Source The first three episodes of The Legend of Vox Machina were just released on Amazon Prime Video. The show is based on the first campaign of “Critical Role”; a Dungeons and Dragons live play podcast and twitch stream. So far three episodes have been released; it is difficult to judge whether or not the […]
TV Series Review: The Legend of Vox Machina (2022)
As a horde of humans riding guard drakes crests the Blue Hills, the chappe telegraph operator builds the signal that will reach the Larton Keep now that war has returned to the range. Using whistles, a youngster tells the village miles away that four sheep are lost so they’ll be home late, could his family please have tea ready for when they return.
A thrumming beat injects itself into the air as an owlbear stalks a deer. Knowing the bear is nearing a sacred vale a group of druids and rangers work to separate hunter and prey, for there will be no killing in Frannet’s vale.
Sure, a spell caster might be able to use Message, or two people may have Sending Stone for magical cell phones. But, the Far Talkers converse over a distance of miles, not feet. They speak with many, not one, signaling a warning or just chattering about the weather. Far Talkers and Messengers help societies that stretch over leagues communicate and maintain a culture.
You have the ability to converse over miles, sending messages for a government, faction, or some other organization. In war societies seek your aid to help units communicate. In peace you and other Far Talkers help connect towns and cities, or just keep two distant wizard towers in touch.
Familiar with how the weather impacts your mode of speech you have learned the winds and rains of many lands. Expected to see or hear things at a great distance your senses are strong. You may be an expert at the drums, but you have heard of others who use whistles, tree beating, smoke, flags, or other instruments. No matter what tool is used your messages are simultaneously public and semi-secret.
Skill Proficiencies: Perception, Nature
Tool Proficiencies: One musical instrument
Languages: One additional, plus the ability to Far Talk in Intelligence bonus languages (minimum 1)
Equipment: A symbol of service to a government or large church, a gaming set, a spyglass or musical instrument, traveler’s clothes, a notebook with notation for your type of far talk, 1 day rations, pouch with 2 gold
Using your chosen tool you can communicate over a distance of 6 miles when outdoors, and twice normal speaking distance when indoors, in a number of languages equal to your Intelligence bonus (minimum 1). Extreme weather may make those long-distance conversations more difficult.
When you meet another practitioner of the Far Talking arts they are always one step friendlier than their companions or social situation would indicate. For example if two scout groups from warring nations met their far talkers would be indifferent while everyone else was hostile. This is true even when the far talkers in question use different languages and tools to talk.
A character without the background can learn Far Talking per the rules to learn a new language. They would then learn one method of Far Talking for a single language.
Some groups of druids, rangers, and their allies might spend time learning Druidic spoken via Whistle Cant. A fleet of pirates could all know Yodeling. Have fun with this.
Roll on the table below or pick your favorite
As always, seek ways that cantrips would enhance these. Those that rely on sound would be amplified by Minor Illusion, Thaumaturgy, and can you imagine Thunder Clap sent through a massive bugle-like device. Those that need light can be made more useful by Prestidigitation, Dancing Lights, Light, and Minor Illusion. A world of magic would have Far Talkers that can speak across many miles.
Personality: Use the Soldier or Folk Hero personality traits for now. When the Background project is done each new Background will have traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws that are unique to the Background.
The Far Talker started out from two different ideas — I wanted to create Whistle Cant as a kind of alt-Druidic and my desire for the Messenger Background. The Messenger became two different Backgrounds. That Messenger will focus on the people who deliver physical messages by walking, running, riding, etc. The Far Talker is the other version. Rather than become Druidic, Whistle Cant became a type of Far Talking, and one of several examples of alt-languages that a Far Talker might specialize in.
Using Green-Flame Blade, Booming Blade, and Lightning Lure gives these two subclasses much of the feel they need. Both invoke a feeling of characters who use their weapons while slinging spells. So does the Hexblade, the Battle Smith, some Paladins, and some Rangers.
Unlike when the Hexblade and Battle Smith were added to the game, the Bladesinger and Eldritch Knight didn’t get access to spells like Thunderous Smite or Zephyr Strike or Ensnaring Strike. The Smites all fit the two narratives. The Strikes are just the two previously listed and Steel Wind Strike.
