Tag: DnD

  • Militia actions for 5e systems

    Militia actions for 5e systems

    Sometimes in D&D and similar games you need to empower the players to manage groups of allies supporting the narrative, without precise actions by individuals. When running a rebellion, skirmish or base defense you can use militia actions representing the training a character conducted with a group of commoners.

    1. On every PC’s turn they now have a Militia Action. This is independent of their character’s actions and reflect the training that the character put into the small unit (think squad sized) during downtime.
    2. In initiative the Militia Action happens after all player actions and the actions of that character’s companions (familiars, pets, constructs, etc)
    3. A militia is a Swarm of Commoners (AC: 10, HD: 6, PB: 0, all abilities are 10, a Swarm may have a tool proficiency or skill for flavor). Every time it is attacked it makes a Wisdom ability check against the damage dealt. It gains a bonus from the controlling character’s Charisma (Persuasion). Each failure removes a Hit Die. When it drops below 3 HD it loses one of its damage dice. Do not track damage.
      Suggestion: Use a d6 to track the HD of a Swarm of Commoners.
    4. Pick one of the following actions
      • Ranged attack – this attack is rolled with an Attack Bonus of + controlling character’s Charisma+PB (and whichever ability they use to command). Range is 30/60 to represent inaccurate and improvised weapons. Damage is 2d4.
      • Melee attack – this attack is rolled with an Attack Bonus of + controlling character’s Charisma+PB (and whichever ability they use to command). Reach is 10′ to represent pitchforks, spears, and other implements. Damage is 2d6.
      • Funnel – the swarm moves 20′ and creates an 10×10 area of difficult terrain. If the terrain is already difficult it now costs twice that movement. After that the terrain becomes impassable except through magical means.
      • Rally – the militia energizes an ally, enabling it to expand an Hit Die. If the ally is another militia it regains a Hit Die.
      • Pester – if an opponent is in reach of the militia the unit can distract it so that the next attack against the opponent is at Advantage.
      • Move and/or Hide – the militia unit can move 20′ and then if cover is available it can make its defensive check at advantage.
      • Activate terrain, traps, spell craft or siege weapons – If a siege weapon is nearby a Swarm of Commoners has as many Utilize Actions as it does damage dice. It can also activate Magic Items, Rituals or Terrain as allowed by the scenario and dungeon master.
    5. A player may choose to use a second Bonus Action (if they have one) to make another Militia Action.

    A character may only command one Swarm of Commoners unless they are a Propagandist or Inspiring Leader (PB number of Swarms).

    This is a refined approach on the earlier Introducing Militia Actions to support base defense in urban rebellion play.

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  • How players should prepare before their next TTRPG session

    How players should prepare before their next TTRPG session

    There’s a lot of guidance on how to be a better DM. There’s some guidance on the player-side of the table. The most prolific of the player-side guidance is about character builds.

    Instead of focusing on the character or DM, we’re going to focus on the player. What can a player do to prep for their next session? How can they help their group move at a pace that matches the genre of the game?

    While the examples provided relate to Dungeons & Dragons, the fundamentals apply to most roleplaying games. You should be able to prepare in less than 30 minutes. These tips may be basic, but they’re steps I take every time I’m a player in my current era and come from my experiences in my bifurcated RPG time (early 80s to mid-90s, 2014 to present).

    Review your character’s motivations

    Others may push you to look at your powers first, but to me what makes a pen-and-paper RPG (even if it is D&D played on a VTT) special is that you get to act as the character would act. You aren’t constrained by anything but the willingness to be a coherent character.

    To do so you should spend a few minutes thinking about your character. That could mean checking what their alignment is, what their personality is, what their goals are, how their family motivates them, etc. Don’t have them act slovenly if they’ve been cleanly in the past. Don’t have them be a chaos agent if they are orderly.

    Do talk about how their brother inspired their quest. Do put forth that they are searching for their best friend. Do have them be motivated by riches and treasure.

    Reviewing motivations means putting on that character’s face for a couple of minutes.

    Review your character’s abilities

    Character sheets can be complex. D&D PC sheets can be two-plus pages with spells and feats and features and weapons and masteries and riders — this list can go on. But for most characters you have a primary attack, a secondary attack, a way to interact in social encounters and a way to explore (or other pillars for other games).

    Focus your attention on the main things your character does because they are good at them. At the table that’s what you’ll do. Spending a minute or two reviewing the rules for the things you do should speed up play as you won’t be looking up the rules live. This is especially important if the character has recently leveled up, acquired a magic item, or added a new feature.

    Also remember what your character shouldn’t do because they are bad at it. You may want to hint at that during play. Maybe you are a Barbarian who shouldn’t be doing ranged attacks, bring that up when the group wants to snipe at distance.

    Plan to use an ability or feature you haven’t in several sessions

    When you’re looking at your sheet maybe you’ll notice something that your character hasn’t done in a few sessions. Find a way to do that in the session you are prepping for!

