Tag: DnDBeyond

  • How my campaign changes when a new product drops

    How my campaign changes when a new product drops

    The recent addition of Drops subscription content to DnD Beyond is going to challenge me.

    I’m running only a single intermittent 5e campaign right now. The Ferments uses 2024 as its base set, but permits things from Black Flag, 2014 and A5e in general, with a quick scan to make certain that the addition fits within the campaign themes and the setting’s common lore.

    In the past it’s been easy to judge what works and doesn’t. Book releases are heavily themed. Most grimdark will not fit in The World of the Everflow. Dragon stuff always fits. Giant stuff rarely fits. The new dinosaur book added to Beyond fits well in an undiscovered-to-this-point land.

    But now there are weekly drops. The player facing stuff needs a quick review. Maps and stickers won’t matter because we aren’t using the Maps VTT. The cosmetics are fine, because they help a player connect with their character.

    Teos explains the broader program.

    Evaluating the content to fit The Ferments and The World of the Everflow

    First off, the five feats added are all extra planar in a way that has not been explored in our games through the several hundred sessions of play plus writing and backstory. There’s only been a single Warlock.

    Those are going to be easy to ignore. If I could toggle them off at the campaign level I would.

    • All five feats = no
    • Pact Seeker background = with lore tweak and different feat
    • Astral Flood = yes, fully
    • Buzzing Bee = yes, fully
    • Insidious Rhythm = yes, fully
    • Leomund’s Lamentable Belaborment = yes, fully
    • Sticks to Snakes= yes, but DM content only

    The Pact seeker background doesn’t fit as written. The lore doesn’t work because of the demand that the pact is extraplanar, but if a player wanted to rework that and take a new origin feat it would be allowed. Maybe they are seeking a pact with a religious figure, an elder dragon, a scholar or something similar.

    There are also five spells in the first Drops.

    Astral flood fits unchanged. The Astral and Ethereal are somewhat merged in my world and opening that up to the physical realm would be devastating.

    Buzzing bee is excellent. My first encounter with Bee was the useless cantrip from Unearthed Arcana back in the 80s. This is better and needed. It fits the use of animals for the Kin too.

    Insidious Rhythm is a fun spell too. The magic of performance by Bards and others would be the path of introduction.

    Leomund’s Lamentable Belaborment may not fit combat well. It does fit in social and political settings. Players will definitely find a way to turn a crowded room into a debate-disaster.

    Sticks to Snakes is a classic spell, but this version is quite underpowered for 2024. It adds in-combat complexity for low damage. It reads more like a 2nd level spell and not a 4th. For narrative purposes it fits the world well. But it’s a waste for a player. This will be DM content only.

    Eleven player facing items this week needed to be reviewed. Next week there will be more. And then there will be more. And more.

    It’s going to be too much.

    And each drop and each book from every publisher stretches and pushes a world. But fantasy worlds are not only defined by being permissive. They are also defined by what’s forbidden.

    Every world a DM and their tables creates can choose to be a global fantasy (kitchen sink) or be as neatly defined as the group wants.

    With Drops the default in the Everflow will not be for permission, but to evaluate what a player wants to add as they want to add it in order for us to continue to explore the themes of the world — how strong can the love between person and animal be, who gets to control access to knowledge, how can our local connections make the world better for most.

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  • Making it easier to DM

    Making it easier to DM

    Being a Dungeon Master is intimidating. At it’s biggest level it can seem like you are supposed to run an entire world, know all the rules to the game, spotlight every player-character equally and help everyone have fun.

    There are many ways to make it simpler than that;

    • Focus only on the world with which the PCs interact
    • Skip rules that aren’t meaningful at the time
    • Rotate the spotlight as appropriate to the table
    • Get feedback from players in order to improve

    There are other ways too. I’m a big fan of the Lazy GM series.

    2024 Dungeons & Dragons helps make it easier in their Dungeon Masters Guide by incorporating some, but not all of SlyFlourish’s ideas. One notable thing is the tracking sheets — theirs and different from his, but that’s fine. Not everything needs to be the same.

