Shadow of the Demon Lord

Talking Games with Brandon Dixon of Swordsfall

General / Brandon Dixon, D&D, DnD, dungeons and dragons, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Swordsfall / 0 comments

June 27, 2019

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

Just a quick (or 1.5-hour depending on how you look at it) update this week as I head on over to the UK for D&D in a Castle! Last week I was lucky enough to chat with game designer Brandon Dixon of Swordsfall about the business of RPGs, Kickstarters, product layout, being kind online, and so much more in our chat on his Thursday stream. Brandon is an incredible dude who I am super grateful to for having me on his show. Watch our chat below!

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!

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An Ode to Small Cons

General / AcadeCon, Con, convention, D&D, DnD, dungeons and dragons, Gen Con, Night's Black Agents, Regency Encounters, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Timewatch, Winter Fantasy / 2 comments

February 8, 2018

I’m on my way to Winter Fantasy in Fort Wayne, Indiana! What is that, you ask? Why it’s one of the greatest gaming conventions around!

I love enormous gaming conventions. Seeing 60,000 people who all know what a wood elf ranger is gathered in the same place for four days at Gen Con is astounding. It’s an immersion in geekdom like no other. The convention floor is enormous, there’s games in the meeting rooms of every hotel in a six-block radius, and the local dining establishments change the names of food items on their menu to include Drizzt Do’Urden’s name. (I hear his lavender eyes dark chocolate cupcake is delicious.)

If you have a taste for gaming and the means to get to Gen Con or some other large convention, I suggest you do.

That said, small conventions are equally incredible for a different reason. They feel like a relaxing vacation. Big cons have a lot going for them in terms of number of games, stuff to demo/buy, celebrity guests, and variety of experiences, but they’re also a grind. They’re crowded, expensive, sprawling, and a hustle.

If you’re ignoring the small conventions (less than 1,000 people) because you don’t think they’re worth it, I urge you to think again. I get a ton out of Winter Fantasy, AcadeCon, and others.

Cheaper

As many Winter Fantasy veterans say, “Fort Wayne hates money.” Small conventions don’t need enormous city centers, so they happen in smaller towns with convention centers. Every price from badge to food to hotel is cheaper at a smaller convention as a result. You can eat like a king for a day in Fort Wayne for the price of a beer and a burger during Gen Con in Indianapolis.

Easier

With less people competing for events it’s easier to get the games you want, a hotel nearby, and take care of registration issues. Planning for Winter Fantasy is much easier than planning for Gen Con.

Enormous cons take over entire convention centers and the surrounding hotels. Smaller cons generally have one large room in a convention center or a few meeting rooms close together in a hotel. You don’t have to sprint from one event to the next, because at worst your next game is 100 feet away. You can easily get back to your hotel to grab something you forgot or put away leftovers before your next game.

Because no one is rushing and everyone is gathered in the same place, it’s easy to stop someone and ask them for help. With less people, convention organizers and staff handle even the smallest of problems with gusto, making it very easy for you to relax. (Side note: Even small conventions are a TON of work for the organizers and staff, so be kind and grateful for their amazing work!)

More Intimate

It’s easier to make new friends that you play with multiple times over the course of a small convention. Old friends have more time for meet-ups and games. You have time to have actual conversations rather than quick hellos with people. It’s astounding!

Even small cons tend to have amazing special guests like Rob Schwalb, Chris Lindsay, Lysa Chen, Satine Phoenix, Ruty Rutenberg, and/or Shawn Merwin. If you want some good one-on-one time with those people, catch them at a smaller con where their time is a little less constrained. (They’re likely still busy, so don’t hog all their time.) I made a lot of great contacts and friends by attending smaller conventions.

Shout Out Your Favorites

I’m discovering new conventions I love every year. Tell me your favorites in the comments below! And don’t forget to come join me at a very small D&D convention in a castle in France!

If you like what you’re reading please 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!

