Category: Playing D&D

Custom Backgrounds, classes, advice and more about Dungeons & Dragons

  • Adventurer’s League changes expand playing options

    Adventurer’s League changes expand playing options

    One of the most popular questions I get is “How do I start to play D&D?” In the Before Times I would invite people to join in my World of the Everflow campaign with fully half of the more than a dozen participants in that game being new to Dungeons & Dragons. Now, with the explosion of digital and remote play I tend to guide people towards the Adventurer’s League. The robust program from Wizards of the Coast just had a major shift.

    Used as part of Wizards of the Coast Fan Content Policy

    News and other programming is hosted on the Wizards website. The Yawning Portal helps guide people to events, particularly the monthly virtual play sessions, but also online conventions with AL participation.

    The next virtual play weekend registration starts March 2 for play between March 12 and March 14. You can even get a preview of Candlekeep Mysteries during that weekend. The book comes out on March 16. There are dozens of possible games to get involved in — stuff for first time players and things for masters of the game, both.

    https://twitter.com/baldmangames/status/1366127609227210752
    Follow Baldman Games and/or D&D Adventurers League for more info

    Not only are all of the updates for D&D AL now on the Wizards website there are also changes as to how AL is played. In most games you will no longer be limited to the Player’s Handbook + 1 book rule. Now, almost any character you can build will be legal. Check out their blog post to see the specific limitations (mostly centered around flying as ThinkDM points out).

    As someone who builds most of their characters via DnDBeyond the looser rules help. There was not a simple toggle to limit to the PHB+1 rule on/off, so to make an AL character I had to think through which book a spell, background, feat, race, subclass all showed up in. The digital era makes the +1 rule a touch obsolete. A character built on Beyond or any VTT will have all of its abilities publicly facing the DM.

    If you haven’t played, and you don’t want to join a game another thing to do is start by observing a stream. D&D’s official Twitch channel hosts shows to watch and their YouTube channel includes quick how-to-play videos.

    You can also sign up to observe my 1st level adventure DDD: 253 Invasion of the Trees as part of YachtCon: Back to School.

  • Inspiration Is Everywhere: Mushrooms

    Inspiration Is Everywhere: Mushrooms

    They can be disgusting. There are times that I’ve called them the rats of the vegetable world — they are not vegetables. In our games we can use mushrooms as food.

    What dungeon bound civilization hasn’t used fields of mushrooms for sustenance? Every time Drow, Dueger, Svirfneblin, and the rest raise shrooms. It’s part of the lore. Bioluminescent fungus and molds can be used for lighting as well.

    These tropes are common in Dungeons & Dragons.

    But you should also use mushrooms to build things. This is happening in the real world, but as bricks. Sure, that works in D&D. It makes a lot of sense for certain cultures.

    Expand on that idea.

    Who lives inside the shrooms like the Smurfs did. Or do your fey hide from the rain underneath a little cap.

    Photo by Visually Us on Pexels.com

    What secret assassin group searches for a specific fungus for their signature poison? What apothecary makes a healing tisane out of mycelium and molds? Which street vendor took the meals of the underdark and turned them into handheld pastries stuffed with minced mushrooms and aged cheese making a name for themselves in the lighted world?

    Everything you experience — eat, read, watch, listen to, encounter — can inspire you to add a little bit to your gameworld or character.

  • How to give your Beasts and Monstrosities reasonable speeds

    How to give your Beasts and Monstrosities reasonable speeds

    You might be able to outrun a Tyrannosaurus Rex, if you’re a peak athlete. Keep note of that. You almost certainly can outmaneuver them. Those are the key takeaways that Wired wants you to have after reading “How to Outrun a Dinosaur.“

    There’s a lot more depth in there for a game designer, homebrewer, or storyteller.

    Three years ago the biologist Myriam Hirt, who studies animal movement at the German Centre for Biodiversity Research, asked a seemingly simple question: Why is it that the biggest, most powerful animals—the whales, elephants, and rhinoceroses—are not the fastest, while the smallest—the mice, minnows, and millipedes—are some of the slowest? Is the implication that there is an optimum size for speed?

