Things are happening!

This past year, things have been a wild ride between work, classes, projects, this site, and our Podcast. In fact, a year ago we didn't even have a podcast. Nor did we have a Patreon or a logo. The DM's Guild was not yet a thing either. Look how things have changed! I plan on doing a looking back post right before the New Year, so for now let's just take a look at the things that have happened in the last few weeks.

Untamed Dice

Serious effort has gone into bring Untamed Dice back, though it has changed from what it was. In the year since we began the show, we have learned a lot. I, especially, have figured out many things regarding running games for a show and, of course, am still learning. Brave New Worlds was our premier main-stay but, as you know, summer made everything difficult and our group has been unable to get together for that. While I hope we can rectify the BNW situation, we have brought to you Luxarrah. This campaign features the current world BNW was taking place on and the 5th Edition D&D rule set. The group is different, but we have an easier time getting together for that. As a result, it is our new/current weekly series. You can find the first episode here, and the second comes out this Saturday!

In addition, we made sure to get to work on one-shot adventures we have promised. First, this meant getting out the end of Star Wars Edge of the Empire (playlist here). Then we recorded Cat, which will be out soon and accompanied by a review of the game. We put another game in the pipeline before beginning our regular release, and that was TMNT and Other Strangeness. Now, with those one-shot all recorded and done we have the next in line with a D&D 5E Legend of Zelda game. My hope is to record and release 1 one-shot each month alongside Luxarrah, starting in January with Cat. As things progress I'll have a more detailed schedule for that!

Patreon

Part of me always feels bad continuously plugging our own Patreon page, but your support would not only mean the world to us, it would also help us do a lot more and move forward with our idea, plans, and upgrades. We have been working on making the Patreon more about you, our supporters. You can get more details here, but we are focusing on giving all our Patrons as much as we are able. This includes shout outs, early looks at releases, and giveaways. As we get more of you, and thus more support, we will work towards improving the blog and podcast, as well as having more to give to you as thanks!

Publishing Projects

I have been hard at work on a number of projects, but few of them at the moment deal with the DMs Guild. That is a turn from what I had anticipated and planned, but quite ok. Nevertheless, I recently released Spells of Old Volume 3 there with 13 spells from the Libris Mortis. Next will be spells from the Planar Handbook and hopefully an adventure down the line.

There are two other major projects I have been working on that I hope to better share with you in more methods than just the DMs Guild. Portions and previews will be available here and even more complete (and play-test-y) versions to all $3+ Patrons. The first of these projects is the Cowboy Cop class. Inspired by the movies and shows that created the trope, we already have a number of ideas for a special mechanic, as well as three different archetypes to choose from. You should definitely keep your eyes out for more on that soon.

The other major project is one I am working on with the artist who designed our logos. While I cannot yet reveal too much information, I can tell you that a lot will come soon. We have the first steps complete, the first release nearly ready for play test, and a plan formulating for development and release. Because we are getting that done, we hope to have a site and Twitter handle for that project soon to spread the word. As soon as that is a go, I will be sure to link it here at Notes of the Wandering Alchemist.

DM Support Group!!

Finally, I have some great news! For the past few months a group of folks from the D&D community on Twitter have been talking via Slack in a group called the DM Support Group. All of us are DMs of varying strengths, backgrounds, and playing histories. There we discuss mechanics, ideas, resources, and more. As the weeks go on, more and more people join the group and discussions can be quite in depth. Well, this week it just got even better! Thanks to Loraedor, who started the group, we have a new born website. There are already a number of links to members' websites and a growing list of those who will be contributing articles. You can find more about it all right here.

Autumn Approaches...Finally!

Before I get into what has been going on, I just wanted to thank everyone who has continued watching the blog for updates, all our listeners of Untamed Dice, and everyone who helps keep the creative juices flowing on Twitter. You are the best.

Things have been pretty crazy for the past month or so. Those of you who have followed my updates here know a bit of why and those of you who follow me on Twitter have a good idea. August, very quickly, got away from me. In fact, I am having trouble recognizing the fact that we are already halfway through September. While Summer is always pretty busy for me, the end of it really got crazy this year.