A Dungeon Master that adds these ten spells for their players helps that player play a character who fits the mold as a weapon-caster. Giving a PC a few moments a day, because they take spell slots, when that character emphasizes the vibe of the fiction that inspires their character is great. They aren’t stepping on the toes of the Paladin (who has the Smite feature still) or the Ranger (because Favored Foe and Hunter’s Mark are their combat signatures).
Ten spells and your players will be more like the character they want to be, without the need to be a Hexblade sworn to a odd mystical sword, a Paladin sworn to a cause, or a Ranger protecting civilization from the Wildes.
There’s a new official Dungeons & Dragons book coming out on Tuesday, but it’s bundled in with the Rules Expansion Gift Set. Due to all of this that we’re living through [waves hands at world] the Gift Set didn’t come out in time for the peak gift-giving time of year. Instead, it’s an oddly timed late-January product with the only “original” part of it not available until May 17.
As is typical alternate art is available at your local gaming store, which you should support. In Renton you can go to Wizards Keep Games or Shane’s Cards. People on the Eastside should go to Mox Bellevue. Down in Tacoma check Tacoma Games. Those are all places in Greater Puget Sound that I’ve supported and am confident in.
There are three books. Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything are just reprinted with the latest errata. There’s a new(kinda) book called Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse. You’ll also get a DM’s screen with some tables to reduce page flipping when you play in person. Screens can be quite handy.
Additionally there is a fancy slipcase to hold everything and look really good while it sits there.
That kinda sticks out doesn’t it? Monsters of the Multiverse has one new monster. Those that already own Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes will already have every other monster and nearly ever race, but in a different form. The new book has adjustments to the stat blocks to make them a bit more powerful and a bit easier to use. Also, those two earlier books (Volo’s and Tome of Foes) have dramatically more lore. Most of that lore is Forgotten Realms specific. The new book greatly minimizes the lore elements to what is true for a race or monster, typically, throughout the multiverse of D&D play.
Between the three books you’ll get rules for the Artificer class, a couple dozen new subclasses, over 30 new races, gobs of new magic items, many spells, and some new rules for exploration and be social parts of the game.
The person who most needs the Gift Set is someone who is recently deep into the game. For all intents this set is the second core of the game, with rules that help both players and dungeon masters. Those players that only have the Player’s Handbook and want to dramatically expand their options will enjoy the set (talk to your regular DM beforehand just in case they don’t want certain subclasses or rules at the table). A Dungeon Master who wants more monsters, traps, and puzzles will get great use from the Set if all they have are the three core books. Monsters of the Multiverse is particularly helpful for those who homebrew, as the weight of lore won’t interfere as much as Guide to Monsters and Tome of Foes.
Maybe certain collectors will want the new set too. There’s an appeal to that. But, I don’t have that kind of room in my house or wallet. The new art and case are great though. When I have that kind of room this might be the set that finds its way into the background of a video meeting.
Overall the set is the next three books a D&D fanatic should get if they don’t have the four books that make up the Gift Set already. If you already have those books it may not be meant for you. Wait for the three or more other books that will come out in 2022 or keep playing with what you already own.
Typically in Dungeons and Dragons an adventure consists of some easy encounters, some hard encounters, a deadly encounter, and then the final encounter. The way characters level up over a campaign echoes this progression.
Heck, this is even typical in most stories. The heroes may see a deadly monster early, but they don’t fight it until they are more powerful. Or, in the course of a D&D adventuring day, when they’ve used some amount of resources, thereby making the final monster more deadly.
Through a happy little accident of misreading some stat blocks, my last set of sessions inverted this process.
Rather than meet goblins, then hobgoblins, then an ogre climbing that ladder of difficulty, the group started their day with a CR 7.6 encounter, next was a CR 6.25 encounter, and then a CR 3.
That released some opportunities for the players. The happy little accident meant that during that tough encounter they used a bunch of powerful abilities rather than keep them in reserve. During the second encounter they used more.
Then, finally, when they met the “boss” (who was actually the boss of the various Dragon Sworn*) they only had a couple abilities left. That meant it felt deadly, but really wasn’t. They won easily.
