Libris Monstrum #3: Worm That Walks

We are back with the third entry into the Libris Monstrum. This time I chose the subject, but next week I will be posting a Twitter poll looking for your input again. This week's monster is a creature I have always been fond of, mostly for the creep factor, but also for all the ways these creatures can exist.


Person Or Swarm?
The worm that walks is a crazy creature that is actually a lot of smaller creatures. Well, sort of. For those who have never heard about the worm the walks, its most common form in Dungeons & Dragons is that of a hooded figure. Perhaps it is a priest, a mage, or a cultist. Silhouetted the creature looks humanoid, can pass as humanoid without a look at its body, but if you do grab a look at it you realize it is nothing like that. No, this creature is one made of a writhing mass of worms that just happens to be human-shaped. Despite this form, it is somehow one, powerful creature that moves and acts like the person it pretends to be.


Before There Was Kyuss
Well before the advent of the famous demigod who would herald the Age of Worms, there was Lovecraft. To be fair, H.P. Lovecraft wrote about indescribable horrors and many of those descriptions are vague or wild enough that there are plenty of interpretations. Nevertheless, there are a few descriptions that are commonly interpreted as a worm that walks. For one of those accepted references, just read The Festival. Of course, this isn't the instance of the worm that walks outside of fantasy RPGs, but we can talk about some examples in a little bit.


Kyuss And His Wormspawn
As a fair warning I do not know a great deal about the Greyhawk setting. Nor have I run Age of Worms or gotten to go crazy with that concept (awesome as it is), so if I am incorrect in any of my specifics, just leave a comment! Anyways, Kyuss used to be a simple priest but now he is a demigod bent on bringing about the end of the world. The Wormgod appears to be the original Worm that Walks within this context and has created a great deal of spawn for a variety of reasons. In the Age of Worms itself, this was not limited to the undead followers of Kyuss, but also minions that may have once been living lizardmen, dogs, dragons. Basically, you think it and a Kyuss worm could turn it into an undead monster aiding the undead entity in its quest.

I'd start running right about now. Great art from dungeonsanddrawings.blogspot.com

But What Is It?
So we haven't really discussed what the worm that walks is. First off, it doesn't have to be a mass of worms, it could be a mass of any small creature. Vermin are common and things like bugs, spiders, or worms are most common. There are two major things that go with the worm that walks, no matter what. First is that it is a swarm that moves together well enough to act as if it is a single human. Secondly, the swarm has a hive mind. While not necessarily required, there are a few other common qualities. One of these is the idea that the worm that walks will always be back. Often this is the result of the idea that as long as one of the individuals of the swarm survives then the worm that walks, that greater being, also survives to return after it has recovered. Because the creature is a swarm, and people are people, fire is generally the answer, as in: kill it with fire!!


Unique Versions
There are plenty of monsters that would qualify as the worm that walks, but lets talk about some interesting ones. The rat-king is one such creature, sort of. So the legend of the rat king is from before there were New York sewers. Dirty "modern" (for the time) cities have always had lots of rats right? What if there were so many their tails started growing together? That is the rat-king: a horrible mass of writhing, angry, tangled rats. The truth of the matter is rats are pretty clean animals. Sure they go in sewers and trash, but they won't create a situation where there are so many of them together and certainly not long enough for a rat-king to develop. But in your world, why not. Hells, go one better and make it some magical accident and it is a smarter creature that will re-create itself from a single surviving rat.

Another great example is Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas. The villain of the movie, the afforementioned Oogie Bogie, is the worst of all the Halloween monsters. He wants to take over the town and is generally an asshole. When he is finally defeated it is when his body falls apart. The thread holding the burlap together into his body is pulled out and all of his insects and spiders and such escape. With that, Oogie Boogie is defeated. Of course there was also a snake in there and if it escaped, perhaps Oogie will be back.

Who would I be without pushing Doctor Who? In the introductory episode of the character River Song, there is a horrible creature that kills people within the library planet that the episode takes place on. That creature is called the vashta nerada and it is an unseeable swarm of shadow things. These live in the shadows and even get into the space suites of the characters. They are then devoured and only their bones and the suite are left. What makes these more than just a swarm is the odd ability to take over and animate the suites. With in-lit helmets, the skeletons that walk around are terrifying. Add the repetitive nature of causing the suits to transmit the last thing the victim said, "hey, who turned out the lights?" and these creatures become one of the creepiest on the show.


Using The Worm And More
As a GM, there are some pretty simple ways to use the worm that walks. You can take the undead cult of demigod worshiping monsters. You could also do a recurring unique villain. Those are simple methods of using them, and there are even more you can find in various horror and supernatural films. I have some ideas for you though. First is by creating a recurring mummy villain. Screw the lich, he is a little over done and everyone knows to look for the phylactery. Take a mummy instead. He can be the powerful undead priest equivalent for some long-dead god. Now, instead of a phylactery (or in addition if you are really mean) do the "from a single maggot" part of the trope. If one gets away the creature can eventually reconstitute itself. Perhaps even if it dies than the villain has a phylactery. You will drive your players nuts! You could also take the idea and apply it to a rogue group of druids who become so one with their vermin swarm forms that they too can regrow from surviving shapeshifted from a single worm.


Do you have any ideas for how to use the worm that walks trope? Any good stories or a movie to watch for ideas? Leave comment and let us know!

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: Cartography Part 4

For today's Resources article I have three more map-related links for you to check out!


Map to Globe: This incredible tool was shared on the DM Support Group recently, and I couldn't help but push it up on the resources to share here. This tool allows you to take an image and upload to be turned into a globe. Not only can this be rotated but there are plenty of options from which to edit the globe or look at it differently. The direction and intensity of the sun can be adjusted, a pole line can be created, and the background can be manipulated. Screenshots are available to be downloaded, as well as GIFs of the globe rotating! There are also sketch views and a number of map projects that can be applied to the image. Frankly, the ability to take an image and turn it into a globe (even if its virtual) is an awesome tool, plain and simple. To take that and play with it in so many different ways is just fantastic and definitely worth checking out for your home brew worlds.


