As part of the Worlds to-go! The Elysians Kickstarter I pitched PJ the idea of adding sports inspired by this magical world that is a conjunction of city-states, godly wilderness and island-hopping villagers. The microsetting we’re going for has some ancient Greek and Roman inspiration, flexing into similar tropes taken by the Percy Jackson series, a dash of Narnia without the chivalry and because I’m me dashes of magic in all things.
It leans into narrative as mechanics. The concept here is to describe the action your are taking using your specialty (an advanced 5e rule), skill and attribute in unique ways.
Normally I ignore individual sports as they can typically be done with a one roll roll-off. But Elysia had to have something inspired by the original multi-national sporting competition. So I added the Pentiad.
As the peoples are emulating the gods (a fun bit of lore I enjoy) there’s no such thing as cheating. Borrowing from The Magicians, I leaned into the concept that the gods have minds beyond people’s minds. Emulating the minds of gods meant no cheating. There’s no cheating! Do whatever you want for victory — that’s what the gods would do. Pursue victory using spells or even attacks. Just don’t kill people.
Throwing Stars is based off an ancient Roman juggling competition, adding in a dash of mysticism around the creation of constellations and turning it into a team event. Combat juggling is a modern thing that should be captured in this lore too. Throwing Stars takes combat juggling with magic and then instead of awarding points on surviving, awarding points on the artistry of the creation — a divine act.
When Throwing Stars what object or magic will you create to impress the gods?
You can check out Sports on the Fields of Elysia for free for a few days. It’s a proof of concept, not a final rule set. If the Kickstarter continues on its strong path you may seen the final version of the rules, along with two other team sports.
Try out the rules for sports. Tell us what you think.
Working with PJ over at Homebrew & Hacking, I’m helping put together a set of backgrounds and other elements for a micro-setting for use in the 5e D&D variant Level Up. Our project is tightly focused on a culture of temples, philosophers, oracles and city-states — Worlds to-go! The Elysians.
One of the reasons I chose a Level Up project rather than traditional 5e Dungeons & Dragons is that Level Up puts a large emphasis on Backgrounds and Cultures. Things like NPC connections, mementos and even advancement in that pre-heroic profession are featured in a Level Up Background. That fits how I want to tell stories using D&D.
I also listen to PJ’s podcast quite a bit, which I guess PJ just found out.
For the project some of my previous Backgrounds will be adapted, but there are also new ones that help fill the micro-setting of the Elysians.
Head over toKickstarterand click on “Notify Me On Launch” to see the project when it is live. The team PJ is putting together will provide you with some simple tools to help expand your D&D stories and maybe even tell the future.
There’s a blue super moon tonight, which feels like the perfect time to reveal “What we do on the sidelines FC.” This team is inspired by What we do in the Shadows, a fine vampire production.
Full Moon Storytelling was kind of the perfect fit for the front of shirt sponsor.
The orange is the keeper kit. I may need to talk to the corrupt league commissioner for one of those. When the season is done, I’ll be getting the “Strahd #83” jersey and maybe one of the other sub jerseys too.
If you want one of the pirate themed sub jerseys from Spring ’23 reach out to me. I do not need three, but will be keeping the Dread Pirate Roberts #6 (Wesley was #4 btw) top.
As I said last time I say again, maybe one of the players on the soccer team I sponsor will play Dungeons & Dragons for the first time because of this. Maybe not. That’s not the point. The point is my friends needed a tiny bit of help and I could help — so I did.
Depending on sourcing (I’ll use Berlitz) that’s now languages one, four, five, twelve and Italian (outside of the top twenty) that have a free, open version of Dungeons & Dragons available to them.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Japanese is added soon, as WotC took over the Japanese release of D&D a couple years ago.
Chinese, Portuguese, Arabic and Dutch were the next most popular languages for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves that have not yet had an SRD released for them.
This is an introduction to the seventh campaign set in the World of the Everflow. The most significant difference between these and the previous campaigns are that the player characters are all members of the Proctors, a group that once completely restricted magic from entering the Land of the Six Kingdoms.
The campaign will start in the city of Ras Rurulit in Daoud shortly after the PCs were dropped off there. They have a safe house. Operating in the city either in hiding or in open defiance of convention will be up to the party.
