Festivals, holidays, and celebrations are great ways to add verisimilitude to your game. Plus, everyone likes a party. With Halloween and its associated celebrations (All Saints Day, Samhain, Harvest tide, Día de los Muertos, etc) there is frequently a lean into those themes within our gaming. That can be as simple as skeletons, headless horse riders, ghosts, or more complexity. Or it can just mean the presence of cornucopias, jack-o’-lanterns, and candles as the party walks through a village.
Copying real world makes sense. Twisting and adapting it a bit makes even more sense. You can advance your game world even more by leaning into the Dungeons & Dragons of it all (or your game of preference) by leaning into what makes D&D unique and special — the presence of various kinds of magic.
Over the next month I’ll be following the prompts from Magic: The Gathering to share the lore and rules within my campaign world. Some will be short hits, others expansions on previous lore. These prompts may just inspire regular rather than irregular blogging.
This entry grew when thinking about pumpkins. And then the mind drifted. Pumpkin > Jack ‘o Lantern > Will o’ Wisp > Dancing Lights. These 8 utility cantrips in the Basic Rules can add a bit of flavor to your world’s Fall festivals.
Dancing Lights – A spell almost certainly inspired by the Will o’ Wisp, the four tiny lights can be any color, a pale silver would be best for this usage. Place them behind a cloth used for ghostly apparitions inside windows and trees making those fake ghosts look even more spectral.
Druidcraft – There are so many ways to use Druidcraft that it almost needs its own post, but what if your fake cemetery started to reek, or you cause a group of tree leaves to fall all at once?
Light – The image attached to the post almost perfectly demonstrates a use for this tiny spell. Lighting up a carving for the hour after sunset is magic I can get behind.
Mage Hand – What haunted house doesn’t have a torch floating by in a spectral hand?
Message – Within worlds of lighter magic Message can be used as a friendly spook as people walk about the town.
Minor Illusion – A couple of the descriptions of possible illusions read as if they were designed for Halloween… “its volume can range from a whisper to a scream” and “muddy footprints” are ideal haunts.
Prestidigitation – Create small marks on doorways that ‘ward’ off evil spirits or welcome visiting neighbors.
Thaumaturgy – The ability to dim all lights along a street creates an unwelcome space where spirits can hide and fear can thrive.
How do you incorporate the mystical, fantastic, and magical into your Fall festivals?
This campaign is set six years after the Lorebook Hunters returned magic to the World of the Everflow. It is set in Kirtin-on-the-Lake, and is centered on political intrigue with social and exploration pillars being as important as combat. Every player is united in rebellion against the corrupt Mayor, but may have differing ideas about how the various factions can help Kirtin-on-the-Lake be free.
You are common people living in and around Kirtin-on-the-Lake who are inspired to free the city from under the rule of Daoud. You may want it to once again be part of Kirtin, or you may want to copy the Free City of Sheljar. The City Guard, a unit of Daoud’s military, and even Dragons, who see Kirtin-on-the-Lake as their ancestral home, stand in your way.
Background
Kirtin-on-the-Lake was once the winter capital of Kirtin. Taken over by Daoud in the generational wars it is a city of borders even before the Awakening and the discoveries of the Lorebook of Divination and the Folio of Necromancy. Now, the Ken and their Dragons are trying to capture what they claim are their ancestral homeland. Daoud and Kirtin remain at war over the city.
There is also a general uprising of peoples inspired by the Free City of Sheljar. The Mayor has managed to consolidate power by playing the various factions off against each other; this hasn’t helped the common people beyond allowing them peace.
The Proctors of Grace and their other allies want to control access to magic. Certain Dragons also want to repopulate Kirtin-on-the-Lake as the Ward of Mighty Trees is the ancestral home of certain types of Dragons (at least a Red as that first DragonTree has regrown).
Daoud will not allow their winnings (Kirtin-on-the-Lake and the Slope) to leave their control after centuries. The rebellion has taken control of the Dock District. What will they free next? While the mayor may be willing to have the rebels help repel the Proctors, he serves at the whim of an empire that refuses to recognize Kirtin-on-the-Lake as anything but its own territory.
Factions
Mayor and City Guard, generally aligned with Daoud, he is willing to look the other way and cede districts to other invaders for a price.