    Xabal, my goblin Artificer, started using a spell called Caustic Brew regularly. They hadn’t used it in enough sessions that I forgot I had it. This week I committed to bringing it back to the forefront. Xabal blasted an automaton with it and later used it to break open a gate.

    Review the party’s names, excellences and weaknesses

    In real life most of us don’t forget our friends and coworkers. In a game like D&D, where some of us only play once a month, it’s easy to do so. As a player that’s understandable. It’s not for the characters.

    Our recent session continued an invasion of a mob warehouse. Xabal wouldn’t forget the other character’s in the party, what they are good at and what they’d need help with.

    The only way to ensure that you, the player, don’t forget the other characters in the group is to take a moment to review their names, their skills, and what they are doing adventuring with your character.

    Remember the adventure and campaign goals

    You don’t have to be a deep notetaker for this one.

    Take the time to think about why the group is on this quest. What does success look like? What does failure look like?

    Why is Xabal’s group invading a mob warehouse? Because they were sent there by an organization of mages from the ruling powers who think this mob may be connected with cultish activities that are attempting to overthrow the order in the world.

    By knowing what the group’s goals are you may avoid going on that weird side quest or shopping trip or winding up with a 4-hour session in a tavern — you might not avoid it though! That’s the power of playing as real people. Sometimes we don’t do the smart thing or the right thing. We still should be ready to do the proper thing and know why we aren’t

    These are my four steps to getting ready to be a player in a D&D session. What do you do to prepare to play?

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  • Your players aren’t supposed to die

    Your players aren’t supposed to die

    A couple weeks ago one of my players passed away. Not his character, the actual player. This isn’t supposed to happen. My group is GenX with a couple of Millennials.

    John White left us too early. His D&D experiences were strongly in 3rd edition, though like myself had played for as long as he could remember. And even though he mostly played in an edition that encouraged optimization, it was his adoption of the story-centric campaign that we’ll all remember.

    I remember playing with a friend who was never waiting for his turn to do something, but was engrossed in the act of telling a story together. I remember a collaborator who expanded the world that we played in by fully being in it. I remember characters whose backstories and internal lives were fully fleshed out, who incorporated elements of the world that even its creator hadn’t thought of and who interwove the stories of other players’ characters into their own with a generosity and care that is rare in any circumstance.
    — another player at our table

    He’s played with this group since it was founded during the pandemic, playing on the patio of a brewery that was roughly a midpoint for a group that is spread through King and Pierce County — Logan Brewing.

    We’re going to celebrate John by playing D&D together in public — we’d like you to join us. Or you can watch. The event is March 16 from 1-4 pm PT at Logan Brewing.

    Please fill out this form so we can be prepared with characters and the necessary number of DMs

    John’s characters were:

    • Habergeon, the world’s first, and possibly only, warforged, Habergeon was crafted during the fall of a previous age back when magic was plentiful and those who are now gods walked the world as mortals.
    • Gardar, a Mehmdoan, this one-time cooper and weaponsmith lost his first animal companion to tragedy, fled his former master and now seeks to rid the influence of the Dragons and their allies.
    • Tsirdan, an elven Scribe Wizard who worked with the Dragons to control the spread of magic in Douad.
    • And Artok, our commander Dragonborn Paladin in his final campaign. Artok, like John, was noble and heroic, short on words but those few words were always potent.

    John was unlike anyone I’ve ever met, his way of thinking and explaining things was in such detail that I could tell his mind was always working in overdrive
    — another of our players.

    The first time I met John was when I was co-hosting a Sounders podcast at our local German pub.

    The first time I played D&D with John was when I was featured in the Renton History Museum exhibit on Creating Community with D&D. A letter to the editor at the time shouted that the museum shouldn’t support Satan, as if it was the 80s again.

    John’s response was to suggest to me that we should play in public so that people could see this game for what it is. He and I were joined by his wife and sister-in-law. We played in a public park.

    Though my modern D&D games had frequently been in public it was mostly at geeky places like game cafes.

    It was perfect that our post-pandemic campaigns were in a very public brewery. Many times we played a stranger would ask us what we were doing while current and former players would always recognize the game and ask about the campaign.

    Playing in public exposed more people to the game John loved.

    John enjoyed porters and though he was short on words he was always present.

    And that’s why we’re doing one session of a 4th level one-shot on Sunday March 16, from 1-4 pm. People who know John and those who want to experience the game are welcome. Again, please fill out this form so we can get an idea for how many DMs we need.

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  • Honor Among Thieves coming to Netflix USA

    Honor Among Thieves coming to Netflix USA

    Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves didn’t make its expected money in the box office. It barely topped $200 million with Hasbro taking an impairment charge of $25 million (that’s not necessarily a loss, but a lack of hitting the expected revenue) in Q2 2023. That was the release quarter of the film.