    The Game Expectations tracking sheet features space for the DM's name, player names, theme, flavor, sensitive elements and more

    The layout of the new book is much better for new DMs. It also has excellent examples on how to spiral out from the characters while building a world, using Greyhawks as an example. There are micro adventures, which may not give enough information, but they do show that one doesn’t need a lot of notes to run a session. My sessions are usually a single notecard for example.

    Overall the ’24 DMG is a good to great book for Dungeon Masters early in their experience. It’s also handy that those tracking sheets are all available for free!

    But, (sorry WotC), there is a flaw in how easy it is to be a DM in this modern era.

    Those wonderful tracking sheets aren’t really part of DnDBeyond.com

    They exist, but without integration.

    What could make it easier to DM in the DnD Beyond era?

    When you Create a Campaign on Beyond it should start with that Game Expectations sheet. The notes should be replaced with the Campaign Journal.

    These are wonderful tools, and they are completely unsupported.

    Adding the sheets or similar fields to the campaign page would help a DM as they introduce the players to the game-to-be. They’d all be able to see what the story is about.

    Right now those pre-session one-sheets and the like need to be shared on the web, via email, Discord, at the table, or other tools rather than in the platform that Wizards of the Coast owns. It’s a silly gap in integration.

    Make it easier to share variant rules and setting information

    Currently, Beyond lets you share all of your books or none of your books. But that doesn’t help for a specific campaign.

    Currently, Beyond lets you share books in a deeper layer of content sharing, but doesn’t let you pick and choose rules (like attributes, extra feats, no feats, encumbrance)

    The above was updated at 8:57 pm on Nov 27, 2024

    My current Age of Myths campaign would make sense to permit Strixhaven, Theros and Dragonlance rules. It’s absurd for it to include the Illrigger, Ravenloft, or Lord of the Rings (TM).

    Imagine how much easier it would be for a DM and the table to say “these are the rules we are using for this campaign” and then toggle those rules and books either on our off.

    Currently that’s a player-by-player decision within the character creator.

    But what type of encumbrance a table is using isn’t a player-by-player decision. That’s a table decision. The appropriate setting and adventure rules aren’t most or none, but a delicate basis that sets the tone for the next several months or years of hanging out with your friends.

    Wizards of the Coast and the D&D team can make it even easier for DMs by changing some architecture of their semi-walled garden in such a way that they already believe works, because it’s in their brand new book.

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  • Lore Collage: Dungeons and Dragons movie gathers cast

    Lore Collage: Dungeons and Dragons movie gathers cast

    With a week away from collaging about Dungeon lore and Dragon news, this collation of links, videos, podcasts, and maps is bigger than every. It may be the last in the weekly collection. They are becoming too hefty. Maybe a scheduled day for the major topics of the Collage makes more sense? We’ll see.

    With D&D bringing back the official blog it’s interesting to think about how the game that is word-centric has most online discussion via videos and podcasts. The new blog will help fuel conversations across all mediums.

    If you’ve ever wanted to play a carnival barker or newsie you had to reskin other backgrounds. Until now. The Crier/Herald/Barker is what you are looking for.

    I started listening to The Black Dice Society because I wanted to prepare for Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. What wound up happening is me discovering a layered horror show with excellent characterization and a creep factor that hits me just right.

    There’s more dragons in your dungeons, if you want them.

    A green die with black ink rests on a log showing the 20 face. Background has river rock, a river, and a forest all out of focus.

    Official D&D Product Releases and Reviews

    Dungeons & Dragons Movie News

    Casting Regé-Jean Page means near weekly mentions of D&D in mainstream film and TV discussions. Page’s star couldn’t be rising faster, and there’s d20s chasing him. Page and the cast are already showing up in Belfast to start filming. Some scenery shots were already filmed in Iceland too.

    Emerging phenom Chloe Coleman joins the ensemble. Coleman already has twice as many credits as she is years old. She’s 12.

    Just so you don’t forget, the Derek Kolstad TV project isn’t the only D&D TV project. It is merely the only one with a known personality attached to it.

    Yawning Portal Opens for Virtual Weekend Play May 7-9

    Play more D&D

    Draconic Options Unearthed Arcana

    Wizards of the Coast is testing three new versions of Dragonborn, a new Kobold, a few Feats, and seven spells. I enjoyed most of the stories behind these, but feel that uncoupling the PHB and Volo’s versions of these races is a mistake.

    Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft Previews

    The latest issue of Dragon+ is dedicated to the mists of Ravenloft. Lore You Should Know continues their dive into the subject too.

    Of course, Black Dice Society is another introduction to Ravenloft, but so much more. Yes, that’s a second plug for my own article.

    Third-Party Products

    ThinkDM has a review of MCDM’s Illrigger, their first custom class. It’s an evil leaning class that has some flavors similar to Paladins, Warlocks, and blood magic.

    Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent is the heavy metal, overpowered D&D setting from the creator of Warcraft. The Kickstarter will hit One Million Dollars shortly.

    Advice for Dungeons & Dragons Payers and DMs

    An oldie, but a goodie – Paths Peculiar goes to in-depth into creating your own world.

    ThinkDM expands on the discussion of the Illrigger. The class may echo other class themes, but takes a unique mechanical approach that amplifies the story elements.

    The dump stat of 5e – Intelligence. Maybe the players need to act like their characters aren’t smart?

    These character sheets will be added to my collection.

    Shifting from language to culture is one of my key desires in 5th edition. There are more stories available to tell if we empower our players to understand both, not just scribbles on a page. So how do you make quickly understandable cultures? Like this.

    Calendaring is the number one death of any D&D campaign. One way to reduce that impact is through Duet-play. That style does take an even more character-centric approach to design, luckily the experts at Duet have a guide for you.

    Playing D&D in Civic Spaces During the Pandemic

    The Kamloops, B.C., public library is hosting Geek Week. Yes, there’s lots of D&D and D&D adjacent stuff to do.

    Also up in Canada, this time Ottawa, the Putnam County Library is putting together a D&D group starting May 25.

    Dungeons & Dragons is Mainstream Now

    One-act plays about D&D getting Kennedy Center Awards, even if regional, is not a thing I ever expected to discover. | MCC’s Robert O’Brien honored by the Kennedy Center for playwriting – Mesa Legend

    As the pandemic continues to impact college life students continue to turn to role-playing games for social interaction. | How “Dungeons and Dragons” Serves as a Socially Healthy Pastime – Indiana Stateman

    “Blood of the Paladin” is a novelization that combines D&D and real life. | Novel Illustrates Life With Hemophilia, Dungeons and Dragons – Hemophilia Today

    There may be a campus that doesn’t have an active D&D community during the pandemic, but at this point that’s doubtful. | Athens and UGA Dungeons & Dragons groups adventure through pandemic – The Red & Black

    The Satanic Panic closed D&D to so many. The pandemic opened the game back up to them. | Yeah, I Play. You? Check Out My Dungeons & Dragons Alter-Ego – Mix 93.1 FM

    D&D is too often seen as an American phenomena. That’s lazy. The game is popular throughout the English speaking world with it continuing to rebuild in Spanish, Portuguese, German-speaking countries and more. | Rolling with it: Ottawa’s Dungeons and Dragons community thriving online – Capital Current

    Other Geek Stuff

    Polygon previews the best board and role-playing games of Spring.

    Austin’s The Fiery Talon is a pop-up fried chicken/D&D restaurant.

    Remember when everyone in geekdom, and mainstream, cared about Game of Thrones and now no one does? It’s ten years old and the world has forgotten.

    Are you a comics fan that’s into D&D? IDW has a Humble Bunble of up to 100 titles starting at just 1$.

    Amazon Prime’s Second Age telling of JRR Tolkien’s saga of The Rings will cost over $465 million in season one. To put that in some perspective that’s more than WandaVision and The Mandalorian season ones, combined. We are in peak fantasy in TV and movies.

    There are lighter fantasy tales to tell. Wanderhome is an RPG about sentient animal folk living lives that aren’t necessarily violent, but still quite dramatic.

    Strixhaven Draft Guide
    Someone needs to invite me into a Strixhaven D&D campaign, because that world s amazing.

    I owe Jeff a review of Blue Planet: Recontact still. For now, here’s an interview about the sci-fi setting that combines David Brin’s Uplift world with heavy doses of environmental stewardship.

    As Always, Maps

    Your next trip to the feywild or Domains of Dread needs a dungeon where you are going both up and down at the same time.

