#Future kobold was here

[keplercryptids]

if you've never considered playing anything other than D&D 5e, now might be the time to start.

as you may have heard, Wizards of the Coast wrote up a new Open Game License that was leaked and it's really, really bad. (i linked to the article about it yesterday but here's a twitter thread of the author of that article summarizing it.)

i'll attempt my own breakdown of what this means here:

the new OGL revokes the previous OGL. this is bad for so many reasons, and will affect all kinds of TTRPGs like Pathfinder, and third-party publishers like Kobold's Press.

it also means that character sheets wouldn't be able to be used in unauthorized virtual table tops anymore, including Roll20, Foundry, etc.

the new OGL grants WotC a perpetual, irrevocable license to all third-party content produced and published under the old OGL, as well as future content. for example, if WotC hypothetically liked Dimension 20's Unsleeping City setting enough, it could sell products related to that setting, without needing D20's permission.

the new OGL can be updated, changed or revoked with only 30 days' notice. truly wild.

anybody who makes more than $750k revenue (not profit, but revenue) has to pay 20-25% over that amount in royalties to WotC. this will affect so many kickstarters raising funds for indie TTRPG systems that used to fall under the original OGL. $750k sounds like a lot but keep in mind publishing books is expensive.

this is really, really bad. WotC will probably go back on some of this based on public response, and a lawsuit may make them go back on even more. (some of what they're trying to do here is illegal? i think?) but they'll likely still push forward with some of it.

it seems WotC's goal is to 1) appease shareholders (which in late-stage capitalism means "exponential growth forever") and 2) create a closed ecosystem for d&d that's completely under WotC's financial control. think: D&D Beyond being the only place you can access any D&D content, character sheets, etc. and i mean, in general, they've shown a pattern of greed and weighing corporate interests more heavily than their customers or employees.

now would be a great time to move away from d&d if you've ever considered doing so, or to consider it if you haven't.

if you want something similar to d&d 5e mechanically but a bit crunchier, try pathfinder 2e. if you want narrative-focused storytelling games, try Powered by the Apocalypse or FATE systems. if you want a mechanics-forward episodic style of play, try Forged in the Dark systems. if you want a cross-genre game with freeform character creation, try Savage Worlds. and this is an extreme short list of the great TTRPGs out there! a lot of systems that, IMO, people would have more fun playing than d&d, just based on preferred style of play. try them out and please don't give WotC anymore money lol.

[tanoraqui]

Dungeon Meshi Liveblog: Musing on Ages, & Dragon Prep

"Desire" mention - how much does Tensu know of the details of the origin of dungeons? (More than I do, probably...but I know this is thematically important.)

"Us"? Aren't gnomes another long-lived species? Ok this is going to be continuously relevant to the geopolitics so I need to break it down. From the wiki:

Elves: lifespan: 400; adult at 80

Gnomes: lifespan: 240; adult at 40

Dwarves: lifespan: 200; adult at 40

Tallmen: lifespan: 60; adult at 16

Orcs: lifespan: 55; adult at 14

Kobolds: lifespan: 55; adult at 13

Halffoots: lifespan: 50; adult at 14

I see - so really we're dealing with 3 factions: Elves, Gnomes & Dwarves, and Everyone Else. I find it interesting that the longer-lived races reach maturity at 17-20% of their average lifespan, while the younger-lived races all do so at around 25% of their average lifespan. I feel a little like this is a cop-out on the writer's part in trying to keep the ages of maturity a little closer to one another - though of course it's a cultural thing by each race (and, I'm sure, each culture within each race - idk how monolithic the whole comic will treat them, but it would track with the thematic worldbuilding for their to be multiple distinct social groups within each race, even if they do tent to band together against the other races!)

Based on the categories of "long-lived" and "short-lived", the latter seem to view all of the former as much the same - but I'm SURE the Elves have a different view of it, and I'm sure the Dwarves and, as we see here, Gnomes, are very aware of and irritated by the Elves' view.

...and as we see here, and earlier with Chilchuck admitting to being 29 (solidly middle-aged!) and Marcille going, "Aw, so you are a kid!", people rarely make any effort to understand each others relative ages, instead just coasting on their own life-based assumptions.

With reference to above, we can see that Namari at 61 is pretty exactly equivalent to Kaka and Kiki at 20.

Also: this little scene wasn't in the show at all and I love it! Namari in mentor mode!

.

ALRIGHT RED DRAGON TIME!! Hey look, literally the 2nd panel in this ghost city is 2/3 winged lions by volume. Hmmm...

.

I love how it's explicitly Shuro's job to get the final killshot, presumably because he has Feats for this (ie, cool-looking moments) as a "real" anime character (Easterner). This literally bears up with what we see of him in the future.

.

Chilchuck: I will NOT fight!

Chilchuck: I'll totally be dragon bait with you, though.

Chilchuck: Not that I care if you succeed or survive or anything! I'm only here because you paid up front.

.

Laios using the Inspiring Leader speech feat! They're all having a Heroes' Feast before fighting the dragon, a classic pre-dragon act for bonus HP and immunity to being Frightened! I know this isn't actually D&D but that post that I think came through my queue earlier today is right: it DOES have the same bones. It's like reading the Locked Tomb and being aware that this author was deep in Homestuck, or Scholomance vis a vis Harry Potter canon and fandom. I know where this writer has been, because I have been there too.

.

THE BOY IS HERE! THE MAN THE MYTH THE OVERWORKED* LEGEND!

THIS SISTER-EATING MOTHERFUCKER!!

*Crack AU where the whole dragon fight is averted because it talks and somehow the conversation leads to Chilchuck going, "And the Mage isn't even letting you sleep? Tsk. You've got to start a union." And then Laios gets all starry-eyed, "A Monster Union?!" And then the Mage is eventually defeated by all the monsters of the dungeon, and also the poor sane ghosts as well, unionizing against him, and "king" becomes just the title for the Union Rep, whose main job is to honk an airhorn at presumptuous Elves and tell them to fuck off like a Canadian goose.

.

I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

[utilitycaster]

OGL misconceptions

Since I am still seeing a lot of misinformation out there, I figured I'd do a fact check post. Note that I do not personally have a copy of the leaked draft; some resources are given at the end of the post. See also the 2000 OGL v1.0a here. This is noncomprehensive, is only touching on some of the things I've seen most commonly in the tags [sidebar: the only tag I check regularly is the Critical Role tag, and much of what I've seen on Tumblr is coming from people spamming that tag for general D&D content that only tangentially mentions CR, so...stop doing that.] Finally, this is based on what is a draft, and there are quite possibly going to be updates to the final document. I would also assume that the January 13th effective date will be changed based on the release date of the finalized OGL.

