Tag: DnD

  • Naval Skirmishes and Battles for 5e D&D

    Naval Skirmishes and Battles for 5e D&D

    This set of rules was shared with me by one of my fellow players in Arise & Descend. When they aren’t playing in our near-weekly game they also DM. Recently they noticed a gap in rules for naval warfare. Unlike Ghosts of Saltmarsh, this rule set is for when the party are on other vessels in a fleet or when the story may demand that the group zoom out from the single ship to a small conflict between two fleets.

    Dave, not me, my friend, asked if I would share these for feedback. I have edited for copy, but have not playtested these rules.

    On Ships and Naval Battles

    A Naval System for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons

    By Dave

    Tall ships on the sea are a great setting for a D&D campaign. The romance of the high seas has driven stories for centuries, and finding adventure there can spice up any campaign.

    I have a homebrew campaign running, and in it my players have gotten themselves involved in a civil war on an island nation. Of course, any war like this is going to involve some pretty intense naval battles that I wanted my players to take part in.

    However, when I looked into rules and systems for running naval battles, there wasn’t anything that really worked for what I wanted. There is some really fun stuff in the Unearthed Arcana “Of Ships and Sea,” which was refined for the Ghosts of Saltmarsh adventure. Those are great if you’re running a full on naval campaign, with all sorts of rules for maintaining a crew and a ship over long periods of time. 

    What I couldn’t find, though, is something for a major set piece battle to conclude my players current story arc. So I’ve come up with some rules and a system for running a naval battle that I think could be useful to other DMs looking to change up their player’s experience.

    One quick note at the top: This system assumes your PCs will be on the ships, and that the players themselves will make decisions for those ships. Story-wise, this creates a bit of a problem. Either your players are in command of the ships they’re on or your players are controlling an NPC instead of their own character. If you’re like me, and you’ve always wondered why Han Solo was given the rank of General when he’s done nothing to qualify for that rank, the former is a bit hard to swallow. But some players won’t like the way the immersion is broken for the latter. It’s a small wrinkle, but it’s still there, and you might want to address it with your players.

    Preparation and Ship Stat Blocks

    Rather than playing as a character, each player will take over a ship. Each ship will have a stat block which will include Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores. Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma scores will all be zero. Ships are also immune to most effects, because they’re… ya know… ships. They are vulnerable to fire attacks. 

    Strength will relate to the amount of damage each attack can cause. The modifiers for various attacks will be based on this score. You add some flavor to this by giving a bonus to a STR score to a ship with a veteren crew, or a penalty to a ship with lots of novice or pressed sailors who aren’t as motivated.

    Dexterity will relate to ship movement and speed. A ship’s base speed is 300 feet, adjusted for 50 feet per Dex modifier. For example: A ship with a 14 Dexterity (+2) should have 400 feet of movement. Ships get -3 to their Dexterity score for each size above large.

    Constitution works similarly, but will relate to ship AC and hull HP. The base hull HP is 100, adjusted by 10 HP per Con modifier. For example: A ship with a 16 Constitution should have 130 HP. Ships should get +3 to their Constitution for each size above large.

    On top of hull HP, each ship will have a number of crew members. Max crew number should be equal to the length of the ship. A large ship (100 feet long) will have a max crew of 100, whereas a gargantuan ship (200 feet long) will have a max crew of 200.

    Max crew is in relation to the number of actions a ship can take.  A ship can carry more than its max crew, but cannot take anymore actions because of it.  For example, if a ship with a max crew of 100 gains 30 more crew after sinking another ship, putting it’s total at 130, it still can only take four actions.   

    Ships get one action per 25 crew members per turn, rounded down. For example, a ship with 100 crew members gets four actions per turn. But as they lose crew members, they lose the manpower to do as much. So once they go below 100 crew members, they only get 3 actions. A ship with 25 or fewer crew members cannot attack. They can only change course, make repairs, or tend the wounded.  

    • Note: When building your stat blocks, make sure to pay attention to how each ship is balanced. Perhaps a flagship of the fleet has 200 crew members, meaning it gets eight actions. But such a large ship is ungainly and probably has half the movement of a smaller ship. You might even consider saying changing course on a ship that size takes two actions.

    The ship’s actions are as follows

    • Change Course, Drop, or Raise Anchor:  Ship changes to a different heading, drops anchor to stop, or raises anchor to get under way. 
    • Arrow volley – Ranged Weapon Attack: + STR to hit. reach 150/400 ft., one target. Hit 2d10 + STR crew. 
    • Ballistae – Ranged Weapon Attack: + STR to hit. reach 200/500 ft., one target. Hit 2d12 + STR piercing damage to hull HP.
    • Take Cover – Crew members are ordered to take cover. Arrow volley damage (crew casualties) is halved.
    • Repair damage – Crew members repair their damaged hull. Heal 1d10 + CON hull HP.
    • Tend the wounded – Crew members give medical treatment to their fallen crew members, allowing them to return to the fight. Replace 1d8 + CON crew.
    • Grapple and board – When a ship moves within 50 feet of another, they can attempt to grapple and board. The attacking ship will roll a Strength check +1 for every 10 crew members rounding down contested by a Constitution save +1 for every 10 crew members rounding down. The boarded ship can choose to fail this save. Once the two ships are grappled together, they are both restrained.

