They can be disgusting. There are times that I’ve called them the rats of the vegetable world — they are not vegetables. In our games we can use mushrooms as food.
What dungeon bound civilization hasn’t used fields of mushrooms for sustenance? Every time Drow, Dueger, Svirfneblin, and the rest raise shrooms. It’s part of the lore. Bioluminescent fungus and molds can be used for lighting as well.
These tropes are common in Dungeons & Dragons.
But you should also use mushrooms to build things. This is happening in the real world, but as bricks. Sure, that works in D&D. It makes a lot of sense for certain cultures.
Expand on that idea.
Who lives inside the shrooms like the Smurfs did. Or do your fey hide from the rain underneath a little cap.
What secret assassin group searches for a specific fungus for their signature poison? What apothecary makes a healing tisane out of mycelium and molds? Which street vendor took the meals of the underdark and turned them into handheld pastries stuffed with minced mushrooms and aged cheese making a name for themselves in the lighted world?
Everything you experience — eat, read, watch, listen to, encounter — can inspire you to add a little bit to your gameworld or character.
You might be able to outrun a Tyrannosaurus Rex, if you’re a peak athlete. Keep note of that. You almost certainly can outmaneuver them. Those are the key takeaways that Wired wants you to have after reading “How to Outrun a Dinosaur.“
There’s a lot more depth in there for a game designer, homebrewer, or storyteller.
Three years ago the biologist Myriam Hirt, who studies animal movement at the German Centre for Biodiversity Research, asked a seemingly simple question: Why is it that the biggest, most powerful animals—the whales, elephants, and rhinoceroses—are not the fastest, while the smallest—the mice, minnows, and millipedes—are some of the slowest? Is the implication that there is an optimum size for speed?
The answer, Hirt found, is yes. If you were designing an animal for speed, that animal should weigh approximately 200 pounds. A bit heavier for a swimmer, and a bit lighter for a flyer.
The speed of 50 might make sense if the primary time in D&D that speed is used is to determine distance running. But it is not. Speed most frequently comes up in combats in six-second chunks of time. Beasts and Monstrosities with high speeds should be the ones that accelerate and burst forward — cheetahs, lions, and Deltadromeus. Even the velociraptor should be average-to-athletic human sprint speed-ish.
That also brings up a key point. A D&D character is supposed to represent, in general, above average athletes. There’s no direct tie-in between Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution and speed. Most races get a 30, some get a 25, rare ones get 35, and even rarer are the few that fly or swim.
There are three things we should do with the knowledge from that Wired article;
Centerline most speeds to better represent reality in non-magical creatures.
Add line in the description that addresses distance traveled by unencumbered and encumbered beasts of burden.
Create a quick and easy way to avoid getting run down by a dinosaur.
That last bullet doesn’t take a lot of work. When in a chase scene use opposed Dexterity checks (Acrobatics or Athletics or Sports could apply) when the chaser is within Reach of the chasee. A success would permit an attack/shove/grapple, if the action economy makes sense. If not, let the chasee take half their movement as a reaction as long as they are able to, and do, significantly change direction.
Any creature that has magical influence on their speed can operate as normal.
Before we dive into the news around the net, let’s review what you may have missed from Full Moon Storytelling. There’s some awesome tools to create NPC character art. Using those the post about Thoumas, the Swarmkeeper of Terriers, now has art. You should also check out Ginny Di’s recommendations to make virtual D&D suck less. Every recommendation is also valid for your business meetings.
Let’s get on with the news around Dungeons & Dragons and the other stuff that geeks like us enjoy.
They also just fixed three more of the features from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.
Heroes’ Feast
The Shepherd Gazette gets in on the Heroes’ Feast review action. This is a fun little story for a smaller paper to cover. Stuff magazine in New Zealand also covers the 3rd most popular cookbook of 2020.
Dragonlance Art
Advice for Dungeons & Dragons Payers and DMs
Think DM thinks that the language about surprise can be simplified by bringing back Surprise Rounds and/or using the Surprise Condition.