Free fan content is not affected. That is covered by the Fan Content Policy. Your personal homebrew or the weird-ass build you saw on Reddit or the item you saw in a post last week are all fine.

Actual play shows should be largely unaffected, and only merchandise containing WoTC IP would be. (NOTE: original posting of this post had a typo of "affected" for "unaffected"; check your reblogs) Shows like Critical Role, NADDPod, and D20 all use homebrew settings, so that's also unaffected (as is any Exandrian content that was published in the Explorer's Guide and Call of the Netherdeep; that is CR's IP that WoTC has license to use). A show might be affected if they've set the game in a WoTC licensed setting or with a WoTC module (eg: Eberron, Ravenloft), but most of the shows that do that are put out by WoTC anyway. Critical Role and TAZ have, notably, already avoided using copyrighted terms for deities, races, etc. in published non-WoTC works (this is why Melora is exclusively the Wildmother in the Tal'Dorei guides, because "Melora" is WoTC IP, but the idea of a nature goddess is obviously not; this is also why Cree in the Nine Eyes is referred to as catfolk and not a tabaxi, or why Phandalin's name in the TAZ graphic novels is changed to Haverdale). The only reason why a show might need to switch game systems would be if they use a system that is not D&D but is based on D&D's SRD and which will be subject to the OGL changes. Most Pathfinder shows I'm aware of use the Pathfinder SRD (ie, free), and SW5e as used in Starstruck Odyssey is also free. This also only affects the future of those shows.

VTTs (Virtual Tabletop Tools) may be affected, but most of their core features aren't. Battle maps and virtual dice rollers are not WoTC IP. Incorporating the mechanics of D&D into the VTT is, but that would mean actively having a character sheet or monster statblock available within the VTT. You could still just have a dice roller that prompts you for a modifier (which is how I always personally used Foundry). D&D Beyond will not be affected, since it is owned by WoTC. Additionally, many VTTs already have existing agreements specifically with WoTC that will take precedence over the OGL, which is a catch-all for companies that do not have specific licensing agreements. See the WoTC/D&D Beyond blog post here.

Only creators making over $750,000 specifically on material licensed under the OGL will be subject to royalties, and only on income in excess of $750,000. This means that if you put something up on DMs Guild and make $500, you are fine and owe nothing. If you make $749,999, you owe nothing. If you make $750,100, you owe the 25% royalty only on the $100 you are making above $750,000. WoTC predicts under two dozen companies will actually be affected by this at this time; they are all fairly big names within the D&D content arena such as Paizo, Darrington Press (CR's imprint), Hit Point Press, Green Ronin, Kobold Press, etc. Royalties also are said to begin in 2024, so companies have a year to decide what to do.

Now for the editorializing part:

Paizo is specifically in the crosshairs and anyone telling you to switch to it is either misinformed at best, or does not have your best interests at heart. Paizo is the main target here. The others are publishing material that serve as supplements to the core WoTC products, but do not replace them. For example: if you have either of the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting books, you will note that they do not have stats for the races mentioned, nor the core class information. If you want to play a Cobalt Soul Monk, you still need the PHB in addition to the Tal'Dorei setting books. On some level, this is almost certainly due to Paizo being like "look! we're like D&D but we're not! switch to us!" And, understandably, WoTC is saying "hey, you took our SRD game engine and are now our largest competitor", which is also almost certainly why this is overriding the OGL 1.0a under which Pathfinder was originally created. I am not saying not to switch to a different TTRPG if you want to! You should always feel free to switch to a different TTRPG if D&D is not meeting your needs! I am saying that Pathfinder is probably your absolute worst bet in terms of things likely to be affected by the OGL, and anyone telling you to switch to it is telling you to jump from an ocean liner into a slightly smaller ship heading straight for a waterfall solely because the ocean liner stopped serving bottomless brunch.

People throwing this to actual play shows do not know what they are talking about and are just trying to start shit. Self-explanatory; why should Dimension 20 or whatever put out a statement on an unofficial leaked draft that minimally affects them.

Bad faith is common and everpresent. As discussed extensively on this blog in scattered bitchy shitposts, there are a lot of people who hate D&D/WoTC, or Critical Role, or other popular actual play shows. Sometimes their reasons are valid and sometimes their reasons are stupid. It doesn't really matter though; what matters is that their minds are made up and they will be telling you to switch game systems/stop listening or watching pretty much regardless of what the companies do. If you want to switch or stop listening, that's fine! But, as mentioned, I remember a few months ago someone arguing that you should switch from D&D because they were obviously going to start licensing NFTs for profitability reasons, and now the OGL specifically prohibits that. There's a lot being pulled out of thin air to make spurious arguments. In general, it is helpful to ask yourself "is this person recommending a game because they genuinely believe it will improve my life and better fit my individual tastes and needs? Or are they just being a dick about D&D or this specific actual play show and don't give a shit about my happiness, just as long as I'm not playing the game/watching the show that they, an internet stranger with bad vibes to boot, do not personally like."

YouTubers are trying to get views, and that is usually their primary goal. Also self-explanatory. If you're trusting the same people who decided that Silvery Barbs would ruin D&D which had also already been ruined by the chronomancy class, the fact that some sorcerers get more spells than other sorcerers, the fact that healing word exists... to tell you that this has ruined D&D? I don't think I can help you.

Several of the things people are freaking out about are either standard boilerplate now, or were in the original OGL. OGL 1.0a reserves the right to terminate the license with 30 days notice as well (item 13); stating that material you make via an open license can be used freely by the owner of that IP is fairly standard legal practice.

Sources:

OGL v1.0a

WOTC Fan Content Policy

Gizmodo/io9 coverage

D&D Beyond/OneD&D blog post

Screenrant coverage

[thatswhywelovegermany]

Die Moosweiblein

Moss Women

Moss Women are female forest spirits from German legend. They belong to the poor souls.

Moos Women occur in Saxony, Thuringia, on the Saale, in Orlagau, in the Harz mountain, in the Vogtland, in Upper Palatinate, in the Bavarian Forest, in Franconia and Upper Franconia, in the Bohemian Forest, around Warnsdorf in the northern Czech Republic, in the Giant Mountains and in Westphalia.