* For this I used the Fizban’s Dragon Blessed, Dragon Chosen, and Dragon Speaker
Overall the group was tested, more so than typical in my sessions. Also, they got to use more of their potent features. If I better telegraphed the inversion, like if it was planned, then they would have used even more of their limited powers.
When a player invests in a character having certain abilities they need to be able to use them. This accident utilized more powers in one day then I’ve seen in some time.
Now they’ll try to rest.
In 2021 I rejoined the community that taught me how to write, that taught me how to believe, and that taught me how to be a better person every day. I started writing about soccer again, mostly about Tacoma Defiance, but also about the Seattle Sounders and OL Reign. Putting the polish back into my words gave me hope in a year when I needed it more than ever.
The past year was also the year that established my voice around D&D. More people read Full Moon Storytelling in 2021 than they did in every other year of its existence, combined. To throw yourself into a new endeavor is hard. To do it during a reboot and a pandemic has been a struggle. The journey has been worth it because the people who enjoy my writings about Dungeons & Dragons are the type of people who always have more stories to tell and who know — deep and fundamentally — that a diverse group is a strong group.
These are my favorite writings of 2021, only originals, no updates. Just the best of what was new this past year.
Throughout the pandemic the Sounders continued to open new mini-pitches. These small, all-weather soccer fields help ensure that all youth have access to play. Brad Evans and the RAVE Foundation opened pitches in Renton, Tacoma, and Yakima in 2021.
Covering matches gives me the platform to do more than just write about soccer — it gives me the opportunity to write about feelings. After the Sounders “lost” to Real Salt Lake I embraced the Wheel of Time.
More for myself than anyone else, I reviewed the Day that Sports Stopped. This gave me an opportunity to reconnect with Justin Dhillon and to think about just how much life changed from March 10, 2020 to the present day.
Centerback Taylor Mueller retired from soccer at the end of the 2021 USL Championship season. Mueller ends as one of the legends of the league, playing more than 20,000 minutes in career where he showed that there’s more to American soccer than MLS.
While Cheney Stadium is no longer home for OL Reign, it was where they ruled. Powered by their success in Tacoma, Reign are moving back to Seattle.
The Black Dice Society burst on the scene, sharing a horror setting sharing new ways to do communal storytelling via livestreams. They do a wonderful job at creating the disquiet of the Domains of Dread and the use of cutscenes to Strahd and others makes them a must watch.
As my skills in art aren’t good. But, I get past that through NPC art and various map makers.
Backgrounds, of course, have been very popular the two most well received were the Tinker and the Farmer. Friends are playing the Caravanserai and the Lamplighter (which also works as a Streetsweeper). Within the edition Backgrounds offer a mechanical space that embraces a character’s state of being beyond just being a killer and sometime explorer. Your D&D character should have hobbies.
For some reason, people rather enjoy the relaunch of my campaign, particularly the way that the Allies and Adversaries are presented.
ShantyTok was fun for a bit. This story reminded that if you’re trying to ride the wave of a meme do so immediately, or do it because you love the themes of the meme and don’t care about going viral. Me? I love pirates and tall ships.
When Will Bruin made a beer, who better to write about t than the former professional coffee taster and beer salesman? The Georgetown Brewing-Will Bruin collab was an easy drinking IPA.
As part of YachtCon, I was the Dungeon Master for a D&D livestream that raised a few hundred dollars for the Red Box program at the Seattle Children’s Hospital Autism Center. That adventure was themed around the South Sound with numerous references to Tacoma, Defiance, and Reign.
You can also find me as a regular on the Sounder at Heart podcast.
Over the years mainstream media has shifted from acting as if Dungeons & Dragons was connected to Satan and murder, to acting as if players were just nerds in basements to be ignored, to being nerds in apartments to be mocked (Big Bang Theory), to superpowered nerds to save the world (Stranger Things), to now just people who like something that other people don’t like (Ghosts) without any judgment of the game.
Seeing this shift, which I’ve lived through every moment of, still amazes me. Yes, there were times when genre shows featured D&D. Stranger Things made sense. The game fit and was featured in the story.