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Shadow of the Demon Lord Initiative for 5e Take Two

Inspiration / D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, D&D5e, DnD, DnDBlog, dungeons and dragons, Initiative, Shadow of the Demon Lord / 4 comments

July 20, 2017

Just a quick note to let you know that we can meet at Gen Con. Get your FREE tickets to the DSPN Q&A panel to meet Rudy Basso, Celeste Conowitch, Brittany Quintero, Vegas Lancaster, and more of your favorite podcast people. I’m only at Gen Con for one night, so this is the best way to meet my friends and me.

I owe you all many thanks. Last week I showed off an idea for a new Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition initiative system inspired by a new Unearthed Arcana article put out by Mike Mearls on Greyhawk Initiative and Rob Schwalb’s incredible game Shadow of the Demon Lord. Many of you provided excellent feedback. Among the top criticisms of this system were….

Giving bonus actions weight in the system unfairly gives monsters an edge, since they rarely have bonus action options.
There needs to be more clarification on how things like legendary actions, traps, and spells that end “at the end of your next turn” work.
I should provide a few more options to keep initiative variable for those who want it.
This system should definitely be faster than re-rolling initiative each round.
People seem very concerned about how the Alertness feat would work. This isn’t covered in my updated core system, since feats are optional, but I do cover it with some variants.

So with those thoughts in mind, I present the 2.0 version….

Shadow of the Demon Lord Initiative in D&D 2.0

I’ve proposed a super simple version of Shadow of the Demon Lord for 5e initiative in a previous blog post and a fuller version in another. Here’s a revised, fuller version:

At the start of each round of combat, each creature declares if taking a fast or slow turn. Creatures do not declare what, specifically, it is going to do during that turn. The following describes each type of turn:

Fast Turn. You can take only a an action or move your speed. No matter what you choose to do, you can take a bonus action in addition.
Slow Turn. You can take a bonus action, action, and move your speed.

The round of combat then proceeds as follows:

Fast turn phase
1. Player characters taking a fast turn act.
2. Monsters taking a fast turn act.
Slow turn phase
1. Player characters taking a slow turn act.
2. Monsters taking a slow turn act.

Player characters and monsters in each turn phase decide among themselves the order in which they act. If player characters cannot determine an order, the DM determines it. This could also be determined by allowing an opposed Dexterity check.

Creatures that are surprised take no actions during the first round of combat as normal.

Looking At Specific Cases in Initiative

The following specific cases are handled in these specific ways:

Events that occur on initiative count 20, such as a legendary creature’s lair actions, happen before the fast turn phase. Events that occur on initiative count 19 – 6 happen between the fast turn phase and slow turn phase. Events that occur on initiative count 5 – 0 happen after the slow turn phase.
Legendary actions can occur after any creature other than the legendary creature takes its turn and recharge at the start of a round, instead of at the start of the legendary creature’s turn.
Saving throws, spells, and effects that take place or end “at the start of” or “at the end of” a creature’s next turn instead take place or end at the start of or the end of the turn phase of the same type in the next round. For example, if a wizard casts chill touch against a goblin during the slow turn phase, that goblin cannot heal until the start of the next round’s slow turn phase. If a creature is frightened by a dragon’s Frightful Presence during the fast turn phase, the frightened creature can repeat its saving throw at the end of each fast turn phase.

Variants: Changing Monster Order

Allowing players to always go first means monsters die quicker, which also speeds up play, but for some groups, this isn’t dangerous or variable enough. Two variants below adjust combat to keep it even more random for you.

Variant: Start Old School

At the start of combat, roll for initiative. Each creature in each turn phase acts in the order of its initiative. For example, at the start of combat Bob the wizard rolls a 5, Jill the cleric rolls a 10, Amy the ranger rolls a 15, Sam the paladin rolls an 16, the bugbear rolls a 12, and the goblin rolls a 7. Jill, Amy, and the bugbear all take a fast turn, meaning they act first in this order: Amy (15), bugbear (12), and Jill (10). Then the slow turn phase proceeds as follows: Sam (16), goblin (7), and Bob (5).