Daoud, the conquering empire of the south. Normally a naval power in the World of the Everflow, their long conflict over Kirtin-on-the-Lake is their largest land holding.
Kirtin, the mountain kingdom has been at war with Daoud and Azsel for so long that all of its peoples serve in the military.
Proctors of Grace and the Ken, lead by Dragons the various fey peoples are experts at magic and claim that Kirtin-on-the-Lake’s Ward of Mighty trees is their homeland. They also want to put the power of magic under their control and only their control.
Society of Veil and Shadows, these rebels are inspired by the Free City of Sheljar and its empowerment of all thinking peoples. Whether Kin, Ken, or Kon the people deserve equality of treatment and opportunity.
Rumors
There are half-animal/half-people roaming the Western Wildes.
Out in the Ferments forms of life based on the elements are driving out the Kin there.
Headquartered Church of Quar has lost control of the Everflow (the source of all healing potions).
Peace has come between the Kingdoms of the North as the Crinth Confederation and Azsel are more concerned with the Kon and the Ken.
The Dragons seek the Robe of the Magi.
The Tome of Abjuration and its Proctor may be in the city or surrounding area.
Facets
Exploring the zero-to-hero tropes, rebellion, and who gets to control knowledge.
Sandbox play.
Player agency creates history.
Drop in/drop out, whatever.
Sessions are 2-3 hours. Adventures are 1-3 sessions.
Use point buy or standard array for starting attributes. If you want something random, the redrick roller gives random point buy valid stats.
Start at 3rd level, because power is cool.
Long rests require 24 hours within sanctuary. This creates a pace of play more similar to novels than video games.
Practicum
Sessions will be on Sunday afternoons and evenings, floating times based on the Puget Sound pro soccer schedule. Characters must be created prior to dropping in. The table will be on an outdoor patio at one of a few locations in South King County.
For some finding inspiration for their next Dungeons & Dragons character can be difficult. A way to solve that difficulty is to find some part of our actual reality as a starting point, and then give it a twist. Maybe add something magical, or heroic, or tragic — and then smash something else from reality into that idea as well.
Over on my Twitter account I ocaissionally present my every day life as inspiration for D&D characters. This series always starts with “My next D&D character is“.
I had recently been gifted a knife for which I had no sheath. When searching for a way to protect both it and the family I remembered my Field Notes notebook from the End Pages series. It was the perfect length. Then, springing from that secret spot in the mind where inspiration resides I thought of a character who stored their blades inside notebooks.
They certainly write in the book as well, because they must — tracking those who have wrong them or those they care about; jotting down a possible secret; picking up the stories during their travels. Basically they use the notebook the way normal real people do, except it also has a dagger in it.
Cleaning Houses
While helping my wife prep homes for sale my mind sits within itself and wonders what magic would be helpful to complete this act. My latest idea was for someone who isn’t smart, but they are either lazy or overworked. So they took the fast way out and made a Pact with the Great Old One. Their Tome is full of rituals to help make living life easier. This warlock isn’t evil. They just needed a way to make living life easier. Now they are on a quest for a mighty power.
Or, maybe your character studied to learn Prestidigitation because that’s what they needed to do in order to be better at helping the family business. They dreamed of being a warrior. Then one day those things combined.
During the winter you see an ice sculpture — your next PC is a Water Genasi that carves Ice Sculptures. When the weather is too warm they create the ice that’s needed for sculpting.
I’ve been a sports writer spanning from amateur to semipro to pro (you can hire me), so many of my ideas revolve around sports. Each with nuance and difference, and yet all come about through following sports.
During this whole pandemic period I came up with the idea that the party healer also heals the mind. This was entirely a creation due to my own personal mindspace during the pandemic. I needed a party healer that heals body and mind. The mind of adventurers is inherently broken. Like Special Forces soldiers they see some shit and though they work for noble cause (often) there are still mental scars.
What would the heroic version of my time as a linguist look like? A Mastermind or Inquisitive Rogue, halfling (duh) who studies the cultures and communities of the world, granting them a bit of insight when they fight, but also able to operate as the party face.
Inspiration is everywhere. It’s in beer, in mushrooms, in trees, in walks down by the river, in your trips to the thrift shop, in the social media you consume. Our life is filled with interesting characters and characteristics. These can be your next PC or NPCs.
