D&D Next

Fantastic Lairs on Sale Now!

Uncategorized / Boss Monsters, Bosses, D&D, D&D 5e, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, D&D5e, DnD, DnD 5e, DnD5e, DnDBlog, dungeons and dragons fifth edition, Fantastic Lairs, Fifth Edition D&D, fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons, Mike Shea, Scott Gray / 0 comments

February 3, 2021

Have you ever thought, “I could really use a book of 23 boss battles and short dungeons to drop into my D&D games?” Well if you have, I’ve got good news for you! Fantastic Lairs is now available on DriveThruRPG in PDF, hardcover, and softcover. Here’s the description of the product I cowrote with Mike Shea of Sly Flourish and Scott Fitzgerald Gray:

The best 5e fantasy roleplaying games are often the most unpredictable. When the plans of the Gamemaster meet the actions of the characters, the incredible creative energy that results can spin encounters off in different directions, creating a largely spontaneous campaign story that keeps the GM and the players alike on the edge of their seats. But when it comes to the climactic boss battle encounters that cap off single adventures or entire campaigns, it’s often much harder for GMs to work things out on the fly.

That’s where this book comes in.

Scott Gray, James Introcaso, and Mike Shea have teamed up to lighten the load of shaping and developing your game’s climactic encounters. Fantastic Lairs is a book of capstone lair encounters for your 5e fantasy RPG, designed to inspire and fit into your own campaign. Each fantastic lair includes evocative artwork, a beautiful full-color map, and a well-designed and playtested boss encounter for characters of various levels.

Your purchase includes all of the maps for these lairs formatted for your virtual tabletop of choice.

Fantastic Lairs is the joint brainchild of all three members of the design team, each of whom brings a wealth of creative skill and experience to the project. From over fifty initial concepts, the team narrowed down a selection of twenty ultimate boss lairs for development in this book.

Thanks to our backers on Kickstarter, this book includes 23 lairs covering levels from 1st to 20th. Thse lairs include:

Caves of the Cockatrice (1st level). A shadow-infused cockatrice keeps a stone garden in a lair built around an ancient and corrupted fey gateway.

Temple of the Centipede Cult (2nd level). A band of centipede-worshipping cultists feed living sacrifices to their pets in a fallen temple of Asmodeus.

Lair of Lord Wiskers (3rd level). A band of wererats led by the megalomaniacal Lord Whiskers gathers up all the city’s silver to be destroyed in their trap-infested sewer lair.

Last Call at Nevermind (3rd level). The Dead Roses, a band of cutthroats led by the murderous bandit captain Adilia Rose, hide out between jobs in a seedy tavern built from a titan’s skull.

Nature’s Rage (4th level). A blood-drenched druid and a horde of beasts plot revenge against the despoilers of nature in the ruined zoo of a murdered noble.

Ashsnarl’s Secrets (5th level). The half-dragon Tharandra Everflame and her kobold minions steer a machine of war and fire through defenseless villages.

Sticky Toffee (5th level). The confections at Auntie Bea’s Sweet Treats are more than they seem — as is the shop’s night hag proprietor.

Bumpy Ride (6th level). A mage uses his airship and an array of deadly incendiary devices to terrorize other wizards into subservience, and the characters must put an end to it.

The Lamia Job (6th level). The characters must infiltrate a mysterious bank vault to reveal the murderous plots and corrupting illusions of a lamia mastermind.

Ithrix Blackbile (7th level). A young black dragon uses his acidic breath to keep a band of trolls under his sway in an ancient cyclopean ruin.

Those Who Are About to Die (7th level). The characters face waves of brutal combatants and devastating hazards in this arena of blood, death, and fire.

Zengran’s Game (7th level). From a lair in an extradimensional emporium of games, puzzles, and other wondrous entertainments, a rakshasa seeks out a group of adventurers destined for greatness.

Curse of Black Ice (8th level). Hunting in the icy wastes for decades, the frost giant werewolf’s hunting ground has expanded into more civilized lands. Now the adventurers hunt the monstrous frost giant to his lair of frozen ice and face his new bloodthirsty followers.

The Blood Palace (8th level). In a lost ziggurat of blood, a sinister spirit naga and its enthralled gnolls need the adventurers’ help — to feed their hidden hydra.

Korrington Academy (9th level). An oni poses as the kindly headmaster of an academy for young sorcerers, where he uses a dark ritual to sacrifice faculty members and increase his power.

The Remembered God (10th level). Calathorr, a mighty aboleth who was once worshipped as a god, rebuilds their humanoid cult thanks to clever planning and a stroke of luck. If all goes well, Calathorr will enslave an army of followers even grander than their previous band.

Dragon Mummy’s Rage (12th level). In the desert tomb of an ancient dragon queen, a dragonborn mummy lord guards a magical jewel that might destroy the world.

The World Eater (14th level). In an astral sanctum that defies natural physics, the characters battle an ancient lich responsible for the deaths of nine worlds.

