Libris Monstrum #2: The Mimic

Welcome back to the Libris Monstrum! Last time, I talked about nagas and their rich history within the myths of the real world. The incarnations of naga have remained pretty stable over the years, at least within D&D, but we will get back to naga later. Tonight, I want to talk about something that doesn't come from the real world: the mimic!

Why talk about the mimic? Because you asked me to, and you voted on it! The mimic is a classic monster and virtually every person who has played more than one game of Dungeons & Dragons knows what it is. It is a creature that sits on a list of iconic monsters encountered at the table, alongside beholders and gelatinous cubes. Some of you were curious as to why to include them as an underutilized monster, so common as they are. Well, the mimic isn't so common.


Man-Eating Treasure Chests
The mimic is seen quite often in lower level dungeon crawls to trick players and punish them for blindly opening, or attempting to open, random treasure chests. But do we ever see them after that? Sometimes we do when we start new games, have forgotten our lessons, or take part in classic adventures, but not often enough. And certainly we are nearly guaranteed to see them as chests. It is, after all, the classic look. In fact, it is so classic its an entire trope with these types of creatures showing up in video games and other artistic works outside of D&D.


Getting More
Mimics are capable of so much more than that, though. Early on it was decided that those wizards who held many valuable items, and made their homes in strange dungeons, needed something to protect their hoards. Why not a magical shapeshifting treasure chest that eats people? They have been able to transform into a lot more, anything made of stone and wood at least: door frames, short walls, statues, bookshelves, all the common dungeon decor. Aside this ability is the ability to secrete a glue that holds attackers firm to them, making the kill all the more easy. Of course don't forget that there are smaller ones, smarter than their killer cousins. These can be fed and befriended, even speaking to those who have pleased them. Just look at some of the images below by Vempirick on Deviantart for some terrifying ideas.

Similar Ideas Or Different Species?
OK so the mimic doesn't corner the market pretending to be something it isn't. Of course, I know these aren't the same thing as the mimic, often very different, but the idea is fun to think about. It also benefits you, the game, and the poor mimic if you change it up once in a while. Wouldn't it be something if they treat a cloaker like a cloaker when it is really a mimic!?

So, let's look at some of those creatures now. The cloaker is as good a place as any to start, and a great one to be sure. Hanging up on a rack, alongside many other cloakers, the cloaker looks just like the rest. Some nice buttons and some bone clasps, or are they? Nope they are extra eyes and terrible claws and this thing will eat you as soon as you try to put it on. Oh, and they can fly. If you want to be even more devious just use the trapper, a creature that molds to the floor it is on, becoming the floor. Walk on it and you will become food. Or the piercer. One of those stalagmites looks odd, maybe loose? You don't understand the truth until it lets go stabbing you from above and hoping to kill you outright!

The grey ooze is another fantastic classic! Sure oozes suck in all their forms, but the grey ooze is fun for its ability to look like stone. Fill a whole in a wall with the ooze or create a small half wall with a few of them. Your players never know what hit them. My favorite, though, is the one that doesn't live in dungeons, but in the woods. The wolf-in-sheeps-clothing is an awesomely odd and fun creature. While it looks like a tree stump with a small wounded animal atop it, it is actually a horrible carnivore. Heroic characters can never resist the urge to help a small creature, especially when there is a druid. When they discover that its a woodland anglerfish, well you players may never trust you again.


Mimic-Like Cousins
Not all not-quite-treasure-chests are mimics. Some of them are a lot more fun. Take the Luggage for example. This creature is from the Discworld series and is unmistakable unique. It is, essentially, a combination treasure chest, bag of holding, and batman-butler. It's determination and ability is amazing, but it is no true mimic. Similarly, the next two things are incapable of shapeshifting, but they do act as other objects and are likely to try to eat you. The Bag of Devouring is my favorite cursed item. It acts as a bag of holding, most of the time anyway. When it isn't, it is eating your stuff...or you. There is always a chance that the bag eats something you have put into it and can never retrieve it again. Of course, it could just try to pull you inside as you try to retrieve an item. While not as terrible, the Monster book of Monsters from the world of Harry Potter is a book equally likely to eat you. If you know how to treat it, you will be able to read from the text, but it is still a dangerous creature.


Dungeons, The Mimic, & You
A lot of this entry to the Libris Monstrum hasn't, technically. Unlike other entries, the mimic doesn't have a culture. In fact, its major lacking feature is the tendency to use it as a chest and forget about it. So how can we get the mimic to come back to the table? First off, I believe we need to consider the second, more intelligent species to be quite a useful device. Perhaps an old familiar or just the secret leader of a dungeon, the mimic would be difficult to find if it didn't want to be.

Then, of course, a mimic can eat and grow and eat and grow. There are two ways to make a great dungeon from that fact. First off, if it is reproductively active (which is just through fission!), then a dungeon might end up being full of the creatures. Every time goblins, treasure hunters, bears, or anything else moves in they just get eaten. This would leave an eerily empty dungeon, not only clean but with plenty of loot!

On the other hand, we could say the mimic does NOT reproduce. Or, at least, not a lot. We could have a dungeon with one small section controlled by one or a couple, extra large mimics. Imagine a high level party, already having overcome the trouble of mimics and dragons, only to find a mimic the size of a bed or a desk or even bigger! It would be surprising to say the least and quite dangerous. Any of these options utilize the mimic in a much broader and fuller sense than it generally gets.

I suggest you take it and go crazy, get creative. That is how we can stop the mimic from being so under utilized while still being so well known.

Untamed Rant New Year's Special!

A couple days later than intended but the New Years special resource episode of the Untamed Rant is uploaded! Check it out here!


UPDATE-here are those links I forgot yesterday

-http://www.sfwa.org/
-http://arcadia.net/Cruinne/DnD/Articles/worldbuilding.html
-http://inkarnate.com/
-https://www.dmsguild.com/
-https://slack.com/
-http://www.dmsupportgroup.com/
-http://tvtropes.org/
-http://whothefuckismydndcharacter.com/
-http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html
-http://jamesclemens.com/
-http://www.kimharrison.net/
-http://www.peterclines.com/
-http://www.jameslovegrove.com/

Libris Monstrum #1: Naga

Welcome to the very first entry in the Libris Monstrum! Here shall be a series of entries going over some of the most commonly included monsters in game manuals. But, no, I am not going to be going over things like dragons or goblins. At least not at first, because those monsters are not just included but staples of games like Dungeons & Dragons. My goal is to talk about the monsters that often get missed and forgotten. To begin I want to talk about one of my favorites from mythology: the naga!


Serpent Entities

Naga, or nagini as the females are called, are serpent creatures of various Asian mythos. Most notably, nagas are part of the various Indian religions. The spread of religions like Hinduism and Buddhism throughout Asia caused quite a diversification of nagas over time. Nevertheless, nagas are almost always related to the king cobra and thus have similar hoods. Aside from this, there are a few other common physical features. The more frightening, and interesting, are the human faces. How human the faces are can vary. Still, the image of a serpentine creature whose head is very human, but whose eyes and forked tongue are still snake-like, is unnerving. Some even have multiple heads like the hydra of greek mythology. Nagas can also be capable of shapeshifting into human form, disguising themselves among people.


Purpose

There are mixed stories about the type of beings that naga and nagini are. Generally speaking they are seen as evil creatures, capricious and deceitful. Sometimes though, they can act as a neutral party or may even be willing to be good and helpful. Regardless though, there seems to be a general regard of nagas to be guardians of some kind. Treasure is one such thing, but more often they are natural resources, especially water. Rivers, lakes, and underground springs can be the home of guardian naga. Even those helpful naga must be shown respect and their sacred water source treated well.


Nagas In Dungeons & Dragons

Nagas have been included in D&D for decades, always showing up in the monster manuals as serpentine entities. These come in a couple varieties, each of which tends to focus on a specific aspect of the mythos. Common types include guardian, dark, and water nagas which become associated with sacred places / treasure, evil, and nature protection respectively. This division is also tied to alignment with guardian naga being good and dark naga being evil, for example. This variety is kept throughout the edition, though there are often more added in various books. These days the naga have a very cobra-like appearance and slightly human faces. They are considered immortal monstrosities and all are capable of some form of spell casting.


Nagas In Pathfinder

Pathfinder is one of my favorite games in regard to the treatment of creatures from a variety of mythos and sources. Nagas are no exception. Like D&D, Pathfinder links different types of naga to some aspect of the mythos, as well as alignment. There is a little less emphasis on guardianship, but a strong linking to other specifics. That list of things has been expanded and explored by Paizo and includes interesting naga types like royal, slime, and dream. The nagas in Pathfinder art have much more human faces and their serpent forms divert from the cobra occasionally, providing a nice variety. Like D&D nagas, these ones can cast spells, but they are mortal beings. Instead of one naga lording over a place or people, a lineage of nagas take the name of a predecessor allowing the shorter lived races to assume it is but a single individual.