A few of them I’ve statted up over at DnDBeyond. Feel free to use them. If you do just kindly share that you got the idea from Full Moon Storytelling.
Within our fantasy worlds are massive cites. There are lots of problems with the scale of some of these cities — they need farms, roads, and light because residents are up at all hours. Settings like Ravnica and Eberron deal with the largest cites via magic. Those worlds with less magic manage metropolises with some magic, some magically imbued races and hand-waving. One of those hands we can wave relates to light.
Magic is the simple way to add light to cities. Another way to have them with some level of light for safety and to encourage all races to reside within is via a public lantern system. For about 150 years this was the process in Western Europe and Northeast America. People would go through and light lanterns along the street. Those shops and establishments that wanted business in the evening or early morning would do the same.
These workers would live split lives as early risers and night owls.
Let’s crank all of this up to d20 and make them potential heroes. Meet the Lamplighter, for “in darkness there is light.”
You know your neighborhood. You don’t have a favorite bar, or food stand, or favorite bakery — they all are you favorite. They know your route, you know when every one gets up or goes to sleep. You know the street urchin, the acolyte, the haberdasher, the goblin family that makes the best trinkets (maybe you have one favorite). They all know you too.
Getting around the city you use a run-jump parkour along the crates and awnings, somehow never letting your lighting candle go out. You flow through the streets and alleys. You’re a great observer and with the other Lamplighters the group always knows the secrets and rumors of a land — a nobleman leaving the tavern too late, a merchant up too early with visitors on the stoop, a door left opened. And you know the guilds and gangs of the underground, because when your lights go out they are there, ready to do their work. They know you, and never act against you (unless you count putting out a light early), because you are a beloved symbol of the city. You are a Lamplighter.
Skill Proficiencies: Acrobatics, Insight Tool Proficiencies: None Languages: Thieves Cant, one other language (as always, use Cultures instead of Languages) Equipment: Common Clothes, Ladder, 5 Flasks Oil, Flint & Steal, 5 Candles, Hourglass, Signal Whistle, Pouch with 2 GP and 7 SP
Feature: Songs of the Street
When visiting a new town or city you quickly pick up the rhythm of the streets. The Lamplighter is able to figure out what neighborhoods and buildings are most active at what times, when the urchins and gangs are out, when the guards are on patrol. The pace of a city and its people is second nature to the Lamplighter.
In your hometown your knowledge is more accurate and more complete, and you will always know someone who will help you in a time of need.
Lamplighter Design Goals
Frankly, this background started with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Jack in Mary Poppins Returns. The lamplighters featured throughout the movie, riding bikes, lighting the neighborhoods of London, and inspiring people to be their best through song, dance, and conversation. There are some bard themes, but nothing is magical besides a few people loving their town and making it better.
Beyond what Jack does in the movie, there’s also an opportunity for a Lamplighter in the massive cities of not-quite Eberron levels of magic. These workers are active at dawn and dusk. As Waterdeep, Skuld, Calimport and other transition between night and day the neighborhoods transition too. Lamplighters are not guards or police. They fill of space of advisor, guide, and concerned citizen.
They know that the world’s largest cities need the hope and safety that lanterns provide. Without that comforting light what is a city anyway?
Custom Backgrounds for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons
The clattering of tin as they come over the hill; a belly laugh as the tinker learns of some gossip from mother; the circle of enraptured youth as a tale that is at most half-true is told; the fussing over a minor repair for a family that has no goods to offer in service.
In fantasy the Tinker is a trope that captures a travelling fixer who knows news, rumor, and myth. Their wealth rides a donkey or canoe with them and every community on their circuit is home and an unknowable set of peoples. Now, you too can play a Tinker.
Maybe you grew up in a family of smiths, or were raised by bards, or maybe you were kind of good at a lot of arts, but not really good at one in particular. Whatever your past you decided to leave the ‘civilized’ world and help those families on the frontier. When things break you fix them.
When communities break you share that information with others who need to hear it. You carry as much information as you do tin. Your donkey is your only friend on the trails throughout the wilds. Everyone you meet trusts you, even the bandits, brigands and raiders. They need your services too.
