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Worldbuilding Magazine: Mapping Aurora - An RPG Case Study

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Volume 2 / Issue 5 : Cartography & Navigation- Visit their site to read the full issue

Mapping Aurora: An RPG Case Study

by Cathy, the Overprepared GM

When I built my world, I started smallish, fleshing out a single culture and lavishing attention on the national map. I took the time to get the scale right, establishing a travel time of ten days as a constraint first. With that number decided, I mixed in my desired historical influences, extrapolated the physical geography, determined the population distribution, and finally set the political boundaries.

I also created smaller maps for specific adventures. The city map for the capital helped the players hunt down a missing nobleman in the campaign kick off session. The hill fort map allowed the players to investigate the mystery at the heart of the first major adventure. The blueprints for the ominous keep organized the dungeon crawl in the heart of the fens. After I had fleshed out all the low-level cartography, I moved outward, firming up the neighboring nations so that they could explore more advanced stories involving international travel, exploration, and politics.

It was easy to figure out what maps to create and what to put on each of them, because traditional maps are such a well-explored space in terms of information design. If my players are traveling or discussing things on the national level, I can just open any atlas and see that the big national maps have national and district boundaries, settlements, natural features, roads, and other points of interest. If my players are adventuring in a settlement, I can look at city maps to see that they have elements like important buildings, streets, districts, and waterways. If they need to see how a building of any size is laid out, I know that it needs to be organized by floor and depict rooms, walls, hallways, doors, and major furniture.

Regardless of scale, maps always serve a few broad functions:

Navigation. They show points of interest as well as navigational routes so that players can plan where they’re going and how they’ll get there. Depending on the scale, the routes and points of interest may be anything from wormholes and planets to hallways and rooms.

Reference. They act as a reference for important locations that the player needs to remember. By displaying it visually, a good map can indicate relationships, improve memory, and give details about what each element is. For example, cities, mountains, rivers, forests, monuments, etc. all have established conventions for how to show them.

Atmosphere. A good map also evokes a clear sense of place. For example, a player will have a sense for terrain when they see that their path takes them through a mountain ridge. They may have to hike through a tumbled set of foothills, scale an inaccessible and ice-capped top of the world, or traverse an unexplored jungle menaced with active volcanoes. Perhaps the players only have to tread a well-traveled trade road with inns and villages along the way. The map helps the group feel immersed in the world and roleplay better. They can look at it and make their own choices about which path to take and what preparation they need to make before setting off. Players can anticipate the types of challenges they’ll encounter and the amount of time it will take. Maps also help me stay consistent with how I present the world to the players.

As long as I only needed to chart a world with geography similar to ours, the cartography remained straightforward.  It wasn��t trivial, mind you, but the challenge was in doing it well, not in figuring out how cartography works from first principles. However, my campaign planning for later levels had them traveling beyond their home plane. I needed maps for higher level adventures that filled these same roles in navigation, reference, and atmosphere that blueprints and national atlases had in lower levels.

This expansion into the multiverse challenged my cartographic skills. I wanted the planes to truly feel different from each other, with locations in each world that simply couldn’t exist in the others. But that meant I was creating some really bizarre planes.  I needed to start from those fundamental principles of design and figure out how to apply them to new circumstances.

Fluidity

The first issue I wrestled with was the fundamental nature of Aurora, a plane dominated by the goddess of spring, youth, the arts, and inspiration. Since birds were sacred to her, I decided to make it a plane of air with flying denizens. I imagined floating islands with localized gravity whose buildings and streets encircled giant boulders.  The roots and branches of epiphyte trees gnarled together to form giant, floating cloud forests. Migratory flocks of alien creatures shaped like blimps and squids and jellyfish traveled long circuits between the cloud forests. In between areas of no or light gravity were sinks of higher gravity, pulling in accumulations of detritus over time. Technological cultures harnessed kinetic energy by using things comparable to waterwheels or windmills. Native species all fly, float, or cling with ease, and even human visitors could float clumsily from place to place. And winding through it all were the jet streams, unceasing wind that would push everything in regular paths. Travel from place to place within Aurora would involve both moving within a jetstream and hopping from one stream to another.

For my players to travel through the fluid space of Aurora, they would need a useful map. I ran into an immediate problem while planning: I wasn’t sure how to draw locations that changed relative to each other. National boundaries didn’t make as much sense in a place where everything moves. How could I depict the political organization of people without political boundaries? I started by trying to find real-world analogs of maps that dealt with air currents and then started thinking about other fluids, hoping to get new ideas.

I found one common approach that I called the colored, vector-lines approach, such as this picture of the Jet stream or this one of ocean currents. It shows location, direction, temperature, and strength of the currents by using colors and arrows. The visual worked and it’s an established approach (so I’d have lots of examples to learn from), but I think I prefer this image created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which uses what I termed the flat-ribbon style. This approach shows location, direction, and temperature, and the simplification makes the overall flow much easier to grasp.

As much as I love JPL’s approach, it still was not quite what I needed. As with all graphics of currents, this one focuses on showing the currents with respect to the landforms around them. This indication is crucial on Earth because that’s how we establish context for location. And location is why we use maps. However, I was trying to depict a world that has no landforms, so I needed to remember that JPL design and keep looking for ideas.

My search lead me to gas giants projections, like this flattened one of Jupiter, which is comparable to a mercator projection of Earth.  Unlike with Earth however, it shows that the structure of Jupiter is composed of bands of currents. Jupiter’s winds aren’t influenced by landforms, so their structure is formed by the spherical shape of the planet, the force of gravity, and the Coriolis effect. That made sense to me as a way to envision Aurora. I could see it as a world with disjunct air currents that have rough, turbulence between them. Technologically savvy cultures could set up windmills along the borders, utilizing the constant relative wind as a source of unending energy. I could show each band as a self-contained linear graphic. Political boundaries would take place naturally within bands, but some empires might colonize into nearby bands the way Earth empires have had colonies in different continents.

Seeing the Eye of Jupiter also gave me the idea to put similar giant storms in Aurora. They would form an almost impassable obstacle in a band. The truly colossal ones might push the turbulent boundary outward, compressing everything nearby so that the currents would flow fast and narrow for many layers of neighboring regions.

The bands would travel at different velocities, so if I wanted to set specific speeds for each one, I could figure out the interval between the alignment of each pair. As a GM though, I probably wouldn’t do it. If they needed to go from a place on one band to a place in another band, I would just decide on the spot how long it takes for those locations to line up again, based on where I want the story to go.

With those decisions made, I had an approach for drawing a map (disjunct, flat bands of different lengths that connected east-west) and the list of elements for which I needed iconography:

Turbulence regions

Storms

Cloud forests

Boulders (including those with settlements)

Free-floating settlements

Gravity-induced collection spots (and a way to indicate strength.)

Then it occurred to me that, in a plane of air, points of interest could float at different altitudes. In fact, entire bands could overlap, flowing at different heights and winding among each other like individual noodles in a bowl of spaghetti. And that’s the next complicating factor.

Overlapping Altitudes

The more I considered the problem of depth and altitude, the more I realized I was going to have to deal with it in a number of situations. Normally maps are projections.  They take the surface area of a three-dimensional object and spread it flat so you see the entire surface at once, even if you stretch or squish parts of the surface or make cuts to spread it out. Imagine the surface of Earth being a skin, and we just take it off the world and lay it flat, taking the surface of the sphere and spreading it onto a flat planar area. In a typical map projection, we ignore anything above or below that skin.

However, with Aurora I was looking at a situation where I really needed all three dimensions. On any given latitude and longitude, there might be a handful of different points of interest at different altitudes. In a typical world, they’d be above the "skin", and I would ignore them. For Aurora, there was no skin.  There were just the immense overlapping air currents piled on top of each other and winding like a nest of serpents. If I flattened it like a typical projection, points of interest would overlap, turning the map into a confusing mess.

So I tried to think of other situations where people dealt with three-dimensional objects in a two-dimensional way and ended up finding a lot of different approaches. Some of the more useful image types were blueprints, engineering drawings, subway lines, cutaway views, and exploded view images. Jet stream diagrams helped me understand the height issue as well, because what’s going on in the upper atmosphere isn’t always the same as what’s on the ground.

I got lost down the rabbit hole looking at various images, but eventually I extracted some overarching principles. As far as I could see, people take a few useful approaches when trying to depict three dimensions onto a flat drawing.

First, if there isn’t too much overlapping, draw it like a two-dimensional map, but use color, shadow, or iconography to indicate depth (for example, the Jet Stream example or this graphic of the Norwegian Current). I think this approach works best if depth is the most important thing depicted, and the rest of the information can be simplified. Otherwise, the depth/altitude information becomes hard to notice. If Aurora didn’t have many types of natural geography or had only one or two great currents winding their way through a static airscape, that might work, but I envisioned something a lot more dynamic. So, reluctantly, I let this idea go.

Second, depict it as a 3-D cutaway drawing, such as this drawing of a nuclear reactor or this one of skin. I think if the map were narrow enough that each longitudinal point only had space to fit a couple points of interest, then this would work. Drawing it well would take some serious skills and time on task, which I wasn’t sure I could devote, so I put the idea in my pocket and moved on.

Third, divide altitude into discrete layers and deal with them separately. That’s what blueprints do, such as this one of Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, where each story is self-contained. If I divided the currents into layers of different altitudes, I could do a similar treatment for Aurora. The drawback is that sometimes it’s a little tough to see how the layers overlap, a problem I could ameliorate by drawing or printing out the different layers in transparency film. Then, I could look at each layer independently or stack them on top of each other as needed to see how one would line up with another if the player wanted to travel between layers.

The Multiverse

I had a plan for drawing my planes, but then I ran into another problem: how to depict the overall multiverse itself. When my players travel from one plane to the next, they would need to be able to plan their routes. They would need the interplanar equivalent of a roadmap. For a single world, I have a very good idea of how travel works because I do it all the time. I understand what information is useful to have on a map for someone going from place to place. I wasn't sure exactly what would be best for interplanar travel, however. So again, I started with a bit of research, Googling terms like “multiverse map” and “map of the planes” and looking at images those searches brought up.

Most multiverse graphics focused on acting as a cosmological reference—using design to show what planes exist and, if possible, how they’re related to each other. They seemed to be less like geographic maps and more like Venn or network diagrams. This approach seemed useful as a reference and to establish atmosphere, but it seemed fairly useless for navigation. Of course, I couldn’t resist creating a cosmological reference graphic anyway, though I wasn’t sure it would really help my players if they wanted to really understand how to travel around the planes.

Then I started combing through my information design books and websites to see if some other, non-map design might have been applicable. I looked through a cornucopia of graphs, charts, tables, layouts, and designs too specialized to have gotten an official name, but in doing so, I realized I needed to figure out the details of how interplanar travel worked before I tried to conceptualize an information design for it.

Interplanar Travel

After some deep thought, I decided to split interplanar travel into three categories.

Poofing: I call the first category of interplanar travel the poof method, because they go “poof”, just like that. Feel free to refer to this by a more dignified name. Using the poof method, the characters can instantly travel from an arbitrary location in one plane to a location of their choosing in a different plane. I mean, they may experience some time passing, but for all intents and purposes, they just magically teleport. Examples of the poof method include using the Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz, the Tardis from Doctor Who, or the Gate spell in D&D. If interplanar travel depends on poofing from place to place, then the players only need to have maps of the individual planes and some sort of cosmological reference. They don’t need any sort of map analog to traverse the multiverse.

Portals: Using portals, there are specific places in each world that are connected to specific places in other worlds. They may be called conjunctions, coterminous planes, wormholes, doorways, gates, or some other term. For cartographic purposes, they’re all the same. These portals are part of the plane’s geography. If the portal is open or active, then travel through it is very much like teleporting with the poof method. The key difference is that players need a visual depiction of how the portals connect to each other to help them navigate. In particular, they need to be able to tell where the portals are in their plane of origin and where they connect to in their destination plane. I think flight maps, similar to what airlines have, serve as the best analog in designing a useful atlas for navigation with portals. They show all their flights as curved lines overlaying a world map. The difference is that in a multiverse with portal travel, we’d need lines to connect points on disjunct world maps.

Subspace: In this scenario, characters travel by going into portals, but travel through the portal is not instantaneous. Instead, they enter a different place (I’m calling it subspace) that must itself be navigated in order to arrive at their destination. Subspace can have very different physical rules than the other planes, but all planes are connected to it somehow. Examples might be the Spire from Planescape or the Ena from Andrea Host’s Touchstone series or the Never Never from Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. Mechanically, this is a special case of portals where the connections all go in and out of a single world. However designing a navigational aid for subspace is a different design problem than doing so for a set of portals. Since everything goes through one area, and that area is not itself a destination, then it’s more useful to use a subway map as an analogy. Players will need a good reference of possible portal stations that connect the other planes to the subspace and enough geographic info of the subspace to navigate from portal to portal.  They won’t need a full atlas of the subspace, but have to understand enough to choose routes. Now, subway maps are problematic because they heavily simplify the design. This makes it easier to read,but the increased legibility comes at a cost of geographic realism. Since subway riders only need to know which stops to use, distance and direction can be distorted far more than in regular maps. It’s a design approach that many people will be familiar with, but requires judicious handling.

After some contemplation, I decided to use the subspace approach to interplanar travel. Players enter a separate subspace, Aeon, and have to navigate around that before exiting to a new plane. It can also act as a way to take shortcuts if they’re clever, connecting two places that are distant from each other by a shorter path in Aeon.

Bringing that back to Aurora, that meant that in addition to adding portal locations to the map of Pandora (the original world my characters started in) and Aurora (the plane of air), I would have to create a separate map showing Aeon.  It would initially focus on the portals and land between them. I could add lines connecting portals within Aeon to those on other planes. Eventually, if the stations and lines filled enough of the space, it might make sense to make a full Aeon atlas, but it’s more likely that we’d finish the campaign before we got that far.

The Takeaway

You may or may not want to use Aurora. However, if you decide to chart your own multiverse, here are some common lessons to keep in mind.

Cartography and Information Design are fascinating fields developed by smart folks. If you’re creating something new, it’s useful to look around and see what other people have created to deal with similar constraints. Take the time to nail down what you’re trying to show before you try to design for it.

The Purpose of Maps in RPGs can be boiled down to:

Navigation: helping players understand how to get from place to place.

Reference: because looking up all the places and how they relate to each other is easier with a picture than a list.

Atmosphere: to associate qualities or characteristics to places.

Airscape Icons can mostly be the same as iconography from more traditional atlases. Floating cities are still cities, after all, though some features require new icons:

Turbulence regions

Storms

Epiphyte forests

Areas of heavy or differing gravity

Relative wind speed or cycle length (the time it takes a current to make a full cycle through its path)

Vacuum or pressure difference

Fluid planes are ones where the points of interest move in relation to each other. One approach might be to envision them either as jet streams or currents moving among stable points. Another might be to visualize them acting like gas giants with the entire airscape banded by currents moving at different velocities and separated by a turbulent transition. In either case, it’s useful to draw one map that shows all the bands and how they relate to each other physically. Then, draw each band separately as its own graphic (the same way we label cities on a world map) and create separate city maps. Fluid planes may be dominated by air, gas, or water.

Planes with altitude are those where different natural geographies may exist at each two-dimensional point. If there is little overlap, it may be possible to draw this as a more traditional, two-dimensional map and just indicate depth or altitude by color, line, or iconography. If there is a lot of overlap, then this traditional 2-D style is not practical. Instead, the most workable design organizes the world into layers at different depths. For a water world, those layers may include a surface layer, photic zone, and aphotic zone. An arboreal world may include layers like the canopy, understory, surface, and root zones, while an underground world’s layers may simply serve as depth indicators.

Cosmological charts are a useful reference to know what planes exist and how they relate to each other thematically, but they generally do little to help players navigate.

Portal maps show how different planes connect to each other through portals. They are similar to flight maps in the real world. If interplanar travel always goes through a special space that is not a destination of itself, then it may be practical to create something like a simplified subway map to help players navigate between worlds.

Worldbuilding Magazine is a bi-monthly publication which covers a variety of worldbuilding topics. You can visit their website and read full issues here. Make sure to join their Discord or follow them on twitter for the latest news or to talk with the team that creates it. Nerdolopedia is a proud partner of Worldbuilding Magazine.

Cover Image by Tristen Fekete

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Diversity in Roleplaying Games and Entertainment

Cultures and People are complicated. This isn’t hard to recognize when there are entire studies of science focused on this subject. We are really hard to understand. Thanks to several factors we are also widely diverse. Humans have entire spectrums of different traits, beliefs, and personalities. This, sadly, ends up driving conflict and also driving people apart, sometimes creating rifts that are difficult to mend.

For a long time, I have been putting off the idea of writing an article on diversity in roleplaying games. This was not because I didn’t believe it was a necessary topic. In fact, I believe the exact opposite. I believe this is a topic that we absolutely must tackle, and possibly one of the most important topics of our time. I resisted writing this because I am a straight white male. I did not feel as if I had anything to offer that people would want to hear. Then, while at GenCon 2018, I miraculously found myself sitting on a panel specifically about diversity in roleplaying games. So, guess I can’t use that excuse anymore.

Before I dive too far into some of the nuances and directions that I believe we should be taking with diversity, I feel it necessary to clear up some terminology. Because the fact of the matter is, diversity is a core feature of role playing games with character customization. The fact that you can change features and traits of your character is exactly what diversity is, a range of different things in this case features and traits. There is a keyword in all that: range. For anyone who has taken a math class ever will know that ranges come in different sizes. So, when people are asking for more diversity in games, they are asking for a wider range of options. Funnily enough, this is what inclusion is all about. So to keep things simple when I talk about diversity and inclusion, I will more or less be using them interchangeably.

Diversity at Your Table

A hard fact for some to swallow is that what you do at your table is between everyone who shows up at that table. What topics you choose to tackle, how inclusive you want to be, all of it is entirely up to you. However, if you like being a decent person, you will need to be more aware of the differences that people have, especially of those you have at your table. If you never play for more than your super exclusive club of individuals, feel free to ignore anything I say. I don’t play at your table.

Educating

It is said that there is no cure for stupidity, and that is 100% wrong. The cure for stupidity is education. A year ago I had only a notion of understanding about the LGBT+ community. It wasn’t until it started to become a much more relevant topic in my life (the slow accumulation of LGBT+ friends) that I actually started working harder to understand it. I have done everything I can to try to get terms right and change my own habits. And yes, I have messed up. I do it even today sometimes with pronouns. It’s not that I don’t respect them, it's that what I was raised with and what is correct were not exactly the same. I have to make an effort to change the pre-existing assumptions that come without thinking. I have to change my habits. I have had a great group to help educate me on these subjects, if you want to learn more feel free to reach out to Nerdolopedia and ask questions. There are some truly inspiring and understanding people that are within this group.

Now, this does not excuse me from getting things incorrect. It's my duty as a community member to work at getting this right and learn for future encounters. It is also the duty of every community member to educate its members in the correct terminology; open communications before jumping to conclusions. Not everyone is getting it wrong on purpose. It can be easy to let emotions lose and get angry, I’ve done it myself. People have been hurt over this stuff, and some emotions are inevitable but speaking with emotion is not always the right path to bettering a situation. Sometimes just stating the correction can lead to more clarity and less conflict than attacking with emotion.

The Public Table

The moment you start to stream, record, or run a game for the general public, say like at a convention or on twitch, you cannot ignore being inclusive at your table. You have no idea who is going to be sitting down and consuming the game that you are playing. At a convention, you might get people of very different walks of life, and being exclusive can cause people to walk away from the table and possibly ruin the experience for everyone.

With streams, YouTube, and podcasts your game will also contribute to the pool of media that people consume throughout their lives. The messages and characters you have will speak volumes to your opinions on diversity and inclusion. For both good and ill, media has a huge impact on our society as a whole. For a positive example, we can look to the show Star Trek. While science fiction has always pushed us to great heights of inspiration, Star Trek brought much of it to the public eye. Without Star Trek much of the direction of modern technology wouldn’t be quite the same, or if it was it would be inspired by something else. The “flip phone” and the push of wireless technology is one way in which it impacted our society. There are so many other examples of how media influences society that several courses could be made on the topic.

Change is not instant. Societies usually take time to fully adopt changes to the status quo. By more individuals adopting and representing ideals that they hold, the more commonplace it becomes. Over time, this becomes the new status quo, the change has been normalized. This is why active support from public figures is so important for different movements, it validates the movement and pushes it towards being the norm.

Why Diversity is Good

Up until this point, you might have noticed my severe lack of taking a stance on the topic of diversity. To give you a more concrete answer, I believe that far more diversity in our games creates a lot of good. At the same time, I believe that the diversity we include has to be believable to the situation and used with a subtle hand in order to highlight the amazing differences that exist. Too little diversity and everything is flat, too much diversity and the things that make individuals special starts to lose their meaning. This isn’t to say that I think certain groups need to be excluded; just that consideration needs to be made with how you use it.

