Category: Playing D&D

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

  • Lore 24: Oath of Free Sheljar

    Lore 24: Oath of Free Sheljar

    All of the campaigns that have taken place win the World of the Everflow have focused on tracking down the various Lorebooks, with each group having other side quests, generally towards making the world for the common peoples of the Lands of the Six Kingdoms.

    They’ve run counter to the Proctors, an evil faction that is trying to control knowledge of magic, and rogue Scholars who are spreading knowledge of magic in order to control people. Necromancy and Transformation are the ones most counter to traditional D&D goodness.

    The only other super-natural organization is the Orthodox Church of Quar. The Quarites control access to the Everflow and a massive merchant endeavor with their churches also working as trade posts and shops for what are in game terms healing potions.

    This world has no equal to the Factions of tradition D&D, or the Knights of the Round Table, or Templars or other super-national knightly orders. No one has wanted to be in one.

    But if a player wanted to play a character with these kinds of ideals and/or oaths, we’d talk about how it would fit. Knowing my player base the inspiration would be the Free City of Sheljar, the egalitarian re-founding of Sheljar after the early campaigns purged the Necromancer, his agents of undeath and the Tunneling Nightmares (they’ll be the subject of a future Lore 24).

    Based off the players and characters that founded the Free City such an idealistic organization would look similar to the Harpers, with a dash of de oppresso liber and a side of asymmetric organization.

    • Determination for all peoples Kin, Ken, Kon and any who think.
    • Share knowledge, so all in the world may live better lives.
    • Defend those that cannot defend themselves and their companions
    • Judge behavior, not the companion, the nationality or the faith
    • Recognize successes at spreading the word of a Free Shejar and Free Everflow

    Like the oaths of D&D paladins, these ideals within the oath are aspirational. They aren’t to be perscriptive.

    A player wanting to be part of this order wouldn’t necessarily pledge to sergeant or knight. They wouldn’t need to swear fealty to the current Mayor of Sheljar (Samul). The order would rise because the oath is a bit viral — it’s one that encourages heroic actions and fulfilling quests.

    A band could be one halfling and her dog, or an entire airxip of goblins, or an adventuring party, or three elves visiting the Everflow that abandon their fey pacts, or a group of Mehmdians, or a village near Telse, or a tribe in Crinth. A band inspired by the ideals of Free Sheljar aren’t sworn to them, in fact the current governance of Kirtin-on-the-Lake is inspired by Sheljar, but free from them.

    That’s the knightly order I would make if I were to make a knightly order.

  • Lore 24: Mijdaf, the paddler

    Lore 24: Mijdaf, the paddler

    One of the great parts of Dungeons & Dragons is the impromptu nature of it all. When you’re at the table, especially for a homebrew campaign, things just happen. The participants riff off of each other and a story is created that shouldn’t exist and can never exist again. It is a moment in time. Mijdaf was born in one such moment recently.

    Mijdaf, the paddler

    Mijdaf is an NPC in the current campaign. He started because the group needed transportation up the river from their neighborhood to one on the very edges of urbanity.

    Me: There’s a barge pulled along the ropes on the side of the river.

    The PCs: That seems slow.

    Me: There’s also a paddleboat operated by a goliath.

    The PCs: We take that.

    That’s how a desert goliath living in the largest city of the region started to grow into relevance in the game. But at this point he’s just a ferryman in a boat. Sure, he’s huge and can paddle upriver faster than those humans can pull themselves, but he’s not yet unique.

    PCs: What kind of birds does he have?

    Me: Four seagulls that mostly rest on a branching perch above his head. He asks where your companions are.

    PCs: We’re trying to get a new one for Lauray. Do you know a good breeder?

    As Mijdaf I talk about two options and why he has one that he prefers. It’s one that doesn’t recognize the current government. Mijdaf starts talking about the history of the region that connects to an artisan that they’d met in the previous session.

    They riff off of this, pulling more information from the goliath. It’s interactive at this point. They roll very well. I start playing into Mijdaf being willing to talk, constantly. Soon the PCs figure out that the reason that Mijdaf was available is because no locals will ride in his boat.

    He’s not just a talker — he’s a conspiracy theorist.

    Mijdaf pulls out a slate with tangential connections between various politicians, professors and military leaders. He keeps going.

    At the table this was great. The players with me that day were smiling, nodding and laughing. The total scene may have been 10 minutes. There were some social dice rolls and a lot of me as the DM picking up on table clues to see what the group was enjoying and emphasizing that.