Your group of Proctors are working together to capture and contain the Book of the Word and the Book of Dance, two groups of Scholars active in southern Daoud. You are authorized to use any measures necessary to control this group. They have been teaching well beyond just a Scholar and two Students – end them.
Background
In the last passing of the Dragon, the fourth moon, the World of Everflow experienced the return of magic, the introduction of goblins with smog teknologies, and empowerment of animal companions. Native to the Lands of the Everflow, the Kin all have animal companions, some learning minor magics. Rarer are those whose companions are empowered.
The fey Ken object to these souls casting spells. Their Proctors crush the spread of magic and seek the Lorebooks from the seventeen schools where spellcraft was trapped. As the Ken invade from the west and the Six Kingdoms’ borders are rewritten, a forgotten peoples float on airxips from the north. The Kon are a smog-punk society with klackety, noisy tek coming from an island of guilds and invention.
Heroes rise with their animal companions joining their journey. From humble beginnings these heroes show the power of fellowship and share knowledge with the greater world.
In this case, the PCs are not heroes. They are not antiheroes. They are the Ken, people of knowledge, hoarding and limiting magic from the common people in the Six Kingdoms.
This map is what the initial intelligence of the Ken thought the Six Kingdoms looked like. It’s quite wrong. Your group of Proctors are in the far south of Daoud, a rough land similar to the non-desert coastal Maghreb.
Grand Conflicts
Proctors versus Scholars
Proctors versus the rare Gobkon in the south
Do the Elder Dragons really know best?
Factions
The Book of the Word – book based spellcasters
The Book of the Song – music based spellcasters
Fleet of the Silent Knight – Daoud’s force responsible for maintaining control of the bay.
Isarnalijik and Isamamimir’s Squadron – the remnants of land forces who insist they are the rightful heir to the desert lands.
Rumors
There are many colleges and universities in the land.
Magistrate Sas Rurulit is the greatest singer in Daoud’s history.
Ishurrumukuf has been taken over by one of the trade guilds of Qin
A great storm is coming from the West.
Facets
The group are a collection of secret agents or special operators. They may act undercover or violently during the mission.
They have one ally to start, Sabrinigha. She runs the safehouse and is a halfling of the born generation slowly discovering spell craft.
The lack of animal companions will be obvious. They’ll need a cover story.
In traditional D&D this mission would be Lawful Evil.
Variant Rules
Ken start with a Feat that grants a 1st level spell such as Magic Initiate.
Short rests are 8 hours. Long rests need sanctuary and 12 hours. This leads to a pace more similar to a novel.
Find Familiar and similar spells are banned from PC knowledge at the start of the game.
50% of Enchantment spells no longer exist. This will not impact your spell choice.
Use point buy or standard array for starting attributes. If you want something random, the redrick roller gives random point buy valid stats.
Start at 7th level because the Proctors are powerful.
There are several custom backgrounds and tools available. We will use cultures, not languages. Each character will start with “Daoud (Common to the area) and Ken” for their cultures. If your PC would have more languages discuss that with the DM.
Each character will start with 500+1d10*25 gold to spend on mundane items or to put in a pouch and use as spending money.
Each character will start with TWO COMMON magic items, plus an Oriq Mask (see Strixhaven) and one RARE item based on the character’s Background and role within the Proctors. That Rare item will have story elements to it, may get stolen. May level up. We’ll see.
Each character must be be a spellcaster, but no Druids or Clerics or Rangers. Proctors serve the Elder Dragons, not gods or nature.
Every character must represent one of the Proctor factions – Seeker, Defender, Striker. The chart below shows a few examples.
Seeker
Defender
Striker
Wizard
Evoker
X
Diviner
X
Abjurer
X
Warlock (dragons)
Archfey
X
Fiend
X
Great Old One
X
Sorcerer
Draconic
X
Wild
X
Rogue
Arcane Trickster
X
Paladin
Ancients
X
Devotion
Monk
Four Elements
X
Fighter
Eldritch Knight
X
X
Bard
Lore
X
X
Valor
X
X
Artificer
Armorer
X
X
X
Artillerist
X
X
Alchemist
X
X
Battle Smith
X
Subclasses in other 5e Wizards of the Coast and Kobold Press books may be used as well.
