Is Dungeons & Dragons doomed? 1:00 AM (11 hours ago)

This seems to be an absurd notion. Why should the most influential and highly successful roleplaying game which is at the height of its popularity be doomed? The reason has – at least in my opinion – a lot to do with corporate capitalism and less with the game itself.

One problem D&D faces is that the people in charge over at Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast don’t seem to understand what Dungeons & Dragons is. They don’t understand the TTRPG culture. For them it’s just another intellectual property that is “under-monetized“. They also think that the popularity of D&D was their doing…

One of the secrets behind D&D 3rd Edition’s success back in the day was the Open Game License. The OGL allowed basically everyone to create D&D-compatible products and sell them if they followed a few simple rules. This was a win-win situation for Wizards of the Coast and the third-party publishers. People had to buy D&D core rules to use the third-party products (at least in most cases) and the third-party publishers could write material for the most well-established TTRPG. A lot of settings designed for other games were released for the d20 System. Everyone was happy. That’s at least the short and simple version.

But then the people in charge got greedy. With the release of 4th Edition D&D came the Game System License. While use of the OGL was free, GSL was not (at least not initially). The GSL also would have forced people to stop using the OGL if they wanted to release D&D-4th-Edition-compatible products. Many third-party publishers were appalled. Eventually WotC gave in and made significant changes to the GSL, but the damage was done and they lost many third-party publishers including Paizo which created Pathfinder to be a direct competitor.

D&D 4th Edition was also not as popular with the fans as WotC had hoped. Common criticism was that it was too much focused on combat which also took way too long to resolve. Another criticism was that the new mechanics felt too much like MMO mechanics. Personally I liked a lot of what D&D 4th Edition tried to accomplish, but ultimately playing it wasn’t a lot of fun for me.

D&D Next was an attempt at getting the fans back. WotC promised a system which both new and old gamers would enjoy. There was even talk of making the game modular in a way that allowed GMs to easy customize the rules to their liking. Unfortunately not much of this made it into the final version of D&D Next which eventually was called D&D 5th Edition. What we ended up with was a game which had a lot in common with 3rd Edition D&D but slightly simpler. It’s probably not the most innovative design out there, but it was enough to get a lot of people back into D&D. Oh, by the way, the OGL was back as well!

Something else helped D&D 5th Edition a lot: actual plays on Twitch and YouTube and particularly the success of Critical Role. Critical Role (as we all know) is a group of voice actors and friends who had started a campaign back in the 4th Edition days. They eventually switched to Pathfinder. When they started streaming their gaming sessions, the decision was made to use the new 5th Edition rules. The rest is history…

For most people it was recognizable that the success of Critical Role was one of the main drivers of D&D 5th Edition’s success. People wanted to experience for themselves what they had watched in the streams. Other popular actual play series helped to fan the flames even more. Eventually Critical Role got that successful that they ran a Kickstarter to fund the production of their own animated series based on their D&D campaign.

Things were great for a while then someone at WotC and/or Hasbro got greedy again. They asked themselves, why all these people were making millions of dollars with their IP? The success of Critical Role or popular Kickstarters from companies like MCDM made them want a bigger piece of the pie. The resolution was quickly found: let’s axe the OGL! What a splendid idea since it worked so great back during the 4th Edition days!

To no one’s surprise history repeated itself. The plans got leaked, people were angry, several third-party publishers decided to move away from the OGL and create their own games including the aforementioned MCDM and Critical Role. So WotC/Hasbro had to pedal back, restored the OGL and even released basically all of D&D 5th Edition under Creative Commons. but again, the damage was done.

I think you can see a pattern emerging. There are so many other missteps I could write about: the fact that WotC had neglected providing proper digital tools for a long time for example. Some people are probably still waiting for the VTT they promised when 4th Edition launched. It also didn’t help that the team at WotC which was partly responsible for the overwhelming success which was Baldur’s Gate 3, a video game by Larian Studios, was fired almost immediately after the game released. WotC/Hasbro was already infamous for firing people shortly before Christmas each year, but in this case it seemed especially brutal. It was also pretty dumb because the CEO of Larian Studios is an outspoken critic of this kind of corporate capitalism who used every opportunity to talk about this. Even without calling out WotC directly everyone got the message.

Recently Wizard of the Coast released their virtual tabletop called Sigil. I haven’t tried it myself yet but from what I’ve heard it definitely needs more work. Too bad it’s not only D&D the higher-ups at WotC and Hasbro don’t understand. It’s also software development. Insiders said that they didn’t understand what a VTT is and how it’s different from a video game. Shortly after Sigil was made available to the public, WotC laid off about 90% of the developers. Ouch. So the VTT is basically dead on arrival, Larian Studios moved on to a new project unrelated to D&D and its highly unlikely they will ever work with WotC again. At this point one could be asking if this is just bad luck or incompetence at WotC and Hasbro.

That’s why I think Dungeons & Dragons is doomed. It’s in the hands of a corporation which doesn’t understand anything about the roleplaying games hobby. They expect that they can treat it like any other IP. They don’t understand that Dungeons & Dragons has always flourished when the whole industry profited from it. They can’t wrap their head around the fact that D&D is more than just a product to many people. It’s not a simple toy, not a video game. And the worst of all, they don’t want to accept the fact that profit margins are small in the TTRPG industry. In my opinion corporate culture and tabletop RPGs don’t mix. D&D would be better off in the hands of a smaller independent company which understand its customers better. But as long as Hasbro controls Dungeons & Dragons its future looks bleak.

Social Media killed the Blogging Star 3 Apr 3:59 AM (yesterday, 3:59 am)

A couple of days ago I got an email from FeedSpot. It’s founder informed me that our blog has been selected by their panellists as one of the Top 90 RPG Blogs on the web. A couple of years back this news would have been extremely exciting to me. These days I shrugged and almost deleted the email on the spot.

The main reason is probably that my excitement for blogging has waned. Back in 2008 when I started this blog, we were still a community. The RPG Bloggers Network tied everything together. The more experienced bloggers supported the newcomers. People wrote guest posts for other blogs and helped to shine light on less well known sites. It was an exciting and fun time.

Slowly but surely social media started to draw traffic and reader interaction away from the blogs itself. Nowadays blogging often feels like yelling into the void. Sure, there are still blogs with good or even great content out there, but it just doesn’t feel the same. Perhaps it’s also my age showing. Heck, when I started this blog I still had hair and it wasn’t grey. ^_^

The other thing that bothers me is that these Top 90 RPG Blogs mentioned even contain the Official RPG Maker Blog which is a blog run by the company which creates RPG Maker for various platforms including PC. It’s a video game or rather a tool to create video games. Another one listed is “The CRPG Addict” which I personally love, but again, it’s not about TTRPGs. I feel that the “panelists” just did a sloppy job. This further devalues the significance of being a “TOP RPG BLOG”.

The vast majority of the blogs listed are proper TTRPG blogs, though, and from what I gathered most of them are even still active. If I wasn’t an old curmudgeon I probably would have recommended you check out some of the blogs on the list.

Three OSR TTRPG recommendations (and a bonus one) 3 Apr 2:32 AM (yesterday, 2:32 am)

I have a soft spot for the Old School Renaissance. Even though I never played original D&D or owned one of the Basic D&D boxes I have some quasi-nostalgic feelings toward this era of gaming. I like the simple mechanics which encourage the GM to make rulings and that player skill is more important than character stats. Over the years I’ve collected quite a few games which are direct simulacra of old editions of D&D or which are at least inspired by old-school D&D. Today I want to talk about three of those games.

Vagabond // Pulp Fantasy RPG

Let’s start with my current favorite: Vagabond. I stumbled upon it a couple of days ago when I was checking on what’s new on DriveThruRPG. Vagabond is an about 200-paged TTRPG compatible with B/X D&D but comes with a lot of exciting changes.

There’s a new and simple roll-over resolution system which includes simple skills. It’s written not only with regular group play, but also solo or co-op in mind. Vagabond’s (non-Vancian) magic system is brilliant and gives characters a lot of freedom on how to cast their spells. The core rules come with 6 ancestries and 18 classes. It takes inspirations from many popular TTRPGs like the aforementioned B/X, but also Dragonbane, Mörk Borg, ShadowDark and many more.

I especially like the extensive bestiary included. I could probably ramble on about how much I enjoyed reading Vagabond for hours. I highly recommend you to check it out. By the way, the author, Taron Pounds, is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to fund another print run. At the time of this writing the KS has already been fully funded but there are still over 50 hours to go. There’s also a free Basic rulebook containing four ancestries and six classes you can check out right now!

Bugbears & Borderlands

Bugbears & Borderlands is what happens when you use 5E’s mechanics and use them to create a more streamlined version inspired by B/X D&D. All the basic character races from D&D 5E are included, but there are only three classes: Fighter, Expert (basically B&B’s version of a thief/rogue) and Wizard.

