In a departure from most genre movie rollouts, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves second trailer isn’t a new tease of action in the movie. Almost every scene is from the first trailer, with some small expansion. The latest version shows cast interviews. That cast clearly gets what makes D&D, D&D — heroes journeys, a group that works together and monsters.
To quote Edgin, Chris Pine’s character, “I’ve got a good feeling about this.”
Previously some of the cast spoke about their history with the game. Those that hadn’t played until joining the project have either been coached up into what fans expect or learned to love it on their own.
Much of what happens in these two trailers are things that happen at the table of the RPG. Discussions about what to do with treasure, how to acquire it, going to the bar to make plans. That’s typical Dungeons and Dragons.
Daley and Goldstein, both players of the game, seem to have taken a serious approach to the non-serious topic. They capture the fun of the game with care and attention, because like their core audience they love it too.
Each bit of video that Paramount, eOne and Hasbro put out about this heist movie make it seem better than the last. The hype seems to be building. Part of the promotional push includes sending cast to comic cons outside of the English-speaking world. Their latest appearance was in Brazil.
“I think buyers will still want Dungeons & Dragons because the brand is important, the script is good, and Rawson Marshall Thurber is an exciting piece of talent,” one person said.
My campaign world doesn’t need more monsters, but it does need more ideas. That’s a great way to look at settings and adventures — they are other people’s ideas to put into your world. That’s a short cut to worldbuilding, and a great one.
Goblins in the World of the Everflow are part of a smog-punk society building gadgets, very much like Tinker Gnomes, but grimy and greasy. Today’s release is an opportunity for me to use several new inventions in my world.
The Nevermind Gnome Inventor has three inventions. The Flying Fangtrap is a springwork device with tiny wings that pinch and pierce to do damage and may even stop the movement of the target.
In my world the Thunderscream gadget is an opportunity to latch onto the concepts from the Airmatics and Waterwerks Alliance. They could build a cannon of screaming sounds that damage like a breath weapon.
Of course the Alchems Sisterhood would invent Flash Powder, the blinding simple fireworks that can aid the goblin to escape.
Clockwork Claws that act like a third arm, or even a first or second arm; Chattergrab is essentially a grenade that is a bear trap; Phasmoball would be another invention from the Alchems.
In just this one free download the World of the Everflow has six new inventions for goblins. You can borrow from official materials for your own world too.
Maybe your world needs some undead knights? Use the Foresworn.
Another variety of magical giantkin? Irda.
Humanoid walruses? Thanoi.
A unicorn older than every forest? Forest Master has impressive powers and is not the passive unicorn at the game’s core.
Everything you encounter can be part of your session prep or worldbuilding, especially if it is a free release from the creators of the game.
Spelljammer is already on printing two. That’s because they need to make some changes to the Hadozee for reasons of insensitivity. They’re good changes and Wizards of the Coast is changing the processes that allowed the culturally insensitive material to appear first too. This new printing has other errata too.
The one that sticks out is the addition of Feats to every Background.
“These backgrounds each give a feat. If a character takes a background from elsewhere and doesn’t get a feat from that background, the character gains one of the following feats of the player’s choice: Magic Initiate, Skilled, or Tough.”
Dragonlance will have something similar. For Dragonlance this was because these are characters in a war. They must be stronger, tougher, etc. In Spelljammer it kind of makes sense. Normal people aren’t space halflings and asteroid dwarves.
Similar to the Dragonlance decision my world has an additional feat at first level. In the case of the World of the Everflow these choices are;
Kin get a Bonded Companion.
Ken get a feat that grants a cantrip.
Kon get Artificer Initiate and the Rock Gnome’s tinker ability.
Similar to the Dragonlance decision to add Feats this was done to add flavor, speaking to the types of powers that people from various continents have.
With One D&D’s playtest we know there’s a chance at adding Feats for everyone at 1st level.
What if the One D&D system of 1st Level Feats was added to 5e now?
You could add Feats to any character in the current game with a minor, but not overwhelming, increase in power with a few simple guidelines.
Only allow Feats that don’t have a +1 to an attribute.
Don’t allow the +5/-10 Feats.
Don’t allow Lucky.
Don’t allow Polearm Master
That’s it.
Now you can have flavorful feats in your 5e game at 1st level.
Instead, attach Feats to Backgrounds
Now, my current world attaches Feats to racial choices, but one could choose to go the path of Dragonlance, Spelljammer, and Strixhaven. Each of those books assigns their unique Backgrounds specific Feats for flavor.