How Fast Could You Travel?: The great thing about Twitter is the sheer number of random things you can encounter. This was one of those things. The article discusses the change and development of travel in the United States over the course of it's early history. There are maps through out it showing you how far you could have expected in how long. How long would it take to get to Florida from New York City in 1800, for example. The answer? At least 2 weeks. In between all the maps is the article explaining why these things changed as paths and roads were developed and later trains. This is an invaluable resource for getting a good idea of how travel would work in a fantasy setting. Pair it with some quick Google searches for maps with terrain and a distance key and you begin to understand some things a bit better than before. This article is worth the read for anyone who wants a bit more realism / accuracy when they tell players how far things are (something I have a tendancy to just pull out of my ass).


Custom Cloth Maps: There is little more to say about this one. Geekify, Inc has developed a very cool service for us Game Masters. Among the other things you can get from them, they also provide you with an opportunity to take an image of your home brew world's map and get it printed on cloth! Of course, this comes in many sizes and doesn't have to be a map. Perhaps it is a scroll or some other prop for you to use in games. While a bit expensive, it provides an option for you to take your map and prop game to the next level. I know it would certainly surprise my players!

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.

Re-skinning: Changing A Recipe's Flavor

Have you every seen yourself as the group's healer and enjoying the cleric class, but wanting to be more of a druid-like character? Or perhaps you see yourself as the group's tank but loathe the idea of being just another sword and board in plate. Well, perhaps you can play by the rules without playing by the rules. In fact I am here to tell you that is exactly what you can do. That is the whole point of D&D, after all. To exist in a world where anything is possible and there are no programming restrictions on the choices you make. All subject to DM approval and nerf-hammers, of course.

Today I want to talk about re-skinning the things that sit within a rule book to make them work for you. Such things find themselves to be problems only in mechanics heavy games like Dungeons & Dragons. Other games may have a rule for literally anything, being even more mechanically heavy like earlier forms of D&D. Or they may be universal systems where you get better at something and can skin how that works virtually any way you want.

For 5th Edition, Wizards cut back the fat on the rules in some ways. In 3rd Edition there were so many rules, feats, bonus, penalties, spells, builds, tacked on mechanics, and situational circumstances it was hard to build the character you envisioned without doing a thesis on the idea first. Then came 4th Edition and we got streamlined set of rules that worked similarly across the board (for most of the edition's life anyway). Now all you had to do was decide to build your defender with the defense feats and defensive abilities. Don't want a shield, just make sure not to pick those ones. Want to dual-wield? Grab a couple of those powers to beef that aspect up.

Now, to be fair 4th Edition became as laden with options as 3rd, though they we more easily indexed. And you were limited in the number of "cool moves" you could have at any one time, since leveling had you replace one with another eventually. This was especially true as they released regular supplements, some of which entirely focused on one set of characters (such as martial or divine). In some ways, all of these options are great and many powers are super cool. Hell fighters became a more easily enjoyable option (you can do a lot with 3E feats but, boy, is that some planning and bonus/penalty paperwork). But, when it comes down to it, 5th Edition has become a nice blend of streamlined and unique mechanics. Only certain classes/archetypes get extra attack for example.

And now, two years later, we are still working off of the core books. There have been adventures, one Sword Coast supplement, and Unearthed Arcana articles, but all in all we are working from the Player's Handbook. That doesn't have to limit us and I will use my two original examples as to why.

First off, who says playing a druid has to mean you actually have to take levels in druid? I mean mechanically at their core is shape-shifting and certain spells. But thematically, a druid is a protector of nature. Perhaps you would like the opportunity to expunge shape-shifting for more spell-related abilities. My suggestion to you is to play a cleric of nature (or even life or tempest). Already you are themed toward being druidic. Next, simply forgo claiming any god to worship or call to and refer to yourself as a druid. The final step is, perhaps the most important, and needs to be approved by your DM. In my opinion, however, it is pretty non-issue. Simply use the druid spell list instead of the cleric one. Simple as that. That means no saying, "but I am technically a cleric so can I prepare this just once." And no swapping out cleric spells you don't mind losing for the druid spells you hate to lose. Just do the full switch.

Of course, you may have other problems with this like how do the cleric abilities mesh with a "druid". Let's start with turning undead. That is fairly easy since undead are, often, anathema to druids. Fits right in. Choosing the right domain is another key factor, of course. But perhaps it is divine intervention which you have trouble getting around. Well, why does it have to be divine? Perhaps the druid uses that ability and pulls a Moses parting a sea for refugees to get across. Or, maybe a powerful spirit of nature or ancient fey answers the call of such a powerful druid. Even better the druid may have such command of the elements in that brief moment that nature itself listens to her need. Don't let ability names limit you!

How about for my second example though? A shield-less defender. We actually did this in a recent game. I built my friend the crusader type character he wanted. A wall at the front line, forward defense if you will. He used a polearm. I allowed him the defender fighting style, simply replacing the requirement of shield with polearm. As long as he had that he could still utilize that class feature, but would be unable to do it should he choose or need to take up a shield instead.

Everything else about a paladin works out for the way he wanted to play his character. And none of it really affected that one swap. To make him even more polearm mastered, though, we gave him the feat. Being able to threaten at reach was imperative. Because this feat is a commitment of "build resources" I also allowed it to synergize with that defensive tactic ability. There's no real reason not to. Is it going to break the game to give him that defensive ground? Probably not, since he takes a hit to his AC from not wielding a shield as a tank instead. And frankly, that was the crux of his character idea and having fun is the most important part of the game.

When it comes down to it, both of these examples are simple things that require nothing but a single mechanical swap and a lot of flavoring. There are many ways this could be done and very little reason not to. If it won't break your game and will give someone the opportunity to play the character they want with building a whole new class or looking for one online, just do it!

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.

RPG Blog Carnival: Trinkets From Space!

The theme of this month's RPG Blog Carnival is super science and sorcery, a topic that hits home for what I try to work into a lot of my games.  The melding of science, technology, and magic can result in a lot of awesome things.  From clockwork and steam powered gnomish devices to spell slinging pistols, the possibilities are endless.  Daemons & Deathrays is hosting the Carnival this month and I cannot wait to get a moment to check out what others have shared.  You can click the link above to check out their post on this and find links from other participants!

For my part in this carnival I wanted to go with something fairly simple, but something that will hopefully have a lot of potential for fun at the table.  Below is a table of trinkets for your games that blend science and magic.  These trinkets are treated to be something like those found in the 5th Edition Player's Handbook.  Something that has little meaning, but could be a great talking piece and, who knows, something of great importance.

