Tag: Dungeons and Dragons

  • Lore Collage: Will Rich Delia re-join Daley & Goldstein in the D&D movie, 25 other links to read-watch-listen

    Lore Collage: Will Rich Delia re-join Daley & Goldstein in the D&D movie, 25 other links to read-watch-listen

    At this point the amount of Dungeons & Dragons movie news coming out might need it gets its own mini-collage every week. With the move from pre-production to actual filming you should expect a flood of actor announcements and leaks. There are no secrets in Hollywood.

    This week’s Lore Collage is heavy on inspiration and I would love to know what direction you are taking those little seeds.

    Official D&D Products Releases and Reviews

    Supposedly Chris Pine is playing a human named Edgin in the D&D movie. Expectations are that the casting director will be Rich Delia, who worked with directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein on Game Night. Delia’s genre credentials include The Curse of la Llorona, Shazam!, Brightburn, Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, Stargirl, as well as upcoming projects like Mortal Kombat, King Richard, Black Adam and The Flash.

    According to Newsweek, Heroes’ Feast was the best selling cookbook of 2020 (up to Dec 2) and the 3rd best selling How To/Advice book this year. Yes, you read that right, a D&D food book outsold an HGTV star and Food Network’s Barefoot Contessa

    Another blogger discovers that fluff is part of the game as well. There’s a consistent debate among those who are online right now, just check the comments.

    As Nerdarchy discusses, story took a huge step forward in Xanathar’s Guide, but in Tasha’s it came to the forefront. There’s no surprise that I agree.

    Morrus reviewed the top stories on ENWorld in 2020.

    There’s a lot more Eberron coming. For our purposes anything from Baker and his team is considered official.

    D&D During the Pandemic

    Baltimore County Public Libraries are hosting D&D.

    Dungeons, Dragons, and Mainstream News

    Volume One out in Wisconsin interviews a D&D player who became a dice creating artist. Soulbound Dice also make amazing jewelry inspired by dice.

    The Santa Fe Examiner’s annual 12 things to do in the winter suggests that you pick up pen, paper, and dice. Ignore the video games, and tell stories together.

    Slay virtual meetings like a Dungeon Master – Forbes.

    Inspiration for Your Next Adventure

    When the Bad Guys Win, this month’s blog carnival is all about villains and what to do when heroes lose.

    Next time you face off against a Giant Croc, understand that they were real. The Swamp King lived 3 million+ years ago and was 16 feet long.

    https://twitter.com/bthorne/status/1342618502658584577

    These sounds of the souk can enliven sessions set in MENACA and similar spaces.

    Your gameworld should have fast food. Walkup and cart-based food vendors were common prior to the modern era. Embrace that. In Pompeii hot food was lowered, bowl and all, into the stonework counters of their walkup restaurants.

    Ramps that ease access for the disabled are not a 20th century invention. Your worlds should include these too. Be more like the Greeks.

    Lox is the oldest English word that has kept both meaning and pronunciation. That let’s us know that the proto-English speakers came from a place where salmon was a regular dish.

    Your next underwater adventure better include a punchy octopus.

    https://twitter.com/OctoEduardo/status/1340076667696533511

    FanWraps D&D Inspired Shirts

    https://twitter.com/bedirthan/status/1333449094828703744

    Other Geek Stuff

    The Battle Between Success, Improvement, and Options in ttRPGs

    The latest art drop from Swordsfall is of an illicit market that is never in the same place twice. I see that image and want to start shopping.

    Jon Peterson’s latest big is a study on how Role-Playing Games became Role-Playing Games. His previous works in our realm are Art & Arcana and Heroes’ Feast.

    As Always, Maps

    https://twitter.com/fantasy_map/status/1342698435875643394
  • Darius Dondermonger – inspired by dragons and cheese.

    Darius Dondermonger – inspired by dragons and cheese.

    Character concepts come from all sorts of places. Sometimes they grow over years, tended like a rare flower they sprout and bloom after long care. Then there are those that burst forth from your mind to page (actual or digital) in a flurry.

    Darius Dondermonger came into being when two roads combined. The first road originated some time ago, when the D&D released the Drakewarden. Dragons are quite important in the World of the Everflow, so I knew I would revisit the Drakewarden. The second road came when grocery shopping. We needed cheese, lots of cheeses. Yes, we’re fans of charcuterie. These roads merged when reading about Dragon’s Milk Stout’s web-RPG release. As often happens, flavor started to inspire the story.

