• Adding Culture to your game: A new tool

    Adding Culture to your game: A new tool

    Languages in most Dungeons & Dragons settings are rather rudimentary. There’s the pidgin-trade tongue of Common (and sometimes Undercommon). From there, the typical known languages are based on races and the planes.

    A character might know Common, Elvish, and Primordial for example.

    This is bland, unnecessary, and lacks verisimilitude (people don’t either know or not know a language).

    Get rid of languages.

    They rarely come up at the table. For most tables, languages are simply “You can communicate” or “You must use gestures.” Few encounters are successes and failures based on the 3-7 languages a character knows.

    Instead replace them with Culture: NAME.

    This then replaces Intelligence (History). This small tweak aids deeper connections between certain character classes and backgrounds with the world in which they are played.

    What do you gain from adding Culture?

    Especially in games with heavier social and exploration pillars you have a better idea of what your character knows. Rather than have a wood elf raised as an urchin on the streets of Waterdeep be capable of talking to every single elf in the world, as if language is hard-coded in the soul, it is instead a learned thing.

    Said wood elf would instead know Common and the Culture of the Sword Coast, able to communicate with the peoples in and around Waterdeep, as well as knowing the traditions of the various peoples, their symbols, their stories.

    The characters are deeper, with more connections to the world in which they play. A Fighter-Sage would be intimately familiar with many nations and cultures, rather than just a few and whatever the DM determines is known through a d20. A character that has studied the Dalelands would know the holidays, conflicts, and ways to communicate that are common in the the Moon Sea and the Inner Sea.

    At its simplest with Culture, you know more.

    What do you lose by removing Languages and History?

    Not much.

    The characters will still be able to communicate as always. There may be a perceived penalty for a few backgrounds, but there is a fix for that.

    There is additional bookkeeping. You will have to use a custom language on DnDBeyond.com, for example. You do this by clicking on Languages on the character sheet on the website (the app may be different). Then click add proficiency. Then select custom language. Add the culture you choose. If you skip language selection during the creation process you’ll now have a listing of Common plus the Cultures your character experienced and/or studied.

    How does adding Culture work when building a Player Character?

    While building your character in the standard order (Race, Class, Background) take note of every language learned. Each of these are replaced with adding a culture for each language.

    When you would take History you would now have the option to take another proficiency or take a culture.

    Additionally, I would encourage most tables to use a PC’s Intelligence modifier to add (or subtract) from known cultures. This is mostly because Intelligence is undervalued within the game.

    Example: A High Elf, Fighter, Sage would begin knowing as many as 8 cultures known. This would represent their studious familiarity with many peoples.

    How do you use Culture?

    Use Culture like you would use History, but apply it like a tool. Most often it would connect with Intelligence, but there are times when your proficiency in a culture would apply to a check based off of Wisdom (if a character isn’t proficient in Insight their awareness of the opponent’s culture might help them) or Charisma would apply.

    Knowing a culture of a peoples with which you are interacting is particularly helpful in social encounters. A character familiar with a particular empire should be able to take advantage of that knowledge at the table!

    Are you familiar with the Dalelands? Then you would recognize their heraldry, for example. Hidden societies, or subsets of a culture may require a check (DC: 15) to see if you have studied or are aware of that aspect.

    Practical Examples of Cultures in D&D

    Within the World of the Everflow, a rather narrow setting, the following cultures would be available;

    • Western Wildes
      • Ancient Sheljar
      • Ancient Gallinor
    • Kirtin
    • Daoud
    • Crinth Confederacy
    • Azsel
    • Mehmd
    • Gobkon Union
    • Dragonken
    • Church of Quar (yes, this is cross-national group with influence throughout the continent of Kin)
      • There are other faiths and cults that may be appropriate
    • The Scholars and Proctors of Grace

    In a more explored and developed setting such as the Forgotten Realms I would recommend using the super-national regions such as, but not limited to the Sword Coast or the Dalelands or Chult. If you are a member of a Faction, assume that you know their Culture too. The list of political groups, religions, factions, and other strong cultural groups within the Forgotten Realms would fill an entire wiki.