Skill Proficiencies: Performance, Insight Tool Proficiencies: Tinker’s Tools, Vehicle (Land or Water) Languages: None Equipment: Donkey/Mule/Pony (if water vehicles chosen a canoe, rowboat or skiff is appropriate), Tinker’s Kit, 1 Pound Each Tin, Copper, Iron, Pack Saddle, 3 Pots, Traveler’s Clothes, Pouch with 5 Gold
Feature: I Can Fix It
Facing a mundane device that is broken you are able to fix it, even if you don’t have the proper supplies and parts. This repair may only last a few minutes or a few hours, though it is enough for the device to last through it’s next use. You may wind up using a copper coin, or a bit of string, or a knife during this repair. This feature can be used to fix ammunition, traps, broken wheels, or other adventuring equipment. The repair is not permanent.
Tinker Design Goals
Throughout the literature that inspires Dungeons & Dragons are tales of itinerant workers who travel the barely civilized wildernesses drifting between villages. Primarily they are fixers, using bits of tin, copper, iron, leather, etc to repair farming tools or kitchen utensils in the homesteads too far from smithys.
The fiction also has these tinkers as storytellers. They aren’t bards, as their magic is just the magic of carrying tales of other households, villages, and empires to people who long for information, but don’t want to live in places where information is common. The Tinker tells their tales around a fire or a meal, informing the group through storytelling. At their next stop they will share what they’ve learned. Every encounter is a bit of knowledge to share in an attempt to connect the frontier lands despite weather and monsters that keep those connections broken.
For these reasons the Tinker has Performance and Insight. Consideration was made for History. That would seem to indicate an intellectual rather than a tale-teller. Insight made sense because of the way the literature has the Tinker connect to the families year after year.
Custom Backgrounds for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons
Queen’s Fleet continues to expand presence in Kirtin-on-the-Lake; various factions may lead to infighting; what are these stunning and dirty technologies?
Kirtin-on-the-Lake | Neremyn Quizana
Lately you’ve seen, heard, or smelled the newest additions to Kirtin-on-the-Lake. During this stalemate between Daoud and the Dragons and Kirtin traders from the Free City of Sheljar have entered the city. Some land on the lake with ships under great balloons filled with oily gasses; others enter with the rackety-clackety of wooden gears on various cycles of one, two, and even four wheels — like a cart without a horse.
These goblins (we shall use this word for all of them whether merely the size of halflings or the masses of muscle as large as goliaths) are organized differently than any of the Five Kingdoms of the Everflow. Most similar to the guild-houses of Qin, the Kon organize into at least six guilds that are based in familial relationship and what they call ‘teknical’ skills.
Through numerous conversations we have learned that these are their guilds active in the Western Wildes. Not all have been seen in Kirtin-on-the-Lake yet. According to our sources all are present in Sheljar and the towns under the Free City’s sway — Fort Ooshar, Mira, Telse, Bell-an-Fair, Hagtown, and possibly The Ferments.
A new peoples to the Western Wildes, these snapshots should help the fair people of Kirtin-on-the-Lake understand the goblins and their bizarre systems that ignore the shared bonds of people with animal or the potent magicks of the Dragons and their allies.
Most noticed on the streets of Kirtin-on-the-Lake due to their loud clanking cycles, the Clockwerks League is currently the most powerful of the various goblins. The Queen herself is a member, having won many flags prior to ascending to the throne.
Besides the cycles, the Clockwerks include clocks, timers, repeating crossbows, giant powerwheels similar to a waterwheel that uses their mulgobs rather than water. There is word that they will open a new grain mill took.
Ratxets Guild
Conflicting reports say that the Ratxets Guild are a spinoff from the League or something entirely new. They make wonderful climbing devices and on many days you can find a demonstration down by Theater. The ability to use their rope and ratxet to climb the side of Rock is amazing. When this author used the device it made the journey up Rock pleasant rather than the long chore that the stairway can be.
Rumor is that the Ratxet may install a gondola from the Rock that connects several districts by massive sky-ropes.
Coils of strong metal come off of smiths that burn hotter than ours. Without the tartek maybe the Springwerks Union couldn’t exist. This symbiotic relationship betwixt the guilds is routine. They compete harshly for recognition from the Queen and yet their greatest werks are interconnected and use tekniques of others.
Their crossbows are a bit lighter. A siege engine powered by a Springwerk may be able to fell a Dragon. The energy trapped within the springs is grand. It may take days for the muls and hobs to get the springs set, but once they are the power can slowly release or go all at once.
