My Latest Terrible* DnD Campaign Idea:

I wish more people used Magic the Gathering's Color Pie instead of D&D's alignment all of the time.

Like, saying a character embodies the selfishness and impulsivenes of Red Black offers more depth than Chaotic Evil

Hello! I'd like to share with you a character work game! I call it "Six Secrets" and honestly it's a work in progress but I'm sharing it anyway

List six secrets that your character has.

1 is an open secret

2 is a secret the people close to your character know

3 is a secret that your character wouldn't really care about getting out

4 is a secret exactly one person knows anything about

5 is a secret no one knows about but they sort of want to come out/to tell someone

6 is a secret no one knows and they desperately don't want anyone to know about.

You can also decide who knows and how

The secrets don't have to have anything to do with your actual plot! The secrets can have super low or super high stakes! It doesn't matter! But you will absolutely have a better idea of your character's intentions and state of mind, and you may wind up coming up with some new plot points/obstacles to play with

05.11 - Lakeside Visit

Settlement: Javhintor’s Keel

 Lets get one thing straight, no one sane travels during the winter, not even adventurers. There’s no food to be foraged in the wilderness, which makes for difficult crossings and even more aggressive predators. Likewise, traveling into unpredictable winter weather is suicide for all but the most prepared groups as snow or sleet can make normally hospitable terrain impassable, and exaustion compounds quickly when traveling overland. If you’re a sellsword: find someplace to hunker down where you can still get paid without ranging too far afield, contract work is best, but plenty of settlements will have odd jobs you can make due with in the cold, lean days. 

Dizidel Lek, “A traveler’s guide to not dying like an idiot and having strangers turn over your bones for loose change” , Vol. 4

Adventure Hooks: 

In the dying days of autumn, while considering where they’re going to winter, the party receives an invitation from the Jarl of Javhintor’s Keel, a thriving freehold on the edge of the sea of daggers. She’s heard of their deeds and bravery, and has invited them to enjoy the hospitality of her hall, to share mead and songs and good tidings and to lend their prestige to her own.  A message with great potential to be sure, as such offers of hospitality are often trialruns for offers of more formal oaths of patronage. The exchanging of gifts is a common practice to make such occasions official, but what gift to give a Jarl when you and your friends are but petty sellswords with narry a gold peice to rub together between yourselves?  Why not that beast that’s been rampaging through the countryside nearby ? Hunt it, slay it, stuff it, and present its head(s) to the Jarl as a trophy for her wall and a symbol of the strength you could lend to her cause. 

Once they get to Javhintor’s keel, the DM has an excuse to really let the players dig into a setting, see it develop over their three months of stay, get to know the locals, and become part of the town themselves.  Such distractions may include: 

Exploring wrecks, islands and sea caves along the coast for bitesized dungeon content.

Solving the Mystery behind a haunted lighthouse

Earning the respect of Captian Priska and her crew of reavers, earning an invitation to their next raid on foreign shores, and their own snake-venom tattoo. 

Hunt the mysterious ice-red stag that haunts the forest like a ghost

Make a Pilgramage up to the shrine of Tyr on the tallest peak and see what the god of valor has to say about their prospects

Help a mad fisherman capture a sea-beast that’s encroached on the bay and has been devouring all the fish from his neighbor’s nets. 

Apprentice under one of the many grizzled warriors that make thier home in the keel, learning new fighting techniques

Help a pair of starcrossed traders realize that though they’re fierce business rivals, the oracle’s dire prophecy regarding their competitor was infact a very poorly worded dating advice. 

Prepare for all hearth’s eve, in the Jarl’s palace the biggest festival of the winter solstice. Sneak into the mysterious forbidden wing, and figure out who the hell has stolen all the Hearth’s eve presents! 