The last class is the most exciting since it’s not your regular D&D wizard. For starters wizards in B&B can cast spells which are usually reserved for clerics as well as the familiar wizard spells. They also get to choose a “Magical Bond” at level 3 which has a huge impact on the character. For example the “draconic” bond grants the wizard draconic powers and changes their appearance into some kind of half-dragon while the “divine” bond turns them into warrior clerics and grants various weapon and armour proficiencies. I just wish they picked a better term than Wizard for the class.

B&B isn’t as innovative as Vagabond, but its take on the wizard class made it stand out for me. I also think that the author, Roderic Waibel, managed to achieve what he set out to do: to create a basic version of 5E inspired by the classics. Like Vagabond it comes with a full bestiary and the whole thing is even available for free. You can also get B&B in a POD format either as one softcover book or two hardcover books (Players and GM Guide).

Chromatic Dungeons

Chromatic Dungeon is another OSR D&D clone created by Roderic Waibel. It’s his attempt to combine an old-school gaming experience with more modern sensibilities and design philosophies. It actually managed to tick most of the boxes I had on my “the perfect D&D retro clone” list: ancestries and customisable heritages – check, ascending AC – check, d6-based thief skills – check, same level up XP requirements for all classes – check. It shares a lot with the aforementioned B&B, but its 5E influences aren’t as prominent and it looks and feels more like a game from that era. The layout is directly inspired by the AD&D core rules. Like with my other recommendations it comes with a full bestiary.

Chromatic Dungeons has received quite some flak from certain parts of the internet because inclusive representation was one of its design goals. Why this could be seen as a bad thing is beyond me. When compared with Bugbears & Borderlands I think that Chromatic Dungeons is the more flexible game of the two. B&B’s wizard class is so much different from what we are used to, that it has major effects on the implied setting. Chromatic Dungeons is in a way more “traditional” and thus can be more easily used.

One last thing: Chromatic Dungeon comes with a dyslexic-friendly PDF which uses a special font designed to help people with dyslexia.

Bonus: White Box Cyclopedia

The works of James M. Spahn are always easy recommendations. I don’t remember any of his releases which didn’t immediately excite me. His take on magic items in “The Hero’s Journey Fantasy Roleplaying” was totally brilliant and why other games didn’t steal the idea of magic weapons and armour acquiring magic properties by usage. But I digress.

The White Box Cyclopedia is pretty much what the D&D Cyclopedia was for BECMI but for White Box D&D. It includes the full White Box rules and all the races, classes and other additions to the game James’ has written over the years. But it’s more than a simple compilation. Everything has been double-checked and James made sure everything fits together perfectly. In essence you’re getting a smorgasbord of options from which you can pick.

I love James’ works, I love White Box, but there’s one catch: it’s not out yet. A while ago the White Box Cyclopedia was successfully funded on Kickstarter but unfortunately it’s still in layout. But it was promised to the backers that the PDF release is close. That’s why it’s “only” a bonus recommendation.

A few last words…

In this day and age it’s really hard for smaller games to stand out. We gamers usually tend to focus on the “big ones”. In the general RPG scene this is Dungeons & Dragons 5E. In the OSR it currently is ShadowDark. Before that Old-School Essentials was THE game everyone talked about. I think the games I mentioned in this article are not talked about enough. So please, check them out and if you like what you see, share the word. Thanks.

Kickstarter: White Box Cyclopedia 15 Jan 10:38 PM (2 months ago)

James M. Spahn is currently raising money on Kickstarter for White Box: Cyclopedia, which could easily be THE definitive book if you are into fantasy roleplaying inspired by the original D&D (also known as 0e). It will contain modernized rules based on original D&D (before Greyhawk) with many modern additions and optional rules for referees’ which allow endless customization. You’ll not only get the three basic classes, but also many new ones. There will be new heritages, over 200 monsters, rules for strongholds and seafaring, and much, much more.

I love James’ work and this is a project I gladly supported in a heartbeat. In fact, I plan to use this for my next campaign! At the time of this writing over 36,000 dollars have been raised by almost 800 people. The goal of initially $ 5000 have been raised in mere minutes. As far as I understand is the PDF version of the White Box Cyclopedia already ready to go and will probably sent out to backers as soon as the fundraising has ended in 22 days.

If you are interested in old-school gaming, I highly recommend you checking Whitebox Cyclopedia out on Kickstarter.

Hunting White Whales 12 Jan 7:54 AM (2 months ago)

Happy new year and welcome back to Stargazer’s World. I finally found some time to blog again, so lo and behold my first post of 2025!

It has been a longtime tradition to make resolutions for the new year on New Year’s Eve and there’s one thing I decided to do, or rather not to do anymore: hunting white whales. For way too long there have been a few things I have been chasing for years now without ever getting any closer while at the same time frustrating me to no end. This has to stop! I am sure many GMs know this all to well and perhaps some of you may want to share your own experiences in the comments below. But let me first talk about my white whales…

The perfect system to rule them all

It’s silly, I know but for way too many years I have been looking for that one roleplaying game system which I could use to run everything. There have been times when I thought I might have found the one system I could use for everything while still being easy to play and run. At least for me, this system doesn’t seem to exist. For a time I thought FUDGE could be it, or maybe Savage Worlds, but neither of these games are the best fit for every setting or genre, nor do I always want to run games using the same mechanics. I also love to check out new games all the time, which totally contradicts this urge to find the one game to rule them all. So my resolution for 2025 is to give up on trying to find that special game in favor of just playing what’s fun at the moment.

The Great Fantasy Campaign

I guess everyone who’s ever played D&D or similar fantasy games has this dream about running an awesome, year-long fantasy campaign on par with literary epics like Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings. The longest campaign I ever run lasted for about half a year or so. Usually my campaigns ended because life got into the way, I lost interest in the campaign or I got overwhelmed for some reason or the other. Life getting into the way unfortunately happens way too often and there’s not much you can do about it. Players are moving away, are starting families or you’re just so busy at work that you don’t have the energy to run games in the evening. Getting overwhelmed is not inevitable. Not trying to turn every game into that Great Fantasy Campaign is a good start. I think it’s way better just to play what is fun to you and your players and if everyone comes back for more, you’re on the right track. But trying to force it is recipe for disaster. So, no more planning of Great Fantasy Campaigns for me.

Perry Rhodan and Ultima as tabletop roleplaying games

There are two franchises from my youth I have a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings for: the space opera series Perry Rhodan and the classic computer roleplaying game series Ultima. I still feel a lot of nostalgia for both and both are incredibly hard to run as roleplaying games. I have written about both on this blog before and I think I’ve also described what makes these setting hard to turn into tabletop RPGs. The Perry Rhodan universe is huge and the story spans thousands (if not millions) of years. There’s more than enough material there to run countless campaigns, but the sheer size of it all makes things hard. The stakes are usually high, characters are often extremely powerful, space ships are huge (spheroid space ships with diameters of 2.5 kilometers are not as rare as one might suspect), and there’s so much lore that even its authors get stuff mixed up all the time. For years I have thought about how to make it work, and it only frustrated me. To make things even worse: most of my friends don’t even care for the setting and they are the people I want to run games for.

Things are similar with the Ultima series. I feel a lot of nostalgia for the series (especially from Ultima VI on) but most of my friends haven’t played any of the games or even heard of them. Then there’s the issue that especially the games I am most fond of just don’t work very well in a tabletop RPG setting. Because of technical limitations the Ultima world is either extremely empty or extremely small. Both seriously mess with one’s suspension of disbelief. What makes matters worse is that the shape of world changed all the time. And don’t get me started on the canon and the constant retcons. Yes, I love these games, why do you ask? During the last holiday break I invested countless hours writing an Ultima RPG, tried to find ways to solve these issues, but in the end I realized that I would never be able to be truly happy with the outcome.

Conclusion

So I’ve decided I want to keep away from hunting these white whales in the future. Only pain and frustrations lie on this road, so I shouldn’t keep following it. I think these are reasonable New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps giving up on these unreachable goals will give me the chance to pursue a few reachable ones for a change. That would be something, wouldn’t it!

Excited about Pathfinder 2nd Edition 28 Nov 2024 1:28 AM (4 months ago)

I never thought I would be excited about Pathfinder 2nd Edition all of a sudden. As you know, I usually prefer rules-light games. I even found D&D 5th Edition overwhelming from time of time. But something about Pathfinder 2nd Edition intrigued me. I don’t know if it was the artwork, the brilliant three-action-economy or something else. I still dismissed it back when it came out expecting it way too complicated for my tastes.

