From Whence Did This Come?

There are few ways for PCs to suddenly end up with magic items, chiefly the Sun and Key cards from the Deck of Many Things, as well as Wishes.

On occasion, magic items come from watery tarts.

Between my game world's lazy magic and my desire for interesting lives for the PCs through unintended consequences, I came up with this short table to determine who most recently laid claim to the shiny new magic item now magically appearing in PC hands - if only to have a rough idea of what, if anything, will be coming to take it back.  

So a table for recovery team is due, as well.

1. A ruler: local, regional, continental, world.  Friendly, Neutral, or Enemy to PCs.

2. An adventurer: local, regional, world-known, planar; paladin, wizard, cleric, bard

3. A monster: dragon, manticore, beholder, sphinx, rakshasa, giant clan

4. A tomb: recent (1-100 years), old (100-400 years), ancient (401+ years); vampire, mummy lord, lich, ghost

5. A temple: the PC's faith, the PC cleric's faith, an outlawed faith, a cult, opposing faith of PC, allied faith of PC

6. A private citizen: merchant, noble (landless and/or nonruling), guild, other organization

Recovery Team

1. Professional adventurers: lower level than PC, same level as PC, high level than PC

2. Bounty Hunters: any number of single and mixed groups that are as likely to work together as against one another.

3. Personal Guards: professionals of the PC's level, under a competent leader (and trusted henchman) of higher than PC level.

4. Otherworldly Minions: fiend, invisible stalker, celestial, or something in-between

5. Monstrous Minions: gargoyles, humanoid war party, lycanthropes, living spell (bigby's hand, most likely).

6. The Owner Themselves: alone or with retinue

It goes without saying that most, if not all, such items gained through magic are unique, so are easily scryed and perhaps recognized.  With that in mind, how will the PCs react when the Wish spell brings them a weapon they not only can use, but need for their current quest - a weapon that the PCs recognize as the Sword of the King's Champion?  

Building Skara Brae

Being generally behind the power-curve, yet now having this blog to spur me creatively, I have started populating Skara Brae with a variety of people, places, and perhaps, plots.    This, plus a few weeks off leave me with an end-of-year project.

Island, Richard Wright, 2012

For many NPCs, I hope for the players to take advantage of the 'I know a guy' rule, but failing that, some standard sorts and types are necessary to fill in the spaces.  If nothing else, Garth and Roscoe will be around.

Happily, I recently purchased the d30 Sandbox Companion from New Big Dragon Games and I want to use it alongside my hard copies of Midkemia's Cities, Judges Guild's Ready Ref Sheets, Atlas Games' Crime and Punishment, and Mystic Eye Games' Foul Locales: Urban Blight and Behind the Gates.  In addition are the pdfs of all the Catalyst Citybooks, to go with my hardcopy of Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker and Atlas Games' Backdrops.

This is all in addition to several fantasy city books of varying sizes, in both print and pdf (Hollowfaust is hands down my favorite): The Town of Kalas, the Citystate of the Invincible Overlord, Bluffside, Liberty from the City Quarters Series (a shame they never finished it), Waterdeep: City of Splendors, Raven's Bluff, Lankhmar, Mithril, Minas Tirith, Laketown, Freeport, Marchion, and the Free City of Greyhawk, among others.

City of Shadows, Tom Wanerstrand, 1993

Despite all of these resources (and more), I have yet to sit down and hammer out most details of my own Skara Brae.

No longer. 

A city map, if only for a rough visual overview, will be a necessity.  While in the end, I might just use a published map, I feel compelled to at least try and draw out a city on my own.  Inkarnate lends itself to this, as does a blank sheet of paper and a pencil.  But it doesn't need to be the first step.

And it certainly won't be in this post.

All I really know is that Skara Brae is a port city located in a temperate climate.  

Dipping into the earlier-mentioned sources, I know that my city will include:

From the various Catalyst citybooks: Diamond Spider Tavern (I), The Grey Minstrel Inn (I), Skywhite's House of Lavation (I), Larkspur the Leech (I), Kolat's Emporium of Miracles (I), the House of Thelesha Moonscry (I), Bron Arvo's Armory (I), Blades by Tor (I), Trueshaft's Bowyery (I), Red Earth Leatherworks (I), Crunge's Clocktower (I), the Temple of Putrexia (I), Palace of Peaceful Repose (I), the Brass Orchid Tavern (II), the Longtooth Lounge (II), the Gateway (II), the Everpresent Journeywind (II), Ew's Wood and Bone Works (II), the Customs House (II), the Temple of Aroshnavaraparta (II), the Blue Light Gang (II), Artemus the Lucky Sea Captain (II), the Singing Frog Sanctuary (III), Karig the Stalker (III), the Bloodmoon School (III),  the Well of Justice (III),  the Undercity (III), the House of Infinite Dreams (III), Domdaniel's Gate (III), the Bottomless Keg (V), Amarathine's Rest (VI), Greenhargon's Museum (VI), the Reliquarium (VI), the Lost Inn (VI), the Gloriana Theater (VI), Cidryn's Aerial Palladium (VI), Exeter's Antiques Emporium (VI), Feats of Clay (VI), Jasmine's Fine Jewelry (VI), and maybe more, but my eyes hurt from skim-reading.

Of course, names will be changed, but the personalities, maps, and hooks can drive an entire campaign's worth of adventures, without ever leaving the city - so then again, maybe I need to watch how just how much I add or expose to the players. Having a solid depth of names and places allows for an easy(ish) rumor table; Citybook III even has a 'rumor price construction table' on p21 that boils down to how much a person's appearance gets them charged for rumors, but it can be easily ported to other charges.

