Tag Archives: 5e

Worldbuilding – Religion

Last time we made the village of Arcford, today we’re making the religions. Just like when we built the town it’s going to be a little incomplete. We’re just going to focus on the religion and try to sum the organisation (if any) attached to it and flesh those further out when we get to cultures.

Page 10 to 13 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide deals with gods and deities and though I’ll reword some things to fit my own brand of world building there are a few tips in there that are really helpful.

One of which is to look at eight domains and assign each a deity. Death, Knowledge, Life, Light, Nature, Tempest, Trickery and War, with some gods having a foot in two domains. I’d go one step further and specify them just a little more.

Continue reading →

World Building – Villages & Cities

World Building is a messy, messy place and I’ve yet to figure out how to put it in order. Where to start. Some say start with the religion, others say start with a faction or with the map. Personally, I think it’s best to start with a village and make reminders where needed to link to the other facets of world building.

This is going to handle building a village for a long-term world. For one you intend to reuse. If you’re building a town for a one-shot this’ll probably be far too much.

When we’re building a town we have to keep track of quite a few things. First the geological position. Is it a seaside town, is it a trading hub? You can sort of fill these in afterwards. For my example it’s going to be a town by a river in a temperate area. My mind travels to Spain or France. Rich fertile fields rolling in each direction for (almost) as far as the eye can see.

One of the other basics we need to establish is a rough guestimate of the population. Us humans and definitely not mimics are really poor when it comes to large numbers. What does a town of five thousand look like? A town of fifty thousand? I always struggle to imagine so I like to google towns near me to help build a feeling. In this case, my number is 7.000, same as the village I live in so I have a much easier time imagining the scale.

Continue reading →

DMPCs

Back when and where I cut my teeth, MMORPGs, this term really did not come up often. When you were DM’ing a scene your character had to be there. Since the developers of MMOs never really took us roleplayers in account and there were no real tools that we had to our disposal. As such for us to be there, our avatar and our character would have to be there, to run the story. To set the scene. To animate the bad guys (if any).

Yet in TTRPGs we don’t have to and when we do plop down a DMPC it is usually soon to be featured on /r/rpghorrorstories. To say that the consensus is that DMPCs are bad is an understatement. But it certainly does not have to be! There is a simple list, steps and measures you can take to make sure a DMPC can be a safe implement. Whether to fill out a temporary (or not so temporary) vacancy, a device for exposition or just someone, anyone, that knows revivify and has it prepared.

Continue reading →

Ramble: Magic Weapons

In a world where a magical jar can produce near infinite amounts of mayonnaise. In a realm where carpets can fly and your toothbrush may be a mimic. Why the fuck do +1 weapons exist.

I’m not talking about weapons that do a thing and additionally have +1 to hit… that’s fine, I suppose.

I’m talking about that sword of goblin slaying (usually obtained after killing plenty of those) that does 2 points of damage more to goblins and forces you to either come up with another encounter with goblins to make it feel remotely relevant.

Or the magical item shop +1 longbow that’s ‘better than nothing I guess’.

Continue reading →

Homebrewing: Mimics

Today we’re re-tooling the mimic. Make it more interesting because let’s face it. Most 5E standard monsters lack a certain jam, a certain je ne sais quoi. They lack MSG.

First let’s look into the lore that Forgotten Realms provides. Mimics were strange predators that assumed the form of mundane furnishings and household objects in order to attract prey.

In other words an ambush predator.

Behaviour:

Mimics had no concerns beyond surviving and acquiring food. Although some intelligent varieties of mimics were capable of basic communication, they had no culture, no moral code, and no interest in religion. More aggressive mimics could not be reasoned with in any capacity

Doug Stewart, Monstrous Manual as taken from Forgotten Realms
Continue reading →

Gatekeeping and Nuanced Alignment

TTRPGs are like Lego. You buy the system and out of the box it shows you how to build something with it. A reoccurring problem I see is that DMs will take the Lego booklet, build what’s shown or maybe one of the three variations of it and that’s it. It’s done. Not a problem, if that’s the extent of your creativity or maybe you feel attached to a structure written by someone else, fine. Just like with Lego, some people get their box, build the manual and are content. Me? I build the thing that’s depicted on the box, then I smash it up and see what else I can make.

It is becoming a problem when people demand others adhere to the pre-build and can’t see beyond it and that’s something I see a little too often.

Continue reading →

Combat 101: Highwaymen Ambitions

Have you ever been in this situation? You’re running a game and combat starts. There’s the enemy, there’s the party… go. But… the players are only attacking. When the melee gets ‘locked’ in they stay in, movement is left unused. The ranged find their perch, get challenged by the enemy and either skirt away, misty step away and continue their assault.

Slowly as combat continues you find it hard to describe attacks. Things boil down to, “Hit. Miss. Roll damage. Okay. Next.”

Worse yet, some foolish DM’s, absolute idiots will fluff up the creatures HP as a means of balance… which of course… only prolongs the slugfest and is a mistake I may have certainly made.

So here’s a few tips. From me to you. What I found works at my tables / groups / guild, may not at yours. Take what you will, leave a tip if you’ve got ’em.

Continue reading →