Depending on the region, Moss Women have a different appearance. Most often, they are as short as a three to five year old child. They have an ugly appearance, often entirely covered in moss, and are hunchbacked. They appear to be very old with grey, wrinkled faces abd blackened, blind eyes. They have long black or white unkempt hair. Their voices are high-pitched and squeaky. They are always barefoot. They often carry brushwood in a pannier on their back or in their apron. They use a walking stick to support their unsteady gait.

Moss Women are living in the forest, where they are dwelling in underground caves or hollow trees. They are sleeping in beds from moss. They are living in large families and can have children from Wood Kobolds or humans. They like to bake delicious cake, and when they do, mist is coming out of the forest. When politely asked for, they serve the cake also to humans.

Moss women know herbs and are skilled at both sending and healing illnesses. If people mock them, they send them ailments. This can happen in a variety of ways. They can squeeze people so hard that they become sick and miserable, and they can sit on them so that they become lame. They can also breathe on them, which causes people to get bumps or ulcers on their faces. Moss women also have knowledge of the future.

Moss women reward people by giving them wood shavings or leaves that turn into gold. They also give balls of yarn that never end unless you deliberately look for their end, or webs and knitted items that bring luck and blessings into the house. The moss women also show their gratitude with well-intentioned advice and warnings. They also look after children in the forest, lead people out of the forest at night without getting lost, or help them find deer and roe deer antlers.

On the other hand, moss women steal bread and dumplings. They cannot tolerate caraway bread, however, which is why they cry out: caraway bread, our death. The same goes for "piped" bread, i.e. bread into which the tip of your finger has been pressed. They cannot touch counted baked goods either. On the other hand, the moss women rightfully own some of the hay cuttings and the water that drops on the rim of the vessel when scooped out, as well as some of the linseed, flax stalks, ears of grain and tree fruit, as well as the flour that sticks to the frame of the bucket and any leftover bread crumbs. Moss women allow people to gather wood in the forest if they first receive a piece of bread or a dumpling as a gift

Sometimes moss women help people with deeds and advice. They visit people's houses and do various jobs, for example they spin flax and wool at night, they scrub, feed, milk, mow, help with haymaking and harvesting. If moss women receive food from shepherds, they bless their cows, which then produce more milk. For craftsmen, they protect their tools from thieves. As household spirits, moss women bring luck and blessings, but also require to receive food offerings in return. They detest people's cursing and vices. They love silence, hate quarrels and curses, and are driven away by them, just as they disappear never to be seen again if they are given new clothes. Whenever bast is peeled from a tree, a Moosweiblein must die.

On the river Saale, the Buschgroßmutter (bush grandmother) is known as the queen of the moss women. Strictly speaking, the bush grandmother is the mother of the moss women (here: moss girls), with whom she travels around the country, usually in a small cart. She has messy hair and a fixed gaze. The bush grandmother is also a bogeyman. The bush grandmother also appears in Silesia, where she is called Pusch-Grohla.

[theadventurersrespite]

(drawn by the amazing @ladybugkisses!)

Zola DeMorne, former pirate captain of the Tainted Rose and liberator of slaves. A former slave herself, she has dedicated her life to the emancipation of any who would find themselves in chains, be they literal or metaphorical.

(Zola here is my replacement character in the Rise of the Runelords game that I'm participating in, taking the place of my kobold Umbral Stalker Inquisitor [who is going to get art at some point I swear!]. Having only played a handful of games with her, I'm happy to say that she's a lot of fun to play as. It's taken a bit to get used to playing as a character who has a narrow focus on her knowledges instead of the broad focus my inquisitor had, but it's helped me hone her spot on the party, which is as the face. I'm looking forward to getting more art of her in the future~)

[ranticore]

wanted to very quickly make up an interesting & engaging culture for the lil kobold guys so that it hurts more when they all die. here's my ramble about that.

they are not reptiles but like many reptiles they develop into male or female based on ambient temperature during embryonic development, but they also evolved into endothermic livebearers. so with the parent at regular body temp it's a fifty-fifty sex-at-birth split, but in conditions of colder-than-average daughters are produced, and hotter-than-average gives you sons. other sex traits are temperature linked so it can also be possible to trans your sex if you go through a temperature shock in either direction (hypo/hyperthermia) but that's pretty rare because you'd be more likely to die. other traits are temperature-linked including skintone saturation, hair coverage, etc and can change over time throughout an individual's life.

all of these are evolutionary traits to allow them to survive seasons without a dragon in the cave providing warmth; the lairs are usually high up in cold mountainous regions. a dragon's lair then has zonations of temperature from hottest (dragon) to coldest and kobolds are able to exploit the widest range possible. when there is no dragon, there's almost no warmth (as campfires and the like are lethal in tunnel systems), and in extreme circumstances colonies can become all-female and propagate by parthenogenisis until a dragon settles the lair again and provides warmth. naturally their little colonies are matriarchal, and the matriarch has to commune with the dragon in an area that is extremely hot (because of the dragon). this causes her to only bear sons. it means that there also has to be a mother of matriarchs whose job it is to produce a matriarch, which she does by staying in the cold parts of the cave, to give birth to daughters. the daughters can be next in line for matriarch if they can survive the dragon (i.e.. if it chooses not to kill em) and thereafter have to stay in the hot zone.

anyway this results in a kind of alternation of generations and two complimentary ruling bloodlines who, while related, can never meet past birth - if a matriarch has a daughter it's an indication that she was not as close with the dragon as her duties demand (she is supposed to interpret the dragon's moods and provide predictions of future prosperity based on them). and if a mother of matriarchs has a son it means she was also not being dutiful enough (but i mean. ice baths all day everyday aren't fun either so this scenario is more common than the reverse). once a mother of matriarchs has a son then she's out of a job due to old superstitions that sons, being smaller at birth and easier to produce, will permanently taint a uterus by showing it the easy way out, and thereafter it will always pick that route. that's only superstition tho. the matriarch & mother of matriarchs both have a group of consort malewives. these usually have a mix of cold and hot phase traits and tend to bounce between temperature zones so they don't become too inclined in any direction.