Valentyne’s Legacy (14th level). A cloud giant vampire moves across the sky in a red cloud castle defended by monstrous thralls and vampire spawn, drawing blood from the land and rising zombies in its wake.

The Forge of Sizzle Death (16th level). A murderous blue dragon forces fire giant captives to forge magic items in a hidden desert cave.

Blade Queen’s Throne (17th level). The characters must retrieve a secret word required to save the world — but that word is protected by a powerful marilith for its demon lord master.

Hells’ Heart (20th level). In a shattered celestial temple, an ancient gold dragon is possessed by a demon prince encased in a spike buried in the dragon’s chest, and threatens the mystical pillar that holds the multiverse together.

Put the Monster Back (20th level). The tarrasque breaks free of a secure facility designed to hold the worst monsters of creation, and will tear through the walls of reality, devouring entire worlds unless the characters stop it.
From the Fantastic Lairs DriveThruRPG product page

If you like what you’re reading, please follow me on Twitter, like World Builder Blog on Facebook, sign up for my mailing list, find my products on the DMs Guild and DriveThruRPG, tell your friends about the blog, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

Share this post:

The cover image for My Dad's Monster Manual

Last Chance to Get 20% Off My Dad’s Monster Manual

General / D&D, D&D 5e, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, D&D5e, DMs Guild, DMs Guild Adepts, DnD, DnD 5e, DnD5e, Monster, monster creation, monster design, Monster Manual, monsters, My Dad's Monster Manual, pdf / 0 comments

December 10, 2020

Check out Burn Bryte, an original science fantasy TTRPG I helped create for Roll20!

If you’ve been following this blog at all this year, then you know that I’ve been working with my father, Hannah Rose, Rich Lescouflair, Daniel Kwan, and Leona Maple on My Dad’s Monster Manual. I’ve shown off many, many previews of the work. Well on Tuesday, December 15th, you can buy My Dad’s Monster Manual in softcover print and in PDF on DMs Guild!

If you want to get 20% off, sign up now for my mailing list. On December 15th, you’ll get a coupon for 20% off the PDF in your email!

And before we go… how about a preview of the final product!

Share this post:

Mech Update 3.0

Brass Tacks / armor, D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, D&D5e, DnD, dungeons and dragons, mech suit, mecha, mechs, pdf, siege weapons, world building / 3 comments

October 3, 2019

Art by Jeshields

You can order The Demonplague, my level 1 – 20 fifth edition adventure, right now!

Over five years ago I posted my idea for fifth edition D&D mecha on this blog. Then I posted an update a year after that. Now that we have some vehicle rules in Ghosts of Salt Marsh and Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus, I figured it was time for yet another update (four years later). This week I am showing off the war mechs. Next week it will be the labor mechs!

Mechs

Mechs are special suits of mechanically powered armor which completely surround a single driver. The following rules apply to mechs:

A mech can only hold one Medium or Small driver at a time.
All mechs have a damage threshold.
Getting into or out of a mech requires an action. You can only drive a mech while inside it.
While driving a mech, you can use your action to activate one of the mech’s action options.
While driving a mech, in lieu of moving yourself, you can move the mech its speed. You can also take the Dash action to move the mech instead of yourself.
Mech’s can climb, jump, and swim like creatures.
While inside of a mech you have three-quarters cover against attacks made outside the mech.
Mechs provoke opportunity attacks as normal. When a mech provokes an opportunity attack, the attack can target the mech or the creature inside.

Destroyer

The heavily armored destroyer is a bipedal tank. Its slow speed doesn’t hinder it in combat as much as other mechs, since it can attack a distance with a powerful miniature cannon arm. For those creatures which get too close, the destroyer has a backup defense – a mighty hammer arm.

Destroyer

Large vehicle (5,000 lb.)

Armor Class: 17

Hit Points: 150 (damage threshold 10)

Speed: 15 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
20 (+5)	8 (-1)	20 (+5)	0	0	0

Damage Immunities: poison, psychic

Condition Immunities: blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, stunned, unconscious

Actions

Multiattack. The destroyer makes two attacks with its hammer, or one attack with its hammer and one with its cannon.

Cannon. Ranged Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, range 100/400 ft., one target. Hit: 27 (4d10 + 5) bludgeoning damage.

Hammer. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 21 (3d10 + 5) bludgeoning damage.

Explosive Shot. Every destroyer carries a special explosive cannon ball. The ball can be shot 100 feet and explodes in a 20-foot-radius sphere on impact. Creatures in the area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 22 (4d10) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Because of the sensitive way this ball must be carried, each Destroyer can only carry one explosive ball at a time.

Gladiator

The gladiator is one of the first mechs designed for combat. It stands tall, is quicker than most mechs, and has an impressively long trident arm. The mech suit sports a second arm capable of launching nets into throngs of enemies.

Gladiator

Large vehicle (3,000 lb.)