    If you are playing in Eberron: Rising from the Last War the various nations of Khorvaire would all be appropriate Cultures as would most of the religions.

    Tables that use other setting would have to assess that setting. Do not make the cultures too narrow, nor too broad (then you just have the language problem, but different).

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  • Potential

    Potential

    I write. A lot.

    I don’t publish a lot (at least not ‘a lot enough’). My life is full of fractional stories, plotless narratives. These are bits and pieces of the tales I want to tell, someday.

    I Tried to Finish a Dead Man’s Novel nearly destroyed my soul today.

    One of my greatest fears in this life is my family handing someone else this curse and responsibility of finishing my briefcase-novel. It’s not fair to them. It’s not fair to me. But it’s my fear.

    It is both a gift and a curse to be handed a briefcase containing a life’s work

    I have two tales in me. One was dealing with the traumas around my time in the military (these were traumas of the soul and not traumas of violence as I am a peacetime vet) and one is the tale I currently tell mostly through D&D. That second one is captured in some of my fiction here as well.

    But these stories are all over the place. Like Jim, the stories are bits and pieces. Scraps of notebooks, dead computers, hard drives that I’ve carefully removed and then ignored.

    Picture of a Field Notes notebook, a wooden S2000, a sailboat coin, a pen and a laptop

    They’re all over the place. In closets, end tables, night stands, old bags, boxes. There’s probably a fragment in my dresser, and definitely many in a closet/storage room bin. Like Jim, they’re unorganized. Unlike Jim there’s an outline to both tales.

    Correction: Both tales have outlines, plural. They’ve stopped and restarted at various points of happiness and sorrow.

    I started writing a long time ago. As far back as I can remember doing things I can remember writing.

    Quite old photo with me and my brother climbing down an icy glacier.

    Compared to the general public I’m a rather prolific writer.

    Sounder at Heart has in its archives thousands of stories I’ve written about soccer. TacDefiance and WeAreTacoma and SoundersFC and other sites have even more. There’s some stuff on The Guardian and Top Drawer Soccer and MLS too.

    I’ve written about baseball for Inside the Park and FanHome.

    One product on DMs Guild contains a few of my backgrounds and even how to do sports in Dungeons & Dragons. This site clearly has more of that type of thing.

    My current role involves writing a lot of email and even some blogs about news-as-security.

    While I love all of that writing, none of it causes me fear.

    Fiction makes me afraid. Fiction makes me dread sharing my deepest soul and fiction is only excellent when you do that.

    Much like how the unfathomable expanse of our universe might be traced back to a pinpoint, the briefcase novel originated in a single cigarette. Jim started his novel in 1974 as a way to quit smoking. “He needed something to do with his hands,” Laurene explained. “He’d go to a restaurant and sit for hours.”

    Quitting smoking didn’t last for long, but the book stuck around. By the time Jim was diagnosed with stage four esophageal cancer in 2013, it had been nearly forty years since he started his novel. – Richard Kelly Kemick

    I didn’t start writing to get away from something. I started because I couldn’t stop.

    Portions started to pile up. School helped me put out some works. They were good enough to turn in, decent grades. Nothing accepted. A now-abandoned Hotmail address contains a folder called “rejections.”

    This didn’t dissuade me.

    Every box I pickup from either parent includes at least one notebook, legal pad, sheaf of papers with things related to the two tales I want to finish — this papers are from before I discovered the stories’ meaning.

    Lists of names. Tables. Plot outlines. Novel structures (in the Army when standing in line I would focus on a bit of the camo and think “what story would be structured like that pattern”).

    And I just keep writing unfinished thoughts.