I have found these, and similar trinkets, to be awesome ideas and provide some levity, some curiosity, and some inspiration.  The list can be used for any system, since they are minor items free of mechanics.  How you use some of these is up to you, but consider dropping some of them in your next fantasy dungeon as an interesting twist!

D10	Science-Fantasy Trinket
1	This small book-like object, made of a light but sturdy material and metal, features the phrase "Don't Panic!" on the cover. When opened there are not pages, but if asked about a subject the "book" will provide a brief piece of knowledge. This information, however, tends to have not useful relation to situation at hand or reveals information you may already have learned the hard way.
2	This round glass vial appears to have been created without opening. Nevertheless, it is hollow and the contents visible. Within is some kind of sludge or growth that sits inert and unmoving. Shaking the container causes it to solidify temporarily. Staring at it long enough a single eye may appear to look back at you.
3	You have a multi-colored, light-weight cube of some unknown material. Each side appears to be made up of smaller squares, each small face is a different color. You count six colors and nine faces of each color. The device can be twisted to rearrange rows of the small squares. What happens when different colors align to each face is a mystery.
4	The small stone cube is inlaid with golden lines and runes of some kind creating an interesting, if odd, decoration. The barest of seams can be felt along the faces, calling you to attempt to manipulate the object into different forms, but none of the changes you makes seem to do anything. If left alone, the cube resets itself, but you eventually get the urge to try re-configuring the puzzle again.
5	Within this black metal box sits a single red gem that glows with inner intelligence. If addressed, the light pulses and a monotone voice will answer. The voice claims to know much and will refer to itself as Mal, if asked. No matter what else someone requests to know, however, the object will simply answer, "I cannot do that Dave."
6	This object is the size and shape of a human heart, and appears to be one for all intent and purpose. However, it is made cleverly overlapped metal plates that have begun to rust. If you listen closely you imagine you can here the slow, creaking beat of the metallic organ.
7	You have what appears to be a metal eye-patch with no loop to old it on your head, and nowhere to attach one. When pressed you your eye the patch will remain in place, and you can sense a slight buzz or tingle. You get used to the feeling after a couple hours and there are no apparent side effects to wearing it.
8	This glass tube is closed off on both ends by hefty metal caps that can be screwed on and off. Despite a pair of metal braces running from one end to the other on opposite sides of the cylinder, the glass cracked at some point making it useless as a container. A dull, glowing green film that dried on the inside of the container can be noticed in darkness.
9	Hanging from a length of leather this strange mummified worm-like creature sits as if it used its incredibly sharp teeth to burst from your chest.
10	The small hourglass is housed in a single piece of intricately carved crystal with three clawed toes holding it up from one side. The sand within it travels up into the empty portion above, rather than down, when tapped lightly. A small depression on the top can be pressed, causing the sand to disappear in a shimmer of light, reappearing back in the bottom.

Updated Pages, Continued Small Successes, Getting Back Into It

Hello everyone!  Just a quick update this evening.  I went through and added the latest Resources For Every GM posts to the archive page, added the latest episodes of Untamed Dice to their respective pages, and updated the publication page.  A small step that is helping me get back into the swing of things!  While I am here, I want to mention how well things have been going.  I have had all this talk of projects I work on and spent a lot of time last month publishing more stuff to the DMs Guild, and would like to thank everyone who has purchased any of those documents or just downloaded the PWYW ones.  I would especially like to thank everyone who rated them, as well.  I'm not selling nearly as many as some others, but what I have done is reassuring to me and inspires me to continue working, doing more, and getting better.  So, thank you!

Resources For Every DM: Cartography Part 2

Hey everyone!  Today I am going to share some more resources to help you with your map making skills.  I have been especially interested in this of late for a couple reasons.  First of all, I love drawing maps for my worlds and I really want to get better at it.  I haven't drawn one in a while and my style hasn't changed much in even longer.  Besides having a number of worlds that don't have maps, I need some for games we are playing or will be.  The following resources are what I have been looking to for help and options in creating more maps for me and my players.


Fantastic Maps:  This website is devoted to fantasy maps and making them.  Jonathan Roberts provides a great number of tutorials and examples of the ways you can draw maps.  Not just in methodology but in style as well.  Different angles to look at mountains and different ways to present them.  How does elevation factor in?  What is easier, what looks good, and what is practical?  The tutorials here have a great number of things to consider and try when designing and making your own map.  Of course, the site doesn't just have world map suggestions.  It also includes small area styles like towns and the areas around them.  Some of the tutorials also go into specific subjects like drawing a woods-covered hill and making both of those aspects noticeable.  Needless to say, this site will help up your map-making game.


WASD20 (YouTube):  This is not a map drawing resource alone, but that is the way I found the account.  WASD20 has a series of videos that show the process of drawing maps for your fantasy world.  In fact, this series led me to the site above, because he uses those tutorials as a basis for the drawing of the map.  While you may think that this just gives you the same information over again, it doesn't.  Not really anyway.  The difference comes in perspective.  One is a tutorial, laid out as instructions to be read and emulated.  The video series, however, is a tour in the actual use of those ideas.  With commentary and the site of drawing things like mountains you gain insight on how to go about things.  Additionally, you get an idea for how time consuming it could get and how touchy you might get with your own maps.  Things are erased, edited, drawn over, and changed as the map progresses and the feeling of the artist is revealed.  All this is as important as the tutorials the videos are derived from.


Hexographer:  This is not so much help in drawing your own maps, but an alternative.  Hexographer is a popular map creation tool that is usable for those who are not quite as good at drawing, or perhaps for those who don't have the time to draw so much.  Alternatively, this can be used to create very specifically detailed maps with terrain details on a hex-by-hex basis.  The program is not free, and there are even more purchases to get different styles or types of hexes to use.  For many this is well worth the price.  If you are focused on an exploration heavy game, or need the details such a hex grid can provide this program will definitely help.  Personally there is a lot to gain from using this program: speed, accuracy, digital images to share, and more.  There are a number of digital mapping tools, but this makes my list first for one major reason.  There isn't much skill involved in making a map grid by grid.  I like easy learning curves that still provide quality results.

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!

World Building 101: Having An Actual Plan

So, I have been meaning to write another world building article for a while now.  It has to have been months since the last one.  Looking back on those, there is a lot of advice there about how to go about building and running your own world in a game like D&D.  However, there isn't a lot of direction.  To be fair, my point was to make sure you were doing what you wanted,  thinking about the process.  It was a build up to having your own campaign world.  Ask yourself what you need or don't need.  Shave down what your trying to do and make sure you aren't going over board.  Ask questions about the world and whats within it.