It can be hard to find schedule a full table for D&D, even if everything is virtual. Kobold Press is jumping on the duets (D&D with just a Player and a DM) bandwagon.
What happens when you combine a pirate from the early modern Middle East with D&D? Add Piri Reis to your game.
Playing D&D in Civic Spaces During the Pandemic
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.
I’m all for more Wakanda. Ryan Coogler is going to give us a limited series when he’s done with Black Panther 2.
As Always, Maps
Dungeon Alchemist is creating amazing fantasy interiors. These isometric maps are perfect for a quick tavern, castle, or other building you need. Yes, I’ve signed up to be notified when the Kickstarter goes live.
Everyone needs an icy villa map to help you pass time during the icy winter.
Christian Oesch’s DM Heroes page throws together a handful of racial/lineage options with descriptions that are not centered on combat. Additionally there are suggestions on how to connect them to each other.
Veklani Skandalor
Female Dwarf Cobbler – If it doesn’t kill you…
Veklani’s suggested traits are;
Features
70 years old (young adult) 4′2″ (128cm) Normal voice Speaks about themself in 3rd person.
Traits
Never changes their facial expression. Hates the government. Is happy because of a recent dream.
Story
Asks the party to help their become a cult leader. Wants to kill Erag Ambershard
Other
Prays to Dugmaren Brightmantle, god of discovery (CG)
If you don’t have time to custom craft a handful of minor NPCs just in case, this tool does wonders. It also can be a handy tool to get quick art for your PC, though you’ll need to spend time tuning the various sliders and such. Reroll, Hero Forge and others might be better for that.
Quick art for your characters, whether player or DM controlled, helps with immersion and inspiration. Find those tools that help you and your group enjoy the game most.
After many, many months of the covid-19 pandemic more people are playing D&D than ever. Much of this is online. Long-time players and D&D rookies both are discovering the challenges of gaming via video.
Ginny Di put together a strong 12-minute video that hits on the common challenges and solutions that come up at virtual tables. Even if your virtual table play is going well this is a good reminder. If you haven’t played virtually before the package is an excellent starting point.
When I watched this it reminded me of one my habits as Awf — I can dominate the channel rather than share the spot light. When I play as Thoumas, the group interplay is different. We split the party frequently, something that is harder to handle on a VTT, in my experience. Coordination requires a bit more care.
Her best piece of advice, at least for my groups (hi guys), is to use the text chat for out-of-character stuff. That clears space for the DM to manage the game. My second favorite is to schedule a little bit of the time pre & post game to communicate about non-gaming things. Be friendly and social with each other, because being social during the pandemic is hard enough.
Awf Hornjaw et Loragwyn and the Brigade (formerly Droop’s Brigade) may have reached the end of Lost Mines of Phandelver. Or not. It’s hard to know. Everyone’s favorite axe-wizard and friends may have killed their final enemy, and they may even have rescued a Rockseeker brother.
After putting session recaps on pause for a while, I’m returning to recapping our near-weekly campaign that started with D&D’s Starter Set and is likely to continue in Avernus. Recaps will only be written after Long Rests.
There may be spoilers. Don’t read on if you don’t want them.
This is the final week for Lore Collage to contain the “Inspiration” section. Instead that will be spit out as simpler quick articles similar to Inspiration is Everywhere: Trees. This is part of my effort to show that everyone is creative enough to play Dungeons & Dragons, as well as a reinforcement of the concept that every lived moment is prep for a Dungeon Master.
Last week, on the Wolf Moon, I published my latest tiny fiction. Please read it and the other fiction on this here blog because frankly, I like it when people see my stuff.
Official D&D Products Releases and Reviews
Adventurer’s League
The biggest news in D&D land is that the Adventurer’s League is moving all support to within official D&D channels. You’ll find games, rules announcements, and related news through the Yawning Portal. Whereas many see this as a reduction in the importance of AL, folding its presence within the tent where fans would look for D&D stuff more than anywhere else consolidates and amplifies its presence. It is no longer an adjunct, but a feature.