First off, I work IT at a high school and there is a lot of upgrades being done to the system. So, in addition to the prep for the start of the year, there was also a significant amount of extra work. The result was much shorter breaks for lunch and less time after the workday to get things done. Secondly, I work at an ice cream shop during the summer and this year we lost some employees, we had some less than awesome hires, and just generally were busier than last year. The main result of this was just longer, harder nights each weekend. Both of these jobs, with the school year approaching and the season nearing its end, only got crazier as September approached. Very suddenly it was September and even more suddenly we have reached today.

I made a decision in the beginning of the month though, and I have, obviously, been taking a break from making sure stuff get on here. Getting things outside of the blog to make myself more able and comfortable to get things done was a big part of this. Resting, cleaning, organizing. And a lot of thinking. Untamed Scribe and I have also talked about what's been going on and what will be going on here. To best relate to you our plans I am going to break things up a bit.

Notes of the Wandering Alchemist

In August I did attempt to expand on my Monday notes throwing up some of the items I had noticed or run into over the week. Announcements, new Kickstarters, releases, and other related things were all included. I want to continue this and will continue doing the news posts this way, with a couple tweaks. First off all I may do this twice a week depending on how much stuff I manage to come across. Secondly, I will be creating a separate post for updates to the Blog. In fact, I mean to be less strict on myself for posts like that in timing and more lenient on when they come out. I will not be sharing every single post to various sources, though links to each and every post will likely still journey through Twitter and Facebook.

Additionally I will continue to release Resources for Every GM again, once a week, though I may change the day. Tuesday and Thursday are still the two best days to get big posts out there, however, and it is likely to stay on Thursday. A minor change will be in increasing reviews. A big part of this is the large number of DMs Guild titles I have at this point. I want to begin getting reviews out for those and not use them as Resources replacements. Instead I will throw those up around once a week when I start getting to it. Probably on weekends.

What all this means is that I will be more focused on getting Resources articles out regularly, getting more reviews out, and sharing links to awesome stuff more. As this all becomes routine, I will continue to seek to improve it, but there are other projects to work on as well.

Untamed Dice

We haven't had a new episode in a number of weeks now, sadly. At first this was a simple lack of time to edit properly. Now it is a deliberate decision. We still have audio to get you and I am sorry for the delay to our Edge of the Empire game, but I think it'll be worth the wait. One of my players works with audio for a living and he is going to help get me some better software to work with and some tutorials on some basic editing techniques. This increased knowledge should allow Untamed Dice to become that much better.

Another reason we haven't been releasing anything is so that we have a plan in place for new stuff. That plan has begun to form and will hopefully take shape sooner than later. First it involves the very simple fact that a new episode of Brave New World will not be recorded (very likely) until almost November. It's a work schedule thing and unavoidable. Secondly, it involves that all those time issues that caused the lack of material coming out also caused us to play very few games. In fact, we have not played Strahd in almost 2 months, we have not managed to get Monster of the Week finished, we have not had time to try something else, and we have played maybe 2 games in general.

This means we have nothing aside the end of the Star Wars adventure. Well, almost. One of the nights we played was a small Luxarrahn game. Luxarrah has been on my mind quite a bit since prepping the last game of BNW. I have come up with a lot of stuff while putting computers together and stocking ice cream. The result is this new game and I am very excited to keep exploring Luxarrah through 5th Edition D&D. That game is also one we recorded. It is one we will continue to record. It is the easiest game group to get together and should become a very regular game. The only thing that will take as much precedent will be BNW. One shot games of other systems are pretty much on hold till things get brought under control again, but more on that down the road.

DMs Guild & Beyond

This is something I have really enjoyed doing and want to do more of. It is something I have been putting some work into whenever I can. Part of my time will continue to be more regulated towards those projects. I have a few things coming down the line and a hopeful schedule for these. Included among them are the (finally) 3rd Volume of Spells of Old, as well as a 4th. I am also working on some more patrons for Paths to Power Volume 2 to finally come out. Finally there is also the trinket supplement I have been working on.