In nature, having a wide variety of genes is actually super beneficial. Mutations in genes start to create specializations, sometimes even branching out into different niches. This is natural selection where species with traits unsuited to the environment die off and those with traits suited to the environment survive and pass on their genes. This is NOT “survival of the fittest” but actually just “survival of the fit”, all groups of species fit to survive do so and continue the cycle.

“Okay Jake, what the hell? We were talking about diversity and now you start going into crazy stuff about evolution, and I know this leads to some incredibly racist stuff!” Well, no actually. The last part of my previous paragraph should point out where I’m going. The basis of this is that all species that manage to survive do. They are not superior in any way to each other, just are just suited to their particular niches. This is why I love human beings. We have managed to evolve in different locations and environments all over our world. Our bodies have adapted to the various climates our ancestors lived in. This is also where our fantasy races come in. Those racial abilities and traits you see are supposed to be a model for this. Elves developed better eyesight and are more dexterous while Dwarves are stronger and resistant to being poisoned (thanks to alcohol). The differences that developed in these fantasy races are not reason to be separated but instead embraced. After all, who knows when an adventure will require a tightrope walk or a drinking contest. Just like having people of various skills and knowledge is beneficial for any real world team, diversity allows for adaptability to challenges. It’s the same reason the Dwarves in “The Hobbit” came to hire Bilbo. They needed someone stealthier than a Dwarf could be.

What about variations in personalities, sexual orientation, gender (not sex, and yes they are different), and disabilities, why are these good to include? Well, because in the real world these are variations that exist. Not including variations in these things will actually make your world feel less real, and not in a good way. If you had a fantasy world where everyone had the same personality then it's not going to feel like a real place. We are captivated by fantasy realms that feel real. Increasing the diversity within these spaces will increase the depth of how real it is and therefore increase engagement. Anything that increases engagement in entertainment is almost always a good thing. As a Dungeon Master, I actually have tables for nearly all of the variations in personality, gender, and sexual orientation (yes I know I’m missing disabilities, but I’ll get to that later). I can pick and choose which ones I want if I think one will fit better with a character, but when making up characters on the fly a table for these things are great. Especially so when the player’s inevitably try to seduce the NPC, you want to know if they are even going be into that sort of thing.

Races, Ethnicities, and Cultures

Upon first writing this section, I got into learning some ideas I didn’t know existed. I had started by going into some definitions and doing my normal thing of elaborating from there. That works, assuming that my definitions are correct. The debate on what the definition of race is and isn’t in our society is a topic I simply am not equipped to properly address. It requires far more attention than the two weeks of study that I have to write this article on top of a seperate full-time job. For the purposes of this article and because of how many tabletop games refer to them, I will be using the term race to define what is scientifically called a species. So Humans is a race. So are Elves. All this is categorizing is the general physical characteristics that make up that race. For example Elves have a longer lifespan than Dwarves, but Dwarves have resistance to being poisoned.

Using this terminology when people are asking for diversity at the table they are not just asking to include different races, they are asking to including ethnicities. See on planet Earth we have a wide range of ethnicities, this should be obvious if you have ever picked up a history textbook or watched the news. Yeah people are happy to see people play more than just humans, but most of the time they don’t want to see an entire cast of pale skinned folk. Representation is important, especially in a culture that has a history of marginalizing people because of the ethnic group they belong to. In my opinion ethnicity shouldn’t be given mechanical benefits, as this then starts to bring the discussion of balance into the mix. Let’s face it, no system is perfectly balanced. So making different ethnicities a mechanical change just opens an even worse can of worms.

I don’t want to, however, mix ethnicity and culture. Ethnicity is part of your ancestry, often tied to a geographic location, language, shared history, or shared culture. However culture is just the social norms of a group of people. Cultures can also overlap. For example you can be a part of the “American” culture but also show differences within it. For example people in the Midwest have a difference in culture than those in the Pacific Northwest. Within each of those are a wide array of different ethnicities.

To date, I can’t think of any roleplaying game that gets race and culture right. D&D, in my opinion, does not get enough into the cultures. The background mechanic (which is shockingly forgotten quite often) is the closest D&D has, but it only offers more of the profession rather than the overarching culture that person is from. Which makes sense when you notice that while D&D does have a setting, it’s actually an amorphous setting. It’s not a totally generic setting as there is difficulty running a modern superhero story using D&D but it can be fudged if needed. How this system fails is language. Why wouldn’t an Elf being raised in a Dragonborn society not have a chance to learn Draconic?

Meanwhile, on the other spectrum is the Lord of the Rings RPG which includes zero races and only cultures. This surprised me at first considering that Lord of the Rings for certain has unique races. It assumes that if you are in a specific culture that you are of a specific race. That works just fine for Tolkien’s world of everyone staying in their own homes and being completely xenophobic, but only for that setting. The only way I can see race and culture being properly represented is by using a roleplaying game system that is used for one setting. At the time of writing I haven’t found one so please feel free to leave a comment or message me if you know of a system that tackles this problem better than the two I have listed here.

A case could be made to cut out mechanics for them entirely and have every race and culture work exactly the same. In some cases this works, however for some narratives this completely kills the reality of coming from different backgrounds. If you have carved stone all your life because you live underground with dwarves, then having that bonus to stone identification when it finally comes up is really rewarding.

Cultures Mix

I respect Tolkien for his contributions to Fantasy, however I also cannot help but dislike some of the themes that come from his stories. Before the hardcore Tolkien fan’s rip on me, I know that his world is very in depth, but a lot of the surface elements of his work have permeated into the public mind especially with the movies. My least favorite thing about the Lord of the Rings has largely been how little diversity is shown in the cultures that are explored throughout the movies (and maybe books, I’m only halfway through). Elven cities have elves, Dwarven cities have dwarves, and Human cities have humans, period. In almost none of the scenes do they show elves living among humans, or human bones along with the dwarven bones, it’s all very distant. In a world where all these people exist is this to say that no one ever moved anywhere and that everyone is so isolationist that they kick out anyone who isn’t of their race? If that is the case, then I’m not sure I believe Middle-Earth could even remotely exist even if all the magic and different races did exist.

People travel. We have to in order to survive, but sometimes we travel because we like to. Sometimes we do it because we go to war, or our own country is at war. I’m going to demonstrate this with a fairly simplified example. Let's assume we have two nations: the Human Empire, and the Elven Republic. Let’s assume that the Human Empire, at the start of this example is 100% comprised of humans, and that the Elven Republic is 100% comprised of elves. We will assume this for simplicity sake using the idea that the area of these two nations have the climate and habitat suited for these two distinct peoples.

Now, let’s assume that the Human Empire gets attacked by a third nation that we will call Orcadia. Let’s assume they are 100% comprised of Orcs.

When Orcadia attacks the Human Empire, some of its people may flee. Some to other parts of its own empire, some to the neighboring Elven Republic. The amount of people who can enter the Elven Republic depends on how accepting the Elven Republic is of refugees and the Elven Republics ability to keep out those people if they don’t want them. For the sake of the example, we will assume they are indifferent to begin with.

With this one event people have already moved. The Elven Republic is no longer 100% Elves. At the same time, the war between Orcadia and the Human Empire stops. Either Orcadia is driven away or a peace treaty was made. Some of the invading forces may abandon their previously stated home. Maybe some Orcs switched sides to help the Humans in their fight, or decided that they liked the new country and instead chose to move to it. Now the Human Empire is not 100% humans either. This is all from just one event.

The now displaced people who have chosen to stay where they are, maybe because a generation has passed since the war, want the comforts from their old home. For this, let’s say they want potatoes (because potatoes are amazing and you can’t change my mind). To get them they start to trade. Merchant’s travel between borders to deliver potatoes from their homelands. While they are there they sell potatoes to the other inhabitants of the land, getting Elves interested in their potatoes. Then more traders begin to go between the nations, some deciding they like the other nation more than the nation they currently call home so they move. Maybe they move because they see a chance for a better life than their previous home.

Over long periods of time various outside influences causes people to move from their original homes. Maybe some humans in the Elven Republic get better trained with bows, while humans and elves mate creating half-elves. Having a Human raised in a once predominantly Elven nation will still retain their biological traits of being Human, but adopt different skills and maybe even some personality traits from the Elven culture.

And now, back to complaining about Tolkien. My reasoning for why I think the races are so segregated being so unrealistic is because of the above model. While its simplified, the fact that in Middle-Earth some trade and even wars being shared somehow resulted in no mingling of the human and elven nations. In their fight against the Dark Lord, after they won they put down their weapons, went their separate ways, and continued to be completely separated societies. The only place showcased to have any amount of mingling was in Bree with both hobbits and humans living together. With the elves however no such thing occurred, with the exception of maybe Elrond letting some people chill at his place for a little while.

However, I do have to give Tolkien some credit, and that is the resistance of travel. Some people in Middle-Earth had never seen a Hobbit before or had only heard of them. While I think this is extreme, this does hold some merit. Going back to our “nations” example, let’s rewind time to when Orcadia invaded the Human Empire. Let’s assume we have one more nation, Dwarftopia, that is 100% Dwarven and it is on the far side of the Elven Republic. During the invasion a majority of the people leaving the Human Empire would flee to the Elven Republic. However, some might not stop, some might keep going until they hit Dwarftopia. Just like earlier, the actual rate in which people enter Dwarftopia is based on how isolationist they are and how well they can actually keep people out. Let’s assume that they are stubborn and don’t want any refugees. Since the distance to get to Dwarftopia is so much further it is unlikely that anyone would actually be able to enter as Dwarftopia only has to keep out a handful of people.

Fast forward again to when the populations of the Elven Republic and the Human Empire are now more mingled. As the distance of people traveling becomes shorter, it becomes easier for people to get where they want to go. Let’s assume a potato famine hits the Elven Republic and people start trying to leave. With the potato famine also hitting the Human Empire, the Elven Republic has nowhere to go but Dwarftopia to avoid the famine. Now Dwarftopia is going to have a much harder time keeping out all the people trying to enter their nation.

The resistance of travel is not only determined by distance, but also the environment. An ocean between two nations has a huge resistance when transoceanic travel has not been invented. Technology will inevitably decrease this resistance making it easier for people to travel through areas that were far more difficult. Even just inventing the wheel will reduce this resistance. Maybe I can’t complain too much about Middle-Earth without knowing every detail about it, but at least it gave us something to talk about.

It’s Not Just People That Move

In my examples up until this point I have only been really using different races to define how populations become diverse even if natural selection made them start less diverse. In reality, my example was far more on the extreme side, but it was done so to simulate very specific ideas and how people get intermingled. Populations start out far more diverse and it’s not until you get into a small group that you really start to see isolated ideas like the Human Empire or Elven Republic were representing. It also was not meant to be just about races. You could swap out races for culture, cuisines, technologies, religions, etc. When people move so do their ideas and ways of life. The more accepting other cultures are of the traveling ideas and people the more diverse they will become and as I pointed out earlier, diversity gives adaptability.

A real world example of how powerful accepting new ideas can be is seen with the Mongol Empire under the rule of Genghis Khan. Under his rule, instead of killing everyone he defeated, he gave them the opportunity to join them (assuming they weren’t leadership). He accepted them into his growing empire and allowed them religious freedoms. Controlling the Silk Road they gained access to a great number of ideas and technologies, giving those who passed through safety assuming they paid taxes. Now, it's a lot more complicated than this and a lot more nuance but it shows how giving people the freedom to be themselves can increase your own strength.

Disabilities in Roleplaying

Up to this point, I have primarily been talking about the inclusion of people of different races, personalities, and cultures. When I started out thinking on this topic that was what had been the focus of my attention. It was not until that panel at GenCon that an audience member asked about how we include disabilities in our games that I realized there was an entire area I had been neglecting. My instinct was to say “well when magical healing is a thing how would there be disabilities” but that answer is incredibly one dimensional and totally not true.

Magic requires resources, at least it does in D&D, and that means that even if it does exist there will be individuals out there that cannot afford to obtain those resources. Even in high magic societies, while the number of disabled people may be lower, that doesn’t mean it will be entirely gone. For any self respecting world builder, one has to take this into consideration. How much magic does your world have? What are its limits? How do these things affect those who cannot get the magic to just make their disabilities disappear? This, however, is just tackling how magic affects the disabled, physically or mentally. What about mundane solutions? While saving up for the magical solution to say be able to walk again, would it be easier to get an item that grants you other movement that will compensate for the disability. These are questions I have been tackling in a set of supplement rules I have been working on for some time. I will be talking more on this subject in some future articles.

So, how is it best to represent someone with a disability at our table. The best solution in my personal opinion is for a player to create a character with a disability. This allows the game to tackle the challenges of being a person with a disability. For a recent example, I played a character who was soul-bound to an awakened Raven. The pair were Raveneye and Domino, Domino being the Raven. They had a telepathic bond and so they could communicate with each other. However, I had written it so that Raveneye was completely mute. When Domino was around Raveneye could communicate to the party because Domino would say everything for Raveneye. On multiple occasions, however, Domino left the party to scout or find an individual, leaving Raveneye with the party unable to speak. This challenged me as a player to figure out how to properly communicate without using words and the interesting ways I took to the challenge. I also didn’t make it easier on me that I made Raveneye illiterate, so I literally could not spell out what he was trying to say.

Disabilities are beyond the physical body as well. Mental disabilities arguably impact people more heavily than physical ones. This should be represented in a way that is not all that different from how we represent physical disabilities, only the challenges to overcome are different and often can be more varied. Feel free to talk with your Game Master about possibly including mechanical elements based on certain triggers. An example of this is in Critical Role where Liam’s character, Caleb, has a form of PTSD. Whenever he kills something with fire Matt Mercer makes him make a saving throw to avoid triggering an episode. Do your research when choosing to include a mental disability as they are commonly misunderstood.

For DM’s, including characters who have a disability is another great way to give representation. The key is to not just make it a character quirk, but something that is a part of who they are. Make it be a part of their personal story, and if the party figures out a way to cure the character of their disability what impact does it have on the character? Bake ways society assists those with a disability directly into your world. In our everyday lives, we see handicap ramps and probably don’t even consciously think about why they are there, we just know. When we build up a world, we sometimes forget these minor details. Wouldn’t a house of healing have a ramp and railings? If a character is disabled how does that change their home, dungeon or otherwise?

Sensitive Diversity

People are not stereotypes. This means when we create characters that expand into the territories of diversification that we do not make them a walking stereotype. Gay men don't hit on any guy they see any more than straight men hit on every girl they see, they have tastes and sensibilities like everyone else. At the same time, you don’t want to just make them a carbon copy of everyone else. Different people have had different stories, and that needs to be taken into consideration in your world building and NPC creation. If you do voices, look up how to actually do the accents and not just go with the stereotype, doubly so if you plan on playing anyone with a mental disorder. Putting effort into the authenticity of people will make your work stand out and not just be a combination of every stereotype in the book, it will give depth and immersion into your world. This sensitivity is not because people are hypersensitive “snowflakes”, its because it is just plain respectful. If you mess something up, try harder and apologize if you did hurt someone’s feelings. If you don’t think they should be offended take a step back. It’s not up to you to decide if you made someone hurt or embarrassed especially when they’ve already gone out of their comfort zone to try and talk to you about it. This is a thing we call “caring about others”.

A Look into the Drow

You also need to take careful consideration when you put diverse people in your world and create cultures for them. What you choose can say a lot and sometimes have the wrong impact. When you are creating a society, race, etc. ask someone to read it over for sensitivity, otherwise you might end up with something like the drow. For those not familiar with the drow, they are the evil race of dark elves, with black skin and white hair.

Now, I love the Dungeons & Dragons team over at Wizards of the Coast, they are a truly sensitive and inclusive group of individuals who want to make their game accessible to everyone. However, they carry a lot of baggage from older editions and changes that have been made over the years. The drow are one of these pieces of baggage that I wish they would change. Yes, there are entire stories and many, many player characters that have made “good” drow, but those are deviations from the norm of the race. This poses some issues in my book, and for many others out there. Not only do I not like the implications of racism (which may or may not have been behind their creation, it’s hard to tell without actually having been there or being inside the creators heads) but I also don’t like it from a scientific standpoint.

In the Forgotten Realms lore, the Drow were cursed and that is, apparently, where their dark skin comes from. I’m all for magically hand waving some things, but many of the other underground races also seem to have this dark skin (looking at the Deep Gnomes aka Svirfneblin). I have no issue with the explanation for how they got their dark skin, but that isn’t the case when it comes to every homebrewed world. Because D&D has so much of the lore of the Forgotten Realms baked into the system this leads to many worldbuilders just using the same lore as a part of a worldbuilding shortcut. While there are many factors in what color the skin becomes it is a result of melanin which is produced in the body to regulate the amounts of ultraviolet radiation penetrating the skin. To put it briefly, the more melanin you have in your skin the more resistant you are to ultraviolet radiation, and this developed in humans thanks largely to natural selection that I talked about earlier.

Now, the amount of melanin the body produces naturally is largely due to genetics, but with exposure to large sources of ultraviolet radiation our bodies will be triggered to produce it. The biggest source of ultraviolet radiation that we humans deal with every day is the sun. When you tan, that is your body producing more melanin causing a darker skin tone. In time, your body will begin to return to the normal levels of melanin in your system, but as you are exposed more and more to sunlight this level can stick around. Over generations those who are more exposed to locations with higher levels of ultraviolet radiation are going to start having darker skin tones.

This works in the opposite direction too. As generations go by that are exposed to less and less ultraviolet radiation the lighter their skin tones become. This means that a society of individuals who experience less sunlight will have lighter skin tones over generations. And where is there less sunlight than at the bottom of the ocean and underground? In reality, the Drow should be pale skinned. If you look at real world examples of underground or deep sea creatures, you will find an entire subset of them that have completely lost all pigment in their skin. While this would be unlikely for every underground race, since albinism is actually a genetic mutation that is fairly rare, the creatures that do have had a lot longer to multiply and have significantly more generations for albinism to become the norm and we already know that elves have a far lower rate of reproduction than humans do.

However, this is all fantasy and the extremes are way more fun to consider than the actual science behind it. In my world, I have actually rewritten my Drow to have lighter skin than the other elves from their lack of exposure to the sun. That also means that I changed the skin tone of two other elven subraces. I have both Sand and Sea elves in my world. For those, I have the Sand elves be the ones with the much darker skin tone as they tend to live in deserts and have a higher exposure to the sun. The Sea elves I have be tanned, more like the Polynesian people, as they are along coastlines and that shallow water can actually act as a magnification of the sun rather than a damper.

Not all of my issues are solved with this however. There is still that nasty aspect of the society being evil. Even changing the skin tone I am not out of the woods yet. Now, if you have read some of my previous articles you might be aware that I absolutely do not like the alignment system. In particular, I am not a fan of how the system pidgeon-holes people into a certain way of acting. That isn’t how people or societies work. Society is really freaking complicated. I have actually swapped out the Good and Evil aspects of my own creations for one I think is way more interesting, Creation and Destruction. Now, I still don’t assign players and races to these either. I mention them because it changes the view that different cultures have. Let’s take the Goblins for example. They are little green humanoids that we generally think of as evil. Are they actually evil? Or just incredibly destructive? Destruction doesn’t have to be inherently bad, in fact, some ancient societies saw it as a necessary part of the way the universe worked. It’s a theme that comes up in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Now, Goblin’s may be more destructive towards other peoples but to them that is not evil, and that is the reason why I don’t like the assumption of good and evil. Those concepts are actually incredibly subjective to the individual. What is good to the drow might be considered evil to another race. Good and Evil are labels we use liberally for concepts that are very deep and complex. Asking the question “what makes an act good?” leads to an entire topic in itself.

Final Thoughts

It is not normal for me to get into such detail when going over a topic for one of my articles. I prefer to keep things shorter and to the point. I could not do that for this topic. As I mentioned at the beginning, I believed that my voice would not would not be welcome or have impact. When I got deeper into learning about different communities, I learned that many people are scared to talk. I do not have that excuse. Being a straight, white, male I don’t have many things to be afraid of. The fact that others are afraid to speak out is saddening to me. I don’t see myself as an expert on this topic, in fact, I know there is so much more I have to learn. I have learned that my voice is just as important to put out there. I mentioned how this topic needs to be talked about so that it becomes the status quo. Which means that where I thought I was wrong to speak about it, that I felt like an outsider, was harmful thinking. We must all use our power to bring others to our level, to assist them when they need help, in order to be truly equal.

You can find me on twitter @your1_nightmare. If you enjoy the material on this site please consider supporting us! If you think I missed something or you would like me to cover something specific make sure to leave a comment below or contact me on twitter.

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Jake Reviews Anime: The Ancient Magus Bride

Over the last month I was dealing with some pretty significant changes in my mood. It's an issue that I am still struggling with, but these changes led to a change in my writing schedule, which is to say that it killed it. For nearly a solid month, I had zero motivation to write or do anything productive so I did the one thing I do when I’m feeling that way. I binge watched a bunch of tv shows and anime.