A more flexible system would be to attach Feats on a small curve. Those Feats would be selected to emphasize specific stories typically told regarding that Background.
Actor reminds me of Paden Fain. Artificer Initiate seems obvious. Linguist fits the wanderer mold. Ritual Caster makes sense to capture the one who picks up hedge magic.
Putting those on a chart with a curve using two dice can influence the commonality of the Feats.
Since it looks likely that Before We Were Heroes won’t be ready before the 2024 edition, I’m thinking of adding that Feat guidance to each listed Background.
Have another Background you’d like a Feat Chart for, ask in comments.
Due to the massive scale of the two playtests that have come out for the next iteration of Dungeons & Dragons reviewing them seems impractical. Unlike Unearthed Arcana they are dozens of pages, with some mechanical changes that make the game a bit easier, some that are hefty.
Overall One D&D’s tabletop test is backwards compatible so far. A current character could be converted and on a level playing field just by selecting a 1st level Feat.
In a surprising turn, the Backgrounds available via the One D&D playtest “origins” remove story elements. That’s the first time during the current popularity of D&D that Wizards of the Coast has made a story reduction rather than expansion. No longer are there any personality suggestions, nor personality associated with Backgrounds or Races. That is coupled with changing Inspiration away from rewarding role play to rewarding roll play. The second One D&D playtest also removes Inspiration as a role-play reward and just shoves it to rolling a 1 on a d20.
This is a mistake.
Every other change in 5e has been about expanding the stories that are told while expanding how they can be told using our silly dice and paper game.
Removing Traits, Ideals, Bonds and Flaws is a reduction of story content, a reduction of the style of play which surged D&D into the mainstream. It’s a damn shame.
Personality isn’t just part of the social pillar. These tiny tools available via backgrounds aren’t locked away from combat scenes. Story and dice should co-exist in modern Dungeons & Dragons. That’s what we see in various livestreams and podcast actual plays. It is one of the grand differentiators from video gaming and board gaming.
The rules of D&D should include character personality beyond alignment. TIBF expands on alignment and can even replace it, as a better and simpler system with story power.
No, the TIBF system isn’t perfect. But it’s better than it not existing.
Fixing Traits, Ideals, Bonds and Flaws
Reduce them from the one to two sentence structure to a one to three word phrase.
Consolidate the Traits, Ideals and Bonds into a single section and pick two or three there.
Have a main list of suggestions rather than have them directly tied to specific Backgrounds, with examples at the Background.
Continue to reward role play at the table — my suggestion is to have a specific d20 (I use gold).
Have Inspiration dice capped at proficiency bonus uses per long rest, rather than just a cap of one available. People are more likely to use something that they have more than one use of – the potion problem.
As a lover of backgrounds, I want them to succeed. I want more of them, a lot more. The addition of minor Feats to Backgrounds is glorious (I’m in the process of adding the most common first level Feats to each of my released backgrounds)
Custom Backgrounds for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons
And yes, every response to every playtest survey has me saying this. I don’t expect it to change, and it’s sad that the guidance towards story will be reduced in the 2024 version of the ruleset.
The timeline of the World of the Everflow is getting harder for me to track. There have been six campaigns with some overlap in both reality and at the table. In order for me to keep better track of events and so that the players and their characters have a better idea of events in the past prior to the campaign I started to build a timeline.
The desire is that these are basically small phrases containing history, not a book of common knowledge to study. I’ll be adding to this as the players remind me of events, create things from their own history or ask questions.
Red Oak burns, allowing red dragons to be born; Uprising & Rebellion 1; 7th Fleet of Daoud encamps to the south of Kirtin-on-the-Lake
Five years ago
Dragons and the Ken fly to Kirtin-on-the-Lake; Sheljar is freed from Necromancy and the Tunneling Nightmares; some Scholars (Diviner, Necromancer) are made public; Kin can learn magic
Six years ago
Goblin Queen’s Fleet lands near Sheljar; Discovery of the Lorebook of Divination; Children of Chorl created; Eruption of Dakan Thaeeb; Lorebook Hunters start their search
Twenty-seven years ago
Sheljar falls to the Necromancer
Twenty-eight years ago
Born Generation
Seventy years ago
Crinth Confederation re-structures to stop expansion of Azsel
One hundred and twenty-two years ago
Kirtin loses Kirtin-on-the-Lake again
Two hundred and twenty-four years ago
Kirtin retakes Kirtin-on-the-Lake
Four hundred and sixty-four years ago
Daoud takes Kirtin-on-the-Lake
Seventeen hundred years ago
Az and Sel establish the Bond, rising to godhood; other bondings besides dogs are discovered; the Goliath nation of Galinor disappears
Two thousand years ago
Church of Quar controls the Everflow and the Font of Two paths, becoming a continent wide faith; Mehmd closes off the empire with foreigners only allowed at Gate
Millenia ago
Quar and the gods create Habergeon, the Everflow and separate the Lands of the Six Kingdoms from the world of magic
In my Uprising & Rebellion Campaign Two the players decided to take on the Mayor’s forces in the open, rather than the dead of night or through obfuscation. In response the Mayor and his forces attacked their home base, the Rusty Clam. Dungeons & Dragons doesn’t do great for large battles.