    I may in fact be an essayist. That might be why the Propagandist is my favorite personally developed subclass (it may also be because I like Cawti, Kelly, Val, Peter, Bean, Paine).

    Maybe I’m not a fiction writer. Maybe the fiction just kind of happens in fragments because the fiction helps tell the reality — that’s how fiction shows up at Sounder at Heart!

    Maybe I’m a storyteller.

    Burning fire along a hillside with a full moon in the background.

    That’s probably why I currently tell most of my fiction via D&D.

    D&D is a lot like the oral tradition of fireside storytelling. It reacts to the audience, builds in real time and doesn’t follow formulaic narrative arcs. It is from a time before such a thing.

    But it also means that without a fire pit, without a bar rail, without a D&D table my tales may never be finished.

    Honestly my tales may never be finished even with those things.They aren’t finish-able. They exist and shift and change via the day, the month, the year, the decade, the LIFE.

    That’s how I’m the most like Jim. It’s not that his briefcase-novel lacked genre or voice. Every element of the briefcase-novel was a moment in his time. Jim wasn’t a surveyor. He was a storyteller. Those scraps and notes were part of the tale.

    Scraps and notes are part of our tale.

    I’ve been watching The Magicians quite a bit lately. We won’t get into the whys. The final two seasons have a consistent thread about how we each have our own story. Our friends (and our enemies) help its telling, but it is ours — alone.

    We own our own story.

    We write it. If that means it is spoken, written, played out on stage or screen, via short-form text, or micro-videos, at a D&D table, in a big damn novel or in a briefcase full of loose pages like a specialty tea — that’s writing.

    That’s Storytelling.

    I am so very afraid that my family is going to pick up those notes some day and try to figure out who I was. It’ll be quite confusing.

    One page will mean something to one of them. Another notebook will remind a friend of what we did together without mentioning them. An abandoned blog will cut through and release emotion locked behind a veil.

    Small dagger slide through a notebook as if the book was a sheath

    I’m simultaneously Jim and Richard.

    I’m always Dave Clark, the full moon storyteller. My complicated self who found a medium via dice, friends and paper. I’m me, the person who can’t finish a novel, but will never stop trying.

    Fediverse reactions
  • Diary: Airxip Sadijh took me to meet a dead man who can blink

    Diary: Airxip Sadijh took me to meet a dead man who can blink

    Been flying on the Sadijh since Captain Crilbort and the crew picked me up outside Oojar a few feylfs ago (weeks). My canoe broke, and, curse it, somehow I couldn’t repair the clackety rudder and the self-paddler lost its energy. My path was to go upriver, but upriver is hard when you have to paddle yourself. Harder at 3’4″.

    Oh, yeah. Sadijh. It’s big magic, not minors. No balloons, fancy tendrils of powers and a magic crystal in it. I ain’t helping with that. They have me doing comms. It’s ’cause my talents. Also, cause the old comms officer died — I was available. They weren’t. It’s not that I was conscripted, it’s just that I didn’t have a choice.

    Wait, here I am filling out my diary talking to myself and I cannay focus enough to stay to the story. I guess that’s why I write. Gotta figure out the best tale for the next campfire. I miss campfires, Mate Pryn told me we can’t have them on Sadijh.

    I figure this story’s going to be a big deal.

    Riding in Sadijh after defeating some pirates we get called back to work for the Ruling Council. This is when I learn I’m on a formal military ‘xip. Guess I’m an officer now?!

    So we’re called back. We have to pick up ‘authorities.’ One is dragonborn (first time I’ve seen ’em!) – Artok, big and beefy. The other is part of Les Remoden Eisha, a studious wizardly type. At least Amos likes books, even if I can’t read his.

    We’re to take Artok and Amos to Mirrstone. There’s been a lot of livestock gone missing out there. Enough that the Council is getting involved, but also, only enough that there’s two assigned to this investigation, plus the Sadijh.