the colony does not have only two reproductive members ofc, these are only ruling bloodlines. most individuals are not born from a matriarch or mother of matriarchs, and when the lair is occupied by a dragon there should be an even bimodal distribution of sex traits. a child is named based on imagery from both parents' dreams during the baby's first sleep (there is no day or night. baby is left out unattended by the dragon while it sleeps and the dragon 'decides' if it's worthy to live or not. dragon doesn't give a fuck and is barely aware of all this btw). if it survives it gets two names, one from each parent. then later in life those two names are used by the matriarch (if upperclass/Important) or the division leader (if lowerclass; hunters, scavengers, etc) to pair up one individual with another who has a complimentary name. the four names should go well together and paint a nice word-picture. the two individuals then become partners in a kind of culturally-enshrined buddy system and do their tasks together. it's very dangerous in the warrens and tunnels after all and it's best to go in pairs.

for example holly's full name is Holly Burn (due to being the very unlucky son of a mother of matriarchs, who had to retire; he 'burned' her) and his partner's name is Red Leaf. the names when spoken together make a little four-word poem which is optimally good in their culture

so that's what i got since last night but i have more Ideas. anyway all that's going on including some intense interpersonal drama between himself and red leaf when the knights come

[yan-maid-cafe]

Yandere Monster Fucker Concepts

Not a yandere monster. A yandere monster fucker with a darling monster.

Yandere Royal that gets kidnapped by the big snarling dragon. Only to become obsessed with you and not wanting to be saved. Anytime the hero comes, they alert their big dragon love. Watching as you burn the royal's armies to a crisp. They just want a happy little future between them, you, and your children. Don't question them, they will find a way.

Yandere Cult Leader and their eldritch god. They found you when they were at their lowest and viewed you as their saviour. They know that you're not a "good god", it's hard to hold that belief after sacrificing human life to you, but they don't care. They'll sacrifice countless cultists to you if it means that they can be in your good graces. They can't wait for you to finally arrive into their world, you'll destroy everything in your path and create your paradise. And maybe if they pray enough you'll make them your spouse. Or your pet. They'll take either at this point.

Yandere Pirate that unknowingly enters siren territory while sailing with his crew. Crashing into the rocks, leaving them stranded on the damaged ship. Despite trying to fight off the alluring melody, one by one his men begin to jump off the side into the water to be ripped apart by the monsters. Until finally the captain falls victim too, jumping into the water and feeling themself submerge. Only to be met face to face with the siren that had led them here, but they're beautiful, more beautiful then anyone the captain had seen. Their arms outstretched as if to embrace them. But at that moment, the captain was pulled out of the water by another ship of men. They crew quickly covering his ears before he could hear the song again. Able to read the men's lips as they explained that they were headed back to land. But all the captain could focus on was the beast he had just seen, and just how badly he wanted to jump in again.

Yandere Villain that works alongside a vast array of monsters, but only one catches their eye. One of the small kobolds that they had recruited. From the looks of it, they appeared to be the leader of their little group. They were actually starting to think that those kobolds didn't even listen to them, just their little leader. Which was less then ideal, that disloyalty would just make a coup easier to perform. So the villain needed to get closer to the reptilian leader, if they could get closer to them, than maybe they could redirect that loyalty towards themself. But they were cought off guard by the scrappy little thing, they weren't the brightest but they were very cunning. Having set traps all over the villain's lair in case any wannabe heros showed up. And they seemed to have memorized the villain's plans and were already getting their army in on it. Before they even knew it, the villain finally understood why the other Kobolds picked this one to be their leader. And suddenly the little reptiles didn't seem to dispossable.

I have a lot of yandere ideas but I'm too lazy to write them all. So I'm thinking of posting more concepts like this so I can post more often. It was much easier to write for me.

Also I tried to keep both the yandere and the reader gender nuetral. Which was easier said then done. So if this makes no sense, I'm sorry. I tried to make it work.

[wizblr-blue-moon-ball]

Greetings magical friends~☆

This is the official blog of the Blue Moon Ball! A wizardblr-wide event hosted by @the-necrobotanist for the greater Wizardblr community.

This blog is where I (Necro) will be making the future updates and posts for the blog!

This post will be pinned until the official post for the event is released, which should hopefully be when the date poll is complete.

For now, here's the current jist of the event:

For One Week (May 19-25), there will be a set of prompts pertaining to four categories for people to participate in (you're more than welcome to do more than what the prompts say!)

The catagories are: ART, WRITING, ROLEPLAY, AND PHOTOGRAPHY

The restrictions are no NSFW, and no revealing personal information (along with being nice. Dont make me extend this rule list.

You post and roleplay for the others for the week, and I'll do my best with this blog to reblog and share everything (as this is the nexus of the event).

Make sure to use the tags when the event happens!! I'll put them below so you can familiarize yourself

☆

#Blue Moon Ball Art — Art for the Ball

#Blue Moon Ball Writing — Writing for the Ball

#Blue Moon Ball RP — RP for the ball

#Blue Moon Ball Photography — Photography for the ball

#Blue Moon Ball Updates~☆ — Updates from me about the ball

Make sure to familiarize yourself with the tags and feel free to send me asks and submissions of your ideas and work!!

I cannot wait to see this come to fruition ☆

— Nec

☆

PINGLIST (Hi! It's me Necro)

@scuttling-comfuddlement @the-gnomest-bastard @kobold-sanctuary-buss-island @satyrs-apothecary @irving-the-pirate-wizard @morbingtime @justagingerwithredhair @chaos-familiar @these-detestable-hands @regina-the-sorceress @combustion-witch @slymewitch @yourlocalbreadenthusiast @mango-lord-of-poison @selldemapplez @agentldiddy @fractalkitty @wizard-island-trading-co @asheslab @good-wizard @the-illegal-wizard-council @ash-the-tiefling @mysticminion @blobbiedaykeeppcaway

@thebookshelflord @ceeceelemons @jesterofthelibrary

[entropyrpgs]

Kobold Press, one of the largest DnD creators, is creating their own system due to the recently announced changes to the Open Gaming License (OGL 1.1). Above is the video announcement on Twitter. Here's the blurb from the website:

As Dungeons & Dragons moves toward the 50th anniversary of the game, foundational changes are afoot in the tabletop roleplaying game arena. While we wait to see exactly what shape the Open Gaming License might take in this new era, Kobold Press is also moving forward with some clear-eyed work on work on a new Core Fantasy tabletop ruleset: available, open, and subscription-free for those who love it: Code Name — Project Black Flag. To receive future announcements and to register to playtest this ruleset, please sign up using this form.