    The answer, Hirt found, is yes. If you were designing an animal for speed, that animal should weigh approximately 200 pounds. A bit heavier for a swimmer, and a bit lighter for a flyer.

    Wired, How to Outrun a Dinosaur.

    The T Rex has a speed of 50 in Dungeons & Dragons. That’s too fast for the mass of meat with jaws of death. Smaller dinos and lizards should probably have higher speeds. The Ripper Lizard is getting an update as this story is getting written.

    The speed of 50 might make sense if the primary time in D&D that speed is used is to determine distance running. But it is not. Speed most frequently comes up in combats in six-second chunks of time. Beasts and Monstrosities with high speeds should be the ones that accelerate and burst forward — cheetahs, lions, and Deltadromeus. Even the velociraptor should be average-to-athletic human sprint speed-ish.

    That also brings up a key point. A D&D character is supposed to represent, in general, above average athletes. There’s no direct tie-in between Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution and speed. Most races get a 30, some get a 25, rare ones get 35, and even rarer are the few that fly or swim.

    There are three things we should do with the knowledge from that Wired article;

    • Centerline most speeds to better represent reality in non-magical creatures.
    • Add line in the description that addresses distance traveled by unencumbered and encumbered beasts of burden.
    • Create a quick and easy way to avoid getting run down by a dinosaur.

    That last bullet doesn’t take a lot of work. When in a chase scene use opposed Dexterity checks (Acrobatics or Athletics or Sports could apply) when the chaser is within Reach of the chasee. A success would permit an attack/shove/grapple, if the action economy makes sense. If not, let the chasee take half their movement as a reaction as long as they are able to, and do, significantly change direction.

    Any creature that has magical influence on their speed can operate as normal.

  • Excellent online tool for NPC portraits and traits

    Excellent online tool for NPC portraits and traits

    As a big advocate for NPCs built for social and exploration encounters, finding a tool that creates those randomly, with art, is wonderful.

    Christian Oesch’s DM Heroes page throws together a handful of racial/lineage options with descriptions that are not centered on combat. Additionally there are suggestions on how to connect them to each other.

    Veklani Skandalor

    Female Dwarf Cobbler – If it doesn’t kill you…

    Veklani’s suggested traits are;

    Features

    70 years old (young adult)
    4′2″ (128cm)
    Normal voice
    Speaks about themself in 3rd person.

    Traits

    Never changes their facial expression.
    Hates the government.
    Is happy because of a recent dream.

    Story

    Asks the party to help their become a cult leader.
    Wants to kill Erag Ambershard

    Other

    Prays to Dugmaren Brightmantle, god of discovery (CG)

    If you don’t have time to custom craft a handful of minor NPCs just in case, this tool does wonders. It also can be a handy tool to get quick art for your PC, though you’ll need to spend time tuning the various sliders and such. Reroll, Hero Forge and others might be better for that.

    Here’s Thoumas built with ReRoll.

    You can read about the Swarmkeeper of Terriers here.

    Quick art for your characters, whether player or DM controlled, helps with immersion and inspiration. Find those tools that help you and your group enjoy the game most.

    And if you have the funds for custom art, do that! Custom art is wonderful too.

  • Check out Ginny Di’s video about etiquette in online RPGs

    Check out Ginny Di’s video about etiquette in online RPGs

    After many, many months of the covid-19 pandemic more people are playing D&D than ever. Much of this is online. Long-time players and D&D rookies both are discovering the challenges of gaming via video.

    Ginny Di put together a strong 12-minute video that hits on the common challenges and solutions that come up at virtual tables. Even if your virtual table play is going well this is a good reminder. If you haven’t played virtually before the package is an excellent starting point.

    When I watched this it reminded me of one my habits as Awf — I can dominate the channel rather than share the spot light. When I play as Thoumas, the group interplay is different. We split the party frequently, something that is harder to handle on a VTT, in my experience. Coordination requires a bit more care.

    Her best piece of advice, at least for my groups (hi guys), is to use the text chat for out-of-character stuff. That clears space for the DM to manage the game. My second favorite is to schedule a little bit of the time pre & post game to communicate about non-gaming things. Be friendly and social with each other, because being social during the pandemic is hard enough.