A few tweaks I made to more represent the fiction of a rebellious militia and their allies defending their most significant resource were;
Have the minions represent half of a squad. The idea here was that the lesser trained guards would break morale when they lost half their group.
Allow the PCs to set up themselves up where they wanted. This is their territory. They know it best.
Added actions to represent the other rebels and commoners who side with the goals of the uprising. These Militia Actions operate similar to Lair Actions. That initial use has been modified here.
Militia Actions
For the session these operated as a Lair Action for each PC. They were taken on the initiative count 10 after their own initiative, which worked out as PC1, enemy1, Militia Action1. That part was a success.
Each Militia Action was tied to a saving throw by the NPCs. These were designed for Tier 2 play as that’s where the PCs in question are at this time, but since I used cantrips as a guideline they are easy to adjust.
Funnel – the militia and/or commoners in support of your cause build a wall using objects or themselves to block a path. This wall is 5′ long per tier of play. A successful Strength save (DC 10/15/20/25 based on tier) enables the enemy to ignore the wall.
Falling or Thrown Objects – the militia and/or commoners in support of your cause pick up objects nearby and throw them at the enemy. These objects do 1d8 damage per tier of play in a space that is 5×5/10x/10/15×15/20×20 by tier. A successful Dex save results in half damage (DC 10/15/20/25).
Overturn Stand or Cart – the militia and/or commoners in support of your cause create an area of difficult terrain by using common objects to clutter the path. Any enemy passing through the area moves must use twice their movement through the 5×5/10x/10/15×15/20×20 space by tier. They may attempt to move at normal speed, and if using the Dash or Disengage actions, must succeed on a Con save (DC 10/15/20/25) or take 1d6 per tier damage and fall Prone.
(this one needs the most work)
Harass – the militia and/or commoners in support of your cause harass and pester the enemies in such a way that limits their defenses. This can be done by word or by minor physical altercation. The next attack by that enemy NPC or intelligent monster is at disadvantage. A successful Int save (DC 10/15/20/25) results in no disadvantage.
Distract – the militia and/or commoners in support of your cause harass and pester the enemies in such a way that limits their attacks. This can be done by word or by minor physical altercation. The next attack against that enemy NPC or intelligent monster is at advantage. A successful Int save (DC 10/15/20/25) results in no advantage.
Rally – the militia and/or commoners in support of your cause shouts in support of the PCs. The PCs are then granted 1d6 temporary hit points per tier of play. A successful Cha save (DC 10/15/20/25) by the leader of the enemy results in no temporary hit points being granted, this is to represent their ability to speak over or interrupt the rallying calls.
Changes for the future?
I may tie these to various skills or tools rather than saving throws. I had the players roll, and asking players to roll under for a success just didn’t make sense.
Finally, I think I would allow a summoned swarm from the Propagandist use these when the Propagandist commands them via a bonus action. This would help raise the power level of a subclass that lacks in combat, though in many campaigns this wouldn’t be enough.
Design Goals
The primary inspirations for these actions were to mimic some of the play of Assassin’s Creed, where the small crowd of neutrals and allies can support your violence. There are also scenes in Black Sails where the common people of Nassau join the fight against the British. The invasion of Tear and other conflicts in the Wheel of Time feature actions by commoners supporting the heroes too. Various Robin Hood tales, the rescue of The Shire, the movie Aladdin, and so many other tales have common peoples helping the heroes by impeding the enemy.
While highly urbanized campaigns aren’t common in D&D, they should be supported. The literature and other inspirations for the game do have these elements. Our game can include them in ways that are more than just background story.
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.
Full Moon Storytelling 