The East marched on West Thundermoon Trading Post.
Wrapping up a typical day, Keesrah noticed a thick, acrid cloud coming from the east. At the same time a not-unusual goliath walked up the packed dirt road from the south.
The goliath, Guarase Spinebloom, reached the gates of the wooden palisade enclosure a few minutes before the smog buggy. Keesrah starts closing the doors.
The smog buggy encounter was one of three random encounters rolled by the three players taking part in today's session.
In a thick accent, the boss of the smog buggy, a goblin with driver and second passenger, demands/requests entry to escape “fire snakes.”
Keesrah messages her mother. This takes nearly a minute because it is the spell. She opens the gate and lets the rancid smoke engulfed clackety buggy into the trading post.
Mere feet behind them are fire snakes.
This was not a euphemism. They are snakes, made of fire.
Fire snakes were also rolled on the random encounter chart.
The fight is swift with another Trading Post visitor, a halfling with six tiny terrier companions, Luke with a silent and non-appearing q in his name. Luke is a cleric and joins in the defense. He was picking up farm implements from Keesrah’s father, a smith whose forge burns over an open lava seam.
Luke, Keesrah and Guarase try to defend these goblins. They have difficulty conversing with the goblins. Though the goblins know common (Telsian as we’re using cultures not languages)the two dialects known aren’t similar between the Ferments-born and the Essians (goblin born).
A unique use of Create Water by Luke reduces the fire snake effectiveness for a round, while also limiting the spread of fire in the walls.
During the fight the fire snakes kill one of the goblin minions and damage everyone, as well as a bit of the palisade. It’s a win, but with a hefty loss.
A mistake the DM, me, made was having four fire snakes. Standard fire snakes have too many hit points for three 1st level characters, even with their allies.
As soon as I realized the error I dropped them to 13 or 14 HP. That meant the fight was very difficult, but not a campaign ender.
A morale roll means that the smog buggy driver will likely never leave the trading post again. Their best friend is gone, burnt. Malk, the goblin boss needs to repair their buggy, which is also crispy, and find a crew and find the resources to use as fuel. The goblins normally use tar trees, but outside of Essia those are extremely rare.
Malk and Keesrah’s father talk about the possibility of using lava to fuel the smog buggy.
After a bit of rest, and setting up a guard by Keesrah’s family the group tries to recover. They talk a bit.
Looking around the Post they notice the overflight of dozens of hunting birds. The Maltunyn family rivals up in the hills almost always bond with birds. At a heightened alert, the group of Luke, Guarase and Keesrah notice that one of the smaller doors out to the game trails is open. Keesrah’s younger brother is gone.
The overflight was the third random encounter rolled.
Key learnings (SlyFlourish would call these secrets).
Goblins are searching The Ferments for a resource that can fuel their smog-tek.
Fire snakes are now aggressive, rather than passive. They will chase outsiders in the area.
Keesrah’s brother snuck out at night. That raised an alert from the adversarial clan nearby.
Community helps community. No matter the challenge and the danger.
It is an experiment in using random encounters, defensible places, and a West Marches style to talk about community, control of knowledge and love of pets.
One of the tenets of Dungeons & Dragons is that your character can be anything. Well nearly anything. There are certain limitations on species, mostly due to fantasy tropes. Those continue to expand. The embrace of characters with crutches, wheelchairs, and other ambulatory aids continues. Official books always include art showing these samples.
While the movement towards inclusion of disabled people as potential heroes is slow. It is there. This is wonderful. Because everyone deserves representation. Everyone should have the choice to see themselves as a hero.
Me? I wear glasses. Have all my life. This includes when I was a cartoon superhero as a linguist in the 5th Special Forces. On the range? Glasses. Jumping out of airplanes? Glasses. Setting det-cord? Glasses. Giving an IV? Glasses.
But how would my character where glasses? How could I play this?
My next D&D character is a glasses wearer. They carry dozens of lenses for varied uses. One of the land’s best archers, they can shoot a bee’s nest at 300 lengths. Once a truffle hunter always paying attention what was close, they now look afar, constantly.
There’s no rules for wearing glasses. The fix is simple. The worlds of D&D have magnifying glasses (100 gp, can start fires) and spyglasses (1000 gp, doubles size of object). So grinding glass isn’t a problem within typical D&D. Neither is the construction of simple frames. In the real world glasses as we know them date to the 13th century.
Eyeglasses or Spectacles
Type: Adventuring Gear | Cost: 25 gp* | Weight: — Wearers of eyeglasses or spectacles have their vision corrected to normal within the world.
* any player who wants to start their character with lenses should be permitted at no cost.
Now, you may ask — what happens if they get knocked off?