Armor Class: 16

Hit Points: 125 (damage threshold 10)

Speed: 20 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
16 (+3)	14 (+2)	16 (+3)	0	0	0

Damage Immunities: poison, psychic

Condition Immunities: blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, stunned, unconscious

Actions

Multiattack. The gladiator makes two attacks with its trident, or one attack with its trident and uses its Net Launcher ability.

Trident. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d8 + 3) piercing damage.

Net Launcher. The gladiator launches a net 30 feet. The net covers a 15-foot-square area. Creatures in the area must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or become restrained in the net. On its turn a creature use its action to make a DC 10 Strength to free itself or another trapped creature from the net. Dealing 5 slashing damage (AC 10) to the net also frees a creature.

Knight

The knight is fast, super armored, and ready to cut through anything with its powerful sword arm. Its heavy metal shield arm protects the mech and allies in battle.

Knight

Large vehicle (5,000 lb.)

Armor Class: 20

Hit Points: 200 (damage threshold 10)

Speed: 20 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
20 (+5)	14 (+2)	20 (+5)	0	0	0

Damage Immunities: poison, psychic

Condition Immunities: blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, stunned, unconscious

Actions

Multiattack. The knight makes three melee attacks.

Sword. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 21 (3d10 + 5) slashing damage.

Shield. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (3d6 + 5) bludgeoning damage and the target is knocked prone.

Reactions

Shield Defense (Reaction). When a creature adjacent to the knight is targeted with an attack, the knight’s driver can use their reaction to impose disadvantage on that attack roll. The knight’s driver must declare the use of this ability before the result of the attack roll is announced.

Pyro

Sometimes it’s all about making your enemies fear you. That’s certainly what the pyro’s inventors had in mind. The mech moves through the battlefield, spouting flame out of one arm and hacking down enemies with the axe in its other.

Pyro

Large vehicle (4,000 lb.)

Armor Class: 17

Hit Points: 150 (damage threshold 10)

Speed: 15 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
18 (+4)	8 (-1)	16 (+3)	0	0	0

Damage Immunities: poison, psychic

Condition Immunities: blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, stunned, unconscious

Actions

Multiattack. The pyro makes two attacks with its axe.

Axe. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 20 (3d10 + 4) slashing damage.

Fire Spray. The pyro shots a line of fire 100 feet long and 5 feet wide. Creatures in the area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 33 (6d10) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Flame Jet. The pyro shoots a 15-foot cone of fire. Creatures in the area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 33 (6d10) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

If you like what you’re reading please consider supporting me on Patreon, supporting me on Ko-fi, follow me on Twitter, like World Builder Blog on Facebook, check out my podcasts, find my products on the DMs Guild, tell your friends about the blog, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

Share this post:

Tactical Maps: Adventure Atlas

General / D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, D&D5e, DMs Guild, DMs Guild Adepts, DnD, DnDBlog, dungeons and dragons, pdf, Tactical Maps / 2 comments

March 14, 2019

You can order The Demonplague, my level 1 – 20 fifth edition adventure, right now!

I have a new product on the DMs Guild that I created with many fine folks. It’s called Tactical Maps: Adventure Atlas. It’s already an Electrum best seller. If you’ve already purchased it, thank you so much, and please take a moment to leave a review! Here’s its product description:

Launch sale! For a limited time this title is $14.99!

88 ready-to-play encounters are here to save game night!

Adventure anytime! Tactical Maps: Adventure Atlas makes playing Dungeons & Dragons easy. This supplement provides everything you need to plan an evening (or even just an hour) of D&D for characters of any level with very little preparation. Just pick an adventure from this supplement, take a few minutes to read it over, and game time is good to go.

You can also use this supplement to throw down a new adventure when the players take the story in a surprising direction. Several of the adventures in this supplement take only an hour or so of time, allowing for side-trek sessions that fit into diverse stories and hectic schedules.

This supplement can be enhanced with Tactical Maps: Reincarnated. Each of the 22 maps included in that product is detailed as a full fantastic location in the Adventure Atlas and given four short adventures, meaning this supplement includes 88 ready-to-play adventures from the following designers:

M.T. Black

Will Doyle

James Haeck

James Introcaso

Rich Lescouflair

Ginny Loveday

Shawn Merwin

Cindy Moore

Ashley Warren

This product is a DMs Guild Adepts adventure supplement! The Dungeon Masters Guild Adept program brings highly talented individuals together for creative development. Guild Adept products are identified with the golden ampersand and logo.

Preview

There are previews of Tactical Maps: Adventure Atlas available on its product page on the DMs Guild, but how about one more? Below is a link to a PDF that contains the introduction and one of the maps and its adventures called the Chromatic Vault! Enjoy!

Chromatic Vault Preview

If you like what you’re reading please consider supporting me on Ko-fi, follow me on Twitter, like World Builder Blog on Facebook, check out my podcasts, find my products on the DMs Guild, tell your friends about the blog, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

Share this post:

New Warlock Patron: The Dragon

Brass Tacks / D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, D&D5e, DnD, dungeons and dragons, Patron, Subclass, warlock, world building, worldbuilding / 9 comments

March 7, 2019

Publisher’s Choice Quality Stock Art © Rich Hershey / Fat Goblin Games

You can order The Demonplague, my level 1 – 20 fifth edition adventure, right now!