When the new Open Gaming License and an updated System Reference Document are made public, Kobold Press will review the terms and consider whether they fit the needs of our audience and our business goals.

The kobolds are looking forward to the continued evolution of tabletop gaming, and we aim to play our part in making the game better. Rest assured Kobold Press intends to maintain a strong presence in the tabletop RPG community.

The form to sign up that is mentioned above is located here: https://koboldpress.com/kobold-press-announces-new-core-fantasy-experiment/

This could easily move the needle on how WoTC goes forward with this plan, but no matter what I think they've lost a lot of trust with the community.

[paperanddice]

Here's a link to the announcement on their website.

It looks like Paizo is making their big move with the fears and rumors around the OGL situation. They've noted before that they're confident that Pathfinder 2nd Edition didn't have to be published under the OGL, and that they only did so to make it easier for people making third party material. Rather than having to switch to a new license and setup, they could continue just using the OGL.

Now, with even the rumor that WotC would roll back the OGL, they're going to be funding the creation of their own Open RPG Creative (ORC) License. Their goal for this is to be truly open, system agnostic, perpetual, and (most importantly given the current fears) irrevocable. Additionally, they don't intend to own this ORC License, instead trusting it to a third party of some kind, preferably a nonprofit with a strong dedication to open source licenses. This would put it outside of their control to meddle with it in the future, or for anyone who purchases Paizo (like say Hasbro) from being able to do so.

They're opening up a mailing list for anyone to see their drafts and provide feedback, and they already have a large list of publishers who are signing on for it, including Kobold Press, Chaosium, Green Ronin, and many others.

If this works as they're saying, it would be a huge deal for small publishers. A license that any system or game could be put under, out of control of any large corporation, that would allow the best parts of the OGL to be spread to many other companies and independent creators. I think regardless of how things shake out with the OGL, this is going to have a big impact on the TTRPG industry as a whole. The OGL as written was good for a lot of third party groups, but it did all funnel back to giving D&D a much larger market dominance, which this one shouldn't repeat in exactly the same way. Rather than most of the works for the OGL supporting D&D in particular, this ORC may have the chance to raise many games.

[bug-memory]

Hey! I shipped all the Muriels! I did it!

Over the past three days, I have mailed out orders. Please keep an eye out for your Muriel box!

If you need your tracking number, please contact me and I'll gladly link it to you. I think BackerKit doesn't send them to people for some reason.

I'm gonna add a little cut here because I have some more things to say about the project as a whole!

So... First of all, in the future, I would like to avoid using Kickstarter and Backerkit as a platform for my dolls. I used Kickstarter because, at the time, I wasn't really active in the doll community and didn't know that most people just did a pre-order independently. I don't regret doing the Kickstarter, but I do think I'd like to try something else next time.

Aside from printing some smaller batches of new Muriel colors in the future, I will probably avoid 3D printing dolls as a final product and stick to using it for prototyping only.

My reasons for this are... The printed resin properties still just aren't there for me. I think the Muriels turned out just fine and I'm happy with them, but have found that when adding more pigment to them, they scratch easier, which was what I was trying to avoid in the first place by using Mecha/Tenacious. I think the pigment thinning it out further reduces its anti-scratch properties, but idk. (My ratio was 4:1 Mecha/Tenacious in case anyone is wondering). Because of this, coating the Muriel joints is a necessity rather than an option, imo.

I do plan to do some smaller batches of different colors for Muriels. I most likely won't make any more larger sized ones, though. All the colors for the Kickstarter are exclusive and won't be remade.

So... Projects coming up... First of all, Harold.

I should finally be getting his robe back next week, and will work on making it more "spooky," as well as print a prototype in what will hopefully be a close approximation to one of the color options from my caster. After I up my photography game, hopefully the photos are pretty enough to encourage people to pre-order him. I would love to do this in October--it is MY MONTH, after all--but also Harold is literally a ghost and a witch, and I think this is an appropriate spooky season for their pre-order. So, I really hope that now that the factors outside of my control are almost resolved, I can get this finished. If I work on him for a week, I can probably have the photo-worthy prototype.

Anyway, soon.

Future projects:

Violet and Lucian, my werewolf dolls, will probably take up most of 2025 for me.

They will have separate pre-order periods, so if people want both, they won't have to order both at once. I want them to be 1/3 scale, so they will be pricier (layaway is your friend, tho). I just really hope there's enough interest for them by the time I get to this stage (guessing, next year). I hope the extra income from Harold will help me get a casted sample for Violet, to see if anything needs to be changed engineering-wise. If for some reason it just doesn't work in 1/3 scale, I might go with a 1/4. I just really think a werewolf is worthy of a big doll. She will be a bit of an engineering challenge for me, but I think I can work out most of it by printing parts of her; I do plan to print a 1/4 one to test before going with the casted sample (which will cost upwards of $600 for a single one).

I think, for Lucian (which will just be a masc version of the werewolf sculpt) I can just edit the Violet file's proportions and hopefully keep the same joint engineering between the two.

Waaaay future projects I want to do:

Bisbee (1/4)

A big demon dude with wings (1/3)

A kobold? (dunno what scale)

[mythaura-blog]

Development Update - September 2023

Hello hello everyone, Miyazaki here with another development update!

This month we cover:

Mutations

Kobolds

Weekend Traveler design

Beast Design Contest winners

Ko-fi Quarterly Rewards concepts

All that and more under the cut!

Mutations

On very rare occasions, a Beast may be born with a striking visual abonormality. These are Mutations.

Mutations are obtained primarily through breeding two Beasts together. Mutations are not passed down to offspring, meaning that parents who have Mutations are not any more likely to pass it down to their offspring than parents without Mutations. There will be methods available to increase the likelihood of a Beast being born with a Mutation.

Mutations will layer on top of all base colors and specials. They do not recolor. There will be methods to remove a Beast's Mutation, if the player does not want it on their Beast. A Beast can only ever have one Mutation at any given time.

There will be a difficult end-game method of adding Mutations to preexisting Beasts, but breeding will provide a higher odds.

Mythaura will launch with 3 Mutations, the first of which is Piebald.

Piebald

Piebaldism is a genetic mutation that has a pattern of unpigmented white spots on a pigmented background of hair, feathers, or scales. The Beast's skin under the white background is not pigmented.