Then the opportunity to play the Beginner’s Box opened up. A friend offered to run it for me and my wife and we started creating characters using Pathbuilder 2E. I was surprised of the amount of options which were available to a level 1st character. I also liked how the game handles ancestries, heritages and backgrounds. As far as I remember I created a human sorcerer with a bounty hunter background, while my wife created a goblin alchemist with a focus on bombs. Unfortunately life got in the way and we never actually played these characters. But I was interested enough to eventually buy the Pathfinder 2nd Edition Player’s Handbook Pocket Edition. The Pocket Edition is a smaller paperback version of the regular hardcover rulebook at a much lower price point, which I prefer because it’s much easier to lug around. I never got the time to thoroughly read it and put it onto my growing “pile of shame”.

About a week or two ago I noticed that the “Pathfinder – Happy Anniversary, Remaster!” bundle had gone online at Humble Bundle. For under €30 you get 72 Pathfinder 2nd Edition products including the new and remastered Player Core and GM Core. Since a lot of Flip-Mats were included in the bundle, I thought the purchase would be worth it for those alone. So I made the purchase and started downloading. Out of interest I checked out the Player Core and was immediately drawn in. There are a lot of mechanics to learn, but – oh boy – it’s a nice looking and greatly organized book. With the remastered edition Paizo has completely moved away from the D&D SRD the game originally was based on. I immediately noticed the new and exciting ancestries like the Leshy and the removal of attribute scores (yay, finally!!!).

The more I read the less intimidating it became. Sure, I haven’t played it yet, but it sounds doable – even for someone like me who has a busy life. I’ve also played Pathfinder 1st Edition for quite some time now, so 2nd Edition which feels more streamlined is just not as intimidating at it used to be. Eventually I read the rules included in the Beginner’s Box (which is also included in the bundle) and my stance immediately changed from “looks interesting” to “I have to run this!”. I’ve never seen a better introduction into a new game than this. I haven’t read the included adventure yet, but the rules portion is leaps and bounds better than what D&D 5th Edition has to offer at the moment.

Earlier this week I got the two Player Cores, the GM Core and the Monster Core in their Pocket Editions. I am still waiting for the Beginner’s Box to show up at my doorstep. My current plan is to familiarize myself with the rules from the Beginner’s Box first and create a couple of characters and probably run a mock battle or two. For next year I plan to at least run the Beginner’s Box adventure for a couple of friends before making any bigger plans. I own quite a lot of adventures for Pathfinder 2nd Edition adventures from this bundle alone, so running one of those might a realistic goal.

What are your experiences with Pathfinder 2nd Edition and especially the remastered core rules? What should I expect? Are there any pitfalls I have to avoid and what worked and didn’t work for you? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Wizards of the Coast are dropping the ball again! 29 Sep 2024 6:02 AM (6 months ago)

I hate to complain. I’m trying to maintain an optimistic attitude and focus on the positive. Also, I hate that my first post on the blog about the 2024 version of Dungeons & Dragons has to be about this, but Wizards of the Coast, henceforth WotC, has dropped the ball with their service. I’ve tried to solve the issue through standard means, but the poor service and the frustration have reached a boiling point, and thus, this post. If you don’t want to read an angry rant, there are a lot of other posts here on the blog.

Still here? Let’s go!

I immediately became interested when the 2024 Digital & Physical Core Rulebook Bundle from WotC came up for sale. I wanted to see their changes to the rules; I use D&D Beyond, but I also like the physical books. This bundle and the savings it offered seemed like a good deal. I have ordered the D&D Beyond book and digital bundles before, specifically for Dragonlance and the Deck of Many Things, and I got the books promptly with no hassle. This bundle seemed like a great deal.

It’s my birthday in June, and my wife ordered the bundle for me as my birthday gift. She was thrilled, and I was elated. The transaction was done; all we had to do was wait.

September comes around. I get my redemption code and my book on D&D Beyond. I also happened to be traveling when the book came out and got a copy of the special cover, and I was sure I’d have the regular cover to read and use when I got back home.

The book has been out for a month now, and so far, the 2024 Player’s Handbook has not arrived in the mail. So, what happened? On September 24, I saw no book or shipping notifications from WotC, so I wrote to them and checked the order status.

The first hurdle was getting to reach customer support. WotC does not make it easy to find the “Contact Us” button; instead, it takes you to an FAQ and makes it purposefully difficult to get help via their support link. When you finally open a help ticket, you will wait over 24 hours for a response. The response that I got left a lot to be desired.

To quote a piece of it (the complete response is the image below), “A review of your order shows that items with different release dates have been purchased in this order. This means that your product will ship when all items on the order are available to ship. Full details can be found on our FAQ under “When will I get my physical product?”.” The FAQ does say: “If you place multiple orders with different release dates, then your order will deliver when the last item is available.”

But, and this is important, the bundle page clearly states that: “As they are released, each physical book will be shipped to you and each digital book will be available in your D&D BEYOND account.” See the image below!

This answer is a switcheroo by WotC, advertising one thing and then claiming another. False advertisement! I let the support contact know my displeasure with the situation, and a day later, I got a non-answer stating the same thing and saying sorry, not sorry. I reiterated my displeasure with the situation, opened another ticket requesting a solution to my problem, and provided feedback, clarifying my displeasure with the situation. If you follow me on social media, you may have seen my post about all this.

And since three days ago, nothing, not Rodolfo, the service rep, nor anybody else from Wizards of the Coast or D&D Beyond, has contacted me or replied to my messages.

After posting about it on social media, I have found other people who have similar problems, and some have reached out to me asking if I’ve been able to get any response or solution from WotC because, like me, they are at their wit’s end.

It would be an easy solution to reach out to the credit card company and log a complaint trying to get a refund. But this was a gift from my wife; she’d have to do it with her credit card company, and most importantly, she was so thrilled that she got me this as a birthday gift. I would hate to “return” her gift and sour the whole experience. The gift has sentimental value beyond the mere transaction.

So, I’ve come here to air out the situation and get some more eyes on it. I hope those affected can get a resolution from WotC by creating awareness. I’ve been a D&D Beyond client from the start, with my subscription, getting almost all the WotC books on the platform, but I will not buy another digital product from then until this is solved to my satisfaction.

It is a poor starting point for a version of the game I was excited to play. After the OSR debacle, WotC has tried to gain back the goodwill they lost with the fan base but continually seem to drop the ball, like with the latest information regarding the use of AI, and this is just another example of the messing up what should have been winning situation for them. My enthusiasm for the game has been dampened, and I hope we can sort this out to get our book. Balls on your court, WotC; what’s your play?

PS – I usually include many links to the pages and locations I’m referencing, but I don’t want to share the link for the bundle after getting all this grief with shipping. You can find the page pretty easily with a quick Google search if you want to check it out.

Wondrous Variety! 8 Sep 2024 8:00 PM (6 months ago)

I’m reading the new 5^th edition Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Player’s Handbook, let’s call it D&D 5.5 for convenience. This post is not a proper review. If you follow me on social media, you might have read some of these thoughts. It’s a beautifully put-together book. It focuses on ease of play, referencing it during play, and helping new players understand the game. I like the layout and the use of art to illustrate the rules and concepts of the game, the fact that the illustrations have captions on what they represent, and credit the artist directly with the art. It is focused on the larger demographic currently playing the game, and to me, that is a strength; it seeks to grow the hobby, be inclusive, and be easier to understand. A far cry from the complex, often hard-to-grasp rulebooks I learned to play tabletop role-playing games with.

Except for the D&D Mentzer Red Box, an excellent book to learn the game, the AD&D 1e rule books were written in a style amicable to a much more niche audience, but I digress.

Reading the new &D 5.5 rulebook and looking at the illustrations and esthetics has brought to the fore a topic I’ve been thinking about for months now, certainly since watching the D&D Honor Among Thieves movie (which I very much enjoyed, BTW!), watching the Vox Machina animated series on Prime, and watching the awesome, made in Puerto Rico and highly recommended actual-play Juego La Mesa.

When you watch the D&D movie, the Vox Machina series, or the La Mesa actual-play videos, you see a fantasy world quite different from the one I grew up playing and reading about. Cards on the table, I’m a 50-year-old gamer who’s been playing one ttrpg or another for 38 years. When I first picked up D&D, my references for creating a fantasy world were the stories of King Arthur and the Round Table, the movie Excalibur, reading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, seeing the animated films about those stories, Conan movies and comics, Beastmaster and other myriad fantasy b-movies the flooded the video stores in the mid-80s. The Elfquest comics also greatly influenced my storytelling. Dragonlance was formative for my development as a Game Master and world builder, but I discovered those after starting to play D&D.

These stories and the game presented a very different fantasy world from the one we see today in games with more modern sensibilities. The division between the various peoples, what used to be called races in the game, and I understand the connotations involved in this concept, now called species in D&D 5.5, ancestries in Pathfinder, was marked and rigid. Orcs and goblins were painted with a broad stroke and cast as evil antagonists.

I grew up playing a game where, for example, the animosity between elves and dwarves was baked into the game; see the Racial Preferences Table from the AD&D 1e PHB, page 18.

