whatdoiknowjr

[whatdoiknowjr]

Thinking about how I think about RPGs, and also how I translate those thoughts to words.

[whatdoiknowjr]

To get more familiar with with Daggerheart, I've been converting some well known fantasy characters to Daggerheart to get a feel for the system. In this post, I'm looking at the Heroes of the Lance via Daggerheart rules. #TTRPGs #RPGs #Daggerheart

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Let's take a look at Daggerheart, characters sheets, Roll20, Demiplane, and the, um . . . Nexus of all of them. #Daggerheart #TTRPGs #RPGs #CriticalRole #DarringtonPress

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The blog, it's not entirely dead! I wanted to share some thoughts on D&D Beyond, spellcasters, and new players learning how D&D Spellcasting works. #DnD5e #DnDBeyond

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What Do I Know About My Campaign? Tales of the Old Margreve Campaign Journal #5

The next session is in the bag, I’ve taken some notes, so let’s dive in to how I got from there to here, what the prep looked like, and how the session turned out. Last session we had just wrapped up the Fingers of Derende section, and now we are about to embark on The Honey Queen. Campaign Journal #1 Campaign Journal #2 Campaign Journal #3 Campaign Journal #4 If I would have given it more…

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Contextualizing NPCs in 5e SRD Games

I had a few thoughts about presenting NPCs without using the same game rules as player characters, but without using different cosmological assumptions. #TTRPGs #5eSRD

I lost so many hours from my life creating stat blocks in Dungeons & Dragons 3e and Pathfinder by adding levels to existing stat blocks. How many levels do I give the character? What do they have to give up to qualify for this feat or prestige class I want to give them? Did I allocate enough of their NPC treasure content for material components they need to cast the spells I gave them? If I want…

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Captain America: Brave New World Thoughts

Today, I went to see Captain America: Brave New World. I will admit that I wanted to see it because I don’t want any racist Disney executive to have an excuse to demand that they never let a Black superhero lead a movie again or that they need to change who’s playing Captain America. I don’t want them to use this as an excuse to quit using Black directors. I love going to the movies, but I don’t…

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Sword Opera on Kickstarter

Read this quick, and then head over to Kickstarter in the next 23 hours or so. #TTRPGs #RPGs #FITD

A few years before the pandemic, two people who were part of an online community I participated in, the Misdirected Mark Podcast Network community, started a podcast to talk about what they loved about Jianghu stories. They talked about the liminal space in which the stories take place, the language of combat scenes, and the idea of holding systems of power to account. That was when Eli Kurtz and…

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Novels of a Bygone Era: Forgotten Realms Novel Recommendations

Just a quick post talking about some of the older Realms novels that speak to what the setting should feel like, to me. Its not about lore, it's about tone, in this case.

I was asked on the THAC0 with Advantage Discord if I had any Forgotten Realms novels I would recommend. I realized that while I had recommendations for previous era sourcebooks, I never talked about novels. My top picks, which may include books that include elements that my brain has buried too deep to consider, would be this: Songs & Swords (Elfshadow, Elfsong, Silver Shadows, Thornhold, The…

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Thoughts on the Forgotten Realms Subclasses UA

Welcome to the new era of more off the cuff commentary, on a schedule of "whenever I'm moved to write something." I hope I still see you around.

You may wonder what this is if you read the previous blog post. This is actually the kind of content I want to be able to post. I want to have an opinion, be moved to write about it, and post it. The formalized process and the schedule are the things that work against me, but I’m not going to stop having opinions. The difference is, I’m not going to open up various other subclasses and do a deep…

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On Changing Times

I've been circling this decision for a while, but this weekend, I really felt like I had to make a definitive choice. Hope to see you all around moving forward.

I’ve been doing RPG reviews for a while now. I’ve done them informally going back to D&D 3.5, where I would talk about what was in various D&D books, how that material could be used, and how widely it could be used. I started doing more formal reviews on my blog years later, and since 2017, I’ve been doing reviews on Gnome Stew and my blog. That’s about 8 years of formalized reviews, usually…

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Tales of the Valiant, Roll20, and Shard Tabletop

I wanted to pull together some posts I made about the Roll20 Tales of the Valiant character sheet situation into a single place on the blog, so some of this may seem a little familiar, depending on how closely you've been following recent posts.

You may or may not have heard that Roll20 had determined that they aren’t going to develop a character sheet for Tales of the Valiant. This may not seem like a big deal, but that means they aren’t going to support Tales of the Valiant in their character builder, and they aren’t going to create the new stat blocks to show up in a character sheet for the new monster stat blocks. Effectively,…

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Some Kind of Monster (Type)

Yes, I have more reviews and first impressions coming, but I had to clear the logjam in my brain about monster type, and who can understand whom, and what monster type actually means in #DnD #DnD5e #DnD2024

With some of the discussion on monster types and what sapient beings can and cannot understand the thought processes of other creatures, I am starting to feel like creature type is the new alignment and that some of the issues with older D&D content haven’t been addressed so much as shifted to another part of the game’s narrative. This is a collection of my thoughts on the process. Rather than…

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Coming to Crowdfunding - Love for the Love Gods

Since Pasión de las Pasiones existed in ashcan form, I heard a little voice saying, “What if there were an RPG for Hallmark movies?” And to be fair, a few RPGs have attempted to move into this space. But I must admit, when you say something like “Cabin in the Woods,” but for Hallmark Movies, that hook will get my attention. The Cabin in the Woods is one of my favorite horror movies. I love its…

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Worlds Beyond Number Witch Playtest version 3.1

Wait, is it 2025? I guess I should get back to work. Today on the blog, we're looking at the update to the Worlds Beyond Number #5eSRD Witch class revisions.

This isn’t very revolutionary because I’ve already taken a look at the Witch, but I wanted to touch base on the updates because I’m really interested in this project. If my thoughts aligned with some of the revisions, I might even start to take my ability to analyze these things more seriously again. Worlds Beyond Number Witch Playtest version 3.1 Concept Design: Erika Ishii, Brennan Lee…

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Wizards of the Coast, The VLM, and 2025

There have been several organizations that have already begun to sever ties with LGBTQIA+ people or to suppress content that portrayed trans people since Donald Trump was reelected. It’s hard to see this as anything other than currying favor with the administration. It’s shameful that many people are afraid of legal reprisal from the administration for disagreeing with its policies, but it’s even…

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What Do I Know About Reviews? Glory to the High One (Shadow of the Weird Wizard)

As this year draws to a close, about to be murdered by Baby New Year so 2025 can replace 2024 like a sinister changeling subverting our connection to this year, I'm looking at Glory to the High One, a supplement for Shadow of the Weird Wizard. #TTRPGs

Unless a fantasy setting is doing a very specific thing, I prefer the setting to be clever with its real-world analogies. What I mean by that is, if you’re going to have a fantasy nation that looks like 1300 CE France, I don’t want it to be the same size as 1300s France. I don’t want all of the cities of 1300s France with different names, and I don’t like the nation to be the same age as 1300s…