Tag: character

  • Meet Amadin the Barker, including a new 5e D&D Background

    Meet Amadin the Barker, including a new 5e D&D Background

    From the Greatest Showman, to Newsies, to the nameless town criers belting out “Hear ye, Hear ye” the fiction that inspires our gaming has included symbols of governments, news guilds, carnivals, circuses, and religious orders in the streets are regularly part of the scenery. Some of these people would be dragged into heroic adventures.

    Amadin the Barker is one of these. Originally a barker for a travelling carnival, this fey hobgoblin fits within the normal world because of the cover of the carnival. Their uncommon lineage belongs among the strongmen who aren’t strong, the acrobatic performers, the owlbear trainers, and the oracles without magic.

    Created through a series of polls and prompts on Twitter, Amadin the Barker is discovered to be a Blessed Warrior Paladin of Redemption. They are generally peaceful, able to help their circus make money, prevent serious loss of live, and work to redeem themselves.

    Peace. Innocence. Patience. Wisdom.

    They swear upon these values. Sure, they are a warrior when needed. Those needs are rare. Amadin’s greatest tool is their booming voice and their desire to help the peoples who took them in when they were a stranger.

    laaaadeees and geenntleemeeen, step right up and see the most amazing art show in the world by Robert Couse-Baker (CC BY 2.0)

    Amadin the Barker

    Constitution +3Fey Hobgoblin, Paladin of Redemption (3)
    Strength -1Carnival Barker | Into crochet, not good at it
    Fine Clothes, rarely a Chain ShirtGhesh Province
    StaffSincere, Confident
    Comfortable, penny pincherAshamed, Judgmental
    This uses the Index Card version of NPCs for Social and Exploration Encounters

    If you want the full PC version of this community character Amadin is over at DnDBeyond, as are all of the community characters built via polls and interactions on my twitter account.

    Amadin is an example of a carnival barker, town crier, or herald. This new Background is part of my ever-percolating project Before We Were Heroes. Unlike the Remarkable Drudge, there is no cantrip or new tool for the Crier.

    Crier/Herald/Barker

    Skill Proficiencies: History, Persuasion
    Tool Proficiencies: None
    Languages: Two of your choice
    Equipment: A noisy instrument (bell, gong, horn, drum), fine clothes (a Barker should have a costume), common clothes, scroll case, 3 sheets of parchment, quill, jar of ink, 15 gp

    Feature: You Will Hear Me

    When in a crowd, or during a heated discussion, your words always break through the background noise. When you shout out, or clap, or ring the bell, etc., the attention of the multitudes shifts to the Crier/Herald/Barker who can make an appeal to them. Your pronouncements carry the weight and heft of your organization.

    Barker Design choices

    Skills: Persuasion was obvious. That’s where this background had to start. Their whole role in society is to convince people to do things. The other choice came down to Insight or History. Insight made sense because reading a crowd may be necessary, but History fits the idea that the symbol of an area’s governance or a news guild or a traveler would have this level of knowledge. If a campaign is using Culture rather than Language, drop History for Insight.

    Tools: One of the spaces I’m exploring is giving various Backgrounds tools that they possess that they aren’t necessarily proficient in – in this case a musical instrument. The Crier may use a gong to gain attention. They don’t need to know how to perform a musical piece.

    Languages: With two more slots and the modern cosmopolitan nature of default D&D granting two languages makes sense.

    Equipment: The non-proficient instrument is a little note that some Criers need an assist before they gain attention of the masses. Most backgrounds do not include two sets of clothes. In the case of the Crier/Herald they should have fine clothes for official duties and look common when not. For a Barker replace the fine clothing with a costume, if you’d like.

    Feature: First off, yes, I modified the Sounder at Heart motto for this one. You Will Hear Me captures the feel of a person standing in the crowd and demanding attention. A character could use this as a distraction, or a rallying cry, or maybe as a way to start a charity drive. As always, the feature fits into social and exploration moments more so than combat.

    For personality attributes use Folk Hero, Scholar, Noble, or others that fit. The finished product, whenever it is done will include unique characteristics for all 40 or so Backgrounds.

    Custom Backgrounds for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons

  • Orne Willowrush – an NPC for your adventuring needs

    Orne Willowrush – an NPC for your adventuring needs

    Opening up an NPC creation series with a character I should have made ages ago – one with glasses. If you don’t know me, I’m basically finger-blind. Without glasses or contacts I am unable to count how many fingers you would be holding up if you are more than a couple feet away from me. And yet, I never have played a character or NPC with glasses. I actively avoided it.

    After reading Deven Rue’s recent post about embracing characters with vision impairment or blindness I decided that needed to change.

    Heading over to DM Heroes, I hit the random button until it turned up a character with glasses. Then, it was about creating a character with an interesting background who was not a quest giver. Because as Rue says, “Make us non-quest related. Just people in your world. Living. Existing.”