I’ve had the idea to make two new warlock patrons for a while now. I put it out there on Twitter and asked people to vote as to which I should make first: the dragon or the tarrasque.

Which warlock subclass should I make first? #DnD #RPG #TRPG #TTRPG

— James Introcaso (@JamesIntrocaso) March 5, 2019

The dragon managed to squeak out a narrow victory, so we’ll begin with that! The challenge with the dragon patron is to make it a subclass with different abilities and flavor from the dragon soul sorcerer.

Note that what is below is considered playtest material. This is not this subclass’s final form. Please let me know what you think!

The Dragon

You have made a pact with an ancient dragon, one who has outlasted entire civilizations and has knowledge far beyond most other creatures in the multiverse. Your dragon patron may be a chromatic dragon with evil desires, a metallic dragon with a good heart, or perhaps another kind of powerful dragon with aims that could be selfish, charitable, or inscrutable. Your pact gives you a taste of this being’s innate power and knowledge and also connects you to the pride and greed of dragon minds, qualities you might adopt.

Dragons powerful enough to make pacts with mortals include Iymrith the blue dragon and Klauth the red dragon from the Forgotten Realms, Borys the Dragon of Tyr in Dark Sun, and Niv-Mizzet of Ravnica. A cabal of powerful dragons could also become a warlock patron, like the Chamber in Eberron.

Expanded Spell List

The Dragon lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

Dragon Expanded Spells

Spell Level	Spells
1st	chromatic orb, shield
2nd	darkvision, levitate
3rd	clairvoyance, slow
4th	conjure minor elementals, polymorph
5th	geas, legend lore

Draconic

Starting at 1st level, you can speak, write, and understand Draconic.

Draconic Senses

At 1st level, you gain proficiency in the Perception skill. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for skill checks made with this skill, and you can take the Search action as a bonus action on your turn.

Terrifying Blast

At 6th level, you gain the eldritch blast cantrip if you do not already know it. When you hit a creature with more than one attack granted by your eldritch blast cantrip on the same turn, that creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become frightened of you until the end of your next turn. If the creature’s saving throw is successful, the creature cannot be frightened by attacks from your eldritch blast cantrip for the next 24 hours.

Draconic Attunement

Starting at 10th level, you can choose one of the following damage types when you finish a long rest: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison. You gain resistance to that damage type until you choose a different one with this feature. In addition, you can choose to have the damage from your eldritch blast cantrip be the chosen type of damage instead of force damage when you cast the spell.

Draconic Transformation

Starting at 14th level, you can transform into a dragon. As an action, you can turn into any creature of the dragon type whose challenge rating is equal to or less than your level for 1 minute, until you revert to your normal form as a bonus action, or until you drop to 0 hit points or die. Your statistics, including mental ability scores, are replaced by the statistics of the dragon form. You retain your alignment and personality. You can’t use any legendary actions or lair actions of the new form.

You assume the hit points of your dragon form, and when you revert to your normal form, you return to the number of hit points you had before you transformed. If you revert as a result of dropping to 0 hit points, any excess damage carries over to your normal form. As long as the excess damage doesn’t reduce the your normal form to 0 hit points, you aren’t knocked unconscious.

You are limited in the actions you can perform by the nature of your dragon form, and you can’t speak, cast spells, or take any other action that requires hands or speech, unless your dragon form is capable of such actions.

Your gear melds into the new form. You can’t activate, use, wield, or otherwise benefit from any of your equipment.

You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

Feedback

I’m definitely looking for feedback here, so let it rip in the comments. Thank you to those who do!

Become a Patron!

Share this post:

Combat is Comfortable… Too Comfortable

Brass Tacks / D&D, D&D Next, D&D5e, DnD, DnDBlog, dungeons and dragons, GM Advice / 0 comments

February 28, 2019

Publisher’s Choice Quality Stock Art © Rich Hershey / Fat Goblin Games

You can order The Demonplague, my level 1 – 20 fifth edition adventure, right now!

Have you ever been in this situation? You spend time planning elaborate combat encounters for your player characters to face only to have them attempt to negotiate, fool, sneak by, or otherwise evade your monsters’ claws, jaws, eye beams, and blades. The players’ plan is clever. Their checks are succeeding. They just might pull this off!

But what about the epic battles you’ve planned? What will you do for the other three hours of game night after they bypass these encounters that were meant to take the whole time? What about the time you spent preparing the battles? So you force the fight anyway. There was nothing they could do! Battle was unavoidable. Everyone slogs through, but it’s clear the players aren’t having as good a time rolling dice as they normally do. Why? Their agency was taken away. No matter what they did, you were going to make them fight.