    And then Mijdaf reached the destination, dropping them off. He and they never expected to see each other again.

    A day later in game time the group needs to get back from the nearly rural neighborhood to their home base deep in the port city. They recognize a paddleboat, but don’t see Mijdaf. They steal the boat.

    That’s how Mijdaf, the paddler, went from a simple single scene NPC into a character with purpose, gaming joy, and just possibly a problem for the future.

  • Lore 24: School of Herbimancy

    Lore 24: School of Herbimancy

    Within the World of the Everflow magic is relatively new, well besides the Everflow’s healing power and ability to flow in two directions and the powerful bond between beast and Kin. In the current Proctors of Song and Book magic returned ~27 years ago. First that was via the Born Generation when over a period of a year every child of Kin came of age knowing a single cantrip. About 7 years ago the Lorebook of Divination was found and over the following years, magic started to spread with the realization that there were 17 or so Lorebooks scattered across the lands.

    The current campaign takes place in Sas Rurulit, where the Proctors are attempting to collect two Lorebooks. But the ingenious groups that control the Lorebooks down in this land broke them up. The Lorebook of the Book are people who cast directly from books and scrolls.

    These peoples are manifesting magic at various colleges. The college of metallurgy used every fire and electricity spell to forge metals. The college of hydrology was water and air spells, with a bit of illusion. The Proctors (PCs) have essentially destroyed these two schools ability to function by either capturing or damaging the master books there.

    In the last session they visited a public park that is also the School of Herbimancy.

    Photo by Chris F on Pexels.com

    School of Herbimancy

    Unlike traditional D&D approaches to herbs, the School of Herbimancy isn’t about ingesting herbs in some fashion to gain magical effects. Instead, the plants themselves are the magic.

    For example, the paths in the park were softly lit at night via the glowing flowers of a particular plant (a version of Dancing Lights). Maybe the smell of burning needles from a deciduous tree heals (Healing Spirit). Fallen branches from a tree are a magical staff (Shillelagh). Within Sas Rurulit, this school’s magic is artifice meets druid — the plants are simultaneously technology and magical.

    The group failed a series of checks, one with a natural 1, so they don’t know the professor in charge of the school. Instead, they got the name of the banker financing the project. A way to turn a nat 1 into a meaningful failure!

    They also didn’t quite figure out that the seed room may be the equal of a scroll room or library at the other schools they’ve raided (some read this site and it would be a natural conclusion for the characters to reach after fleeing the fires they set to cover their raid).

    I’m doing Lore 24, an attempt to write small lore elements daily in the year 2024. Each element will be something that’s come up in play or will come up in play within my homebrew World of the Everflow — there will be actionable threads for PCs to grab onto and advance the story.

  • My Best Writing of 2023

    My Best Writing of 2023

    Every year I publish a look back at my favorite writing, podcast and video appearances for the year. This helps me remember what I’ve done, re-up things to people who discovered me late in the year and when attempting to freelance it gives me a handy spot to find work to share with editors and other hiring managers.

    Dungeons & Dragons

    The most popular story in the history of Full Moon Storytelling is no longer about sports. My essay on how to use third places to amplify verisimilitude surpassed the sports and cultures essay and then lapped it, twice in just a year. This helped boost Full Moon Storytelling to have 74% more views than last year. Alos, in 2023 FMS had more total views and visitors than the total of either from its founding in 2014 to 2022. Federating via WordPress helped contribute to that growth as well.

    D&D: Honor Among Thieves had an interesting release to judge as a success or not. Opening week was fine, but not great. The falloff was significant, and yet there are many reasons to think that there will be a sequel. It was a massive success when it came to marketing D&D and is one of the most streamed movies of 2023. My fascination with the mainstreaming of the hobby by Hollywood is one of my favorite writings.

    I’m probably not going to do a full post on Honor Among Thieves overall streaming success. Here’s the end of year data from Flixpatrol;

    • Ended the year as the 8th most popular movie to purchase on Google, Rakuten and Amazon.
    • It spent 246 days in Google’s top 10 most purchased movies & shows again globally. That’s basically every day it was available.
    • On Paramount+, its primary streaming platform, it spent 228 days in the top 10 globally good for 9th overall. It spent the last weekend of 2023 in 6th worldwide and 4th in the USA on P+
    • On iTunes it finished 12th, with 224 days in the top 10.
    • In most Asia it was streamed on HBO Max. It spent 83 days in the top 10 globally for HBO movies, despite only being available in limited markets.
    • In much of Latin America it was on Star+. It finished 11th among movies on that platform, spending 46 days in the top 10.