    Who wants to move here?

    The adventuring party discovers this city. What’s up with the inverted pyramid?

  • Lore Collage: Virtual Play is this weekend

    Lore Collage: Virtual Play is this weekend

    There’s a ton of cool animals in the real world that should be your companion or familiar. Dogs, cats, and owls are tiring. Instead go with tiny little ‘saurs that look like flying porgs.

    Embrace NPCs that have bad vision. Orne Willowrush is ready for your campaign. He’s a dude that’s bad at fishing, but likes it. Wearing glasses Willowrush crafts fine barrels and can be found buying his friends beverages.

    Official D&D Product Releases and Reviews

    D&D Virtual Weekend This Weekend

    This weekend’s Virtual Play includes games in Portuguese, but stay tuned as there are often options in Spanish with some other languages also featured. As a reminder these are paid events. The DMs are the primary recipient of those funds. Dragon+ has more about Virtual Play.

    Dungeons & Dragons Movie News

    Paramount is delaying the D&D movie by a year-and-a-half. This is almost certainly due to the continuation of the Covid-19 pandemic and how crowded the big-budget movie release schedule will be in 2022. The wide slate of TV shows has no announced delays. Derek Kolstad’s project is the only one with an announced showrunner at this time.

    Regé-Jean Page was nearly in an upcoming Superman project. One of the hottest (in demand) actors in Hollywood these days Page will be in the D&D movie. He won’t be in that Superman project, because some idiot seemed to think that Superman can’t be related to a Black man.d

    He’s also a popular pick as the next James Bond. Dude is in demand. He’s in D&D.

    eOne is also launching a gob of reality programming, none are D&D, yet.

    Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft Previews

    The latest Lore You Should Know is all about one of the reworked Domains of Dread.

    Third-Party Products

    Venture Maidens is the latest podcast to release their world as a sourcebook. Their DM is also the head of the book project, and that bodes quite well for the quality of the product. Celeste Conowitch has credits with Wizards of the Coast, Kobold Press, and is now with 2C Gaming. The Kickstarter is up through May 10.

    Solasta is nearly a ‘finished’ product. The D&D OGL video game is leaving early access. Solasta is more focused on the 5e D&D rules than the official games.

    Tribality reviews the upcoming character and scenery art generator Neverending. Finding a tool that you can use, that helps non-artists changes your table atmosphere. Toss those creators some money, because they earned it.

    Advice for Dungeons & Dragons Payers and DMs

    Every week Alphastream and Shawn Merwin go deeper and deeper into what Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything empowers players to do. Their podcast might be the only digital enterprise still talking about the dramatic story and rules expansion from last fall.

    Want to add the themes from Phillip K. Dick’s stories to your games? Screen Rant guides you through mashing up sci-fi with your fantasy.

    Game Rant goes over how to use Feats in 5th edition. For me, in my world, I enjoy granting Feats at first level. But I drop the power-gamey ones from the list of options. There is a lot of story creep available in 80% of Feats.

    Playing D&D in Civic Spaces During the Pandemic

    Whereas most libraries are hosting games to play, at the Topeka Library the focus is on teaching people how to play the game. They have a monthly series that focuses on specific aspects of play. Up next is Character and Combat.

    The Johnston Public Library, in upstate New York, is reopening to the public, and continuing virtual D&D for teens in two age groups.

    Saratoga Springs Public Library, in Florida, is hosting virtual D&D.

    Dungeons & Dragons is Mainstream Now

    D&D character art can be more than a hobby these days. | Fan art feature: Leilani Perriera and D&D – Savannah College of Art and Design Connector

    The ability to become a hero, no matter what holds you back in real life, is part of the powerful call of roleplaying. | Dungeons and Dragons Helps Me Live Without Duchenne for a Moment – Muscular Dystrophy News

    Other Geek Stuff

    If you missed Coyote & Crow’s Kickstarter, they have a late backer option now.

    We live in the future – and in the future there are lightsabers that work.

    Polygon’s board game shopping guide is a great reminder that Summer should involve games with friends on a deck or patio.

    The City of Dragons is celebrating the birth of Erasmus. Downtown Renton, the home of Wizards of the Coast, is celebrating hatchday on April 17.