Nagas At The Table

The obvious use of a naga is to act as a guardian of a certain area or item that the party may be looking for. While interesting and different in the moment, this does not do the naga justice. D&D has emphasized the naga in 5th Edition by discussing their connection to the Yuan-ti, another serpent people. The war between the two go so far back that the yuan-ti even have a horrible ritual which kills a naga and raises it as an undead known as the bone naga. This enmity could be the basis of an entire setting or campaign. Perhaps the PCs must choose sides in a developing war, or maybe they get caught as a third party between the two sides. Another idea I had was to have the two groups working together. What would cause such unprecedented and dangerous agendas?

My favorite use of the naga is completely different, however. There are a multitude of powerful entities or persons that can act has NPCs, but why not naga? Utilize the mythical predilection towards guarding something and helping those who help them, as well as their ability to look human (or some fantasy race). Give them age, knowledge, and power beyond what is the base stat block. Their ability to cast spells naturally make them even more formidable. I would argue that ancient nagas (with levels in some spellcasting class) would be more powerful than many dragons, and they certainly provide a different way of filling a similar role. Hey, you could even give them a treasure hoard like dragons have!

Resources For Every GM: Rules & Supplements Part 7

Greetings everyone! Today we get back to some core resources for your bookshelf. While these resources will be much more directed towards the Pathfinder or Dungeons & Dragons GM, they are pretty great book in general. The topic of this trio is equipment, especially weapons, because who doesn't need more diverse (or insane!) equipment??


Arms & Equipment Guide (3rd Edition D&D): I love this book. It wasn't gigantic, and it wasn't in color, but it was full of great stuff. The great thing about books like this is that gold value is relatively maintained throughout the editions, so that you don't need to go into much editing or double-checking there. This one, in particular, makes great use of that with all the various mundane items that can be found in Chapter 2. Clothing, food, drink, and trade goods are just a few of the items you can find here. Trade goods could be especially useful in filling out a dragon's hoard. I know what you're thinking too, but this stuff is in the main manual I use. Yes you are right, but this gives a large variety of examples to flesh out your world and make different locations unique from one-another. Vehicle, hirelings, creatures, and mercenaries are also helpful from this book even if you only use price points. The mechanics of it may not be the most helpful to everyone's game, but if you need a compact list of resources and items then this should be added to your library.


Weapons of Legacy (3.5 D&D): This book almost didn't make it on here. It is very mechanic heavy and entrenched in the 3rd Edition feat rules. However, it provides an example of something that few other books did: provide scaling magical items. I have always loved this idea. If I player find or even creates an item and grant it a name (magical or otherwise) it deserves to have a legacy. Granting magical effects and increasing its power over time with that of the character makes it more meaningful. There are also some good examples of this happening recently. In Critical Role, the vestiges gain power as they are used and their potential unlocked. In World of Warcraft, there are now legendary weapons that scale with your level and can be imbued with more and more power. In Destiny items can be consumed to increase the light level of the one you wield. Personally, this book is a great how-to guide, an example of how you can go about doing the same in your game. The fact that there is a whole chapter of optional rules provides just that much more insight into the process and the things associated with using scalable items. If you want a whole book of prime examples, this is the best one I have seen.


Adventurer's Armory (Pathfinder): This is the Pathfinder version of the Arms & Equipment guide. While it doesn't have things like the gelatinous cube mount, it does have a ton of fantastic stuff (and full color artwork!). Included are a number of unique weapons, like the boomerang, with rules how to use those and some unique weapon properties (like the ability to choke someone). In addition there are more great ideas for mundane items and their price points. Also included are examples (in the form of feats and the like) of equipment tricks you can learn and how to use certain items as spell foci. Other awesome sections include alchemist's ingredients and how they might effect a concoction, as well as a brief example of how to utilize items within a social encounter. For those who continue to love variety for their games, this is another book for you!

Running My First Published Campaign And Killing Everyone

Despite many years of playing Dungeons & Dragons, and other table top games, I have never actually run a published adventure or campaign. I have come close to doing so, taken pretty direct inspiration from them, but never held one with the intent of following that story directly. Not until Curse of Strahd came out last year.

We introduced a couple new players to D&D using Death House and with the great fun and success of that one-shot, we decided to move on to Curse of Strahd. It has provided a couple of significant challenges as a DM for me, which I have mentioned a couple times in passing. Today, I wanted to discuss it a little further, especially given last night's session. Never have I killed so many PCs in a session or a campaign. It may seem unlikely, but it is true, the other near TPK situations I have had were generally converted to capture situations. Needless to say, Strahd has been quite an experience so far.

It's Ready For You

The (obvious) thing about published adventures is that they are made for you. You don't have to do any of the normal prep work that goes with a home game. Instead, you have a good amount of reading ahead of you. It may sound odd, but this has not been the easiest way for me to run an adventure. 

Preparation for this adventure includes reading more between sessions. Figuring out what the players have done and how their actions have rippled through that book. The problem, for me, is that it's not unlikely that the players have done something that commits drastic changes to the written story. Now, that much should be pretty obvious for most GMs. The players will always derail anything you run for them. As those changes pile up, though, it becomes a little difficult to prepare. The hardest part is when you are leading them down a (narrative) road and discover that the road was destroyed multiple sessions ago by their actions. It isn't the worst thing to happen, it is just a bit annoying because that discovery could come mid-session not during your planning between.

Look It Up Instead Of Make It Up

When running the published game I get as prepared as possible to know what is in that book and keep the most likely relevant information at the top of my thoughts. Of course this always goes to shit, so I also have been getting more familiar with where to find what for the inevitable, "let me look that up," moments. Now, you may be saying that I should just do things on the fly, make it up, and fix it later. For a number of things, I very much do that, but there is a line where I have to decide I don't know enough off the top of my head to make it up. If I did I would create a lot more work for myself later, and possibly create unknown narrative roadblocks elsewhere.

In Curse of Strahd, the thing I end up looking up most is individuals' statuses. Are they allies or enemies of Strahd? Who are they friendly with? I NEED to make sure I get those right when the players ask those questions. The whole story is written around those relationships. Now, my players don't mind me double checking, but I find myself most comfortable in a home brew world where I KNOW those relationships. And the ones I don't know, well that is when I make the decision myself.

The Death Of A Party....Or Two

Curse of Strahd was taken as a difficult, high risk adventure. I knew that, my players knew that. Two of them died in Death House. Death hasn't been a problem for the group or the game, but it has happened. Up until last night, however, the two newbies (through sheer luck) had survived since their arrival to Death House. They provided a narrative backbone for story progression and knowing what was going on and why. At least enough to say, "hey new guy who isn't from here I have some bad news...."

The deaths alone aren't bad. They were all made in doing something good. Death House is cleansed. Ireena and her brother have escaped the Village of Barovia. The Wizards Of Wines vineyard is beat up, but saved and one gem returned. Those who aren't ghosts of Barovia will likely be back, some as vampires. The player's know this and I think it will be a fun session when they have to fight their former selves. It's the line we have gotten to now, with no original party member left, that creates a problem.

But everyone died yesterday. Two at the hands of a vampire nest. One after really bad-mouthing Strahd from the stocks and failing a Wisdom save. The last was hung for murder (a story in its own right). That last one was brought back from the dead, but he was new to the party and only knows what is happening second hand. Now new travelers have come to Barovia, and the party is together as outsiders who know that the only way home will be to defeat Strahd. They even had new cards read and that reading has aided the campaign track nicely.

But what happens if there is a TPK, or close enough to one? If it is too soon, that might be the end of Curse of Strahd. I don't think the players would even find it enjoyable to so quickly make a whole new party and go through introductions, get new card readings, and discover how many may have fallen before them. Maybe at a later date when the horrors of Barovia are a memory. If there is quite a bit of story before any deaths, then the likelihood of deaths lessens and the players get stronger. It will be easier to resurrect or replace one of them, and continue. That problem, though, the problem of too many deaths too soon; it lurks right around the corner.

Learning Curve

Running a published game has been quite the learning curve, especially given the added burden of character deaths by the wagon-load. It has been a fun one, however. While I may be more comfortable in my own worlds, I don't dislike the published adventures. In many ways I spend less time preparing, though that may be my many years of student experience. I know how to take notes and look things up. Creating my own things may be easier, but it is certainly time consuming. I get better as the sessions go on, and the start of the next one will prove to be smoother (from my point of view at least). And my home brew games, I can apply what I learn in this form of GMing to those too. There is always something to be learned, and I look forward to learning.