Now, whether or not spending a significant part of my free time consuming media was worth my time is debatable. What I did come across is probably one of my new top five favorite anime of all time: The Ancient Magus Bride. I am taking some time away from my normal writings on RPG’s to instead talk about some of the media that influences my writing and GMing. So, this is a new format and will probably see some refining along the way.

First, I’m going to split this up into two major parts. The first is going to be completely spoiler free and an overall opinion that I have of the show and highlight a few non-spoilery parts that I thought made the show stand out. Second is going to be the spoiler zone. This is where I want to sit down and break apart specific details and moments in the show that I think are worth talking about from a critical point of view. So, if you don’t want spoilers feel free to enjoy the show and return to read the spoilers section. So let’s kick this off.

Elevator Pitch

The Ancient Magus Bride is the story of Chise Hatori and her relationship with an ancient magic user known as Elias Ainsworth. Chise sells herself into slavery and is bought by Ainsworth who reveals to her the truths about the world and aims to teach her the ways of magic while also hoping to make her his bride.

When I first heard this kind of description of this show I was actually a little put off. Ainsworth immediately came off to me as a horrible monster who was just buying a wife. What got me into the show was hearing that the magic system that the world uses is based on real world folklore. This show is one of the best examples of a show that I have seen that establishes its world and brings the audience into it.

Spoiler Free Review

To start off, at time of writing this show has one season at a length of 24 episodes. It is also one of the rare cases in anime where the anime is caught up with the Manga. Sadly, this means that a season 2 is quite a ways out since the creators are sticking to the original source material instead of going the way of Fullmetal Alchemist. Knowing it’s not over, but may be a longer time, will give hope that some of the stories loose ends may actually get resolved (see more in the spoiler section).

From the very first episode of the show its visual style and lighting techniques are some of the best I have seen. All of the grim parts of the show are highlighted with a darker coloring and lighting which makes the bright happy reveals that much more significant when it feels like the screen is exploding in colors. The color palette of the main characters are beautifully symbolic of who they are and mesh very well with the setting.

I mainly watch dubbed versions of all the shows I consume, since reading while watching is taxing to me. With that in mind, my opinion of voice acting is purely from the English dubs. Overall, I love all of the voices that had been done in the show, I was even able to recognize a few voice actors from some of my other favorite shows. I didn’t notice specific areas in which the voice overs pulled me directly out of immersion and all the actors do a wonderful job of adjusting their tones based on the situation within each scene.

If there is one complaint I have, it is that I have issues with the plot. It is fairly loose and it starts out with not much more than a checklist of things Ainsworth is obligated to do. In time there becomes a more persistent threat, but the payoff for it feels almost handwaved. Most of it seems to be an excuse to see various parts of the world, which I’m not against since I am completely in love with the setting. Although, I can’t completely blame this on the show, since it is largely about the relationship of Chise and Ainsworth. The plot does get incredibly dark in places which is absolutely amazing by my standards since the root of the lore IS dark. I can’t complain too much about the story when I have found just as much enjoyment out of watching Pacific Rim. I came for the world and the magic, not so much the plot and I got more than I asked for. I will address quickly in this part my concerns about the potential message that comes from this show, but it could be my overanalysis of it.

I saved the best for last, the world building. Holy crap! I love everything about what they set up with a few minor nit picks (see spoilers). Much of what exists in the world is heavily based on real world lore, which fits nicely as one of the very many “hidden magic world” stories. As mentioned earlier, I love the magic system. While Doctor Strange is my favorite example of somatic components for D&D, the Ancient Magus Bride is my favorite example of using material components in spells. Each item they use in the spells and rituals has some symbolic meaning behind what they are attempting to accomplish. While the story progresses we are learning various aspects of the magical world along with the character. Even by the end of the season, magic is still mysterious without feeling like we’ve been cheated entirely out of an explanation. I was left with very few questions and they were more about the origin of certain things. My hope is that with future seasons we get more lore about the world and the origins of some characters.

From a 3000 foot view I adore this show. Its pacing is fast and manages to grab you by the face and not let go. I binged the entire show in two sittings and lost sleep over thinking about it and how to use it in my stories. I got invested in the well being of many of the characters, even the seasons main villain. With its few flaws I consider this show to be one of my favorites.

I have several other shows that I would like to do this kind of review for, but if there are any shows you think I should watch or review (maybe I’ve already seen it) make sure to leave a comment or tweet at me @your1_nightmare. I would love to hear about your experiences of this show and what you thought about it!

SPOILERS AHEAD

There are several elements of the plot that simply were not answered. Knowing there is a season 2 at some point in the future gives me some hope compared to when I believed this was all we got. This section I will also be airing some of my grievances of the show. These are all relatively minor and don’t have too much bearing on the plot, they are things that as a storyteller I desperately want to know.

Ainsworth’s Past

The explanation we get in the show is pretty bare bones. Which to a degree is understandable as Ainsworth doesn’t fully understand it either. We get that he once ate humans, was running from them to avoid it, and only remembers the color red. This is all before he met Lindel and started his training to become a Mage. Speaking of who was Lindel’s teacher? How on earth was Rahab wearing a lab coat if it was somewhere in the hundreds of years ago? What is going on with the Rahab character? It seems to have been quickly covered and discarded. Current theories state that Ainsworth is a Wendigo, which is an interesting theory to follow, but having a direct say from the creators would be a really nice thing to cover.

In more a more recent past, Ainsworth nearly performs a human sacrifice for Chise. This point seems pretty well forgotten about near the end of the series despite very little time passing. Having an explanation of how this is easily forgotten would have made the ending a bit more satisfying.

Joseph/Cartaphilus

I love this villain. They are crazy but methodical in their own way. The part about these two that drives me crazy is who on earth Cartaphilus is and why he has a curse of immortality. There is a brief theory that he is one of the individuals who threw stones at Jesus near his execution and for that was cursed. However that is stated by Joseph and not Cartaphilus himself, so the real reason is unknown.

Ashen Eyes

I am all for malevolent beings that cause all sorts of problems in the world. He listens to exact wording and plays games with people to watch them suffer. As a villain he creates some interesting conflict on a per episode basis. My issues with him come down to the inconsistent nature of when he shows up. He seems to randomly appear and have relationships with characters without any context. His existence feels flat in the world for when the writers want some crazy old magic to show up and cause problems. What he is, is also a mystery. Its assumed he is a faerie but we already know that sorcerers exist as well. He isn’t a mage because he shows clear disdain for them. This character is a wild card and I want more information about him.

Chise’s Father and Brother

A problem I seem to be having with recent media is the lack of parental information. For instance, the current Star Wars trilogy (Force Awakens and The Last Jedi) seem to create some plot point about who the parents are and have a villain basically blow off the entire idea. In this case my issue is the question of why Chise’s father decided to abandon her mother and her. While Joseph (much like Kylo) says he abandoned her and her mother because he couldn’t stand to protect them any longer, I don’t believe it for a second. There is a crucial moment in the series that shows Chise’s father looking out to the balcony to see one of the creatures that up to this point have been after Chise. He had shown no signs of wanting to abandon them up until that point and even looked as if he wanted to take Chise with him. Something is going on here and we desperately need some closure on this.

Featured Image owned by Funimation

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Advice for New RPG Players

The rise of the Actual Play form of media for tabletop games has increased the visibility of tabletop games. This means that there are a flood of people who are just discovering interest in the hobby. I have seen several folks ask for advice or how to get into the hobby. This article is an attempt for me to gather as much advice for new players as possible.

Finding a Game

This is the hardest part of this hobby. Even as someone who has been playing tabletop games for almost a decade now, I still sometimes have trouble getting into games. One of the biggest parts of this is schedules. I think this meme about sums it up.

Even if you are part of a long standing group, life can get in the way and cause time issues. For this I don’t have any perfect advice other than to keep looking. Maybe you will find luck playing an online game, as there are many games out there with a huge variety of schedules. Sites like roll20.net include Looking for Group boards. Perhaps you might try your hand at Play by Post games, games that you post to a forum and play over a longer period of time. It isn’t impossible to find a game, it might just take some time.

Every GM/Player is Different

This is an idea that sometimes is overlooked by new players. Play style is a huge factor in most groups. You can find numerous articles that attempt to break down the different archetypes of players. That is not what I will be covering here though. I bring this up for a simple reason: if you aren’t having fun, it probably isn’t you. Sometimes you aren’t having as much fun because the other people at the table have a different definition of fun, this includes the Game Master.

For a example, I am a very storytelling centric GM. I love to tell a story and include drama and intrigue along the way. I have combats but they have to have meaning behind them, they need to tell a story. Some gamers don’t want story getting in the way of having a good game. They just want to go into the dungeon and kick the crap out of some goblins and maybe fight a dragon. This is perfectly fine, their play style is no better or worse than my own. This just means that at my table they may not have near as much enjoyment as another table. Being able to recognize this will be a good skill to master as you look for groups.

Don’t Take it too Seriously

I wish this was not something I had to cover. It is a form of entertainment, not your life’s work. If your character dies, yeah it might be emotional. You might get incredibly upset and want to blame someone. Don’t. This is a game. The only time you should be upset is if the individuals you are playing with are actually antagonizing you and making the game not fun. Just because you roll bad for an evening or your character experiences something traumatic, recognize that the scenario is not real. The game should never take precedence over your life. Go to work or do your homework, no one wants to see your life fall apart because of a game.

On the flip side, the emotions you experience are real. If you feel genuinely upset at the death of a character, that just means that you are fully immersed in the experience. Treasure these moments, use them to build you up as a person. I know people who are lifelong friends because of the fictional stories they experienced together. Know that the people you play with are there for you and experiencing everything just the same. It’s okay to cry when a character dies. It’s okay to hate the villain for the horrible things they’ve done.

It’s a Game not a Test

Okay, now away from the more emotional side of the game. Let’s get into actually playing the game. A huge intimidation factor for new players is seeing the numerous rule books that are used at the table. They become concerned that they have to learn everything about the game or they won’t be accepted at the table. This is absolutely false. It’s a game, not a test. You don’t need to study the Player’s Handbook just to start your first game. Most of the time I don’t have new players even look at the rulebook their first time playing. If you WANT to read the entire book (like I have multiple times) then do so if it brings you enjoyment, not because you have to. Make sure to explain to your GM that you are a new player if they are not already aware.

Cooperation, not Competition

In a majority of games, the focus of tabletop games are on cooperation. You are in a party of adventurers, you are a team. In general, you are working together not against each other. Healthy competition is not a problem. You and the dwarf are seeing who can kill the most amount of orcs? That seems like fun! You and the dwarf are going to fight to the death because you found a +2 sword of smiting? You better rethink what you are doing.

Let every player have their moment to shine, don’t hog that spotlight. The story is not just about you, but everyone. Make sure to be self aware with how much you are speaking and make sure everyone has a chance to contribute. If you see someone hasn’t given any input, consider asking them in character what they think. It’s not just the GM’s job to give those moments, it’s everyone’s.

If you can avoid it, don’t be a dick to the other characters. Avoid creating those types of characters unless you have worked out with the other players a way to incorporate that character archetype. Who would want to team up with someone who talks down to them all the time or steals from them constantly? Just because you CAN do something, doesn’t mean you should.

Communication

Another subject I wish I didn’t have to cover. Communication is one of the greatest achievements in human history. It is also our greatest failing. More often than not, it is a failure to communicate, or miscommunication, that ends up creating issues. When describing what a character is doing, make sure to include what you are intending to do with your actions. This makes it so when the GM gives you the results, you don’t get something you weren’t expecting. I have run into this issue far too often.

Avoid arguing during the game while out of character. If you think a rule is being interpreted incorrectly then bring it up AFTER the game with you GM. It is your GM’s job to enforce rules and make immediate judgement calls. If you don’t agree with your GM bring it up with them after the game. The most tiring thing a GM can experience is a player trying to do their job for them. You wouldn’t want another player playing your character, so why would you do that to the GM?

If you have an issue with something going on at the table. Be it rules, or with issues that influence the game. Make sure to speak up. Find the appropriate time to discuss it, like at the end of a session or to your GM in private. If something is impacting you having fun you need to address it or nothing will happen about it. If it doesn’t get resolved, then remember that it’s just a game, you can quit when you need to. If you are having issues with conflict resolution I have an article covering that here.

Embrace Failure

My absolute favorite moments in my tabletop gaming experiences are the times that I failed. While it feels better to win, it feels even better to win after a failure. If you always win, you will get bored. Nothing feels like a challenge because everything you try you succeed at. This is why people don’t like Mary Sue’s. They are boring. In mythology there are tendencies for heros to fail several times at a heroic task before succeeding. This is because it makes the task seem incredibly difficult, and succeeding feels like that much more of an accomplishment.

A while back I played Pathfinder with a good group of friends. During that game my character, an incredibly intelligent alchemist, failed a save against a siren’s song. My GM could have taken control of my character but he let me handle it. While I could have taken his trust and fake trying to leap into the ocean doing everything I could to not actually fail, I instead went whole hog and did everything my character could to get into the ocean. I took my character’s failing and created a memorable moment when I used one of my limited resources to escape my own team in an attempt to kill my own character. It was stupid fun and I will never forget the story. By taking agency into your character’s failings, they don’t feel like failures, but a stepping stone for your character to become better.

Embrace Low Stats/Flaws

I encourage my players during character creation to keep stat numbers that are low. I do this because it creates a flawed character. As mentioned in the last section, nobody likes a perfect character. They are boring power fantasies that get old quick. Choosing to have a low strength, and then trying to do feats of strength gives opportunities for your party members to shine where you fail. Have a low wisdom and make impulsive decisions? This can be the start of an entire story arc! Low stats and chosen flaws create drama and the chance of failure. I love it when my players make the least optimal decision in a situation, not only because as a GM that magic number I came up with was high enough, but because I also get to introduce something new to the game.

The GM is not your Enemy

You see all over the media stories of the “evil GM” who is out to kill your character and cause misery wherever their gaze lies. They control the universe after all, how could they not get drunk with power? While I myself play to this very trope, it is far from the truth. Even when I joke about killing a character, I get genuinely stressed when I actually get close to having it happen. As a GM, I am there to facilitate the experience. I am crafting a story FOR my players, not a crazy power fantasy where the universe is against the party. Yes, we play the villains. Sometimes we play them so well that you hate us because of how horrible the villain is. We also play the party’s allies. We give the party the tools to overcome challenges. Many GM’s are like GLaDoS from Portal, we get a euphoric sense when player’s overcome our challenges. You discovered the solution to the puzzle? I get a nice dose of Dopamine and you get a +2 sword of badassery.

Why am I saying all this? GM’s are hard working people. They spend numerous hours outside the game prepping and building everything you come across as a player. They spend so much of their time to give you a fun experience. Does this mean I’m saying you should trust your GM? Absolutely not! I do what I can to make myself unpredictable as a GM, so you can’t figure out what to do based off of what I’ve done in the past. What it does mean is that you should appreciate the person GMing for you and trust that they have the best of intentions for your experience. Have a session where everything goes poorly? Most GM’s are more concerned about it than you are.

Fun is not always Optimized

No matter what people tell you, an optimized character is not a prerequisite for fun. This doesn’t mean an optimized character is not fun, I have fun making hyper optimized characters. Keep in mind what you enjoy. If there is a mechanic that you really enjoy and want to be the core of your character then build it for that. Care more about story than mechanics? Put more time into writing your backstory than the rest of your character. There is no right way to build a character.

Play something that interests you. You want to be an edgy assassin who has no respect for authority? Go for it! Want to play a loveable elf who likes sweets and bunny rabbits? Sounds fun! Make sure that whatever you go with, you are playing the character, not the character sheet. The sheet is there for the rules, not who your character is.

Become Invested in the Game

Sometimes it can become easy to get detached from the game you are playing. Maybe you don’t have a goal or you have no investment in the world. Sadly, we GM’s are not mind readers, if we were this wouldn’t always be an issue. Generally, it’s a good idea to create goals for your character and express those to the GM. Outline some characters from your backstory and let your GM play with them. Players have a tendency to be orphans because they don’t want their GM’s to kill them, so they do it themselves! (Hint to GM’s, Necromancy is a way to get around this.) Having an in-game family is a great way to tie yourself into the world. Work with your GM to create ties into the game world and story.

Alignment

Yeah, I’m shoving my obligatory blogger alignment section here. No doubt you have seen the various charts of the D&D alignment systems and how your favorite fictional characters fall into it. Yes, there is a spot for you to fill it out on your character sheet. Personally I stopped using the alignment system entirely in my games for ONE reason only: “You can’t do that. That’s not <insert alignment here>.” As a storyteller, writer, and GM, these words piss me off. When you are making your character and pick an alignment I recommend you choose this AFTER you finish everything else about your character. I say this because alignment is actually a fluid system. A Lawful Good character can become a Chaotic Evil one. It is not a system designed to limit character decision. It exists fully because of the spell Detect Evil and Good along with a few other inconsequential mechanics that are actually designed for use against NPC’s. It is baggage from older editions of D&D. People trying to tell you what not to do based on your alignment can come fight me.

Learn the Rules for your Character

Now, I know I said earlier this article that you don’t need to know the rules to play. I still stand by that statement. But as you progress in a game, and come back each week (or however often you play) it will be important for you to learn and remember the rules that you use for the character. It doesn’t have to be an immediate process, but understanding what you have available (which usually is outlined on your character sheet) will help keep the flow of the game going and make the challenge of the game less on how to play and more on the in-game scenarios. Trust me when I say this, but learning your character’s rules will make the game more enjoyable for yourself.

Take Notes

Yeah, yeah, I know. The game is not a test. That’s not why I’m saying to take notes. Taking notes is an incredibly useful skill to develop early in tabletop roleplaying games because it eases the amount of mental load you have to burden when attempting to recount information. Writing down names of characters, what loot you received, what your current objective is, will make recalling information that happened weeks ago that much easier. It becomes even more important as you get into a solid group and play for YEARS. No one needs to be able to read these notes except for you, so no pressure on making them tidy. These are simply for your convenience.

Think Ahead

Too many times we get caught up in the moment. We are thrilled to hear what our comrades have done and the descriptions the GM gives of the current situation. However, you need to be able to think ahead on what your character plans to do. While the current situation might change and mess up your plans, that is fine. It’s going to happen sooner or later anyways. For all the other times, you will want to be prepared especially if you are a spell caster. The most time consuming part of a game is when a spell caster is unprepared for what is happening, spending several minutes trying to find the appropriate spell. Make a plan, and then make a backup plan if you have less confidence that you can execute your plan. This comes up more in combat than anything.

Pay Attention/Don’t Interrupt

Humans can’t multitask, it’s scientifically proven. What our brains do is switch back and forth between various tasks and thoughts. Learning to switch between paying attention and planning ahead is a useful skill to master, although you don’t have to be perfect. Not only is paying attention keeping you up to date on current events, it is also just respectful to the GM and players. Having to repeat oneself because you weren’t paying attention is frustrating, especially if it is a long winded description. During these moments avoid interrupting unless it is story relevant. Even then, if the GM is describing a scene, shut up and pay attention. It’s annoying trying to figure out where you were in a description because a player interrupted you, or being constantly halted. Save your reactions and questions until the GM has finished their description. Don’t hold side conversations during these moments either, save that dialog until you understand what is going on.

Hopefully these pieces of advice were helpful for you. If you have any advice that helped you when starting out and I didn’t list it here, please leave a comment or tweet at my @your1_nightmare. I love to hear all the different bits of advice and everyone’s own experiences.

[nerdolopedia-blog]

Crafting Better Puzzles for Roleplaying Games

There have been a few individuals that I have come across that have mentioned that puzzles have a strange place in roleplaying games. I have seen a variation of individuals who either throw puzzles out entirely because they are too hard to craft, to creating puzzles with absolutely no solution and just seeing how clever the players can be. While these are solutions I feel it undermines one of the coolest things about dungeons and games in general. Yes, not every game needs them, but they certainly keep things interesting.

Overall, the issue comes down to the fact that not everyone being a dungeon master is a designer. Yes, they may design worlds, but that isn’t the same as being a designer. A lot of my free time is spent on learning game design; despite the fact that I do not make video games or write my own tabletop games (and probably never will). Puzzle design is definitely a challenge, but for tabletop games they are actually a lot simpler to do than you might think.

Core Mechanics

If you have ever played a Portal game then you are actually quite familiar with this idea. At its core, a puzzle contains at least one mechanic. An example is putting a box on a pressure plate. Simple enough. That is actually a puzzle. We might not think of this as puzzle because it is so simple, but you need to understand the core mechanic of the puzzle before you can proceed and make it a harder one. I’m going to use a puzzle I designed for a Tales from the Tavern dungeon as an example.

The puzzle I designed was actually based on a really common core idea in some games, and that was the redirection of light. All the players had to do was get a beam of light to hit a single location. Very simple in concept. I set it up that light would come from the ceiling, go through a prism that redirected the light perpendicular to the source and let the players rotate the dias the prism was on. I also made a door that would open when light hit a stone on its surface. I could have stopped there, but then it would have been too simple.

Obstacles

The quickest way to add challenge to a puzzle is to create obstacles that impede one or more of the core mechanics unless the players use another mechanic to get around it. This is where you start adding new elements to your puzzles, like positioning of fixed elements, environment hazards, and other core mechanics. These obstacles come in two flavors: original designs and altered designs.

Original designs are the designs of the dungeon that the creator intended. In my design of the light puzzle was the location of a wall. The wall sat between the prism of light and the door. This caused me to include another mechanic, which was the presence of a mirror. The solution to the puzzle then became using the mirror to reflect light to the door. Still really simple, but its an increase in complexity that the players have to figure out.

For the same dungeon I designed it for the civilization around the structure to have been long past with nature having consumed the place. This added another layer of complexity to the first puzzle, the first being the mirror now being missing. The removal of elements require the players to be creative in their search for the answers. An additional complication that I added was vines covering up the sources of light. These are all altered designs as the original creators had not intended these changes. These can range from nature, degrading of the original designs, or new inhabitants altering the existing puzzles.

Tabletop games vary from video games as the players have solutions only limited to their imaginations. In a video game you have a hard set of rules and a limited number of inputs. Overcoming the obstacles are the elements of the puzzle I am more lenient on players finding their own solutions. I may have specific ideas on how to solve it but if my players find something more clever that sounds like it should work, there is no reason not to reward them.

The Catch

This is the point that makes puzzles challenging. It is some contradiction in the logic of the core mechanics. These often can include obstacles, but it can simply be the way that two mechanics operate contradicting each other. The simplest example is the pressure plate and the door. When you step on the pressure plate, the door opens. But when you step off the button, the door closes. This is the catch. In my example dungeon, this is the combination of the wall being in front of the door, blocking the light. The secondary catch (why just limit it to one?) is the missing mirror.

Folded Mechanics

One technique used in several dedicated puzzle games is the concept that I like to call folded mechanics. These are elements of the puzzle that “unfold” as you meet certain requirements of the puzzle. A simple example is a room with two doors, two boxes, and one button. When you step on the button it opens the door that is not the exit, however beyond that door is another button. When that button is press it opens the door to the exit. The obvious solution is to place a box on one button, then place the other box on the last button to open up the exit. Now, obviously this can be made far more complex with additional obstacles and by chaining the mechanics in various ways. The folded mechanic that I included in the prism puzzle was the vines. The group needed to find a way to get to the vines. Once the vines were removed, the light shone in and hit the prism.

Feedback

In its simplest description, this is giving information back to the players for the results of their actions. While this is the norm for tabletop games, especially those done verbally, it is easy to actually fail in delivering the feedback in the world. In the light bouncing puzzle I could have had zero indication when the light hit the gem on the door and they would have had to guess that it opened the door. Instead I had the gem get brighter until they heard a click, indicating that something happened. The feedback does not need to be positive or negative, just some indication that something has changed in the situation. Failing to do this can cause players to run around the solution even though they executed it.

Negative feedback is something to also consider for the puzzle. If the players touch gems in a wrong order when trying to unlock a door it could summon a demon to fight them. This is a way to inform the players not to repeat an action and give them notice that it was the wrong solution. Be wary with negative feedback as you don’t want to place it in a part of your puzzle that may push your players further from the actual solution. You will want to avoid negative feedback when the players are simply exploring the puzzle space and learning the various mechanics. Dropping snakes from the ceiling because they pulled one of two nearly identical levers with no markings can seem more like a cruel trick than true negative feedback (although maybe that is the theme of the dungeon).

Clues

There is an actual phenomenon that occurs inside our brains when we are given nearly endless choices and possibilities: analysis paralysis. We can sit and stare at a problem without making a single choice. This is where the writing on walls and cryptic clues come into play. They are fairly common in older dungeon modules. Tomb of Horrors comes to mind. The most deadly dungeon still had some clues spread throughout it (though some were incredibly hard to find and possibly missed entirely by players). These help with that analysis paralysis by giving the players something to start off on. In my example dungeon the dias had the words “The Light of Itor will open the way”. Maybe a bit obvious but it made them start looking for a source of light which would lead to them eventually giving light to the prism. It reduced the scope of their thought and allowed them to make initial progress on the puzzle quicker.

Perhaps you screwed up. Maybe the initial clue was too cryptic or the mechanics too complex. You over designed the puzzle and your players are stumped. How do you get them back on track? How do you deliver a clue in a dungeon that isn’t changing, or perhaps wants them to stumble into a trap? If the designers of the dungeon wanted people to succeed, maybe it reveals more clues as time goes on. And if the designer wants people to stay out? Then you have to rely on your characters to give hints. I solve this with a skill check, but not in the way you normally would. The problem with traditional skill checks is that failure means no progress, or getting set back. In a puzzle where, presumably, you as the GM want them to proceed, getting no information or getting set back is a big issue and will halt the game even longer. Instead, I set up different levels of success.

Say for instance, my players were having trouble in the light bouncing puzzle. They are sitting there stumped and say “We have no idea”. As the GM I would ask them to make some kind of intelligence roll. Now ahead of time I know that no matter what I am going to give them a hint, but I will give them a more detailed hint the better they do. If they do really well I might say “you recognize that the item on the dias is a prism. Prisms are usually used to redirect or seperate light.” If they fail I might say “Well nothing in the room seems to stand out to you, but it is really dark in the room.” I’m directing them to other questions they have to answer and hopefully lead them to the solution. In all cases I give them something.

Should the players ask about a specific feature of the puzzle I have the knowledge checks reveal relations to other elements, if they are important to the puzzle as a whole, or hint at something the mechanic is missing to function. This helps to expand the knowledge of the players and assist in giving direct focus.

Skill Checks

A rule of thumb for me is that for any challenge that does not have a time constraint or some punishment for failure it doesn’t require a check to be made. If failing just means they try again and again, then why make the player roll for it? At that point you simply ask what their modifier to that skill is and how long they plan to sit there and attempt it. For experienced players, this is the concept of “taking 10” or “taking 20”. It just means that given enough time they will get a die result of a 10 (for taking 10) or a 20 and add their modifiers. If the DC you set cannot be reached in the amount of time for either (however long you choose to make taking 10/20 respectively) then that player is incapable of accomplishing that task in that allotment of time. As the DM when a player takes a 10 but might be able to accomplish the task if they had taken a 20 instead, it would be worth mentioning that given a bit more time they might be able to pass the check. This is only for events that do not have time restrictions on them. A player should not be allowed to take 10 if the next round an owlbear will be making a snack out of them.

Reducing rolls during a puzzle means more time with the players interacting with your mechanics and less fighting against the games rules. However, should damage be done or a mechanic breaks on a failed attempt then you should do rolls as normal. This is super important in puzzles as you want players wasting as little time as possible trying to solve the puzzle itself.

Exit Strategy

In some cases a puzzle will appear to allow access in one direction only. When this occurs you need to have an answer for how your players will then either traverse backwards through the puzzle or find a way back out. This is important when the situation is set up such that the owner of the dungeon can either traverse forwards or backwards without harm. This could simply be a secret tunnel that leads back, or that the individual traversing it simply performs the actions in reverse. The simplest solution is to make the elements of the dungeon go inert, making crossing forwards and backwards with ease.

For this, you will need a way to reactivate these elements and reset the dungeon. There are several ways to accomplish this ranging from a switch that pulls all the elements back to demons arriving in the night to put everything back in place. Determining when and how these puzzles reset is an important aspect to having it play a role in your overall dungeon/world.

Visual Aids

There is a real challenge when it comes to performing mental processes when you have to maintain a visualization of what you are trying to solve while you are solving it. This isn’t to say it’s impossible to do so. When designing these puzzles you will have to do this very thing to make sure its solvable. What you want to do however, is reduce the amount of mental processing that is required on your players at any given time. This is why having maps of your dungeons, regions, or in this case puzzles, can reduce the amount of time it takes for the players to work on exploring the space and asking questions just to get a baseline of  information for them to work with. Visual aids allow the players to mentally return to the current state the puzzle is in. On top of all that, players usually love to get their hands on a visual aid.

In the end puzzles can be as complex or a simple as you want. The complex puzzles are built on the same principles as the simple puzzles, it all just depends on how much time you wish to put into them. Be aware of what your players enjoy, if they still do not enjoy puzzles then change your focus. Some may want them and for those players you will want to make them satisfying.

You can find me on twitter @your1_nightmare. If you enjoy the material on this site please consider supporting us! If you think I missed something or you would like me to cover something specific make sure to leave a comment below or contact me on twitter.

[nerdolopedia-blog]

Stress and Stress Relief for Content Creators

The strangest part about writing my articles is the sheer number of topics that I start and then either abandon or eventually finish. Usually it is from some fledging idea that I get and I see if I can actually create a full article on the subject. Often I will abandon these ideas, usually due to lack of substance or my personal need to get more experience on the topic. So generally if you see an article on here by me, it means that I have put quite a bit of thought into it.

That said, a topic that is nearly always on my mind is stress. In large part because I am poor at managing it myself and deal with it on a regular basis. My assumption is that many other content creators out there also deal with some level of stress. For this article I am going to take the time to do some real talk about the things I learned about this subject. I am not an expert on this matter so all advice comes from personal experience and self reflection.

Risks of Stress

I don’t mean to increase your stress by starting with this topic, but if you stick with me I plan to end on a higher note. The risks of stress is something that I have first hand experience with, even while writing this article. I’m sure plenty of you have seen somewhere that stress affects you not just mentally but physically. These symptoms come in the form of headaches, sleep problems, muscle pain, fatigue, and digestion problems. This doesn’t even touch on the effects to your mood.

Overall it can become self-perpetuating state of being. As a content creator it runs the risk of impacting your ability to fulfill obligations that you promised, fall behind on work, or even make the content creation process less appealing. I know that I have run into all three during various times of high stress.

Manage Your Stress

The number one best way to manage your stress is to avoid getting stressed in the first place. While not always possible, there is a lot of unnecessary stress that we bring into our lives. By avoiding these in the first place you can reduce the amount you have to actually manage.

The first of these, particularly as a content creator, is the ability to say “no” to a project or a commission. Some people are completely incapable of doing this and it results in a workload that is overwhelming. Understand what workload you are able to fulfill. Give yourself some buffer so you can take on those projects that are absolutely crucial to your business (technology fixes, website updates, patreon revisions, etc).

My next recommendation is to cut out individuals from your content creation that cause you a high level of stress. If you work alone then you won’t have to worry about this. If you dread having to talk to a person that works with you on content because they always stress you out, cut them out of the process and find someone else to fill the role (if someone needs to fill their role). From first hand experience I found this relieves a ton stress both current and future.

Make sure that the current content creation field is right for you. If you don’t love what content you are creating, then you might need to consider something different. I recommend you make this decision during times that you are not stressed, as earlier mentioned stress can change your opinion on these feelings. Doing something you do not enjoy will only add to your workload. Some people may find that the content they create is more enjoyable as a hobby rather than a job.

Some stress is unavoidable. Most content creators still have a day job because they need to eat, or pay for the equipment needed for their content creation gig. It’s here that I have learned several different techniques for managing said stress, however I am bad at continuing them during low stress times. It’s crucial that you keep up with these even when you are not feeling stressed.

Relax. We all need time for our minds to not actually do real work. As much as you may love your content creation, that can’t be the only thing you do. It can be hard when your hobbies have become a job, but there is always something else you can do. For me this is reading. I always attempt to read the hour just before I go to bed. Not only does it get me to read (which is essential for any writer), but it gets me to calm down after a long day of working. This can also be as simple as taking time to play a beloved video game. Even for streamers who do a lot of gaming, playing games without the camera on can still relieve some stress. For those introverts (myself included) having some alone time to accomplish these can greatly help.

However you can’t spend all your time alone. Socializing with your friends and family is another way to destress. I find it incredibly relieving to travel north to my family’s property in the woods and just spend the day wandering around and doing odd work with my family. Even if your friends are the ones you create content with, take the time to not create content with them and just do something. At Nerdolopedia on occasion we all go to IHOP late at night and just talk. We also have gone out drinking or attend conventions for fun. I find going out without a plan helps even more with the stress relief (although might not work for everyone).

The one I am really bad at as of late is physical exercise. In my high school and college days I was far more physically active and it did help with some stress. Physical exercise not only relieves stress but also has a bunch of other benefits. Starting out small and working your way up is a great way to acclimate yourself if you are not used to getting the exercise regularly. I have no excuse not to be doing this as I own a folding treadmill, but it is something that you should be scheduling into your day. Taking a walk around the block (or down the road and back for the country folk) is enough to start. My girlfriend as of this writing walks every day and she has reported increased energy and mood. Take just ten or fifteen minutes out of your day to start out.

I have never done tai chi or yoga, but I have done meditation. In fact I have been using an app to help me with it. While relaxing was already listed above I thought that this was important to add because these tend to be less active forms of relaxation. Messages also fall under this, which I try to get not just for stress but because of my various back problems. However, I have more experience with meditation and can say that it is very helpful. I don’t actually recommend that you start meditating unguided as when I first started. This is because I think there is a lot of misconception about meditation and getting to a meditative state can actually be a struggle for people early on. To quickly cover it, meditation is the stillness of the mind, which so many of us in this age of information have a very difficult time doing. I use Headspace to help guide me through meditation but it might not be for everyone.

A Thousand Mile Journey

A lot of what I have suggested consumes time, a resource that some of us are just bad with. While you currently may be struggling to find any time to set aside from your work, consider starting with one of these stress relief activities as a necessary part of the content creation process. While stressed you are not at your best. You don’t need to change your entire way of life tomorrow to not be stressed anymore. Ease into these. Find one that you know you can do now and start doing it. Pay attention to what stress you take on. Notice the areas that you could improve on and work your way towards them. It may seem like an impossible task. As Laozi put it “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Go take that step.

You can find me on Twitter @your1_nightmare. If you enjoy the material on this site please consider supporting us! If you think I missed something or you would like me to cover something specific make sure to leave a comment below or contact me on Twitter.

[nerdolopedia-blog]

The Importance of Histories in Fantasy Worlds

On some occasions I stumble into a fandom, get a glimpse, and walk out. This is either because I don’t find it as interesting or the fan base is incredibly intense. This is how I felt with The Lord of the Rings and Middle-Earth. I have seen all the movies (and at the time of writing not the extended editions) and read the Hobbit when I was younger. As I venture deeper into the world of fantasy writing, I have realized that I know very little about some of the roots of our modern day fantasy culture. So I started reading Lord of the Rings. At the time of writing I am nearly done with Fellowship of the Ring.

I now find myself way too deep to get out. It’s gotten to the point that I started looking up YouTube videos about the lore of Tolkien’s universe. I am even now motivated to get through the three volumes of Lord of the Rings simply so I can get to The Silmarillion. Why? Because I am obsessed with how deep the lore is in his universe. Not just that, but the amount of history the world seems to bleed. It made me realize something really important about worlds, one that I had only touched on because of player questions. Why do certain “man”-made things exist the way they do?

I have though hard on the ecologies of my world and work very hard at answering why certain natural things exist the way they do, because history has less impact on them. I only has impact in events that change habitats, and those are much quicker to answer. However for man-made structures this can become much more of a rabbit hole because there is so much history behind even a single ruin.

History Creates Meaning

I’m going to keep coming back to ancient ruins because it’s something that I love to work with. They are ancient places often shrouded in mystery with unknown creatures inhabiting them. They are places of danger and adventure. However slapping a ruin down in a location because you want to have that adventure is just lazy, and honestly will come off quite flat.

Adding history to the ruins will help you in constructing something far more meaningful and mysterious. I’m going to take the ruins of Osgiliath from The Lord of the Rings as my example. From various sources I uncovered that there is a history to the place, one that is actually really interesting and explains a lot about the motivations of individuals. It used to be a grand place that more or less had a large string of tragedies befall it until it withered, died, and then ruined. Why were the people of Gondor trying to fight for it? Because it had meaning to them. That meaning had a long history of those people.

If you have a place that is considered sacred, or a lost temple to some god, or even a lost mine, consider the history behind the place. This lets you build specific features into these locations. Perhaps the grove is sacred because during a long ago war, an Ent sacrificed itself to seal away an ancient evil and now a great tree rests where it fell, and that felling the great tree would unleash the evil. For a lost temple, why is it lost? Was there a massive rockslide that isolated it from the world or some event that cause the monks to seal themselves away? For a mine when was it lost? This would tell the style and age of garments. Did the mine collapse? Maybe the awakening of some ancient being caused the entrance to collapse sealing the workers inside. There is so much more I can expand on this but the more history you have to the place the more you can flush it out and make it seem real.

Past Conflicts Create Current Grudges

We all know that Dwarves hate Elves and Elves hate Dwarves, but why? As much as I would like to blame kale, it most definitely is not the reason. This is one of those common tropes we pull from Tolkien’s world without much thought as to why. If you dig into it Tolkien actually has an explanation. There is real history in their grudges, a series of events that lead to mutual distrust. Sticking in grudges for the sake of having grudges gives no depth and no emotion to those grudges and makes them out to feel empty and the character just like a jerk.

These past conflicts can be simple misunderstandings or breakdown of communications. By having it be a simple solution it is entirely possible to include this in your games to allow two groups to make amends or at least start down the road toward it. The past conflict could be central to your plot. Something like a disagreement over possession of a dangerous artifact that happened behind closed doors could lead to conflict, with the true reason being hidden from public view.

An Aside on Racism

In my example I use different races of people in these grudges. This will come off as racism and is a heated debate within the RPG community. Some insist on using it because its part of the history while others want to do away with it all together. I am using this example largely because it is the most well known grudges between two large groups of people to help me illustrate a point. I do not want to tackle the problems with racism in games in this article and I don’t believe I am qualified to be able to do the topic justice.

Characters Create History, and Vice Versa

Just like histories help flush out places, so do they create places for people. Too often when writing histories have I had to include a notable person(s). Often I will leave the name blank as I am working on the history as a whole, but they are key to that history. Who Gandalf the Grey and the Balrogs are gives great meaning to their motivations. A civil war cannot be fought because an adventure calls for it. It has to have people who are upset with what one faction is doing. The people have no reason to revolt if the King isn’t cruel or unwanted by the people. No one goes around thinking “You know, maybe we should have a revolution”.

Why don’t they think that? Because there is history leading up to strife. While people cause events to happen, those events affect other individuals. This is a never ending cycle of cause and effect that we call history. In reality if you look at our actual history, this is what happens ALL THE TIME. You want to get better at writing histories in your fantasy world, pick up a history book or go watch stuff on YouTube. Those can be more entertaining and consumable.

Now this isn’t the end of it. We also get the cases where historical events create a character down the timeline. A country that is punished for war crimes has someone just zealous enough who is suffering from the punishment that they rise up to create even MORE conflict. Sound familiar? If not that’s fine. This is basically what happened with Germany and the rise of Hitler.

Artifacts of the Past

This is the topic of history I feel I see the most of when it comes to RPGs. The idea is that the magic items and artifacts you find in game have a history to them. Heck Tolkien’s work does exactly that with several of the magic swords that they find. Glamdring, the sword that Gandalf carries, belonged to an ancient elven King. The goblins are even terrified of it. Why? Because that sword has a past, clearly the sword was used in some way against the goblins that THOUSANDS of years after its creation that they recognize it and fear it. When writing your histories think of significant objects that were used in the execution of events. Just look at Christianity. How many artifacts have come just out of the story of Jesus? The nails that stuck him to the cross, the crown of thorns, the spearhead that pierced his heart. Heck the Holy Grail is a prime example of this. History makes these artifacts a symbol of past events and potential shapers of the future. What about the story of Excalibur? I think I could go on for pages of actual historical artifacts but I hope you get my point.

This gets even more interesting when you start to introduce sentient magic items. When an item knows its own past and can inform the wielder of this past, this can create for some amazing story hooks for finding a magical sword buried in a ruin. This doesn’t mean that you need to create a history for every magic item. After all I don’t need a complete history of how a normal potion of healing is located at a shop. Or maybe it can, if you have the setting for it.

Technology Shapes History

In our world we are making constant advancements in technology. It is impossible to say that the advent of new technology would not shape its history. Since I have not delved that deep into the Tolkien universe I can’t say that I know of any examples directly from his world. However I will bring up a different universe that does: Avatar the Last Airbender. In it, there is a clear delineation of power (in the grand scheme of things) between the Fire nation and the other nations. While this does change over the course of the show, the history of the world showed that their advancements in technology (even if powered by relatively primitive means) gave them a leg up in conquering the world.

Now for some real world examples! One of the earliest examples (that I can recall) is the advent of the Chariot in its uses for war. It was a game changer because you could have two people riding for the price of one horse, a driver, and a bowman. If having to charge a bowman on foot wasn’t terrifying enough, now add the fact that they are in a large wooden cart being pulled by a horse AND they are shooting at you. Unless you have a chariot of your own there isn’t much hope of you catching them without dying. And thus the early arms race began! However that isn’t much the point. What this causes is a complete change in the way we fight wars, or get around for that matter. Chariots were created around a 1000 years before they became tools of war.

For something less war oriented let's look at one of my favorite: the printing press. This revolutionized our ability to spread information more reliably. Before the printing press we had to duplicate text BY HAND. For anyone who has written for long periods of time you know how painful this can actually be. I’m not sure I can actually quantify in words just how impactful the printing press is to society and yet it is a real question that we need to ask ourselves when creating our fantasy histories.

The Natural World Shapes History

For those who have even the slightest knowledge of history have probably heard the story of Pompeii, a roman city that was buried beneath the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79 A.D. While I am no historian, it is difficult to say that to a society that was so closely religious that the loss of Pompeii had no significance to the people of Rome. It could have been that the fall of Pompeii only solidified religious beliefs that the gods were willing to dole out punishment.

Since we exist in the natural world it is impossible to deny that it impacts our history. What foods are available, what natural disasters occur, what terrain is there that protects us (or lacks protection) from invaders? How many different flood stories come up in the various myths and legends? The ancient civilization of Egypt was centralized on the Nile river and much of their ways of life and belief systems stemmed from the river. Going back to Tolkien the ruins of Osgiliath were located on a river, that river plays into its history and defense.

Conclusion

History is a complex and mysterious topic that we struggle with in our real world. The benefit of writing a fantasy world is that you can fill in all the details even if you don’t bring them to light for your readers as these histories will impact portions of your world. Creating histories for existing elements of your world may help you determine the impact it has on other elements of your world as well. It brings a level of depth and immersion for the more curious players and readers in your world.

[nerdolopedia-blog]

Elle Reviews: IT

So let me start by saying that I am probably the biggest IT fan I know. The original TV series was almost perfect in my eyes. I had no qualms about defending the show and telling people that, although a little hokey, it was still as solid as it could have been.  I am also a sucker for anything with Jonthan Brandis and Tim Curry, so maybe I am a bit biased.

I also hadn’t read the book in a long time, so upon hearing that the movie was coming, I decided to re-read the book. At 1138 pages, it’s no small undertaking. I did everything I could to power through it and make sure it was done by the time the movie came out, because I wanted to make sure if there were any references, I did not miss them. What a ridiculous goal, but hey, I made it. I finished the book the night before the movie came out. I had my tickets, I knew what was going on, and here I was on opening night. I saw the movie by myself in a sold out theater. I made sure to tell my neighbors on either side that I was sorry if I tossed my popcorn. With a nervous giggle, they all agreed. We didn’t know what to expect. The lights dimmed, and then…..

I am writing this review under the assumption that you’ve either read the book, seen the miniseries, or both. If not, I must warn, you, SPOILERS AHEAD. I will be skipping the usual rundown of the story and writing my review of the things that happened in the movie. I can’t even begin to go into the book because it’s so expansive and so many things happened that it would take me three or four articles to get there. The very first scene in IT was familiar. We’ve all seen it. Between the trailer, first look, and the book, it’s the same. Billy is setting up the boat for Georgie, getting it all sealed and good to go. I figured when I sat in my seat, that if Georgie’s arm didn’t come off in the first 10 minutes of the movie, it wasn’t done right. Well, it was.

General unease came over me when Pennywise made his first appearance. All I could think from the beginning was, “Nope, nope, nope”. The woman that looks out from her porch, sees Georgie leaning over a storm drain, and doesn’t say anything to him caused me so much discomfort. Even more so when his jaw dislocates and he bites Georgie. Absolutely terrifying. The woman next to me screamed. Then we all laughed (go figure). All I could think about were the ROWS and ROWS of TEETH. Okay, so although dark, we are off to a good start.

The majority of the middle of the movie is standard fare. Not anything new, but it was good as far as production value and making things believable. Of course, Pennywise always makes us feel strange, but honestly, the way that Bev’s dad interacted with her, made me so sick to my stomach. I think the people they cast for characters were done well. All of the kids were believable and enjoyable to watch. You could tell they spent a lot of time together bonding while making the movie and probably beforehand. I also read that they kept Bill Skarsgard away from the kids for the first six weeks of shooting, and the first time they all saw him in full Pennywise getup was in the projector scene. The looks on their faces of horror was completely genuine. And, let’s be real – when Pennywise is coming out of that fridge, I had the same look on my own face! That moment was enough for me to let out my own WHAT THE FUCK. The woman next to me just kept repeating that throughout the entire movie. All I could do was look at her and nod in agreement.

I didn’t really agree with the Barrens being left out – they left out major chunks of the movie that I felt were imperative to things that were to come. I feel that they chopped perhaps a little bit too much out of the movie, although I set my expectations to realistic. I knew they couldn’t include everything. I was ecstatic to see the story lines that outlined the history of the town. From the Black Spot (although short, would have been nice to see more of it) and 29 Neibolt Street, I really enjoyed seeing some things brought to life and given something to picture when you are remembering (or learning).

Towards the end, you can see the ramp up to prepare for the next movie. Pay close attention to the order that the kids leave in – I have from a pretty reliable source that it kind of predicts where things are going. And although they pulled things together well, I had some questions. Where did Henry go? How are they going to “revive” him in the second movie? 

I also wondered why they chose to essentially flip Ben Hanscom and Mike Hanlon. I find it curious that they took a character that ends up as an architect and made him the historian, which would seem to cut Mike’s story short. He would have no reason to stay, no interest in the town or it’s histories. I did appreciate Eddie’s mom being a reflection of what she was like in the book, instead of a frail old lady like the series. Maybe I’m just too stuck to the “old ways” and loved the book too much. Multiple reviews from director Andy Muschietti had him saying things like the plot was going to get wilder and that there would be a lot of content not found in the book or the original series. I think they did a good job pleasing old  (read: stubborn) fans and new fans alike.

So, in short, TL;DR: Great movie. If you enjoy the book or the miniseries, take a look. If not, then maybe not for you. Also probably not for you if you really, really don’t like clowns.

As always, thank you for reading! Be sure to leave comments below!

All pictures copyrights owned by New Line Cinema. None are owned by Nerdolopedia. No copyright infringement was intended. 

[nerdolopedia-blog]

A Step-by-Step Guide to D&D 5e Character Creation

One topic that always comes up at some point in a players career is character creation. Some individuals absolutely love character creation, others dread the work that is involved in it. As a new player, this task can be daunting without any knowledge of what is required.

At first mention I had passed off the idea of creating this guide. It’s not that I believe that this knowledge isn’t important, just that there is a step-by-step guide in the Player’s Handbook (PHB pg. 11). For many this information is sufficient, this is the way that I got into creating characters. I however am not everyone, and some individuals still struggle with character creation.

Assumptions in Writing This Guide

I need to start this entire article off right. I am not your Dungeon Master. None of the steps I present are a replacement for the way your DM does their character creation. My suggestion is to talk with your DM when going over this guide. Use this as a starting point for that conversation. Let’s make some characters.

To keep this article from doubling in length I am going to assume that you, the reader, understand the game and character sheets enough to write down what features you gain from your choices. If there is a demand for it I can go more in depth about aspects of the standard character sheets.

I am not going to cover multiclassing. If you are using this guide to create your first character I do not recommend you get into multiclassing as it increases in complexity and makes character creation just that more complicated.

Step 1: Character Concept

If there is one thing that is not covered in the PHB step-by-step guide its discussing the core concept of a character. Now if you are not concerned with making an interesting character or you already have a character you want to play feel free to skip this step.

Whenever I start out making a character that I want to invest any extended period of time in, I always try to come up with the elevator pitch of a character idea. The elevator pitch for a recent character I made called “Blade-Shield” was “a robot taken over by nature and tasked with protecting it”. It’s simple, to the point, and gives you a place to start creating the rest of the character. I will be using Blade-Shield as a example for several of the ways to make choices based off of this elevator pitch. This elevator pitch is what you should present to your DM for approval, since you are possibly playing in their setting and they are the ones possibly planning the story.

If you are struggling with creating this elevator pitch I recommend learning more about the setting you will be playing in. It can be difficult coming up with something new if you have zero constraints, so figuring out all the creative constraints of the setting can help reduce the possibilities. Brainstorming with other players is another way to help come up with this. Social media is a great place to get character ideas as well. Trying to drill down to where character ideas come from is like trying to explain colors to a blind person, you know it exists but its difficult to explain.

Step 2: Pick a Race

This is a fairly simple step, when looking at your elevator pitch it’s possible that you can determine what race you pick from it. For Blade-Shield I picked a Unearthed Arcana race called Warforged, which is basically D&D robots. If your elevator pitch does not immediately give away what race you should pick then start to read through the races that are available to you in the campaign setting. Once this choice has been made make note of the traits on your sheet, keeping in mind the ability score changes because these will be important later.

Side note, I realize that it is not the best idea to have included a character with a race that is not standard to the game for this section of the article. I did this for other characteristics of the character later in this guide. I have an extensive knowledge of non-standard content for D&D 5e. I recommend for your first character is to stick to the Player’s Handbook. As you get some experience in the hobby there are several resources for finding non-standard playable races.

Step 3: Pick a Background

I was actually shocked when I found this was not found in the PHB guide. This is important because every background actually includes proficiencies and equipment. This is often the most missed aspect of a character during character creation. On occasion I have even forgotten about its existence. Each background includes a description of what it is along with the proficiencies and equipment.

At this point you may run into gaining a skill proficiency that you already have. This can happen if you chose a race that gets a skill proficiency that your background also grants. If this happens then nothing special happens, you don’t get to choose another proficiency, you don’t gain expertise, you do not collect $200, or pass Go.

This is the point that it is usually recommended to fill out the boxes labeled Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws. The background you picked does have some tables that you can look at for suggestions but that is all they are, suggestions. You can take the time to flush out your character more at this point or you can wait until you determine more functionality of your character. Sometimes it is useful to roll stats or pick your class before filling these out as you still might not have a full idea of the character. Filling these out however can also lead to a better idea of what class you want or what ability scores you should focus on.

With Blade-Shield I chose the Soldier background, as I saw them as a war machine of the distant past. Their Personality Traits were that they were logical, which also later becomes bit of a flaw. Their ideals are to protect nature, at the cost of even of themselves. Their bond is that their memory is corrupted and outdated, with the need to fill in all the gaps. Their flaws are a bit more complicated.

Character Flaws

It is easy for us to want to create perfect characters, the ones that can do no wrong and always make the right decision, especially when we first start creating characters. In liter. From experience I have found these characters are not fun. There is no drama when a character always does everything perfectly, it's just not great storytelling. I encourage that everyone come up with some flaw that you will have fun playing with. For Blade-Shield his major flaw is that they cannot distinguish the difference between someone telling the truth and lying, and they remember most everything that characters tell him. This has led to some of the best roleplay experiences I have had in recent memory. This flaw does not have to be major. It could be as simple as hoarding spoons to having the desire to steal anything not nailed down. Whatever makes the most sense for your character, the mightiest of heroes are often more flawed than stories make them out to be.

Step 3.5: Alignment

I include this in a separate step because it can be a heated topic. Recently I have asked players to not put down an alignment, but that is just how we play. Your DM may ask you to put down an alignment. Discussions of the different alignments is too long of a topic for this article, so I will recommend you read this page (PHB pg 122, Basic Rules pg 34).

Step 4: Pick a Class

This step is probably the most important one you will make when it comes to determining your play experience in D&D. This is because a majority of your features you get, and will get, come from your class. Your class even determines when you get ability score improvements. Choosing your class will also determine what ability scores you will want your main focus to be when the time comes to generate ability scores. Overall this isn’t a step to breeze over.

Once you have picked your class this will determine your saving throw proficiencies, skill proficiencies, health, and equipment (I cover this later). Following your elevator pitch (and the personality traits if you have them) to help you choose these. Having picked out your race and background before your class will make sure you don’t have to come back to your skill proficiencies because you accidentally chose one that one of those two already gave you.

With Blade-Shield I had a few options. The main was Druid, but I didn’t feel it fit because of their soldier background and more war-like nature. I decided on a Paladin of the Oath of the Ancients. This is where having a broader knowledge of what is available comes in handy. I knew that his focus would be on strength. I was going to focus less on spell casting as a past player of mine drew me to the idea of the spell-less paladin. Their spell slots were all used for smiting. Blade-Shield’s holy symbol was going to be a flower that had rooted itself on their head, possibly the reason for his malfunctioning. Maybe the flower is controlling them, who knows.

Step 5: Generate Ability Scores

Before you can start making skill checks and saving throws you need your ability scores. Generating these are about the widest range of ways that a player and DM can choose to do. Each DM has their own preferences and you absolutely need to talk to them before going into this. I will cover the variety of ways that one can go about this. Once you have generated your ability scores, make sure to add those racial modifiers you get from the race you picked in Step 2.

Roll for Them

The most common approach I have seen, and I personally use. The core of this is that you use the dice to determine what your ability scores are. The most common way is to roll four d6’s and keep the highest three, six times. You then take those numbers and choose what ability scores you put them in.

Even this is varied. Personally I let players roll two different sets of numbers using the 4d6 drop the lowest six times. I then let the players choose which of the two sets they want to use for their ability scores. I do this to account for edge case rolls, like rolling all ability scores below 10 or all of the scores are completely average. I have also seen the order of rolling for stats determine what ability score they are associated to, leaving the choice out of the players hands.

Standard Array

There exists a magic list of numbers that D&D calls the Standard Array. This is a list of numbers that you can use for the ability scores of a character. This array is:

15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8

Take each of the numbers and assign them to the ability scores of your choice. This is my technique of choice when creating pregenerated characters as it keeps everyone at about the same skill level, and its quicker. You will notice that the difference between this technique and rolling is that the maximum you can get for an ability score is 15 vs the 18 of rolling. This technique is more stable versus the risk that comes with rolling.

Point Buy

A system that I often see used by individuals who love turning character creation into a game of maximizing some abilities is the ability to pick your ability scores using a pool of points. You start with 27 points, and each ability score is worth a different amount of points detailed here:

15 - 9 pts

14 - 7 pts

13 - 5 pts

12 - 4 pts

11 - 3 pts

10 - 2 pts

9 - 1 pts

8 - 0 pts

From here you can generate an entire array of ability scores by “purchasing” each ability score. I personally do not like this system as much, not because of the math involved, but because of the mentality that this type of ability score generation can create. I understand the desire for min-maxing your scores and that it is a variation of fun, it just isn’t what I enjoy having at my table.

Embrace Low Scores

From my experience playing I get upset when I don’t roll a score below 10. Yeah, I love a low score. This goes back to having character flaws, but this is built right into the system. Do you want to be running the big, brute Barbarian? Give him a low Dexterity and laugh when he fails an acrobatics check, or dread when you need to use that acrobatics to save a teammate. Low ability scores create tension and drama. It will give you a sense of joy if you overcome the odds of having a low score. Embrace failure. Embrace the low ability scores.

Determining Modifiers

Remembering modifiers can be difficult if you have not dealt with character generation much. There are a few ways you can look at it. First is with a simple equation: (ability score - 10) ÷ 2 (round down). Second is to remember that every even number above 10 adds one to the modifier, and every odd number below 10 decrease the modifier by one, remembering that the modifier of 10 is +0 (e.g. 12 and 13 are +1, 14 and 15 are +2, 8 and 9 are -1 and 6 and 7 are -2). The last ways is memorization of the table in the PHB pg 13 (Basic Rules pg 7).

Step 5.5: Higher Level Characters

If you are making a character above 1st level you will need to go through the process of leveling up for each level. This may change your starting equipment, talk with your DM to determine what else you get at this level. For new DM’s there is a table in the DMG on pg 38 to help you determine the starting equipment. This will change many of your bonuses for the ability score improvements (if you start at 4th level or above).

Step 6: Equipment

There might be some confusion as to why I waited for equipment until after ability score generation. I choose to do it this way since some of your ability scores will help determine what equipment you choose to take. While each class has a list of equipment that they can choose from, you can alternatively instead roll for starting gold and purchase everything you choose to start with (another reason picking a background first is helpful). All information on the equipment and starting gold starts on PHB pg 143.

For example, if you are a Fighter but have decided that your main score is Dexterity then you may want to pick up a finesse weapon. If you don’t like the starting equipment a class starts with then you taking the purchasing route lets gives you more variety, but you need to keep in mind your class’s proficiencies.

Step 7: Health and Hit Dice

Each class has a listed hit die value. This is the core of how much health you have. At first level your health is equal to the max number on the hit dice ( 6 for a d6, 8 for a d8, etc) plus your Constitution modifier. This hit die value is also your hit die, which you have a total equal to your class level (e.g. if you are a level 3 Barbarian, you have 3 d12 hit dice).

Each time you level, assuming you are creating a character above first level, then you have a choice for how much health you get each level. You can either take the average of your hit die (4 for a d6, 5 for a d8, 6 for a d10, and 7 for a d12) or you can roll that die and take the result. You then add your Constitution modifier to the number you get for that level and increase you maximum health by that much. Repeat this for each level.

Step 8: Filling in Bonuses

For this section there is a general rule to keep in mind: if your class/race augments any of the covered bonuses, the class/race takes precedence over what is listed here. Most of the time these augments are an addition to existing mechanics of the game so keeping note of them is important. Make sure to review all of your racial and class features when going through this section.

Once you have picked up what equipment you want it's time to start filling out them on the sheet. The weapon’s section lets you write down the weapons you have access to, your attack bonus is equal to the ability score associated with the weapon (Dexterity if it is ranged/finesse, Strength for everything else including thrown) plus your proficiency bonus IF you are proficient with the weapon. The damage is the damage die of the weapon plus the ability score associate with the weapon. Your armor determines your armor class (AC) depending on the type of armor that you got. The AC calculation is found on the armor table (PHB pg 145).

Initiative is simple. It is your Dexterity modifier.

For spellcasters you have two numbers to keep in mind: your spellcasting ability modifier and spell save DC. These are listed in your class, but now you have the numbers to fill these in. Several classes also determine the number of spells they can prepare based on an ability score modifier, make sure to keep track of this number if you are one of these classes (you will know from reading the spellcasting section of your class features).

Lastly make sure that any features or abilities that mention an ability score modifier, make sure to fill those in with the modifier (e.g. Dragonborn’s Breath Weapon, Paladin’s Lay on Hands) . This includes skills, which if you are proficient in you also get to add your proficiency bonus to as well. Treat saving throws the same as skills when generating bonuses. One number associated to your skills you may see on your character sheet is the Passive Perception. This number is simply 10 plus the Perception bonus you have.

Conclusion

That should be everything! It seems like a lot, but hopefully this guide will help you learn the process of creating a character, not just filling out the form.

[nerdolopedia-blog]

Improve Your Storytelling by Learning from Dark Souls

[Artwork Credit: From Software]

After sitting down and beating Shadow of the Colossus I realize that I learn so much about storytelling from the media I consume. So I want to start a new series on how to improve your storytelling by learning from some examples. As the title suggests, this first one I am going to be using my favorite video game series: Dark Souls.

I would like to take this notoriously difficult game and talk about its storytelling. I don’t expect you to run out and play the game or to “git gud scrub”, because I am aware that the game is not for everyone and some people just will not get better at the game. It requires timing, careful observation, and memorization that some individuals are just not suited to enjoy. Even if you can’t enjoy the gameplay, I encourage you to head over to the YouTube channel VaatiVidya to learn the lore of the game. We even have a playthrough of the first game on our own YouTube channel, but it is quite dated.

Opening Cutscene

This cutscene is one of my favorites to watch. I will watch it over and over again just because I enjoy it. Apart from that it plays an incredibly important role for the player: it introduces them into the world itself. This is generally the point of the opening cutscene, but Dark Souls sets its tone very well. If you have studied Dark Souls lore then you will also notice that their word choice is very specific. It sets up that there are four major characters that influence the world of Dark Souls, and that an age is ending. You get a little bit of history but not enough to get the whole picture which is something that will repeat itself for the rest of the Souls games.

What you can learn from this is that it is paramount to setting up your world and including only the information your players/readers will need. In tabletop games it is the session 0. For books this is usually spread through the first several chapters or even in an prologue. Leave just enough missing to keep your consumers interested and wanting to know more.

The Undead Asylum

This is the tutorial region of the first game and quite honestly the reason I tell people to play the first Dark Souls games before playing the others. It is well crafted to make sure you understand the mechanics of the game. However that is not what I’m going to be covering. Instead it is the introduction of your character, your interactions with the Oscar of Astora, and the level design. This is largely because it has the most raw and immediate showcases of the design of Dark Souls.

Character Introduction

After you get a dump of information about the world you are suddenly pulled into a prison. From here you hear the narrator say:

“Yes, indeed. The Darksign brands the Undead. And in this land, the Undead are corralled and led to the north, where they are locked away, to await the end of the world... This is your fate.”

You also get to see your character locked in a cell. This shows you where you are, it plants you into the world they just finished setting up for you. The specific line “This is your fate” is key, because it makes it personal, and actually drives home an interesting point later on that I will cover.

Oscar, Knight of Astora

I will not be covering every NPC you come across in this game. That is just way too much work and honestly more fun if you figure them out yourself (or just go watch the videos). This NPC sets the theme of how other NPCs will communicate with you. Your first interaction with him is in a cutscene where he is dropping a body into your cell. Not just any body either, the one with the very key to your cell. The game says nothing about it. No words. Just actions. When you later speak with him you gain a little more insight into why he might have done that but immediately you know that he is an ally. This hammers home another point, that actions are louder than words. His motives may be confusing but you didn’t need some cheesy dialogue of him saying “I’m here to help.” or “Don’t be alarmed. I’m a friend.”

Later on you will encounter him behind a wall with no entrances, lying in a pile of rubble. It is only until you trigger a trap (and you will trigger it) that the way opens up. In fact you can’t proceed without talking to him, he has the key to the door. For dungeon masters this is a technique you can use to direct your players towards certain person or location. This gate ensures that the player will interact with him. When you speak with him he appears to be dying and he tells you about a prophecy from his land assuming you don’t say no(your first real goal in the game!). Based on his first interactions and the information you learn from him, it seems that he is purposely letting Undead out in attempts to fulfill the prophecy. Just as his dialog finishes up he says “I would hate to harm you after death… So, go now…” He directly says that more happens after you die. Later on in the game you can return, and if you come back to where he dies he will attack you being true to his word. For the rest of Dark Souls a large majority of your quests will be conveyed this way. There is no quest tracker, there isn’t even a journal to recall what NPCs said. You listen to their words and you go, some events will unfold with our without your participation, some will not happen if you don’t participate.

His death is not an epic one, in fact it doesn’t even happen when you are nearby. At this point you may have noticed that you acquire souls (the ingame currency) when you kill something. As you walk away you hear the noise from when you pick up souls, even if you didn’t kill anything. This is the indicator that Oscar has died. Through its mechanics, through the simple obtaining of an item/currency, the game has told you “He’s dead”.

Level Design

One thing I love about the Souls series are their levels. They are beautiful if not confusing sometimes, but they are carefully thought out. No detail added is one wasted. In the undead asylum you can catch a glimpse of this walking out of your cell. If you look to the right you will see a massive creature. Later you will find out that his is a demon, one that is keeping you from leaving the Asylum. You will also notice near the end bars that have been bent inward and a corpse stuck to it. This implies that the demon caused this damage, or is the most likely candidate. They chose carefully what you saw and where you saw it, because it speak volumes about what is going on in the world. A guard near a well may be surveying the street, but if that well is in an unpopulated area then what could that say about the guard? Is he waiting for someone? Is someone he knows down in the well? Just placing a character in a location can raise so many questions and pique curiosities.

We are going to take a step back to talk about Oscar again, but this time it’s about the area you find him in. When you first see Oscar he is on the roof of the asylum. The very next time he is in a room with no open doors in a pile of rubble with a hole in the ceiling. You discover this after encountering the Asylum Demon boss for the first time who just so happen to drop from the ceiling wielding a massive hammer. Not to mention Oscar is about to die. Since you have encounter nothing else so far that powerful the best guess is that the Asylum Demon fatally injured him. Once again, no words just placement and small details to tell a story. A story that unfolded while you were wandering out of your cell.

The Crestfallen Knight and Knowledge Gaps

This is the last NPC I will be covering as he hammers home another point. This is the first NPC you find when you first get out of the Undead Asylum and make it to Firelink Shrine. When speaking with the Crestfallen Knight he makes it clear that you are not the first “Chosen Undead” and that there is not just one “Bell of Awakening” but two, good luck scrub. He even tells you where they are. This informs us that the information we have might not be complete, which is the entire direction that Dark Souls takes with its lore. There are gaps in really inconvenient places for our curiosity, some so obviously placed that it seems that we are meant to fill in some of the lore ourselves, tell our own stories about what transpired.

This is by design. The creator, Hidetaka Miyazaki, used to read fantasy books as a child but was unable to understand or read everything that was going on in the books. In a way he was building his own story using the gaps in the books. He brought this love of filling in the gaps and of reading fantasy to his designs of Dark Souls. While there is a lot you can infer, that is all you can do. Any hard evidence of actual events or intentions are all covered by placement of characters or items.

Items and Placement

If you have ever searched through your inventory in a game you sort of expect that there is a description somewhere that talks about what the item does. In the case of Dark Souls not only do they describe (sometimes poorly) what an item does but also some backstory to it. If you blaze through an area and pick up some unique item and run off to read it later you might miss some of the context in which the item is referring to. Later on in Anor Londo (city of the gods, go look it up) there is a broken window in a cathedral giving you access. Near the floor (because you are near the ceiling in this bit) there is a body with a set of armor on it. That armor just so happens to belong to an NPC that you can summon to help you get into Anor Londo. It might seem like coincidence, but fan theories speculate that when he passed through here he broke the window and fell to his death because of his heavy armor. Once again all the story needed was some items on a corpse in the right places.

Now you probably don’t want to write the history of an entire item into the story for everything your characters or players interact with. There is another good piece of media that showcases this very idea however: Lord of the Rings. While you the reader know the history (or some of the history) of the ring, the characters only have a few clues to go off of and certain other characters that do know more about it. Imaging picking up a magic item only for it to give you visions. Taking it to town you end up talking to a dealer about selling it only for them to be terrified of it, claiming that it has a dark past that involves a tyrant of an age past. For more answers you must head to the Dwarven city that forged the item. These bits of detail can add more depth to your world and create new quests and theories about the world around you.

The Player Character IS the Player

As I mentioned earlier the narrator says “This is your fate”, not “This is the story of Bullshrimp the Undead Knight”. This is their hint that the character you are playing is you. A concept that keeps coming up in the game is the idea of Hollowing, which more or less is an undead losing their mind and losing all sense of their former selves. This seems to be a key mechanic of the world but your character never seems to experience it or have to struggle with it themselves. That is because the game doesn’t have to handle that for you. You are already handling it. The challenge of the game keeps beating you down, making you want to rage quit or losing your mind from trying to do the same thing and always failing. The moment you set down the controller and quit Dark Souls your character has gone Hollow. The main sources that cause an undead to go Hollow in Dark Souls is that they lose purpose, they lose drive, they give up.

Discovering this idea about the game blew my mind. I think it's the point that really made me fall in love with the game. The story had become about my own struggle against challenges. I got to weave my own story. This is something I’m not entirely sure that a book is able to convey, at least not easily. Tabletop RPGs on the other hand do exactly this. The best storying telling you can do at your table is to make the story about the characters, make the players struggle with their own decisions and challenges. Make it personal. It’s one thing to save a town from a dragon. It’s another to save your hometown from a dragon. Convince your players that they are their characters using the story and the world.

Conclusion

Now I have rambled on for over 2000 words about tiny details and how they can be used for interesting storytelling in an incredibly difficult game whose lore is hard to find and even harder to understand. It is a game of intense concentration and an expectation of commitment and skill that not everyone can enjoy. I won’t admit that it is the greatest game of all time, or that it is the paragon of storytelling. It is difficult for me to dismiss however how the lore and gameplay have pulled me in. Not all media should be targeted for all audiences. The bigger the audience the harder it is to keep everyone satisfied. From Software chose a specific gameplay and accepted that not everyone would play it. There is much that you can learn from it, and even get some inspiration for your own stories.

You can find me on twitter @your1_nightmare. If you enjoy the material on this site please consider supporting us! If you think I missed something or you would like me to cover something specific make sure to leave a comment below or contact me on twitter.

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Picking up the Pace: How to Speed Up Your Combats

The game where a three hour walk takes five minutes and a five minute fight takes three hours. If you have played D&D by the books you know just how accurate this can really be. For some individuals this is absolutely a blast. Combat can be an engaging and entertaining part of the game. However it is only one portion of the game and for some of us, myself included, the way combat normally plays out is far too long.

This is not to say that combat is not entertaining. In fact it has some of the greatest moments I have experienced in games. There are times however that I wish more time would be spent exploring the world and interacting with the characters within the game.

Less is More

Simply put, use the least number of enemies as you can, with the least variation. The problem is that is contradicts what can make a combat exciting and challenging. What is interesting is that this is the same issue that video game developers also come up against. There is a series that I bring up a lot when it comes to combats because in my opinion it is elegantly designed: Dark Souls. I encourage you to play through the game or watch a playthrough and pay attention to each of the “encounters”.

Something interesting you might notice is that there are rarely more than three unique creature types during a fight and yet the game manages to create some truly challenging encounters. In this situation I do not include weapon loadouts to uniquely identify enemies. This is one way you can give variety to the enemy and still group them together. You don’t need a bunch of different types of creatures to create interesting encounters. The more you can combine into a single turn the quicker resolving their actions occur.

Include Multiple Resolutions

A similar concept is in game design, giving your players multiple exit points. A way to reduce the time of combat is to give several options for players to resolve the conflict that is not just a trading of blows. It is far too easy for a DM to forget that the creatures the players fight would consider themselves living beings and have some form of self preservation. Not every fight needs to result  in a complete elimination. A group of bandits would be more interested in preserving their own life than fighting to the death.

For unintelligent creatures this will require some creativity. Many creatures will also be driven by self preservation or more primal desires. A pack of wolves would also retreat if the meal is too much for them to handle. Some creatures can be distracted with food, or tricked into going away. Sometimes your players will come up a creative solution. Feel free to reward them on occasion, especially if the idea is inspiring.

Variable Health and the Finishing Blow

If you are like me as a DM then you don’t reveal the statistics of the creatures that you use, and even if the players know the stats my players have been made aware that I change up the stats as I see fit. With this in mind there is no way for the players to know the exact statistics of the creature except through trial and error. Therefore stats that change over time are impossible for the players to determine. Health is the main stat that is in flux more than anything. With that in mind you actually have zero need to write down the actual health of a creature. This lets you on the fly determine if a fight has gone on too long or seems to have been too short. Some people may complain that this gives far too much power to the DM. This comes from playing with DM’s that see themselves as the enemy of the players.

A helpful way to determine the finishing blow is to pay attention to the character’s actions. There are some moments during a fight, especially in boss fights, where a player chooses to use a one time use feature, or a super powerful choice. It is these points in a fight in which the players are waiting in anticipation, hoping that their attack is the finishing blow. This is a great exit point that you can take. If you feel that the fight has gone on for long enough, then give your players the satisfaction of landing that epic finishing blow.

Decrease Health, Increase Damage

I know I just got done talking about not tracking health, but the amount of health a creature has is a way to track the amount of time that a combat will take. Resistances and immunities slow that time down and vulnerabilities speed up the time. Increasing armor also increases this time. By reducing the amount of health that a creature has you essentially speed up the combat, or, if you are going by variable health this essentially comes down to the number of rounds you want the combat to last. My ideal is roughly three rounds.

This creates another issue which is easy to fix. The problem becomes that the creature does not do enough damage during the combat in order to make it a threat. By increasing the creature’s damage output you increase the risk and challenge of the creature. This can be a bit of a challenge to implement properly if you are not well aware of what your players can handle or if you plan to throw a bunch of encounters at them in a row. This type of combat can be great if the players are given time between fights to recover.

Better Descriptions/Using a Map

One of the biggest roadblocks to player decisions is a lack of understanding of the current situation. Your goal as a DM is to convey the situation in the best and most accurate way of the information that your players have to work with. Word choice is paramount. Fewer words are better, but they need to be clear and descriptive. If you create a sprawling narrative and describe the history of every stone, your players are going to struggle to remember all the details. This isn’t to say your players are not intelligent, but you still want to decrease the cognitive load on them so they can make more accurate and informed decisions.

This is where maps come in. We gather a lot of our information from our senses, it is what we as creatures use to survive. Since we are so good at translating this information you will want to present as much of the information as you can using the senses we have available. Maps trigger our vision, and we can directly see where everything is in relation to “ourselves”. I do not use a grid during my games, however I will still employ maps so everyone has a layout of the area. Even if you cannot afford the fancy terrain or the time, getting a wet erase mat (like one of these) you can draw out a quick map of the area, throw some dice where the players and enemies are, and you have a quick and easy representational map to help your players.

Simplify Initiative

I covered my variation on initiative, but this isn’t the only solution. Rolling for initiative and determine when each person goes can in fact slow down your combat. Making it so everyone is aware of who goes ensures that transitions between turns goes more smoothly since everyone is helping. Keeping players informed when their turn is will give them ample time to plan what they are going to do, reducing the time needed to think during their turn.

Another alternative to initiative is to have predetermined initiative rolls. For 5e this is as simple as assuming everyone rolls a 10 and adding their initiative modifier to the roll. Ties are determined the same, and any advantage one gets to initiative gives them a +5. This solidifies when each person goes and reduces the time getting into combat.

Roll Damage with the Attack

This is a simple time saving technique that DM’s and players can perform alike. During the sequence of play when a player or DM rolls an attack, roll the damage with it. It makes that period of time between saying when the attack hits or miss and when damage is calculated shorter. This is helpful if your fights take numerous turns and players/creatures have multiple attacks. It will not save a ton of time, but a little bit goes a long way.

This also works for spells that deal damage even if the target succeeds on the saving throw. As the player or DM is rolling the saving throw, roll the damage on the spell. This makes it so you can get an immediate response when the creature succeeds or fails. Even if the creature or player has an ability like Evasion (take no damage on a successful save, and half on a failed) it is better to have it and not need it.

In the end the only thing you can strive for is to cut down on unnecessary downtime (downtime caused by mechanics not downtime in the adventure) and reducing cognitive load on the players. For each group there may be a different challenge for you to overcome and not all of what I have suggested may work at your table. It is up to you as the DM to make the call and experiment to get the right balance.

You can find me on twitter @your1_nightmare. If you enjoy the material on this site please consider supporting us! If you think I missed something or you would like me to cover something specific make sure to leave a comment below or contact me on twitter.

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Why I Stopped Using Initiative

“Everyone, roll for initiative.”

Probably the most iconic phrase we hear in Dungeons & Dragons. It is seems to be a core mechanic that everyone is looking to modify and debate over how best to accomplish it. I have read countless articles on the topic and even attempted to dive into creating my own initiative system.

That was until I can across an article by The Angry GM. I do not know which article it was, and I have searched high and low for it. At its core he presented a thought I had never once decided to consider: why not just remove initiative? (If anyone comes across this article please feel free to send it my way or put it in the comments so I can properly cite it here.)

So I took the steps to removing initiative from my table. At first my players were skeptical but after a few attempts the system we chose worked well. The main point for me writing this article is to explain why and how I go about running a game of D&D 5e without the initiative system, because to be honest I’ve had so many people ask me how and why that this just makes sense.

What do you do instead?

This the first question I get asked when I bring up not using initiative. The short answer is: nothing. That answer is boring and has no meat. First I have to explain how games at my table play out. Overall my players are more roleplay focused than they are combat focused. I lost count of the number of times I set up a combat encounter just for the players to talk their way out of the fight or end it before it even began. Sure I could totally force a combat on my players, and I certainly have, but I also give them opportunities to stop the combat short from a narrative stance (e.g. seducing tavern goers from starting a fight, or using mass suggestion to make everyone non-violent).

With this in mind the initiative system causes a lot of problems for me. So instead I have each round of combat play out where everyone decides what turns they take, while I interrupt with what the enemies/allies decide to do. At the surface it might sound like the table would descend into chaos with everyone arguing with who should go first and that louder voices are going to go first. Luckily that doesn’t happen and its largely because of me. It is true that louder voices at the table have the upper hand in this system, but that isn’t the case when the loudest voice at the table is the Dungeon Master. All that changes is that the DM is no longer making sure whose turn it is, but rather that everyone has had a chance to go each round.

This system does have its flaws. It could be very unstable in an online game where you are not able to read body language as easily (and no, webcams actually don’t help much with this). In the hands of a particularly spiteful DM this system could be used disproportionally against the players. This system has to be used with the mentality of the DM that it is not them versus their players, but rather that you are crafting a better experience for them. This system also pulls away from a more rules heavy game, which some individuals prefer. You need to know your players and communicate effectively to them in order for this to work. A mutual agreement at the table has to be established.

I do ask my players to keep initiative written down but only for the sake of player versus player combat when going first is absolutely essential and I want to be impartial.If a player becomes mind controlled when they go becomes the Dungeon Master’s decision. This is simply to remove the ability for players to game when they have to do something against their character’s wishes.

What is wrong the normal Initiative system?

Overall there is nothing inherently wrong with the existing initiative system. It serves a very specific style of play. However, people like to meet different expectations with how combat is ordered. I like my games to be far more narrative. Lots of my combats are gridless and often mapless, or as the favored phrase is: Theater of the Mind. It helps save on resources and can be particularly effective for Actual Play podcasts since there is an absence of a visual component.

What The Angry GM pointed out in that article was the sudden disconnect that everyone gets the moment everyone is asked to roll for initiative. If you have ever played a Pokemon game or the older turn based Final Fantasy games you already know this disconnect. The moment you ask to roll for initiative everyone’s brain switches over to combat mode. They are no longer playing “a bunch of adventures existing in the world” they are “a bunch of adventurers going to beat the crap out of X”. It suddenly feels like a different game.

The transition between in-combat and out-of-combat is my main issue with the entire system. When do you declare combat starts? When do you say its over? What if they want to negotiate mid battle? The existing system does not make for a narrative way to handle the pausing, starting, and stopping of combat. It doesn’t break the surprise round either because then the outcome just occurs as normal. If the combat doesn’t end in one side getting completely wiped what do you do? If one side decides to flee do you call combat over when the party is incapable of catching them, or when the opposing party flees? What if the players try to flee? The current system encourages that everyone stays for every fight and wipe the entirety of their opposition out. While those fights are satisfying, I see it as a burden to get other outcomes.

The existing system also does not work well for coordinated actions. What if you want you and an ally to flank the bugbear to put him at a disadvantage (and grant yourselves advantage)? You have to work with your GM on making sure you do the right set of actions, like using the Ready action to do what you want and maybe fudge the rules. Removing that restriction lets for more creative cooperation between your players without having to house rule a patch to the existing system.

You are stealing opportunities from your players!

I actually had someone say this at me during one of our livestreams. I have not taken anything away from my players. The only time I may have cheated a player was when I failed to keep track that she had not gone, which you can’t say hasn’t happened using initiative either. We still do combats in rounds, so any abilities that end during a certain point during a turn or round still ends how it would, it is just more up to the player when that occurs.

I am aware that there are bonuses that some individuals get to initiative based on feats or class abilities. The way I handle this is that I am more likely to ask that player first what they are going to do than the other players each round. Even with those bonuses you are not always guaranteed to go first anyhow. The point of this system is to give more control to the players over the order of combat rather than restricting them, so I also remind the players of this before they make a choice that would grant them such an ability.

Final Thoughts

I have had quite a few discussions on the top of initiative and this concept often comes with people being skeptical. I completely understand, this is something that everyone sees as core to Dungeons & Dragons, but I do not believe that is reason enough for me to keep it. Every time I discuss this I try to remind people that this works at my table, but it might not at everyone else’s. I also do not use this system with newcomers to the hobby, they already don’t know the game so I try to not to set them up for misunderstanding when I am not sitting behind the DM screen at their table.

By no means do I think initiative is a horrible mechanic. In a situation where you don’t know the other players or you are just getting to know them, it keeps one of the most suspenseful parts of the game impartial. It is one less thing to argue over. It brings order to what could be a chaotic situation especially if all you can hear are each other's’ voices. For those massive dungeon crawls, or combat heavy games where your only goal is to get to the end and kill all the monsters in your way, initiative works just fine.

You can find me on twitter @your1_nightmare. If you enjoy the material on this site please consider supporting us! If you think I missed something or you would like me to cover something specific make sure to leave a comment below or contact me on twitter.

Featured Image Credit: Wizards of the Coast

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Traps, Triggers, and Puzzles 5

If you missed the first of this series you should go back and read it. In short, I am gathering a collection of traps, triggers, and puzzles for new GM's to use for their dungeons. Hopefully these elements will help you in constructing your dungeons, or at least provide a spark of inspiration.

I am using the following definitions for my vocabulary:

Trap – A nonliving danger that is posed to the players that are activated with a trigger.

Trigger – A mechanism that activates some effect, both beneficial and hazardous.

Puzzle – An obstacle that requires a series of actions to complete, usually involving a level of intellectual challenge.

Trap: Sand

Anyone who has seen an action adventure movie in the desert has probably seen the trap of a room filling up with sand. You also probably think of quicksand in the jungle. The sad part about these are how horribly inaccurate their dangers are. Here is the best part, who cares? If the dangers in the movies seem hazardous then it is good enough for your game. I'm not here to tell you how you are using sand wrong. If your players argue about how it works, just say it works that way because of magic. You are building tension and danger, realism be damned.

Sand is notoriously hard to climb, a slope of sand is harder to climb than dirt. The sand shifts making movement hard. Even if the trap isn't the sand room or quicksand, then its possible this trap could impose difficult terrain. Being submerged in sand can also risk suffocation. Remember the Disney movie Aladdin? There is a scene where Princess Jasmine was trapped in an hourglass and she begins to be submerged in sand. Can you imagine a sand elemental that suffocates people sneaking up on the players? Sand is fluid enough to be used in all sorts of interesting ways.

Trap: Poisonous Gas

I think we all know the dangers of poisonous gas. It is featured in so many movies that one example isn't good enough to cover what can be done with poisonous gas. The best part about it is that there are as many varieties of poisonous gas as there are poisons (go figure). They can come in the form of sleep gas to fear gas like Scarecrow's from Batman, to just a gas that kills people.

To keep in mind, poisonous gas can be used to mess with the players head, it doesn't have to do damage. Maybe it makes the characters see all creatures nearby as shadow creatures or monsters. Perhaps they see things that are not there. It can debilitate a character and cause chaos.

Trigger: Motion

As a trigger this is a fairly modern one. Home security lights use motion detection to activate. It is surprising how little this type of detection occurs in our fantasy tabletop games, or maybe I haven’t simply noticed it. In a world with magic, why wouldn’t we have this option? The idea is pretty simple and you don’t have to explain how the magic works, just that it does.

You can also choose for the effect to trigger with a lack of motion. The trap or object in the room isn’t triggered so long as you keep moving. This would be effective when chained with another trigger. This could form a gauntlet where the players want to keep moving in fear of activating the traps but want to stop to overcome other obstacles.

This can be used with great effect if you change the amount of time that the trigger is active. For example you might have a magical eye symbol that when it appears open detects any and all movement. When closed creatures are free to move about the space without triggering it.

The degree of motion can also be changed. It could range from any minute movement, possibly requiring a save to remain motionless, to as long as the players move at least one square on each turn. The possibilities are up to you.

Trigger: Heat

This is another trigger that I have gained inspiration from the modern age. In many homes your furnace or air conditioner go through cycles of activity and inactivity depending on the temperature of the room it is set to. This same principal could very much be applied to a room. In order to activate the trigger one would have to increase or decrease the temperature in a space. Players could do this by using torches or putting out flames.

This idea could be used at the core of a dungeon (a fire and ice themed one is springing to my mind). The heat of one area could affect another area, creating different zones of temperature control. This trigger has the advantage of being on a scale as well, where it's not either on or off. This means you could potentially have multiple triggers in one space. This could create a gauntlet of challenges the players must face as they work to change the temperature in a room. The challenges might even try to reverse the change in temperature.

Puzzle: Chess of Minimum Pieces

This puzzle, as the name implies, would require some knowledge of how chess works. To start the players enter an area where the width of the room is filled with a massive empty chess board. The goal is that the players want to cross the chess board, but the area is enchanted that the players must play the game by the rules. If a player deviates from the rules, an electric shock is delivered by a spell. When a player steps into one of the squares on the chess board (or attempts to fly over it), they are restricted to that square until a piece appears on the other side of the board opposite of the square the player stood. Once the piece appears, the player may only move in the way that piece that appeared would move. Their goal is to make it to the opposite side of the board. Each side takes its turn and only one piece can move. If a player’s movement would normally remove the piece in chess, then the piece is destroyed (either literally by the player, or by magic). If an opponent piece would take out a player, they take a large amount of damage before they are teleported off the board.

The key to the challenge of this puzzle is to not reveal the rules up front. The rules reveal the simplest answer: choose the Queen square, or one of the Rook Squares. This ensures that your next move lets you take out the other piece and gets you across the board without harm. This challenge also increases if several players enter the board at the same time, as now only one player can move per “turn”. It also becomes more challenging if players are taken out by the opponent pieces. The simplest form of this requires only one person to cross the board to succeed at the challenge.

A variation of this puzzle is to randomize the piece that appears in front of them when they step on the board. My recommendation is to not allow players to become a pawn, as the movements of the pawns is boring, and results in a stalemate without other players to take out a pawn. The randomization of pieces is a way to add an additional challenge to a puzzle the group may have already encountered in the past.

You can introduce this randomization at any point as long as you do not reveal the rules. If a player suddenly discovers the answer but you don’t want your players to just repeat his steps exactly, then introduce the randomization to make sure there is still some challenge.

Puzzle: Deceiver

Blocking a path forward is a massive stone golem who seems to fit the door frame perfectly. It is made out of incredibly durable material and not easily destroyed. However, the golem is not hostile to the party and in fact is quite unintelligent and forgetful. The only thing the golem remembers is the appearance of its master, and its master and guests are the only ones who are permitted to pass. On top of that the master must be present to proceed. Upon meeting the golem it says the words “You are not master. Only master and his guests may pass.”

The solution to this puzzle can vary on the scenario in which it is placed. While the golem is unintelligent it would not just spout off a description of its master, trivializing the puzzle entirely for anyone with a disguise self or alter self spell. Instead the players need to coax certain information about who their master is or what they look like. If the players lack a real way of disguising themselves on their own person, you can introduce items into the dungeon that would be sufficient to have the golem let the party pass. It is entirely possible that you could get the owner of the golem to let you through as well. The attention to detail of the golem is entirely up to the DM for how they want to integrate it into their dungeon for their players.

I hope these traps, triggers, and puzzles give you the inspiration you need for your games. If you take any of these ideas and use them in your games, please let me know! I am always curious to find out how players overcome the challenges presented to them.

You can find me on twitter @your1_nightmare. If you enjoy the material on this site please consider supporting us! If you think I missed something or you would like me to cover something specific make sure to leave a comment below or contact me on twitter.

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Take a Breather - Character Downtime

It is a well known fact that it is important for us as human beings to stop working and take a break. Vacation and downtime are incredibly important for our mental health. Stress has a huge impact on our bodies. Too much of it can cause depression, sleep problems, weight issues, and physical pain just to name a few. This is something that I have actually had to deal with quite prevalently in my real life.

If all my stress comes from running Nerdolopedia and going to work, imagine the kind of stress that adventurers experience on a regular basis. Not just that, but your players will want to take a break from all the combat and looting to get their characters rested and purchase and sell items and equipment from their recent travels. Also, who doesn't love a good tavern brawl to pass the time. It is also incredibly important for players to bond in ways that don’t involve deadly traps and monsters trying to eat you.

Difference Between Downtime and Adventures

Where do you draw the line between downtime and an adventure? One person might say that it's when your immediate goal is a quest. That definition can be blurred by the player having a long term goal and trying to get as much information about it. They want to find the Lost Sword of Marmalade! Is going to the local library and spending the day in research considered an adventure or downtime?

It's not an easy distinction to make, and not being able to define that makes it difficult to plan for. I have come up with my own definition. Downtime is the time when the actions of the party do not advance the plot of the "active" campaign. The "active" campaign is the quest or story line that is directly in front of them.

In our D&D stream the party was tasked with finding the corpses of a dead merchant's family that had been stolen from the crypt. That was the party's "active" campaign, even though the campaign revealed more questions and personal quests, those were not the "active" campaign. So downtime was anything that they did that didn't get them closer to finishing their job...this included getting drunk and going skydiving.

This also meant that after they resolved the active campaign that the game immediately went into downtime. They started buying items and doing research. Visiting friends and giving them news of their recent travels. It gives me the best opportunity to get them going to the next active campaign.

Running Downtime

Downtime during an active campaign actually requires little other effort on your part aside from possibly having to come up with NPC names and places that you never thought the player would go. Largely, your job as the GM is to be the world, as it normally is, but be very reactive to the things your players want to do with their downtime. If they want to shop for an item you determine how difficult it is to find or who they have to talk to. You also enforce if they have to roleplay with NPC's to accomplish certain tasks.

Running downtime is an exercise in improv GMing. Unless you have every store, tavern, and house filled with NPC's descriptions and plot hooks you are going to have to learn to make up content on the fly. This is mainly a result of players being given near unlimited options as to what they do with no fixed goal in front of them. With most adventures you know the players goals, you know the different ways it resolves. With downtime that is not always the case. Usually, it will come down to the most open ended question, "What do you want to do now?" For the GM's that plan everything, this is going to be your worst nightmare. I recommend creating some random charts you can roll on to fill out details, and know how much magic items cost. Instead of planning everything in your world, just give yourself the tools to generate as much of it as you can on the fly. As with everything to being a GM, ask your players out of game what they plan to do the next session. That will at least give you a starting point for where they plan to go and what they plan to do.

Try Getting Players to Experience it Together

There is nothing like getting players and their characters to bond than having a few drinks, getting wasted, and beating up everyone in the tavern. Support players going and performing downtime activities together, but don't try and force it. This is where you be much more lenient with the rules and let your players go wild. All of the crazy stories you hear people say, "that one time when we got drunk and found that sled," are the kind of moments you want your players to have, this is called "bonding." You might even be able to reveal an NPC important to a later plot, or have an NPC they did something to come back to bite them. The best part is that if the players experience downtime activities together, there is less you have to improvise.

The wonderful thing about groups is that people are fantastic at bouncing ideas off one another. If one player has an idea for something, the other player(s) might have something even better to add to it. It brings up the opportunity of players spending entire portions of the game with you the GM just sitting there watching the players unfold events only asking you for the world's reaction to it. Let me tell you, as a story focused GM, that is one of the greatest feelings in the world.

Plot Hooks

At some point, you will want to pull your players out of downtime and back into an adventure. This is where you take those adventure ideas you have and find a way to present them to the characters. After a quick twitter poll I will actually be writing up some adventure hooks for future articles.

However, one thing to keep in mind for plot hooks is that when you hook the players, you don't pull them out of downtime like a fish. The players will want to pursue the adventure regardless, but they might have some other things they want to take care of. If they don't take up your new adventure make sure to write up some changes that happen each day they choose not to take it up, maybe even an expiration date. This makes it so your world moves with or without the players. Adding expiration dates allows you to plan for if your player's don't like a plot hook put in front of them, and how the world reacts to the player rejection of the call to action.

Expect the Chance of Not Rolling Dice

I have run entire sessions of downtime where the players have not once rolled dice. Normally, you think of Dungeons & Dragons as everything being controlled by the roll of the dice. In my opinion, when a session goes without rolling dice with events still occurring I call it a win in my book. This isn't because I didn't have to come up with DC's, but because the actions that transpired were resolved without the need for an extra mechanic.

Rolling the dice is when the degrees of success or failure matter. When doing a job for an NPC you might have them make a roll to see how well they performed, having the NPC pay them according to how well they did. Convincing a shop keep to give up the +3 Flaming Raging Sword of Destruction for a thousand gold less than he is selling it might end in him telling you no. Not everything has varying degrees of success. You don't need to have your players roll to see how well rested their characters feel after spending the day relaxed on a beach somewhere, you let them decide the effect it has on their character.

I've outlined a lot of what you will need to prepare yourself for running downtime. If I could cover everything you would possibly encounter with downtime then I would. However there are some awesome resources you can use to help cover some things. Wizards of the Coast put out this Downtime article in their Unearthed Arcana articles. It has supplemental rules for determining outcomes of certain downtime activities, rolls, and possible foils that the players will end up dealing with. Hopefully, you have found this information useful and if you have any awesome downtime stories of your own please be sure to throw them at me in a tweet or leave them in the comments below.

You can find me on twitter @your1_nightmare. If you enjoy the material on this site please consider supporting us! If you think I missed something or you would like me to cover something specific make sure to leave a comment below or contact me on twitter.

[nerdolopedia-blog]

A Beginners Resource Guide to D&D 5th Edition - For New Players and Dungeon Masters

I have to remind myself on occasion that not everyone dives as much into the world of D&D on their free time as myself. I spend a ton of my time listening, watching, and reading different sources talking about rules, news, and DMing techniques. Even writing my articles causes me to consolidate my understanding of the game and improve upon it through my own writing. One could say I am absolutely obsessed with playing and running D&D.

Because of this I have run into a few individuals who don't know what it is that I am talking about when discussing a resource I have found for the game, or some blog/podcast that discusses these topics. The original rendition of this article was going to be a Dungeon Masters Resource Guide, but I realized that the line between DM and player when it came to resources was very blurred. So to anyone who is just joining the community or even just want to get a taste to see if it's for them I have one thing to say:

Welcome!

Community is the most important part of this hobby. My hope with this guide is to give you the resources you need to accomplish your goal. Even if you have never sat down at a table and picked up a character sheet this will give you everything you need to play the game, and more!

The Essentials

Before I can get into some of the niche resources I have to lay the groundwork. Everything in this section is the bare minimum you need to play and run a game of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (D&D 5e). The best part is that all of these are free or have a free alternative.

Basic Rules

Wizards of the Coast (WotC or Wizards), the folks who design and sell D&D, have provided the basic rules for the game free of charge on their website. The contents of these rules are the bare minimum that you will need both to play the game and the starting resources you will want as an upcoming Dungeon Master (DM).

Basic Rules - http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules

Character Sheets

As a new player you probably won't be jumping into creating your own character sheet templates (but who knows you might surprise me). Luckily you won't need the Players Handbook in order to get a copy. You can download all of the character sheets Wizards has designed for the game. There are a few alternatives and some that are form fillable for those that like to keep their character sheets digital. They also provide some pregenerated character sheets if you don't feel like creating one of your own.

Character Sheets - http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/character_sheets

Dice

This is the resource that many of us in the community treat like tattoos, you can't have just one set. While it is absolutely satisfying to have a physical set of dice to roll there are plenty of digital options. Some of the resources I will mention later even contain their own digital dice rollers. I am going to make the assumption first that you are playing with some friends in person and don't want to buy dice just yet. Both Android and Apple have free dice roller options. I will note that my recommendations for Apple are purely off of reviews and not experience, I don't use Apple products.

DnDice for Android - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.christian.bar.dndice&hl=en

Dice Ex Machina for iOS - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dice-ex-machina/id410002278?mt=8

Really Nice to Have

Now if you have gotten the bug and are ready to really dive into the game you'll want more options. From here it's not guaranteed that things will be free, but if you are looking to get these then you are probably willing to drop some money, or add it to a wishlist.

Starter Set

As the name suggests this is for starters. This $20 box contains everything you need in order to play a full adventure. Inside is a set of dice, five pregenerated characters, a copy of the basic rules, and The Lost Mines of Phandelver adventure booklet. If you and your friends want to get into D&D this is a perfect way to go. This box is actually how I got my start into the game. For the price tag it has, this is an amazing deal for such an easy entrance into the game.

Starter Set - http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/rpg_starterset

Player's Handbook (PHB)

Every player buying into D&D will want to start with this. While most of the rules in this book are in the Basic Rules, the PHB contains a ton more classes, races, backgrounds, and the optional feat rules. It goes into more detail what the Basic Rules covered and has several amazing pieces of artwork. Having a physical copy of the book can be really useful, but Wizards does not offer a pdf version of the book.

Player's Handbook - http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/rpg_playershandbook

Roll20

If you don't have friends who live close but still want a resource that will help you all play together, then roll20 is the service for you. As a player this service requires no payments, as for DM's the base roll20 is free. However if you want some additional features (like dynamic lighting) then you will have to pay a subscription fee. Now I don't mean to make it sound like you are losing out without a subscription, I played with the free version for nearly a year. The best part about the service is that they partnered with Wizards to release some of their full adventures on the platform, with art assets included! You can use this service for your full D&D experience. And if D&D isn't your only type of game, they support many other game systems as well. It is really a service worth looking into.

Roll20.net - https://roll20.net/

  D&D Beyond

For a member of the community that has several of the books already I do not actually recommend this product unless you want to buy the books a second time. That being said, if you are a person who prefers the pdf version of every book you get, then this is your only legal option. The bright side is that all of the source books are on this service and at a discount from their hard cover counterparts. This service also contains a character creation tool but is limited in the number of characters you can create. It is possible to run an entire campaign through the service. Their online tools are useful but they do come at a cost. If you don't mind paying for a few extra features then there is a subscription option.

D&D Beyond - https://www.dndbeyond.com/

Nice but Not Necessary

Some experienced individuals in the community might have reason to question my selections (or lack thereof) in the previous section. The following are nice tools but largely you can get away with not owning.

Dungeon Master's Screen

I have known some DM's who roll without one of these screens but I have to say that a screen can make magic happen. The dungeon master has the screen just like the Wizard of Oz has the curtain, to maintain the illusion of the game. Also to have some rules easily accessible. The sound of a DM rolling dice without the players being able to see the result is one of the more panic inducing events that can occur. It creates tension and allows the DM to modify things behind the scenes without making the players feel cheated to create a better experience. You can either purchase one or create your own. A group of my friends made me a custom DM screen that I use at all of my games, and it let me control the information that I put on the inside.

Dungeon Master's Screen - http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/dungeon-masters-screen

Monster Manual (MM)

If you haven't taken a look at the Basic DMs Guide in the first section then it might not be a surprise if you think this book is more necessary than it is. The truth of the Monster Manual is that it's a list of all the monsters that Wizards has designed stats for. Now when it comes to being a DM this book is nice to be able to flip through and find a monster to throw at your players especially if you are not experienced. Really the only difference between this list and the one in the Basic Rules is that there are a few more monsters, most of which are Wizards intellectual property monsters (Beholders, Illithids, etc). However as your career as a DM continues, you will find that you will be using this book far less than you started with.

Monster Manual - http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/monster-manual

  Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG)

Now I use this book all the time, but probably not for what you are thinking. I don't want any new DM to get the wrong idea about this book. It is not useless, but it most definitely is not a How-To guide on Dungeon Mastering. In this book contains a number of resources that are incredibly useful for lazier DM's. There is an entire list of magic items and loot tables. It also contains a bunch of optional rules you can include at your table (many of which I use myself). While there is a guide in there on Dungeon Mastering it will not prepare you fully for the experience of Dungeon Mastering. This book is poorly organized, so reliance on this book is not recommended. This is the book you sit down with between sessions when you want a little extra help on flushing out your world and your sessions.

Dungeon Masters Guide - http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/dungeon-masters-guide

  Volo's Guide to Monsters

If you enjoyed the Monster Manual but wish there was more lore and monsters then this is a book to pick up. The first half of the book contains lore on some of the traditional creatures of D&D. If you wanted a few more player race options, this book has them too. It even includes some monstrous player options so you can play that Goblin Wild Magic Sorcerer you always wanted to. The final half of the book contains an entire new set of monsters, and variations on monsters you are already familiar with. The artwork in this book is amazing, bringing to life some of the horrible creatures within.

Volo's Guide to Monsters - http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/volos-guide-to-monsters

Xanathar's Guide to Everything

Despite what the title says it is in fact not a guide to everything, but it sure does contain quite a bit. In it comes several new subclass options available for players and some rule clarifications (some that are much needed) for playing the game. After that comes the DM's toys. Quite literally. There is a whole section on common magic items that was woefully missing from the DMG. There is plenty of stuff in this book to keep you busy and add some much needed content to the game.

Xanathar's Guide to Everything - http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/xanathars-guide-everything

Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (SCAG)

If you are a fan of the Forgotten Realms and want more information on the coast made famous by R.A. Salvatore's series on Drizzt, then this is the setting book for you. Most published adventures by Wizards contain the setting information you need, if you are not quite ready to make your own world but are ready to build your own story then this will be a helpful resource. In it also contains several subclasses and backgrounds specific to the Sword Coast. There are even a few more spells that you might find useful. Many of the subclasses were reprinted in Xanathar's and you can largely skip this book.

Sword Coast Adventurers Guide - http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/sc-adventurers-guide

Dungeon Masters Guild

Do the core Wizards source material for D&D not satisfy you enough? Do you want a specific class option that you just don't have the time or resources to make yourself? Well chances are that someone has done something close. Wizards of the Coast has done something marvelous and allowed amatuer creators to develop and sell their own D&D content through the DM's Guild. Most all of the content on this site contains homebrewed content, some of it is free, some are not. You can find new content ranging from adventures, to new races, and new classes and subclasses. If D&D doesn't have what you want, this is my suggestion for where to look for it next.

Dungeon Masters Guild - http://www.dmsguild.com/

Really Cool Tools

As a DM you will be spending more time on crafting your world and characters than actually plotting out sessions. Over time you will get tired of trying to come up with the names of NPC's or creating a town map for Generic Town #34. Here are some awesome resources I have found to aid you in your work.

Donjon

I wish the creator of this site would list himself on his website because this is by far one of the most useful websites I have ever come across for developing content in D&D. This has numerous generators for helping you flush out your world. If you always wanted an easier way to look through the list of magic items available in the Basic Rules, then this is the place to come. Seriously just take some time to look at what tools are available and you can lose yourself for hours here. If you made the site and are reading this, please contact me so I can give you proper credit for your fine job.

Donjon - https://donjon.bin.sh/

Fantasy Name Generator

If you have DMed for any amount of time and forgot to prepare an NPC's name just to have your players find them, talk to them, and then ask them their name, then this is a life saver. Heck this is a great tool for any amount of roleplaying you are doing, not just D&D or tabletop games. If you need a character name chances are this site has a generator just for that. Even if you don't like one of the names that comes up, you can take names that you like the gist of and modify it to how you want. It’s actually what I used for names for the novel I started writing.

