• Renton’s Sporting Triumphs: From Moses to Title IX

    Renton’s Sporting Triumphs: From Moses to Title IX

    As is appropriate for so much of Renton’s history, the exhibit starts with a Moses. Henry Moses, of the dxʷdəwʔabš/Duwamish, often referred to as chief, is the entry point for Renton History Museum’s journey through sports history.

    Originally scheduled to launch in spring, the museum and exhibit adapted to a the COVID-19 pandemic. Mask usage is required, the staff takes your info for possible contact tracing, there is a path to guide you through the main exhibits, and with the spacious main hall you feel comfortable even when others enter.

    The exhibit itself shifted as gaining access to artifacts was complicated due to the pandemic. The delay the launch means that it is up at the same time as What Difference Do Renton Women Make?

    Being up at the same time as an exhibit focused on women makes sense for the dive into Renton’s sporting history. After Moses, the display shifts to two girls who helped Renton High School dominate the King County high school basketball scene in the 20s. And then girls’ sports disappeared from schools.

    While Renton produced an Olympic quality women’s track star during the stretch between the Great Depression and Title IX, it was more by accident than any plan. After 37 years with a smattering of sports, the US legal ruling brought about a surge in opportunity for female athletes.

    The best museum exhibits do not explain everything. Instead they open up stories that inspire you to learn more. Renton History Museum will help do that for the visitor. Even those steeped in the tales of the South King County city will learn that Mark Prothero was more than a lawyer that defended the Green River Killer, but one of Washington’s best swimmers ever.

    Before Zach LaVine was winning dunk contests Renton High won titles in both football and basketball, with seven players that featured on both squads. There are other pros that called Renton home, not just a birthplace.

    The triumph in the exhibit is the way that it teases you to learn more – to understand and connect with Renton via sports. That there is a throughline to the other feature exhibit as well as two of the three static subjects for the museum is a great bonus.

    Further Reading

    Dave Clark is a Renton-Kent resident for the majority of his life. Clark was previously a participant in Hero’s Feast: Finding Community through Dungeons & Dragons. His past writings have featured at WeRTacoma.com, SounderAtHeart.com and numerous other outlets.

  • Add a Herding Dog to your D&D Game

    Add a Herding Dog to your D&D Game

    Animal companions are a tradition in Dungeons & Dragons. The Ranger with a hunting dog; the halfling riding a wolfhound; the dogs guarding the entry to the castle — all have status as tropes. In the standard rules the “Mastiff” represents all of these.

    But not every dog is a mass of muscle, teeth, and bark.

    Belgian Shepherd by Fouquier ॐ declared public domain at https://flic.kr/p/2i12JQq

    Other dogs exist in any fantasy world. These doggos deserve game-love, too. Inspired by Ambrose, the ranger in the game where my dwarven axe-wizard Awf slings spells and swings a battle axe like some kind of D&D version of John Casey, the Herding Dog leapt into existence.

    The desire with the Herding Dog was to not have an increase in power for a medium canine, but represent how shepherds, collies, sheepdogs, and other AKC Herding Group members are different from the working group types that the Mastiff embraces.

    There’s a small dip in strength, constitution, and damage with the most significant boosts being adding Animal Handling (to embrace the ability to make the herd go places) and Pack Tactics (to represent that herding dogs often work in groups).

    The minor changes give this dog a different identity, stay at the same power level, and give Ambrose a friend that isn’t purely a means to biting enemies. We’re using the Herding Dog in our campaign. Let me know if you decide to add it to your own.

    Terriers and Retrievers are on my list of potential design additions.

  • Five Shops along Moonset Street

    What I like about this is the density of the shops and how they share spaces, as well as the alley. Dyson Logos did an interesting mix of spaces with this.

    Dyson Logos's avatarDyson's Dodecahedron

    Five Shops

    Here we have a collection of five mercantile businesses along the south side of Moonset Street. These are fairly traditional business designs – in most cases there is no access to the interior of the business for shoppers and they instead interact through the long shop windows.

    Moonset Street Shops Moonset Street Shops

    From left to right we have:

    • First Building – Front – Cloth Shop
      • This shop mostly deals in lengths and bolts of cloth, imported and domestic. They also provide some dressmaking and tailoring services (the workshops being in the rooms behind the shop, one sharing space with the owner’s bedroom).
    • First Building – Back – Trinkets & Jewelry
      • This shop actually has a “shopping space” within the building (so that people can examine the wares without taking them outside) including a small showroom and counters where work is done as well as sales. The back rooms include a workshop and…

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  • Awf Hornjaw et Loragwyn

    Awf Hornjaw et Loragwyn

    In creating Awf there were a few goals. As one of the more experienced players in the party I wanted to have at least a secondary stat be Intelligence. With the party being four to six PCs, there was room for at least one multi-role character. There’s a fighter, a rogue, a ranger, a cleric in the regular group.

    That meant that I could fill a few roles – this dwarf axe-wizard is a solid secondary front-line warrior and secondary spellcaster.

    He’s clearly not optimized.

    As someone who generally tries to avoid the more typical tropes with my PCs, Awf let me explore a few things that 5th edition empowers that weren’t possible when I was originally playing in 1st and 2nd edition of AD&D. He’s a Dwarf Wizard who uses a Battleaxe, fairly well.

    The desire to explore a new subclass was approved by my DM. The Bladesinger made sense for a frontline warrior/spellcaster. But, Dwarves aren’t supposed to be one.

    Courtesy of Delaney Saul for my birthday

    That meant exploring his backstory. Awf has started to talk about that in his backstory in the game, so now it makes sense to share a bit of it.