Screen Rant doesn’t like 5e slings, and I’m with them on that. My solve would be to switch up the typical 5e difference between standard and long ranges. Slings should have a much longer ranger available — let’s triple that.
Third-Party Products
Tribality reviewsMCDM’s Arcadia, the latest effort in a D&D magazine. tl;dr — it’s pro quality with pros who have put in extensive effort building 3rd party products.
Streaming D&D Shows
Basements & Bugbears is a D&D show focused on suicide prevention and involving Broadway theater talent.
The latest streaming partner for Wizards of the Coast features puppets.
Boston’s NPR station, WBUR, featured how D&D and Critical Role are helping people cope with the pandemic. The mainstreaming of the hobby will never stop surprising me.
In Huntsville, Alabama a D&D–themed café opens and is featured in AL.com and its affiliates.
Every time there is a new discovery of ancient pre-history in the real world it is a reminder that your D&D world needs similar history. In this case a little girl found a 220-million year old footprint. Give your creation a sense of history.
Out in the lands of Mehmd mammals and avians are rare. Many of the ecological and domestic niches are instead filled by lizards, amphibians and dinosaur-like creatures. The Taien Sahul are small saurs based on the Velociraptor by Sam Stockdale at ENWorld.
In Mehmd they tend to roam the wilderness, though certain tribes of Unkempt in the South and the Isles use them as companions. When free they roam in packs of 9 or so (3d6). Their Pounce needs quite a distance in order to be used, but when the commit they tend to rush prey quickly. Taien Sahul can survive in deserts, having advantage on CON checks to deal with dehydration.
Taien Sahul – the ripper lizard Small beast, unaligned
Armor Class 13 (natural) Hit Points 3 (1d6) Speed 45 ft., climb 10 ft.
STR 7 (–2) DEX 15 (+2) CON 10 (+0) INT 3 (–4) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 7 (–2)
Skills Perception +4, Stealth +4 Senses passive Perception 14 Languages — Challenge: ½ CR 50 xp
Keen Sight: The raptor has advantage on sight-based Perception (WIS) checks. Pounce: If the raptor moves at least 30 feet straight toward a target and then hits with a claw attack on the same turn, that target must succeed on a DC 10 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If a target is prone, the raptor can make one bite attack against it as a bonus action. Pack Tactics: The raptor has advantage on an attack roll against a target if at least one of the raptor’s allies is within 5 feet of the target and isn’t incapacitated.
ACTIONS Multiattack: The raptor makes two melee attacks, usually using both claws unless they’ve pounced. Bite:Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d4+2 piercing damage. Claws:Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d4+2 slashing damage.
There’s a doc open on my computer almost every day. I’m crafting an original D&D adventure for a charity game come spring time. For that adventure I’m researching various tree-monsters. These are common in the fiction which is inspired by and that inspired Dungeons & Dragons. There’s Treants/Ents from Lord of the Rings and the Flying Forest and Sentient Trees of The Magicians.
Within the game there are Awakened Shrubs and Awakened Trees in the Basic Rules. Kobold Press introduces us to a Dragonleaf Tree, in Tome of Beasts for 5e.
But trees can help us with more than just monsters. They can inspire creative decisions. Look at this stand across the river.
There’s some scarring from disease, or something, several dozen feet up. Take a closer look at that.
Put your “not in the real world” hat on. What if that scaring was from a massive beast? What if the Giant Elk of this realm were so huge that their antlers (looking it up, yes elk have antlers) rubbed off that bark that’s a full 30 feet or so above the river.
What happens when a herd of them walk the river during logging season with their massive legs crushing through or between the barges? Or are these Elk the friends of your woodland dwelling elves, gnomes, goblins, or other races? Are they ridden like elephants?
The answers are up to you.
Trees are also our mighty connection to history.
