The smogpunk land of goblins in the World of the Everflow was set apart from the Kingdom of Sheljar, Crinth, and other areas for a few millennia. Within this separation the goblins and hobgoblins changed from the standard tropes.
In the Everflow they answer to the Queen Mother. Everyone is organized around their family’s history of developing teknology for one of the various guilds. Inventiveness and cleverness are more important than fighting and viciousness.
To emphasize these differences, but still capture traditional goblinoid feelings there should be a some differences in language. This discovery of numerals from the 13th century feels proper for the gobkon of the world.
The Cistercian monks invented a numbering system in the 13th century which meant that any number from 1 to 9999 could be written using a single symbol pic.twitter.com/VRuEx4dkPF
— UCL Department of Mathematics (@MathematicsUCL) February 2, 2021
It works in a printing press, scribbled on paper or carved into wood.
Will it ever see the table? Probably not. Or maybe just one or two numbers in a handout for the players to demonstrate the differences between their lands with the languages of Telse (Common) and the rest of the Six Kingdoms.
If there was a campaign book for the World of the Everflow this could be a tiny sidebar for flavor, not a rule for use.
Since Dungeons & Dragons is anachronistic, most people, and basically every player character, know how to write. But what about those that know how to write and count better? The late middle ages were a time when there was a rapid need for more writers, more accountants. Guilds needed to track the money they were bringing in.
If your D&D world has many guilds it would have many clerks. Some of those clerks may get bored of quill and ink, or precisely measuring liquids, or whatever mundane task their employer has for them — so they head out on adventures, which is what happened in real life too. Lots of clerks got involved with murdering.
You are someone who counts fast, keeps precise notes, reads for others, writes for others. You are meticulous and detailed. When
Skill Proficiencies: Investigation, Insight Tool Proficiencies: Calligrapher’s Tools Languages: One language Equipment: Common clothes, tabard, abacus, merchant’s scale, jar (precisely 1 quart), pouch, signet ring, 10 gp
Feature: Measure Twice
You can rapidly and accurately account for large quantities of coins or other staples, assessing their value using just a single action. Clerks are also able to stretch large quantities of staples further than expected. If you need more than 50 of an item a Clerk needs 10% less of that item. For example, 900 ball bearings works just as well for a Clerk as 1000. Or if others would need 50′ of rope the Clerk can make do with 45′.
Alternate Background: Tax Collector
You are a representative of the government, collecting fees and taxes for the services they provide. Maybe you work at a toll bridge, a city gate, or you wander to various farms. Some pay in gold, most in silver or even copper. You’ll take barter too. The Barony needs the funds however it can get them.
A just collector may go easy on a family in years of struggle. An unjust may continually take. Your character’s behavior and history is up to you.
The Tax collector has the same skills, tools, and languages as the Clerk. The difference is in their Feature and in their role in society.
Feature: Forgotten Refund
Knowing the ways of governments you are able to assume the debts of a group that owe. You can also find a way to get a tax refund for yourself or others, or avoid paying the full amount. If normally the government takes 10% you would only pay 5%. If you are short gold, you may visit another tax collector, if one can be found, to get 5 times your proficiency bonus as a refund.
Design Goals
Clerks were so common in the late middle ages they killed a lot of people. Which sounds a lot like D&D adventurers, so why not have a Background based on them. Sure, they could be represented by Sages and Acolytes or other thinkers.
But, I’ve watched too many Clerks movies, and so needed to honor the OG clerks in a special way. Don’t be murdered by clerks, be the clerks that murder.
Custom Backgrounds for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons
In my campaigns we use experience points rather than milestone levelling. But, we also spend time in the social and exploration pillars, where the game as designed provides little guidance towards the experience that should be rewarded for success overcoming obstacles beyond traps.
Rewarding the play I want to see, I have given out xp for solved plot points and discoveries. In the past these have been given out at the end of a session without the players knowing ahead of time what their character rewards would be.
I’m going to attempt to pull back that veil, listing out major plots and side quests with xp values. My goal is so that the player characters will be rewarded for developing their stories and the overall campaign.