Variant: Side Initiative

You can roll for side initiative at the start of each round (this is discussed in the Dungeon Master’s Guide). If the players win, they go first in each turn category. If the monsters win, they go first in each category.

Still Looking for Feedback…

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

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Shadow of the Demon Lord Initiative for 5e

Inspiration / D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, D&D5e, DnD, DnDBlog, dungeons and dragons, Initiative, Shadow of the Demon Lord / 9 comments

July 13, 2017

NOTE: THIS INITIATIVE SYSTEM HAS EVOLVED.

Initiative is the word this week thanks to a new Unearthed Arcana article put out by Mike Mearls on Greyhawk Initiative. Mike’s new system for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons is exploding with possibility and randomness. It breaks initiative out of its normal cycle and changes up the order of characters each round based on their actions and a roll of the dice. I would very much love to try it! It’s reminiscent of the old speed factor initiative found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.

While the system looks great, I’m not sure it’s right for my group. First, it requires the players discuss a plan before each round of combat. My own group could do this for hours and turn our RPG into a tactical war game, making a 10-minute battle last 100. I like to cover a little more story than that if I can in our limited sessions.

The system is also a bit restrictive in that when your turn comes up, you can’t decide to take an action not covered by your initiative roll (so if the cleric decided to attack, but the fighter was just critically hit by an ogre, the cleric can’t get cast a spell to heal the fighter until the following round, since the cleric already declared he would attack when the initiative was rolled). I understand the appeal of this restriction and it makes sense mechanically, but I don’t think my regular group would enjoy that restriction. We won’t know until we try though!

This got me thinking about the initiative system I enjoy in another game, Shadow of the Demon Lord, and how I can apply its initiative system to fifth edition D&D. Take a look at the idea below and let me know what you think!

Shadow of the Demon Lord Initiative in D&D

I’ve proposed a super simple version of Shadow of the Demon Lord for 5e initiative in a previous blog post. Here’s a fuller version:

At the start of each round of combat, each creature declares if taking a fast, medium, or slow turn. The following describes each turn category:

Fast Turn. You take only a bonus action, action, or move your speed.
Medium Turn. You take any combination of two of the following: bonus action, action, or move your speed.
Slow Turn. You take a bonus action, action, and move your speed.

The round of combat then proceeds as follows:

Player characters taking a fast turn.
Monsters taking a fast turn.
Player characters taking a medium turn.
Monsters taking a medium turn.
Player characters taking a slow turn.
Monsters taking a slow turn.

Player characters and monsters in each turn category decide among themselves the order in which they act. If player characters cannot determine an order, the DM determines it. This could also be determined by allowing the character with the higher Dexterity score to go first or an opposed Dexterity check.

If a creature decides to change the type of turn it wants to take during a round, they can change to a categories at anytime, provided the creature has not already acted that round and the turn category has not already been completed for the round.

Creatures that are surprised take no actions during the first round of combat as normal.

Variant: Side Initiative

Allowing players to always go first means monsters die quicker, which also speeds up play, but for some groups, this isn’t dangerous enough. If you want to change up the player/monster dynamic, you can roll for side initiative at the start of each round (this is discussed in the Dungeon Master’s Guide). If the players win, they go first in each turn category. If the monsters win, they go first in each category.

Analysis

This method encourages characters and monsters to take simpler turns for the sake of getting to hit first which also speeds up play at the table. If also breaks out of the cyclical nature of normal D&D initiative, though is not as varied as what Mike Mearls proposed. I’m interested to hear what people think. Sound off in the comments below!

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005 – Making Money in the RPG Business

Uncategorized / Adventurers League, D&D, D&D Adventurers League, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, D&D5e, D&Dpodcast, DnD, DnDPodcast, dungeons and dragons, podcast, Rob Schwalb, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Table Top Babble, Teos Abadia / 0 comments

January 30, 2017

A new episode of Table Top Babble is now up!

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James Introcaso sits down with game designers Rob Schwalb of Schwalb Entertainment and Teos Abadia of Alphastream to discuss what it’s like to try to make a living in the tabletop RPG industry.