    That’s both a lot, and a little. On Sadijh we’ve a few officers and not-quite two dozen crew (some work nights and I ain’t getting up at night).

    Captain Crilbort is in charge with First Mate Pryn helping. They both gobs. Most of us are gobs. There’s a navigator and a medic/cook too. And I guess, me?!

    Master-at-arms Holx has five guard (it was six, but Prix went overboard — I’ll get to that | whoa, I have asides to my asides). They work with three on duty and three off duty. (that’s got to change soon).

    Bosun Musi manages the deckhands. There aren’t as many hands on this kind of airxip as their are on the dirigibles or sail boats, because the magic takes care of a lot. It’s great. Almost nice enough I’d crew one.

    Cabin chile Fokz is the one of the chilles I deal with. Fokz helps Crilbort. There’s two others, one helping the cook mostly and another that does general service for the rest of the crew.

    Let’s get back to the tale. If I’m going to do this diary to help my memory I’m going to need to focus.

    So, we pick up Artok and Amos for this investigation. It’s a couple days flight, which is great! Walking would take a feylf. We only encounter one problem during the journey. There’s a storm about halfway through and it’s big enough it opened up a rift. Two elementals try to bust up our ‘xip.

    Artok helps us with some aid. That’s great, because I’m a hob that’s sized like a gob.

    I’m not here to sound like the hero, but me and Midqh pert-much saved the day. Midqh catapulted a block and tackle at one, used its tail to shield Crilbort. Spells and sundry thrown all over the place.

    Both me and Amos made big booms! He does it differently, no powders or tools involved. I’ll figure that out when I can focus. Battle was rough. A few us forgot to latch in during the storm and fight, so we were thrown about quite a bit. Only Prix went over the rail (knocks on chain).

    Not to be casual, but when a rift opens and elemental forces attack a ship I’m used to the whole thing going down, but that’s because I’ve only been on balloon boats before — I only crashed once!

    We get to town the next day. The crew lands at a field and Captain Crilbort orders me to go with Artok and Amos so I can message the ‘xip if they need rescue. This is a rather smart thing to do, if it didn’t involve me.

    Mirrstone is about two dozen buildings, mostly stone. The residents are mostly human. The area seems to be primarily ranches — cattle and sheep. First we talk to Fiendhere, who is like a mayor. He doesn’t know why the herds are disappearing and the town doesn’t have many clues. I overpay for our food and lodging. They have a comfy chair for me to sleep under, which is so much better than the ‘xip’s hammocks. Plus, it’s on ground, so there’s no wobble from the air.

    Fiendhere had told us the ranch most impacted was run by Glovin, whose entire herd of oxen is gone. The three of us inspect the area. The house and fields don’t show anything. No tracks, no trails, no signs. It’s baffling. Amos points out that if the herd was magicked away that it would take an immense amount of power and a portal that many would see.

    I head into the barn. Something is amiss there. Artok and Amos are looking at stalls while I head up a ladder. I leave a tinkering behind so they can find me. This is smart. I’m a communications officer!

    Up in the loft it stanks, rotten and musty. Like mushrooms and fairies (I hear). I call for help and the Two A are behind me, not far at all. We move slowly in this space, me because it’s scary. Them because the roof is low and there’s bales all over.

    We round one place and discover why it stank. Glovin is dead. His body has fungus on it and the smell is intense. We all stop, look at each other. Then we look at the body again. Someone will have to inspect it and though I’m short I don’t want that short straw.

    Then Glovin’s eye opens.

    I need to stop here. That moment put me in a mood, bad one. I’ll write more later.

    In our current Age of Myths campaign I’m playing Xabal, a smaller hobgoblin artificer that uses an eldritch cannon called Midqh. My goal is to be the party notetaker, but with a twist. I’m writing our recaps as if Xabal, a motormouth former Tinkerer is the author.

    Other PCs are;
    Artok — bronze dragonborn paladin
    Amos — elven wizard

    and more that we’ll meet soon.