First, I say? Whatever. No, seriously, is your game a constant barrage of disarming player characters of their weapons, shields, and spell components? If not, then don’t worry about it. If you do run that kind of game, then use the same rules for other disarms and expect that characters would carry an extra set of lenses, as I did when I was a cartoon superhero. Maybe their next attack is at disadvantage if you feel cruelty is necessary in your game of heroics.
Those rules are rather unnecessary. My glasses fell off only once during training exercises that involved nearly the highest level of training in the US Army (I was SOT-A, not tabbed).
Hero Forge, DM Heroes, ReRoll, Never Ending all have glasses options for art. Currently DnD Beyond does not have character art with glasses, but many of the 2024 books do.
My next D&D Character is bespectacled. They wear lens to correct their poor eyesight. Not a nerd, just a person who lives life with lenses on their face. They slay dragons with a giant sword and use their shield to protect their friends.
Somewhat overshadowed by the release of several high-fantasy systems not based in 5e D&D is that Wizards of the Coast has two starter sets, a two-book/three-pdf Forgotten Realms set, and Eberron expansion coming out from September through the holidays.
Additionally, other 5e systems inspired by D&D are also cranking right now.
There’s a plethora of choice, right as genre TV’s most D&D related property is coming back — Stranger Things season 5 releases Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s in the U.S. Several of the early monsters based on Dungeons & Dragons are making a comeback.
Your normie (non-RPG) friends may be interested in the game again thanks to the combination of product releases, the Mighty Nein release, Stranger Things and the general zeitgeist around being big heroes with power in a world where that feels missing.
What game or books are the right system for them right now?
If you read Full Moon Storytelling it is likely that you are a DM/GM. It’s also likely that you lean towards 5e D&D. That will be the focus, with a small discussion of the other systems capturing attention (million dollar+ Kickstarters and the like).
Are you the GM/DM?
Go with what you like best, what fits your world, and be welcoming. Cut back on house rules and homebrew, at first, as the people who are new to the game can be overwhelmed with normal rule sets that can stretch to 1,000 pages.
Fold the new invitees into your world by asking them what they enjoy about high fantasy roleplaying. Finding out what your table’s Appendix N always helps, but it is the most helpful knowing what someone new (or returning from long ago) to the hobby wants.
If they want something simple, but familiar like the D&D of the 80s, but modern there are a few routes. Sticking with 2014 5e one can still get the older starter sets from Target or Amazon. Dragons of Strormwreck Isle is under $16 at Target online, and some physical stores may have it. Check with your local gaming store to see if they are offloading old product.
You can also intro them to 2014 via Kobold Press Tales of the Valiant Starter Set. It is under $14 at the time of publishing. The primary differences between Wizards of the Coast 2014 D&D and Tales of the Valiant lies in Tales having character creation that separates nature and nurture, luck replacing inspiration and the insertion of unique abilities on every monster.
I’d recommend Tales of the Valiant over 2014 D&D because of those changes, even if it doesn’t have the branding your friends expect. It also comes with minis! If Stormwreck Isle is 5.1 5e, ToV is probably 5.3.
Stranger Things: Welcome to the Hellfire Club
Maybe your friends didn’t get into D&D from Stranger Things season 1, or 2, or 3, or 4. Or maybe they did, but didn’t have the time, energy or mental space to play the game.
Welcome to the Hellfire Club uses Wizards of the Coast’s modern take on starter sets — lots of tokens, handouts, cards and a written approach that blurs the line between board game and roleplaying game.
modern take on starter sets — lots of tokens, handouts, cards
The presentation includes a look that borrows from 80s nostalgia as expected. The four adventure books include trade dress that would make Gary Gygax and TSR proud.
This is the second starter set built out of Stranger Things by Wizards of the Coast. Both lean heavily into using the voice of the character from the show that was the featured DM, lean into the mythology of the TV show with its ‘not quite D&D monsters, but monsters that middle/high schoolers would think are D&D monsters.’
The first Stranger Things set was rather linear in nature, which fit the times and works fairly well for people newer to roleplaying. Welcome to the Hellfire Club uses 2024 5e D&D rules.
D&D Starter Set: Heroes of the Borderlands
Similar to Stranger Things pulling out 80s nostalgia to pull people into its world, Wizards of the Coast uses Dungeons & Dragons most popular adventure from the foundational period to inspire its new general purpose Starter Set.
Keep on the Borderlands is now Heroes of the Borderlands, with three adventures. Using 2024 5e D&D’s rules, card-based character creation, tokens and maps, the intent of Heroes is to again bridge that gap between board game night and RPG night.
Because it is 2024’s rules rather than 1974s, the set is massive. Those three little folios that could fit in a small lunchbox are gone. Instead Heroes has more than 400 cards and tokens, a quick start, a set of rules, and three adventures.
The game of D&D is simultaneously more complex and more approachable than it was in the 70s and 80s. Being a more pervasive part of the culture is part of that. Also the decades of exposure to computer RPGs changes how one approaches teaching the game.