    Meet Orne Willowrush

    This image shows the bust of an older male halfling with somewhat receding grey hair that is swept back. He wears glasses and has a thin mustache. His clothing looks like it could be a rough robe or shawl shirt. It is light brown.
    Created using DM Heroes one of my favorite NPC art tools

    First up is a Simple Index Card Version of an NPC. These are designed so with just a few words you can know who an NPC is from a basic description of appearance, to some basic motivations. In Willowrush’s case he’s a former soldier who once fought for the realm, but now works as a cooper. In my deep belief that everyone in your D&D world should have a hobby he is a fisher. He is not skilled in fishing though. He just enjoys doing the calmness of fishing with his friends. He can get dreamy about his past, but also doesn’t like to talk about it. Orne recently lost his beaver – Tryn. He’s just newly bonded with an otter – Orla.

    Orne’s best friend is a librarian named Incirion Vadu, a goblin. You can often find them at the river together, ignoring work. Incirion knows Mending, and will often have an extra pair of glasses for Orne.

    Orne Willowrush

    Dexterity, Strength +1Stout Halfling, Conscript Fighter (3)
    Constitution, Charisma -1Cooper | Woodworking Tools, Fisher’s Tools
    Padded Armor, Common Clothes, Glasses, OtterWinestar, Lemplet Place
    Staff, adzeWants to relive past glories
    Modest lifestyle, and will buy you a glass of wineDaydreamer, Reticent, Recently lost his beaver companion
    An otter peers out from a small cave.
    Photo by David Frazer on Pexels.com

    If you want him built as a fully playable character I’ve added him to my DnDBeyond Community Characters campaign. Orne on Beyond is a Scout rather than a Conscript, so as to not introduce new rules.

    Winestar, Lemplet Place

    A map of Lemplet Place, a fictitious town. The river runs from south to north into a bay. There are seven neighborhoods with three being inside or somewhat inside the walls. Main roads leave to the east, the west, and the northwest. There is a castle, a green, and a large temple.
    Built using the Medieval Fantasy City Generator

    Winestar is a neighborhood built along the rolling ridge of the Lemplet River. It’s a mix of farmsteads with a few crafts to support their needs. Most of the good produced enter the walled part of the city via barge or float. The Spring, across the river, is up on a cliffside, and is generally more wealthy than Winestar, especially those parts that are next to the castle walls. Within Winestar you will, of course, find many small vintners, with most of the homes at least having a passing hobby of wine creation. In general, Winestar produces luxury goods whereas Northroad is sustenance farming.

    Lemplet Place is a city of about 4,300 people.

    1. Blackbridge – known for the eponymous bridge, the downtown of Lemplet Place
    2. Tidewater Place – the slums, used to flood with high tide
    3. Castle Lemplet – originally built as a exterior castle, the city has grown around it
    4. Trollrock – the northern block surrounds a huge rock hill with a cave inside, no trolls though
    5. Northroad – sustenance farming
    6. Winestar – grapevines, orchards
    7. The Spring – for the wealthy that moved out of the city

    How will you use Orne Willowrush in your campaign?

  • Your D&D characters should have hobbies

    Your D&D characters should have hobbies

    The mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons don’t force you to choose a pastime or hobby. Outside of Bards and the various Backgrounds that include entertainment and arts there is no obligation or hint that a character should do things besides fight, interact socially to solve or cause problems, or explore a wildernesses and dungeons.

    With a limited number of skills and tools you might weaken your character if you take something without a direct impact on their ability to perform as an asset in the adventuring party – so what?

    Be a tiny bit weaker and add something that your character enjoys doing that has nothing to do with defeating dragons or wandering dungeons. In the real world in the eras upon which D&D reflects, this was common. Commoners worked less than we do in the modern era.

    There’s a reason that there are giant stadiums more than a 1,000 years old scattered around the world.

    Various MesoAmerican Ballgames stretching through modern Central America, the Caribbean, and even into Arizona. Sports were commonplace in the eras that inspire many Dungeons & Dragons worlds. That’s why you should add them to your world.

    But it’s more than just sports.

    Look at games like draughts, chess, mancala, 9-man morris, hnefatafl, and others lost to history. People had time. They did things with that time that they enjoyed.

    They sang songs. Told tales. Wrote dumb epic poems that we still read.

    So what does your character do when they aren’t living their life and when they aren’t dungeoning or dragoning?

    Burn a tool or skill on this – or don’t! – maybe they enjoy doing something that they are bad at.

    Maybe your next PC or NPC is the world’s best tafl player, or the local community’s worst singer. Maybe they make little sweaters for the elves that aren’t actually elves, and then they meet real elves. Maybe they are the old man that talks story to the children of his town.

    These elements may show in just a sentence or two in a given gaming session. That’s okay. It’s part of who they are and what they do, even if a d20 isn’t involved.