    The header image is the ribbon jammer from Dyson Logos.

  • Age of Myths, the Uncoupling: Campaign One Sheet

    Age of Myths, the Uncoupling: Campaign One Sheet

    For the first time I’m going to be playing a character in my world. One of my players in the last two campaigns is going to DM and together we set up the one-sheet so as to not change too much lore. One of the ideas I came up with early, was by playing in the Age of Myths, because any lore changes can just be referenced as legend when we play in the current era.

    The Road to the Uncoupling

    Your story begins in a prosperous world of togetherness and mutual can-do spirit.  Before the battle for the heart of Kirtin on the Lake (KotL) or the sacking of Kirtin in the Sky (KotS), before the Proctors spread death and misery in Sas Rurulit, and before the unprecedented events of the Awakening and the finding of Lorebooks, there was The Uncoupling.  The apocalypse that destroyed the weave of magic for the Kin and Kon, leaving Ken and the 5 coloured dragons of the Chromatic Convocation in complete possession of magik. 

    Players are part of a select group that were born with innate magical ability (you’ve been everflow touched) that is prized even in this magic-rich world.  Possibly you inherited your trait from a bloodline trait or ancestral ties to deeper magik of the Everflow.  It has shaped your early years, possibly enrolled at a young age by family in the scholarly studies to become part of the magik ruling core of society or you hid your talent and nurtured it on your own. 

    However, recently there have been rumblings, rumors about a shadow organization unhappy with the status quo, who seek to eliminate the existing ruling council and rule not by consensus but by force.  You’ve each been selected by the bronze Dragonborn Artok, tasked with this mission by his patron, the adult Bronze Dragon (Othimbane) who sits on the council, to identify and either infiltrate or forcefully break these fools of their notions and ensure that no other plots are forthcoming. 

    A global map of the world centered on the spaces where play in the campaign has occurred to this point.

    The following is written by the DM for this campaign.

    Premise 

    • This campaign takes at least three millennia before the Born Generation and the return of magic to the Lands of the Everflow.
    • Gain information about “The Shadows”, a secretive organization bent on wiping out the Ruling Council of Aur.
      • Artok has the rough information about several potential members that could lead you to a hideout or meeting place. 
    • Infiltrate or brute force your way into the group. 
    • Identify other members and find potential leads about who is the power behind “The Shadows”.
      • Keep (human council) and (gnome council) members apprised of your investigation. 
    • Possibly assist the council with additional tasks at your discretion.  

    Factions  (NPC names to come soon)

    • The Ruling Council of Aur (RCoA) – A group of 9 members, three of each Ken, Kin, and Kon, and 4 dragons, two each of metallic and chromatic. 
      • The RCoA is the “federational government” of Aur, with different cultures/regions governing in their own way and answering to the RCoA.
      • Kin: Human (F), Goliath (they), Halfling (M)
      • Ken: Elf (F), Elf (M), Dwarf (M)
      • Kon: Goblin (M), Bugbear (They), Hobgoblin (They)
      • Dragons:
        • Elder Metallic (Silver) – Tanargnyvur
        • Adult Metallic (Bronze) – Othimbane
        • Elder Chromatic (White) – Dwargauth
        • Adult Chromatic (Blue) – Nymaryxon
    • In occurrence with the rise of The Dragon moon (the fourth moon of the Aurian system), the dragons withdraw from the council for a year (draakmoeten) and meet at an undisclosed location with the world dragon (a deep time dragon) named Andarawus Del-mos. 
    • The Metallic Dragons
    • The Chromatic Dragons 
    • The Shining Order of Dreki – Holy dragonborn order who serve the Draconic races as paladins, clerics, and religious personages located across the world. Some that choose a more individual path travel and assist as Priests and Mortuary persons in smaller towns and villages.
      • Necromantic magic is thought to primarily flow through the draconic race). 
    • The Shadows – A heretofore unknown organization/cult/religion(?) focused on the overthrow of the RCoA, and to rule through force and oppression rather than through consensus. 