    Backgrounds continue to be my specialty. The most popular released this year was the Weaver, working its way into the top 5 all time.

    You can find five of my backgrounds, converted to A5e, in Worlds to Go! The Elysians, my first ever Kickstarter. There’s also Sports in D&D rules in that book.

    During a vacation I saw roads with funky names and decided they can inspire D&D and other fantasy settings. You too can find inspiration in normal places.

    Why do I keep a d20 in my pocket? Because it gives me a sense of belonging.

    I sponsored two soccer teams. Our Flag Means Offside FC and What We Do On The Sidelines FC had opposite records on the field, but they’re both #1 in my heart. I’m already sponsored a spring 2024 team. I can’t wait to see the new jersey.

    Sounders and other soccer

    Back in 2008 I founded Sounder at Heart. In 2019 I left to work for Tacoma Defiance and Reign FC, rejoining SaH in late 2020. This year the current Managing Editor, Jeremiah Oshan took the site independent. As part of that effort I now write the twice-weekly newsletter now called the Ship’s Log.

    The most popular of those was a Reign themed newsletter on network effects and the sum of a team being greater than the individual pieces.

    I also help maintain the Depth Chart and cover Defiance.

    Risk Intelligence

    For Factal I also help with a newsletter — Benchmarker. Similar to the SaH newsletter, the open rates are climbing, click-through rates are climbing and distribution is growing. Mostly, my job there is to help people within Global Security, Business Continuity, Resilience and Crisis find our free resources (and then our paid service). The work we do there helps keep people alive and business operating. You can read more about that in our annual recap.

    People outside of security and continuity fields will enjoy things I don’t do — the Factal Forecast and The Debrief. The Forecast is our editors’ look at the planned news of the next week. The Debrief dives deep into an issue that isn’t on the front page of US media, but needs attention.

  • How Christmas can inspire your next Artificer

    How Christmas can inspire your next Artificer

    First appearing to the mass market fanbase within 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons in Eberron: Rising from the Last War and now in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, the Artificer is a kind of techno-wizard. For someone without previous connections to Eberron, the setting that exploded on the scene in 3rd edition, the Artificer confused me.

    The fiction upon which it is based seemingly is all self-referring, or modern fantastical. There’s a subclass that essentially reads as if it is Iron Man ported back into D&D for example. Whereas most D&D classes stretch into the myths and legends that predate the game itself, the Artificer does not seem to have that convention.

    Oddly enough, it was a Christmas movie that reminded me of Artificers within our lore. There are magical techno-wizards within holiday tales. From Christmas elves of tradition, to the inventors of Jingle Jangle, you can find your inspiration for your next Artificer.

    These creators take the mundane and imbue it with magic. They create automatons, magically tinker, infuse items, and all the other things you expect from the description of an Artificer.

    Masters of invention, artificers use ingenuity and magic to unlock extraordinary capabilities in objects. They see magic as a complex system waiting to be decoded and then harnessed in their spells and inventions. You can find everything you need to play one of these inventors in the next few sections.

    Artificers use a variety of tools to channel their arcane power. To cast a spell, an artificer might use alchemist’s supplies to create a potent elixir, calligrapher’s supplies to inscribe a sigil of power, or tinker’s tools to craft a temporary charm. The magic of artificers is tied to their tools and their talents, and few other characters can produce the right tool for a job as well as an artificer.

    From DnDBeyond.

    Opening up a vision of an Artificer to include these amazing gift-gives also helps change how you approach D&D. A character of kindness and generosity, or that thieving Gustafson, expands the stories you can tell. When you visit the village you can brighten the spirits of the community via your infusions and spells.

    Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels.com

    It may be a Hallmark/Lifetime/FreeForm/UPTv cliche, but there is magic in the holiday season. Incorporating the magic of elves, toys, inventors, Santa, and others into your D&D characters and stories means adding more joy to a game that so often centers violence.

    Generosity and joy exist in D&D (even in Barovia). Your Artificer has the power to amplify those feelings (while also being an effective combatant, but there are many places that talk about optimizing in those ways). There are 1,000 times a thousand stories available at any table and any session. Adding a little Christmas to your Artificer is a way to discover more of them.