The current status of the game is different. This isn’t some niche hobby anymore. Active football players play; Jack Black plays; there’s a regular show on cable TV that is D&D.
Ghosts did something different. One of the main characters mocked the game, but the way D&D was featured wasn’t a mockery. Instead, Dungeons & Dragons was a way to further establish fellowship between the diverse cast of ghosts and the one living who shares their space and cannot see them. Also, the d20s helped solve the other plot of the episode. Lead writer Joe Wiseman addressed this on Dragon Talk recently.
Every time I encounter the featuring of D&D as normal continues to astound me. Once forced to hide my passion for the game or get the books knocked out of my lap as if real life was a crappy teen comedy, now D&D is popular and mainstream enough that it is on my resume, talked about during job interviews, played in public, and can raise money for charity as celebs play.
Much of the mainstreaming of the game is because many of us nerds that hid in our basements are now of the age that we are in positions of influence. While it is Zoomers and Millenials that are the fuel spreading the game, GenX leadership is normalizing it.
Writers rooms throughout Hollywood played as kids and are playing again, as are the actors, cinematographers, set designers, etc. Video game designers (and all of the support staff) played with pen and paper, then translated that to big screen.
D&D’s tropes are mentioned in genre fiction (Onward!) and regularly trend on social media. There’s not a day that goes by that an Alignment Chart meme doesn’t show up.
Now that we’re mainstream there’s always that worry among us olds that things will change in ways that we don’t understand. But at it’s core D&D has always espoused that a “diverse group is a strong group.” And all of the current changes lean into that trope that started with the Fighting-Man, Magic User, Thief, and Cleric that were also a Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, and Elf.
Leaning into that means more players, more games, more chances to “roll for initiative.” That’s all I want.
Story is modern roleplay gaming. But, character creation per the Player’s Handbook is mechanical. It doesn’t have to be. It can follow a narrative; this is how.
The character creation order changes a little bit with this method. Now it’s almost as if your character is going through childhood and adolescence while you and the DM (ideally together) go through this process. Kind of like filming a documentary, together you discover the journey from birth to hero. Take notes and get the feeling of the story that created the personality that will exist at the table later. If the player talks about history or backstory that doesn’t yet exist in your world, they are there creating it with you. This empowers the player to help with worldbuilding and creates bonds between the character and the past.
I’ve done this with two players so far. The following has the steps of process and a practical example.
This is the first lead. The DM is trying to figure out a bit about the homeland and race of the parents. They don’t need to be known (orphans are common in our base literature), but at the least get a few words describing origin country and race. Write those down. Get their given name now. Maybe their adventuring name is different, but when they are born, they are named.
My first player said his parents were a merchant family from Southern Kirtin. They’d lost their lands when Daoud took over. They are halflings that abhor Azsel.
Race: Halfling
As the DM I generated a random point buy array and asked for the player to describe their character traits that they exhibited as a youth. Were they the type that led groups or shy? Did they throw rocks, or work in the mill? Maybe they were sick, or never got sick when others were? Some people read a lot, or read people. Distribute the six scores based on the answers given.
This player said that they were a bit of a leader playing with the kids, generally healthy, tended to know and understand people. They were a bit weak (halflings in Everflow have minuses to strength).
STR: 7 | DEX: 16 | CON: 14 | INT: 11 | WIS: 14 | CHA: 14
The answers to these questions determine Background, and help guide you towards Class. They aren’t the answer to class, but do influence it. A lot of personality gets built out here. The Personality Trait, Ideal, Bond, and Flaw should be apparent from this conversation. If it isn’t offered, the DM can probe a bit more.
In our example the character was raised by a merchant family that wanted to do everything right, that as a family wanted to regain their lost market in Kirtin-on-the-Lake and as the youngest of the trade family he’d been swindled once or twice, so he’s a bit suspicious of that.
Background: Merchant with skills in Appraiser’s Tools because he doesn’t trust and Vehicle’s (Land) because he was the youngest son.