    Campaign Facets 

    • 2nd & 3rd tier drop in/out campaign play, starting at 5th level 
    • All PCs start at lv.5 with the added feat “Everflow Touched”, adding a +1 to spell attack modifier and adding one free 1st level spells (from any school except necromancy, unless your PC is dragonborn) to your spell list which can be cast once per long rest.
      • Material components will not be needed.
      • at lv. 9 this will increase to +2 and an additional spell (2nd lv.) can be learned.
    • Rules used are core 2014 WotC D&D, plus most player facing options from WotC
      • Check with the DM about using setting-specific feats, subclasses and spells
    • Allowed races are Kin (human, halfling, goliath), Kon (goblin, hobgoblin, bugbear), Ken (elf, dwarf, non-rock gnomes) and dragonborn/kobold as shining order of Dreki
    • Divine magic is thought to come from the forces of nature and the philosophies, there is no active pantheon of faith, beyond those who worship the dragons.
    • Potential for multiple pathways to quest completion
    • Player driven story creation in a sandbox setting
    • Wide regional/worldwide settings with airship and/or teleportation travel 
    • Actions may become legend
    • Milestone leveling – several sessions per level gain; saves time when we all don’t have to track XP
  • Goodbye Alignment. Hello short-form personality.

    Goodbye Alignment. Hello short-form personality.

    Alignment is tired, boring and essentially meaningless in 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons.

    Many playing the modern game trying to replace it with personality. Wizards of the Coast tried to take major steps towards personality play with their Traits, Ideals, Bonds and Flaws system attached to backgrounds. That system uses five sentences of 5-25 words to describe the personality of the character. Alignment also exists.

    Then, if the DM and/or the other players remember your TIBF and you play to it you might get advantage via Inspiration.

    It’s a bulky system that requires memorizing a lot of detail that aren’t necessarily relevant to how your character is played. The Acolyte is in the SRD 5.1 CC BY. Here’s a sample of TIBF for a lawful good Acolyte.

    I see omens in every event and action. The gods try to speak to us, we just need to listen.
    I quote (or misquote) sacred texts and proverbs in almost every situation.
    Faith. I trust that my deity will guide my actions. I have faith that if I work hard, things will go well. (Lawful)
    I would die to recover an ancient relic of my faith that was lost long ago.
    I am suspicious of strangers and expect the worst of them.

    That’s 82 words plus two for lawful good. But really, it’s just a few. You don’t need that much detail.

    Just like when you fill out that your character has brown or brown-green eyes you know there is more detail to the eyes than just that word or two. You can do this for your personality.

    That Acolyte?

    Faithful, Suspicious, Orderly, Erudite.

    Replace the entire TIBF system with those four words. Can you memorize a few words that describe how the other characters in the party act? Absolutely! Your mind was already taking the shortcuts on the way to do so.

    Then award inspiration when the character is played along their personality.

    You could build your short-form personality using the official background information already provided. That’s a great start. But you could also use a list of personality traits. Here’s 638!

    A character modelled off a favorite movie or TV or comic or book or video game or etc character could use their traits too.

    • Margot from The Magicians — sexy, strong willed, crass, loyal
    • Wesley from The Princess Bride — dedicated, adaptable, loving
    • Tasselhoff from the original Dragonlance – friendly, curious, brave, aloof
    • Moiraine from early Wheel of Time – determined, withdrawn, studious
    • Lan from early Wheel of Time – lawful, loyal, commanding
    • Awf, my PC in Lost Mines – persistent, exuberant, fearless

    The intent with short-form personality is to reduce memorization, reward roleplaying and continue the de-emphasization of alignment in D&D.

    Be generous with the Inspiration you award. Play up the personality. Just make it simpler than a system that might require 100 words when you only need three to five.

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