In these worlds, the species lived separately and distrusted each other. The otherness of, for example, the half-orc was codified and made explicit in the rules. The good races were good and civilized, and the evil races were bad and barbarous.

With some reflection and introspection, we can now see that while some of these might be attributed to some literary sources, which does not excuse them and requires careful consideration of those works themselves, they also came from a mindset of biological determinism, colonialism, discrimination, and projecting outdated, often racist, and downright hurtful beliefs into a game. It is not good enough to say these were products of the time or the author’s outdated views. These games were written merely half a century ago, within my lifetime! Many creators were alive until recently, and since we still pay them, it is valid and essential that we analyze, question, and try to address these problematic ideas.

No one is telling anyone else how to play your home campaign. If you enjoy a more simplistic black-and-white morality in your game, have at it. But don’t expect other people not to question, analyze, and discuss these issues because that is important in the larger social context where these games take place. This discussion and analysis is about making the hobby accessible and respectful and addressing the problems in the games we enjoy. If you think this is an attack on you and how you play, then that may require introspection on your part.

Let me get off my soapbox now and continue with this post. So, what does the rant of the last four paragraphs have to do with what I started writing about? As much as I recognize that the above-discussed analysis of our hobby’s origins and problematic elements is important, I am not immune to the effects of growing up playing with a different fantasy paradigm and suffering culture shock with newer fantasy worlds.

I was taken aback when I first watched the Honor Among Thieves movie, with aarakocra and tabaxi living among the humans. The campaign worlds seen in the Legend of Vox Machina and the Juego La Mesa are cosmopolitan, where many of the game’s species live together in multiethnic societies. Not without conflict or challenges, but a far cry from the xenophobic worlds of racial distrust of early D&D.

Funny enough, I was also incredibly thrilled when I saw the movie. The aarakocra are one of my favorite species from the original Fiend Folio, especially after reading an article in Dragon Magazine #124, from August 1987, detailing their ecology and stats, The Wings of Eagles. The fact that aarakocra are among the player characters in Juego LA mesa also delighted me.

D&D has always been about adding new options and species as player characters. Since the beginning of the game, people have looked for ways to play other fantastic beings. D&D 4^th edition expanded the classical roster of human, dwarf, elf, gnome, half-elf, half-orc, and halfling. The dragongborn, the eladrin, and the tiefling were now options in the core book, but no gnome or half-orc in the PHB when 4e came out. Those three new species added in the D&D 4e PHB existed in previous editions in one form or another, but they were now even more integrated into the world of D&D, even in the classic campaigns published by WotC.

I included those new options when I created my points-of-light campaign to play D&D 4^th edition. They eventually entered my long-running campaign and many other options from Eberron and other campaigns. More character creation options for players is always a benefit from my perspective.

Despite recognizing the value of this variety in the rules and wanting a world that embraces and respects diversity in the world around me, I did not create fantasy worlds that reflected that. My long-running homebrew campaign was developed based on the old paradigms of fantasy I grew up with.

In a way, D&D is no longer a reflection of the fantasy worlds it was trying to emulate at its inception; instead, D&D shapes the expectation of what fantasy is. I must consciously deal with my reaction to fantasy worlds where all the races live together, where the party composition includes rabbit folk, fairy folk, and dragon people. The people playing the hobby now come to the game with different influences, from video games to anime, manga, and literature, which are often more varied and inclusive than what I enjoyed while growing up.

I can recognize that some of these options are not for me. I sometimes enjoy a different campaign, but that’s ok. The game is not created or marketed solely for me. It’s sold and should be aimed at another audience, a younger generation discovering the game for the first time.

The younger generation always overjoys me, and I refuse to dismiss them because I genuinely see in them a more compassionate, tolerant, and open generation than we ever were. Whenever I have my knee-jerk reaction that says, “That’s not my fantasy,” I rein myself in and think, yes, it is not my instinctual concept of fantasy; it’s a broader, more varied view, which is a good thing.

It may be time to put on my world-building hat and try to create a world more like modern D&D and fantasy. Make it a personal challenge. If the World of Greyhawk is the default setting in the upcoming D&D 5.5 Dungeon Masters Guide, I wonder how they will mesh this with one of the original fantasy campaigns.

I am looking forward to that.

To paraphrase Morgan Freeman as Azeem in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, a movie that certainly has issues with representation, but humor me in this instance… I am thankful for the wondrous variety of games we play.

Crowdfunding Backed Projects Audit 2024 1 Sep 2024 12:00 AM (7 months ago)

In July 2022, I audited the Kickstarter projects I backed to know where all these projects were, if I was missing something, and what was still forthcoming. I wrote a Facebook post about it, which collected the following facts:

This is how my Kickstarter backing breaks down:

399 Projects Backed.
2 are currently ongoing as of 7/27/2022.
383 were successful.
I canceled 14 for several reasons.
99% of Projects have been in the Games category.
1% have been in the Art, Comics, or Film & Video categories.

Of the 383 successful pledges as of 7/27/2022:

339 have been successfully fulfilled (89%)
23 are unfulfilled but on time (6%)
14 are late (4%)
6 are unfulfilled for a variety of reasons (2%)
1 backed with no reward.

The 6 unfulfilled projects represent a total of $135. This looks good to me!

One year later, in 2023, I did not do a deep dive like the year before, but I had backed 464 projects by then.

Last night, I realized I had not received the digital rewards for one fulfilled Kickstarter. I contacted the creator, and the situation was solved quickly and painlessly. But this led me to do a deep dive into my crowdfunding-backed projects, not just on Kickstarter, but on Game on Tabletop, Backerkit, and Verkami, the main platforms through which I’ve backed crowdfunding projects. Kickstarter remains the main platform, though I’ve backed crowdfunding projects, and 96% of all the projects discussed below are on Kickstarter. Game on Tabletop presents a disproportionately larger total of pledges because most of the projects backed there were rather costly Torg and Fading Suns projects, for which I pledged proportionately larger amounts.

Here is some data on the projects I’ve backed over the last 13 years in the four platforms mentioned above since 2011, when I backed my first Kickstarter crowdfunding project, Far West, from Adamant Entertainment.

As of 8/31/2024, the crowdfunding projects I’ve backed broke down as follows.

505 Projects Backed.
Of that total:
- 458 have been successful.
- I’ve backed out of 30 for several reasons.
- The creator canceled 9.
- 8 were unsuccessful.
There are currently no ongoing projects; all have ended.
99% of projects have been in the games category.
1% have been art, comics, or film & video categories.
There are currently 37 (7%) unfulfilled projects. Of these, they break down as follows:
- According to their fulfillment dates, 22 (4%) projects remain unfulfilled but on time.
- According to their fulfillment dates, 15 (3%) projects remain unfulfilled and are late.

Out of the 505 projects backed, one (1) was backed for no reward, and five (5) projects will likely never be fulfilled. One was derailed due to legal problems between creators; in one instance, the creator passed away before fulfilling the project, and the creators abandoned three with no updates, and thus, I consider them lost.

These unfinished projects represent 1% of the total crowdfunding projects backed.
I have lost a total of $55 in those 5 projects.

I’ve invested a substantial amount in these sorts of projects, but crowdfunding took over much of my discretionary spending on games in the changing tabletop gaming landscape. I still buy gaming books and materials, but if you aggregate both, the total is similar to my past game expenses.

One hears of so many failed projects; I consider myself incredibly lucky to have so few backed projects that never deliver any reward and to have lost so little money. I have waited an exceedingly long time for many projects. Still, I always think of these crowdfunding projects as investments in the creator’s ideas, not pre-orders, and I know that the final product I receive may differ from the original concept. I’ve discovered new creators, people whose work I would have never seen otherwise, and have even become friends with a few creators through their crowdfunding process. Overall, my experience with crowdfunding has been positive.

What has been your experience? I’d love to know. Tell us in the comments.

#RPGaDay2024 Day 31 – Dragons 31 Aug 2024 4:57 AM (7 months ago)

Day 31 of #RPGaDay2024.The final day of this year. Today, I’ve written two posts, one more personal and this one that concludes my series of posts using the themes from the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Dragons. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 1: Describe a monster.

The Sleepers Awake: The Return of Dragons

The Great Engine hums mournfully, the massive Wyrm Trap exposed as the walls protecting the engine’s core crumble, filling the cavernous room with dust and debris. The Tracker’s tattoos pulse and shift while his body writhes; unable to control the energies within, he collapses into the arms of Lady Cashara Nazar, convulsing. “What is happening?” she yells at the Curse Bearer. The old man kneels beside the young man, “The power that courses through him seeks to fulfill its purpose, but the curse in his blood, the gift of the Nocturnal Potentates, fights against this. What is his burden must now be mine.”