    Shadow and Bone is the latest fantasy series to get a TV deal. Go behind the scenes in this story that discusses how the books were translated to screen.

    Washington State is flooded with RPG designers, don’t ignore the talent in the board game side of our hobby.

    The best board games of 2021, according to American designers.

    As Always, Maps

    Add fjords and mountains carved by gods to your game.

    This map has an old school styling to it. I want to move to this town.

  • Orne Willowrush – an NPC for your adventuring needs

    Orne Willowrush – an NPC for your adventuring needs

    Opening up an NPC creation series with a character I should have made ages ago – one with glasses. If you don’t know me, I’m basically finger-blind. Without glasses or contacts I am unable to count how many fingers you would be holding up if you are more than a couple feet away from me. And yet, I never have played a character or NPC with glasses. I actively avoided it.

    After reading Deven Rue’s recent post about embracing characters with vision impairment or blindness I decided that needed to change.

    Heading over to DM Heroes, I hit the random button until it turned up a character with glasses. Then, it was about creating a character with an interesting background who was not a quest giver. Because as Rue says, “Make us non-quest related. Just people in your world. Living. Existing.”

    Meet Orne Willowrush

    This image shows the bust of an older male halfling with somewhat receding grey hair that is swept back. He wears glasses and has a thin mustache. His clothing looks like it could be a rough robe or shawl shirt. It is light brown.
    Created using DM Heroes one of my favorite NPC art tools

    First up is a Simple Index Card Version of an NPC. These are designed so with just a few words you can know who an NPC is from a basic description of appearance, to some basic motivations. In Willowrush’s case he’s a former soldier who once fought for the realm, but now works as a cooper. In my deep belief that everyone in your D&D world should have a hobby he is a fisher. He is not skilled in fishing though. He just enjoys doing the calmness of fishing with his friends. He can get dreamy about his past, but also doesn’t like to talk about it. Orne recently lost his beaver – Tryn. He’s just newly bonded with an otter – Orla.

    Orne’s best friend is a librarian named Incirion Vadu, a goblin. You can often find them at the river together, ignoring work. Incirion knows Mending, and will often have an extra pair of glasses for Orne.

    Orne Willowrush

    Dexterity, Strength +1Stout Halfling, Conscript Fighter (3)
    Constitution, Charisma -1Cooper | Woodworking Tools, Fisher’s Tools
    Padded Armor, Common Clothes, Glasses, OtterWinestar, Lemplet Place
    Staff, adzeWants to relive past glories
    Modest lifestyle, and will buy you a glass of wineDaydreamer, Reticent, Recently lost his beaver companion
    An otter peers out from a small cave.
    Photo by David Frazer on Pexels.com

    If you want him built as a fully playable character I’ve added him to my DnDBeyond Community Characters campaign. Orne on Beyond is a Scout rather than a Conscript, so as to not introduce new rules.

    Winestar, Lemplet Place

    A map of Lemplet Place, a fictitious town. The river runs from south to north into a bay. There are seven neighborhoods with three being inside or somewhat inside the walls. Main roads leave to the east, the west, and the northwest. There is a castle, a green, and a large temple.
    Built using the Medieval Fantasy City Generator

    Winestar is a neighborhood built along the rolling ridge of the Lemplet River. It’s a mix of farmsteads with a few crafts to support their needs. Most of the good produced enter the walled part of the city via barge or float. The Spring, across the river, is up on a cliffside, and is generally more wealthy than Winestar, especially those parts that are next to the castle walls. Within Winestar you will, of course, find many small vintners, with most of the homes at least having a passing hobby of wine creation. In general, Winestar produces luxury goods whereas Northroad is sustenance farming.

    Lemplet Place is a city of about 4,300 people.

    1. Blackbridge – known for the eponymous bridge, the downtown of Lemplet Place
    2. Tidewater Place – the slums, used to flood with high tide
    3. Castle Lemplet – originally built as a exterior castle, the city has grown around it
    4. Trollrock – the northern block surrounds a huge rock hill with a cave inside, no trolls though
    5. Northroad – sustenance farming
    6. Winestar – grapevines, orchards
    7. The Spring – for the wealthy that moved out of the city

    How will you use Orne Willowrush in your campaign?

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