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Rob Schwalb on Shadow of the Demon Lord and the Gaming Industry

General / Aether Con, Interview, Rob Schwalb, Shadow of the Demon Lord, world building, worldbuilding / 0 comments

October 13, 2016

This is an interview I conducted with Rob Schwalb of Schwalb Entertainment as part of the AetherCon V Convention Program.

aetherwebbanner

JI: Recently on the Talking Tabletop podcast you said that you always pay freelancers who work for you at the top of the industry’s pay scale. Why is it important to you that designers be compensated in this way and what lesson do you hope consumers and other small game companies take from this example?

RS: I clawed my way into the RPG design business the hard way, selling words for as little as two cents a word and there are still two large published projects I wrote but never saw a dime in compensation. RPG design and writing rates haven’t changed in the 15 years I’ve been working in the field and most companies still pay between four cents or less per word. Here’s the thing. We make products for a very niche market. If we want great product, cool ideas, and more from the brightest minds in the business, publishers have to pony up for the talent. I hope, in some small way, to nudge the publishers toward improving their rates, even if this means raising the prices of products by a modest amount to compensate. Of course, being the publisher and lead designer for my small company means I shoulder most of the writing largely to keep costs under control. Not every company can do this and I understand and so it’s a knot I’m not sure will ever get untied.

JI: Shadow of the Demon Lord is a wonderfully elegant game that’s easy to learn and play, but also provides players endless options when building characters. How did you crack the code of simple gameplay and limitless options?

RS: Hey thanks! During design, I strove to please two groups of people so I could bring them to the same table and have a great experience. The first group included the casual players, people with an interest in the hobby, but are neither willing nor interested in spending an hour making ten decisions to create a character. Furthermore, they don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the campaign or what mechanical choice they’re going to make next. Hell, they probably can’t commit to a weekly or even bimonthly game.

I also focused on invested players, people who live and breathe tabletop RPGs, who delight in making characters and tinkering with the game. These folks, especially those who come from traditional tabletop RPGs, expect to be able to make meaningful and interesting choices in character development and during game play. They have an idea about what kind of character they want to play and they expect the game to deliver the options they need to realize that character in play.

The casual audience’s needs kept my crunchy impulse in check, and let me focus on delivering those things that would keep both kinds of players at the same table. The result was a trim, flexible game engine that could adapt to a variety of circumstances and is easy to learn and master. The mechanical options, which, as you point out, are many, live inside of bigger decision points. Invested players still have lots to choose from, but they choose big packages rather than spend their time making decisions about the small things that, in my experience, don’t really matter much at all.

Rather than carve up these widgets into smaller buckets, I delivered them in big packages called paths. You choose three paths over the life of the campaign, which lets the character adapt and grow as the story progresses, while bundling interesting things together to completely bypass decision paralysis when a player is faced with combining mechanical elements from eight or more different sources. So at the start of the campaign, characters are quite simple and easy to make. Each adventure completed grows the character’s complexity from the widgets gained from previous or new big decision points. However, the player has the time to master those widgets and see how they work in play during the adventure, so that by the time the adventure ends, the player is ready to learn something new.

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JI: How did you manage to get so many quality products shipped in so little time and why is it important for you to be so prolific?

RS: As of this writing, the game has only been out 14 months and I just released the 100th title. I’ve always been prolific when it comes to game design, even if it costs me free time, sanity, happiness, and my liver. The reason for pushing hard on SotDL is that my wee company is fighting for a place in a crowded field. Offering options and expansions to the core that cover a variety of subjects reinforces to customers that the game is alive and well, supported, and offering new and exciting expansions to the core. Delivering these expansions in bite-sized pieces lets people keep up with the game each week for less than it costs to buy a cup of coffee.

JI: I follow you on social media. I’ve never seen a setting that so well represents the designer’s personality, fears, and sense of humor as Shadow of the Demon Lord. How do you tap into something so personal while writing and how do you make those feelings accessible?