For about the first decade or two of running roleplaying games I did this constantly. I had a fight prepared and therefore it must happen! It took me a long time to realize that whenever I forced my players into a battle they tried to avoid, those encounters were slower and less exciting because the players were less engaged. It’s not to say a few failed checks or a bad plan shouldn’t result in combat, but if the players are clever and luck is on their side, don’t force combat on them. The players are telegraphing the kind of story they want to tell with their actions. It’s important to pay attention when they try to avoid combat (and when they rush headlong into secure facilities with guns blazing seeking a fight).

All of this is easier said than done. In many game systems combat is the most comfortable arena for new GMs and players. The best way you can break out of the cycle of forcing combat on your players is to get comfortable with all aspects of your chosen game.

Why Combat is Comfy

Let’s look at why combat is comfortable then I’ll break down some techniques to help you get comfortable in all other aspects of play (also known as exploration and interaction in Dungeons & Dragons).

Clearly Defined Rules

Because combat in many roleplaying games is deadly and/or has a big outcome on the story it tends to have the most clearly defined rules of the game. Time is broken down into rounds and turns, everyone acts in an order according to the initiative, and all participants can only perform a certain number of actions on a turn. In many games it is easier to adjudicate combat as a GM because we have so many rules working for us. A GM doesn’t need to make a judgement call. They just need to know the rule. If a case comes up that isn’t covered by the rules, it’s easy to make an on-the-fly ruling because there are so many rules surrounding the rule-less space.

Outside of combat the safety net of lots of specific rules drops away in many games. It can be scary to adjudicate in a more lawless arena, especially for a new GM, for fear of messing up the story, accidentally treating player characters unfairly, or simply freezing and not knowing where to go next.

Easier to Estimate Time

While there are exceptions, it is much easier to estimate the time it takes the player characters to fight a group of enemies than the time it takes to do almost anything else in a roleplaying game. When I was playing fourth edition D&D, I could plan on each combat taking 45 minutes to an hour, which made preparation a snap! Got four hours of game time? Plan four battles! Looking back it’s easy to see that is a LOT of combat, even if every battle is on the lower end of the time spectrum.

If I had been more comfortable with improvisation and group storytelling, I could have planned for less combat and my players (who like variety as many do) would have probably enjoyed those games more.

Easy to Prepare

Because combat has so many rules attached to it, it’s easy to prepare. Put a few goblins and worgs in a room and you’re good to go! But if you need to give those goblins and worgs names, personalities beyond murderous, and motivations beyond slaughter, preparation takes more time. When a GM is starting out, combat seems to be the easiest part of the game to prepare, so it gets prepared a lot.

The truth is being flexible and learning to come up with story on the fly is even easier than preparing for combat, but it takes some getting used to!

Getting Comfortable Beyond Combat

So how do you get comfortable with other aspects of your game of choice beyond combat?

Have Improv Tools and Techniques Ready

My first recommendation is to have a few safety tools ready to go. I wrote a blog post about a few good improvisation techniques and tools. In addition to the tools and techniques listed there have a few random tables or lists with names, NPC personalities, and random encounters (including noncombat encounters) ready to go! Not only are these useful, but these tools have another function. They make you feel comfortable. Being comfortable is essential to improvisational storytelling. If you have a net to catch you, you’re more likely to take risks and figure it out as you go, rather than having it all planned out.

Include the Players

Invite the players to build the story with you by asking questions. Did they bypass your combat encounter and get through everything you prepared earlier than you planned? Ask them, “What do you want to do next?” Let them provide ideas of where to take the story. That takes the burden of storytelling off of you, and a direct question like that tells you EXACTLY what your players want out of the story. You might be surprised at the responses you get, and enjoy the exciting new direction your game takes!

Take Breaks

Don’t be afraid to take a break from playing to think about and prepare the next leg of the journey. Players are often grateful for a chance to stretch their legs, check their phones, use the bathroom, chat, or grab food without feeling like they’re missing something or being rude. This gives you an opportunity to make a rough plan.

Save Your Prep

One reason GMs force carefully prepared combats upon players is because we spent time planning and don’t want to lose the investment. Fear not! Save that prep. You can use it for another game, another group, or another time. If you remember this, no prep is ever wasted and you won’t feel the need to force a battle.

Become a Patron!

Share this post:

Gimme Checks

Brass Tacks / Ability check, D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, D&D5e, DM Advice, DnD, DnD Blog, dungeons and dragons, Gumshoe, Pelgrane Press, Skill check, world building, worldbuilding / 2 comments

February 21, 2019

Image by James Bowe

You can order The Demonplague, my level 1 – 20 fifth edition adventure, right now!

Determining the success or failure (or degree of either) of a character’s action in roleplaying games with dice, block towers, cards, or some other randomizer is a BIG part of the fun in roleplaying games, but there are times when allowing automatic success actually results in EVEN MORE fun. Game masters new and old can fall into the trap of calling for a check for every little action the player characters perform, leading to a slow game full of monotonous disappointments. How can a superhero character be expected to take on the aliens invading New York if they failed the roll to lace up their shoes?

