When I step away from reality for a few days, playing D&D is difficult. Visiting family or friends isn’t the best time to schedule a Dungeons & Dragons game (except for when it is). But that space away from the table is also fuel for new ideas (the Vintner Background is on its way). Dungeon Mayhem was also a great way to get light-D&D themes while playing with single-digit kids.
Whenever I visit a town I stop by a local café, a local brewery/winery, and their local gaming store. Book & Game was stocked full of D&D.
On Tuesdays Lore Collage focuses on the D&D game of dice and paper.
D&D’s best year ever (Forbes, PC Gamer) isn’t expected to lead to a slow down. It’s part of a planned slow-growth design that was amplified by the covid-19 pandemic.
“From the outside, D&D looks like math,” he added. “But you watch people livestreaming D&D, and you think, ‘it’s a group of friends drinking beer and making each other laugh. I didn’t know there was a game for that.’ It really helps make it more approachable. The game’s a sort of social lubricant.”
Wizards’ own streaming show, D&D Live, is scheduled for July 16-17, billed as a special two-day event. Its schedule includes interviews, special product announcement, and a Dungeon Masters’ roundtable discussion, but is centered around four “star-studded” live-play games. The exact lineup for this year’s games has yet to be announced at time of writing.
This program is aimed at complete groups (6 players) looking for specific games, at specific times, and perhaps even with a specific DM. This is not for single players trying to make the perfect schedule (that makes my head hurt). For our initial beta of the program we are going to limit it to a handful of groups to work out the kinks and make sure we are offering what you want, that it is scalable and repeatable, and that the program has value.
Product release day is always fun. It’s an excuse to visit your local gaming store (my recommendations are Wizards Keep Games in Renton, Shane’s Cards and Games in Renton, Tacoma Games, Mox Boarding House in Seattle/Bellevue/Portland, Book & Game in Walla Walla). Yes, it costs a bit more. But frankly, I enjoy talking to other nerds, seeing a few dice, and helping these stores survived the covid-19 pandemic is important to me. Amazon won’t fail, but my neighbors might.
G4 is supporting @StackUpDotOrg and their care package giveaway to two lucky veterans in celebration of Mental Health Awareness Month! It might not contain our golden briefcase, but it is still packed with our appreciated appreciation.https://t.co/Y81j0U9JW8pic.twitter.com/E4qQAnMBLc
While it isn’t the focus of the story, I’m a sucker for mainstream mentions of the game. NPR’s Morning Edition talked to the rapper, and it starts with D&D.
As a rapper, the Twin Cities-based artist Matt Allen goes by Nur-D – and the name kind of fits. “It’s something embedded into my soul,” Allen tells Morning Edition. “Comics, Dungeons & Dragons, professional wrestling….”
As always, maps
Making a battlemap of the catwalks of Skullport on photoshop… using @2minutetabletop assets and another battlemap blurred on the bottom for depth. pic.twitter.com/g4v2dw4x4K
Visit the Xiousing District of the Cormyrian port city Marsember in my newly added map from Dungeon Magazine #195. Prints & downloads now available at https://t.co/18ssOokrLa. RT & keep exploring! pic.twitter.com/eimxduDHkV
Breaking up Lore Collage helps me spread the love to third-party creators a bit more. They aren’t buried, instead featured. Podcasts, mapmakers, settings creators, expansions and more — there’s so much 5e stuff out there. These are my favorite discoveries of the week.
Dark Dice inks Jeff Goldblum
Dark Dice is a long running podcast that is part actual play, part radio play. Their latest season added Jeff Goldblum. Yes, the same Goldblum you’re thinking of already. It’s a huge get for the small podcast. The coverage included Deadline, Yahoo, and Polygon.
I guess it’s time for me to give it some time. I’ve enjoyed the radio play stylings of Godsfall, so I’m ready for more as the radio nerd I used to be.
Level Up Journeys
The latest playtest from Level Up is dedicated to the exploration pillar of play. The expansion of just journeys is enormous, and a compelling addition to any table. The stories which inspired D&D include so much detail about journeys, your game shouldn’t cut those moments down to two sentences.
Every wanderer needs a God
Deven Rue makes more than maps. She seeds stories inspired by her maps. One of those latest seeds is a Goddess of Maps. The Wandering Mistress guides those who travel for any reason. Add the Mistress to your world and you gain a deity, a guild and several boons.
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.
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.
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
Event Grid for the May Virtual D&D Weekend? Why of course.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
What happens when the lich doesn't follow the Ikea dungeon assembly directions properly…
The quiet little cottage sits on the lakeside, smoke billowing from the chimney and plants steadily growing from the personal garden tucked away on the side. Wouldn't you like to come for a swim? pic.twitter.com/qW95JhJcow
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.
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
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.
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.
Add fjords and mountains carved by gods to your game.
Greetings, worldbuilders! Today I have released a new unmarked region map for you to use as a canvas. Worldbuilding pop quiz – What do you imagine the dominant export might be?
This map has an old school styling to it. I want to move to this town.
Ultimo Riparo, by Simkin
"a map I made for my own campaign. Ultimo Riparo is the last town in the north of the Nordarn Kingdom. Far away from the limit, between this village and Ironclaw ther is a big wild and dangerous plateau…"https://t.co/WUBeVFrId5pic.twitter.com/unSuOjfXca