It’s probably bad to say this, but I am terrible at work-life balance. I wanted this game to reflect my tastes and sensibilities and I drew from all the things I love about the hobby, all my fears and disappointments, frustrations and blinding hatred that the business, games, and everything else awakens inside of me. My head is a garden in which anxiety, stress, depression, doubt, and so many other terrible things grow. So, I guess, the game is a harvest of those horrors growing there.

JI: What do you think separates Shadow of the Demon Lord from other RPGs?

RS: I was very pragmatic about the design. We’re busy people, maybe busier now than ever before. We have responsibilities. We have competing interests. We live complex and difficult lives. Who the hell has three years to invest in a campaign? Who can make all the game sessions making up the adventure? Heck, I sure can’t. SotDL drags the best part of the campaign—the world-ending, world-shaking event—to the fore. A campaign asks players to commit to some number of adventures no greater than eleven. And, each adventure is a self-contained contained story, ideally playable in a single sitting, so if you can’t make the next session, it’s no big deal. SotDL a game for adults busy doing adult things but who still want to climb out of their lives for a few hours and kill a few demons with their friends over beers and pizza.

JI: There are more than 25 adventures out for Shadow of the Demon Lord. What are some of your favorites and why?

RS: You know, all of the adventures we’ve released hold a special place in my dark heart since most of them represent a designer’s interpretation of my game. Some are linear, some are not. Some are simple, while others are quite complex. We have disgusting adventures, moral dilemmas, and tragedies. Of the adventures I did not write, some of my favorites include The Apple of Her Eye by Steve Kenson. I’ve run this one several times and it almost always ends in a “feel bad” way. A Measure of Faith by Steve Townsend is also great fun as it has a strong and interesting story, while also leveraging the rampant, widespread madness. TS Luikart’s Beware the Tides of Karshoon was a ton of fun since it was like going back to the WFRP days. Finally, I really dug Cam Banks’ The Gorgon’s Tears as it delivered an interesting mystery with interesting consequences.

Of the ones I’ve written, The Curious Case of Farmer Ham (see Tales of the Demon Lord) was one of the first I wrote for the game and thus has a special place in my heart. My Father Left Forever, inside Terrible Beauty, takes a good long look at what it means to be enslaved by a faerie.

JI: What’s do you think consumers should do to help change the way RPG industry professionals are compensated?

RS: If I knew the answer to this question, I would hope to be working less and making more than I do. It’s a sinkhole from which I’m not sure we can escape. I think the trouble is that some folks don’t place value on the product. I mean, it’s not like there’s a shortage of playable RPGs, right? But, where I stumble is when I think about console games. One might give you 20-40 hours of steady enjoyment and people are willing to shell out $60 to play it. A tabletop RPG could provide countless hours of enjoyment for everyone at the table, yet $50 is considered high. It’s true that a tabletop RPG takes less capital and time to create than does a video game, but a tabletop RPG and supplements are made from a smaller pool of people who work the same kinds of hours, who have to master a broad range of design skills, and get a modest return, if they’re lucky, on their investment. This all said, I’m not sure seeking and fighting for fair compensation in the tabletop world is anything more than tilting at windmills and thus I focus on paying fair rates and producing on top notch products in the hopes of inspiring others to do the same.

JI: The Schwalb Entertainment website and online shop appear to be built to handle more product lines than just Shadow of the Demon Lord. Can you give us a hint about what’s to come?

We have some fun things coming next year, all driven by Kickstarter campaigns, though the next batch of products will be further expansions on Shadow of the Demon Lord, though with a far saner release schedule. We’re going to be bringing Freeport to the world the Demon Lord, plus produce a delicious bestiary, a book on magic, and rules for playing legendary characters, though who move beyond the group to become movers and shakers in the world. While working on these, I will starting design on a new game powered by the Demon Lord that I hope to reveal in 2018. Fun stuff coming, so stay tuned!

Check out more great interviews like this one by grabbing your copy of the AetherCon V Convention Program being released Nov/1/2016 here: www.aethercon.com.