In addition to DMs Guild products there are a couple of things being worked on, but these are more long-term. Soonest you should see a class a friend and I are working on. A test version at least. Then later on we will get that up as a full class. The other world I am working on with another friend is slow in taking shape, but as winter proceeds I hope to take some larger steps there. Finally in terms of getting some of my homebrew out there, I think Luxarrah will be foremost among my development. In what way this will show up, big supplements or small or both, I do not know yet. Nevertheless these are the things I am dedicating some of my time for.

Patreon

This has probably changed least over its existence, but changes fairly significantly each time. Untamed Scribe and I have decided we need to make some changes here and those are going to be fleshed out overt the coming weeks. Included will be changing goals from things we plan on doing anyway to milestones for which we can reward you folk, such as giveaways and more stuff like wristbands and stickers. We will also be changing the Patron rewards quite a bit. First of all we want to share the Untamed Rant with everyone. This will get more people the Rant and will make things easier on us. All of the Patrons will get it 2 weeks earlier than everyone else though, just like the Cracks in the Rift story.  Other things we are talking about are giveaways for Patrons, newsletters, a mailbag addition to each Rant, and similar things. I will be sure to keep everyone apprised of what is up as we figure it out.

What This All Means

We are coming back. Effort as been focused on making work less daunting and more doable. Ideas and talks are to change things up so that what we do is better and easier on us, even if that means there is less for a while. We will not be overextending ourselves by trying to start this whole plan Monday. October is when we begin to make a big shift. By then a new routine will be in place. Lists for Resources, schedules for Untamed Dice, a reworked Patreon, and more will all be in place. The rest of September is to take all the information above and everything we have been talking about and building a foundation for future things. Extra time will be spent in prep work for this stuff and more fully recovering from August. To keep up with what I am thinking and working on be sure to follow me on Twitter. Do not be dismayed by a lack of posts for September. We look forward to making a good re-impression in October!

Mel Gibson, Necrotic Spells, Space Trinkets, And Cypher Dungeons

OK, so has I was hoping to do today I have a post for you about the various projects I have been working on. Let's start with the one that I never quite finished on time: Spells of Old Volume III. This project is still in the works. Realistically, a small version of this is mostly done, but I did mention before that I wanted to make its release larger. I still plan on that. Finalizing this and getting the work in on it is a bit time consuming, and that is something I have had to be careful distributing lately.  I won't get into it anymore than I have, but I will talk about the other projects that have developed themselves from my use of time.

First off, I did an article earlier this month for the RPGA Blog Carnival. It involved 10 sci-fi related trinkets for your games. As items for sci-fi touched D&D games I would love to use this list and expand upon it. From that article I am keeping that as a slowly building list that, once I have a good number, I will format nicely and through as a PWYW on the DM's Guild.

Second, I have been toying with the idea of trying my hand at writing an adventure. I need the practice and have found the one-shot we played last week a could place for me to work from. It is the first one I have properly designed as a short, self contained adventure. Granted, 3 hours was not enough to explore everything, but that's OK and it would be written with that in mind. This project is on the back-burner until my time frees up towards winter, though.

As for other projects there are two major ones that won't be on the DMs Guild. First will be our first go at a supplement getting published on familiar online retailer(s). This will be a class build from the ground up and there is a hint about it in the title, though it doesn't tell you much. As we design and begin testing the class, we will be looking for more testing help to really make sure it works and stands on its own.

Outside the realm of D&D, I am working on an even bigger, long term project with a friend.  Currently that project is working to fit into the Cypher System and there is a very convenient portal for publishing that setting since their Worlds of Cypher kickstarter.  And that's right, it will be a large setting book. We have put a lot of thought and effort in so far, but it is a slow process, and yes it takes from some of the effort I'm putting into smaller stuff.

