thepangolingm

[thepangolingm]

Sword and sorcery tabletop RPG which includes a long, rambling list of magic spells with weirdly specific affects and annoyingly particular casting requirements, kind of like if Dungeons & Dragons decided to be about 40% more precious about its magic system, except it's a group worldbuilding game, and one of the first steps is for the group to collectively choose exactly seven of those spells to be the only ones anyone still knows how to cast. All of the spells that didn't get picked might be spoken of in legend, but the knowledge of them has been lost over time. The remainder of the group worldbuilding phase consists principally of brainstorming what a society built around these seven annoyingly specific spells would look like; for example, perhaps the knowledge of their working is jealously guarded, with each of the setting's great nations constructing their entire cultural identity around Their Spell, or perhaps the setting's industrial base is dependent on combining these spells in increasingly unintended ways to form a sort of sorcerous Rube Goldberg machine of production.

(One of the default campaign premises for this hypothetical game would, of course, cast the player characters as a gang of mercenary scholars on a quest to rediscover an eighth spell. Depending on what sort of setting the group initially brainstormed, keeping their intentions under wraps may be strongly advisable.)

[thepangolingm]

Reasons why that character who kicked your whole party's ass all up and down the street that one time you fought them is about as strong as the other player characters when you recruit them later:

Allergy season

Self-conscious about performing alongside others

When you fought them they were, like, really well rested

Pulled a muscle during your battle with them and spends the whole rest of the game recovering

They're been working on their anger management issues lately and really feel like they're making a lot of progress

Their build is so over-optimised for fighting parties of 3–5 nosy adventurers that it's honestly kind of trash against anything else

They were on so many drugs when you fought them, like you would not believe how many drugs they were on

Their soul-devouring demon blade is in the shop having its hilt refurbished

Just not feeling it right now

Union rules

[thepangolingm]

core classes as undead :)

[thepangolingm]

Today marks the start of the tabletop adventure for our players, aged 5 and 8. Opting to play as a pair of wizards (Magicus and Solaris the Undying) venturing out from their shared college of magical arts to discover new spells and ancient artefacts. The first clue being an old map of a cave network on the Sword Coast dotted with mysterious markings. Do they indicate traps or treasure?

Turns out it was traps. Traps and magical constructs that attack as soon as our wizardly duo set foot in the tunnels. However, some teamwork and ingenious combination of mold earth and gust saw them dispatch the foes and navigate a ravine with little trouble.

Upon reaching the deepest point of the caves, our adventurers are surprised to find a dry, well lit library. Here they are greeted by a dwarven palladin, Octavius Spellhammer. Apparently he's been waiting for just such a party to prove themselves in his trials and he has a quest for them: Travel to Phandalin, solve their dragon problem, and retrieve a magical artifact from the dragon's hoard.

[thepangolingm]

[thepangolingm]

[thepangolingm]

What are some chronic illnesses that can only occur in a fantasy setting?

[thepangolingm]

DIY Druid Wildshape Kit by roll4diy on instagram/tiktok

[thepangolingm]

The BBC is releasing over 16,000 sound effects for free download

[thepangolingm]

[thepangolingm]

Do you have any advice for someone about to dm for the first time? I'm less worried about running the session than how the hell do you plan one?

Btw Iove your art and it's inspired me to try out line work again

Thanks! And hey, that's a good question.

Here's the thing I've learned as a DM - you don't have to plan EVERYTHING.

In fact, the less you plan, the more prepared you'll be!*

*Some restrictions apply

How I like to think of when I DM is that me and my players sit in the middle of a WHEEL of possibilities. It looks something like this:

Every session you start with, you have a set amount of possible go-to points. These are limited. Usually, your party won't go from sipping drinks at a tavern to walking out the door and fighting cult members in ONE session.

The possibilities are endless, so what you need to prepare is just the next few steps. In the above image, what I mean is that they first two darker shades are representative of what you need to have prepared immediately, and the lighter shades are plans you can have on the back burner, but don't need to flesh out.

As your party makes choices and travels outside of the Starting Spot, you can prepare the NEXT steps based on the ones they chose.

So, say your party is in your tavern, and they decide to go to the Adventuring Guild to look for a job. You don't HAVE to prepare the Heist Mission in the Wizard's tower for that - you can know it's a possibility, but once they've made their first choice, you have a direction.

You can then kind of visualize what their next steps are.

Of course, this wheel isn't one way! Your players could always just... hop over to an adjacent topic! If they're solving a mystery, that could link up to a Cult involvement. And from there, they can discover a Secret Hideout for the Cult, which you already know was a possibility if they were to go into the forest.

And once that sort of adventure has started, you can go ahead and think about what other things you had planned out might link up to or evolve from where they are.

At that point, it's like playing a giant board-game. Which involves laying down track in front of an oncoming train.

My recommendation is that you keep a few things on hand which can be used anywhere:

a few maps that somewhat relate to multiple things on your map (for example, a dungeon-looking map that could be a Secret Hideout OR the Wizard's tower)

Some named NPCs - at least one per location that you can throw up immediately when they arrive

a few puzzles/plotpoints which can act as a placeholder while you think of details (for example, a Mystery can be hard to think of on the spot. Give them some random clues, such as a missing person, a few discarded items, etc and then take your time before the next session to link those items together!)

The rest is.. well... just making it up as you go along!

Of course, that's just MY personal way of doing things. Some people prepare way less, and some prepare way more. It's just all up to how quickly your players move/how comfortable you are with details.

[thepangolingm]

if you are a dungeon master (or even a fantasy author/worldbuilder of any kind) and you don’t know about donjon let me make your life a million times easier

want to make a fantasy calendar with your own year-lengths, weeks, months, and lunar cycles? https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/calendar/

need to come up with some medieval town demographics? https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/demographics/

want to make a map and layout of a city/town? https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/town/

want a fleshed-out tavern complete with menu, innkeeper, patrons, rumors, and secrets? https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/inn/

leading your players through a dungeon and want to customize the size, treasure, layout, theme, etc? https://donjon.bin.sh/5e/dungeon/

tired of creating lists of magic items for different shops to sell, or hoards to be looted? https://donjon.bin.sh/5e/magic/shop.html and https://donjon.bin.sh/d20/treasure/

even a customizable initiative tracker! https://donjon.bin.sh/d20/initiative/

and that’s only scratching the surface! I really recommend all dms check this out. oh, and it’s completely free!

[thepangolingm]

If you’re too lazy to read through a full article about the new players handbook for dnd, I’ve complied and paraphrased the notable stuff:

- more backgrounds and 3 new subclasses including a mystical viking barbarian

- specifically 16 backgrounds and 75 feats

- Some subclasses have been changed. Apparently way of the four elements monk has been entirely changed

- new core playable species: aasimar, goliath, orc

- Ability score modifiers now linked to background instead of species (less fantasy racism yayyy)

- calling races species now

- unspecified changes to current species like human

- you get one origin feat according to your background. Origin feat is a new type of feat typically only obtainable at character creation

- new types of feats unlockable at higher levels which are cooler/more powerful. Called epic boon feats

- weapons now have a mastery feature. So if you have mastery in a weapon you can use a move unique to that weapon like toppling with a maul. Bg3 has the same mechanic with proficiency for reference

- 100+ pages of spells 😭

- a more detailed equipment chapter

- all new art yayyy

- attempt to make it easier to understand and start out for new players

[thepangolingm]

Rumour has it, a gigantic crab has been spotted around these Fey Ruins! 🦀