Ask about the time that the character discovered that they aren’t common, but instead began to know that they are a hero. Have them describe it. Did they fight with arms, pick up a bow? Maybe they stole something? There should be indications towards class here. The experience may be a bit like a tree where the branches are melee or magic. After that the split might be sneaky (Rogue), hefty (Fighter, Barbarian), ranged (Fighter, Rogue, Ranger) or divine (Cleric, Druid), arcane (Wizard), discovered (Sorcerer), pledged (Warlock, Paladin). Are they principled (Monks, Paladins, Clerics)? This is likely the longest conversation you have during narrative character creation. Throw them some experience for wonderful ideas that surprise and entertain you.
But during this section you’ll come away with their Class, their options like Fighting Styles, or Faith, or Wizard school, etc.
Our example character was someone who had a caravan raided. He wasn’t a fighter, and didn’t know magic, instead he helped. He distracted the opponents, or warned his guards. Throughout the fight he was helpful. After the fight he repaired the cart, and returned the goods.
Class: Uncommoner (this is a homebrew that may be public soon)
Altogether it isn’t a major shift. Maybe some tables already do similar. For me it created a process shift from “this is what I am” to “this is how I came to be.” That adds some depth.
The semi-regular blog by the D&D team at Wizards of the Coast released today is from Jeremy Crawford, folding in Sage Advice and Errata updates.
Four rules answers are shared, all about spells. The biggest impact on my games would be the clarification that spell attacks are not spells. This means Counterspell and similar are not effective against the consolidated stat blocks for monsters in the latest and upcoming releases. Also, Silvery Barbs is ineffective against Legendary Resistance, which shouldn’t be a surprise. The other two questions seemed to have obvious answers, but the clarification helps.
There is a significant change to Drow, and that connects to most of the player-facing Errata updates.
This new text replaces a description that confused the culture of Menzoberranzan—a city in the grip of Lolth’s cult in the Forgotten Realms—with drow themselves. The new text more accurately describes the place of drow in the D&D multiverse and correctly situates them among the other branches of the elf family, each of which was shaped by an environment in the earliest days of the multiverse: forests (wood elves), places of ancient magic on the Material Plane (high elves), oceans (sea elves), the Feywild (eladrin), the Shadowfell (shadar-kai), and the Underdark (drow). Drow are united by an ancestral connection to the Underdark, not by worship of Lolth—a god some of them have never heard of.
Sage Advice December 2021
Within the nine books that have Errata updates that theme is extended.
The Player’s Handbook sees 15 of 22 new changes being related to Alignment. The most common change is “The “Alignment” section has been removed.” No longer are characters going to be directed towards certain behaviors. They are, instead, the heroes and anti-heroes of the story — unique and special.
“The “Alignment” section has been removed.”
Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide (which is not only still in print, but still getting updates!) have similar changes to their PC-facing content. Volo’s also notes that Volo himself is an unreliable narrator with almost all of his experiences being confined to the Forgotten Realms.
“The lore in this chapter represents the perspective of Volo and is mostly limited to the Forgotten Realms. In the Realms and elsewhere in the D&D multiverse, reality is more varied than the idiosyncratic views presented here. DM, use the material that inspires you and leave the rest.”
Volo’s Guide to Monsters Errata
SCAG has some changes to the Sun Soul Monk and the Swashbuckler that bring them in line with these subclass’s appearances in other books.
Overall the Errata focuses on the concept that only canon that matters is what’s at your table, and that your character is yours. All nine books with Errata in the last year are linked at the Sage Advice update.
Due to Silvery Barbs (1st lev) being dramatically better than Fortune’s Favor and slightly better than Shield, I will also be banning it at my table.
Silvery Barbs was an Unearthed Arcana subclass feature that was playtested for the Strixhaven setting. After class-variable subclasses were abandoned, the feature was converted to a level 1 enchantment spell for bards, sorcerers, and wizards. This spell is published in D&D’s new book, Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos.
The spell works like this:
As a reaction, you can force a reroll (take lower) on an attack, check, or save.
Then, you hand out a bonus inspiration that can be used for 1 minute.
The core mechanic is not based on disadvantage. It’s a forced reroll after the fact. That’s not only better for conserving spell slots and action economy, it allows Silvery Barbs to be stacked with disadvantage from other sources, and other strong reroll mechanics like the Lucky feat.
Reaction spells immediately throw up a red flag for power creep. There aren’t…
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