Major plots
Daoud’s 7th Fleet vs Twilight and Shadow the Black Dragons vs the Mayor with the Blue Dragons vs assembling Kirtinish forces on the east shore – 10,000 xp
Kirtin-on-the-Lake is now torn between two of the Six Kingdoms and the separate appeals of two groups of Ken. Twilight and Shadow seem to thrive on misery, sucking up negative emotions from the war. The Mayor has gifted the Blue dragons significant territory and their co-operation requires unbonding from animal companions.
The 7th Fleet wants to take the city back to Daoud. It is actually a massive cavalry army with horses, riding dogs and warbirds. Kirtin’s forces sit, waiting for the three sides to destroy each other and sweep back into the city as welcomed heroes.
Our heroes haven’t picked a side, because they are all bad. In the past they’ve hoped for trade or normality looking to Sheljar for inspiration.
Our heroes have the Lorebook of Illusions and the Crate of Conjuration. They suspect there is another Lorebook locally and a fourth may be in The Ferments. They know not what power the Lorebooks provide, just that a group called the Scholars control them and the Proctors are a violent segment of Ken who are trying to acquire the various books. The world knows that the Folio of Necromancy and the Lorebook of Divination are in Sheljar.
Defending their books from other Proctors or Scholars is as important as finding more, probably.
Unseat the Mayor – 7,500 xp — COMPLETED
The Mayor has turned his back on Daoud and joined with the Blue Dragons and their Ken allies. Even if the heroes cannot yet sway the four-sided war, the group wants the Mayor eliminated via election, appointment or violence — he just needs to be gone.
Side quests
Where is Wilkie? – 2,500 xp — COMPELETED
One of their allies, Wilkie, former leader of the Dock District Guard fled. With their leader in hiding the Dock District has dissolved back to an ad hoc militia. The group of heroes had trusted Wilkie to defend their district.
Missing Printers – 2,500 xp — COMPLETED
The printing press and gobkon printers’ office burnt down in a dragon strike. No bodies were found. Once in hiding, then public, the Society of Veil and Shadow has again disappeared. Their pro-Sheljar message remains known, but there have been no broadsheets in three passings of Feylf.
Is the new flag of quill and sword related to their absence?
Bounties – 2,500 xp — COMPLETED
Each of the known heroes has a bounty of 2,500 gold on them. This is mostly because the Mayor hates them for the murder of the gnome during his festival. But also because they keep trying to inspire the people toward concepts like freedom and respect.
Character quests
Keldrass wants to repair the bonds broken by the black dragons and help protect the city from the Ken.
Gardar wants to increase the trade with Mehmd, earn respect outside of the caste system there and maybe have his own Goltoppa team.
Seymore wants to teach commoners magic, because even though he doesn’t trust it the people need the power. He’s done a bit of this by spreading Minor Illusion.
Req wants to maintain the independence of the Dock District.
In 5th edition D&D I create a lot of rogues. This is a change for me, for in my earlier forays into Dungeons & Dragons, I mostly played clerics, bards and paladins. Part of the appeal of the rogue in 5e, is that it has became the main skill-monkey class. Mostly mundane there are interesting stories to be told via the mastermind, the inquisitive, the scout and the propagandist.
One thing I find lacking for three of those options is the narrative around using a weapon that knocks opponents unconscious. While the rule set allows any weapon that does enough damage to kill to be declared a non-fatal blow, there’s something about an mastermind smacking a thief upside the head with a baton and knocking them out.
Common within the literatures that inspire our game are also tales about short staves that flip about stabbing with the point and smacking with the side — see various interpretations of Sherlock Holmes. My campaign needed one of these because a player in Uprising and Rebellion Campaign Two is a streetsweeper. Their broom handle makes sense as a weapon for them.
The baton is just a refined club so that you can play as Sticks from the Vlad Taltos Saga. The short stave (broom handle) is based on the rapier, the current best weapon for a rogue, but merely bludgeoning and cheap.
There’s nothing game breaking from these additions. There’s no power creep.
There is a whole lot more story. And that’s the whole point to Full Moon Storytelling — story creep.
As an active participant on ENWorld, I watched the Twilight Fables project grow from idea to concept through approach and playtest. As an already funded project, supporting it on Kickstarter means my readers will not be backing a failed project — it’s done. The books have had proofs printed. Rod Waibel has a different approach than typical for this Kickstarter.