    After including all the actions, a ship’s stat block should look like this

    When a ship’s hull HP drops to zero, the ship sinks. Any ship that enters the space in which a ship sank may pick up the remaining crew members. All crew members will be rescued. If an ally of the sunk ship moves into the space they add all the crew members to their current crew. If an enemy ship moves into that space they add half the crew members to their crew. 

    This is because sailors don’t want to drown and know that if they try to fight the ship rescuing them, they will be left behind. Half the surviving crew members will join the fight in the new ship because they’re either pressed or sailors for hire therefore sailing for one ship or another is all the same to them. The other half will willingly go below decks as prisoners as that’s preferable to drowning.


    Setting up Battle

    The battlemap for these engagements should be a grid on primarily open sea, though some islands or a coastline can certainly add some tactical flavor. One square on the grid should equal 50 feet. Since ships are large and slow-moving objects in a large area, each round is equivalent to about 6 minutes. Ships will be sized to 50 foot squares.

    • Medium = 50 feet long (a large yacht)
    • Large = 100 feet long (a sloop or a brig)
    • Huge = 150 feet long (galleon or a schooner)
    • Gargantuan = 200+ feet long (frigate or Ship of the Line)

    Movement

    When it comes to sailing ships, the wind is an important factor. A token should be placed on the map to indicate the direction of the wind. A ship may not sail directly into the wind, but can sail at a 45 degree angle towards the wind. Ships sail fastest going perpendicular to the wind, so when they head 90 degrees from the wind, they have full movement. Sailing away from the wind is the slowest, so ships headed the same direction as the wind have one-third speed, rounded to the nearest 50 feet. Quartering the wind (45 degree angle in any direction towards or away from the wind) will give ships two-thirds speed rounded to the nearest 50 feet.

    In practice, it should look as follows. The diagram below is for a ship with 300 ft of movement:

    It takes one action to change course or drop anchor to stop, but if no action is taken to correct course, the ship will spend it’s full available movement each turn continuing in the same direction.

    If a ship’s movement will lead it to hit another ship or some other obstacle, it must use one of its actions to change course or stop.

    A ship cannot attack through an allied ship’s space, but must move to a space with a clear shot at its target if it wants to take an attack action.

    Boarding Rules

    Of course, no high seas adventure would be complete without the chance to board another ship. As an action, a ship within 50 feet of another can take the Grapple and Board actions. If that action is successful, the two ships are tied together and restrained. While two ships are grappled and restrained, they attack each other. Each ship gets one action for each 25 crew members rounding down per round.  They can attack or retreat and break free. 

    • Attack: +1 for each 10 crew members rounding down. Damage 1d10+1 for each 10 crew members rounding down.
    • Retreat: Strength check +1 for every 10 crew members rounding down contested by a Constitution save +1 for every 10 crew members rounding down. The enemy ship can choose to fail this save.

    Once one ship has less than half crew, the rest of the crew will surrender. If a ship already is down to half a crew, it will surrender as soon as it is grappled. The winning ship has two options:

    • Bring captured crew aboard their own ship, adding half of the surviving crew of the captured ship to their crew member total (and taking the other half prisoner), and scuttling the captured ship.
    • Add half the surviving crew of the captured ship to the crew member total (taking the other half prisoner) then split the new crew total evenly to take command of both ships.

    If your entire party is on a single ship, or if more than one of your player’s ships grapple on to a single enemy, you might want to replace this grapple roll with a full encounter and ship-based battlemap.

    Adding Your Player’s Traits

    Most of these ships will be pretty similar in capabilities. But you can add some variation to these fights by giving bonuses based on your players’ character classes and traits. Story-wise, your player’s heroes will have spent some time with the crew members of their ship teaching them some new skills and talents, which gives those crews certain advantages in battle.

    For example, in my campaign, I have four PCs, a Barbarian, a Paladin, a Ranger, and a Wizard. For my final battle, I will have them all on separate ships (which each player will control), and give the following bonuses:

    • Barbarian: He’s great at close quarters combat so his ship will have advantage on his Grapple and Board Strength check and +5 to his boarding attack.
    • Paladin: She’s a healer and a tank so her ship will be resistant to Arrow Volley (she loses half the crew members per volley, down to a quarter with the Take Cover action), and she has a +5 to her Tend Wounded action.
    • Ranger: She’s a classic ranged fighter so her ship will have no range disadvantage for her Arrow Volley or Ballistae actions, and get a +5 to her Arrow Volley damage.
    • Wizard: He loves to cast Expeditious Retreat on himself and keep moving in battle so his ship will have an extra 150 feet of movement, and he can add fire damage to his Ballistae action.

    You should add your own bonuses based on the personality and favorite tactics of your characters. 

    Final Notes

    Another big change you could add to this is adding cannons, assuming you’re playing with the Firearms rules. Since I don’t use them in my campaign, I didn’t think too hard on how they would work. But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t adapt this for Firearms rules.

    An optional rule you might use is to add changes to the wind direction.  If you want to use this, choose a random interval (or roll for one) such as 3 rounds or 15 minutes (real time), and roll either a d4 or d8 to choose a random change in wind direction.