Finally, I want to address some of the work for the DM's Guild. Obviously, previously mentioned supplements are on hold. Paths to Power Volume II has some more patrons, but their full ideas are not worked out yet. That is something I plan to have out around November. By then Spells of Old Volume III will be done and out, with Volume IV getting its start. DM's Field Guide series is on indefinate hold. It didn't do too well, and the effort I put into it is the most time significant. While enjoyable, other projects are where more people are getting something out of. As for my personal campaign worlds and their future as potentially published well, there is always work being done on those even if I don't mention it. One step at a time and all that!

Oath of the Medjai

Sorry for the day late post, but here it is!  This week's new release is a new Oath for the paladin in 5th edition, as promised.  This archetype was based a bit off of the idea of medjai in the Mummy movie series, and the idea that a group of people would have a sacred charge in the desert, a place where knights in shining armor would not be the norm.  This oath is to be started at level 1 and takes some queues from ranger.  It has a familiar-like companion, can specialize in archery, and gains history as a bonus proficiency.  It cannot, however, wear medium or heavy armor but benefits from some stubbornness and some damage avoiding features later on.  Spells are taken from the ranger list to match this play style, as well as feature the idea of a wilderness-wandering protector.  Click the link below to check it out.  It's PWYW!

Spells of Old Volume II Is Out!

Hello everyone!  The second volume of Spells of Old is officially out.  Well, technically it went up late last night, but if you didn't catch it in the new releases bar you can get to it via the link below!  This volume currently features ten "new" spells for the 5th Edition.  These spells have been converted from the 3rd Edition Draconomicon.  Among them are spells like Voice of the Dragon and Miser's Envy.

For those of you looking for what is coming next, Libris Mortis will be featured in Volume III.  Any suggestions on supplements with spells that could use upgrading after that would be appreciated!  As for next week's release on the DM's Guild, I have another paladin oath to share with you.  That product will be PWYW and feature an oath that is a little off the beaten path from your every day paladin.  I'll give you more hints Monday, so stay tuned!

Sphinx Patrons, Draconic Spells, And More On The Way!

Good evening everyone!  First of all I would like say thank you to everyone who bought my Paths To Power Volume I.  Yes I know I have said it but it bear repeating!  Today I have for you a special preview of Volume II in the Ancient Sphinx patron.  This I designed around the 5th Edition idea that sphinxes were not only riddle-makers and protectors of secrets, but that this was a sacred charge and they were responsible for testing those who sought such things.  I then looked at the expanded treatment they got, including their lair abilities.  Specifically I honed in on the bending of space and time and decided a control theme would work well.  In the Ancient Sphinx patron you will find abilities that allowing some aid in maneuvering the battlefield and bonus spells both to this effect and to increase the warlock's ability find information.  Hopefully you guys enjoy this, and I welcome feedback!

The other thing I wanted to share today was that I will be doing this every Wednesday this month!  To be fair I have mentioned this, but I have some idea of what you will get now!  Next week will be Spells of Old Volume II: Draconomicon.  From it almost a dozen spells (to start) are converted from the 3rd Edition.  Following that I will be including a new paladin oath and another Spells of Old featuring the Libris Mortis.  I also have a couple other things in the works right now and hope to have more details on that next week.  Until then!

Print Versions, Dragon Spells, New Patron, And Celebration!

Hello everyone!  It is very late on Wednesday evening, so while I am getting this post out on time, all the things associated with it are not going to come out until tomorrow.  Nevertheless there is a lot in store for you!  If you are reading this early than I thank you for your time!  If you aren't reading this until everything is finished, well thank you too!

This month, you know I plan on doing a ton here at the blog.  You may have noticed we have a new look and a banner made just for us by my friend Zack Keys.  Today I also wanted to tweak some of my social media, but need to edit the files to the right size (tomorrow!).  This is also the first Wednesday of celebration month!  For these days I will be including a lot of new DM's Guild work.

To kick the month off I will be doing a quick read over of the supplements I already have, tweaking what I need to and updating those files  But that's not it!  I will also be including a second black and white file, without background, so that you guys can have a better time printing the supplements.  And I am doing that to all of them!

For each other Wednesday I will be releasing another supplement to the Guild.  Next week will be the preview to Paths to Power Volume 2 and the week after will be Spells of Old Volume 2: Draconomicon.  Stay tuned for the other works as we get deeper into the month!  For now you will just have to sit and wait for the list below to appear (or benefit from visiting the page late) as the Wandering Alchemist supplements get their brand new print versions.