    The Chef Feat in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is quite useful for someone who latches onto flavors like this. That pushed towards a Variant Human so that the foods he creates can help heal and/or inspire his companions towards greatness.

    Darius Dondermonger kept growing. From a legacy family in a small village, Darius was to be the head of household and manage the ageing of grana (think Parmesean and similar cheeses). Some of these for decades. They use adjuncts at times. That is what sent him to the forests and hills of the area.

    https://twitter.com/bedirthan/status/1341918231880032256

    He is also flawed. Not only does he prefer the hunt for herbs and the like to management, he also prefers the making of cheese to business. That’s part of why he rejects the full family name. The other part is that he does not feel he’s earned that name, for he has lost something special to them.

    Lastly, he took on Dunder, due to his companion’s, and later his own, connection to thunder & lightning.

    He is more than just a ranger, more than just a cheesemonger specializing in aged cheeses – Darius Dondermonger has a small dragon companion and has discovered that he is also part dragon. The family’s most exclusive grana comes from their age-old connection to drakes, wyverns, and all of dragonkind.

    That same blood compels Darius to travel away from town, for someone with his powers cannot just work the books of Amberhearth and Highwall’s greatest cheese makers. Someone with the blood of dragons must, must, pursue a grander destiny — and also find that which they’ve lost.

  • Lore Collage: More D&D movie news, Stranger Things cast plays D&D, gift ideas, and 28 other things to read and watch

    Lore Collage: More D&D movie news, Stranger Things cast plays D&D, gift ideas, and 28 other things to read and watch

    As we’re speeding towards the peak holiday season there is more news about the Dungeons and Dragons movie, a monster manual of dad jokes, a few gift ideas, things to inspire your own adventures and more. This week’s Lore Collage also includes the Stranger Things one-shot adventure run by Chris Perkins.

    Official D&D Products Releases and Reviews

    The D&D movie already has its studio space over in Belfast. Titanic Studios was made famous in fantasy circles as one of the studios involved in Game of Thrones. Speculators are going to speculate – can it be as popular as Lord of the Rings?

    Here’s some guidance on how to play the Satyr from Odyssey of Theros.

    His last effort as a DMs Guild Adept combines Dad Jokes and the Monster Manual. The Print on Demand version is on my wish list already.

    FanWraps D&D Inspired Shirts and Other Gift Ideas

    https://twitter.com/bedirthan/status/1333449094828703744

    Kobold Press has Free Shipping from their warren to yours.

    David Flor has a fun little adventure about an Abyssal Snowman?!

    This sports inspired Swordsfall Logo is awesome.

    Check the Full Moon Storytelling for more last minute gift ideas. With the broken Postal Service this year everything is going to be late, so you won’t have to make excuses.

    D&D During the Pandemic

    Spartanburg County Public Libraries are hosting virtual D&D. For more info on libraries and other civic institutions hosting the game follow my twitter thread.

    As a fan of Friendly Local Gaming Stores, there’s joy in seeing local news cover an FLGS – in this case out in Lansing, MI.

    Inspiration for Your Next Adventure

    Dinosaurs with spines on their neck? The real world can help you create Beasts and Monstrosities. Your players won’t even know that they aren’t real.

    SlyFlourish has advice on how to run a minimal prep sessions, even tighter than his Lazy Dungeon Master series.

    Twenty awesome free adventures to help you spend the winter indoors.

    When creating your worldspace remember that in the real world, even in 400 CE, people were connected. A Roman woman in London wore Chinese silks.

    You can use a DC0 check to ungate information. This technique means there are no blocks on the adventure and that players with big bonuses still have advantages.

    https://glassgrimoire.com/2020/12/19/leo-in-icewind-dale/
    Some Icewind Dale art to inspire you.

    This is what a Dungeoneer’s Pack looks like.

    https://twitter.com/CreativeBates/status/1340294757864640512

    How do Gnomes make music?

    https://twitter.com/scott_kerr/status/1340399932893782019

    Wintery locations to host your wintery adventures.

    Dungeons, Dragons, and Mainstream News

    Parsing Joe Manganiello’s appearances means DragonLance? Joe can’t stop talking about D&D while promoting his not-D&D movie. At this point there’s probably no one doing more to mainstream our favorite game.

    Another local paper editorialist talks about D&D.

    Other Geek Stuff, not D&D

    Solve this dungeon RPG and get great beer.

    Firefly might be back, sadly as a reboot that targets a younger age group.