    And finally, this is all pretty complicated, and might be a bit much to throw at a party in one session. I would advise bringing these concepts slowly. For example, put your players on a single ship that you control, and give them each one of the ship’s actions to use as they see fit. Then you can slowly bring in concepts like wind direction, movement, or boarding one at a time, so that by the time your players reach their climactic battle, they are comfortable with all these rules and the tools at their disposal.

    Hopefully this can give you a framework to build an epic and memorable naval battle to your campaign. If you have any thoughts or suggestions for improvements to this, I’d love to hear them.

  • Measuring long distances in D&D – time matters

    Measuring long distances in D&D – time matters

    Distances in the modern world are measured quite accurately. Whether you use Google Maps (or whatever your favorite similar app is) or even just wayfinding markers, much of the inhabited world is known. The distance from place to place is precise. But when you’re wandering the wilderness your characters do not need that level of precision, nor would they have it.

    A sign indicating a distance of 1/4 mile or 400 meters from the last marker.

    Miles, why?

    A mile originated as 1000 paces of road and marked off by an ancient fallen empire. It later gets corrupted by locals to mean dozens of dozens of slightly different things. They only make sense in a world where there was a unitary fallen empire that had a vast majority of its residents be of the medium races.

    This makes sense in some fantasy worlds, but not many. A single cohesive empire within the primary region is a story that is sometimes told, but only those that marched soldiers would use a mile.

    Now, for players, rather than characters, the mile has the advantage of being what Americans use for distance, and the majority of Dungeons and Dragons players are Americans. It’s a handy shorthand for distance.

    It remains though a measure of distance with an accuracy that is meaningless. It does not matter if the next village/cave/castle/dragon is 7.2 miles away.

    Immersive Travel Distances

    What matters is “how long does it take to get there?“

    That’s what characters need to know. Thereby that’s what DMs need to know. Travel time is the key. How many encounters (social, exploration, or combat) will happen during the journey. Do the characters need to stock up on supplies? Do they need to find a cart or mount due to the distance? Do they need to hurry?

    So throw out the mile. It’s unnecessarily precise for your game. Just like the number of minutes you travel don’t matter in the majority of your sessions. Abilities that impact travel are measured in time, not mileage.

    Replace miles with a measure of distance that relates to what the characters know. Make it simple enough that your players know what it is as well.

    Introducing the League

    Borrow from the league. This is a great measure to use in your game world. Yes, it’s also based in that ancient empire. In this case it was the marching distance that a soldier could travel on a road in an hour. It works out to basically 3 miles, which is extra handy, because that’s the number of miles that D&D says a human character travels in an hour.

    This means you do not need to convert any of your maps that display mileage. Just divide it by 3 and you know how many leagues separate the two locations – easy.

    Throw in some variants similar to Welsh measures of distance with the short yoke, the lateral yoke, and the long yoke, and you can capture the nature of travel by shorter races, pony/dog/donkey, horse. These slightly different names help with immersion because in D&D there are essentially four different speeds that matter.

    Photo by Anugrah Lohiya on Pexels.com

    Travel Distances Chart

    Race, Creature, or VehicleCombat SpeedHourDay
    Halfling, Gnome, Kobold, Goblin25′ or 5 pacesShort League (2.5 miles)Short Journ’ or A Daylong (20 miles)
    Human, Elf, Dwarf30′ or 6 pacesStandard League (3 miles)Daylong Journey (24 miles)
    Cart, Dog, Pony40′ or 8 pacesLateral League (4 miles)Daylong (28 miles)*
    Horses60′ or 12 pacesLong League (6 miles)Long Journey (36 miles)*
    *animals don’t like being ridden for quite as long as humans like to march.

    Introducing the Daylong Journey

    That last column is another measurement that matters – the day. In a given adventuring day a party should take two rests and a long rest. They could do those overnight or during the daylight, depending on the party makeup and whether there is a need to hide from baddies.

    Take those rests whether or not there is combat. The fact of the matter is that when people or horses march of hours and hours and hours they need to rest. There’s even a mechanic for forced marches (pg 181 of the PHB) if you want to avoid those rests and push through. Those groups run the risk of exhaustion.

    There is no historic English word for a daylong journey, so just call it a daylong journey in Common. But also recognize that some societies might abbreviate it. The common perception of halflings in most fantasy worlds might call it a Joun’ or just a Daylong. Those cultures that use carts or dogs or ponies might not use a different word. They just know they travel a tiny bit faster, but not a lot faster than humans.

    You can still use the page 182 PHB chart about Fast or Slow travel too. Fast travel is 33% faster than normal travel and harms your passive traits like Perception and/or Survival for tracking. Slow travel is 33% increase in time spent travelling, but you can use Stealth for the group (as a reminder a group check means each player rolls for success and if 50% or more succeed the group succeeds).

    To Sum Up

    • Don’t get caught up in granularity.
    • You’re going on an adventure, not a trip to the grocery store.
    • Do use measurements that your characters care about – a league and daylong journey.
    • Use a system that most of your group likes, which could still be the boring mile.
  • Lore Collage: Derek Kolstad’s D&D project has me excited

    Lore Collage: Derek Kolstad’s D&D project has me excited

    I took a light week of publishing after last week’s big livestream. DDD 253 will live forever. Give it a watch.

    I’ll talk more about the map and the unseen encounters later this week.