Setup:  Jarl Irwyf is a shrewd woman, and in possession of an understanding that led her through her youth as an honored warrior and to her ascension as Jarl of the Keel. She understand that it is a warrior’s reputation that prevents their rivals from encroaching, and that by perusing a path of peace and prosperity for her people, she has dulled her own reputation in exchange. Not some tyrant to wage war on a neighbor just to strengthen her own position, Irwyf seeks to bolster her kingdom’s reputation for might and valor by playing host to the realm’s next generation of heroes. To this end she intends test the party’s character and mettle, bind them to her in loyalty, then send them out into the world to accomplish great deeds that might reflect favorably on her patronage. 

Something however seems intent on sabotaging all her plans. Her winter stores are running out faster than expected, sections of her fortress are overrun with rats, and just as the festivities really kick into gear, something goes and makes off with the food and gifts she’d prepared to bestow upon her courtiers.  A diplomatic disaster waiting to happen, as many of those courtiers are due gifts by tribal right, or else Irwyf will have been considered to have dishonored her subordinates. Her only hope now is to let the party in on her distress, showing her hand as seemingly implacable benefactor in exchange for their aid and discursion. 

Keep reading

Mystery: Butcher in the Backwoods

There’s a reason everyone everyone goes to bed so early out in the country. 

Adventure Hooks: 

The party has come to the small village of Tolthurt, perhaps because they were traveling through the region with a caravan, or because their quest takes them to a dungeon in the nearby wilderness.  After getting out of the rain and arranging lodging for the night ( Tolthurt is so small that it’s inn is more of a common room the party is welcome to lay their bedrolls out on), the party meets with Ralson Rollick, an over-the-hill bard who boasts a cheery attitude and a love of the minstrel’s trade despite never making it big. While they swap stories about their travels, Ralson takes a shine to the party, and hints he might’ve learned something that’ll be of interest to them, which he’ll tell them about once he’s sobered up in the morning.    

When the party awakes, they discover a crowd of villagers clustered around a body laying in the road. Half submerged in mud and blood, the victim has been heavily mauled, but is very clearly Ralson, robbed along with his life of his instruments, packs, and his purse.  Tolhurt’s Mayor insists that no one be allowed to leave until the killers are caught, as clearly Ralson was set upon by a group of attackers, which puts the party and their traveling companions as the primary suspects. 

Though regarded with suspicion, the publican at the commonroom insists she saw the party there all night, and on her word they’re allowed to attempt to prove their innocence. Asking the villagers about Ralson’s activities reveal he was in town for a few days claiming to need to rest from a long time on the road, while examining his body reveals it wasn’t blades he was savaged by, but claws and teeth. Clearly something more than petty banditry is going on here, which the party will obviously discover on the second night when their wagon and mounts mysteriously go missing, preventing them from easily leaving town. 

Setup: Raimus Rollick wasn’t just a minstrel, but an agent of the duke’s court, sent to investigate strange goings on in Tolthurt by his liege’s request. Through stealthy observation he discovered that ancestral enemies of the Duke’s family had survived a clash between their clans, and settled in Tolthurt to bide their time and lick their wounds. 

Said enemies (The Ibrerynne)  happened to be a family of werewolves, who in the intervening generations have expanded themselves into a pack, swaying key individuals such as the mayor with the promise of predatory power, while threatening others (like the stablemaster) with savage violence should their secret ever leak.  The Iberynne family themselves live near constantly in wolf form, dwelling in a tumbeldown ruin that they’ve made into their new “estate” and stewing in their decades long thoughts of revenge. Raimus found one of their noble seals in the mayor’s office (the Ibrerynne had been reaching out to old allies and needed someone to handle their mail), and put it, a coded letter to the duke, and his emblem of safe travel in the party’s bag before he was killed by the Ibrerynne following him. 

The mayor, having not yet received his marching orders from his half-feral masters, didn’t know who’d killed the minstrel or why, but knew he needed to defer blame. A good number of Tolthurt’s inhabitants don’t know anything about the werewolves in the forest, and his job was to keep it that way.  For their part, the Iberynne are finding the seal at any cost, and are cutting off hope of escape from the village one avenue at a time, will the party realize it before it’s too late? 

Keep reading

Settlement: The Flamefond peaks of Promtharra

“Fire is and always has been the mortal element. Like us it breathes, it eats, it flares and flourishes and dies. We Understand one another, and we smiths of Promtharra understand that better than most.” 

Setup: Built around a number of free flowing volcanic crests, the scattered villages, spires, and foundries collectively known as Promtharra are famous the world over for their artisans. A powerful layline of primeval magic runs through the region, allowing their culture to develop a deep understanding of its elemental nature without fear of being burned or buried in a sudden, cataclysmic eruption. 

More than simple trade secrets, what sets those who learn their craft in Promtharra apart is their practice of shamanistic-smithing, an art of communing with the elements involved in a particular work to go beyond shaping it physically and begin to affect it on a metaphysical level. In this way the Promtharrans are able to make unbreakable armor without the need for costly adamantine, or create blades that retain the heat of the forge for years withouth losing any of their solidity or edge. 

While the skill of their hands has ensured the people of Promtharra exist in relative comfort ( living atop a mountain that alternates between burning and freezing does give itself over to a degree of ruggedness), their isolation and virtual independence is due to the compact they have with the dragons that live in the region. Rather than fighting for territory or control, the dragons and the people strive together for the benefit of their collective home, often working side by side in the forges, or venturing out together on hunts. Legends surrounding the mountains often include moments where on the eve of a great and fateful battle or trial, a messenger from the Flamefond peaks arrives on dragon-wing to present the hero with some life-saving weapon or tool. 

Adventure Hooks: 

If the party seek something mythical repaired or sundered, Promtharra is a good place to start. Between the cumulative skills of generations of smiths and “chucking it in a volcano”, the full spectrum of creation and destruction is available. Of those who could aid in this task, “Reiko Winterschilde” is the fist name on anybody’s lips:  a masterful smith with an undeniably strong connection to the elements, but Reiko has recently fallen into a desperate spiral of depression and worry. After her son accepted the invocation of a foreign ruler to act as his master artisan, the two communicated back and forth for months as the younger Winderschilde grew accustomed to his new position. It has been a year since the last message, it has been nearly half a year since the last message, and the master-smith is half dead with concern. If the party can find out what happened to the wayward journeyman, Reiko will ensure that they are well equipped and may even tutor the party’s crafter in the fundamentals of her shamanic practice. 

While in the region, they may be approached by an agent of the draconic historian Ilzaadorant, a collector of interesting trinkets and historical curios who may offer to buy any of the artifacts they’ve collected in their travels. A shameless bookwyrm, Ilzaadorant ( Or “Izzy” as the locals call him) is interested in mementos of far of and long forgotten culture, and pulls double duty as a merchant of magic items, swapping more curious oddities for “boring” practicalities the adventurers may find useful.   Given that he can’t fly out to the largest settlements without getting shot out of the sky as a feral drake, Ilzaadorant is willing to recruit the party as his gobetweens,

The grand peaks of Promtharra are carved into spires and cathederasls of volcanic stone, with channels, aqueducts, and even fountains constructed to properly bleed off the ever molten blood of the mountains. Most of structures are occupied by the dragonbroods, or by pyromancers seeking a more palpable connection with their element, but others lay abandoned to structural instability or uncontrollable lava flow. These derilict towers are begging for exploration, though an adventurous party will need to be cautious. Rogue elementals and feral dragon-kin are not the only dangers, as too much damage to the wrong wall could have the chamber filled with scalding steam or see the entire dungeon begin to flood with lava from the top down. 

Cursed Jewelry! Remember, canonically Identify doesn’t pick up curses, so have fun tricking your players into getting cursed. <3

Just the image of cowboys sitting around a fire telling stories gave me bard ideas for the on going cowboy series

Variant Classes Pt. 1

With the continued expansion of 5e through new subclasses and races, the ability to create new unique characters continues to grow. Though, in my mind, one of the faults to this is that, every time you make a new subclass or such, it's just 1 more character archetype, which can sometimes feel a little lacking in terms of new possibilities.

Now of course, there's the option to just make a lot of content, which was the style of older editions, but that eventually lead to the issue of content bloat, with there just being too much content for a single person to reasonably deal with.

Though recently in my own homebrewing, I've found what I feel is a pretty good solution for such a thing: Multiplicative, rather than additive content.

This was the idea behind my Prestige Classes document, with each single prestige class being designed to be applicable to a wide number of classes at any time, meaning that with each PrC, each would add a new potential character option for each class it could interact with (or even 1 for each subclass).

So, long rambling on thought processes, Variant Classes. The idea for this is to, by adding one new class, add new character options equal to the number of subclasses a class already had, essentially being a x2.

Variant Classes are new classes that modify an existing class to varying degrees, replacing some or many of their features with new ones, creating a whole new character option. It's sorta like a Tasha optional feature, but the optional feature messes with your entire class.

So above, there are the two Variant Classes of this post: The Archivist and the Eldritch Sage

The Archivist takes inspiration from a 3rd edition class of the same game. They are scholarly mages, though they focus on divine magic rather than arcane. As such, mechanically they are very similar to the wizard (Even having a spellbook equivalent in their 'Prayerbook'), but differing from them is their spell list: rather than the wizard list, they use the Cleric list.

In comparison to the Cleric, the way they interact with spells is a bit different. The Cleric has access to their entire spell list for free, alongside their domain spells. The Archivist however, needs to learn spells, only gaining 3 per level and needing to pay for more. To make up for this is their Domain Studies, in which they initially learn a set of Cleric domain spells of their choice. At later levels however, they can learn additional diving domains, and choose which set of domain spells to prepare from each day. Yet later they even gain the ability to prepare two domains at once.

As such, while a Cleric will often have to focus on a single theme when it comes to their spells, an Archivist is more a multi-tool, able to have a wide number of domains and prepare whichever they might need for a given day.

The Eldritch Sage is a researcher into the otherworldly. They like Wizards use their intellect to fuel their magic, but rather than from direct study of the arcane, their application of magic comes from the study of the extraplanar.

Mechanically, the eldritch Sage is a warlock, with their patron instead representing ehat type of otherworldly entity they focus their research upon. Unlike the regular warlock, they use Int instead of Cha. Most differently is that they use regular Spellcasting rather than the warlocks Pact Magic, making them more of a traditional long rest based caster.

The Eldritch Sage also interacts with Invocations differently. Rather than having a number of invocations at will they instead learn a number of invocations, and can prepare a few of them at the end of a long rest. This means that they will often have more total invocations, but less active invocations.

Woops yeah, lots of text today.

Ah, you may have noticed the Pt.1 at the top of the post! That's because I actually made 4 variant classes, it's just that the other 2 will be posted seperately (very much my own choice, totally not because tumblr didn't like me dropping 20 pages into here). So yeah, I guess look forward to seeing in maybe a few days time the Mentalist and the Mountebank.

Honestly imo they're more my favourite out of the bunch, being the more radical in their changes to their classes. (Or maybe it's bias, since I am in the process of playtesting both of them in campaigns I'm in x) )

Edit: oh hell I forgot to put in the art credits, since they were all part of the images originally, but they'd be on the last page of the second set. My bad

Art credits:

Archivist.

- Clever Distraction from Innistrad: Crimson Vow by Andrew Mar

- Conspiracy Theorist from Strixhaven by Svetlin Velinov

Eldritch Sage.

- Contact Other Plane from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms by Alix Branwyn

- Magus of the Moon MtG from Time Spiral Remastered by Milivoj Ceran

Edit: Part 2 is up, and can be found here

nate | he/him

this is a little tag guide so i know what i'm doing

Catch All

#the thundering isles - campaign i'm planning for friends

#general

#materials

Inspo

#character inspo

#class inspo

World Building

#character building

#cities

#monsters

#events