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Round Table 117 – Have Spellbook Will Travel, Arcanis, and Mists of Akuma

Round Table / Arcanis, D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, D&D5e, DnD, dungeons and dragons, Henry Lopez, Mike Myler, Mists of Akuma, Pedro Barrenechea, podcast, Rotted Capes, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Zombies / 0 comments

May 2, 2016

A new episode of my podcast, The Round Table, is up on The Tome Show’s website.

I sit down with Rudy Basso to discuss our upcoming fantasy, comedy, radio drama podcast, Have Spellbook Will Travel. Then I hang with Henry Lopez and Pedro Barrenechea of Paradigm Concepts to talk about their long-running campaign setting, Arcanis, and Kickstarter for Forged in Magic. Finally it’s an interview with game designer Mike Myler about his Kickstarter for Mists of Akuma. These podcasts were recorded on April 3, 5, and 28, 2016.

DMs Guild Pick of the Episode: Anauria – Survivor State of Netheril

Please rate and review The Tome Show on iTunes. It only takes 30 seconds and helps us so much!

Links:

The Tome Show on Facebook

D&D V&G Podcast

Rotted Capes

MistsOfAkuma.com

Mists of Akuma on Facebook

Mike Myler on Facebook

Mike Myler on Youtube

Have Spellbook Will Travel on Twitter

If you like what you’re reading please follow me on Twitter, check out my other podcasts, Bonus Action and Gamer to Gamer, find my products on the DMs Guild, tell your friends, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

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Shadow of the Demon Lord Pregens – Master, Expert, Novice, and Starting

Brass Tacks / pdf, pregens, Rob Schwalb, RPG Blog Carnival, Shadow of the Demon Lord / 6 comments

December 3, 2015

As you may know this month I’m hosting the RPG Blog Carnival. The theme is “Homebrew Holiday Gifts,” and I’m asking bloggers everywhere to share their RPG creations for their favorite systems with me. At the end of the month I’ll make a list linking all participating blog posts so everyone can checkout the fine homebrew creations in one place. That brings me to my second entry for the month – MORE Shadow of the Demon Lord pregens! Now you can get starting, novice, expert, and master pregens below!

I recently played a wonderful game of Shadow of the Demon Lord. Game designer Rob Schwalb has put together an amazing RPG with fun, easy-to-learn rules. At first glance this appears to be a simple dark fantasy tabletop RPG (which would be awesome by itself), but read beyond the table of contents and you’ll find it’s a world of deliciously wicked rules that twists tropes and archetypes you know well into something original and different.

You can hear more about Shadow of the Demon Lord in the Gamer to Gamer podcast I recorded with Rob back in March when his (super duper successful) Kickstarter launched. Since then he’s published the core rulebook and a ton of adventures by many amazing designers you can buy.

I noticed that since the game is new there aren’t many pregens online, so I made a few of my own. Below are pregens for starting (level 0), novice (level 1), expert (level 3), and master (level 7) PCs. You can always grab these pregens on the Free Game Resources section of the site.

Starting

Changeling

Clockwork

Dwarf

Goblin

Human

Orc

Novice

Changeling Magician Level 1

Clockwork Warrior Level 1

Dwarf Priest Level 1

Goblin Rogue Level 1

Human Priest Level 1

Orc Warrior Level 1

Expert

Changeling Magician Witch Level 3

Clockwork Warrior Fighter Level 3

Dwarf Priest Paladin Level 3

Goblin Rogue Thief Level 3

Human Priest Cleric Level 3

Orc Warrior Berserker Level 3

Master

Changeling Magician Witch Technomancer Level 7

Clockwork Warrior Fighter Weapon Master Level 7

Dwarf Priest Paladin Healer Level 7

Goblin Rogue Thief Acrobat Level 7

Human Priest Cleric Astromancer Level 7

Orc Warrior Berserker Brute Level 7

Hey if you want more RPG homebrew goodness, check out the Free Game Resources section of this site. You can find a lot of fifth edition D&D resources there like backgrounds, magic items, monsters, D&D fifth edition rules modules, spells, adventures, and more created by yours truly.