A good little friendly goblin introduced me to how the Alliance works. Our waterwheels are what they used a life of lifes ago. Now using either water or something called pneumatics the Alliance is two former competitors joined. Anything that flows can be trapped, contained, and utilized.
If you’ve been to Haystreet after DragonTree you’ll have seen the inn there with running water! There is an attached bath with a dryer!
Why do so many goblins stink of their tartek when the Alliance allows such great cleanliness? I know after a day at print (our newsletter has bids out to the League and Guild for help reducing prices for you our fair reader) I will use that bath of warm water.
At Carnival you’ve seen the Sparklers. They contain joy in their little packets. The Sisterhood is a group that takes that type of energy and applies it to more than just entertainment. The Alchems are busy foraging the rocks, vegetation, and even animal waste of our lands to find new ways to create violence. Their inventions are on par with many of the magicks of Dragons, in a way that can be taught and handed over.
This Sisterhood will not share their methods of creation. They make the Sparklers look like a newspaper since the Alchms refuse to be public in how they operate.
Also, they hate the Tarteks Federation. Supposedly these groups could be the unified, there’s some sort of familial break that has nothing to do with the teknology used.
You know the smell by know. Using their tar-trees the goblins have changed the air and water in Kirtin-on-the-Lake, maybe forever. They burn this sticky oil and create self-powered cycles, no pedaling needed. Like the Sisterhood, The Federation are reclusive.
This lack of information seems to be how the gobs keep their strength and respect. A combination of Tartek and Airxip work is what enabled the gobkon to cross the Teeth of Sheljar and, as they claim, return to their lands.
Those massive ships travel the air, floating above the rapids of rivers, the mountain passes, the brigands and bandits. Their ‘airxips’ are barely related to Daoud’s large galleons. Some of the airxips cannot even land in the waters of Kin! They must have towers or long rope ladders to interact with the grounds below.
Bladders may be filled with the works of Alchems, Tarteks, or even Airmatics. Each insists their techniques are best. This author does not know which is best. The xips and gliders of the Syndicate enable travel and connection to communities in ways that our horses cannot. Sheljar’s connection to Hagtown shouldn’t be possible. It is just uphill from us, but due to regular visits from the Syndicate it maintains a relationship to the Free City rather than Kirtin or Daoud as it was in the past.
These transports are stunning, if slow. I have booked a ride to go to Kirtin-in-the-Sky for the summer as my first test of what the Syndicate can do. Hopefully the stalemate between rebel, Daoud, Kirtin, and the Dragons will hold until after my report.
Additional reporting was provided by allies and sources within Hagtown, Sheljar, and Telse. Those sources will not be revealed.
This year D&D Live is a hybrid in-studio and remote set of product reveals and streamed actual plays, all hosted by G4. Yes, that’s the same G4 that nerds of a certain age remember for things like Attack of the Show and X-Play. The power of nerd-nostalgia and the open embrace of our culture means that Comcast-NBC are bringing back the station dedicated to video games, role playing games, and other aspects of the nerd life.
It also means that the partnership with G4 is putting D&D on Peacock, NBC’s streaming service. D&D Live will also be on G4 and D&D’s YouTube and Twitch channels.
Running Friday and Saturday this weekend from Noon to 9 PM PT D&D Live will reveal a new product, expand on two other product reveals, host a concert, include several celeb-laden actual plays, and other staff. It’s packed like a convention and you can watch from home.
There are three more books coming out in 2021, and one has yet to be revealed. That reveal opens the show on Friday. What is known so far is that James Wyatt is the lead on the project and that the Unearthed Arcana exploring some Dragons have yet to be used.
Plus, Wyatt was part of the Magic the Gathering: Adventures in Forgotten Realms dev team, which features a dragon-monk, Bahamut. There is also some not-yet used exploration of Drow cultures.
The book almost certainly includes Dragon themes, and might have those Drow themes too. It is reasonable to think that this project is similar to Volo’s Guide, but with a tighter focus.
There will be more about the Strixhaven and Witchlight books as well. Both getting a full hour to expand on what little we know so far about the setting and adventure books that are planned.
Which Live Show to Watch?
All of them. duh. No, but seriously, the live show to watch depends on what celebs you want to see or what DMs you enjoy.