Fantasy Name Generator - http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/

Medieval Fantasy City Generator

Are you running out of time before you need a city map to present your players? If you aren't a cartographer then you might need a tool to give you a helping hand. While the tool is fairly basic it’s got some good customization options. If you have something specific in mind then this tool might not help you too much. If you have nothing to work off for a city, then you can quickly generate a map that is easy to read and explains what each section of the city is.

Medieval Fantasy City Generator - https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator

Random Dungeon Generator

It might come as a surprise to you, it did for me while writing this, but Wizards of the Coast has their own online dungeon generator. While it might not be for 5e, this generator has a ton of customizability. It even generates a wandering monsters table. If you don't have time to set up a dungeon from start to finish this is a cool tool that can be used to kickstart your work and provide more detail to the rooms than its donjon counterpart.

Random Dungeon Generator - https://www.wizards.com/dnd/mapper/launcher.htm

For Content Creators

Some of you may get so involved in this game that you will start to develop your own content. Eventually you might even think about selling it. If you want to go this route then I have a few things you might want to check out first.

D&D's OGL and SRD

If you are going to publish anything D&D related you will first need to look at this. Not because its useful, but because this is legally required in order for you to do so. This contains all of the information you should need starting out when even thinking about your new product. Read over it and understand it, the last thing you want happening to you is getting contacted by the Wizards of the Coast legal team because you didn't read the fine print.

SRD and OGL - http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/systems-reference-document-srd

Homebrewery

Holy crap this tool is awesome. If you aren't really looking into publishing your content for sale but just want to make something nice looking quick for you and the internet, then this tool is a quick way to accomplish it. It requires a bit of understanding of Markdown, but overall I have used this to create many a homebrew project. Many of you that follow me may have even seen my work in it. It makes your homebrew look like it belongs in a Wizards source book.

Homebrewery - http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/

Podcasts

I could do an entire article on D&D podcasts alone, but I'm going to condense this one down to a few podcasts that will help you become a better Dungeon Master and/or Player.

Dungeon Masters Block

These are the guys that really got me going down the path of the Dungeon Master. They are incredibly knowledgeable as are the numerous guests they bring on board. Their show DMNastics is a great way to exercise your DMing skills. They are funny and incredible. Just listening to this will expose you to a ton of other D&D related podcasts and content.

Dungeon Masters Block - https://dungeonmasterblock.podbean.com/

GM Word of the Week

Even if you aren't a GM (Game Master) I totally recommend you listen to this podcast. You will learn a ton in just a few short episodes. Brian Casey (Fiddleback) and Scott Rehm (The Angry GM) put their time and research into producing this wonderful set of informational episodes. Each week they tackle a word and often go off on tangents talking about topics related to the word they describe. They have so many topics they even have Lost episodes where they cover topics they had to cut out of other episodes.

GM Word of the Week - https://www.gmwordoftheweek.com/

Digressions and Dragons

But I digress...as you often hear Fiddleback say in GM Word of the Week. This show is Fiddleback and Angry talking about whatever it is they want. However because they are so involved in tabletop gaming they tend to do a lot of talking about it in this show. Overall this is a highly entertaining "two guys talking" podcast.

Digressions and Dragons - http://digressionsanddragons.com/

Dragon Talk

If you want the latest news but can't catch their livestream on twitch Dragon Talk is the Wizards of the Coast official D&D podcast hosted by Greg Tito and Shelly Mazzanoble. They interview prominent figures in the world of D&D and the associated worlds with them. They have segments like "Lore you should know" where they talk about lore in D&D and "Sage Advice" where they interview Jeremy Crawford on the burning rules questions for D&D. Overall you can discover even more D&D related content and keep up on the latest news from this one podcast alone.

Dragon Talk - http://dnd.wizards.com/dragon-talk/podcast-hub

The RPG Academy

A collection of shows the folks at the Academy talk about a lot of interesting topics including advice for you playing and running games at your table. Their lineup of shows has something for everyone in the tabletop gaming community. The best part of this group is their yearly convention AcadeCon in Dayton, Ohio. The convention is small and hosted by these kind gentlemen making it a wonderful place to learn new games and talk to some rad individuals.

The RPG Academy - http://therpgacademy.com/

The Homebrew Cauldron

Now this is going to be my only self promotional plug. Here at Nerdolopedia we host a podcast dedicated to homebrew content for D&D 5e. We review and discuss various homebrews and topics. While it is a fairly new podcast, we have had plenty of awesome discussions so far. If you have made it here and haven't seen it, then please make sure to check it out. Self promotional plug over.

The Homebrew Cauldron - https://www.nerdolopedia.com/feed/podcast/homebrew-cauldron

Blogs/Articles

It is far easier to produce written word than it is to produce a fully fledged podcast or youtube video. While vlogs are basically blogs, I will reserve those for its own section.

Unearthed Arcana

This series of articles put out by Wizards is the site I probably visit the most. Their articles are on the latest content that Wizards is publicly playtesting. Many of the subclasses that appeared in Xanathar's appeared first in Unearthed Arcana. If you are unsatisfied by the amount of class and race options, this is another place to go. Be warned this is all playtesting material so make sure to get your DM's permission before using it at your table.

Unearthed Arcana - http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana

Sage Advice

Jeremy Crawford gets hammered with rules questions. Just look at his twitter. As the lead designer of D&D 5e, he puts out a series of articles answering the most asked rules questions he receives. He even keeps a document publicly available for all the questions he has answered. If you are in need of a rule clarification make sure to check out this set of articles first.

Sage Advice - http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/sage-advice

The Angry GM

A word of caution before heading over to Angry's site: he is called Angry for a reason. His personality may be off putting to a lot of people and his responses on twitter may be harsh, but he has a lot of solid advice and ideas in his articles. Often you will need to cut through the persona he has created to get the valuable information he presents. More often than not he has led me to question my own use of a set of rules or systems and how to use them better (or not use them at all). I really do suggest reading his work with a grain of salt. If what he suggests doesn't work for you, don't take it personally that he says you're wrong.

The Angry GM - http://theangrygm.com/

Tribality

Was the DM's Guild too much for you? Well Tribality has you covered. The numerous individuals over at Tribality have had their hand in designing games and settings for some time. Many of them play D&D and create their own content for the game. The site is filled with professionally made and designed homebrewed content. Going through their content is worth the dig.

Tribality - http://www.tribality.com/

Vlogs/YouTube

Some articles come in the form of videos. With the rise of YouTube you can find all kinds of advice on DMing and even reviews on the latest products. Here are some that I have found really useful.

Matt Colville

I have spent more than a few hours just watching episode after episode of Matt's advice. I have even used his videos to help teach new DM's certain techniques that take too long to write in a discord message on my phone. Matt's advice is helpful, not just because it's good advice, but he explains his reasoning behind his advice. He has some wonderful stories of his own experiences with D&D where he learned a valuable lesson.

Matt Colville - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkVdb9Yr8fc05_VbAVfskCA

Geek & Sundry

If you are familiar with Critical Role, then you are familiar (at least somewhat) with Geek & Sundry. Now they put out a lot of content that isn't related to D&D but my focus is actually going to be on the series of videos starring Matt Mercer and Satine Phoenix. Its GM Tips with [Insert Matt or Satine's name here]. They talk about much of the advice that you might catch on some of the other resources I have given you and even interview prominent GM's in the industry (Matt Colville was one of them). Their show is another way to learn some advice and learn about more people in the industry.

Geek & Sundry - https://www.youtube.com/user/geekandsundry

Nerd Immersion

While not strictly a YouTube channel, Ted over a Nerd Immersion has a wide array of subjects and nerdy content. On his YouTube channel however he covers some DM's advice along with reviews of the latest products. I managed to meet Ted at GenCon 50 and he is a pretty cool dude. Make sure to go give his channel some love.

Nerd Immersion - https://www.youtube.com/user/nerdimmersion

Encounter Roleplay

Will manages to play D&D as a full-time job. It’s no surprise why, his streams are wildly entertaining and he is an amazing Dungeon Master. Not only do they play a lot of D&D, Will also hosts a Learn by Play series where he explains his decision making process for DMing, and they even have a Beginner's Play series. While much of their content is just games, you can catch these educational gems.

Encounter Roleplay Stream - https://www.twitch.tv/encounterroleplay

Encounter Roleplay YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/encounterroleplay

Exploding Dice

Even though the show is hosted on twitch Askren uploads his show Fuzzy Dice to his YouTube channel. In Fuzzy Dice he interviews other members of the D&D community including other twitch streamers, designers, and more. As with other shows and podcasts this is another way to find other creators within the industry.

Exploding Dice Stream - https://www.twitch.tv/explodingdice

Fuzzy Dice Playlist - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9iGuM1hMPI&list=PLeHJ3viSmlZV9G43INT6zTZtKlrgjPcTh

Honorable Mentions

Some content I couldn't suggest as resource in their entirety either because of the content or the direction they took, but still felt they deserved to be recognized for their work.

DelveCast

I discovered these folks back when I started writing for the Mad Adventurers Society. While at first they started at deconstructing games to teach Nathan about tabletop gaming, it evolved into a show dedicated to talking with game designers. They make the honorable mentions for exposing works to the community and having awesome discussions with smart and talented people.

DelveCast - https://delvecast.com/

Neon Rival

This podcasting collective is fairly new, but they do a lot to the world of D&D podcasts. They have some of the best produced shows in the business and some of the funniest and most wonderful people I have ever met. They work make the community more inclusive while being entertaining. In one of their podcasts Godsfall, there is a buzzer that sounds when they get a rule wrong. It is this devotion to the game that has led many to re-enter or discover D&D that has landed them a position in the honorable mentions.

Neon Rival - http://neonrival.com/

The Mad Cleric

A member of the former Mad Adventurers Society, Jason’s blog is focused on his journey into AD&D. Since the edition of D&D is quite different from the current edition, it is Jason's desire to discuss the legacy and history by learning the game at its dawn that has earned him an honorable mention.

The Mad Cleric - http://madcleric.com/

Cannibal Halfling Gaming

Seamus Conneely and Aaron Marks blog is a great view into the mind of an ongoing tabletop gamers. They review several products, give adventure logs, and talk about conventions. They have wonderful stories and advice along with some cool insight into the products that exist out on the market which is what earned them an honorable mention. Seamus is also a member of the former Mad Adventurers and even keeps links on his website linking to all the former members of the Mad Adventurers current works. I want to say thanks for including us!

Cannibal Halfling Gaming - https://cannibalhalflinggaming.com/

The Mad Adventurers Society

While this would normally be listed in the resource blogs, sadly the group was disbanded in 2016. At the time of this writing the site is in Archive mode, so much of its content is still available to read. Unfortunately it is only a matter of time until the site disappears. It is for this reason that it made it to the honorable mentions.

The Mad Adventurers Society Archive - http://www.madadventurers.com/

What is Missing?

I know there are several resources I am missing as there is a ton of wonderful content for this community. If you have any resources that you think should be added, make sure to comment them! I will be adding a consolidated resource list over in our Tales from the Tavern section of the website. If you comment other resources I will try to add them to that list after I look through them.

You can find me on twitter @your1_nightmare. If you enjoy the material on this site please consider supporting us! If you think I missed something or you would like me to cover something specific make sure to leave a comment below or contact me on twitter.

[nerdolopedia-blog]

Journey to the City of Glass

In the southern most point on the continent of Itherion sits the Southern Spear, an oasis city on the southern end of the Wind Desert. Here five adventurers find their way to a tavern known as the Sandy Hydra.

Ophasira, a dragonborn sorcerer was known for accidentally catching fire to objects nearby. Morrie and Popo, a pair of artificier gnomes who came for promise of payment to repair the house that Popo damaged. Mithdoliel, a friendly half-elf bard who adventured trying to find the truth behind myths and legends. Nekane, a teifling paladin who was tasked with a secret mission from her organization.

At the Sandy Tavern they meet a teilfing by the name of Herald who tells them he intends to find the legendary City of Glass, a story told by sailors but discounted as hallucinations. They are promised 5,000 gp each upon return, they all agree to go and continue enjoying the evening. Nekane’s grandmother Kat showed up, much to the barkeep Dragnor’s dismay. As they are leaving Popo accidentally fires off his experimental mortar launching Popo and Morrie into the night. They return long enough to hit on Herald, and to be kicked out of the Sandy Hydra.

The following day they meet Herald at the docks where they board a sand ship scheduled to take them to Quine, an oasis town along the Tempis River. On their way to Quine they are attacked from the sky by a raiding party of Yuan-ti riding flying snakes. The party managed to fight them off. Popo, having fell off during the fight, saw something move beneath the sand having taken one of Yuan-ti knocked off the boat. After safely back on the ship they made their way safely to Quine.

At Quine some make their way to a tavern called the Sandy Bollosom. It doubled as a brothel where they met the crew of Captain Richard Score’s ship. Morrie and Popo make their way to a seedy tavern where they get into a tavern brawl. A few men try to kill Morrie after he used magic to gain an advantage in a fight. They managed to befriend a shipwright who brought them to the ship that they would be sailing on. Mithdoliel heads to the nearby lake, where she attempts to find her companion Faeron, an elven druid who has traveled with her since he found her outside the Swamp of the Dead. Mithdoliel nearly gets eaten and Faeron joins the group in hopes of discovering the source of the madness plaguing nature. They began their adventure heading into the desert. 

After a few days they come across a field of strange plants that have a bulb containing water. They started to harvest them when they also came across another strange plant. It was a cacti looking plant covered heavily in furry long spines. On closer inspection they discovered that these spines sucked in water. Later that evening a sand storm began brewing. They suddenly found that the cacti they discovered were carried by the wind. Several larger cacti formed limbs and moved like a humanoid. During combat, Ophasira perished and the cacti responsible found their stash of water plants jumping into them and expanding tremendously becoming a monsterous plant that the party defeated.

During their travel the next day, the ship collided with a rock protruding from the desert itself. Stopping to repair the broken front of the ship the party decided to investigate this mysterious monolith. Upon digging it out they discovered the entrance to a long lost tomb written in the lost language of the Illuna people. Before them was a puzzling set of challenges with depictions of 4 beings, a radiant woman with the symbol of the sun, a bearded man covered in vines, an elegant woman with the symbol of the moon, and a robed man with animated stars painted on the robes. Each held their hands out in a way that let a small compass that resided in the center of the room fit. However the compass did not point north, but in the direction the players chose it to be. They had to set the compass in a specific direction for each statue to open the way to that trial.

The Trial of the Sun was room containing a pillar of light. In the center of the light sat a pedastel with a singular level on it. Written on the wall in Illuna were the words “Scuno’s light burns in the visitors eye”. When they attempted to reach into the light, they were burned leaving nothing but ash. They had to shut their eyes and reach for the lever, hoping not to be burned before they could reach it.

The Trial of the Earth contained a room filled with moving vines. When one got closer to the vines, they reached for that person. When burning the vines it only revealed the lever for a short time before the vines quickly grew back. The solution was to let the vines grab hold of them, which allowed them to pass through unharmed.

The Trial of the Moon amplified all light brought into the hallway. A lit torch caused some of the players to be blinded. On the far side of the room was a single lever, no matter how much they walked towards the lever it seemed to always be just out of reach. By turning the opposite way and walking backwards they were able to reach the lever.

The Trial of the Stars contained a small room with several beds. Written on the walls in Illuna read the words “Overcome one’s fears to achieve one’s dreams”. Each of the characters rested and faced a their own personal nightmare situations. As each completed their nightmare a lever began to fade into existance. Faeron’s nightmare was the forest gone mad, something he had been trying to discover for a long time. At the heart of the forest was a pitch black gem, when touched he nearly went mad. Once all had finished the lever was completed.

Once all four trials were completed the way forward was open. The next room was dome shaped, with depictions of the stars moving across the ceiling. In the center of the room was a sarcophagus and behind it a monsterous snake with the face of a mortal. It claimed noone could pass beyond as it guarded a large door. They faced it down turning it into a smaller snake as they explored the room beyond, finding a magical barrier that permitted no magic beyond and preserved the numerous maps it contianed. Before beginning to copy as many of the maps down they took the Naga outside, had one of the mechanical servervants fly the snake up to the sky and squeeze it. Once the Naga landed, the party and the ships crew open fired onto it killing it.

The party proceeded to copy down maps. After a day had passed a sailor came rushing to them saying “It’s alive!”, Nekane rushed out to face the fallen foe only to be hit with a Geas spell. On returning the party managed to polymorph it yet again, this time into a frog. However their troubles had not ended there. A rumbling sensation filled the entire tomb. The party fled only to discover a massive purple worm bursting from the very tomb they just escaped. From the boat and sky they fought against the Worm, having fired the Naga into its massive maw. The ship took damage but the players managed to down the beast with much expense to the party’s resources.

From there the party saw an Oasis in the distance, having to have outrun a Purple Worm. The ship went to the Oasis to get additional wood and to stock up on water. When the party arrived they were attacked my acid filled creatures that ambushed them. Upon making it to the center of the Oasis the party discovered that the Oasis was infact a massive plant that attempted to consume them. With quick thinking and the ability of flight they managed to get out just in time.

The party then took the time to deceifer the maps and find the next potential location to check. During that time Nekane enjoyed a meal and drink while talking to the ship’s cook. She soon discovered that he was a Marked man, a black skull tattoo symbolizing having been ressurrected without the proper rituals. He was Nekane’s target but she hesitated to kill him. They discovered a location of a strange gate city with a crystalline dome encasing it. 

Traveling for several days a short dispute between party members soon caused Score to step in and threaten to throw members off the ship if more fighting occured. Just as the fighting was coming to a close, the ship seemed to have collided with something else. Several members ran outside to see what it was, only to discover that the ship soon broke a portion of the crystal dome which contained the city below. The ship fell several hundred feet, bouncing off layers within the city before crashing below. Several crew members perished, including Herald. The cook was mortally wounded telling Nekane the truth behind his mark, saying that the man who ressurrected him had a message for her grandmother. The message was “I’m back”. She then ended his suffering.

While the party was helping remove bodies and heal the wounded the echos of massive footsteps made their way towards the crashed ship. The footsteps came from a massive Crystal Golem which seemed hellbent on killing anything in the area. The party fought it to the best of their ability before retreating. Morrie stayed behind long enough to kill it, only for the golem to let out a death cry and summoning another dozen of the golems to the location. They all met in the abandoned building that may have housed several of the Illuna themselves. Formulating a plan Morrie went out to scout on his mechanical servants back and found a massive gateway. Passing through it he heard a voice in his head, telling him to wait for his fellow party. He then reached out to the party only for them to find several Crytal Golems outside waiting for them. Instead of attack the party they transported them to the gate. Once through they were guided through the crystalline structure, massive natural crystal formations with strange sounds coming from them. At last they reached a central chamber where there sat an elegant woman in leafy clothing sitting before them. Some members of the party recognized her imagry as the Goddess of Fate and Time, Werno. There she explained to them her dilemna. No matter what she did the party would always return to this spot, so as an agreement the party would not pursue the City of Glass and keep its location a mystery. She offered them all a chance to look anywhere they wished to see as the crystals showed various locations throughout the world. They accepted and came forth.

Morrie asked for a place filled with ancient technologies. Werno showed him a massive city powered by lightning sitting at the top of Sundering Mountains, far beyond where many have traveled.

Popo asked for a way to cultivate the desert. Werno said she could not grant such knowledge but knew of place that could. She showed him a massive library, outside of which was an inky black void dotted with brilliant stars.

Nekane contemplated long and hard but decided she wanted to see how her father was avoid detection. Werno showed her father, entering a familiar crypt, the vision focused on a familiar ring that he wore on his finger.

Faeron asked to see the source of the strange crystal from his dreams. Werno asked if that was what he truly wanted hesitant to grant his request. He was set on it. What he saw was nothing, but that nothing reached out to him and tried to consume him. From that he lost a bit of his sanity having stared directly into the void.

Mithdoliel was most curious about a statemen Werno had said “When my people were young” and asked about that. Werno stated it was not her place to reveal but there was a place that could give more. She was shown a location deep in the Swamp of the Dead, a place whose reputation Mith was all too familiar with. There she saw a massive city, at its heart was a massive step pyramid. On its summet was a cloaked figure holding an ornate staff adorned with a perfect black sphere. Surrounding the city was an army of undead, among which Mith swore she saw some familiar faces.

Having granted everyone their vision she concluded repeating the promise. She paused and remembered saying “Oh, and do take care of the boy. He will be awefully confused.” Snapping her fingers the party found themselves back at the Sandy Hydra. Herald was asking them if they would take the job. Everyone was there the same day they agreed to take the job. However they decided against it, Mithdoliel trying to convince Herald not to go on the quest but to take more time in researching it. Ophasira and Herald had no memory of the journey they had already gone on. The party then split off for the time being, each having things to take care of.

[nerdolopedia-blog]

Angels and the Police Box by @your1_nightmare