    Official D&D Product Releases and Reviews

    Dungeons & Dragons TV Show News

    Remember back when it was revealed that Derek Kolstad, of John Wick fame, is the writer behind the upcoming D&D TV Show? Well, he’s started talking about it in-between his rounds talking about his episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

    Collider also wrote about their interview.

    Dark Alliance is coming June 22

    A big, bad Beholder is one of the boss battles – duh. IGN gives you a look at how that will work.

    Candlekeep Mysteries

    It’s the number 4 non-fiction hardback in its first week out.

    Other Official D&D News

    Take the Feyfolk survey.

    Those Feyfolk are now playable on DnDBeyond.

    Third-Party Products

    Tribality Publishing reviews Level Up Your Background, which is a different angle on Background expansion then I’m exploring.

    Solasta takes the OGL and turns it into a D&D game that’s different than Baldur’s Gate 3.

    Polygon has a preview of this ambitious new 3rd party project from the makers of World of Warcraft and more. ‘It’s like Dragonlance meets Black Sabbath’s 1973 US road tour’

    Conventions Are Returning to In Person Events

    PAX East is cancelled. PAX Online is active. PAX West and PAX Unplugged may happen as normal.

    San Diego ComiCon moved to Thanksgiving Weekend, so they could be in-person.

    Advice for Dungeons & Dragons Payers and DMs

    Create little 10-second descriptions of the peoples and places within your world.

    Remember to Say Yes and adapt to your players’ changing plans.

    Playing D&D in Civic Spaces During the Pandemic

    The Ann Arbor Public Library, Michigan, held a D&D monster bracket. The flumph won!?

    Out in Virginia, the Loudon County Public Library is hosting intro to D&D for teens.

    The Nutley Public Library, New Jersey, is hosting middle school D&D.

    Dungeons & Dragons is Mainstream Now

    Give a person a website, and they will write about their D&D campaign (surprise!). | Escaping pandemic blues with Dungeons & Dragons, a group of great pals [Unscripted column] – Lancaster Online

    With access to campus TV the LGBTQ+ community at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is putting on a D&D themed show since the pandemic prevents their normal annual fundraiser. | Dungeons & DRAGons – Royal Purple

    If there was a university that was least surprising to feature D&D in the student paper would it be Cal? Yes. | Students rely on new hobbies to stay busy during quarantine – The Berkley Beacon

    Other Geek Stuff

    The fantasy and sci-fi TV boom is seeing another RPG enter into production. Onyx Path Publishing’s Scion is the latest to go from RPG to TV.

    Get ready for Amazon Prime’s Lord of the Rings prequel with Sauron, explained.

    My next Paladin or Cleric needs this art.

    You should subscribe to Three Black Halflings.

    I love this art.

    As Always, Maps

    This city from Dyson Logos is crowded and chaotic.

    Not all libraries are keeps, some are unending towers.

    Everyone needs extra cave maps.

    https://twitter.com/czepeku/status/1374455819157217287
  • Lore Collage: Dark Alliance gameplay trailer, DDD253, conventions are coming back, more to read and watch

    Lore Collage: Dark Alliance gameplay trailer, DDD253, conventions are coming back, more to read and watch

    Over the weekend I ran my first livestreamed D&D show. It was part of YachtCon, a charity convention for Seattle Sounders fans that raises money for the Autism Center at Seattle Children’s Hospital. DDD:253 – Invasion of the Trees may just be the oddest thing I’ve done related to my blogging, podcasting, and broadcasting related to Seattle soccer. We’ve made scarves, shirts, hoodies, beers, conventions, tours, parties, and much more, but playing D&D with sports fans and even a head coach was not something I expected to do back in 2008 when I launched Sounder at Heart. Maybe there will be more. Here’s the 3-hour adventure.

    Yes, I dressed the part.

    Official D&D Product Releases and Reviews

    Dark Alliance is coming June 22

    That button mashing glory is full on high action, not subtle roleplay. It’s out June 22, and yes, it’s very metal.

    IGN has an exclusive look at the making of Dark Alliance, to include how Tuque Games talked their way into making the game. Polygon compares it to Gears of War.

    By the way, the D&D MMORPG Neverwinter is still getting updates.

    Dungeons & Dragons Movie News

    In Justice Smith’s press junkets about his upcoming movie he also mentions the D&D movie role, but without much detail.

    After that, audiences will see him reprise his role as Franklin in Jurassic World: Dominion in 2022. That film will be followed by the anticipated adaptation of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, which has lined up an all-star cast, including Chris Pine, Hugh Grant, Michelle Rodriguez and Bridgerton breakout Rege-Jean Page. “The character I play, again, is very different from someone I’ve played before,” he teases.

    ET Online

    Candlekeep Mysteries Reviews

    The compilation of 17 short adventures released last week. Reviews are still rolling in. The adventure book echoes the nature of Candelkeep itself.

    GameRant talks about the lore of the library-fortress that precedes the latest book.

    Other Official D&D News

    D&D is coming to Magic: The Gathering later this spring, but also, that Strixhaven set looks ripe for D&D themes too.

    Fey Races Unearthed Arcana

    The Kind GM reviews the last UA.

    Third-Party Products

    Someday you’ll be playing D&D in person again. Warlock Tiles help your miniatures exist in three dimensions.

    Heroes’ Fest is among the dozen of fantasy and sci-fi cookbooks mentioned by the Ames Public Library.