Oh, and if there is a TPK soon, or even if Strahd is eventually defeated, we will have to move onto In Strange Aeons, because why go for a less horrific adventure the second go?

Resources For Every GM: Internet Part 8 / Audio Part 1

This week's resources article is another internet trio, despite the fact that I wanted to get away form that group for a little while. Two problems with that though. First, I really wanted to finally get around to throwing up three audio resources. Background music has really helped games for me in the best, and I know it helps a lot of other tables enjoy their games. The second problem is the simple fact that I am not sure there are quite enough resources for audio out there. OK, I take it back. As I write this I am duo-ing Internet Part 8 and Audio Part 1. This introduction will remain as such for everyone to know why. Forever!


Syrinscape: This is not even a web resource, technically. It's a application which you can get from the internet and, honestly, I love it. I wish I used it more often and may start reintroducing background tunes to our not-recorded-games. So Syrinscape has a free version / sound set. You can use this without registering, and can also purchase as many of the wonderful variety of sets as you like. Some of them are themed and some of them are designed for specific adventures (Pathfinder Adventure Paths). They come with ambient tracks, ambient sounds, and sound effects that exist within a mixer. The greater your collection grows the more you can do. If you can afford regular payments, subscribe and have access to the whole library of sounds. This library, of course, is only getting bigger. And do not worry, if you purchase separate sets you don't need to have a current subscription to access those. Needless to say, but there are almost too many ways to use this tool and if you really want those kind of audio options it is definitely the one for you!


Tabletop Audio: This is another fantastic ambient noise tool, and this one is on the web. While not quite as prolific as Syrinscape, this site has continued to grow. The library of tracks is up to over 100 at the time of writing this. These include themed tracks that might be ambience, music, or a combination. The variety is pretty good here, despite the fairly low track count, including everything from riverside town to a nighttime forest and an alien cantina to a luchador fight. To add on to this, the website has a new(ish?) feature that I have only just learned about: sound pads. These are similar to what Syrinscape has going on with sound effects. Each has a themed set of ambient noises, sounds, and effects for you to use in the background. Add a tab with music going and you could have a great scene set for your players, complete with effects. Of course, I haven't explored it so when you make your own pad on the site, I wouldn't be surprised if you can add a music track (if they aren't already lurking on those pads). Definitely a beautiful resource!


Ambient Mixer: This is a website I have only just begun exploring as a recent introduction to my bookmarks. The fantastic thing about this site is it is a mixer site to create the kind of atmosphere you want or need for whatever you are doing. Some of the top mixes on the home page include common areas of various Hogwarts Houses, Lord of the Rings locations, and the TARDIS. Obviously, there is a lot of sound here that can be used to a general feel for whoever you are. Greatest of all is that this site is all the shared audio templates are under a Creative Commons License. Thanks to the amazing creators of those works the site uses there is the ability to use the work for more than personal reasons. Be aware, of course, of the rules associated as such and take responsibility for going about that the proper way!

Resources For Every GM: Settings Part 2

Ok, so for this week's resource article I really wanted to share some of the settings that have been inspiring me to work on some of my worlds recently. They are unique worlds that have a lot to offer in both general inspiration or as entire settings from which to run a game.


Mutant New York (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles): Honestly how could you not love the idea of this kind of game. It crosses the lines of so many different genres / subgenres that it isn't even funny. The TMNT could, in various adventures, qualify for any number of games. You have intrigue, you have super-heroics, science fiction, martial arts, and all around action movie action. TMNT is incredibly diverse but everyone knows it when they see it. Ninja turtles. The only other place you get that is in something trying to emulate the Ninja Turtles. If you see the Foot Clan or Utroms or mousers, you know what you are in for. In fact, I would bet anthropomorphic triceratops would lead a lot of people back to TMNT. I mean who doesn't love some space triceratops people!? Not only do you get all this from the TMNT, but there are a number of eras from which you can play or take influence from. The original comics, the IDW reboot, the 90s cartoon, the 2000s cartoon, the most recent cartoon, or either of the movie series. There is so much flexibility without loosing what makes this setting unique: mutants and martial arts. Personally I cannot wait to play the TMNT one shot next weekend, and hope to play it again in the future.


Robot Future (Mega Man Universe): I love Mega Man. I cannot actually describe how infatuated I am with the Mega Man franchise. Now, to be fair I don't own all the games, nor do I own the comics. However, I watched the cartoon growing up and I played days worth of hours worth of Mega Man X. I have also dabbled in wikis. It is just the entire concept of the basic Mega Man universe and all the concepts that build out of it. Its an indeterminate future with lots of advancements, and yet not quite so many. It is almost entirely robotics based. We have a robot for everything. And that, of course, means robots for evil, or turned evil, or corrupted in some way. But the idea that there are sentient robots and some of them are "alive" and some of them don't seem to be and there are a handful which can borrow the abilities of others? It is so cool. I forget what forum I read it on, but the person argued it very well and I agree, Mega Man is within the super hero genre and it exists there in a very specific unique way. That's one of the reasons I love it. It's not just a fun platformer franchise, it is also a marvelously developed world. If you want even more reason to love it look up The Megas, specifically their Get Equipped album. Beautiful. Anyways, this setting has inspired an entire setting of my own. If there was a Mega Man RPG I would play it, but I am almost as excited to share the world inspired by it.


Slumberland (Little Nemo Universe): This universe will either be completely familiar to you, hugely nostalgia inspiring, or something you have never heard of. My first introduction to it was in the NES game Little Nemo: The Dream Master. I remember two things about this game. First it is an incredibly interesting idea that includes a crazy world and the ability to feed certain animals candy and, in return, you ride them and gain special abilities. It was rather difficult and I admit to utilizing a Game Genie to surpass a tree climbing portion which involved, I believe, a difficult to make jump and an angry buzzard. Later I was introduced to Little Nemo: Adventures In Slumber Land, many years later. This was a terrific anime movie that informs you much more about the world and how interesting it is. Both of these things are based on a comic strip from 1905. Yeah going to the way back machine here, but that is because of the unique style of this setting. Sure dream-based worlds have existed in the decades before the adaptations, but not like this. As such it made a good game, a great movie, and wonderful setting. I am using it to influence the Fae realm of Luxarrah and it alone would make for some terrific adventures.

Resources For Every GM: Internet Part 7

Hey everyone, today I wanted to expand your bookmarks once again!


Campaign Crawler: This website is new to me, and pretty new to the internet. Campaign Crawler is a database of table top role playing game campaigns. As various campaigns become ever-more numerous, it helps to have a place where you can search or browse them. Now, this is a new site so there is a limited number of campaigns. Hundreds are there, mind you, but most of the database features 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons material including Wizards, other publishers' products, and a lot of DMs Guild material. Browsing it I have also found some Call of Cthulhu and AGE entries in the database, so there is a lot of potential for this database to become something huge. It will require interest and visitors though! If you need a little more pushing to go to the site, the entries already there are well done. They include varying amount of summary but have rule-sets, authors, page numbers, settings, and more associated with them. Additionally the page will lead you to similar products and link you to where you can purchase the product.


Kobold Fight Club: A web tool to make any Dungeon Master's life a whole hell of a lot easier comes in the form of Kobold Fight Club. This tool allows you to enter your party size and level in order to determine the difficulty of various creatures based on Challenge Rating. In addition the entries include size, type, alignment and source of the entry. The entries can be filtered be these, by level range, environment, and search. If this wasn't helpful enough, you can build and save encounters to use in your game and figure out how difficult those encounters will be. These encounters can be saved and accessed later to create a place to keep and run them from with ease. As of right now, there are over a dozen sources that can be included in any searches or encounters, but it will be up to the DM to have access to the stats of those creatures.


Matthew Colville's YouTube Channel: I can't say enough about this channel. While the channel isn't new, Matt Colville has begun adding a significant number of TTRPG videos. To be fair, most of these are D&D directed, but there is so much information presented in these that is great for players (or potential players) of any game. The Running The Game series, is perhaps the one I would suggest most as Matt shares much of his experience and hints on how to go about things at the table. Random encounters, making characters, why we play, and dead ends are all topics that can be found. He addresses the topics carefully and well-spoken. Do yourself a favor and take advantage of an experienced DM's advice!

Resources For Every GM: References Part 7

Today I have a variety of books for you to expand your ideas for mythologies and creatures. Two of them are pretty comprehensive books with tons of information for you to draw from. The third is an interesting book I got for Christmas last year that is a fictional science book about mythological creatures.