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

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Shadow of the Demon Lord Pregens – Expert, Novice, and Starting

Brass Tacks / pdf, pregens, Rob Schwalb, RPG Blog Carnival, Shadow of the Demon Lord / 0 comments

December 1, 2015

Bones for the Demon Lord!

As you may know this month I’m hosting the RPG Blog Carnival. The theme is “Homebrew Holiday Gifts,” and I’m asking bloggers everywhere to share their RPG creations for their favorite systems with me. At the end of the month I’ll make a list linking all participating blog posts so everyone can checkout the fine homebrew creations in one place. That brings me to my first entry for the month – Shadow of the Demon Lord pregens!

I noticed that since the game is new there aren’t many pregens online, so I made a few of my own. Below are pregens for starting (level 0), novice (level 1), and expert (level 3) PCs. You can always grab these pregens on the Free Game Resources section of the site.

Starting

Changeling

Clockwork

Dwarf

Goblin

Human

Orc

Novice

Changeling Magician Level 1

Clockwork Warrior Level 1

Dwarf Priest Level 1

Goblin Rogue Level 1

Human Priest Level 1

Orc Warrior Level 1

Expert

Changeling Magician Witch Level 3

Clockwork Warrior Fighter Level 3

Dwarf Priest Paladin Level 3

Goblin Rogue Thief Level 3

Human Priest Cleric Level 3

Orc Warrior Berserker Level 3

Master

Changeling Magician Witch Technomancer Level 7

Clockwork Warrior Fighter Weapon Master Level 7

Dwarf Priest Paladin Healer Level 7

Goblin Rogue Thief Acrobat Level 7

Human Priest Cleric Astromancer Level 7

Orc Warrior Berserker Brute Level 7

More Shadow of the Demon Lord pregens to come! Gotta get those master ones out there!

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Homebrew Holiday Gifts – RPG Blog Carnival

Collaboration / blog community, D&D, D&D fifth edition, D&D Next, D&D5e, DnD, Homebrew, Johnn Four, RPG Blog Carnival, Shadow of the Demon Lord / 56 comments

November 26, 2015

To my friends in the United States – Happy Thanksgiving!

Since I started this blog I’ve been taking part in the monthly RPG Blog Carnival. Currently organized by Johnn Four over at Roleplaying Tips, the carnival is hosted by a different blog each month. The owner of the hosting blog picks a RPG-related theme and then invites other bloggers to write at least one post on that theme in their own blogs. Those bloggers then provide a link to their posts somewhere in the comments of the host blog’s introductory carnival post. At the end of the month, the blog hosting the carnival gathers up all of the links in a new blog post and puts them together in a nice little package for all to see. Check out November’s carnival theme “A Stack of Surprises,” hosted by Mike Bourke of Campaign Mastery.

In December, I’ll be hosting the carnival. If you’ve been following me for a while or you’ve checked out the Free Game Resources section of this site, you know I love crafting homebrew creations. For fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons I’ve created numerous backgrounds, magic items, monsters, D&D fifth edition rules modules, spells, adventures, and more. I’ve also been on a Shadow of the Demon Lord pregen creation kick recently, since there don’t seem to be many out there for this new game yet.

Now I’m inviting others to join in the fun. This holiday season, give the gift of your gaming creations. Create a new monsters, feat, spell, force power, weapon, magic item, NPC, PC, adventure, map, world, background, rule, society, or anything else you can dream up. It could be for your favorite game system or something system agnostic! It doesn’t matter. Heck get into the spirit and stat out Santa or go dark and make a murderous longsword forged in the blood of demons. Your imagination is the only limit. No creation is too small if it’s one that came right out of your brain.

Leave links to those creations in the comments below and at the end of the month I’ll post them up in a nice blogtastic package for GMs everywhere to steal for their games! Give the gift of gaming, my friends. There’s going to be plenty homebrew fun to come from this blog as well, so stay tuned!

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