• Path of the Pilgrimage
• Path of Arcane Censure
• Paths to Power
• DM's Field Guide Volume 1: Chimeras  now only $1 in celebration of a year of blogging!
• Spells of Old Volume 1: Lords of Madness

Old Gods, Chimeras, Nature Familiars

Ok guys, a few updates for tonight.  First off I managed to get up the last of the Old Gods.  Now, I can start clearing up what is already up in preparation for putting up even more.  Sadly that won't happen tonight as I had wished, but hopefully I will be able to get it done tomorrow.  I also wanted to mention that the DM's Field Guide Volume I is now up on the DM's Guild.  It includes 8 varieties of chimera for you to use, each of which included 3 different versions.  That's a total of 24 new chimera variants to try out!  I also had mentioned that I was hoping to get another update up for Paths to Power, but that has been a bit delayed.  On the plus side, though, it will include more than I had planned for this update.  Expect that this Monday, for sure.  It holds top priority for the weekend work.

Oh and if you catch this before midday Thursday, head over to twitter and vote for the game I should run for a last-minute one shot I will be running.  We can't record as usual, but I'll be damned if we don't record something!

Old Gods and Chimeras Galore!

Today I have for you five more of Atlazan's Old Gods.  That brings us to ten fleshed out and detailed gods of the Atlazan pantheon from the continent's far past.  I am unsure what the total is looking like for well known / worshiped deities but it is up there.  I think that when I have completed all the detailing I will make a master list, both for myself and the blog.

In addition to that I have a little better knowledge of when you will get the chimera supplement.  Like I mentioned , yesterday?, this will include a great number of chimeras for various levels of play and a variety of locations.  The grand total will end up being 15 stat blocks in all, I believe.  This should go up by the end of the day Monday as long as all my plans play out as they are supposed to.  In addition another update to Paths of Power is coming in the form of another familiar.  This time for the spirit of nature path.  It is only one stat block for this one, and I think I have finalized what I want from it, so that should be up this weekend!

Review: Norse Foundry D6 Commander Dice & Wizards Pre-gen Characters

Today, as promised I have a review for you.  In fact I have not just one but two!  The first is a review on some of Norse Foundry's metal dice.  Full disclaimer, these were sent to me for this purpose, and I thank Norse Foundry for the opportunity to review a set.  I wanted to wait until I could get my players to use them a bit, and thus get their opinions, but that had to wait until tomorrow.  So, instead, I have my overall review of them today and next week I will include some post-playtime observations.  Second, I want to do a short review of the pre-generated characters Wizards has on the DM's Guild.  We got to try these for Death House over the weekend, with new and old players alike.  Next week I will also have a second review.  Can you guess what it is?


Gnomish Copper D6 Commander Dice by Norse Foundry

Norse Foundry has a number of awesome looking dice on their site.  They have metal dice and gem dice, as well as some RPG coins and some other gaming tools.  The pack I received was the five dice Commander pack of metal D6's, in Gnomish Copper.  These dice look fantastic.  I was lucky to get this color.  In my opinion it is the best overall.  Just a nice somewhat aged/worn look.  The site shows the metal dice to be crisp, sharp corners and that is exactly what I got, in a nice thick piece of foam.  The box they come in takes up a bit of space compared to just dice, but with the heavy foam and tight box, it is definitely a great way to store them (and protect other dice and minis!).

These dice don't just look good, but feel good.  I wasn't sure how heavy they would be, given they are metal and I had never had metal dice before.  They have a bit of heft to them, but still feel and sound like dice when you roll them.  I cannot speak for the other colors, but the numbers are nice and solid on these dice and very easy to read.  All in all they seem to be great dice to play with.