Piebald is now live in the Beast Creator for you to experiment with.

Quarter 2 (2023) Ko-fi Concepts

It’s the first day of Quarter 2 (2023), which means we’ve got new Quarterly Rewards for Sponsors to vote on on our Ko-fi page!

Which concepts would you like to see made into official site items? Sponsors of Bronze level or higher have a vote in deciding. Please check out the Companion post and the Glamour post on Ko-fi to cast your vote for the winning concepts!

Votes must be posted by October 29, 2023 at 11:59pm PDT in order to be considered.

All Quarter 1 (2023) Rewards are now listed in our Ko-fi Shop for individual purchase for all Sponsor levels at $5 USD flat rate per unit. As a reminder, please remember that no more than 3 units of any given item can be purchased. If you purchase more than 3 units of any given item, your entire purchase will be refunded and you will need to place your order again, this time with no more than 3 units of any given item.

Hopefully in the future Ko-fi will offer the functionality to limit purchases per user, but for the time being we will be reviewing orders manually and reaching out to those who disregard these instructions.

Quarter 1 (2023) Companion: Filigree Moth

Quarter 1 (2023) Glamour: Twilight Dreamscape

Quarter 1 (2023) Solid Gold Glamour: Peryton

Kobolds

Kobolds are a non-playable species. They will show up around Mythaura as shopkeepers and other NPCs, along with other sapient species like Harpies, Fauns, and Vitterfolk.

They are masters of magical spatial manipulation—they are itinerant by nature and insatiably curious collectors, so they developed the means to distort space to carry large amounts of items in a small space. These satchels are highly sought-after items for adventurers. While many of these satchels are created purely for function and are minimalist in design, some Kobold artisans specialize in making beautiful, exquisitely detailed bags. These are often sold for exorbitant prices. (Buyers beware that there is a thriving market for fraudulent satchels, especially in the larger cities!)

Kobolds showcase a wide variety of physical traits, often influenced by where they were born. Although their ancestral home is the desert of the Sun Path, Kobolds have long since spread to all corners Mythaura. Their design takes inspiration from alligators, lizards, jackals, and coati.

Weekend Traveler

We originally mentioned the Weekend Traveler in the June 2023 update. This Kobold will bring their rare, luxury wares into town every Friday through Sunday to sell to the player—so be sure to save up your gold and shards for their weekly visits!

Beast Design Contest Winners

Thank you for all the great submissions to the Beast Design Contest! You all never cease to impress us with your creativity. For the September 2023 Beast Creator Contest we’ve got our three winners: Hidranea, Zillychu, and Despot!

Our three winners will each have the rewards automatically applied to their accounts, and these three beasts will be featured on the homepage for Quarter 2 (October through December).

Keep an eye out for our next Beast Creator Contest–we’ll be gathering entries in December to display on our site for Quarter 3 (January through March).

Reminder: Custom Color Contest

As a reminder: to celebrate the cooperative nature of the color wheel that we're making with you, we're opening a Custom Color Contest. We want to offer the opportunity for you to make a permanent impact on Mythaura's color wheel!

This contest is free to enter, and only has the following parameters:

Only one entry allowed

Fill out Google Form by Saturday, November 25, 2023 at 11:59pm PST

We've included a PSD file for you to use, if you'd like!

The dev team will reach out to the winner on December 1 to begin the color design process. Winner will have until December 22, 2023 to complete their color design.

Winner will also receive 3x copies of the Empemeral Ink that matches their color's base hue (Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Green, or Violet).

We're so excited to see what you come up with!!

Mythaura v0.23

Laid the groundwork for in-game encounters with functioning decision engine with basic weighting for behaviors.

Added base threads and posts functionality for forums.

Implemented an index for the forum index.

Added the ability to create a thread in the forum.

Prevented non-staff members from posting in the staff category of the forum.

Added enhanced guest user functionality.

Refactored the demo battle to use guest users.

Refactored various map generation functions for guest users.

Created and implemented guest sessions & encounters in the wild area.

Refactored walkable tiles in the wild area and added support for sound effects.

Various schema and database updates.

Added a loading screen to the CMS and related endpoint.

Added parallax backgrounds and refactored existing code.

Added mutations to creator dropdown.

Fixed issue with button widths in battle demo.

Began behind-the-scenes implementation of production layout.

Thank You!

Thanks for sticking through to the end of the post, we always look forward to sharing our month's work with all of you--thank you for taking the time to read. We'll see you around the Discord!

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

Ok, so in the future, I'm just banning anything labelled as "any race" or something. Like I'm sorry Diviner wizard or whatever, but that's a class not a species. We're not having another nebulous archmage situaiton. Also, a lot of these books have a lot of minor variant entries. I don't mean things like multiple kobold warriors just holding different weapons, obviously those are one entry. But what about "Here are 5 kinds of astral elves. Outfit, personality, and profession are wildly different but they are all the same species." I'd think to put them all together like I did with ghoul/ghast, but that leads to blurry lines about what counts as separate species with creatures that undergo transformations, or vampire/vampire spawn, or hell even things like the githyanki/githzerai.

Since 1 and 2 are very similar and will likely split the vote, if the results are close to 3 I'll run this poll again but without one of the options.

[panoramicpancake]

She clutches the simple pendant tight against her chest, grounded by the metal that bites into the flesh of her palm. It's no more elaborate or precious than anything a commoner could afford but to her, worn and weathered by frequent wear as it is, it meant the world. The last remnant of her family—the only tangible thing she has left of blissful times.

The wagon she was sat upon jostled, jolting the kobold to the here and now. With a heavy sigh she released the pendant and gazed out at the land trailing in the caravan's wake.

It's time to carve out a new future, she reminds herself, in a land where those deemed different—lesser by the ignorant and the fearful—can truly live and thrive. Though she had run from thrown away her past, she would try and start anew. - - -

Having long abandoned her name, she now goes by the moniker Soup. It was a silly, passing thing that stuck—a joke bestowed upon her by the campmates she had once traveled with for the manner in which she would covet the simple meal.

Quiet by nature, Soup struggles to build connections with others, often awkward in her approach and interpretation of others. To busy her mind and her hands, Soup whiles away her time working on her craft.