The Element Encyclopedia of Native Americans (Adele Nozedar): As always Barnes & Nobel provides random deals on random informative books, and this one was no exception. Like many books this is not the end-all resource for the topic but it has so much good information in it. The book is one in a series of similar books that relay lots of information about specific topics. In this case we are given over to the Native American tribes, specifically of the United States. The symbols, ideas, and tribes of U.S. Native Americans are presented here in great number. The reason I like this book is because it is different from most of the other mythology books you can find. Aside that it is not about a "classical" mythology, and perhaps for that reason, it also includes a greater amount of entries concerning things such as animals and cultural occurrences. There are entries for horses, bears, dances, and hunting. Most other books concern the gods, horrible creatures, and their stories. In this book you will find much more to do with nature and its balance, a wonderfully refreshing belief system compared to "standard" mythologies. If you want to help make a diverse fantasy world for your players, this is an indispensable resource and will give you enough insight to create a culture unlike those often presented.


The Element Encyclopedia of Fairies (Lucy Cooper): Another entry into the Element Encyclopedia series, this book is an incredible resource. The title should make evident what it is about, but this might include so much more than many people expect. While D&D has provided us with nice breakdowns and categorizations of different creatures over the years, there is a great deal of variety and vagueness to the myths they are based off. This book includes what you would expect from brownies and gnomes to redcaps and pixies, but goes deeper. In it are included entries of Celtic mythology, as well as creatures from Russian, Greek, Norse mythologies and more. You will find the origins for kobolds and trolls and even entries for undead like banshees. Many such creatures overlap in cultural placement and, though we now separate them at the table, they are virtually the same creatures. If you are curious about fey creatures, supernatural tales of old, or some of the cultural overlap that might exist in different parts of the world (real or fantasy) then this book is your best bet!


The Resurrectionist ( E.B. Hudspeth): I love this book and would probably have bought it for the diagrams alone if not given to me as a gift. The book is presented as the lost work of a Doctor Spencer Black and the first part of it is a bit of a biography of who he was. It describes his interests as a scientist and his breaking into the world of natural oddities. The second portion of the book is much less text and a lot more pictures. Here is presented a codex of little-known animals from around the world. The section contains creatures like harpies, centaurs, and mermaids and gives each of them a classification, species name, and description. In addition there are various images of their skeletons, musculature, and other things such as wingspan. Muscles and bones are even individually labeled like would be appropriate in such a text. Honestly, if you have any interest in biology, at all, and play D&D or some other RPG this is a fantastic book to have.

Resources For Every GM: References Part 6

*I realize all the links I put out probably say resources part 6, didn't see it until last one, oops*

Good afternoon all. I have been having some trouble with these Resource articles on time (well on time to my desired schedule) because I almost always look at what I have and go, "this is totally great for *insert theme here*!" So my prepared list of resources is like 8 weeks long, but none of them have 3. this is a bit of a problem, or it was at least. I have decided to try to lighten up on that a bit and I have also come up with a few sets I can use as well. Yes these are, in fact, themed. Sue me. Today I have some books not intended for GMs at all, but for writers. We all know that GMs are, or at least become, writers of a sort.


Bird By Bird (Anne Lamott): This is a book that was assigned in my creative writing class this semester, and it definitely a resource worth looking into. It isn't my favorite book on writing but it is a good one. As the title suggests Lamott writes about life as much, if not more than about writing, but for an author like her writing is life. As a result you can a great amount of insight into the general workings of your average writer, you average creative type. The reason I suggest this specific book is that, very quickly, you get the realization that you aren't the only one who get distracted when trying to write. This happens to me whether I am writing or working on campaign material, and I imagine it happens to you as well. The way she writes is even similar to this sticking on and repeating a distracting thought as she describes a day meant for writing spent doing like 15 other things. If nothing else it is good to know your bad habits are not only yours and may even reinvigorate your self-confidence when such days hit you.


Fierce On The Page (Sage Cohen): Another work I read for my creative writing class, this one I liked better than Bird By Bird. The book is separated into 75 short chapters, or essays really because each one can easily be read without ever having read over any of the others. Each essay talks about a different aspect of not just writing, but also life. She uses her life experiences and how those related to her writing to help reveal how directly everything in your life is connected to the creative process. Cohen gives suggestions on how to de-clutter and become comfortable with your own process and troubles so that you can get back to the important things like writing, and for you guys Game Mastering!


Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction (Orson Scott Card, Phillip Athens, more): This may be the most useful book for GMs, especially aspiring writers who GM. I do need to mention the one problem I have found in the first section of the book, though. There is a tendency for the subject matter to be related towards and with respect with science fiction. While not ignoring fantasy, there does seem to be a lacking in specifics related to it. Nevertheless, this is an amazing resource for what you could get out of it. Aspiring authors will find the entire thing helpful, but GMs will find the ten chapter of part four of great use. There is basic information on a number of cultures, religions, vocabulary, weapons, commerce, castles, and more. Much of this can be learned through various other sources and the internet, but to have one collection of similar base material is of incredible use.

Resources For Every GM: Reference Books Part 5

Hello everyone and sorry for the delay (again). Today's reference books follow the theme of the mysterious thanks to a bargain bin at Barnes & Noble! Of course, in some cases we are looking to explore and explain the mysterious and in others we can only guess, probe, and wonder. Regardless of what kind of help or inspiration you need, one of these may be of help to you.


The Secret Language of Star Signs (Jane Struthers): First we have a book about astrology, a topic that tries to reveal information about how the universe works in all its mysterious ways. This is a book all about the Zodiac, specifically the classical zodiac of the Greeks. It contains all the information you could ever want to include the Zodiac and its varietal meanings in your campaign world, or as a jump point to create your own. There are sections for each of the different astrological signs and in these are described the personality traits of men, women, and children born to them. Additionally there are sections on things like health, work, relationships, and food which provide you with information on specifics for a sign. What are the spending habits of an Aries? Well, this book has the answers!


The Secret Language of Fortune Telling (Sarah Bartlett): Next is a book about trying to decipher the hidden meanings of the world and predict the greatest mystery of all: the future. I love this book because it provides you with a source of methodologies from around the world. No need to rely on making up or glossing over details in game or avoiding the presence of fortune tellers in game. With this book you can have fortune tellers of all kinds from around the world in your city willing to take some coin and reveal the future of the PCs. In fact, the book is detailed enough that, for example, you could do a fairly well informed palm reading of the player's hand as if they were their character. Or prep one of their PC making assumptions about the spacing of the lines of their palms, giving an air of legitimacy whether you want the fortune teller to be the real deal or not. Examples of techniques in the book include intuition, tarot, runes, numerology, and tea leaf reading.


Unsolved Mysteries (Joel Levy): Now this book is actually all about mysteries, if you couldn't guess that yourself. In it is a collection of actual things that still plague our minds today. It is broken down into four major sections which cover places, events, artifacts, and sightings. Fantasy worlds are full of extraplanar creatures, magic, and gods. Sci-fi worlds are full of strange technology, aliens species, and galactic oddities. Use some real-life mysteries as the basis of weird events in your world and pieces of history and discussion. This book will give you plenty to work with from big foot to UFOs and El Dorado to lost Roanoke. Let the real world inspire you!

Resources For Every GM: Alternate Games Part 3

To start off the return of Resources for Every GM I have some games for you guys to try out. All three of these are a bit different from your average tabletop fantasy (re: D&D). They are, however, great games in their own right.

Cypher System: I have talked about this system a few times now, but it is a system I fell in love with quite quickly. It isn't hard for me to enjoy a game, to be fair, though there is always a reason. The Cypher system is not one that I became attached to because of the various worlds created for it, as is often the case. I did discovered it by looking into those worlds and, when I backed the Kickstarter recently, it was the perfect excuse to check it out. The thing about Cypher is that you define your character in description, a single sentence and that determines the pool of powers you have to choose from. That factor, along with the focus on exploration and discovery, make this a fantastic narrative game, rewarding risk taking and expecting you to use items in order to get more. The fact that this is a universal system allows for you to do anything with it.

Monster of the Week: This game, based on the Apocalypse system, is so much fun because it tackles something I love: monster of the weeks. Whether we are talking Scooby-Doo or X-Files, Supernatural or Doctor Who, monster of the weeks are something I have always enjoyed. There is a certain flair to them, they are drama at times, sitcom at others, but both of these are created, not by a scenario mimicking life but by introducing a, well, monster. The fact that such a formula can be applied to so many styles makes it that much more enjoyable, and Monster of the Week takes this formula and applies it to the game table. Character choices are vague enough to mix into a variety of settings, but specific enough to see the influences and style. The formula for making those shows plays itself out in the rules equally well, and playing the game creates the feel of being in one of those shows. There is little more to say about the game except that you should check it out if any of these shows appeal to you.