    Goodman Games will have a new product announcement Thursday, probably.

    Conventions Are Returning to In Person Events

    GenCon is leaving its traditional date for mid-September. With vaccinations continuing to increase, the hope is that a limited in-person event will be able to be safe.

    Advice for Dungeons & Dragons Payers and DMs

    Just because your NPC is a smith, doesn’t mean that their last name needs to be Smith.

    The best adventures should allow foreshadowing and/or research so that the players can help their characters succeed.

    Playing D&D in Civic Spaces During the Pandemic

    The Orca’s Center in Washington is hosting a two-night D&D fundraiser. You still have time to watch night two.

    At the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota the tabletop community keeps playing, even while distancing.

    Vancouver, BC’s public library is hosting D&D for pre-teens.

    Out in Pittsburgh the Northlands Public Library remote D&D is focused on teens.

    Dungeons & Dragons is Mainstream Now

    This mom is making TEN GRAND A MONTH teaching people how to play D&D. | How a mom of 4 makes $10,000 a month teaching Dungeons & Dragons on Outschool – Acorns

    Are computers and robots going to replace D&D streamers soon? | Meet the computer scientist teaching an AI to play Dungeons and Dragons – BBC Science Focus

    Local columnist just recaps a D&D session to fill space. | Aprill Brandon: Dungeons and dragons for dummies and delinquents – Victoria Advocate (Texas)

    Other Geek Stuff

    https://twitter.com/Forspoken/status/1372603416615256068

    The number one RPG in Japan isn’t D&D. It’s Call of Cthulu.

    Discord and Roll20 aren’t just for RPGs. They can also help you run your boardgame night. Remember boardgame night? That thing you used to do before the pandemic? They’re also good for D&D.

    Anthropology: The Long Lives of Fairy Tales – yes, that’s a serious study on fairy tales.

    A homemade Arwen dress, but not for cosplay. This is a prom dress.

    This deck of Magic cards can be a computer.

    15 video game streamers that deserve your ear and eye holes.

    More D&D rock

    As Always, Maps

    This is an intriguing cave from someone more well known for their constructed dungeons.

    Over on Dyson Logos’ blog there’s more story and downloads available.

  • 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.

  • Remarkable Drudge – work hard, play hard with this new Fantastic & Empowered Background v 2

    Remarkable Drudge – work hard, play hard with this new Fantastic & Empowered Background v 2

    Backgrounds offer so much space to establish who you character was before they entered the stress and conflict of adventuring life. The combination of skill selection, tools, languages, equipment, and personality are a story unto themselves. Jim the Fighter and Nancy the Fighter are similar because of what they do now, but they are also different because of what they did then. Jim was a Noble, raised among the upper class — prim and proper. Nancy was an Urchin, raised on the streets she could sneak among crowds to avoid fights, usually.

    And unlike classes, there’s still a lot of uncovered ground. Many tales of what your hero was aren’t encapsulated in the current official backgrounds. The common laborer – the fence builder, the ditch digger, the lumber mover, the stevedore, the longshoreman – is currently ignored.

    Photo by Filip Marcus Adam on Pexels.com

    In trying to fill that niche, while also playing with the idea that utility cantrips are valid parts of a Background, the Remarkable Drudge comes to life. This implementation differs from the earlier version of Seven Backgrounds for Games in the World of the Everflow in one primary way. In the past, the power level of a 1st level character was such that cantrips were folded into the feature. To keep the Drudge and the other Fantastical Backgrounds appropriate to generic D&D worlds the decision is made to replace a single skill and a single tool/language with one cantrip. An evaluation of various Feats available in the Player’s Handbook, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, and Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything shows the value of a cantrip is slightly more than a skill, but not much more than a skill.

    Let’s meet the Remarkable Drudge.

    Remarkable Drudge

    You are a laborer, often ignored and yet the reason why the community runs as smoothly as it does. You may work the docks, the stockyards, the lumberyards, or lay the planks to improve the dirt roads into wooden streets. Your hard work is the foundation of civilization. But, you’ve also learned, or been born with, a simple spell to make your work a bit easier. The small spell provides utility for you and your coworkers. It may be a hand that can bring you the necessary tool from a distance, the ability to change the shape of earth or water, a way to shout instructions to someone across the field, or a way to light a fire. No matter what your little spells gain you a bit more respect and value than others in your line of work.

    Skill Proficiencies: Athletics
    Tool Proficiencies: Pick One: Carpenter’s Tools, Farmer’s Tools, Mason’s Tools, Vehicles (Land or Water)
    Languages: None
    Cantrips: Pick One: Shape Water, Mold Earth, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Druidcraft, Thaumaturgy
    Equipment: Traveler’s clothes, wineskin or jar of mead, mallet, shovel, block & tackle, 2 gp, 5 sp

    Feature: This Will Work

    Over the years you’ve learned that anything can be a hammer, or a shovel, or well, what you need. When you don’t have the tool or mundane item designed for the job you are usually able to find something else that will work for it – maybe it’s a rock, a brick, a busted up board, or something from someone else’s pack. An imperfect tool is better than no tool at all.

    Suggested Characteristics

    Drudges are hard workers and celebrate their completed projects with gusto. Frequently working in teams they are warm to those who work hard and cold to those who do not.

    For now, use the Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws of the Folk Hero.