So I invited him to share it with the readers of Full Moon Storytelling, because you might enjoy a few more monsters for your D&D game.
Note: The original folklore was dark with mature themes and may include triggering subjects. Think more Brothers Grimm and less modern fairy tales. Reader discretion is advised.
Twilight Fables is a sourcebook designed for 5e focusing on the original European folklore as it was told generations ago. More Brothers Grimm and much less Disney, if you will. When Dungeons & Dragons was created, most of the monsters were based, albeit loosely, on folklore. However, it was in the vision of those who were creating it, so creatures like drow, kobolds, goblins, etc. don’t resemble anything like the folklore that created them. 5e D&D has been out a while, and there has been a ton of content created for it, but I found this area lacking.
Wizards of the Coast recently came out with a fey-themed book, and while a great product in its own right, it was nothing like original folklore. I felt that those old stories, approached with the appropriate caution, could lend to exciting and interesting adventures of their own. I say “approach with caution” as no accident. For those unfamiliar, many of those stories were allegories of caution directed toward children. “Stay away from that creek, because there’s a terrible monster there that will eat you!” “Remain pure and chaste or you’ll turn into a terrible creature!” That sort of thing.
Since much of folklore was created during dark times (literally the Dark Ages), there are several instances of abuse and suffering. For example, the original story of Hansel and Gretel is even darker than most realize when you learn why they kept getting lost in the woods. Ableism, sexism, child abuse, and consent issues show up often in those stories. Therefore, I made it a point to address this right up front in the book, and put a disclaimer on the cover. People can skip right past those sections that deal with these issues easily by a displayed marker if they want to avoid any triggering event.
[Dave here: Rod and his team put a disclaimer on the individual creatures that are most likely to bring up the worst memories people have.]
You may be asking yourself, “Why bother creating something that has so many problematic themes?” Fair question. Quite frankly, it’s because outside of those few monsters, the lore is rich with great stories and potential. As long as we approach it with an informed perspective and have the agency to control which portions we use, there’s a ton of value in this book. And it’s good to have the option. I did my very best to minimize those problem areas and advise that such issues should not be included in the typical game. I stress how consent among all the players at your table is recommended before incorporating any potential problem areas.
Now that that’s out of the way, what exactly does Twilight Fables include?
There are more than 200 creatures, all with detailed page entries. Reference the included screenshots to see some of the changes that the core books did not have. These include but are not limited to quirks, lore, suggestions on incorporating them into your game, spell lists within the stat block have been removed and replaced with detailed spellcasting abilities, etc.
[Dave here: the expanded lore and quirks are a great addition to the game]
Dozen of magical artifacts pulled from mythology and lore
Crafting rules
Tons of player options, including warlock patrons, cleric and ranger subclasses, races, feats, and spells.
Lore of the Otherworld (Fey Realm) as it was explained in folklore, including living in the Fey Realm, the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, and becoming an Archfey yourself!
A plug-in-play campaign that can be used in your existing campaign to shake things up a bit.
Let’s say I want to get this, what do I get if I back the Kickstarter?
I’m taking a slightly different approach to running this Kickstarter from other companies. Most companies offer a PDF and a hard or soft copy. That’s great, because that’s what the majority will use. However, when I did Chromatic Dungeons last summer, I learned it’s just as important to listen to the minority, because they deserve to get what they want as well. So for Twilight Fables, the digital package includes a PDF like usual of the main book. But then it also includes a PDF with no background, for ease of reading and printing. And it includes an RTF version for those with visual impairments and for those who want to cut and paste information easily. Also included are tokens and markdown files for those who use VTT gaming. That’s all for LESS than most companies are asking for just a core PDF.
Beyond that is the actual hard copy option of the book. I’ve had the advance copies in my hand already, and I was pleased with the quality. I’d love to get the $50,000 stretch goal because that allows me to get offset printing with glossy pages, gilded pages, and ribbon bookmark. But if that doesn’t happen, it’s OK because the Print on Demand book is still of very good quality.
And that’s pretty much it! No crazy stretch goals that put the project at risk for delivery.
Let me close in saying how much I appreciate the support from everyone. From the great artists I got to work with, including the legendary Gerald Brom and Darlene the Artist, to all of the backers who support me!