I happen to be a Kevin Smith fan, so I’ll be watching the comedy laden show. There’s one with the cast of AP Bio, one with WWE stars. And, of course, there is a table with the stars of G4, which I’ll watch because sometimes I want to remember when I was young.
Yep! There’s another cooking demonstration from Heroes’ Feast (one of the best selling cookbooks of 2020). A concert by Jason Charles Miller, the next steps in the Dungeon Master’s Challenge, cosplay, and the event close usually mentions another product in about a single line just before they go dark.
It’s going to be exciting to see this nerdy hobby that used to hide in basements have the light of a full TV network on it for two days. My wife’s going to have to put up with a lot of D&D on the TV, not just on a phone.
As Always, Maps
DMs can always use more maps. Here’s a couple that interested me.
Combing magic with an emergent technology these workers of fire are usually about celebration and frivolity. They remain rare in most D&D worlds. When they work they are paid quite well. But outside of the largest communities there is little need for a Sparkler. For this reason they often travel in a small group of other Sparklers, attached to a circus, or maybe even part of an empires retinue.
This Dungeons & Dragons background is designed for 5th edition. It also adds a new tool (using PHB rules) and a new exotic weapon. The Sparkler grants a cantrip rather than one of the skills and tools/languages that are typical of backgrounds.
You are a master of smokepowder or gunpowder as appropriate to your world. Using these powders you can create displays to inspire or scare thinking beings. As a Sparkler you have also learned how to combine these effects with magic, thereby increasing the the scope of your art.
Often hired as an entertainer the Sparkler is in high demand during festival season. Due to wandering between large and/or rich communities your close friends tend to be the other Sparklers and your hosts.
Your knowledge of the powders is often approached as a magic much more powerful than it is, because it is both different and rare. Most Sparklers hide this knowledge from the general public working in secret except during their performances. Some Sparklers specialize in aerial displays, others in massive thunderous noises, and a few even weave the illuminating powder into their fluid dances and twirling — all are artists.
Skill Proficiencies: Acrobatics or Performance Tool Proficiencies: Fireworks Languages: None Cantrip: Minor Illusion Equipment: Traveler’s Clothes, Costume, flint & steel, assorted fireworks including 3 rockets all stored in an oilcloth backpack, pouch with 5 gp
Feature: Ooohs and Ahhhhhs
Given a few minutes to prepare, you can create a wonderous display of lights and sounds that can serve as a distraction. This display may be augmented by your Minor Illusion. This display can serve as a distraction for some guards, as inspiration for a besieged city, or as a reward for those who have worked hard. The display, whether spells are used or not, feels supernatural to those who watch it.
Characteristics: For now, use those from the Entertainer, Guild Artisan, or pick & choose as appropriate for your concept. Whenever my background project sees full publication there will be unique characteristics for each of them.
Fireworks (Tool)
Cost: 150 gp | Weight: 20 lbs
Proficiency with fireworks means that you know how to safely store and transport the pseudomagical devices known as fireworks. You are also proficient in how to set up a small display that would entertain a group for a few minutes. This could be an aerial, ground, or sound based display — or a mix of all three. Larger displays would require several people proficient in the tool to work together.
Additionally you know how to create more fireworks. With the necessary supplies you can create a new display or three rockets during a long rest. The supplies may not be readily available.
*On a hit those within 5′ of the target must succeed on a saving throw or take half damage.
All awakened rodents are proficient in rockets.
Sparkler Design Goals
The desire here is to have a real-world, culture-neutral version of a fireworks specialist. The primary example of these in fiction is the Illuminators from the Wheel of Time series, which share some aspects of Romany culture and some from aspects from various northeast Asian cultures.
Additionally the Sparkler serves to introduce a new tool and a new weapon to the game. The Rocket varies from the standard firearms rules by being a charge on a stick that would be pointed at a target either held in the hand or planted in ground, and then lit. Players may develop other ways to use them rather than just as a first round attack.
Custom Backgrounds for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons
Throughout the Covd-19 pandemic libraries and community centers have had to find new ways to keep their communities connected and informed. Virtual D&D has been quite popular with libraries around the US and Canada. Now that pandemic-related restrictions are being reduced, in-person play of Dungeons and Dragons is starting to ramp up. The game has been especially important for school-age children who lose the connections that schools traditionally build.