4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons: I saved this one for last for two reasons. First of all, it is D&D, thats not much of an alternate from your average game. Especially if that game isn't already something like Savage Worlds, Cypher, or Shadowrun. The second reason is because there is a lot of dislike for this game and I didn't want its appearance to chase you from the article before the other two games were mentioned. 4th Edition is included in this list today because it has been on my mind of late. We looked into it when doing our resurrection episode for the Untamed Rant and I began to recall all the reasons I loved the game, something I have mentioned before. This version of D&D is so different from the others, it stands alone. It is designed for high fantasy. You can get away with low magic, gritty games in other editions but in 4th Edition there is only high powered heroic fantasy and that makes it great. The game is built around it and thrives on it. Now, that's not to say you cannot do the same in other editions, on the contrary, but you should absolutely give 4th Edition some of your attention if you want to get a high powered game designed to make the characters gods in their own right.

Resources For Every GM: Internet Part 6

Hey everyone! I hadn't planned on doing another set of internet resources, but when I was perusing the internet the other day I managed to find a couple of things that I needed to share. So, without much preamble, are three more cool resources I found just this week!


The Same Page Tool (Deeper In The Game): This is a tool which good help out a lot of groups and concerns a topic that comes up pretty regularly within the community. The problem many groups run into is the type of game they are playing versus what they want to play and who is ok with what. What it comes down to, is everyone on the same page.  To a point things are flexible, especially long term groups, but even those can get mired down in unfulfilled expectations. The tool is much more of a guideline questionnaire. It is not something that everyone should fill out, nor is it something that the GM should decide upon himself. The tool seems best use as a group and addressing what a campaign is going to be like. Or, more appropriately, what the game / system is going to expect from you, as some of them are made for certain styles of play. All in all, this tool directly addresses questions about what will be happening that don't usually get asked so explicitly. Given the article itself, I will be absolutely sure to check out more of the site!


Learn Tabletop RPGs: I have only started diving into what is available on this site, but I already love it. From what I have seen, I think I can share enough to get you to check it out yourselves. First off is a page similar to the article from Deeper in the Game called Level Up. Where the goal of the former was to address the expectations of the game system or campaign style, this page focused on making a great game by balancing the desires of everyone at the table. In many ways, this is the opposite of what the last article about, but it is just the other side of the coin. In fact, they link you to the tool to get started and make sure everyone knows what the game is before players get involved. It goes further to discuss player agendas, rules complexities, and provide a great number of useful links. If that isn't enough to get you to visit, they also have a list that currently sits at 54 table top RPGs. Each one includes a brief overview, some reasons it stands out, and links to communities and places to buy them. The site is fantastic for exploring new games, if nothing else!


Who The Fuck Is My Character: Someone linked this on Twitter recently and I instantly fell in love. A simple random generator, that provides you with an idea for making a character. Load the page and you get a random character with race, class, and history. It is obvious this is designed for D&D, but the potential inspiration is endless. Here is just an example of what you may see: I'm going to roll the stats for a fucking...frank half-orc fighter from a sheltered upbringing who just wants their money back.  Go on, give it a try!

Resources For Every GM: Reference Books Part 4

Good morning everyone!  I am a couple days late due to a great D&D session with someone we haven't gotten a chance to play with in a couple years, but here I am nevertheless. Today, I have some more reference books for you to add to your collection, but this time they aren't our general reference books. This time the books that I am including are references to world made up by other creative minds. They are companions to some of our favorite places to visit!

Tobin's Spirit Guide (Erik Burnham):  Recently, a new official Ghostbuster's version of this book came out. Written by Burnham (with the help of Stantz and Spengler of course!) this edition features some of our favorite spirits from the Ghostbuster's franchise.  It also includes a variety of other common mythological creatures like household spirits or poltergeists. Each entry features a Ghostbuster's rating of spirit class level and what the spirit may be comprised of or where it is located / anchored. Additionally the entries feature some great bits of real-world mythology. Building upon that the way in which they can be angered or appeased and how dangerous they are. The book is written almost has a field guide, and (barring the lack of stats) is the best bestiary or monster manual you could ask for to run a Ghostbusters campaign. All you would need is a book on the Ghostbuster's gear. Even if that isn't your goal, the ideas you could pull from this book are numerous and inspiration on how to had even more incorporeal danger to your world, immense!

The (Complete) Tolkien Companion (J.E.A. Taylor):  My version of this resource is a bit outdated. I don't have the "Complete" in my title. Given that much of the source material still exists as part of Tolkien's work, itself, I don't see a need to get the revision too quickly. Though it is on my list. This book is an encyclopedia, there really is no other way to describe it. My copy is over 500 pages long and there is barely any pictures included at all. Maybe I do need an updated version. Anyway, this is your go-to resource for any questions you have about Middle Earth. Beyond the Lord of the Rings, beyond The Hobbit, and beyond even the Silmarillion, there is a vast fount of knowledge and lore these stories are built upon. Tolkien was a world builder and language developer, and the tales run deep in the land of wizards and hobbits. I know there are other resources you can find out there, but this is probably the most dense there is. If you really want a comprehensive reference to one of the foundation stones to modern fantasy adventure, this is it.

The Hyrule Historia (Eiji Aonuma, Akira Himekawa):  Honestly, this is probably my favorite of these three resources. It is as large and dense as the Tolkien Companion, but includes the fun (and more) that you can get from Tobin's Spirit Guide. There are four major sections to this book, divided up amongst specific topics unlike the other two. The first of these is a large section discussing the Skyward Sword, its lore, ideas, and concept art. While amazing, I am disappointed by how much space this single game takes up, but the rest of the book helps make up for it. The second section is my favorite. The Legend of Zelda series has been tackled game by game, with little to no connection between any of them aside from general themes and feeling. Even these deviate for each game making playing the game feel both familiar and unique. For those who have even played a few of the games and completed even less (sadly me), you still come to understand every one of them is connected somehow. This section is a timeline. It orders the eras of the world, describes what happens and when, from the creation all the way through the voyage upon the ocean in Windwaker and a New Hyrule in Spirit Tracks. For the first time there is a timeline of events, and yet still some connecting pieces and lore to be discovered. The third section of the book goes through 25 years of concept artwork. It is fantastic to see how things have changed and how different artists perceived the world.  This section provides a ton of inspiration for GMs. Following up on that is a catalogue of the games, what generation they are, and the story they tell. And finally, the last part is a comic for you to enjoy telling a part of the Skyward Sword story.

Story Telling With Marvel

Today I wanted to expand on something that I have mentioned before, though I can honestly say I don't remember where that was.  Recently I mentioned how useful comic books are as inspiration for GMs, especially on the side of story telling.  They match up with the way a game's story is told.  Sometimes the content of a comic ranges a few hours in-world and sometimes its covers days of time.  The same thing can happen at the table where a major battle lasting mere minutes in game take the whole session, or lots of role-playing scenes pop up and cover many days of downtime or travel.  Some comics release on a (very nearly) weekly schedule and others are once a month, much like many campaigns are played.  There are story arcs within story arcs and these can and should interact with bigger things happening within the world.  Not everyone has the time, or the money (they're expensive to keep up with), to read comic books.  However, there is something similar, and perhaps even more useful, that most of us nerds have been watching: Marvel's Netflix series.

The first thing you have to remember when looking at these for inspiration is that they are, very much, the table top experience.  It does not matter what genre or system you play in, these shows are a very good representation of what we do at the table, though our parties tends towards a handful more than a single person.  This is especially true of the Netflix series which feature the less overpowered, more flawed, more real heroes.  The characters are not so different from everyone else, especially at first, they are just slightly more talented, recognize how they could use their talents, and / or are willing to do things other people are not.  In addition to that, as short seasoned shows that draw from the comics and contain a range of characters, the series are perfect examples of an RPG story arc.  There are little arcs and bits going on within it, but there is also the bigger picture going on throughout the season.

That is the first place to take a lesson.  In both seasons of Daredevil and the one of Jessica Jones there is a lot of depth.  From Fisk's history and personal life to the development and evolution of Patsy Walker we have pieces that aren't strictly important to the main arc but are molded by it.  At your table there are going to be things, events, and characters that are molded by your adventurers and their quest.  Whatever that quest is, by getting involved in the larger world around them there will always be others who are affected.  While you could, of course, narrate cut scenes involving such things to reveal information to the players, it is probably a better choice to focus on weaving in how the characters learn such information.