- - - -

Started my first Vintage Story RP today and this is my character Soup, one of the Coppertop Wood's potters. I'm super new to the mechanics and whole in-character roleplay aspect, so I was pretty nervous during the session but it was overall a good experience and I'm really looking forward to next week!

[gammagoop]

here’s a kind-of-masterpost of the notes for my Last Life Fantasy AU !! i will add more to this in the future, but here’s what i’ve got now:

(its long so just click the read more)

General world notes:

Not really kingdoms since theres less than 20 people total but the various alliances do have castles/towers/homes of similar grandeur

There are fantastical creatures, but theyre not as common as normal animals, and none that the players come across are too extremely dangerous.

^ Except for the Wither! In which the Wither is a horrible decaying demonbeast that’s summoned by Grian

^ I’m thinking the typical Minecraft hostile mobs are replaced with things like kobolds and big rodents and . skeletons which ig are still the same

The Boogeyman is genuinely believed to be a curse in this world. No one quite knows where it comes from, but speculation ranges from ghosts to old magic to divine punishment

^ Those cursed by the Boogeyman become snappier, more on edge. There are no physical changes other than being visibly more tense, but it’s very hard to spot if you don’t know how to look for it

^ It’s also popularly believed that the curse will subtly enhance one’s strength and magical power, but also make them more vulnerable to attack

I haven’t decided if the members still have multiple lives, or if its more of an injury thing. I’m leaning toward the latter, in which someone is grievously injured in the place of dying (at least until the final death) because that also leaves room for life-giving to become healing magic. Perhaps one can only heal so many times before they become aggressive and combative in place of a red life? And different people are more or less vulnerable to that insanity

When I describe a person or group as ‘magical’ I mean that they can use magic at will. Any person can use magic if reading a spell that was written by a magic-user, but only some members can use magic without that. <— italics bc its important

^ The most common spells used by non-magic people are healing-related

^ Those with magical ability manifest it through instinct and will, rather than word-for-word spellcasting

Non-magic users can also use magical items, which are items enchanted by a magic user to perform a specific spell (ex. Scar’s crystals)

Fairy Fort/Shadow Alliance:

General:

Fae people. Generally humanoid-looking, if not for their pointed ears and shimmery skin. They have whimsical and nonpowerful magics

Primarily within a magically protected circle of dense trees, which is later burned down by Cleo after she’s betrayed

visually they are kind of 4 seasons coded… Lizzie being Spring, Bigb being Winter, Ren being Fall, and Cleo being Summer

Lizzie:

The strongest magic user of the group. Even so, she doesn’t use it to hurt people directly, more just for evasion and negotiation

BigB:

The boogeyman curse puts him much more on-edge than he normally is. He would have never thought he would kill a teammate, but the jitters and the pressure really got to him

Ren:

Can communicate with animals at a low level (not full conversations, just notions of instincts) due to his magical ties to dogs

Fiercely protective of Lizzie

^ Drawing on myths of fae: maybe he was once a dog himself but was transformed into a person by Lizzie?

Cleo:

Not quite a zombie but has ties to the dead. Generally just a green-skinned fae creature, but her injuries leave more prominent marks

The river over which they were betrayed is said to be cursed with Cleo’s blood

Team BEST:

General:

A team of knights who serve no crown. They serve each other and themselves, a tight but troubled group

This group has no magic users, but are the strongest in non-magical combat

They live in a castle which was once painted white, but has since faced some decay

They ride horses

Bdubs:

Doesn’t like to keep his helmet visor down because it obscures his vision. The visor gets torn off when he gets to his red life

Etho:

Wears a different style of armor from the rest of the team, both due to his own independence and his different fighting style

He prefers ranged combat to melee, meaning his armor is lighter and easier to move in

Skizz:

In the leadership role of this team, but by his own admission he’s not really their leader. He more just organizes plans and makes sure that everyone is on the same page

Highest in ‘rank’ and thus gets fancier armor. It’s not really stronger than any of his teammates’ but he gets a big feather on his helmet and a cape and some cool designs engraved in his armor :D

Tango:

Wears goggles instead of a helmet since he dabbles more in traps than combat. Pretty bad at melee anyway

Nonhuman but humanoid. Likely some infernal species? Not necessarily demonic, but he’s tied to heat and fire

Is more adept at performing spells as a non-magic user and therefore is always called on to heal Bdubs when he goes crazy (thanklessly)

Scottage/GGG:

General:

Wealthy in resources. Not magic users, but have access to various spells and magical items

More reserved than the other teams

Very skilled at less chaotic combat

Small but extravagant (artsy) castle

Pearl:

More combative than Scott

I gotta work the axolotls in somehow but I’m not quite sure how yet…

Scott:

Enjoys wearing more fancy outfits (cloak, gold accessories) but still relatively protected

Cleo:

Happily taken in my Pearl and Scott after leaving the fairy fort, wears much more armor then

Wears less extravagant accessories than Pearl or Scott

Magic Mountain:

General:

The most powerful magic users on the server (due to being wizards)

Not necessarily a team since they don’t work together much, but they have a wizard solidarity with each other

Live separately on the same mountain. Scar lives in a small-ish cobbly tower with lots of trinkets and hidden compartments. Joel lives in a cabin-like house within a small alcove in the mountain

Joel:

Visually more warlockish, but has no patron and therefore is a wizard. Uses his magic more directly and more aggressively than Scar– just replace all his traps in canon with spells (that mostly went wrong)

Not a very accurate magic user, but when he hits he hits hard

Evidence toward the theory that the Boogeyman curse makes you both more powerful and more volatile

Scar:

Rarely uses his magic directly, instead imbues his crystals with (often weak) spells for fun and profit

Is more of an accurate spellcaster than Joel is, but almost always uses his magic for selling and trading rather than attacking. He’s not great at combative spells anyway

Jellie as his familiar…………………thinkin about it

Southlands:

General:

Artisans and philosophers. Not as wealthy in resources as GGG, but they have a good amount at their disposal

^ Haughty A-HA!!!!!