Did you know the Mountaineer Tree on Five Mile Drive is about as old as William Shakespeare? He was born in 1564, that's over 450 years ago! pic.twitter.com/4vnpx0JH2z
Tolkien recognized that. The age of trees is why the Ents knew so much and also why they’d become peaceful and rooted. When you see so much life pass before you are the little lives so precious?
In the World of the Everflow, the Dragonleaf Trees are ancient, from the era before legends, when Dragons and the other Ken were part of the world of Kin. But they are also dying. A breed that is honored while also being forgotten. They do not seed. They do not spread. There are only twenty or so of these ancient trees left, with almost all of them in the Tree District of Qin.
When a tree is a millennia old what does that signal in your world? Are they like the trees of Solace in Krynn, with homes and workplaces scattered within the branches? Or is it a single tree from the time before time the sits alone in a desert, with roots that stretch hundreds of feet down and branches in the sky that reach to the clouds, a trade post surrounding this tree so big that it creates its own climate?
Every journey you take. Every book you read. Every show or movie you watch. Every song you here. Every social media post you scan.
They’re all inspiration for your world, your character, your dreams. Share them with your table.
When a new Unearthed Arcana drops much of the focus is on the mechanics. They are mechanical tests after all. In some cases the development team removes story mentions to not taint the survey results. This UA drop is focused on playing as Undead or Fey. The purpose is to test Dhampir (emergent vampires, kinda), Hexblood (emergent hags, kinda), Reborn (those that hover between living and dead, mostly).
The mechanics are intriguing. The Dhampir has a bite attack that uses Constitution for its damage stat, which makes sense. The Hexblood has a superior version of Message and Arcane Eye combo. Reborn are sleepless, with a kind of elvish trance available.
More important than the new racial options and mechanics is the sidebar titled Design Note: Changes to Racial Traits. Thanks to Justice Arman for calling this out on Twitter and forcing me to look deeper into the change.
Let’s take it piece by piece.
The first paragraph further emphasizes the small changes in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. It’s a solid reminder of the product and the small steps already taken.
In 2020, the book Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything introduced the option to customize several of your character’s racial traits, specifically the Ability Score Increase trait, the Language trait, and traits that give skill, armor, weapon, or tool proficiencies.
Paragraph two is a reminder that the work is not done. Forward all D&D books are removing those elements from races that are purely cultural, as well as the Ability Score increase. This will obviously, and *necessarily*, impact the current races (a change that will be simpler via DnDBeyond and other digital systems than those with physical books. There will still be physical and magical differences for the characters with certain races.
Following in that book’s footsteps, the race options in this article and in future D&D books lack the Ability Score Increase trait, the Language trait, the Alignment trait, and any other trait that is purely cultural. Racial traits henceforth reflect only the physical or magical realities of being a player character who’s a member of a particular lineage. Such traits include things like darkvision, a breath weapon (as in the dragonborn), or innate magical ability (as in the forest gnome). Such traits don’t include cultural characteristics, like language or training with a weapon or a tool, and the traits also don’t include an alignment suggestion, since alignment is a choice for each individual, not a characteristic shared by a lineage.
The final paragraph is a strong reminder that a character is not the normal part of any culture, species, lineage, or race. The player-character occupies a unique space within a D&D world. They are heroes or anti-heroes, not paragons of a racial group.
Finally, going forward, the term “race” in D&D refers only to the suite of game features used by player characters. Said features don’t have any bearing on monsters and NPCs who are members of the same species or lineage, since monsters and NPCs in D&D don’t rely on race or class to function. Moreover, DMs are empowered to customize the features of the creatures in their game as they wish.
The multi-year critique directed at D&D in regards to its history and legacy of racism and racial-tinged rules is having an impact — a slow one. This are necessary changes. Some of them are small. Some of them are big.
To borrow from Jemma Simmons, Agents of SHIELD, “The steps you take don’t need to be big. They just need to take you in the right direction.”
These are steps in the right direction. This is progress. The path forward is exciting.