    Custom Backgrounds for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons

    Farmer’s Tools

    Cost: 5 gp | Weight: 7 lbs

    Proficiency with farmer’s tools means that you are familiar with the operations of a farm, orchard, vineyard, or other cropland. You are knowledgeable in the typical crops within an area, to include when to plant and harvest them. You also know their market value in most lands.

    A sledgehammer rests on green grass with fallen leaves scattered around it. The hammer is well worn from use.

    Components: Farmer’s Tools include a hand trowel, a bag of seeds, a hand rake, a mallet, shears, a bucket, and 10 feet of rope. When near a homestead they would be able to easily borrow a hoe or other full size implements.

    Animal Handling: Familiar working in tandem with animals you are able to gain the cooperation from domesticated animals and can give common commands in languages you know.

    Nature: You are able to identify the plants and fungus that are consumed as food, often knowing what cultures would typically raise those crops.

    Survival: In the wilds you are generally able to locate some produce that provide a minimum level of nourishment.

    Forecast: Your understanding of weather patterns is such that you are able to predict the weather for the next few hours. You can sense if there will be a natural change in temperature, wind, precipitation, etc when you have a view of the sky.

    Farmer’s Tools

    ActivityDC
    Identify culture/race raising common crops10
    Give domesticated animal a simple command15
    Weather forecast for the next few hours15
    Identify culture/race raising rare crops20

    Farmer’s Tools are designed to use the tools guidance in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything.

  • Meet the cast of DDD:253 – Invasion of the Trees

    Meet the cast of DDD:253 – Invasion of the Trees

    We’re speeding towards my first ever livestream of Dungeons & Dragons. There’s a thrill and excitement to this. Unlike most who jump into livestreaming, my playing group is not a set of people who I’ve done this with before. Only one of the players is part of my regular gaming group (I’ve never DMd for them). The two celebrities are the people I know the best. Many wouldn’t plan to jump into streaming this way, but for me the game came together as a desire to help YachtCon: Back to School generate community while donating to the Autism Center at Seattle Children’s Hospital, to act as an evangelist for D&D, and to add some South Sound/Tacoma Defiance flavor to my life after missing it for so long.

    The paid slots are full, but you can still “audit” the stream — yes, that means you can watch us play a D&D scenario with Defiance Head Coach Wade Webber and professional wrestler Ethan HD. There are other great classes, too. But DDD: 253 is my baby and my challenge, my dragon to tame.

    One of the thrills about creating this game is meeting new players. Each of the participants met with me for a one-on-one session zero. In every single one of these the players didn’t just build a combat oriented “build” but worked on backstory and connections towards the adventure on hand.

    It was thrilling to see this!

    There are several reasons why backstory developed. Fifth edition leans into this with Backgrounds. Every participant knows that their DM is into story creep rather than pure roll play. Plus, it isn’t surprising that those willing to generously donate their time and money to the cause would be those whose passions for the game include social, exploration, and combat encounters.

    It will be up to me to take these characters and get at least a small mention of their pasts into the three-hour tour that is DD:253 – Invasion of the Trees (Sunday March 21 at 7p). All of our characters, from Lorenzo to Du-Rag to the ones you are about to meet, are here to help the small town of Prosperityburg solve a simple problem – why did Castle Highberg stop responding to messages?

    A map of the Dusk Shores and the Spring Mountains

    On this campaign of discovery Du-Rag and Lorenzo will be joined by a ragtag group of adventurers. The rest of the group is made up of;

    Lennel is a tortle warlock with a spear and dedication to the seas.

    Lennel is a tortle warlock, connected to the sea. He values the connection between the port town and the Dusk Sea, working to build camaraderie between the peoples.

    Ebrius is a tiefling warlock torn between his birth and his heart.

    Ebrius is our second warlock. A tiefling, he works to help the helpless.

    Yelfir is a goliath fighter with a big axe

    Yelfir is a goliath fighter. Born in mountains, she tests her strength and serves the greater good of the community.

    Rezani is an axe-wielding half-orc barbarian.

    Joining Yelfir on the frontline is another axe-wielder. A half-orc barbarian, Rezani shuns armor as he stares down the greatest dangers.

    Quille is a swashbuckling fishperson who stabs with a rapier and then a dagger.

    When not stabbing you with sharp wit Qulile will stab with a rapier and a dagger. The swashbuckling fishfolk knows the run of the streets and remains calm under pressure, right up until the point he runs.

    Together this group of misfits joins Du-Rag (half-orc cleric) and Lorenzo (human bard) serving the city that sits along Badd Bay in the shadow of the Spring Mountains north of the Weald of Aspirations. The defiant land that they call home is threatened. Rising together they will attempt to stop the Invasion of the Trees.

    Join us Sunday night.

  • Lore Collage: Candlekeep Mysteries releases March 16 and more news you can use

    Lore Collage: Candlekeep Mysteries releases March 16 and more news you can use

    Product release week is on us again — these will speed up, per the recent quarterly earnings review. One of the benefits to Wizards/Hasbro having so many new freelancers on the Candlekeep Mysteries project is that they have an extra couple dozen voices who can hit the promotions circuit, and many did.

    As a reminder, I’m running DDD: 253, a charity game, Sunday March 21 at 7p. It is part of YachtCon: Back to School, the Puget Sound’s largest annual soccer convention. Sign up to watch for free, or sign up for our other “classes” and commune with Seattle’s soccer scene about pizza, beer, art, wine, cocktails, trivia, and more.