The Curse Bearer places his hands on the Tracker’s chest and the convulsing stops. He opens his mouth in a silent scream, and a dark miasma spills from his body, absorbed into the Curse Bearer. The old man’s tattoos shift, adding distorted images of darkness over his flesh, and he crumbles. Weakly, he whispers, “Now…”

The Tracker stands with the help of the knight. The tattoos on his body shimmer, and he unleashes the power contained within. He breaks the Wyrm Trap, releasing the dragons into the world.

The Primal Dragons, or the Dragons of Creation, are primeval forces of creation, the manifestation of the energies that birthed reality. They embody the creative potential and the destructive power of the birth of universes. These dragons flew from the Fountain of Creation and wove together the myriad worlds and dimensions that makeup realities. These dragons populated the worlds they wove together and lived in their creation. The Wyrm Traps in the skyships trapped their energy to power their dimension-traveling powers, weakening the fabric of reality.

Now released, these dragons strengthen this world and give new hope to the mortals that their battle against darkness will now have a chance of success.

And so, this crazy experiment, in which I tried to world-build through a series of posts with diverse themes and different challenges, comes to an end. I think I was successful in some ways but not so in others. I thought about naming the world today and even considered some names but ultimately decided to leave it nameless. Care to suggest a name?

Thanks to David Chapman and all the folk who support RPG a Day year after year, make sure you visit David’s Autocratik blog. Again, thanks for reading. See you all next year for RPG a Day 2025.

#RPGaDay2024, Day 31 – Gamer I miss… 30 Aug 2024 8:00 PM (7 months ago)

Sammy: A First-Line Friend

I have reached a certain age where the death of friends, acquaintances, and even loved ones is not necessarily unexpected. Last year was particularly hard; two close and dear friends died, and their loss is still acutely felt. Both were near and dear to my heart, people I had known for many years and who had been very influential. One was José Javier Rivera, a mentor, business partner, and friend; the other was Samuel “Sammy” Maldonado, a friend and fellow gamer who played my games for years. I would like to remember Sammy today.

I’ve mentioned Sammy in previous posts, in 2010, 2011 (twice), 2013, and 2014 (again twice!), on Days 11 and 14 of RPG a Day 2016.

I met Sammy in 1990 when the Rifts had just been published. I was in High School, and my local comic store did not have the books. The salesperson at the store mentioned a gaming store with the books. A gaming store? He explained to my grandfather how to get there, and he drove us; the Gaming Emporium store, the first FLGS in Puerto Rico, was in Sammy’s house, and we knocked on the door and called out before he came out of the game room in the back and sold me and my friend Luis Miranda the books.

That was my first contact with the man, the legend! We remained connected through gaming for decades. We shared friends and hung out in the same circles, and eventually, in 2002 or thereabouts, he joined our weekly game. Sammy was a talented player. He created memorable characters; the concept was always more important than the rules. He would play the characters he wanted, even if they were not optimal. The bard Oberon and his horseman barbarian, resurrected as a halfling, are but two of the most memorable. Oberon profoundly changed and influenced my campaign world.

But we grew close outside the game. We would spend time together after the game, and Sammy joined a book club with my non-gamer friends. We eventually moved our weekly game to his house, where the Gaming Emporium store used to be. He had a gaming room in the back, with a huge table and a room full of books and minis. He called that game room Sammy’s Playhouse. His regular gaming groups that met there were known as the Mequetrefes.

Just look at the table!

When I divorced in 2005, hanging out at his house and going out for dinner and drinks became commonplace. Eventually, my friends planned a trip to GenCon in 2007, and I went with them and Sammy for the first time that year—seventeen years ago!

Sammy was a brilliant man who talked knowledgeably about myriad subjects. He also marched to his beat, rarely taking the well-traveled path and often taking positions meant to elicit a response from his interlocutor. His humor could be biting, and he frequently mischievously pushed the envelope to the brink.

We had different personalities, upbringings, and life experiences and approached relationships differently. These differences led to our distancing. We had different visions of the boundaries humor and jabs should have concerning your friends’ significant others. We had a falling out; I stopped playing at his house, and our regular weekly group split up. I kept playing, but my closeness with Sammy was sundered.

However, we remained friends, kept in touch, and eventually renewed some closeness. We didn’t see each other as often, but we talked and saw each other occasionally. He wanted to play our weekly game again, but we had too many people at the table, and I have a strict policy these days not to bring additional players to the game without the group’s consent. Some in the group were concerned about his personality and how it would affect group dynamics.

We occasionally played together, but he didn’t sit at my table as a regular player again. I regret not doing so more. I could have been more effective in managing our differences, but would he have been amicable to that? Some things remained unsaid, and I regret it. But there is no use in dwelling on that now. I’d rather remember the good times we had together.

He loved Middle Earth, and his MERP games were legendary. He also played the most recent versions of Middle Earth, which used D&D 5e rules with gusto. That’s how I like to remember him, having long conversations with him about what he wanted to do with his campaign when he got to play. His health declined after Hurricane María, and I could see the toll it took on him. He died too soon. He was only sixty years old.

In his typical irascible humor, Sammy would joke that certain members of our gaming group were first-line friends, “amigos de primera fila,” and that he wasn’t in that select group. I never felt that way, and he was always a first-line member of the group and a first-line friend. I miss you, Sammy. Thanks for playing with us, the memories, and your friendship.

When I learned of his passing in September last year, I wrote this: Today, we said goodbye to a great friend. Sammy was smart and dedicated, a passionate teacher, generous with his friendship, and often a curmudgeon or a contrarian. He marched to his own drumbeat but left a deep, indelible mark in our lives. Let us not remember the sad times but the many happy moments we shared. ¡De primera fila Sammy!

As we approach the first anniversary of his passing, I would like to raise the dice and roll in his honor. Chukling!

Post-Scrip: This past month, I’ve had to be away from home often due to work. RPG A Day this year has been a refuge on those nights I wish I was home, and it kept me busy. I love the RPG a Day community. I apologize if I haven’t been that active and haven’t been interacting with more people. It’s been a strange month. Big thank you to David Chapman and everyone who makes #RPGaDay possible. Also, thanks to Michael Wolf, aka Stargazer, for always having a place for me here, even when I disappear for months. But most of all, thanks to you all for reading!

See you all for RPG a Day 2025.

#RPGaDay2024, The other topics… Days 25 to 30 29 Aug 2024 8:00 PM (7 months ago)

Here it is, the last speed round of the month. It’s time to catch up on days 25 to 30. The regular daily posts have all been on the themes of Skala Wyzwania’s alternative prompt challenge list. These are my shorter answers to the regular prompts. I hope you find them enlightening.

Day 25: Desirable dice – So many dice, so little time. This is a recent want, but I saw them and just wanted them—the D&D 50th Anniversary Holmes Retro Replica & Modern Inspired Set by Fanroll. If anybody wants to gift them, message me, and I’ll give you my address.

Day 26: Superb screen – I don’t often use GM Screens, but when I do, I prefer the World’s Greatest Screen by Hammer Dog Games, specifically the landscape version. Customizable screens are just the best. I own two.

Day 27: Marvelous miniature – The D&D Icon of the Reals: Gargantuan Tiamat by WizKids. Stretching the definition of a “miniature”, this humongous sculpture of the Queen of Dragons is marvelous. Here’s another gift you may get me if you feel very generous.

Day 28: Great gamer gadget—I have this! I backed the Kickstarter, and I love it. The Hexcrawl Toolbox is a series of hex tiles for creating worlds and running hex crawls. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Day 29: Awesome app—I know it will be D&D Beyond for many people. Don’t get me wrong; I have a subscription and own a few (just a few!) of the books there. It is good, but as I am currently running Savage Worlds, my favorite “app” is Savaged.us, a suite of tools to run Savage Worlds. It is very useful.

Day 30: Person you’d like to game with – I’d like to play with the man who created this blog, the Stargazer himself! I’ve known Michael for so many years, and we’ve never gamed together. I’d love to sit at a table and game with him.

You may ask yourself, what about day 31? I have a special post planned for that. See you tomorrow.

Want to know more about #RPGaDay? Check out David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for RPG a Day 2024.

#RPGaDay2024 Day 30 – Trap 29 Aug 2024 8:00 PM (7 months ago)

Day 29 of #RPGaDay2024. T-Minus two days! This post is the next-to-last post of the themes from the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania. For more information on RPG a Day, see David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for 2024.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Trap. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 4: Invent and item.

The Great Engine: The Wyrm Trap

The Great Engine of the downed techno-magic skyship, the Great Reaver, was before them. Long ago, dragons left the world. The stories of the Order of the Sleeping Wyrms told how dragons had left the world in the age of mortals only to return when needed. But the Curse Bearer told her the truth. Invaders from another dimension, another world, had created these engines to power their skyship. Engines that trapped the might of dragons and made powerful their conquest across the reality.

A wyrm trap is an artifact created to harness dragons’ life force, magic, and primal ties to reality. It uses that energy to power great reality-warping skyships that could travel across realities. Despite myriad realities, dimensions, and worlds, no two dragons are alike in any of the countless reflections of creation. In all their creative and destructive majesty, they embody the creative forces that gave birth to reality.

In time immemorial, a race of tinkers in a far-off distant world had built machines that ravaged their world, and they sought to create an artifact powerful enough to recreate their world. They tapped into the power of dragons to do so and made the ships, their servants of flesh and steel and the disembodied minds that came to be known as the Aye Eyes, to control the might of their creation. The ships were sent out with these Wurm Traps as their source of power to harness the life force of the dragons.

While this endeavor occurred, the ship’s creators and their world died, and the fleet continued its quest with no end in sight. Some ships disappeared in countless realities, and others conquered whole universes, but gradually, they absorbed the dragons, stripping the worlds of their power and fracturing reality. Now, only the Great Engine in the runs of the ship deep within Ravall. In it pulse the powers of the dragons that remain, trapped inside the core, as this world, like many others before, slowly dies and fades away.

In the final gambit, the players are in place. See you tomorrow for the final post!

2024 has been a celebration of all the beautiful things tabletop role-playing games bring to our lives and the positive elements of the community. Thanks to everyone who has read the posts this year.

#RPGaDay2024 Day 29 – Knight 28 Aug 2024 8:00 PM (7 months ago)

Day 29 of #RPGaDay2024. T-Minus three days! These are the final posts on the themes from the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania. For more information on RPG a Day, see David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for 2024.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Knight. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 2: Create and NPC.

Lady Cashara Nazar of the Order of the Sleeping Wyrm

Lady Cashara Nazar was born in the city of Ylliris on the coast of the Sapphire Sea. The daughter of an artisan and priestess, she lost her family when a summer storm guided a tribe of sea devils to the shores of Ylliris. The creatures massacred the city’s inhabitants, and the Order of the Sleeping Worm adopted her.

The great warriors of that ancient but dying order raised her. When Cashara was knighted, less than thirty knights were left on the order. In the distant past, the order was rumored to have been composed of dragon riders, but the passing of dragons had left them without their majestic companions.

Their priest told the tale that dragons had fallen into a deep slumber during the age of mortals but would return when needed. The agents of the Darkness hunted down the few rumored dragons left in the world.

Lady Cashara Nazar traveled to the Rixes River Valley to join the Alliance of the River Kings troops. She served under Captain and later General Arago. She led the Heroes of Reavefalls, who evaded the last protectors of Ravall by following the underground rivers that entered the caverns beneath the ancient city of gears and steam by the great falls that empty into the caverns.

These heroes destroyed the Fleshmaster Brain that controlled the other Fleshmasters. With their foul leader dead, the other Fleshmasters fell, allowing the troops of General Arago to death the automatons of Ravall.

Lady Nazar had a vision that a great sleeping wyrm would awaken from the depths of Ravall, and she remained behind. In these caverns, she met a tattooed old man who, like her, sought a vision of The Tracker. The Curse Bearer revealed that the man all the allied Kings and the other free people sought was here. She saw this as a poof of her vision and journeyed with the Curse Beare deeper and deeper into the depth beneath Ravall.

A new player this late in the game!? She’s traveling to the final scene with the Curse Bearer from Day 18. See you tomorrow!

It is never too late to join #RPGaDay2024. If you find a topic interesting, write about it, comment on it, or talk about it on your socials. The goal is to celebrate all the wonderful things tabletop role-playing games bring to our lives and the positive elements of the community. Don’t forget to tag your contribution with the hashtag and share it with us here, on social media, and in the #RPGaDay 2024 Facebook Group.

#RPGaDay2024 Day 28 – Mimic 27 Aug 2024 8:00 PM (7 months ago)

Day 28 of #RPGaDay2024. T-Minus four days! I stuck to posting about the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania for this entire month. For more information on RPG a Day, see David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for 2024.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Mimic. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 5: Write a legend or rumor.

An excerpt of the famed Treatise on the Origin of Mimics

Presented to the Assembly of Scholars in Veriall,

on the Summer of the17th Year of the New Dynasty

“While many explorers and scholars may know of the common Mimic, a creature with a mutable shape that can assume the appearance and texture of inanimate objects. While a chest is a familiar image of the beast, there are stories of larger Mimics, some as large as a house. However, the recently unearthed secret tomes of the Cabal of the Masters of Sakai propose the origin of Mimics.

These fallen warlocks propose that Mimics are related to the Fleshmasters of Ravall. They are similar creatures created by the Aye Eye master of the skyship the Great Reaver that crashed to Ravall in antiquity and came to form the great dungeon under the capital of that long-ago kingdom. These creatures were taken by tomb robbers who made their way to the ruins of Ravall, taking them to other lands and spreading them throughout the world.

However, a story claims that the ancient skyship the Great Reaver was an amalgam of metal and flesh and that large parts of the ship were alive. To validate these claims, those who adhere to this theory refer to the events of the destruction of the Great Engine in Ravall and the Rise of the Wyrms twenty-three years ago.

The stories claim the man who has come to be known to us as The Tracker was hiding in the ruins of Ravall, in the tunnels of the Great Reaver, and that the profane Lich Necromancer Karuthos, servant of the Darkness, had awakened the remains of the Fleshmasters to hunt and destroy The Tracker.

The foul undead creature that Karuthos had created hunted The Tracker, finally cornering him in the grand corridor that led to the Great Engine in the depths of Ravall. The Lich and their monstrosity were set to consume the mortal the Darkness feared most. But as they prepared for their final blow, the corridor shook. The ruin itself was not made of stone or metal. It was a living creature that consumed the Necromancer and the animated amalgam of the Fleshmaster. Allowing the Tracker to Escape and reach his final destination.”

I’ll see you all tomorrow. I hope you’re enjoying these as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them.

#RPGaDay2024 Day 27 – Shapeshifting 26 Aug 2024 8:00 PM (7 months ago)

Day 27 of #RPGaDay2024. We’re counting down, five days to go! I continue posting about the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania. For more information on RPG a Day, see David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for 2024.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Shapeshifting. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 1: Describe a monster.

Undead Pit of Fleshmasters

The Lich Necromancer Karuthos walked down Ravall’s now silent corridors. In the depths of the catacombs are the Fleshmasters, the remains of ten, perhaps twelve, some torn apart, others fallen with their shapes half melted. The Heroes of Reavefalls destroyed the genetic pits and the Fleshmaster Brain that resided there. But Karathos can feel the flesh, the lifeless mass, and calls forth the power residing there, awakening it in death. The remains of the Fleshmasters slide and crawl, forming a boiling, roiling mass of alien flesh animated by the lich’s necromantic powers.

An undead pit of Fleshmasters is the remains of a clutch of the shapeshifting alien creatures animated by dark necromantic arts. It can shapeshift into giant creatures that are dead and lifeless. It cannot speak or communicate; it screeches and bubbles. In its natural form, it falls upon enemies like a wave, consuming them with its acidic touch. Leaving behind the bleached bones of those it absorbs.

Karuthos looks at its creation. His control over the awakened creature is tenuous but enough to give it a simple command. Hunt The Tracker! He hides in the ruins of Ravall, and you will kill it for Karuthos master, the Darkness.

Will the undead Fleshmasters find The Tracker? Join me tomorrow, and we’ll find out together.

#RPGaDay2024 Day 26 – Tattoo 25 Aug 2024 8:00 PM (7 months ago)

Day 26 of #RPGaDay2024. We’re on the home stretch! Last week of RPG a Day for 2024. I continue posting about the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania. For more information on RPG a Day, see David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for 2024.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Tattoo. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 3: Write a bulletin board quest.

Wanted!

All across the Rixes River Valley and beyond, this wanted poster is posted in every town square and handed out to every noble and guild. General Arago has commanded every soldier in his army to look for this man. He sent forth questing knights of the Order of the Silver River to find this man who Gavinia the Mighty believes holds the key to final victory over the powers of the Darkness.

Wanted! Alive and safe. The Alliance of the Kings of the Rixes River, the Clans of the Great Ruhn, and the Conclave of the Cities of Autumn seek this man. He is known variedly as the Tracker, the Curse Marked, the Witness of Secrets, or the Mageflame. We seek his aid in fighting for the world’s freedom from the oppression of the Darkness. The magical tattoos he bears change color and shape and can be sensed as a potent ensorcellment to any with the sight of magic.

The gathered enemies of the allied free and good people of the land hunt for him and seek to destroy him. This man may be incapable of controlling the energies he can call forth through the tattoos he bears and may affect those who wield magic in unpredictable ways. Those who escort him to the officers of General Arago will receive titles and lands for their heroic actions. Let no stone be unturned until we find him!

Continuing the story of the Tracker, some time has passed when he returns to the world, and the power he wields through the tattoos he bears is harder and harder to control. The forces of good and evil seek him for very different reasons. Will adventurers find him and deliver him safely to those seeking help, or will the hordes of the Darkness destroy him? We’ll find out this week!

#RPGaDay2024 Day 25 – Mutant 24 Aug 2024 10:00 PM (7 months ago)

Day 25 of #RPGaDay2024. I continue posting about the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania. For more information on RPG a Day, see David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for 2024.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Mutant. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 2: Create an NPC.

The Tracker

The infernal beast is vanquished, three Guardians are dead, and the other four, including the bandaged man, are using their magic to rebuild the Orrery of the Beyond. They pay me no heed. There are more pressing concerns. I feel the burn of the magical energies on my skin, but I won’t stay around to ask for an explanation. I saw other portals, like the ways that led me here in a smaller hall, time to jump into the unknown.

As I sneak down the corridor to my destination, I pass a fountain, bend down to splash water on my still-burning skin, and see it. I am not burned but marked—strange and enigmatic runes and symbols on my skin—no time for questions. I have to get out of there. I’ll figure this all out soon enough.

The Tracker is a young man trained in stealth and deception by the Pilfers’ Guild in the streets of Ceronia. The Sisters of the Merciful Mother gave an orphan to the Orphan House of The Abbey of Gullion, but the monks are drunks, and the children are often recruited because of their abilities. This young man was trained as a scribe by the monks, but he often climbed up the walls undetected to explore the city, recruited by the Pilfers, and promised a life of adventure.

He refused to kill at their behest, and shortly before his skin was inked for the Guild, he escaped the city and made his way as a porter, tomb explorer, and hunter. In this role, he learned that his skills could be put to good use to track those who did not want to be found. He worked for bounty hunters, warlocks, and jilted lovers, looking for the truth. One such job, to find a cursed priest, had begun this wild adventure, and now he was forever changed by the magic of the Orrery of the Beyond, with magical powers he was yet to unravel.

So, he’s called the Tracker. The name came to me as soon as I read the topic today. Mutated by magic, how will our narrator fare now? Will he make it to the end of the story? I’m not sure; let’s find out together.

#RPGaDay2024 Day 24 – Antique 24 Aug 2024 6:02 AM (7 months ago)

Day 24 of #RPGaDay2024. I continue posting about the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania. For more information on RPG a Day, see David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for 2024.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Antique. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 6: Create a random table.

This antique will do…

(This is a direct continuation of the post from Day 22)

The woman in the white and golden robes and the bandaged man with the silver and blue robes sand before the orrery, their hands outstretched, concentrating on whatever power allows them to control this magic. In the contraption, I see my world, a ritual gone wrong, and a foul infernal beast ready to attack. I know this is their doing. They have meddled and will doom my world to save others. I can’t allow it. I grab one of the knick-knacks around the structure; from the tables around the orrery, they all seem like antiques from distant places. This antique will do…

Roll 1d6 on this table to determine an antique from the tables around the Orrery of the Beyond.

1. A statue of a lion-dog hybrid carved from a blue rock with red veins. When picked up, the carving is warm to the touch and purrs. Dogs remain calm around the holder, and lions will not attack them.

2. A globe of translucent glass, its surface shifts, giving it the appearance of a soap bubble but retaining the consistency of solid glass. Inside is a whispy figure of a winged woman made of smoke. She begs to be released and promises to fulfill a wish if liberated.

3. A metronome made of dark oak and polished greenish metal. The person who activates it can hear the beat, but it sounds like a cacophonous, maddening shriek to others. It causes confusion and chaos to all listeners except those who activate it.

4. A gold abacus with gemlike beads enhances the cognitive abilities of those who count with it, but their affability diminishes. Once used to count, that person cannot perform mental math and must always rely on the abacus.

5. A metal replica of an alien tower, the tower’s shapes seem off, as if the corners and minutiae are somewhat skewed from other details. If you look inside the orifices in the miniature, you can almost notice tiny humanoid beings screaming in madness. Whoever takes the replica only gains half the benefits of resting and healing and cannot get rid of the item unless someone magically breaks the curse.

6. A glass dome holds the head of a four-eyed furry beast with sharp teeth; the severed head replies in any language it is spoken to. The beast answers truthfully or deceptively, flipping a coin to determine which. If the glass dome is lifted, the intelligence inhibiting the head switches places with whoever is holding the head, who remains trapped inside, answering questions until someone pries the eyes open.

I strike the man hard. He crumbles down, and the woman screams in anger or fear. I can’t tell which. The orrery shakes. She’s on top of me, trying to scratch my eyes out. The bandaged man groggily gets up and grabs the woman, who immediately calms down. “We’ve got to get out of here.” They look back and run. I look up to see what they are afraid of. The monster is crawling out of the orrery. Oh crap!

It feels like we’re close to the end of this month, and I’m telling the story. I hope you stick around to see it to the end.

#RPGaDay2024, The other topics… Days 19 to 24 24 Aug 2024 4:50 AM (7 months ago)

Welcome back to the speed round. It’s time to catch up on days 19 to 24. Regular daily posts have all been on the themes of the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania. These are my shorter answers to the regular prompts. I hope you find them enlightening.

19: Sensational session – What makes a sensational session? It’s a session where everyone playing, GM, and players have fun—where everybody is engaged and has something significant to do. People pay attention, engage with each other, respect other’s opinions and decisions, and allow others to shine.

20: Amazing adventure – What makes an amazing adventure? It is an adventure that provides the player’s agency, which is fun, engaging, and exciting for everyone, GM and players alike. An adventure that considers the character’s motivations, wants, and expectations, where the characters are the main characters, not mere observers, however lowly or lofty their roles may be. They are the main characters.

21: Classic campaign – A classic campaign is one everyone at the table enjoys; if they are having fun, the campaign will likely be remembered fondly. Whether short or long, a campaign where all involved, players and GM alike, collaborate to tell a compelling story is far more satisfying than one person’s showcase others get to visit. Some players want to be all-in on creating the world, while others are more concerned about their characters. As a GM, collaborate with them, use what they give you, ask for input, and don’t dismiss what they bring. Some games have mechanics that encourage this more than others, but we can all pitch in to make our campaigns more memorable.

22: Notable non-player character – A notable NPC is one the players remember, one that supports the characters, shares information, and is a motivation, be it a hated opponent or beloved ally. But most of all, a notable NPC never outshined the characters. I’ve said it before, and it’s worth repeating: Game Masters, never fall in love with your NPCs; they are not “your character,” they are the supporting actors to the main characters, the player’s characters.

23: Peerless player – A peerless player is engaged, understands the rules, helps the GM and fellow players have fun, and is always ready for adventure. We are not perfect; we are not machines and have good days and off days. No one is perfect, but as long as we strive to be respectful, inclusive, helpful, and fun, we all aspire to be that peerless player.

24: Acclaimed advice – Don’t sweat the small stuff! You will forget the rules, and some sessions will be better than others. Know this will happen, accept it, and don’t beat yourself up about it. Strive to be better. Learn from your mistakes. RPGs are games, and they are meant to be fun, focus on the positive, and overcome the negative. Play, and don’t get lost in preparation or hesitation. Roll the dice and go for it.

I got philosophical this week, but the advice is heartfelt. I hope you find it useful.

Want to know more about #RPGaDay? Check out David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for RPG a Day 2024.

#RPGaDay2024 Day 23 – Ritual 23 Aug 2024 4:52 PM (7 months ago)

Day 23 of #RPGaDay2024. I continue posting about the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania. For more information on RPG a Day, see David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for 2024.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Ritual. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 10: Draw! Oh no, I’m sorry.

The Broken Mirror

Gavinia the Mighty raised her staff above her. It cracked with power, focusing her might on the ritual. The soldiers of her beloved Prince Urthen stepped back in awe. They brought the Mirror of the Worlds Beyond after their prince fell in battle. She would not let his death be in vain. She unleashed the power, and the mirror cracked. The way to the halls of the Nocturnal Potentates would at last be within their reach. Captain Arago and his companions were ready to accompany her to face their world’s oppressors.

But the ritual backfired; the portal was not a door but a conduit. With the unrelenting pulse of energy the ritual had unleashed, the face of a great enemy could be seen…

I am no good at drawing, and that’s the result of what you see above—excuses, dear reader.

#RPGaDay2024 Day 22 – Interdimensional Space 22 Aug 2024 6:24 PM (7 months ago)

Day 22 of #RPGaDay2024. I continue posting about the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania. For more information on RPG a Day, see David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for 2024.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Interdimensional Space. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 9: Write an Eavesdroppable Dialogue.

The Orrery of the Beyond

I gasp for air. Crossing the portal felt like my body was pulled in ten different directions. The food under me is cold. I look around. The room is lit, but there is no visible light source. It is as if I were walking outside under the sun but could not see it. Behind me, on the wall, there is the shape of the portal I crossed and carved into the wall, but there is no door, no portal, just a stone wall. I hear the approaching voices and scramble to my feet. I silently dash down the corridor and come to the room.

A cavernous room with a giant orrery in the center, spheres float in the air, and the domed ceiling opens into a night sky I have never seen before. The voices come closer, and I hide under one of the desks around the giant orrery.

From the corner of my eye, I see the woman wearing white and golden robes, her dark curls framing her beautiful face, walking next to a bandaged man wearing silver and blue robes. Every part of him is seemingly covered in bandages over bloody wounds. They stop and listen momentarily; I hide in the shadows and hold my breath. I cannot see them, but I can hear their conversation as they walk away.

The woman’s voice is melodious, “The mortals of the south have rallied the hordes of the Darkness in the lands. The otherworldly interlopers are defeated, for now. The wizard seeks a way to the Hall of the Potentates of Night. She thinks she may yet break their hold on their world. She plans to use the Mirror of the Worlds Beyond to find her way.”

The man’s voice is gruff, and it is as if every word he speaks hurts. “We cannot allow this. If she fails, the Dark Ones may travel beyond her world.”

“You would doom them to save the other world?” The woman’s voice is impassionate, more curious than outraged. He chuckles. “Theirs is not the world we protect. They brought this upon themselves.”

“Then we must stop her,” the woman replies calmly. Let us see the portal of the Mirror.”

A way to defeat the Nocturnal Potentates, and these fools will stop it. It cannot be; I must do something.

We haven’t seen this nameless character since Day 6 Portal, and the speakers reference the Mirror of the World Beyond from Day 12. What’s going on? We might get back here before the month is over. Let’s see what the challenges bring forth.

You’re still on time to participate in #RPGaDay2024. If you find a topic interesting, write about it, comment on it, or talk about it on your socials. The goal is to celebrate all the wonderful things tabletop role-playing games bring to our lives and the positive elements of the community. Don’t forget to tag your contribution with the hashtag and share it with us here, on social media, and in the #RPGaDay 2024 Facebook Group.

#RPGaDay2024 Day 21 – Disaster 20 Aug 2024 8:00 PM (7 months ago)

Day 21 of #RPGaDay2024. I continue posting about the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania. For more information on RPG a Day, see David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for 2024.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Disaster. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 4: Invent and item.

The Broken Crown of the Water King

After the Battle of Rixes River, the Alliance of the River Kings seemed poised to strike against the hordes of creatures tainted by Darkness that had for so long haunted their lands. Under the leadership of Prince Urthen, son of Tharen, King of Greenvale, and the advice of the young wizard Gavinia the Wise, the Alliance of the River Kings sent an expeditionary force across the Great Sea of Grass to meet with the gathered clans of the Great Ruhn and forge an alliance.

But petty King Tarrester seethed and schemed in his mountain stronghold. With the waters of the great Rixes Lake flowing past the great dam and down the great waterfall of Skypeak Fortress, King Tarrester summoned all the allied kings and demanded they swear loyalty to him, or he would once again close the great dam and rein in the released mighty Rixes River.

The other kings initially resisted the demand, but Prince Urthen advised the rulers to appease the King of Skypeak and forget their differences with a greater goal before them. The other kings agreed, but Tarrester, the petty ruler, was jealous of Urthen’s wisdom and popularity and the blossoming love between Gavinia the Wise and the young Prince. He demanded the hand of the wizard in marriage.

Prince Urthen was heartbroken, unsure what to do not to imperil their fragile alliance. Gavinia the Wise had no such reluctance. She faced King Tarrester and declared she would not bow to any man who would control her. When the King ordered his men to capture her, she unleashed her magical might on King Tarrester and his fortress.

The fortress towers crumbled, the King’s throne sundered, and his reign ended. All that remained was the broken crown of the water king. From that day forward, Gavinia was known as Gavinia the Mighty or The Witch King Slayer by her enemies.

The Broken Crown of the Water King is a broken crown that grants its wearer the knowledge and means to use and upkeep the great dam in the ruins of Skypeak Fortress. Whoever wears the crown is tasked by the Kings of the Rixes River to control the water flow from the great lake down to the valley, protect it from flooding during the rainy season, and preserve water during drought. The crown wearer can control the great stone golems that control the dam but is magically bound to remain in Skypeak for as long as they wear the crown. The crown must be willingly accepted but can only be taken off if all the kings of the Rixes River give them leave.

I am continuing the story from yesterday. I enjoy writing this. I hope you like it. See you tomorrow.

#RPGaDay2024 Day 20 – Battle 19 Aug 2024 8:00 PM (7 months ago)

Day 20 of #RPGaDay2024. I continue posting about the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania. For more information on RPG a Day, see David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for 2024.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Battle. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 5: Write a Legend or Rumor.

The Great Battle of Rixes River

From the mountains of Ancient Ravall came the thunderous marching of an army of automatons set on conquering the kingdoms along the once mighty Rixes River. Their shapeshifting leaders, the former Cabal of the Masters of Sakai, claimed that they would liberate the world of the taint of Darkness upon the world and pull the Nocturnal Potentates themselves from the skies. Despite their claim of being liberators, the armies of Ravall crushed those who faced them and advanced unopposed down the Rixes Valley.

Gavinia the Wise, a former apprentice of the Masters of Sakai, melted the heart of King Tarrester, who opened the great dam and allowed the river Rixes to flow free for the first time in three generations. With the King’s show of goodwill and his army behind her, Gavinia traveled the river kingdoms, uniting the mortals against the advancing army. With their great host ready, the united river kings prepared to face the marching machines of menace.

And then, at dusk, the roar of the savage hoards reverberated across the Rixes Valley. The hoards of the creatures of the night, those tainted, warped, and changed by the Darkness, descended against the armies of Ravall.

The two armies fought from dusk until dawn for three days. The armies of Darkness gained the upper hand under the constellations of the Nocturnal Potentates, with the automatons rallying at day, great flying demons protecting the hordes against the mechanical dragons that pressed the attack.

On the dusk of the third day, the giant commander of savage hoard faced the gigantic automaton vanguard of the army of Ravall. When the giant ripped the colossal automaton to pieces, the armies of Ravall were routed, and the savage hoard seemed victorious until the army of men descended upon them. The Battle of the Rixes River was the first great victory of mortals against the gathered power of Darkness.

This post felt like an appropriate epic theme and challenge to tell this story and move along the tale I’ve been crafting this month. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. See you tomorrow.

#RPGaDay2024 Day 19 – Hologram 18 Aug 2024 8:00 PM (7 months ago)

Day 19 of #RPGaDay2024. Let’s start another week. I continue posting about the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania. For more information on RPG a Day, see David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for 2024.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Hologram. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 8: Present an idea for a random encounter.

A female’s cry for help calls your attention. Away from the trail, she desperately shouts for help. You can also hear the barking of dogs. When you see her, you will find she is caught in a hunter’s pit trap. Two dogs circle the trap, barking and whimpering. She asks for help but cannot climb out, so she offers a pouch of coins as her only possession. If rescued, she tells the adventurers the dogs are hers and that she is afraid to continue her travels alone. Will you help her?

Whether as described above or in other circumstances, you run into a beautiful blond woman accompanied by two dogs out in the wild. The woman’s clothes are dirty and look ill-suited for overland travel, and her two dogs are large, vicious-looking mongrels. She says she is looking for her lost child and asks to travel with the party to camp somewhere safe away from the dangers of the Darkness.

She shares that her daughter is lost, and she is searching for her. Her husband, the girl’s father, is a wizard, and he has disappeared. Her child ran from the tower where they lived. She lacks magical powers but fears that the child somehow blames herself for the mishap or might be under the effect of a spell, and she needs to find her.

When she has gained a measure of confidence from the group, she will pull out a device that she explains holds an image of the child. She will ask if she can show it to them. If allowed, she will activate the device, and it glows. You can see a wounded and afraid young woman in a cone of blue light emanating from it.

If the adventurers stare into the image, the device will cast a Geas upon them. The spell will compel them to find the child and bring her to the woman’s tower. They instinctively know the tower’s location. If the group is ensorcelled, the woman will leave them to their quest and wander away into the night.

If some or all adventurers resist the Geas (see the OSE and D&D 5e descriptions in the links) and her rouse is revealed, she will fight them. She and her dogs are all Fleashmasters (described on Day 15 of RPGaDay 2024, Genetics) and will fight to try to defeat the group. Still, the Fleshmaster that has taken the form of a woman will not fight to the death and try to escape by all means necessary, as to return and report to its Aye Eye master (see day 17).

This post follows up on the previous encounter with the same creature but with a twist. I hope you like it. I still haven’t come up with a name for this world I’m creating with these posts. Do you have any suggestions?

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