    Be Jeronicus, Jessica, Journey, or even Gustafson. Be Alabaster Snowball, Bushy Evergreen, Pepper Minstix, Shinny Upatree, Sugarplum Mary, or Wunorse Openslae. Roll dice and tell stories about the power of Artifice.

  • Changes coming to 5e backgrounds further reduce story

    Changes coming to 5e backgrounds further reduce story

    Overshadowed in the product reveals and release schedule, which has now be reduced to “coming soon,” was an immense amount of new art for the 2024 version of 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons. Every class will have full page art.

    Every subclass with have art. Every background will have art. If a picture says a thousand words, then there will be more story revealed in the upcoming Player’s Handbook (at one point coming in late May next year) than ever before. This, and the increased font size, and the increased number of subclasses, and the additional spells and more feats, is why it will be the biggest PHB ever.

    The amount of art is amazing. Look at this potential spread for Backgrounds (it should be noted that nothing shared at PAX U is considered final).

    That’s quite evocative.

    It’s the details where I get sad. 5e has transitioned away from having racial/species modifiers to attributes. From Tasha’s forward the encouraged option was to have these as floating selections that power players to create a wider variety of story.

    Two alt-5e variants have followed suit. Tales of the Valiant from Kobold Press no longer has stat increases. They just grant more points for point buy or larger numbers for the standard array. Level Up and Advanced 5e from EN Publishing has a +1 from Backgrounds and a floating +1.

    It seems, based on the image shared by Jeremy Crawford during the PAX U panel that Wizards of the Coast will be backing away from floating bonuses and instead assigning all bonuses to backgrounds. Since 2024 5e D&D is also removing Traits, Ideals, Bonds and Flaws from backgrounds we are losing another way to tell story via one of 5th editions best additions to the game.

    In 2024 backgrounds will have ability score improvements (ASI) and a lower-powered feat, two potent mechanical advantages at lower levels. In D&D both of these will be heavily tied towards combat mechanics. It is less likely that stories of the Acolyte who became a Fighter are seen at tables because why would you want to damage your ability of a Fighter to do fighter-y things?

    And this continues. The Soldier will have a Feat that makes sense for a soldier, as well as ASIs related to soldiering. This makes sense for specific stories, but only narrow tropey ones.

    Since Wizards is removing personality and background features (five items very tied to social and exploration pillars) the game will be even heavier into combat — by rule.

    There’s still time to fix this. Reduce the ASIs associated with Backgrounds to maybe a +1, recognizing that every background is tied to some sort of stat. Then have the other two +1s float where the player wants them. That way story-driven players and those seeking maximization will both be able to find angles for their tales.

    Additionally, if the TIBF were too much, narrow these options. Use keywords rather than sentences. Have a bold, brash soldier. Maybe the aristocrat is well-kempt and haughty. Still empower DMs and the rest of the table to reward social roleplay by granting Inspiration.

    Every single step of 5th edition’s living development has expanded story.

    Wizards of the Coast should not step back from the expansion of story in the 2024 evolution of the game (floating ASIs in Tasha’s, species with less racism, not tying species/backgrounds to specific classes, new subclasses that capture the zeitgeist and more). Instead they should find ways to continue to expand the tales we tell via this game of dice and friends. Releasing most of the ASIs associated with Backgrounds is a way to do that. As is returning some of the traits and flaws that define our characters both in play and mechanically.

  • Throwing Stars and the Pentiad — two sports on the Fields of Elysia

    Throwing Stars and the Pentiad — two sports on the Fields of Elysia

    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.

    We’ve released a sample of the sports rules over on Drivethru RPG.

    Sports in the 5e, the Fields of Elysia

    The project has a few differences from my past writings on sports in D&D.

    • Sports on the Fields of Elysia doesn’t use the Tools rule.
    • 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.
    Photo by Ioannis Ritos on Pexels.com

    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.

  • My first Kickstarter project — Worlds to-go! The Elysians

    My first Kickstarter project — Worlds to-go! The Elysians

    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 to Kickstarter and 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.

  • Happy Full Moon, meet What We Do On The Sidelines

    Happy Full Moon, meet What We Do On The Sidelines

    This past spring I sponsored a soccer team. That one went on to the win the championship, clearly inspired by my efforts (I kid). I sponsored a team for the fall version of ECS Pub League too.

    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.

  • 5e D&D SRD Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY expands into four more languages

    5e D&D SRD Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY expands into four more languages

    Wizards of the Coast announced that they added French, Italian, German, and Spanish language releases of the 5.1 SRD via Creative Commons.

    Community Update

    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.