    Inspiration is everywhere.

    Official D&D Product Releases and Reviews

    Candlekeep Mysteries Previews

    With Candlekeep Mysteries releasing this week the internet is full of preview material. Some focuses on the individual writers, as diverse a group as Wizards has ever put forward on an official product, and others give broad overviews of the product.

    D&D Twitter featured every writer from from the adventure in a massive multi-week thread. Excellent use of social media to amplify their contract writers.

    Chris Perkins wasn’t just the lead on the product, he was also one of the adventure writers. D&D puts his voice behind this 9 minute overview of the book of books.

    The latest episode of DragonTalk includes a little nugget that Wizards is donating to a library of each library’s choice.

    Fey Races Unearthed Arcana

    Last week a new Unearthed Arcana started testing four fey races. Inevitably people are trying to guess what book this will be for.

    Dungeons & Dragons Movie News

    Sophia Lillis was playing D&D during the pandemic. Now she’s starring in the movie.

    Other Official D&D News

    Comic Relief and D&D combine for Red Nose Day. Help raise money and maybe win the opportunity to play D&D in a castle.

    After Dark Alliance, Screen Rant wants more D&D video games.

    Third-Party Products

    Free adventure on DMs Guild? Yep. Their weekly newsletter features a free adventure as well as strong recommendations of quality products.

    What D&D character action figure do you want? Wizards is launching a D&D action figure line and I’m looking forward to whichever halfling I can get.

    Advice for Dungeons & Dragons Payers and DMs

    SlyFlourish doesn’t want you to forget about the DMG — frankly, I needed the reminder. Currently the book I re-read most frequently is Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, but that’s mostly because I’m doing a lot of writing about Tools. After that, I’m spending time with Rime of the Frostmaiden’s introduction to help me with writing for DDD: 253 – Invasion of the Trees.

    Merric supplies guidance on how empty rooms in your dungeon impact pacing.

    One of the tricks the DM can use as the players get more familiar with the dungeon’s baseline is to speed past the areas that conform to that baseline and instead describe the exciting places.

    This twist to Critical Fails is a great addition and will be part of my table rules from here forward.

    Playing D&D in Civic Spaces During the Pandemic

    The City of Menlo Park, California is hosting a Ravnica campaign.

    Portage County, Wisconsin is hosting virtual D&D using DnDBeyond.com. They launched the digital version after donations from Wizards of the Coast and Fandom.

    BYU-Idaho is hosting D&D sessions. They are transitioning back to in-person gaming.

    Missoula, Montana’s arts scene is hosting D&D for kids.

    Dungeons & Dragons is Mainstream Now

    Another week, another musician releases a D&D inspired song. | Premiere: Jenny Owen Youngs Shares “Dungeons and Dragons” – Under the Radar

    If you haven’t started watching Critical Role, here’s an introduction to the massive phenomena. | An Introduction to Critical Role: Prepare Your Emotions – TOR

    D&D went virtual and became more powerful than ever. | Dungeons & Dragons had its biggest year ever as Covid forced the game off tables and onto the web – CNBC

    Other Geek Stuff

    Video games are able to tell stories in ways that books, movies, and role-playing games cannot.

    When that stimmy hits I’m backing Coyote and Crow. I love alt-histories. One designed from the ground up to honor the First Peoples of North America will be exciting.

    Dice that light up for you? Sure, why not.

    As Always, Maps

    Your interior maps can reflect the night.

    This tower with the stairs inside the walls is going to be my next character’s home.

  • Inspiration Is Everywhere: Beer Factories and other modern approaches to food

    Inspiration Is Everywhere: Beer Factories and other modern approaches to food

    Many D&D worlds are anachronistic in their approach to the world space. The inn has rooms with bunks for a single person. Clothing and bathing habits also mimic our current world. Reading is common.

    Here’s the thing — the idea that these things are too modern for a “real” approach to world building is wrong. The ancient world through the Renaissance contained modern conveniences, and they didn’t have magic.

    Beer Factories

    No, your average inn or tavern will not have canned tall boys to crush when the adventurers visit. They most certainly would have lower carbonation beers that are mass produced, not just niche ales, lagers, meads, and such. Beer factories were present in ancient Egypt.

    Archaeologists found eight huge units — each is 20 meters (about 65 feet) long and 2.5 meters (about 8 feet) wide. Each unit includes some 40 pottery basins in two rows, which had been used to heat up a mixture of grains and water to produce beer, Waziri said.

    That’s a lot of beer. In Curse of Strahd there’s the embrace of a rather large winery.

    Embrace this. Have a popular beer, wine, liquor, etc within a region. Develop trade routes with it. Maybe your character tried it when their richer friend gifted them a bottle, jar, or cask. Maybe they carry a small vial of their favorite with them to remember home. Were they part of the merchant class that helped ship the goods from town to town?

    There are plenty of ways to add mass produced beverages to your game. Embrace the additional ways that flavor can connect to your world.

    Recipe Books

    Related to beer is that recipe books go back to the dawn of writing. Your brewer or vintner could be producing a recipe from many towns over, not due to word of mouth, but because the recipe is known to the world.

    https://twitter.com/marinamaral2/status/1370360221080633346

    The foods will be different than the modern era. Eel was a quite popular protein in England, for example.