But now, after helping Untamed Scribe work on her world, reading more articles, and recording the third episode of D&Donuts, I want to give you guys some direction.  So where do you start?  For me the concept it THE most important part of developing your own world and campaign.  What is making it unique from other worlds?  Even if you answer is that you want it to be standard D&D but in a world of your own making, take that concept and use it as your foundation.  Take a look at my 27 Realms.  That is what I have been doing there.  Brave New Worlds is 12 episodes in almost entirely in Luxarrah and I don't have a twentieth of information about Luxarrah as I do Atlazan.  But I have the concept I had and the basics I thought of from there.  No matter what you're doing it should work into the concept.

Once you know what concept you're working with, you need to decide on how you want to work out the details of your world.  This breaks down into two main approaches, phrased in a number of ways.  Basically it comes to starting big and working down or starting small and working up.  The first way involves really getting into your world.  Building up a history for the world, kingdoms and their relations, races, monsters, artifacts.  Its all the big picture stuff about your world.  Essentially you create an essential encyclopedia like you would buy for your favorite franchise.  The second way to do it is to start with a town and the region directly around it.  You know some of the big information, but it is left a bit vague.

Personally I go for a hybrid method.  You see having a rough notebook or folder full of information about your world is very beneficial.  But there is no need to go too crazy.  Though, if you look at Atlazan, I have gone all out.  But even that is only to a point.  That history of Atlazan is the entirety of what I developed in the regard.  There is a lot that isn't there.  It's six pages, but its six pages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years worth of history.  A drop in the bucket.  But I have gods, races, classes, and basic kingdoms.  I even have the continent map.  But that's were it stops from big picture down.

Nearly everything beyond that set dropping is open for development.  For Atlazan, I have also developed small.  it isn't up but I have a rough region map of the area around Asylum, capital of the Feathered Serpent Unification.  Where what beast men live, environments, and dangers.  As you can see I have developed out the basics of the city and who is there, as well as the major NPCs that are important.  This gives me the foundation I need for the campaign itself.

By using the hybrid method of world building you can create a deep set and backdrop along with a strong foundation.  There is a ton of space in between for things to be created and explored.  With the small picture developed you can be ready for most of what will happen in the immediate game.  With the big picture you can drop names of people, places, and events to make things meaningful.  As play happens and ideas pop up, you can link the two out and flesh out the world / universe.

What is the next step from there?  Begin to flesh out information.  This is where you should focus more on small to big.  The closer in space to what you need for the game, the more fleshed out you should make it.  The farther away it is, make it more vague.  Eventually you should just have far off city names and maybe that's it about the city.  Beyond that there may be more cities not even named yet.  Same with environments and other such things.

Let's talk about time too.  Maybe you want the group to visit something far away.  Then flesh that out.  Exchange some of the focus of "nearby" stuff for focus on another point on the world.  Don't just look at campaign timeline though.  Also take a look at in game time.  Do not predict the way things are going to go in "kingdom-next-door" while your characters level to 10 and the kingdom hears rumors.  For all you know the PCs could convince a dragon to destroy that entire kingdom for no reason.  Weird things happen.  Be careful how detailed your plans are.

So to wrap up, let's just break it down into steps.  Keep in mind this are the steps you go to building a world with the intent to play in it.  This, itself, is a big picture methodology that I hope is a better backbone to this series that we can now move forward to specific ideas or topics.

1. Nail down your concept!
2. Get a rough big picture to create a backdrop
3. Flesh out a small picture to have a foundation for your campaign
4. Work out from the small picture detailing pieces to your world
5. Become more and more vague as you move from small picture towards big picture
6. Plan your campaign out while being loose with things farther into the future
7. LEAVE ROOM FOR DEVELOPMENT EVERYWHERE

Proofreading-ish, The Third Realm, And More To Come

Hello everyone!  Tonight's update is a quick one as I am in the process of fixing a computer while I do this.  I have posted information on an addition Realm.  This is the 3rd Realm, The Realm on the Brink.  In a world where the End Times threatens the faithful and heretical alike, angels and devils must band together to lead mortals against the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  The description for this one is a bit longer, and I think I want to try and extend the ones I have there already too.  There are also a couple ideas I need to add to the list, but those will have to wait until later.  As promised I proofread the page, but admittedly did so quickly.  I am going to do so again when I have a moment that allows me to concentrate better, not to worry.  Next week check back here for a lot more information on the things to come as we move through our one year anniversary !

Re-skinning: Danger of Casting Strange Spells

Two weeks ago, I wrote an article about re-skinning spells in order to flavor them for your characters and games.  Today I want to continue on that subject.  This time though, I am not going to give some more examples of doing this.  There is an unlimited way to re-skin spells and we could come up with new ones for article after article.  The real question is, should we?  For the first time we are talking about something that intersects with the player's side of the game.  We are also talking about something in which there may be a reason that specific spell doesn't exist.

Let's start with what you should absolutely do / allow.  Of all the things, the general look of spells should be given a lot of leeway.  There is no mechanical effect and, thus, no reason to disallow these effects.  If a player wants blue flame or green electricity, let them.  There are lots of ways to do this (think back to the barkskin example).  A lot of fun and role-playing can be had by allowing this to happen.  A good thing to remember is: if there are no needed mechanic changes than there is probably no need to veto it.

Now what problems could we incur from changes in the mechanics of spells?  Well, on the DM's side it becomes rather irrelevant.  Because you are flavoring a specific group or a specific character, the encounters with these unique forms of spell will be short lived.  Even if they are not, they become an obstacle the party can plan for and around.  On the DM's side of the screen making all spells deal fire damage for crazy fire cultists or an efreeti sorcerer would make perfect sense to the players.

But what happens on the player's side?  Well you probably want to decide if there needs to be more changes than just energy type, for example.  Should a cone become a line if fire becomes electricity.  The specific example I am thinking here is burning hands.  Generally speaking, electricity tends to shoot in a arc, or a line in mechanical terms, and not exist in a cone.  Of course, the easiest thing to do would to be to do as little as possible.  Just change damage type.  The end.  This provides no real balance issues.

However you should probably ask if this is something purposefully left out of the rules.  Why is there a level one fire spell with a cone and an acid spell that is a splashing arrow?  Why doesn't each inherently allow any energy type to be chosen when taking the spell?  Partially tradition and partially effect.  A splash of acid and a cone of fire make sense.  Lightning coming from the sky makes sense.  The way the elements act are important to the game and the D&D mythology.  And if you look carefully this shows in the way spells and energy powers tend to work.

Now, if you want to be a specialist you can, but make that an important difference.  Why does the character want it to be different?  How is it different?  What is the purpose both for the character and the function of the spell?  Work with the player and find out the answers to the questions.  Be consistent with the reasoning.  If they want burning hands to become a lightning spell because they are a sorcerer with djinn blood, then make sure other spells are tweaked too.  Use wind, force damage, lightning, thunder, or something similar instead of the basic type.  An acid arrow spell may deal lightning initial damage and thunder splash damage instead of acid for both.  This keeps it in line with both the goal of the player and the design and function of the spell.

Now, this isn't a problem in all games.  Savage Worlds, as we mentioned, has such things inherent to making spells.  Energy type is chosen when you make the spell.  But in a game with a long history of very specific spells, be careful.  Focus on look and, when mechanics become important, maintain a focus and have reason.  The potential for re-skinning spells for role-playing purposes is very high.  Don't lose that in a desire to, say, to nothing but fire damage.  Make it important, make it your own, and make it interesting.

Resources For Every DM: Rules & Supplements Part 5 (People & Places)

I swear it was just a couple weeks ago that I was writing part 4 of this category of resources.  Looking back it was February.  The beginning of February.  That isn't a few weeks, it's a few months!  So, without further delay, another set of books meant for role-playing games to add to your bookshelf.  This time I am going to continue on the them of environment, but not in regard to weather and the like.  Instead this time, I want to share three books that talk about subjects you will see in virtually every campaign: cities, dungeons, and people.  Two of these will come from the later years of 3.5 and one of them comes from Pathfinder, but all three of them will provide useful material.  Keep in mind, of course, these will have a fantasy lean to them given the systems they're for.


Cityscape (3.5 D&D):  This book came out on the tail end of the 3.5 era, but this, perhaps, makes it a little more useful than you would expect.  While there is a chapter for players to help design their urban adventurers, and these ideas are nice, it is the remainder of the book that can be of use to you as a DM.  If you plan on designing a big city or even just visiting one in game, this book will help you flesh it out.  The first chapter, alone, helps you generate you vision of the city.  What districts exist?  Who lives there?  Is it wealthy?  Where is it?  After you know about the physicality of the city, chapter 3 will help you figure out the powers that be here and the politics that may be going on in the city.  This included everything from governments to guilds to churches.  Finally, the last two chapters will help a DM when they need to run the game in a city for an extended period.  What type of encounters could you expect, and what kind of events happen?  Many games are wilderness or dungeon-crawling epics, but a lot of great moments can happen in the city and a lot of story telling too.  This book will certainly help you will that, especially in a D&D game.

Dungeonscape (3.5 D&D):  The companion to Cityscape, this book seeks to do a similar thing for DMs.  There are a number of very obvious differences.  As the site of adventure, there is little politic and intrigue there.  However, these are the old ruins of ancient civilizations and each should be unique.  This book is full of fantastic ideas for that.  What is the point of the dungeon?  What used to be the point?  Who lives there now and who used to?  It helps you also remember the various rooms that would make up a dungeon.  Not just treasure rooms and armories, but kitchens and prisons too.  There are also ideas on the materials that make up the dungeon too.  What to make the walls and floors out of and other such things.  Finally, one of the other great features is a whole chapter about traps: making them, examples, and reason's to use them.  Especially useful for D&D or Pathfinder, this book can definitely help you design your adventure sites.

Pathfinder NPC Codex (Pathfinder):  I want to finish off with a supplement that is less about the sites visited, and more about the people you meet there.  Of all the NPC books that I have looked at (though I am sure there are countless I haven't), this is my favorite.  There are a couple reasons for this.  First of all, it is absolutely huge at over 300 pages.  Broken down by class and prestige class, the book presents a large variety of NPC concepts with a variety of levels in classes and monster stat blocks for each.  Sneaked into the extra space are some names to use with a couple tidbits to help describe them.  Honestly, there is almost two new stat block on every page.  What is amazing about this book are the number of jobs it does by simply doing this.  You have a whole lot of enemies to use.  Because they are NPCs they are civilized (mostly) and provide a large potential to take up roles within the campaign.  They could be gang leaders, villains, heroes, followers, lackeys, and more.  The shear number of ideas here is outstanding and they are designed to work with the possibilities the rules provide.  Such ideas include a raging swimmer, an arcane experimenter, a con artist, and even a god stealer.  And it is those ideas in their number and quirks that make this book useful for every GM's shelf.

Re-Skinning: Spellcaster's Flair

Good evening everyone!  Tonight I have the re-skinning article I mentioned yesterday: spells.  For this I want to talk about the variety of ways you can change spells in your game (whatever it is) in order to make the game or a character feel different from others.  Why you might do it and the ways it can be useful (or abused) is something I will go over in a future article two week from now.  Before I give any examples though, I want talk about a game that has this inherent to the system and how much it teaches us.

Savage Worlds.  A universal system to cover any situation you will ever need for whatever game you decide to play.  The first question I had, and other wizards like me I am sure, is what about magic?  How do you universalize magic?  Savage Worlds does it quite elegantly and includes everything from psionics to science to super powers.  They do this by having a variety of basic powers or spells that include only the mechanics that result from their use.  Everything else is "trappings".  You can, effectively, describe any power in any way but the mechanics do not change.  There are a few exceptions, mostly for damage types, which can add a few additional effects.  This does however cause other changes such as less damage or increased point cost.  As I said, simple but elegant.

From Savage Worlds you can learn a lot about tweaking spells.  In fact, it reveals a lot about the concept of re-skinning in general.  For this I, once again, urge you to consider adding the core book to your shelves no matter what you play.  But for now, let's take a look at a couple examples of how we can skin a power.  Here are three spells from the Savage Worlds Explorers Handbook:

• bolt
• entangle
• puppet

I pick these because they are perfect examples.  Bolt is a basic attack spell.  Entangle does exactly what you think.  Finally, puppet allows you to take some control over another.  Here are the example trappings given for these spells:

• fire, ice, light, darkness, insects
• glue bomb, vines, handcuffs, spider webs
• glowing eyes, trance-like state, swinging pocket watch, voodoo dolls

As you can see there are a lot of very different ways in which to describe what a spell looks like or what you do when you cast it.  There are a lot of ways to do a thing, why not make it look different for different people?  Or perhaps, why not have it look different when in a different region or plane of existence.  The Curse of Strahd is a great example of this.  On page 24 you can find cosmetic modifications like using a skeletal hand for Bigby's hand and undead familiars for find familiar.  These are simple but telling changes to the world around the players.

So how do we change our spells?  What are the variety of ways spells can be adjusted?  Well, if you haven't gathered by now, the baseline is to go for some kind of theme.  Whether it is a plane they are cast in (Curse of Strahd) or to fit a mad scientist in Savage Worlds (glue bomb, pocket watch), a theme gives you direction and ideas.  For my examples I will use 5th Edition, mostly because it is my most run game and because spells are pretty specific.  More reasons will reveal themselves in the next article where we talk about ramifications.  In order to do this I am going to take a few examples of spells we can manipulate and the different ways we can manipulate them.

• cloud of daggers
• grasping vine
• barkskin
• flame blade
• burning hands

Cloud of daggers is a very simple spell which creates its namesake.  The area it exists in is take up by magically conjured daggers.  As a result it does slashing damage.  But why does it have to be daggers?  A dwarf would, perhaps, conjure a cloud of hammers and maybe an elf would create arrows.  As a result we need only change the damage to bludgeoning and piercing respectively.  We need not stop there though.  We can also change the form to sand, piranha, spiders, or anything relatively small that could damage.  All you need to do is pick something that fits the character, or where the character comes from, and utilize the appropriate damage.

Grasping vines is a, mostly, druid spell which uses a vine to grab onto a creature.  Here is where things are interesting though, the text says that the vine is conjured.  This means (technically...as read), that there doesn't need to be any vines around.  Now, I would say using local plant life to describe this spell is one of the best ways to "re-skin" it.  Whatever is nearby grows and stretches for the spells effect.  Another way to change this would be to pick a plant that the caster prefers or one from their home that always gets conjured for the spell.  Finally you can continue with the conjuring but have the plant relative to the region or plane.  For example, the plane of water would have Sargasso forests and perhaps this sea weed would be what gets conjured out of nowhere for the spell there.

Barkskin is a spell another one that is both specific and very vague.  First off, you skin takes on a quality like bark.  But what kind of bark?  I think a simple way to make this unique for a character would be to pick a specific bark type, especially a recognizable one.  Birch, for example, would certainly be both different and memorable.  How else can you change this spell?  Well it may be called barkskin but the point is to give you a small amount of natural armor.  But there are many ways to do this, such as scales.  For a caster obsessed with reptiles or dragons, scales would make a fantastic alternative.  Or perhaps you could go with a more elemental them and have crystals grow from your flesh and give the skin a stoney quality.

Flame blade and burning hands are two spells I choose because of their damage component.  The first creates a scimitar made of fire and the second spews forth fire from your hands.  There are many damage dealing spells, and in many games these are identified with damage types and keywords.  Perhaps you wish to create a blade of ice or shoot lightning like Palpatine.  Realistically, this is very easy.  All you need to do is change the damage type.  Of course there are other factors that may come into play, such as the splash from acid arrow or items that catch fire in a fireball.  To tweak these requires a slight but more finesse, but not too much and ignoring things like things catching fire makes little difference.

But these spells are the type of thing that brings me to the next article.  In the next article, we are going to talk about damage spells and why truly differentiates spells in games like Savage Worlds to spells in D&D.  How come there are so many different spells in D&D and so few in Savage Worlds?  Is there really?  Perhaps there is a reason Melf created an acid arrow and not a lightning arrow.  Is it possible there is no ice ball spell for a reason?  I will talk a bit about this and whether it matters or not.  It might not, or it may.  That will depend on you and how ramifications can effect your campaign and world.  And how much you let them of course,

Realms Of Light, Glass, & Dust

Hey there!  Today I have the basic descriptions of three more of the 27 Realms of the Multiverse for you.  This time we have a little blurb about Luxarrah and the Realm of Light which is featured currently in Brave New Worlds.  Additionally you can get a look at the Realm of Glass, a setting idea I had one day and hope to work out more of in the future.  Finally you get an initial look at another setting that is featuring prominently in my mind: the Realm of Dust.  This is the world of my take on Cowboys & Dragons, a setting and style I am very excited about, though who knows when we will get to actually visit it.

As for what is coming up, I am unsure what I will be posting next week.  I will continue to do something though.  There is always more to add, more to share, and more to write here.  But I can tell you I am going to be having conversation with one of my artist friends this weekend.  He is the one who did Chaugnar Faugn for me.  We are going to hammer out what I want and what I need to help get some art worked out.  Additionally, as the semester wraps up and I continue to get out tweaks I want on the blog and on the Patreon, I will be able to devote more time towards my DM's Guild and OGL work.  So, while I haven't mentioned anything since that list, it is in the works and I am continuously working to keep things moving forward!

Realms of Machines, Imagination, and Tyranny

Hello everyone, today I began filling out the basic snippets of the 27 Realms.  Three of them are done and I shouldn't have any trouble getting more in for next week.  You may have noticed I haven't done Luxarrah yet.  Well, the reason for that is quite simply that I want to do more than a snippet.  As the front runner for Brave New Worlds right now I have a lot more information on it than the other.  Though, to be fair, a couple of these have been years in the making so I have quite a bit on more than that one.

But, Luxarrah is one at the forefront of my mind.  So, it will get the majority of the attention.  I think that next week I will flesh out the rest of the snippets and the following week I will be fleshing out a page for Luxarrah and it's info.  Then of course there is more work to do on Atlazan and I have much work being done in my head about the next realm Brave New Worlds will visit.  As we get closer to summer (and my summer schedule being hammered out) I will be able to better facilitate what is getting done when.

For now it remains semi-haphazard, with each week dictating what I have time for and what needs take up the forefront of thought.  Don't worry though.  Information continues to flow in spite of such barriers!

Re-skinning: Lizardfolk From Around The World Part 2

Last week I started a re-skin article about lizardfolk.  I mentioned the reasons lizardfolk were my top choice for a re-skin article, including my personal bias.  One of the reasons, though, was that there are so many different types of lizard.  So many of these are unique and/or easily recognizable.  While this is great news for us, the list became extensive and the article long.  If you want to know more and see the list of example lizards we could use check out the article right here.  You'll also find our first two re-skins: the chameleon and the horned lizard.  Finally, before we get into some more, I want to remind you all of the first step.  Throw out the lizardfolk's hold breath and swim, as these are specific to the original lizardfolk and may not be appropriate for other versions.

Now, let's take a look at some more types of lizard:

• Gila Monster
• Tokay Gecko
• Marine Iguana
• Frilled Lizard
• Flying Lizard
• Armadillo Lizard

If you don't recognize any of the names, and even if you do, head over to Google and do some image searches.  Get an idea of what these creatures look like before we go ahead and make some more humanoids of them.  Done?  Excellent.

The gila monster.  One of only two venomous lizards known (though I have been told there may be venom in the saliva of some monitors), these creatures are also distinctive in their pebbly orange and black skin.  Living in the desert, these would make for a perfect orc-analog to the horned lizardfolk we made last week.  These brutish people require very little in the way of adjustment.  Other than some ability score adjustment, all this creature needs is additional damage, poison of course, for its bite attack.  It may do to allow a Constitution save to avoid this damage, and we could take queues from some of the animals in the Monster Manual to do that.

Let's go over the tokay gecko now.  You may be asking why these lizards.  Two reasons.  The first is that of the many geckos we could choose from, these are distinctive in color and known to be rather aggressive.  Second, they are named for the call they make.  Again, there is not much we need to do to make these a unique lizardfolk.  Much of what would make them interesting lies within the description and encounters.  Other than that we can give them a climb speed.  Many lizards can climb, such as the gila monster we just discussed, but geckos are even more adept climbers.  In fact the gecko's unique toe pads give them exceptional ability and, because of this, I think we should give them spider climb.  This small addition allows the lizardfolk to become an oddly challenging enemy.

We are about to go over the easiest of re-skins with the marine iguana.  These guys live on ocean shores and swim into the water to eat algae and seaweeds.  Unlike all of the other re-skins we don't need to remove the hold breath and swim speed from the original lizard folk.  Instead, we should think about increasing their swim speed a little bit and doubling the length of time they can hold their breath for.  Other than that we just need to turn them black.  What could make this lizard folk interesting is the fact that they are not carnivorous.  A unique society of monstrous looking humanoids that farm ocean plants for food makes for a major change of pace in a campaign and an excellent role-playing opportunity.

The frilled lizard.  I am sure that anyone who saw Jurassic Park and then got into reptiles would fall in love with this creature if they have not already.  Like the dilophosaur of the movie, it has a frill around its neck that it can extend in a frightening display.  These lizardfolk would be smaller and more agile than your average lizardfolk.  While they would not get the spit of that movie dinosaur, they would have to have the distinctive frill.  This frill would provide it with an increased ability to intimidate, just to start.  Additionally, I would say that it can utilize the frill, as a reaction, to cause an enemy to have disadvantage on a roll against it.  Such a thing would be quite surprising, at least the first time.  I would even provide an action that allows the lizardfolk to attempt to frighten a creature for a few rounds.  Either of these abilities would not work on the same creature after it succeeds a save within a 24 hour period.  This is a common theme among such abilities.  However, whether or not that immunity overlaps between the two is up to you, the DM.

Flying lizards provide us with another opportunity for an arboreal enemy.  Unlike the chameleon, these lizards would not be utilizing color changing.  We should still grant them a climb speed to represent their ability to move among the branches of trees with ease, especially since we are going to assume that they live up there.  Next we grant them a fly speed of some kind.  Now, this is a bit difficult, since these lizards do not technically fly.  They utilize flaps of skin between their limbs in the same way that a flying squirrel does, gliding from place to place.  As such it would be a good choice to make this an ability of some kind rather than an actual movement speed.  Perhaps we can allow them to move as if they were flying, faster than walking.  They would be restricted in being unable to move up, but perhaps we could allow them maintain height, only falling if they glide for more than one round.  Another benefit of this feature would be the ability to reduce falling damage.  I must admit I don't know the checks and reduction off the top of my head, but I would say base falling damage for a flying lizardfolk is halved and that on a successful check it is reduced entirely.  This of course assumes the ability to move their arms and use those "wings".

Finally we come to the armadillo lizard.  I included this one because I think we can have some fun with it.  First of all we can include it among the various desert-dwelling lizardfolk that we have already made.  Second, if you haven't looked up pictures of any of these go look this one up.  No really.  Do it.  They roll up and bite their tails to become a spiny death ball for protection!  I can picture this thing having an ability like the salamander, except instead of fire damage like heated body its piercing.  And, if we're honest, we can insert some goofiness into the game every once and a while, and these guys can help with that.  Imagine them curling up and roll down a hill at you like a spined bowling ball of death, before popping up and engaging in combat!

As you'll notice this time we have a lot less bullets and not much in the way of actual numbers or stats.  But not all re-skins need this.  Some have very basic adjustments.  To create nearly a dozen different lizardfolk we simply need to take away some abilities, add others, and be creative.  Eventually, I plan on putting all of these guys into a supplement on the DM's Guild like the chimeras.  I will also work on turning some of them in races.  Because who doesn't want more races?  In the mean time, watch for an overview of the article for ease of reference in the re-skin section of the site.

Re-Skinning: Lizardfolk From Around The World

Today it is finally time to take another look at the usefulness of re-skinning.  To do this we are going to look at something a little different from what we have done.  Instead of looking at a monster of some type, like the chimera, we are going to look at a race of humanoids.  Specifically, if it hasn't been made obvious enough, we are going to be looking at lizardfolk.  To me the race has always been one of my favorites.  There are a few reasons for this.  First of all, I am biased towards reptilian entries.  Aside from that, though, they have always seemed like one of the more versatile of monstrous races.  To me they have been a shamanistic race which is more intelligent than they look.  They have always been generally neutral in action, with a range of alignments depending on tribe.  A people not bogged down by an inherent evil like goblinoids and orcs.  At least they have been this way for me.

I also love the lizardfolk because there is so much potential for the race.  As it generally stands, these are swamp-dwelling folk based off the image of an iguana.  Some images have depicted some as larger or more slender, and they can look like even more generic lizards.  However, there are images of different lizardfolk that have shown up over the years.  Some of these are just coloration, and those are fantastic, but I have seen some very cool images of lizardfolk based off certain species.  Below is one such image, by Firat Solhan for Pathfinder (found on deviantart).  