Now, the Netflix series aren't just great for lessons in remembering how things change and ripple out from your players.  It is also a lesson in how NPC attitudes develop in relation to those players.  Much in the way Foggy struggles being a friend to Matt, the NPCs may find themselves struggling to be committed allies to a group of adventurers who, very likely, find themselves outside the law if not above it.  That allegiance may sway back and forth with the PCs getting help sometimes and not others.  It may also cause the NPC to take their own action and forcing the PCs to deal with that added trouble.  NPCs, especially important, powerful, or just willful ones, do their own thing and many of them may not just sit and wait for the PCs to come back.

The last thing I wanted to mention about story telling that we can learn from Marvel's Netflix series is all about setting and story arcs weaving into an even bigger picture.  To be fair though, this is a lesson still in the making.  For those of you who are unaware of the comics or of Marvel's plans, there is a whole lot more coming to Netflix.  At this point you should have seen that come out of Comic Con though.  There were a number of teasers.  Starting with Daredevil, the intent was always to do 4 series that would lead into one big crossover series.  For those of you still out of the loop, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist would all get their own series followed by the team up we're all waiting for: The Defenders.

What is so amazing about this goal is something we have actually seen before.  We saw it in Phase 1.  We saw it in Phase 2.  It will all come to a head again in Infinity Wars.  What I am talking about is the very separate and unique movies that make up a larger story (the Avengers).  Each one tackles a different hero or heroes with different set drops and themes.  These not only span the globe, however, but the cosmos.  Not only that but we only get 2-3 hours of exposure to each.

The Netflix series has a whole lot going for it that they just don't.  First off we get 13 episodes at about 40 minutes each.  That's close to 4 times as much time to cover things.  Secondly, we have the goal of a big crossover event, but instead of this shaking the cosmos, it all takes place within New York City.  Granted a city is huge, and New York especially so, but that is such a small scale to work with for what is, roughly, the same hero diversity.  Finally we have the diversity between how the series are handled.  They are all darker and more 'real' than the movie counterparts.  But what really takes the cake is how different Jessica Jones is from Daredevil, while still being within a circle you expect.  If you have seen the teasers for Luke Cage and Iron Fist then you know, as well as I do, that the next two series are going to happen similarly.

Take each of these series and treat it as an arc.  Your characters may all be a part of each arc, but you can do those arcs in different styles, maintain the campaign's feel, AND stay close to 'home'.  As fun as it is to bring players out into the wider world(s), you don't have to and Marvel just gives us the perfect example.  That being said of course, there is still so much for them to show us.  We have Luke Cage coming up and the Defenders was slated for next year.  That, of course, means that Iron Fist will also be next year.  Spring for Iron Fist and Fall for Defenders if I had my guess.  But don't forget, we also have season 3 of Daredevil soon too.

Oh, and one last thing I want to mention that we should all do more of as GMs, taking a lesson from Marvel.  Your PCs are probably not the only heroes.  Their villains aren't the only villains.  Dealing with those things is common and tough, but what about dealing with the aftermath of more powerful heroes and events?  It is woven into the Netflix shows, but more as background and narrative device than anything else.  But what if the Chitauri invaded "today" and after that insane hour or so, there were still some left hiding.  Daredevil would certainly have something to worry about in Hell's Kitchen.

So, watch the series again and keep an eye out for story telling tricks.  Watch for foreshadowing or hints you missed the first time.  Keep a GM's point of view as you go through them.  There is always more to learn.

Resources For Every GM: Reference Books Part 3

Good evening everyone!  Today I wanted to share some resources that should be on, well, everyone's shelf.  That's right, not just GMs, but everybody!  The are books that can inform, help, and entertain you.  They are all field guides, but I have 3 that I want to point out first because I have a preference for these types.  Now there are, of course, dozens of field guides you may be able to think of and more will come later, but for tonight I want to start with the theme of monsters!  Each of these books can bring you knowledge of the real world and some interesting entertainment if you enjoy the outdoors.  For those who play games (whether or not you enjoy the outdoors) you will find a host of ideas for GMing!  Note: I will not be linking these because they are often locality based and you may prefer to find your own region.


Insects / Spiders / Etc:  If you know me, or have paid close attention to certain articles, I have training in entomology, the study of insects.  As such, it is only proper that field guides featuring these little guys sit at the top of the list.  Of course, they tend to include other terrestrial arthropods in those books as well, like spiders or centipedes.  Insects are fascinating and I have many a odd fact I could tell you that amazes everyone, but a field guide like this might help you find some on your own.  Or maybe you'll just find interesting models for your giant bugs that attack the party.  For me, some of the spiders (well all of the spiders) are incredibly terrifying.  Whether you are exploring the backyard with your kids, looking up something you found, or digging for info this is definitely a resource that will help you discover twists low level characters won't expect from giant bugs and unique species to challenge even high level characters.


Seashore:  This is one I have on my shelf for a very good reason.  I'll give you a hint:  Cape Cod.  I live there, so there is seashore EVERYWHERE.  From sand to marsh to tide pool, we have it.  The great thing about the sea shore field guide is it shows you just how much lives there.  From fish to mollusks to crustaceans to jellies.  There's so many creatures and so much variety.  A field guide like this, like the other, can provide natural entertainment for the outdoorsy type if you live near the shore.  If you don't live near the sea shore that's ok too, because this might benefit you even more in terms of RPGs.  The ocean is an important aspect many campaign worlds / settings because it is such a good means of food, travel, and culture mixing.  Having better access to knowledge of life there is an invaluable thing!


Mammals:  This might be one of the most important of your nature field guides.  Mammals extend the range of environmental niches with great efficiency and variety.  You could even say that, right now, is the time of mammals.  While the great giants no longer exist, there are still plenty of furry creatures from the bottom of the food chain to the top.  Reptiles have trouble in certain portions of the world, fish are restricted to water, and birds had their time with the dinosaurs (although New Zealand is much more dominated by birds than mammals so that's awesome).  Anyway, there is a lot you can learn from the roles different mammals have in their environment and the crazy variety you may not have known existed.  Perhaps think about buying a field guide from a different part of the world and figure out what does what job there.  Not everywhere has rabbits (though many of us are familiar with them), so something must do what they do in those places.  Help make your world a little different by borrowing certain real-world creatures your players may not know!

Re-skinning: New "Classes"

There are a lot of options for characters these days.  Seriously.  A LOT of options.  Many games don't even have classes, allowing you to build your character free form.  Sometimes there are archetypes to work within, but sometimes there aren't even those.  Even in games with classes like D&D and Pathfinder have plenty of options without buying additional books.  Start to buy those and forget about it.  You could pour over the options for days.  Nevertheless, there are times when the classes and archetypes available aren't doing what you want.  There's a class out there that you just can't find the right equivalent.  That's where some creative re-skinning can come in handy.

Today I want to go over how to go about doing such a thing with an example I have thrown out to a few people in the past year or two.  For this example we will be using 5th Edition D&D, because it has a good amount of options, but not overwhelmingly so.  You have magic users, combat experts, and all kinds of things in between.  What doesn't the 5th Edition Player's Handbook have?  Witch doctors.

The voodoo priest / witch doctor is an archetype that is not covered very often for players.  Pathfinder does have a version of it in the voodoo oracle build.  5th Edition D&D does not have anything that really matches it though.  There are, however, a number of classes with features that would belong with a witch doctor.  Now you can go ahead and develop your own class from a mix of features, but that requires design and testing.  The easier method is by using what is already there in the right way.

To start let's list some of the things that make a voodoo priest stand out.  And before that I want to mention that I am going with the more pop culture aspects rather than getting into the technical differences between voodoo, hoodoo, and other related practices.

• nature is a big deal
• aspects of nature are deified
• death is very important
• zombies are a thing
• live in forests, swamps, graveyards
• herbalist medicine
• strange magic

Now that we have a could starting place, let's look at what we can use to fill in these aspects of the witch doctor.  We can start by listing some obvious choices.  For the nature-related things we could go with druid, nature cleric, or perhaps ranger.  For the zombies and death we could go with necromancer or death cleric.  All of these include magic, but we should probably remove ranger because, despite the high nature relation, there is very little magic and a bit too much combat focus.

That narrows it down to some form of druid, wizard, or cleric.  If you ask me, the best way to create such a character where you need a mix of abilities is to multiclass.  Of course you need to be careful with multiclassing.  While 5th edition has some very beneficial methodology here, especially with spell slot figuring, it overloading in class number degrades your abilities over time.  For those who don't understand why there are two reasons.  The first is that the more classes you take the longer it will take to advance to the powerful features of any given one, and less likely you'll achieve any of those.  Secondly, because ability improvements or feats are given by class level (not character level) it will require more time to get any one of those compared to a single class character.  In the end I suggest 2 classes for multiclass characters and, for those who are clever and willing, 3.