    His hometown suffered a goblin attack. At the time he was a righteous adolescent who believed in the power of his family and village. Unfortunately his homestead was destroyed by goblins. He will never forgive this act.

    Fortunately the Order of the Shooting Star, mostly Elven Bladesingers, saved the town through a flanking operation. Awf’s family survived. But he lost respect. They weren’t powerful enough; they weren’t strong enough.

    So when the Shooting Stars left, he followed. There was strength in their magic. He followed them for more than ten years. The orphan-by-choice was a hanger-on. He shadowed the lessons of the Eagle Song, as they used axes in their maneuvers, but small axes, for they were not dwarves.

    By day Awf Hornjaw was an annoying outcast who offered just enough service to be useful. By night, Awf Hornjaw studied the ways of the Loragwyn clan’s magic.

    Being 3’11” and 211 pounds, he didn’t fit in the Knightly Order. He was too fat, too slow, too Dwarf.

    But Awf worked. The insulting nickname “Fat Goose” became his calling card. His axe took on the name Oie Cendrée. He learned and succeeded.

    Eventually the Loragwyns and the Shooting Stars accepted Awf. His noble desire to sacrifice anything to help others fit their ideals. His skill with adapting Oie Cendrée to the ways of the Song were intriguing.

    As Awf left the Shooting Stars they awarded him their name. Awf Hornjaw et Loragwyn is a man with two last names, two identities, and one goal – to find the goblin clan that threatened his family and show them that the Fat Goose is ready to sing the song of violence and ring the gong of death.

  • Cantrips and Backgrounds Are a Perfect Match

    Cantrips and Backgrounds Are a Perfect Match

    My backgrounds project continues to expand, adding in many medieval/Renaissance professions that fit in the apocrypha of D&D and related fantasy worlds. At this point there are nearly three dozen frameworks down. None of them demand a magical world.

    But, this is D&D, and in all (?) of the official, product-supported worlds of 5th edition magic is not something that is only held by leveled PCs and NPCs. If you visit a shrine in Forgotten Realms there is a great chance that one of the Acolytes there knows Thaumaturgy. The number of Guild Artisans (tailor) in Eberron that know Mending is almost certainly larger than the number that do not.

    In these worlds there should be tales of those who became heroes after their less-than-mundane lives. The fantastic is part of the D&D experience – both in heroic journeys and in everyday life.

    Exploring what cantrips make sense leads me to listing those cantrips that are not designed for warfare – essentially ignoring damage cantrips, but there are a few that make sense. Let’s take a look at the DnDBeyond list of cantrips and pare it down to just things that commoners would possibly know.

    Cantrips for Fantastic Living

    • Control Flames – Yes, it can do damage, but its primary purpose is about starting and putting out fires. I’ll explore a Firefighter.
    • Create Bonfire – Similar to above.
    • Dancing Lights – This also has combat roles, but imagine the ability of a theater designer to take advantage of Dancing Lights in ways that amplify that experience. The name does not leap to mind, but a variant entertainer using light is needed.
    • Druidcraft – The most obvious way this works is to help a Farmer, Rancher, Herder, etc. On the other hand, imagine a Weather Forecaster.
    • Gust – Sailing across the sea and stuck? Find your empowered crew who can create a tiny wind.
    • Light – The uses are nearly infinite. The Lamplighter will be both apocryphal and fantastical.
    • Mage Hand – Thieves and Wizards alike enjoy this one, but so would construction workers. Why bother with a ladder when you have Mage Hand?
    • Magic Stone – While this is a combat cantrip it feels proper for certain wilderness Backgrounds to have access to it. An Herbalist hunting for a rare shroom may need to defend themselves, for example.
    • Mending – Tailors and Tinkers around the world would be thrilled.
    • Message – This would be useful for the Pamphleteer, the Town Crier, the Spy, the City Watch, and many more.
    • Minor Illusion – Another cantrip that would suit Entertainers.
    • Mold Earth – Masons and Farmers could both find uses for this cantrip.
    • Prestidigitation – A Realmsean Dry Cleaner could profit off of making the bloodied heroes, and criminals, presentable. Similar to Light and Druidcraft the Backgrounds that could take advantage of this are nearly infinite.
    • Produce Flame – A third in the fire series.
    • Shape Water – Immediately upon reading this one I thought about construction of aqueducts and water wheels.
    • Spare the Dying – In gameplay this may be one of the weakest cantrips. In the rough and tumble alleys of Baldur’s Gate it keeps the citizenry alive – Medic and maybe for the Barber as well.
    • Thaumaturgy – Acolytes and Sages should probably already know this one. The organized faiths of the world would have plenty of priests and others able to shout above the masses. This also has great application for a Town Crier, Herald, and Soldier.

    Several more attacking cantrips have possible secondary uses. These are ignored because not every D&D world need be one of violence for the commoner.

    Next Steps

    In some cases adding these minor spells to existing Backgrounds makes sense. That would involve a slight change to the current rule set. We know that a cantrip is considered roughly equal to a skill or language based on the Feats Linguist, Prodigy, and Skilled. The product will address that.

    But knowing these cantrips also means an exploration of how certain roles in the medieval/Renaissance apocrypha of D&D change because of magic. A Lamplighter (a custom background in development) with Light should be behaviorally different than one still using flint, steel, and oil.

    Both will exist. You will be in charge of how your world borrows the ideas to come in Before We Were Heroes (tentative title).

    Your world should be apocryphal and fantastic.

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