Newspapers, magazines, and websites around the world are covering the booming phenomena, and not calling it a Satanic ritual that leads to murder.
Today’s Lore Collage is focused on playing the game in libraries, other community spaces, and advice for players and dungeon masters.
With so many people picking up this intimidating hobby there are a lot of questions about how to play. Much of that can be answered by watching or listening to actual plays on YouTube, Twitch, or your favorite podcasting app. But, some people are like me, readers, so here’s some general Dungeons & Dragons advice.
There was a ton of news about tabletop Dungeons and Dragons last week, and hints at much more this week. The Week of Legend Lore announced two new books, some Dark Alliance news, and the 300th episode of Dragon Talk included the announcement of D&D Celebration from Sept. 24-26. The buildup to Celebration includes a contest for the Best DM in D&D.
D&D Live is being presented by G4 on July 16 and 17. That’s when the flood of details about The Wild Beyond the Witchlight will come out, and probable a few other tabletop D&D news items.
On Tabletop Tuesday my focus is on the two new books, and what intrigues me about them.
Right up front, I have to admit that during the pandemic I turned into a near nightly player of Magic: The Gathering Arena. I’m already a bit familiar with the lore around Strixhaven thanks to that. The card game got me quite interested in the magical university. Seeing how it transforms into a D&D world excites me. But there are a few reasons I’m more excited for Strixhaven than I was Theros or Ravnica.
Coming of Age stories are common in the mage school trope. Whether you enjoy Winx Saga, The Magicians, or that more famous property all of them capture that middle school to college vibe of discovering who you are. That genre has not yet been a focus of D&D.
Zero-to-Hero tales are related to that, and D&D as a leveling game embraces those quite well. Strixhaven has a solid mix of card strength so it does this too (some other MtG planes focus on big mana and others on small).
The Space for Mundane Students lets those that aren’t magical join your party. Where Potterworld just uses the mundane as an excuse for discrimination and The Magicians basically ignores them, Strixhaven is more like Winx in that non-casters are included (even if only mildly so). These warriors and such help defend the school from threats. Not every D&D party member needs to cast spells.
I miss college (DLI). Those stresses were different than the stresses I have no. Exploring some of them through the lens of D&D will be fun, and different from how I explored them playing Vampire on the streets of Pacific Grove, CA in the mid-90s.
Alt cover by Hydro74 will be available in local stores
The next adventure from Wizards of the Coast is a jaunt to the feywild. Details at this time are still fairly sparse, but there is a fey carnival run by Mr. Witch and Mr. Light, that parallels the carnival in Ravenloft. This is lower on my purchase spectrum, mainly because I don’t want to be tempted into spoilers for an adventure in which I want to play. But, I still want it.
The World of the Everflow treats dragons, elves, dwarves, gnomes, and other inherently magical thinking beings as Fey. Witchlight can help me refine those other-earthly mindsets for my world.
The pseudo-Victorian look reminds me of Carnival Row. Having literature and shows that echo D&D helps me embrace the themes. It also helps when you pitch the adventure to people who don’t know D&D.
Anthropomorphic animals are fun. Back in the early 90s I played Albedo. The first fantasy series I read to completion was Narnia. Sweet Tooth is one of the best fantasy series of the modern era. Players looking for angles based on those elements will probably have them as the UA released with Feywild in its title had a rabbitfolk and owlfolk (this is probably also going to be in Strixhaven).
There’s still more Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft reactions
From the official D&D blog talking about how 5e Ravenloft is more an exploration of genre buy-in rather than a power battle between players and monsters, to a Nerdists guide to how to run horror when you don’t like horror, the book is still being unwrapped. If you need help understanding the Domains of Dread there is little better than Black Dice Society. Watch a couple episodes before you run a campaign set in the Mists.
Delve into the dungeons' depths with the Dungeon Master's Screen: Dungeon Kit!
This kit includes geomorph cards for dungeon planning, illustrated condition & initiative cards, customizable dry-erase sheet, & more. Available August, 17th!
Once upon a time the changes to Drow were expected to be the big news around D&D this summer. Those are now on the backburner a bit. They look intriguing.
Also, if you are a Patron of Deven Rue you can submit to have her make a map. Yes, I’m submitting, two areas in fact. One with be the bridge-city of Fort Ooshar and the other the region around Kirtin-on-the-Lake.
