• 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.

    Fediverse reactions
  • Adapting Genoan revolutionary lunches to fantasy third places

    Adapting Genoan revolutionary lunches to fantasy third places

    During the Age of Revolutions the leaders who wanted liberalization and democracy in Genoa had no idea how to govern. They were a bit idealistic. They struggled to get the various classes of this significant mercantile kingdom to get along.

    This all comes up in a recent Nerd Farmer podcast featuring Nathan Perl-Rosenthal. And it’s going to inspire a new third-place tradition in my Dungeons & Dragons world.

    By Aldan-2 – {{[1]}}{{[2]}}, CC BY-SA 4.0

    One of the ways the Genoan revolutionaries tried to create cross-class conversations was by mandating public lunches be held on the streets before festivals. These lunches would be funded by the elites, had limitations on the number of courses and were intended to inspire conversation before the entire group proceeded together towards a town square for fest time.

    This attempt at a third place being a space in time rather than a physical building intrigues me. That porch was only a third place during the luncheon, roughly every two weeks. It didn’t work.

    This is a fantasy blog, mostly about a fantasy world where dragons and magic are real. Let’s make the Genoa public luncheons real.

    My world has a naval empire, which makes this easy. But it is rather hierarchical and centered on the influence of the navy as sailor-citizens with power and influence. It is expansionist. Daoud won the war with Kirtin twice, and just lost their hold on Kirtin-on-the-Lake, the winter capital of Kirtin.

    Douad’s fleets sail the seas trading goods, conquering territory and bring their wealth back to the homeland.

    Daoud is the southern nation and controls the Green Isles in the Southeast.

    This is where the lunchtime third places come in!

    These now-wealthy sailors, officers and captains are required, by the Admiralty of the Land, upon returning to port to share their wealth and throw a party in the neighborhood from which they came.

    They lunch and fest together, with the Admiralty and Royalty surprising random porches with visits.

    This now ingrained tradition started because when the first ships came back with massive wealth they were seen as a threat to the non-sailing gentry. So that leadership in a form of taxation started the luncheon program. This kept the peasants that didn’t sail happy with the leadership and that joy spread.

    These lunches are simple fare — three courses, one which must always be from the land the ship just visited. There’s always a flatbread, that was originally simple but is now treated as a complex way to serve a fourth course that is not in violation of the edict. There is wine and coffee, tea and liquor.

    There is joy.

    Then there’s the party, always in sight of the harbor with the ships lit and glowing at mast and crossbeam. There are flags and fireworks (the best ships travel with Sparklers). These parties are on a time limit. They start within two sunrises of the ship’s return. They end the next morning.

    And everyone participates. The paupers, urchins and sweeps know that when a ship returns they will eat well for at least a day, often two. The displays of wealth are ostentatious and the people are happy. These aren’t circuses, nor taxes. It’s Daoudian Luncheon — one of the two third places in the culture. The ships are the other third place.

    Fediverse reactions
  • My Spring ’24 soccer team is inspired by the 90s

    My Spring ’24 soccer team is inspired by the 90s

    Being able to support my friends who do fun stuff is good. ECS continues to run Pub League, a simple barely competitive set of two soccer leagues full of joy that embraces everyone. Once upon a time I sponsored them while I managed Sounder at Heart. Then I stopped because I didn’t manage Sounder at Heart. A year ago they had an empty slot that needed a sponsor. I was able to and that was when my team was a group of pirates. Last fall it was vampires.

    Now it’s the Almost Full 90 FC, inspired by the era when I was a teen with Trapper Keepers and Peechees playing D&D hiding my inner nerd behind pastels (including my jeans).

    Two soccer jerseys and two logos. First soccer jersey on the left is a swirl of pastel colors in a sunset with two shiny dolphins jumping out of a pastel ocean over the setting sun. Second jersey is black with bands of swirly pastels over the black. Top logo is Almost Full 90s FC, a 1990s logo similar to MS Paint of that era. Second logo is for Full Moon Storytelling which shows a rising full moon with a polyhedral d20 silhouette embedded in it. The moon is rising out of a pine forest. The words Full Moon Storytelling are under the forest.

    Every player name is inspired by 90s era TV shows, songs and memes (we had those back then).

    Coaches: Bop it Throw it Pass it, That’s Brisk Baby, and Eat My Shorts

    Players: WHAT’S THE 411, COOPER, FRESH PRINCE OF DEFENSE, SPORTY SPICE, FOOTBALL HEAD, THAT’S BRISK BABY, I DID NOT INHALE, EAT MY SHORTS, ON A BREAK, BOP IT THROW IT PASS IT, DOCTOR, BEANIE BABE, REPTAR ON TURF, TRUNCHBULL, D’OH!’, MIDAS, YOU’VE GOT MAIL, STREET SOCCER, TOO YOUNG FOR THIS, UGH, AS IF!, NEVERMIND, NON BLONDES.

    I’m telling you, they’re going to win the ‘ship.

    There’s a couple other cool bits. The Captain’s armband is inspired by iconic frogs from the era and unlike most soccer jerseys these days, the back is similar to the front — with a unicorn.

    As always, the lesson from this is to support your friends when they do rad things. It’s totally awesome.

  • Kobold Press Eonics offer time loop fun to D&D

    Kobold Press Eonics offer time loop fun to D&D

    I’m one of those passive backers for most projects. For Tales of the Valiant I sent Kickstarter my money to send Kobold Press and then I waited. I did this because I have enough of their products that I know I will use them. Many of their dragon variants are part of my world right now.

    That also means I get fun surprises for their intermittent reveals, like the Eonics.

    This new lineage (their current term for race) is a bunch of time travellers who lost their ways on the time stream, now existing your D&D/Black Flag/5e world without the ability to get back to their normal time.

    They do still have minor time travelling abilities. That’s where things get fun. Their core abilities are about possibly knowing the past, their expectation that things are going to go wrong and a skin that’s been scarred by time streams. Those combine to have fun uses as monks, rogues, bards and maybe even an off-brand barbarian.

    In Black Flag (Kobold Press’s SRD) and Tales of the Valiant characters are born into a lineage and grow via a heritage. Heritages are similar in power to 5e (2014) subraces, but are open to any species/race/lineage.

    The eonic-themed heritages immediately become part of my world. This is time-hoppy funness.

    Time-lost Drifter

    Those raised as drifters have a special belt and some exhaustion based mechanics with a future-self time echo. Plus, they are hard to kill. Their body comes disconnected from time.

    Inheritor of the Future

    The inheritors get a super-advantage Help action and a powerful time warping staff.

    Mirror Worlder

    These peoples can see alternate realities and grab things from them. This is a classic trope in fantasy that hasn’t been embraced much in 5e, until now.

    The Eonics and all of their heritages fit in the World of the Everflow as the peoples from the future who went back to when the gods shunted off magic from the World. They would be 3,000 years in the future from the current games, popping into a world that they helped break and create at the same time.

    With these and the Tales of the Valiant goblins I’m very excited to bring more variety to my table.

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