Where does that leave us for the witch doctor?  Personally, get cleric our of there.  There is a bit too much basic religion involved in clerics.  Churches, the classic idea of gods and goddesses, and organized ways of thinking.  These don't fit a much more loosely defined, personally acting, witch doctor.  Let us take the druid and the wizard.  The second of these is the easiest to work with.  Simply choose necromancer as your school of magic.  The first, I feel, is also fairly easy.  Don't go with the shapeshifting build, that doesn't fit properly with what we are building.  Instead go with the Circle of the Land.  Then choose swamp.  Not only does swamp fit the dark atmosphere of witch doctors, it also has bonus spells that fit in nicely.  You may say that those bonus spells can be obtained with wizard, well so can many of the ones from other lands.  However, the wizard aspect of the build is meant to focus on necromancy, so this helps free up choices when selecting wizard spells.

Finally, we can fit in even more of the feel of a witch doctor by selecting the Hermit background.  This will grant you proficiencies in medicine and religion which both work well for the witch doctor.  Not only that, it also grants you a proficiency in the artisan tool herbalism kit.  As for the background feature the discovery can involve information about the forces of nature, specifically looking at the concept of Loa.  I would even use the troll's religions in the Warcraft universe as a great magical fantasy example.

From this we have the nature, herbalistic medicine, strange religion, and necromancy of your classic witch doctor.  The key to keeping your character skinned as a witch doctor at this point is you.  Role-playing will be key, as will spell preparation choices.  Most druid spells work just fine and you can focus on whatever aspect here you went through your daily preparation.  As for wizard there are a lot of things that may not seem like a classic choice.  Make that part of your personality and character development.  Focus on choosing necromancy spells and others that fit the feel of your witch doctor.  Perhaps you can even work with your GM to remove some spells from the spell list to add in a couple from other lists.  Hex and witch bolt from the warlock list would be fantastic choices and giving up mage armor and some other classic wizard spell may be a fair trade.  For already available choices stick with spells like: ray of sickness, tasha's hideous laughter, melf's acid arrow, and fear.  As a final note I suggest a fetish (like a voodoo doll or bird skull of some kind) to be used as a focus instead of the standard druid ones.  This is all flavor so most GMs won't have issue with it.

As you can see, there is a ton that can be done with that one book.  There is flexibility built into the classes too, and no reason not to get creative.  Think about multiclassing the eldritch knight and ranger to get an arcane archer.  Maybe you can combine an elemental monk with druid or sorcerer to really get the Airbender feel going for you.  You could even combine assassin with the avenger paladin for a hitman of the gods.  The possibilities are endless!

Resources For Every GM: Authors Part 3

Hey everyone, today is the final day of celebrating the first year of blogging!  We end it with the fifth giant-sized Resources article and we come again to inspirations.  There have been a lot of Resources for Every GM centered around the topic of inspiration, but is there really a better way to become a better role-player and GM?  I don’t think so.  Inspiration it what gives you ideas and makes you want to tell your own stories.  That is the thing that really makes a GM, and a player for that matter.  Today’s inspiration comes in the form of 6 authors that are personal favorites of mine and probably familiar to you.  Nevertheless, I share them because each tells a different story and relates to adventure in a different way.

Douglas Adams:  You may or may not recognize this name unless you have actually read more than one of his tales or read one a few times.  At least some of you may be scratching your head saying, “I know this name.”  Or probably not, if you’re reading this you probably recognize all the names.  Douglas Adams is the author of the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy trilogy.  A trilogy with more than 3 books.  Douglas Adams, as legend has it, came up with the idea during a night drinking while looking up at the stars atop a hill.  He then completely forgot about it for a few years before ever writing it.  Frankly I don’t care how much truth there is to the story, it just shows the kind of thing you should expect in his stories.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide books are a ton of fun.  I don’t know how you couldn’t enjoy them.  They are silly, weird, and sometimes just plain preposterous.  They explore insane what-ifs about the universe in a very real and relate-able way, while being all-together ridiculous.  Mattresses killed and harvested in swamps...really?  Why not?  The thing about Adams is that he addresses a very real concern of humanity amidst all that dry humor: are we really so unique and important.  The answer, given by the books is 42.  No wait, more specifically, the answer is no.  There are dozen upon dozens of intelligent and powerful species out there and some of them quite willing to blow up the planet for the sake of a space freeway.  But Douglas Adams reveals this in a funny, almost comforting way.  In large part he says that everyone is the same, when you get down to it, and while being the last of your species sounds bad, it really happens all the time and unlikely events like finding another aren’t quite as unlikely as they should be.  What he does is reveal how relate-able almost anything can be made to be, how useful the most ridiculous information is in certain moments, and how to have nothing but fun with a story that is full of seriousness.


H.P. Lovecraft:  Inspiration is probably one of the last words you would use to describe anything written by H.P. Lovecraft.  Long before you got to that word you would get to words like: horror, frightening, twisted, strange, etc.  While Lovecraft may not tell an inspirational story, he and his works were and continue to be inspirations for writers and creators, especially those who love horror.  He really was the pioneer in addressing our significance in the cosmos in a story.  In this he created the foundation of what other authors would develop and add on to, to create the Cthulhu Mythos.

When I urge you to read Lovecraft, it isn’t just his Cthulhu style stories like Mountains of Madness.  I want you to look into is other horror.  In fact, if you haven’t already read it go find Rats in the Walls (is it Wall or Walls?).  Despite my earlier introduction to the Mythos, this story is what really got me into Lovecraft and his works.  It is frightening and visceral.  You may even begin to jump at the tiny noises around you if you don’t take care when you read it.  Let Lovecraft inspire the bleak, dark, worried aspects of your soul to create some very interesting stories at the table.  You know, as long as you are into horror.


Ian Fleming:   This is an author who wrote novels that are pretty much out of my general view.  I stick to fantasy and science fiction pretty much all the time.  It’s what I enjoy.  However, I did eventually find the first few of the Bond set together for a good price and, always enjoying the movies, I decided to pick them up.  I ate them up.  I think a big reason I enjoyed them so much was that, despite being based in reality, everything was so over the top.  So much of it was so unrealistic, while at the same time plausible.  Combine that with the adventures 007 goes on, the danger he gets into, and the people he meets and it gets pretty wild.

Fleming is a very important author to look at if you want or need inspiration for spy thrillers.  The novels are from a different generation, a different world really, but he created many of the tropes we see today.  We have a ton of 007 movies set in contemporary times, we have spy games, and we get shows like Archer because of what Fleming wrote.  For you GMs, the tropes involved in the spy thriller and the way Fleming weaves together secrets, organizations, politics, espionage, and adventure is something that could add to a lot of games!


Michael Crichton:   This is an author that really did something I love: take science and make it science fiction.  Or maybe he took science fiction and made it science.  What it comes down to, is that his stories are those where the line between those two things is so unbelievably blurred its not funny.  Ok sure, there are stories about shrinking and stories about living dinosaurs and so on, but if you read the work, it is frightening how simply such things might happen.  Honestly, the science is so well founded, theorized, and explained that all you can do is ask yourself why not?  What if we take that one step?

Some of his work seems likely quite far off, or even impossible.  Time travel is one that is tough to work with in a real scientific sense, and shrinking is too.  Of course, they were written earlier than you might expect some of them to have been written.  Keep that in mind when you read them too, because some people laughed at the idea of Jurassic Park, but we’ve activated genes in chickens to give them teeth and tails.  We are closer than you may realize to something like Jurassic Park.  Then take modern genetics and micro-computing and take a look at Prey, but only if you want nightmares, because a biologically built, semi-organic, nano-bot swarm / hive mind?  Hello apocalypse!


Jules Verne:  I could not leave on of the pioneers of science fiction off this list, even if his works are a bit older than the other members of the list.  The reason for this is that, Jules Verne is inspiring in his own right, and not just in the “give a GM ideas” sense.  He helped instill an awe and wonder for possibility that lead to the creation of things he wrote about long before their time.  The Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea?  Incredible.  He didn’t just seem to think it was possible, or even dream of what could be one day, he wrote as if it were a certainty.  In that story alone we find that he goes on and on about the resources of the ocean and the number of fish in it, how much of it we haven’t seen.  And all those things continue to be a topic of modern wonder and exploration.  Add into that mixture of ideas before their time a heaping dose of modern fantasy where there are things like gnomes who create steam-powered feats of engineering regularly?  Well, I think Jules Verne is the perfect inspiration.  Have NPCs in your world that push the edge of what is possible and do so in ways unheard of, just like the characters in his books.