This post covers many of the situations in which GMs should skip the check and just let player characters succeed.

When Failure Means Nothing

Avoid asking the player characters to make checks when failure has no consequence. Think beyond the immediate consequence of the check when you’re determining this. For instance failing to climb a wall might seem like it has no consequences since the character just stays at the bottom of the wall until they succeed, but if a swarm of flesh-eating beetles closes in on the area at the bottom of the wall, failure should be an option. The consequences of failure are not always readily observable to the player characters. They may not know why the GM asked for a roll in a situation where it seems failure has no consequence, but the GM knows about the hidden enemies and hazards the player characters don’t notice. That wall could be crumbling and failing to climb it could make the whole thing collapse on top of the player character!

Not Pressed For Time

If the player characters are not pressed for time and the task they try to perform can be attempted over and over again without consequence for failure, allow them to succeed without a check. Take the earlier example of climbing up a wall while beetles approach. No beetles means no time pressure so the player characters climb that wall without making a check (unless you have some other cool consequence for failure, like the crumbling wall).

When the Task is Super Easy

If the player characters are attempting a task that is very easy, allow the check to succeed, even if it is a task where failure could have consequences. For instance most D&D games don’t have the GM calling for a player character to make a check to pick up a sword off the ground or open an unlocked door during combat. Why? The task is super easy. Even with the threat of death it can be accomplished without any chance of failure. Nothing makes heroic characters feel lame like failing at a task most 5-year-old children can accomplish with a 100 percent success rate.

When It Moves the Story Forward

Grant the characters automatic successes when failure would bring the story to a dead stop. Think of a murder mystery where the characters are the detectives. If you have a clue at a crime scene that puts them on the trail of the killer and failure to find the clue would leave them without a single lead, allow them to find the evidence without making a check. Keep the story moving!

The GUMSHOE system from Pelgrane Press does a wonderful job moving stories forward. Each character has a set of Investigative Abilities that do not fail when used, though a character’s General Abilities, which revolve around combat and action sequences, CAN fail.

When the Description is Awesome

I think about this Acquisitions Incorporated moment from PAX 2012 all the time. The moment begins as 1:50:48 in the video below.

Wil Wheaton gives a pretty epic description of what he wants his character to do, and Chris Perkins allows it to happen because as the GM he knows it is fun. You can do the same thing in your games. This technique encourages your player characters to get descriptive with their actions because they know they could earn an automatic success with a killer description.

Note this is a technique that may not be right for all games or groups. It is also something others may want to use sparingly to avoid every character’s turn taking 20 minutes as your players give a monologue seeking automatic success (though that approach actually sounds rather fun to me).

Share this post:

D&D Death Alternatives

Inspiration / Barak Blackburn, CAPERS, Craig Campbell, D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, D&D5e, Death, DnD, dungeons and dragons, world building, worldbuilding / 1 comment

February 14, 2019

CAPERS cover art by Beth Varni.

You can order The Demonplague, my level 1 – 20 fifth edition adventure, right now!

Let’s talk about death! A recent episode of Table Top Babble with guest Barak Blackburn about player character death in RPGs got me thinking of the way we handle death in Dungeons & Dragons. The death saving throw mechanic can be a lot of fun and super tense, but some games put the decision to die (at least partially) in the hands of the player.

Leaving death to the dice is great for many groups, but there are some who want death to have strong narrative meaning beyond death. Dying due to unlucky die rolls during a random goblin encounter on the way to a tougher fight isn’t for everyone. There are also those players who wish for their characters to go out doing something heroic then fail to die because the dice say otherwise, which can be anticlimactic or disappointing as well. Some Dungeon Masters hold back when death is knocking on a character’s door for fear of hurting the feelings of the real person playing the character. When death is the player’s decision, that stress is alleviated.

Taking inspiration from some other games we can put death in the characters’ hands. In order to to make character death an attractive option it still needs a mechanic around it. Players must be incentivized to choose death. Barak’s currently Kickstarting zine, Strings, does just that. I won’t say how! You need to buy the product to find out (though there are hints in the podcast). Here’s some other ideas:

CAPERS

CAPERS is an incredible RPG from Craig Campbell. I helped design a very tiny piece of the game, which has this incredible description:

It’s the 1920s Prohibition era in the United States. Alcohol is illegal. Organized crime grows at an unprecedented rate as gangsters get rich selling hooch to a thirsty populace. Law enforcement struggles to keep up with an understaffed and underfunded Bureau of Prohibition.

You are one of a handful of people who have been gifted with super-powers!

Will you use your abilities to build a criminal empire as a super-powered gangster? Or will you focus your powers to serve the law and bring these criminals to justice?

When you are reduced to 0 hit points in CAPERS, you make a choice to be removed from play until you are healed, or to immediately take one final turn then die. This is an awesome option, which requires almost no adjustment in D&D. Lots of party members dropping? Time to blow as many resources as possible and go out like a firework destroying your enemies or covering the escape of your friends!