    But, it’s highly rated, exploded the interest in D&D and has been a streaming stalwart on Paramount+ and Netflix in international markets. In fact, last year it was top 15 for Paramount’s now-profitable streaming service and top 25 for Netflix, while not being available in the United States — until later this month.

    D&D: Honor Among Thieves will be available in the USA on Netflix starting Feb. 26.

    If, like me, you want another film or even a series, Honor Among Thieves doing well on Netflix is vital. The D&D documentary and various series projects are stuck — the doc was originally announced for a 50th anniversary release while the only pre-production series was dumped by Paramount. The supposed Baldur’s Gate 3 x Netflix project hasn’t gone from rumor to announcement yet.

    There’s a chance that Netflix wants to see if Honor Among Thieves does well in the US as a kind of trial balloon to see if they should pick up the pre-production Rawson Marshall Thurber D&D series that’s currently being shopped.

    Netflix has a Magic: The Gathering series coming, which is different from the just announced Legendary MtG movie and series. Hasbro’s current movie/series rights philosophy is to not bond with a single production company nor a single a platform, but to spread their various properties to the highest bidder — they are also reducing their own investments, withdrawing from the costs of production nearly totally.

    There is one concern to have about Honor Among Thieves being able to succeed on Netflix. Currently the most similar series and movies aren’t good.

    That should change rapidly once the algorithm starts seeing who is watching the movie. And yes, these suggestions are individual, but as someone who has rewatched several D&D adjacent projects on Netflix I would expect to see Shadow & Bone, Merlin, BBC’s Robin Hood and several other witchy series. Instead, there’s these selections.

    Top photo is from the Thieves Gallery, the NPC stat blocks for the main characters in the film, which all include damage boosts similar to the 2025 Monster Manual.

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  • My best of 2024

    My best of 2024

    I didn’t do quite as much writing for public consumption as I have in most years since I started blogging regularly in 2008. Some of that reduction was due to me taking a step back at Sounder at Heart, focusing my work content on video briefings and emails, and Full Moon Storytelling being a “when inspired” project rather than an income generator.

    Here at Full Moon Storytelling my most popular writings over the past year were older materials.

    My custom backgrounds and my take on Sports in D&D remain popular as well.

    In fact, that’s where my biggest D&D related project ever came from, and one of my favorites of 2024. I helped out with Worlds To-Go: The Elysians.

    My contributions were five custom backgrounds, most completely new, plus formalization of sports rules including inventing two new sports — The Pentiad and Constellations (a team juggling sport that creates constellations).

    Here on FMS my favorite of the year was Goodbye Alignment. Hello short-form personality. In that article I encourage people to continue to use personality traits in their games, but make them as short as alignment! Then the DM and other players can grant Inspiration based off of something small enough to remember as opposed to the original 5e personality system that was six long sentences that no one remembered.

    There was also a quick review of the 2024 Player’s Handbook.

    If you ever need a quick 5-room dungeon and associated adventure, pick a pop song and convert it into one. That article may not have been well read, but I’ll refer to it when I’m back behind the DM screen.

    I stutter. Sometimes a little. Sometimes a lot. A personal essay I felt compelled to write after a re-watch of Agents of SHIELD, it also falls into the not-well-read column, but it meant a lot for me to share this about myself. It was not the only personal essay of the year. The other was about how the fragmented storytelling technique of D&D may fit me better than novels or short fiction.

    Soccer stories

    For the most part at Sounder at Heart I’m now the weekly columnist, sending out a large newsletter that covers one important topic, plus everything else you need to know for the week.

    Choosing the best of these was easy, because one of them helped change the approach from the organization towards the US Open Cup — Ship’s Log, May 7: Let’s win trophies again.

    My second favorite was about using the Club World Cup to sell the world’s best players on the region that I’ve chosen as home for all of my adult life — Ship’s Log, Dec. 6: Selling Seattle.

    I still dipped into journalism, covering Defiance’s new coach and the new practice facility. Walking through history is one of my favorite pieces of soccer writing ever (and there’s about 5000 of those).

    Factal

    Most of my writing at Factal is in emails. Some additional material is in the various Global Security Briefings I hosted this year, covering news like the Key Bridge collapse, bomb cyclones, DANA storms, mpox, Olympics security and more. On the blog I supplemented editors’ writings on Olympics security and for our year in review.

    Finding me on social

    • Mastodon or a bridge if you are on Bluesky (where I prefer to have most of my RPG and soccer thoughts)
    • Threads (a wider mix of who I am)
    • Instagram (mostly pics of my dog, the moon and soccer stuff)
    • LinkedIn (almost all safety news, intelligence and marketing)

    P.S. That jersey on the header was for the soccer team I sponsored this fall. I’ll be sponsoring again in the spring, because supporting my friends is fun.

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