One of the most popular questions I get is “How do I start to play D&D?” In the Before Times I would invite people to join in my World of the Everflow campaign with fully half of the more than a dozen participants in that game being new to Dungeons & Dragons. Now, with the explosion of digital and remote play I tend to guide people towards the Adventurer’s League. The robust program from Wizards of the Coast just had a major shift.
As someone who builds most of their characters via DnDBeyond the looser rules help. There was not a simple toggle to limit to the PHB+1 rule on/off, so to make an AL character I had to think through which book a spell, background, feat, race, subclass all showed up in. The digital era makes the +1 rule a touch obsolete. A character built on Beyond or any VTT will have all of its abilities publicly facing the DM.
Sometimes you go to bed thinking ‘self tomorrow’s story is already written.’ Then you wake up and major news breaks as Wizards of the Coast is teasing a product announcement for Tuesday. Before we get into that, and the movie news, let’s review what Full Moon Storytelling had for you last week. There was a review of what the site is all about and a post related to this month’s Blog Carnival as the history of the Everflow was made public for the first time.
Let’s get into the news, which leads off with the Dungeons & Dragons movie from Paramount and eOne, again.
The teaser from Wizards of the Coast doesn’t announce a release date, but thanks to online retailers we know that the product announcement is Feb 23 for a book coming out on May 18 – a great birthday gift for me.
Guess we’ll all be heavily online this week as we learn just where in the demiplanes of Ravenloft we’ll be going. This will be the second book with a Ravenloft theme, the first time that Wizards of the Coast returns to a non-Forgotten Realms setting for a second book in 5th edition. The most recent Unearthed Arcana featured mechanics for three horror-based races as well.
Avoid Total Party Kills by giving the players the types of tips that their characters would already notice.
Playing D&D in Civic Spaces During the Pandemic
Madison, WI public libraries are hosting D&D, as well as expanding their other tabletop gaming content. Their games use DnDBeyond and a video conference softward. This makes a lot of sense, as Madison is one of the birthplaces of the game.
Up bright & early for today's stroll through the capital: a tour of Roman London. We shall walk the line of the city walls, and then visit the sites of its vanished monuments. (The archaeological sites, alas, will be shut, but there is always the imagination…) #Londiniumpic.twitter.com/SpIiLrxwqK
The Font of Two Paths, the Two-Headed Spring, Pool of Life, Lake of Wonder — the Everflow. This supernatural gift from Quar is the result of the last action of gods who turned their backs on Kin. The Lake of Wonder has two exits, a thing that shouldn’t ever, ever happen when making maps. This wasn’t because of Quar, but instead due to the people who wanted to spread these waters as far as possible. The Font of Two Paths is as much a study of Quar as it is of the ingenuity of his church.
Telse and its immediate surroundings. Map developed using the beta of Hex All Things by Fantastic Maps
In the land of Kin the time of creation of the Everflow started one of the popular calendars. This day is known, only due to the Church of Quar (in actuality it is the date when the first Bishop took the Church from religion to merchant guild and non-national power).
The modern era, 21-26 Post Awakening (PA), the Everflow has a few mechanical benefits. This is true in a world where common magic is merely cantrips and the kinship between beasts. A vial of Everflow, attainable in many markets in Telse and through the rest of Kin only at the Church of Quar, works as three uses of a Potion of Healing. In this world it takes only a Bonus Action to consume a use. Taking all three at once is an Action, and also removes a level of Exhaustion. Again, magic is quite rare, so this healing power has created the potency and power of the Church, which profits off of controlling the Source.
Make up new items or stat up those from myth, describe places where lost items can be found or quests set by the gods for those who wish to “borrow” item for an important task, what artifacts would your campaign villain seek? What is the craftsman of the gods working on?
When the Western Wildes were controlled by the Empire of Sheljar the Church’s influence was so strong that Telse remained a mostly-independent city, though the defenses of Telse and Upper Telse were provided by Sheljar as the mighty empire controlled all lands around the lake town.
This power dynamic shifted at the Fall of Sheljar. As the Necromancer took power in the bog city the other cities in the west earned their freedoms, for the most part.
Telse, Mira, Qin and the other cities near the Everflow and its two rivers.
Sheljar then sat empty as people fled the Tunneling Nightmares and the Night Peoples.
Mira is a port city in the north, with some influence over Fort Ooshar.
Qin is the city of guilds in the south.
The Ferments are a region of hot springs, alcohol, homesteads, and vibrant independence.
Bell’an’aur is the community of mines and glass blowing.
But Telse and Upper Telse remain influential. Bishop Ollium maintains power through the wealth of the church — both in the masses of gold and the healing powers of the Everflow. His church-shops are scattered in all kingdoms (Crinth, Azsel, Kirtin, Daoud, and even Mehmd in the dry east). Though smaller than Qin and Mira, Telse’s gift from the gods, an everflowing fountain of healing water that fills a lake with large locks controlling outflow towards both Mira and Qin.
This gift changed the world. Due to the corruption inherent in the People of Love (humans, halflings, goliaths — the Kin) a gift of healing created a church more powerful than nations, able to control who lives and dies, able to topple dynasties.
In times legendary, Quar expected his gift to be a lasting connection created through generous health, as the Font never runs dry everyone would benefit. The flawed god of life did not expect the flaws of man to control this ability.
Other worlds may have mighty boons from the divine that shake the land, or summon kaiju, or protect cities. In the World of the Everflow the minor gift of healing created a non-national empire, a form of currency, and a town that now has a large refugee populace fleeing the Fall of Sheljar or the cursed magicks now entering the Western Wildes — and dragons.
No matter how large or small an artifact of the gods is it will change your world. The Waters of the Everflow did so much more than a god intended.
It comes with just a single question. What if? What if I started a new blog? What if we talked about fantasy fiction? What if the stories told coincided with a role-playing game? What if I set myself back two decades and cracked open Dungeons & Dragons again?
Every storyteller needs their tools – a good mug, a notebook (or netbook), a satchel for tokens and memories and a block of cheese maybe some sausage, and a trusty sword.
What if the themes were strong adult subject matter that made for gritty tales of life, death and heroism? What if magic was real? And the gods could talk, but then they stopped?
What if the continents were small, the peoples plentiful and not all human? What if humans didn’t believe in magic because it had disappeared in the only continent they know? How about making it so they are defined more by their cultures than by their phenotype?
Have they stopped believing in themselves, in their gods? Do they see good and evil? How?
Is there slavery? Why? Is there nobility? Can someone be both?
These questions and the cascade of answers start to form more questions. It’s a nearly infinite series of responses. World building, particularly the creation of a world that breathes, is hard. Crafting a world-space that can withstand episodic gaming is harder.
Take chunks at a time. That’s what Full Moon Storytelling will be. Small chunks of content for use in a campaign setting, built around a custom set of rules adapted from 5th edition D&D, but with accompanying tales. If the setting says “The Necromancer is just someone trying to be good” there will be a story that explains how that happened.
As The Worthing Saga took a novella and broke out portions into branch stories, Full Moon Storytelling takes a campaign setting, rule set and crafts micro-fiction, short stories, plotless narrations and episodic adventures within the World of the Everflow.
Maybe that’s where we start, not with a character, but with a story about a fountain that flows from a cliff and diverts along two paths – the Font of Two Paths, the Two-Headed Spring, Pool of Life, Lake of Wonder. The Everflow influences the western peninsula of Kin, is clearly unnatural and …
This is Full Moon Storytelling. It’s a way to share writing, writing process and to think aloud, while words spring forth from tiny digits. Things will happen live, in front of you. Process will be as important as output. Creation is play. Come, join me at this fire under a full moon with clear sky as we look up through trees staring towards the open world of wonder, knowing that behind those trees at your back is whatever reality you can imagine.
Inspiration is everywhere, and anywhere. Read a story about mushroom bricks? Add mushroom bricks to your world. Read a story about how dinosaurs weren’t actually as fast as people think? Adjust their speeds. Everything is prep — even a cold spell and winter storm that hits 1/3 of the country. That should help inform your Rime of the Frostmaiden sessions.
Let’s get into the news, which leads off with the Dungeons & Dragons movie from Paramount and eOne.
Official D&D Products Releases and Reviews
Dungeons & Dragons Movie News
Michelle Rodriguez and Justice Smith are joining Chris Pine in the D&D movie project from Paramount and eOne/Hasbro. Most of the news around this is bare-bones, but one thing stick out — Rodriguez and Pine are both already part of multi-billion dollar franchises (Fast & Furious, Avatar, Star Trek, Wonder Woman/DCU). The aim on this project is huge. There is no indicator that the studios are just floating the movie as a possible success. They are targeting the type of success that creates new sub-studios and genre defying popularity. Vulture thinks they may just have a chance.
Two new video series look to guide first-time players through the experience.
Yawning Portal Games Sign Up Opens for February
Looking for a game and can’t find one locally during the pandemic? The Yawning Portal hosts Adventurer’s League games and original adventures once a month with official virtual D&D. Their doors are back open.
As someone who grew up in the 80s, with a mom who bought into the Satanic Panic, I will never get used to libraries and community centers hosting D&D for the general public.
Laney decided it would be best to host the session on Zoom. He says he will also utilize tools and resources from the website dndbeyond.com, which can help new players with character creation and help him manage the games. He also contacted Wizards of the Coast, the publisher for Dungeons and Dragons, who said they are proud to support library and school D&D groups. The publisher donated digital copies of all published Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition sourcebook.
Ocean City Public Libraries in New Jersey are hosting both middle school and high school D&D sessions. If you’re ever in Ocean City, check out their beach. My grandad worked on some of the building design.
Dungeons & Dragons & Mainstream
GameRant wants D&D to have an official VTT. For me this would be an error that forces homogenization. Just like every home table in the pre-pandemic varied, so should the virtual tables around which we gather. Some DMs work best with a video camera and story without any specific mechanics tied to the digital world. Others may like a complete customizable virtual game that approaches video game levels of detail. Find the one that is best for your group and use it.
The Dungeons & Dragons cartoon of the 80s was too short lived. If you miss it, or need to know what it is Boing Boing has your write up, and shared this video.