Phoenix Dawn Command

Keith Baker’s Phoenix: Dawn Command has one for characters to advance: death. There’s an interesting tension in gameplay, because dying makes a character more powerful, but each only has seven lives. Every challenge is faced with the idea that you COULD get one step closer to your story’s end in exchange for more power. Here’s the description:

It’s a story-driven game that combines action and mystery. You are the last hope of a world besieged by nightmares. You possess supernatural power, but you’ll never defeat the Dread unless you can unravel its mysteries. Your misions are dangerous, and you may not survive the night… but death is how you gain power. You’re a Phoenix, and you have seven lives to save the world.

This is another one that’s easy to implement in D&D. Characters level up by dying. You can set the level cap wherever you like! There is even more you can steal from this game, which you can read about in this post.

Die Laughing

Another great game from Craig Campbell, Die Laughing has death mechanics perfect for your D&D one-shots. From the product description:

When your character is gone, you become a producer on the movie and continue to influence it and mess with the other characters right up to the end.

That’s right! You gain a little bit of control over the game after your character dies. The game rules give the producers a lot of fun and unique powers that could make a horror D&D one-shot a heck of a time!

Share this post:

Dragon Heist: Forgotten Tales

General / Con, convention, conventions, D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, D&D5e, DMs Guild, DMs Guild Adepts, DnD, Dragon Heist, dungeons and dragons, James Haeck, pdf, Waterdeep, Will Doyle, Winter Fantasy, world building, worldbuilding / 0 comments

February 7, 2019

You can order The Demonplague, my level 1 – 20 fifth edition adventure, right now!

I am SUPER excited to announce Dragon Heist: Forgotten Tales is on the DM’s Guild. In fact it’s been available for a week and is already a Silver Best Seller! Thanks to all who already purchased. I loved working on this project with design greats Will Doyle, James Haeck, and Rich Lescouflair.

Dragon Heist: Forgotten Tales is a supplement that enhances the replayability of the already modular official D&D adventure Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. This supplement brings new beginning adventures and two new concepts for the Vault of Dragons so that your players are constantly facing new challenges on a second play through.

Welcome back to Waterdeep! Dragon Heist: Forgotten Tales is a supplement that expands the replayability of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist by providing new content for the adventure. The multiple villains and seasons in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist make it an adventure that must be played multiple times to experience all the content. Dragon Heist: Forgotten Tales provides new challenges and story to go along with the variable elements of the original adventure to allow players and Dungeon Masters who have experienced Waterdeep: Dragon Heist to enjoy a fresh tale on a second play-through.

This supplement is divided into four chapters. You can use every chapter to create an entirely new experience with Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, or simply use the chapters or sections of the supplement that interest you.

Chapter 1, “The Hand of Nessus.”This chapter provides an alternate beginning to Waterdeep: Dragon Heist that focuses on the cult of Asmodeus and Bregan D’aerthe rather than the war between the Xanathar Guild and the Zhentarim.

Chapter 2, “New Fireball.”This chapter provides a new perpetrator of the explosion in Trollskull Alley and gives the characters a fresh mystery to solve.

Chapter 3, “New Vault.”This chapter provides a new Vault of Dragons beneath the streets of Waterdeep for the characters to plunder.

Chapter 4, “Above Ground Vault.” This chapter provides another new Vault of Dragons, an above ground bank. Use this vault to end your adventure with a classic bank heist.

Written by Waterdeep: Dragon Heist designers James Haeck and James Introcaso and Tomb of Annihilation designer Will Doyle.

Pair with Unseen Waterdeep

If you pair this supplement with Unseen Waterdeep, which adds a fifth villainous option to Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, you can actually create an almost entirely new adventure. With both you get a lot of extra life out of the main adventure.

If you do buy Dragon Heist: Forgotten Tales or Unseen Waterdeep, please leave me a review on the DMs Guild so I know what you think.

Winter Fantasy

I’m currently at Winter Fantasy! If you’re there too, please feel free to say hey. I’d love to meet you.

Share this post:

We Need to Change the Way We Think of RPG Products

Brass Tacks / D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, D&D5e, DnD, DnD Blog, dungeons and dragons, Teos Abadia / 6 comments

January 24, 2019

You can order The Demonplague, my level 1 – 20 fifth edition adventure, right now!

“Fifty dollars for one book?!” That was my reaction when the prices of the fifth edition D&D core rule books were announced. Like many I decried the cost. “D&D books were already expensive,” “The whole set will be $150!” and, “They’re just books!” are the kinds of things I was saying to my friends. Now that I’m on the side of creating these products I see things very differently. Saying an RPG is just a book is myopic and at $50 a single D&D core rulebook is a steal.

Though my own views have changed the community still needs a bit of a push towards being fine with paying more for RPG products. People are clearly willing to shell out money for official D&D books, but when it comes to smaller publishers (who often have thin profit margins) many consumers still hem and haw over cost.