Forgotten Realms expansions
A massive two-book, three-digital book expansion coming with the brilliant marketing around “The Realms will know your name” these books aren’t necessarily great for first timers to tabletop roleplaying, unless…
You know people who were heavy into the lore of Baldur’s Gate 3 and/or D&D: Honor Among Thieves and/or the once dominant fantasy novels set in the Realms. Those legends exist within the expansion, but the point of D&D and RPGs in general is to tell your story.
Only dive into this if you are being joined by people who absolutely love those non-tabletop versions of the Forgotten Realms. These expansions include 50 micro-adventures that fit an on-the-fly DM rather well (similar to those in the 2024 DMG).
Those playing with your classic group you need little guidance. If you are using the 2024 D&D rules, or at a table that permits a broad swath of 5e rules, the expansion is handy if you want to borrow factions, subclasses, new species and nuggets of lore to insert into your homebrew.
In total the Realms expansions add about 30% more character creation options while dramatically expanding the story through the lore expansions.
Eberron: Forge of the Artificer
High fantasy doesn’t have to take place in a world that’s pseudo medieval/Renaissance and Euro coded.
It can also include pervasive magic, spread widely among the populace in a world that echoes tropes related to early Industrialization with great Houses, lightning rails, elemental airships and a ‘war to end all wars.’
That’s Eberron.
Forge of the Artificer is a lightweight updated to the setting originally invented by Keith Baker.
Don’t get Forge of the Artificer unless you already have Rising from the Last War or you really want to have the magitech Artificers at your table or you are a completionist. I’ll be getting it for the first two reasons. I’m currently playing a goblin Artificer.
The Artificer in Forge is updated for 2024 with a brand new subclass as well. From what was in the Unearthed Arcana developing this coming version of the Artificer it looks to have the quality of life improvements I would expect.
Other RPGs
LevelUp
LevelUp is built on the 5.1 5e chassis, but advances it. This does make it a more complex version of high fantasy role playing. Some of the greatest improvements come from expanding the social and exploration pillars. This helps tell a wider variety of stories. Like every offshoot of D&D from the 5e era it separates nature and nurture.
There’s now a Starter Set available. Yes, it has tokens and multiple adventure, because that’s what modern starter sets do. EN Publishing’s Starter Set is an excellent way to try on a different version of the game you already know.
Cosmere RPG
If you enjoy Brandon Sanderson’s writing you might enjoy the Cosmere RPG. It is not based on 5e. It is the highest earning RPG kickstarter of all time.
Cosmere is beautiful, complex and the most extensive lore heavy game upon release likely ever.
Draw Steel
While not the level of Kickstarter success of Cosmere, Draw Steel was still a massive earner. The design team from MCDM is mostly people who produced wonderful 5e products, but are now releasing a system that emphasizes combat (tactical, heroic, cinematic) even more than D&D. The rules are crafted so that the feeling of conflicts is a reminder of watching a movie or TV show’s fight scenes.
Daggerheart
If Draw Steel is inspired by D&D, but wanting to be more combat, Daggerheart is inspired by D&D, but wanting to empower more story. Like Draw Steel and Cosmere, Daggerheart is a wholly new system. Most simply defined there is a Hope/Fear mechanic attached to the double-dice roll of players. Additionally it covers more ground about how to communally create the worlds and social interaction. Coming from Critical Role’s Darrington Press Daggerheart is designed to showcase the types of stories Critical Role excelled at.
Similar to Cosmere and D&D there is a wealth of media associated with it already — with more coming from the media arm of what was once a D&D actual play, but is now a multimedia company.
There are plenty of other games too — listing them all is foolhardy. Pathfinder and Starfinder, Legend of the Ring, Warhammer, Shadowdark and the list could go on.
But the zeitgeist right now seems to be focused on 2024 D&D versus a few upstarts with million dollar or more crowdfunding campaigns all coming out in the second half of 2025.
Over the past decade the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons grew three main offshoots from its original 2014 release by Wizards of the Coast. These three trunks are all now in the Creative Commons thanks to Kobold Press’s announcement this week.
A5e is the Systems Reference Document for LevelUp, from EN Publishing. This branch of 5e places much greater emphasis on social and exploration, while also being a more complex combat engine. It’s “advanced” 5e.
2024 D&D by Wizards of the Coast (the 5.2.1 SRD) is an evolution of the most popular version of the game in history. It adds minor layers of complexity, and removes most bioessentialism.
Now, Black Flag, the SRD for Tales of the Valiant is also in the Commons under the CC BY 4.0. The primary changes within Black Flag are replacing Inspiration with Luck, adding Dread and similar to A5e uses both nature and nurture to define an upbringing.
All three modern offshoots add a unique element to every monster. Rather than have merely have bigger numbers, monsters do something different — a Commoner in Black Flag has Angry Mob, while in A5e Commoners have a Stone (they can also be a Group) and in 5.2.1 they have Training.
What can a DM/GM/designer do with all four in the same license?
I am not a lawyer. Nor am I your lawyer. Use an actual lawyer if you have questions and are publishing for money.
Read all relevant SRDs as well as their related FAQs.
Find the place you want fiddle with and become an expert at that before you try to be an expert at everything.
At your home table, borrow liberally from every system. If you don’t find yourself handing out 2014 Inspiration and don’t like 2024 D&D’s mechanical implementation, use Luck from Black Flag. Use everyone’s monsters — they’re balanced enough for the elastic system that is 5e — your players will have fun interacting with different commoners doing different things.
Maybe you’re thinking “that’s nice advice Dave, but what are you going to do?”
Each of the main trunks of 5e do something different from the 2014 version of the game. That’s good! Your table can use a Background from any of the modern versions and there will be no balance issues. That means dozens of more origin stories for your heroes.
For myself it means my eternal project becomes a simple project. A few dozen new Backgrounds with methodology to fit in all four trunks of 5e.
Custom Backgrounds for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons
This week the Tinker is my most popular Background. Tuning it for each version of 5e doesn’t take much.
2014 5e by WotC
It’s already released, but the key point is the feature “I Can Fix It.” The feature helps in exploration situations, mostly, as it means the Tinker will usually have a way to MacGyver there way through a problem even if they don’t have the proper supplies.
2024 5e by WotC
If you leave Ability Score Improvements within the Background rather than have them float the Tinker would choose between Dexterity, Intelligence and Charisma.
Connections – Tinkers might know a caravanserai, an innkeeper, a ferien, a smith, a group of bandits, a sergeant from a warring nation, a local farmer, a maker of fine meed, a faerie that’s a cheesemonger.
Memento – Tinker memento options could include a letter from home, a chapbook of poetry, a metal they’ve never been able to bend or smelt, a strap of leather from their first failed project, the stein from their favorite inn, or a book of cantrips though they don’t know any.
Adventures and Advancement – A Tinker who repaired a notable authority’s broken item may be granted a writ of access granting the Tinker expertise on Persuasion rolls.
Feature – same as the original on Full Moon Storytelling.
Now, these examples are quick looks at a future project that will include the score of Backgrounds already on the site, plus the four Everflow specific Backgrounds that didn’t get their own entry. And more as my reading expands.
With four versions of 5e available in the Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0) how will you create for your table?
It’s also a space full of unpublished drafts. I wouldn’t want to see what drafts I lost when Sounder at Heart left SB Nation. I can still check what SaH has of mine in drafts, but I don’t dare check that. I recently checked my work drafts and even there I have unpublished drafts. Here there are unpublished drafts.
Anyway, I have to blog.
But also I let things get in the way of publishing. Which is frustrating.
It does mean that I don’t need to shave the yak like my friend, but sometimes, maybe I need a bit of a reset. That’s a part of what Lore Collage is. It compels me to write more. Even if I don’t think my words are worthy — I press publish.
While most of my role-play is centered around 5e and similar systems, I like the Ennies as a way to keep me aware of new systems, creators and aids. The 2025 nominee list includes two products I’ve already used (DungeonScrawl and Hero Forge Kitbashing).
If you live in the Puget Sound and Columbia Basins you don’t need to worry about the tiny earthquake swarms under Tahoma. If you are creating a fantasy world, add earthquake swarms as a natural hazard, make them big. See how the characters react to things they cannot fight. Then make them fight an earthquake swarms.
Making Enemies is the next book from The Monsters Know What They’re Doing creator Keith Amman. The way Keith approaches lore based in the short story of a stat block makes me excited to see what he does when he’s teaching me how to make the stat blocks.
Creating an RPG is hard. It takes either an immense amount of talent or a network of people. It probably takes both. PJ Coffey gets into the details of all the tasks that go into publishing a work. I’ve worked with PJ on two of their projects.
A few weeks ago I spoke at a risk intelligence conference about using role playing games as a teaching aid for non practitioners. My search algorithm is working. Both Rascal News and Military.com put out stories that will be part of my next work presentation on the same subject.
There’s always more to learn about sports, and I’m already trying to figure out how to insert tuj lub into my D&D games — I’m big about that too.
Kobold Press has a deal on shipping right now. I’m looking at the Labyrinth Worldbook. It is full of ideas I can borrow into the World of the Everflow. Which would be funny since as a backer for Tales of the Valiant I pitched the World of the Everflow to be included.
Handily, SlyFlourish has a review up.
Creating
Alignment is too simple. Personality traits, ideals, bonds and flaws is too complex. Use short form personality instead — 2-6 words that describe your character.