    Grab Heroes Feast for some modern foods inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, or just follow Dollop of History for pre-WWII foods going back to the early Middle Ages.

    And, of course, the Redwall Feasts bot has foods that work for any indulgent culture.

    https://twitter.com/RedwallFeasts/status/1371082030478426112

    Your world can and should include the senses of taste and smell. Street foods and walkups should exist. Develop a vibrant food culture not because it adds verisimilitude, but because it expands the stories you can tell with D&D.

  • Fey-folk enter testing with March Unearthed Arcana; continues floating ASIs

    Fey-folk enter testing with March Unearthed Arcana; continues floating ASIs

    Four Fey-folk are explored in the March 11 Unearthed Arcana drop. This includes the classic Fairy, two animal-folk (rabbit and owl), and a Fey Hobgoblin. While all of these races are connected to the Feywild, they are not called out specifically as being from the Feywild, just connected to it. Only the Fairy is Fey, by creature category. In some ways this makes the other three racial options (the document does not call them out as lineages) like “normal” Elves rather than Eladarin. If this UA gets strong feedback there will be two Hobgoblins in existence, one a martial warrior and the other that creates a unique bond through gift giving.

    Just as in the last Unearthed Arcana there is a sidebar explaining the path forward in regards to Ability Score Increases at character creation. Mostly it is a reminder about the rules in Tasha’s, but it continues the commitment to reduce racism and bioessentialism within Dungeons & Dragons.

    The “Creating Your Character” section provides special character-creation rules for the race options in this article. The races that use these rules can coexist seamlessly with races that use other rules. For example, the race options in the Player’s Handbook have built-in ability score increases, while the races in this article don’t. Race options from both sources can adventure together.
    If you’d like a race that doesn’t appear in this article, such as an elf or a dwarf, to have similar ability score flexibility, the book Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything provides a rule, called Customizing Your Origin, that gives you that flexibility. That book also gives you the option of building your own race, rather than choosing an existing one. That option is called the Custom Lineage. No matter which option you choose for your character—a race in this article, a Player’s Handbook race, a race modified by the Customizing Your Origin rule, or a Custom Lineage—you can adventure with characters who are built with a different option.
    This sidebar builds on the design note in our previous Unearthed Arcana, “Gothic Lineages.”

    UNEARTHED ARCANA 2021 | Folk of the Feywild

    Fairy

    Any fey centered story has to have fairies as playable characters. Fifth edition is finally adding them. They fly, of course. The Fairy joins Aarakocra and Feral Tieflings as able to fly at first level. Owlfolk join that group shortly. These are the only races limited away from some versions of Adventurers League.

    All of the abilities just make sense for what we expect from fairies, but the one that stands out to me as unique and situationally potent is Fey Passage. The ability of a small fey to enter nearly sealed spaces fits so much of the legend and lore surrounding these peoples.

    Hobgoblin of the Feywild

    Whereas the Volo’s version of Hobgoblins focused on every single one of them being at least a light fighter, those Hobgoblins with connections to the Feywild are helpers. Rather than armor or weapon proficiencies, your Hobgoblin gains a leveling version of the Help action. This is much more interesting flavor.

    Hopefully when the Fey Hobgoblin gets dialed into official material the two version appear more like subraces, rather than having similar, but still different abilities. There is language drift between the new Fortune from the Many and the old Saving Face. Also, the older version of the Hobgoblin is just weaker. Three proficiencies is just weaker than Fey Gift and Fey Ancestry.

    Owlfolk

    Another flying creature, of course. The choice to be either medium or small makes sense, as there is variation in size for real owls, as well as the stories upon which the Owlfolk are based. There are two sight based abilities, but neither directly relate to Perception. This UA does insert a third scale of Darkvision. It should likely be changed to either 60′ or 120′ to be inline with other races. 5e is about those kinds of simplicity.

    My favorite ability for Owlfolk is Magic Sight. Adding a ritual spell makes so much sense for a race that is so storied in wisdom and intelligence. It combines well with spellcasters and martial types. Hopefully there are more races that access rituals rather than the now standard 1 per long rest usage of a 1st level spell.

    Rabbitfolk

    Hip, hop and hippity hop. Yes, there will be a Rabbitfolk Bard in my future. There’s some interesting mirroring of Halfling abilities here, which makes sense. The two generally smaller folk both love freedom and large families. Rather than Lucky, the Rabbitfolk get a minor bonus on failed Dexterity saving throws. These similar abilities maintain interest while connecting to their stories.

    Here, the Rabbit Hop is the ability that leaps out. Being able to jump around is key for a rabbit. Getting to use it with no cost is wonderful. The d12 of additional feet is clunky (just as the similar rules regarding Athletics are clunky). For gridded play something like +5′ per proficiency bonus would be simpler. For those playing with Theater of the Mind the difference between 3 feet and 4 feet is meaningless in combat.

    Overall these should be popular. There are entire game systems dedicated to animal folk. Humblewood was extraordinarily popular, because people just enjoy being little floofs of magic and power. Official support for similar folk makes sense.

    Hopefully the feedback helps dial in some changes to the various hobgoblins and other non-core races that have clear subraces but operate as completely separate instances rather than those that share story and abilities.