friends and acquaintances, a twist that this product forces because the sheer number of new voices brought to an official product.
Fandamentals went so in depth they have a part one and a part two. Every adventure has spoilery notes.
D&D Twitter featured every writer from from the adventure in a massive multi-week thread. Excellent use of social media to amplify their contract writers.
Introducing #Candlekeep Mysteries, the latest adventure anthology in the Forgotten Realms setting! Explore this collection of new mysteries by up-and-coming D&D designers from across our community. These short adventures arrive March 16!
Chris Perkins wasn’t just the lead on the product, he was also one of the adventure writers. D&D puts his voice behind this 9 minute overview of the book of books.
The latest episode of DragonTalk includes a little nugget that Wizards is donating to a library of each library’s choice.
Time for a new Dragon Talk, the official D&D podcast!
SlyFlourish doesn’t want you to forget about the DMG — frankly, I needed the reminder. Currently the book I re-read most frequently is Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, but that’s mostly because I’m doing a lot of writing about Tools. After that, I’m spending time with Rime of the Frostmaiden’s introduction to help me with writing for DDD: 253 – Invasion of the Trees.
One of the tricks the DM can use as the players get more familiar with the dungeon’s baseline is to speed past the areas that conform to that baseline and instead describe the exciting places.
Portage County, Wisconsin is hosting virtual D&D using DnDBeyond.com. They launched the digital version after donations from Wizards of the Coast and Fandom.
BYU-Idaho is hosting D&D sessions. They are transitioning back to in-person gaming.
When that stimmy hits I’m backing Coyote and Crow. I love alt-histories. One designed from the ground up to honor the First Peoples of North America will be exciting.
There’s a packed week’s worth of news around Dungeons & Dragons this week — two books are in the preview stages, the movie keeps getting attention, a new AAA video game is now public and more. This amount of news should no longer be a surprise, as Wizards of the Coast and D&D are the fuel to Hasbro’s machine now. We’ll dive into that as well.
Before all of that a reminder that though DDD:253‘s table is sold out YachtCon has plenty of other opportunities to support the Autism Center at Seattle Children’s Hospital. You can also audit the game with Tacoma Defiance Head Coach Wade Webber, Defy Wrestler Ethan HD, and myself. Even if you don’t like Puget Sound soccer, there are classes on pizza making and cocktail shaking for you to enjoy.
Check out the Remarkable Drudge, a laborer background for your 5th edition D&D game.
Official D&D Product Releases and Reviews
Candlekeep Mysteries Previews
Physical copies of Candlekeep Mysteries are out in influencer and media hands.
The iconic library-castle is a huge part of the story. Candlekeep gets a map and chapter to expand your own setting or your understanding of the Forgotten Realms.
Adam Bradford, formerly of DnDBeyond is off to Demiplane. This move indicates that the expanding digital options around D&D and tabletop roleplaying games will continue to grow and compete with each other.
Several miniature manufactures are making wheelchair users for D&D play. Yorktown this week connects with Strata Miniatures and Sara Thompson about the Combat Wheelchair.
LevelUp released a preview of their Exploration pillar. The baseline rules of the game address this pillar less than any other aspect of the game. It will be interesting to see where LevelUp diverges from Adventures in Middle Earth, which also expanded exploration.
Advice for Dungeons & Dragons Payers and DMs
POC Gamer’s OrcaCon session on worldbuilding is now available to all.
In Indiana the Lawrenceburg Main Library is hosting D&D in its café. As regions climb out of pandemic social distancing it will be interesting to see how many libraries take their virtual sessions into real life.
Ingenious, Indigenous: The Tunumiit (E Greenland Inuit) practice of carving portable maps from driftwood, used for navigating coastal waters. Representing coastlines up one side of the wood & down the other, they fit in a mitten, are compact, buoyant, & can be read in the dark. pic.twitter.com/FkNHBoXf9s
— The Decolonial Atlas (@decolonialatlas) March 7, 2021
Full Moon Storytelling 