    As Always, Maps

    https://twitter.com/Lerb_Ash/status/1335002151815409665
    https://twitter.com/danialrashidi/status/1340439433145946112
  • Queen and Konstruct: A Goblin’s Lyfe

    Queen and Konstruct: A Goblin’s Lyfe

    There are two important things in a goblin’s lyfe. I’m talking about all of us, the gobkon, the hobkon, the mulkon — all of us — our relationship to the Queen and our Guild. This is hard for you humans, with all your divergent nations and cities and faiths and disgusting menagerie animals to understand.

    Goblin
    By creanita design und ausführung by nina saner (CC BY-SA 2.0)

    I’m a printer, part of the Ratxet Guild. My engines run on the power of muls (best!) or whoever else I can hire. The clockwerks give that comforting noise as sheaf and stamp press against each other leaving words behind.

    We’re into gears, mostly. But also some other interesting clockwerks. Frankly, we do better with springs than the Union does. Sure, they’ve the Queens’ Stamp – so we cannot sell to others. In our builds we don’t buy from the Union anymore.

    My first engine was a climbing device. Lean it up against a feral tar-tree and you’ll be able to get to the top on a platform to work that tree with nary your own effort. It was a tough build, because I needed it to be strong enough for a hob. Without a brother there were no hobs to help me. Sis rode atop my shoulders during the entire testing phase.

    At Test it showed a new mechanic for the tar-tree. A Baroness blessed the family via flag and decree. Mother’s standing improved, and the full family took on that glory.

    Now, sister is part of the Airxip Syndicate. They’re relatively new. Taking our bike-props and bladders from the Sisterhood, and the Federation’s tar stacks, the Syndicate built those awesome airxips. I don’t understand her werk. There’s something about steampipes. She’s done well for mother. Her flags came from a Countess, one for her and one for mother. Blerxa left on the First Flight with me.

    I’m Phatha Phioxa Baroness-flagged of the Guild. Sis is Blerxa Phioxa First-Countess Flagged and Many Unfurled of the Syndicate.

    We are what we build and how much the Ladies, may they serve the Queen, reward us for our werks.

    A few more daughters like us and mother could be a Lady. If Blerxa and I hadn’t left for the untamed lands of the Kin Blerx may have earned mother the knighting on her own.

    Our werks are trapped from knowing since we are far from Queen, so I expect mother to have a few more gobkon. Maybe I’ll find out if I go back, not until after I figure out how to use the power of horses in my next werk. They smell, but they are even stronger than mulgobs.

  • Accepting Failure in D&D

    Accepting Failure in D&D

    Whether it’s a critical failure (the dreaded 1 in combat) or forgetting your own abilities leading to tactical error every character will have to deal with defeat at some point, likely often if you aren’t into optimization. These losses are an opportunity.

    Not all tales of heroes are about victory. Within pain and failure is the contrast to success.

    Recently, in the final battle within Lost Mine of Phandelver the party was completely overwhelmed. We knew of 14 opponents, to include the adventure’s final boss. There are 7 of us. Awf is overconfident by nature. As a Hill Dwarf Bladesinger he wades into the frontlines accepting damage as part of raison d’être.

    The problem with that became rapidly apparent as he attempted a rear guard action. Eventually four different bugbears were piling on the broadshouldered dwarf. No one was surprised when he fell unconscious and took a death save from another attack.

    Norran, our Half-elf Assassin, slid through the traffic of combat to administer the only healing potion available in that part of combat. With the party split things looked dire for the rear guard group. Bring Awf back up gives Norran and Ambrose, Half-orc Beastmaster, and Awf a bit of hope, when things seem hopeless.

    Our session ended in mid combat – and that’s when I remembered that Awf has a Staff of Defense.

    AFTER taking numerous blows that dropped him. Through poor play as a player, I forgot about Awf’s 8 charges of Shield that he could use as reactions to limit the battering his body took.

    It’s a dumb error.

    Except, upon review it is exactly the type of error that Awf Hornjaw et Loragwyn would make in combat. It’s part of who he is and how he operates. My error was in fact playing to type.

    Personality Traits
    I enjoy being strong and like breaking things.
    I face problems head-on. A simple, direct solution is the best path to success.

    From Awf’s Background

    And this is where embracing the failure becomes an epic tale. In next week’s session Awf’s overconfidence will disappear. Every single turn a Shield spell will be used to protect either himself or his companions that he placed in danger. Rising from his stupor he learned.

    Being in danger is part of the joy of role-playing combats. There will be times that the danger is overwhelming.

    Now, due to failure Awf will have a fireside tale that isn’t just about the failure, but also about the success. The mistake of the player will become the character’s epic song.