Before I dive in I do want to say that I totally understand cost is a totally legitimate barrier to entry for some people to RPGs. I am going to address what publishers should do about that as well in this post, but I also wanted to state it before getting into the weeds. This is a hobby after all, and necessities should come before RPGs.

More than a Book

Most RPG products come as books and are available in all the physical and digital formats one expects with the medium. Many gamers tend to compare such products to other books they buy, which for a lot us are comic books and novels. Those books aren’t put together the same way a set of RPG rules or an adventure is, and they aren’t used the same way either.

We need to stop thinking of RPG products as books and start thinking of them as what they really are: games. A lot of us are are willing to shell out more than $50 for a video game system or board game. RPGs have far more in common with these products than comics or novels.

More Work

Most RPG products require more hours of work than a comic book or novel of similar size, which is not to say putting together comics or novels are simple tasks. An RPG product has more people working on it than a typical comic or novel. Open up any official D&D book and you see a long list of names. Many have multiple game designers, artists, art directors, editors, proofreaders, developers, graphic designers, producers, and playtesters. These teams are far similar in size and titles to the makeup of a team working on a video or board game than a team putting together a novel.

Like all books RPG products go through editing, but they often have another round or two due to changes made after playtesting. The products can spend more time in development than a comic or novel because they need to by played over and over again to get right like video and board games. It’s not just Wizards of the Coast going through this process. Most companies write, edit, playtest, write, edit, and playtest again (and again and again) because it’s the only way to ensure a product plays as intended. You can get a good idea of the scope of work on a shorter RPG product in this article on Alphastream from Teos Abadia.

All these people need to work on the product to get the quality you’ve come to expect as a consumer, and they all need to be paid. If those people aren’t paid enough, your favorite designers and artists go work in different industries or the company doesn’t pay for art, editing, or playtesting, and the product suffers.

More Value

RPG products provide more value than a book or comic in terms of the hours of quality entertainment they provide. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is $29.99 in hardcover. As the longest book in the series it is 257,045 words. If you read at a speed of 200 words per minute (a speed on the slower end of average), you would finish the book in a little over 21 hours. For most of us our favorite RPG products have provided far more entertainment (and the stories we get from replaying adventures are always different as opposed to a novel). Compare RPG product prices to going to see a movie, a concert, a play, a night at the bar, or most any other paid entertainment activity and the price per hour difference is massive. In this sense again RPGs are more like video or board games, since each hour of entertainment can cost pennies (and in many cases RPGs provide even more fun than video or board games).

How Do We Shift Thinking?

If you’re reading this blog, odds are you agree with me already. You don’t think of RPG products as just books. You think of them as the games they are. How can we help shift the thinking of others and get people to pay what RPGs are worth? Consumers and publishers can help.

What Can Consumers Do?

Consumers can help shift the thinking and RPG market by taking the following action:

Don’t Pirate. Piracy isn’t just theft, it’s also a great way to hurt an RPG company. With such small profit margins even taking a small number of sales from an RPG publisher can mean the difference between losing money or turning a profit. Don’t steal, and if you have friends who pirate, tell them to knock it off.
Leave Reviews. Have an RPG product you love? Leave a review for it on DriveThruRPG, DMs Guild, Amazon, or wherever you purchased it. This helps other consumers (and the publisher) know the product is worth the cost!
Play More Games. The more games you play with friends, the more you all appreciate and value the hobby and its products. Make time to play games, and you’ll prioritize the purchase of them.

Got other ideas? Let me know in the comments.

What Can Publishers Do?

Publishers can help shift the market as well by taking the following action:

Offer Free and Reduced-Price Previews. I know this seems counter-intuitive, but in the internet age people don’t always have the luxury of flipping through a book in a store before buying it. If you want to ask people to pay for your product, you have to show them it’s worth the cost. Plus there really are a lot of people out there who want to play your game but cannot afford the cost. By offering free or reduced-cost basic rules, starter sets, and other products you extend good will and prove your product is worth it. These loss leaders help grow the hobby and reduce people’s desire to pirate.
Value Your Work. Be the change you want to see in the world. Pay people what they are worth, and if you need to sell a product at a higher cost to make money on sales, do so! You hurt yourself and the industry if you make your product cheaper. You can always lower the cost if you shoot too high.
Show How You Work. Take a little time to breakdown how your products are made for consumers. Instagram production photos, tweet updates, blog, vlog, etc. to let the world know the blood, sweat, and tears you pour into your products. This messaging not only gives you a new way to connect with your consumers (woo social media content!), it also gives your customers a chance to further value your work.

Got other ideas? Let me know in the comments.

Share the Message

Something everyone can do is share the message. Share Teos’s article, engage your friends in discussion when they say products are too high, share this blog post (shameless plug), and tell people to stop pirating. It’s going to take more than just one crazy dude blogging, so let’s start the shift together!

Become a Patron!

Share this post: