Fictions & Fragments

Here's a pitch for a new game setting for D&D I'm working on. First, I recommend you read Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa. I'm enjoying it a lot; it's a fantasy Japan with a lot of great characters and fun over-the-top fantasy. The Dragon's Pool is an Asian-inspired setting that focuses on the mystical and magical. Long-term goals are to zoom out and see the lands of China, Korea, Mongolia and southeast Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia). Short-term, Dragon's Pool will focus on a mythic Japan and the sea that surrounds it. Some of the homebrew topics I'm dealing with are the yokai (monster) races of Kitsune and Tanuki and a lot of mapping D&D Classes and Archetypes to Asian tropes. You can follow along for more and also check out the World Anvil page at https://www.worldanvil.com/w/dragons-pool-hans

Level 0 characters are a topic I didn't know I wanted to write about until @DnDEdition tagged me in a post describing a homebrew approach to Level 0 characters. While I like the creativity they put into their Level 0 character generation process, here are my thoughts on using Level 0 characters. Level 0 character generation Follow the steps described in the Basic Rules/Player's Handbook as follows: Choose a Race skip Choose a Class. Your base Hit Points are 6. Determine Ability Scores Describe Your Character Play the game. Race Your choice of race will influence your Ability Scores and Skills. At Level 0, this can be especially important. A magical Cantrip is a potent spell and a Skill Proficiency is something most characters will not have. If you use Variant Human rules including Feats, you should grant the Feat at this stage. It may not have the same effect for a Level 0 character as for a standard Level 1, but that seems appropriate. Skip Choose a Class T...

OK, last week I had a D&D campaign I wanted. This week saw the release of the Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron, which has just about everything I wanted. The Guide is well done and explicitly calls out examples of races that do not follow the common trope, including 'monstrous' races like gnolls that have working societies and codes of honor. Eberron has also always been great at having a fun level of magic and adventure. I'm excited to read more. I think my idea Eberron campaign would start in a city like Sharn, have a few episodes devoted to city politics and inter-House intrigue with the Dragonmarked Houses, then continue into an exploration arc in an area like Xendrik. From there, I would try to visit on some interesting monster civilizations and return to Sharn for a Dragonmarked House follow-up. There would be elemental airships and lightning rails for sure.

I've had a random shower thought about a D&D homebrew world I'm encouraged to pursue: The world has lived through a generational event- war, followed by extreme isolationism. The humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, and many other races separated themselves from the world, building the strongest fortresses possible. There they guarded their treasures and noble families, securing them against their foes. As time passed, all of these fortresses fell to ruin. There were still people in the world: all the races had their cast-offs and undesired who had been left in the world. Others were conscientious objectors. Some were religious pariahs following ancient traditions. In current times, people live in smaller communities. They have learned to accept one another and band together. The ruins of these ancient fortresses loom over the land. Their ancient traps and spells make them dangerous places to explore. Adventurers are valuable and well-received in the hope that they can make ...

As an idea for starting or fleshing out a campaign, consider using the characters' backgrounds to help you determine the important people and places of your starting campaign setting. Backgrounds are a great tool for describing how characters relate to the game setting, so lean into it and use them to make your initial location matter to your players. Start your game prep with getting your players together and having them make characters. This can be done in person, which is a terrific way to see how people work together and get them comfortable collaborating on story ideas, or online using something like a shared chat. In this example, the key element of the characters will be the Backgrounds. When you're talking over backgrounds with your players, think about how likely they are to be useful in the game. If your game is a one-shot or short campaign, make sure the background will see some use! In a city or town game the Outlander's background feature may not see a l...

Working with an idea for a new D&D campaign, I want to provide lots of freedom for play, allowing players to contribute to the world, but I also want to have a central direction for the story and a drive to play. With that in mind, I want to design a small part of the Rediscovered Land, Shuul, that the characters can immediately access, as well as a small sampling of powers that influence the characters. Worship in the Outlands Everything outside of Shuul. These are the realms known to the characters. In the Outlands, divine worship is common but given little emphasis. Everyone says the name of a deity or deities but few truly believe. Temples are small and tend to be universal, serving as places of worship for many disparate deities. The powers of nature commonly worshiped by druids are known but given grudging respect. Outlanders consider nature a foe to be fought; much of the territory surrounding the Outlands is claimed by dangerous beasts such as dragons. Finally, b...

I've been away from D&D for a while because I've wanted to explore other games and ideas. But I'm back. As a seed for a new campaign, I present the Rediscovered Land. The Rediscovered Land is for a setting that has a little bit of blank space. In ages past, a place called Shuul existed here. Shuul was known for powerful fabulous magics in a time where other civilizations were still primitive. Suddenly and without warning, the land of Shuul disappeared from the world. Now, thousands of years later, Shuul has returned. Why is unclear. Most of the land is surrounded by powerful magical barriers that prevent scrying or entry. There is a single port where a few disinterested officials allow outlanders to trade with a variety of merchants and make their way inland. The merchants have wonders that are found nowhere else in the world but they have little interest in the currency of the outlanders. The people of Shuul are very different. They live lives deeply connect...

After a fun conversation with my friend Allison (@moonstruckmaid) I started thinking about a cyberpunk mod for D&D 5e. It has a fair amount of crunch like Shadowrun and I think that cyberpunk would do well with a level-based system. Concept 1: Character classes modded from D&D 5e More on this soon, but in short, mod the classes to reflect a cyberpunk setting. Concept 2: Characters exist in an Augmented Reality (AR) version of the world that replaces reality. No one walks around outside of AR; doing so is a cultural taboo. Therefore, the incredible effects of hackers that mimic spells are a part of the reality people experience. Additionally, the disconnect between physical meat people and cyber avatars makes cultural norms change. Concept 3: Cyber death is a result of system shock in AR. When a person's avatar is destroyed, they find themselves locked out of the System, trapped in meatspace. This is potentially deadly in real life because there are no offline service...