I reach a bit of an impasse when it comes to cost.  The prices on this pack type range from $22.50-25.00, depending on color and sales.  Thats $4-5 per die.  Part of me wants to say that is quite a bit of cash for dice, and in all honesty it is.  However, one should consider the general cost of dice.  Fancy dice from places like Q-Workshop have a price that is still over $10 for a 7 dice set.  There are numerous artisan dice around the web now as well from metal to wood to stone and more.  These range from around $20 to over $200 for a set.  It all depends on what you end up with.  So, while I find these to be a be a bit of a purchase in general, it is probably well worth it.  I don't see these wearing out very much over your life time and they are on the very low end of the artisan dice cost spectrum, making them worth the price.  Especially since, unlike some artisan dice, these are easy to use and read.

My last thoughts on this come to only a couple of downsides / warnings.  First, the pictures of the dice on the site are a bit brighter than what the dice actually look like.  Not really a surprise for something made of metal, but you should be warned.  Personally, I am glad these were a bit darker than the site showed.  The other thing is that all that wait and nice sharp corners can be a problem.  Be careful if you have a nice table, a soft wood surface, easily scratched surface, glass, etc.  These dice are heavy and sharp, they do run the risk of damaging your table.  But this easily solved if you have the awareness to drop them on a notebook or folder.

All in all, these dice are gorgeous and well worth the cost.  Enough so that, when money allows, I will be getting a 7 dice set for D&D.  The only question is, what style?


Wizards Pre-Generated Characters

Ok, these were once of the best things Wizards could have added with the advent of the DM's Guild.  Not only are these pre-generated characters, but there are 15 or 16 if memory serves.  And each of them comes with a sheet for levels 1 through 10, at no cost.  Among these are some real gems like the Tempest cleric with the pirate background, a favorite at the table this past Sunday.  At level 1, almost all of them are a single sheet with pretty much everything you need to get started.  Just pick a character and go.  For new players and old, these we well received, and provided what everyone needed to get into a character and focus on playing the adventure and sharing the experience of D&D with new players.

Personally I found a number of problems with these character sheets.  First of all, among the gems (see the tempest pirate or the halfling monk) were a lot of intensely cliched characters.  Tiefling warlock with a fiend pact, wood elf ranger, dragonborn dragonblood sorcerer.  While I understand why these would be included I don't understand why Wizards did not take the opportunity to do some other interesting options.  A tiefling cleric of light?  A gnome wild magic sorcerer?  A half-orc druid of the moon?  There are plenty of interesting choices to make without even making more strange things like a dwarf evoker or something else from left field.

My second big problem with the sheets?  Spells.  After the release of the SRD, epsecially, why isn't a spell page included for the known/prepared spells of the casters?  It would have been a thousand times easier if the players were not passing the book around and wondering what spells did.  We made do with it, since one player was a druid and had those cards, but i would have loved to see a spell sheet.  At least at level one.  To give the newbie bard one extra sheet so they were not overwhelmed by the book would have been fantastic.  I know you're probably saying I could have done this for them, but I just didn't have time.

I must say, as amazing as the pre-gens were, spell sheets would have doubled how impressed I was with them.  Nevertheless, they are a priceless tool when you are starting a pick-up game or trying out a small adventure with a new or mixed group of players.

Hero Gods, New Gods, And More Spells of Old

It's Wednesday again everyone, and that means I update you with more information on my homebrew!  Today I continue to add to the gods of Atlazan, and we are getting closer and closer to having all of them up.  It also means I am getting closer to starting to work out much more of the mechanics of the setting and trying to get that out there.  Today I have a couple of Atlazan's new gods and a couple of the hero gods.  Among them are beings of weather, defiance, and nature.  There is the First Paladin and two gods born in the destruction of an ancient and powerful being.

I also want to share with you some updates to the work I am doing for the DM's Guild.  I am continuing to work on the second volume of Paths to Power and hope to have a pay what you want preview soon.  In addition to that I am trying to work out some familiar stats to add to the first Paths to Power.  I am also working on Volume II to Spells of Old featuring spells from the 3rd Edition Draconomicon.  While that didn't happen for the past weekend like I wanted, I did update the first volume with three more spells from the Lords of Madness.  Keep an eye out this weekend for more going up / being updated and check back here next Wednesday for more updates!