A chameleon-based lizardfolk?? I love the idea!  That is way, today, we are going to come up with some ideas on various lizardfolk that could exist in your fantasy world.  Even if you aren't someone who has a lot of experience with reptiles, or never really cared much for them, you probably can think of a handful of different lizards off the top of your head.  Having been thinking about this there are a few, I think, would make good lizardfolk variants.

• Chameleon
• Horned Lizard
• Gila Monster
• Tokay Gecko
• Marine Iguana
• Frilled Lizard
• Flying Lizard
• Armadillo Lizard

Honestly, I am thinking of more and could likely find more, but we already have more than we can handle in one article.  Let's just pick a couple of these and and start with those.  My personal choices are the following:

• Chameleon
• Horned Lizard

Ok let's start with the chameleon.  The first reason that this is a great choice is the instinctive look that chameleons have.  Most people know one when they see one.  These lizards would make great substitutes to create a subrace that lives not only in forests and jungles, but high in the trees too.  Their feet are zygodactyl and this lets them grasp things really well, meaning they would probably have no trouble running around branches and suddenly stopping to shoot arrows.  As for the eyes looking in different directions, we would definitely be able to do some stuff with that.  Finally they have the ability to change color.  While this is not as complex or quick as tv and movies show, it is something they can do.  When we add dungeons, dragons, and magic to a world we may as well make the ability a bit better.  To recap we need to add the following to create the chameleon folk:

• Their feet and hands have interesting / useful grip
• Their eyes can look in different directions
• They can change color
• They live up in trees

Before we get into that we need to consider the lizardfolk of old.  What do these creatures have that we need to take away?  What is something we don't want to give to just any subrace?  Well ability scores can be tweaked, of course, but a couple things stand out as specific to the original lizardfolk and only specific future subraces.  So, let's throw out the following to create a foundation:

• Hold breath
• Swim

Wasn't that easy!  Ok so we have a list of things to consider for the chameleon folk.  And we have thrown away what we need to from the original.  Now, what can we do with this.  I would say perception should not only be a proficiency, but also get double bonus for those eyes.  Additionally, I think they should eliminate certain disadvantages as they could pay attention to two things at once.  Perhaps they could even get advantage on sight based perception checks, but that may be a bit much.  Color change is actually really easy because we can use it to give them advantage on stealth checks.  See the troglodyte entry as an example.  As for their feet, we should go easy and give them a climb speed.  Perhaps also give them advantage on checks checks that deal with grip, like grappling.  So to make chameleon folk, just use the simpler lizardfolk stats and add the following:

• Advantage on
• stealth checks
• grip related rolls like grappling, snatching on to something
• a climb speed equal to normal speed
• double ability bonus on perception checks
• eliminate disadvantage/advantage from visual distractions
• such as feigning to give ally advantage
• this one could be a much more situational for the DM

Ok so, now what we have a chameleon folk.  Lets make horned lizardfolk.  For these squat guys, I am picturing squat, dwarf-shaped lizard folk with all the spines and horns of a horned lizard.  I picture desert dwellers that herd and eat giant insects.  I also see them shooting blood out of their eyes in order to distract enemies.  Here we have the potential for something really weird and unique.  These guys are a bit slower than most lizards, but I don't think humanoid ones would be so burdened by body type.  The main thing that really makes these lizards worth looking at is the blood squirting eyes.  The lizards can do that up to 5 feet, so these guys should certainly be able to do it up to 15 or maybe even 30.  I think the best way to utilize this is to grant them a reaction ability that causes disadvantage on an enemies attack roll within the range.  Since this is the signature move, I would even make this rechargeable at 5 and/or 6.  Oh and as a final note, I could see this as a playable race with their own problems.  I'm thinking blood mage cultists.

This article ended up being a little longer than I meant it.  There are so many choices for making new lizardfolk, I could go on for a while.  While I am stopping here for today, I think I am going to go two re-skin Tuesdays in a row and make even more for next week!  Keep an eye out for that and comment with any lizards you think would make good lizardfolk!

Resources For Every DM: Cartography Part 1

It's been a few weeks since we had a Thursday that includes some "actual" resources.  There were couple weeks of reviews and then last week I shared some more games for you RPG groups out there.  Getting back to resources to put on your shelf and add to your bookmarks, I have a new subject to cover: cartography.  Map making is an integral part to RPGs, at least classically.  Dungeons, kingdoms, and worlds all need their layouts and information detailed out paper.  Sometimes it is for the DM to track things, sometimes it is to give the PCs a visual.  Either way maps are a major tool for games today, but not everyone is great at making maps.  Whether you are looking to get better at making them, or looking to get some from those who are, these are some resources for you.

Cartographer's Guild:  This website is a great resource for those looking for anything to do with maps.  A community of mapmakers from the professional to the hobbyists to the amateurs.  There is plenty to get out of the Cartographer's Guild and its forums.  Of course, there are plenty of maps on the site but I also urge you to peruse the forums.  You could find tips, tricks, tutorials, and just simple advice.  Plenty exists there for inspiration and there are the occasional semi-random pieces of information.  For example, right now, I see one of the recent forum topics is Russian naming and someone offering to help with such things.

RPG MapShare:  This is another fantastic site, especially if you are using Roll20, or a similar program, to play your games.  This website has a forum as well, but the biggest benefit of this site is the gallery.  This is one of the best resources I have found for making battle maps.  It is pretty easy to navigate and many of the images can be downloaded in various sizes.  I have to mention that while there are over a thousand images on the site, they are mostly directed towards a fantasy game.  However, there are tons of wilderness maps on there and those are usable for virtually anything.

Dyson's Dodecahedron:  Dyson's blog is a create resource for those who need maps, especially the old school, black and white dungeon maps.  Dyson makes a lot of maps, and I have seen some interesting projects in the G+ communities that he has worked on.  If you are a DM and need some inspiration on how to make simple, but amazing maps, you need to check him out.  He doesn't just do maps, though.  From what I gather he started the blog to make and share characters.  This is definitely a blog worth checking out, and his gallery is truly awesome.  There are dozens upon dozens of maps.  Look through them at your leisure, but don't get lost, you could be there for hours.