J.R.R. Tolkien:  I know, I know, you are probably saying that this was too obvious a choice for the list and that is kind of why I saved him for last.  To be honest, you cannot exclude Tolkien even if you wanted to.  He had too much actual influence into the gaming world.  We might not have Dungeons & Dragons, and everything that came from or because of it, without Tolkien.  Mythology and lore abound in our world.  From elves to dwarves to goblins there are many ways of seeing them.  What Tolkien did though was create a new mythos from the pieces we had scattered through various other real-world ones.  He set his world and the way it worked in stone, creating a very real fantasy world for readers.

Tolkien did this with linguistics, writing and creating language just for this world.  He did it with history, deities, and tales within the tales.  He had to have been a mythology buff at heart because of the way he writes his stories.  The Hobbit, is a children’s tale and one that reads much like a fairy tale where the impossible happens and magic is found, full of lessons learned and warnings of danger.  The Silmarillion is, if nothing else, epic.  It has lists upon lists of names and events and can seem all muddled up, but it is essentially a grand oral tale of the history of Middle Earth like would be told around a campfire in spurts and pieces.  The Lord of the Rings, though.  That is an adventure and grand tale of adventurers and heroes saving the world.  That is the kind of story that inspired D&D and continues to inspire people to play fantasy RPGs!

Resources For Every GM: Rules & Supplements Part 6

Hello everyone!  For today's double-sized resources article we come back to books.  Rule books and supplements to be exact.  These books are from a few different games/editions, but all hold help for flavoring your games.  Regardless of what system you are using or where you want your game to take place, there is generally a flavor you may be shooting for.  Maritime, perhaps, or maybe you want some Asian folklore mixed in.  Such things are the purview of these books, and having them on your shelf will definitely help you when you need some influence!


Occult Adventures (Pathfinder):  This is one of my favorite add-on books from Paizo thus far.  Despite moving away from Pathfinder and into 5th Edition (and smaller games), it was something I had to get.  This entire book is based around the idea of a campaign where the "weird" takes the forefront.  Once upon a time, almost everything in D&D and similar games was new, odd, exciting.  Magic, potions, rituals, and creatures of myth.  These are all things that have an air of mysticism when you first come into the fantasy genre.  Nowadays there are A LOT of tropes, cliches, and expectations though.  If you want to reintroduce some supernatural aspects, some mysticism, some eerie excitement to your game then this is the book for you.

The first part of this book is about character classes and, really, their names say it all: medium, mesmerist, occultist, psychic, etc.  It tells you exactly what this book is going for and I think the occultist and the medium really exemplify the types of things that are big in the roots of fantasy but often left on the side of RPGs these days.  After the class descriptions, archetypes, and feats you come to psychic magic.  Now, part of me feels like the psychic classification puts a little oddness to some things, it is mostly a mechanic classification.  The chapter describing it and some of their "spells" along with the occult rules chapters can greatly help a GM looking to add such thing to their campaigns.  Then the running an occult game chapter.  Well, its great! From new haunt rules to ley lines and expanded aspects of planes like the ethereal, it has a lot to offer.  Finally, the gear section has some great inspiration for powerful items, and some great suggestion for normal items in a world where superstition and the supernatural takes its place.


Cerulean Seas Campaign Setting (Pathfinder):  I got this book for a very specific reason, mostly on a hope and a dream.  At one point I was developing an under water campaign setting.  Very nearly the whole thing would take place under water, and I even built a multi-tier grid for battles.  Sadly, time and campaign priorities did not allow it to get very far.  Something I needed to help me was a way to handle doing things underwater.  And I don't mean just a battle or trip.  I mean full adventures, swimming speeds, sinking vs floating, metals that would be used, other materials, and stuff like that.  While I was willing to do some work, I really was hoping I wouldn't have to go crazy.

This book was everything I was hoping for!  Aside from being a full Pathfinder compatible setting, in fact because of it, there is everything you need to run your own game.  Being the edition it is, there is tons of it which correlates to 3.5 or 5th Edition with minimal to no changes.  From buoyancy and economy to light and ecosystems, this book has it all.  And it is all for being underwater.  Classes, skills, magic, equipment, and monsters can all be used for inspiration for your own undersea adventures.  Even if you are using a smaller, more flexible system where such things are less a concern, mechanically, this book still belongs in your files.  It will have answers to questions you didn't know you would need to ask!


Oriental Adventures (3rd Edition D&D):  This is another great setting book.  I have had this one for a number of years now, and it is one of my go-to's when I need a certain inspiration.  If you couldn't gather by the title, this is an Asian mythology based setting.  Specifically the setting of Rokugan from Legend of the Five Rings.  From a 3rd Edition standpoint this book as a lot to offer, though it is mostly flavor rather than innovation in new things.  That isn't realyl a big problem though, especially considering the whole point was to explore Asian influenced adventures in 3rd for the first time, and in Rokugan instead of Kara-tur.  That, alone, is plenty to focus on and plenty for me.

This book as everything you need to start a campaign, in any game, with Asian influence.  There are examples of oni, lung dragons, classes, weapons, and more.  While the mechanics would be useless in most systems, the basics represented are more than enough.  You will get an idea of how to rename weapons, or what mechanics look like to basic equipment to judge how to make it for your game.  You'll have plenty of mythos to work from too from the dragons to the kappa to the different version of the elements.  Everything is found in mechanics, but due to the desire to make this a flavor of game play, rather than an exploration of new things, there is so much to learn from here.  Everything is a launch pad for the proper wiki searches.


Slipstream (Savage Worlds):  I love this book, though I have yet to use it on its own.  This is another setting book.  Surprise!  This one is out in left field though.  At first glance, this is just a science fiction setting for Savage Worlds.  Nothing too special about it, except the oddly old / retro looking things.  But that, of course, is exactly the whole point!  Slipstream was a setting made to give you the opportunity to play in a world like the pulp space adventures of earlier science fiction.  There are laser guns, jet packs, bubble helmets, and clunky robots!  It is so fantastic.  The setting itself is quite interesting, in and of itself, but that isn't why I added it.  I added this to the list because of what kind of inspiration you can have for your campaigns.  A lot of science fiction is likely to be hard sci-fi or Star Wars influenced, and there is nothing wrong with that.  But for those of you looking for some high adventure, this is a resource you need.  This is something that takes a pretty wild form of science fiction, one that doesn't show up much these days, and let's you play in it.  If nothing else it has some interesting ideas to pull from.


Heroes of Horror (3.5 D&D):  This little book probably gets overlooked more often than not.  A supplement from the 3.5 years of D&D, this book was made to help add horror to the table.  There a few ways in which horror can be added to a game.  Gothic horror like Ravenloft, cosmic horror like Call of Cthulhu, or expanding on weird creatures like beholders (see next entry).  This book was a generic horror supplement though.  It sought to help DMs instill a sense of dread and fear into their players.  Some of the best things about this book ignore the mechanics of the game.  The first chapter describes how to create a sense of horror, has a whole list of creepy effects, and a section on how villains act in such stories.  It also gives us a new demigod, Cas, which holds a special place for me in the random pantheon(s) of D&D.  The book goes on to describe things like adding horror to settings you may already be playing in, techniques on creating terror, the point of a hero in such adventures, and more!  When you get to mechanics there are optional rules for fear, corruption, and death as they all exist in the horror setting.  Finally you have some monsters to work with.  If the grey jester isn't enough for you, there are small sections helping you on how to use the resources you already have, broken down by creature type!  If you are into horror, this is a great gaming resource.


Lords of Madness (3.5 D&D):  This is one of my favorite books because if offers a look into the Lovecraftian side of Dungeons & Dragons.  While the game's high fantasy, heroic aspects tend to veer it away from the absolute insanity inducing terror of Cthulhu and his ilk, the aberrations of D&D have always had the feel of such things.  From the gibbering mouther to the aboleth, they represent the absolute weird and incomprehensible.  Lords of Madness gave you the ability to create an entire campaign centering around such creatures.  Each of the first few chapters takes a comprehensive look into a major sentient player of that world, many of which are D&D IP.  The beholder and the illithid are just two such creatures.  From this book you get insights into their psyche, their society, and even their biology.  There's another  chapter that includes a number of new creatures for you to use as well, some linked to the ones detailed in previous chapters and others stand on their own.  Finally, the last chapter is for the players.  They are provided with a multitude of options for becoming hunters and banishers of such horrible creatures.  Or perhaps you wish to experiment with them and graft their flesh to yours?  That too is an option for you to partake of.  If you don't want to go full Lovecraft, but want to explore words that tread that fine line, this is the book that will help you do it!