Mostly unmagical, but it’s possible that Grian and Jimmy have some weak or dormant powers

Live in towers, similar to canon but more structural

Mumbo:

Artificer, proficient in small machines and automated farms

Martyn:

Philosopher who speculates on the nature of their world

Impulse:

Similar skills to Mumbo, but plays more of a diplomatic/negotiation role within the team

Builds larger farms and machines than Mumbo does

Jimmy:

Has a more peasant-ish outfit than his teammates

Proficient at building small devices like clocks and spyglasses

Grian:

More combative than his teammates

Astronomer, not as focused on that study as his teammates are on theirs

[keganexe]

D&D, The OGL, and a Better Future for Actual Play Content

So this is spinning out of a post I made on twitter about how I legitimately believe the future of Actual Play (or AP for short) is in working alongside indie rpg folks

You can see that thread here, but I'm gonna recap anyway

Lets talk about the OGL and D&D first

Thanks to some great reporting from journalist Linda Codega (@lincodega), we know the general shape of the new Open Gaming License (or OGL) that WotC is running for Dungeons & Dragons moving forward. In short it sucks, I am not super interested in getting into it here, especially because Linda (once again) did really solid reporting here. Generally this spells a very bad time for a number of bigger third party creators (Green Ronin, Paizo, Kobold Press, probably Critical Role if we assume they aren't in on it which I would not assume tbh), and it also spells out specifically that Hasbro's desire to monetize even harder is in full swing.

One of the more interesting bits to this whole thing to me though, is how Wizards is looking at Fan Content, and I think its very likely this is going to be a major rub for AP Producers in the future. The OGL is now much clearer that AP work needs to fall under the Fan Content Policy, which means in broad strokes there is to be no monetization of your content. This is an old policy, but one I think a lot of folks are blithely unaware of. Specifically

You can't require payments, downloads, subscriptions, or email registration to access your content

You can't sell or license this content to a third party

Your content must be free for others to view, access, share, and use without paying you anything, obtaining approval, or giving credit.

You specifically can run things like a Ko-Fi or a Patreon, but you can't hide content behind a paywall. It also is... unclear on the ability to do things like live shows for money? I'm not a lawyer.

Regardless I think its high time people left, and that brings me to part 2 here

D&D and APs

Fundamentally D&D has always been bad for Actual Play. It's a quagmire of conflicting rules and bubblegum fixes, it crunches in weird spots, it doesn't do half the things people play it for, and its expensive to get into. Furthermore, it requires a lot of prep, it doesn't adapt well, and fundamentally it makes bad radio.

Where we see the most successes in the niche of D&D APs is hyper edited, super slick, and wildly unachievable setups; with major changes in rules, players who can make a living doing it, and entire production studios working on them (looking at you Critical Role, Dimension 20, etc). Within these (and within a ton of other APs) we also see a wild amount of homebrew to bend an inflexible and inelegant system into something that tells the stories we're interested in telling in games. Be this the wild changes to death in Dimension 20's Neverafter, full new classes and mechanics across Critical Role, magic items and homebrew in every AP I can think of, etc.

Generally also D&D is bad radio. The exacting measurements on battle maps don't make great Theatre of the Mind (certainly not as well as games designed for it), the rolls + stat modifiers + misc. shit on your sheet requires a lot of boring and frequently had to follow math*, etc.

Point here being, when we see it done well** it's less on the hands of D&D being good at these things, and more because production is changing major aspects of gameplay to make a game make good radio.

We should also talk about the messy legacy of D&D, but honestly that would be a few thousand extra words from me, and I don't have it in me. If the OGL doesn't scare you, it's worth thinking about what you're cosigning by staying around. Here's some extra articles if this is the first you're hearing about Wizards having major problems tho

Why Race is Still a Problem by Linda Codega gets into a lot of it

Wizards is still making money off of Oriental Adventures (and an article on that)

Mike Mearls still works there, this was weirdly hard to find a good article on, but here's a reddit post where its discussed

A Better Future for Actual Plays

This brings me to the point of this thread, which is that I don't think the future of Actual Plays has ever... actually been in making 5e content. This is a thing I feel pretty strongly about as a person who makes non-5e ap content (and this is a bias, sure). To me a better future has always been in indie rpgs, and in making content hand in hand with designers and producers working together.

What does this look like though? In short it rocks, and it's a thing bigger folks in the AP sphere are clearly already looking it. I'll list some examples below, and then I'll talk more about what it looks like on smaller scale, and what my experience with that has been like

So first off here's a few examples of what this looks like on the higher production end of the scale. I'm specifically looking at examples of campaign APs, working with the designer of the system, and not one shots which are doing this a bunch already.

Dimension 20's Shriek Week with Gabe Hick's Mythic System

Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast Podcast getting made alongside Possum Creek (it is a series of one shots, but also a shared universe, so I'm counting it here)

Into the Motherlands moving to their own system eventually

Iron Edda: Puppet Strings with Tracy Hicks on the One Shot Podcasting Network (edited to add this example)

On the smaller end this is something I legitimately have some experience with, and this is where the thread was always heading. Let's talk about Renegade Racers, the game I made specifically for one person, what that has looked like for me, and why I think it's the future of APs to make content this way.

So a while ago I got on a Fast & Furious bend and watched all the movies. Not content to just watch movies though, I talked to some folks about if they had seen games based on it, and got linked to a video of @0sarahxfrank0 running a F&F inspired honey heist hack (I'm not gonna link it because the community it spun out of has had a lot happen and I don't wanna give them clicks tbh).

The short version of this is that I watched the game, built a system to better handle what folks were trying to do, and then sent it back to Sarah. She loved it. We made some changes, we rebuilt around the players and stories people wanted to tell, we released the game and the first AP together afterwards. Now Sarah and I do a lot of work together, we're planning bigger things like this for the future, and it's so far been a lot of fun and super rewarding for everyone involved.

We've seen some other stuff like this as well, even if not in campaign play. Offhand, Plus One Exp's home Down We Go system is a great example of working with a designer to stamp a system as the home system, and find community within it. We've been able to watch sorta in slow motion as DWG moved from a little one page OSR hack that potentially gets lost in the shuffle, to something big and exciting that both parties are happy to put a stamp on.

This is the exact future I see for AP campaign play, and not a wild dream I don't think.

What does Actual Play look like when it's tied to designers who want to help you tell your stories in the ways you want to tell them? What would it look like for a community to say "actually we've had enough"? What happens when we work with people who give a shit instead of faceless megacorps? What does it look like when we invest in people willing to invest in us?

I've seen the future and it's golden, we just have to reach for it.

*hard to follow in that if the players aren't saying out loud what exactly they're adding the numbers are nonsense **by well here I do mean "expensive and award winning" I do not mean I think they're particularly master classes in game running or production, but that's a whole separate topic