As the series name suggests, Foul Locales are small set pieces of a sinister nature, which I can connect to the megadungeon and feed through the rumor table.  There are quite a few options I look forward to sprinkling through the city's wards.  Backdrops provides the same, with a less sinister bent.  Between these books, I have adventure-ready locations and scenarios.

I am not a fan of magic item stores, certainly not one-stop-shops, like Wal-Marts for mages.  Instead, in my world, there are item brokers that can both find items for interested parties, as well as gladly take unwanted items off PC hands. Ideally, some such brokers are revealed through players using the I Know a Guy houserule. The chief brokers are the Favarro family, but there are a variety of others that specialize in various types of items:  

Kargreave the Armorer (p23), Dallo the Clothier (p31), Blaatchep the Cursemonger (p38), Berlow the Healer (p47), Renaida the Jeweler (p52), Zebulon (p59), Blind Bartolomeus the Fence (p70), Zyle the Transporter (p81), Arlon the Armsman (p87), and Eliaz the Necromancer (p102) from GURPS Magic Items I.  

Wat Oakenson the Ranger (p12), Nangres Thornbeard the Armorer (p20), Tuneful Loquinon the Bard (p27), Hieronymous Bibliophilus the Bookseller (p34), Madame Fleuria d'Estille the Socialite (p43), Poponax the Vile Clown (p51), Lazy Nambo the Somnambulent (p58), Lianril Healthgiver (p67), Theron the Hierophant (p72), Somber Thul the Gaunt (p79), Lalonica the Huntress (p82), Holdarion the Sage (p88),  Loughlin Keymaker the Locksmith (p94), Old Friedrich the Puppeteer  (p99), Journeymaster Warnow the Wanderer (p106), Krolt the Swordsmith (p112), and Archimagus Ulrikh (p120) from GURPS Magic Items II.  

Knowing these sorts of brokers are in Skara Brae helps dictates the city quarters, or wards, as there will assuredly be more than four themed areas.  Just reading through the names makes me realize that Skara Brae will have at least a few humanoids dwelling among the mostly human population.  I'm looking forward to my final city.  

 

That Wasn't Supposed to Happen!

There is an adage in fiction writing, about how every solution should be the start (or aggravation) of one or more other problems for the protagonist.

This is also a key takeaway from the book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck - every solution is another beginning of a new problem for regular folks like you and I.

Or a challenge, depending on how optimistic or pessimistic you might be. 

Now, some folks may be worried that this isn't realistic, or that it is somehow unfair for the PCs to be able to rest on their laurels and reap the rewards of their heroics (or homicidal tendencies or both).

Given that DnD, and other RPGs, are all about pretending to be other people with more ... interesting ... lives, this adage works for these games as well.  After all, challenges and misfortunes propel adventurers into additional adventures, which is what defines their job descriptions, so it works.

Nobody wants to roleplay this game.  Will McLean, AD&D DMG, 1979.

There are several ways to approach or address this method of DMing, highlighted here:

Embrace the pillar of improv known as 'yes, and...' and adding this phrase to your DMing toolkit will serve well in demonstrating how player choices impact the world.

Monkeypawing (from here) wishes is perhaps the most commonly seen form of this advice, and as such, is often ridiculed as being 'adversarial DMing.'  Yet it isn't, or shouldn't be - unless the wish comes from some sort of fiendish or other ill-natured source, and then the PC (and player!) should know better.

My wife's favorite idiom, 'The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions' applies to the do-gooding PCs out saving the world, rescuing the helpless, and generally making life better for those less fortunate.  Don't let this stop you (or PCs) from doing Good and Right things, just be aware that the next rule will rear its head, more often than not.

The Law of Unintended Consequences is an economic theory that also applies to everything else that humans (and the other races/species commonly encountered in RPGs) do, to include doing nothing, but especially actions committed and words spoken in the heat of the moment.

I first learned the acronym TANSTAAFL from Robert A. Heinlein's Notebooks of Lazarus Long (a character that is not exactly an immortal, just quite long-lived).  It turns out that this is another economics theory (based around opportunity costs) that pertains to all other human (and other) activities.  

Will McLean, AD&D DMG 1979

All this talk of economics has me thinking of Adam Smith's Invisible Hand and how it might rival the various Bigby's Hand spells, given how it impacts the local economies.

Then again, instead of a spell, perhaps the Invisible Hand might be better as a monster of some sort.

Just not the kind of Invisible Hand that fudges dice rolls.

What is your favorite game-related unintended consequence?

Too Much Magic?

This post is in response to a somewhat common Facebook question, a question I am glad to answer. 

There comes a time in many DnD games (and other RPGs) when the DM (or GM, if you prefer) sits back and thinks, 'well, shit. That thing I gave the party is far more powerful than I anticipated. How do I get it away from them?'

In most cases, the 'thing' involves one or more potent magic items.  One can be an issue, but in large groups - even without clever players - the power magic items grants seems to compound exponentially.  This is even more of an issue in 5e, which is 'balanced' based on PCs having no magic items at all.

The contents of one PC's Portable Hole?

Now, it doesn't matter how the party gained all these items, be it through generous loot or the existence of magic item stores, because the PCs have them now and that is the problem.

Thieves in the night (or capricious Wishes from greedy NPCs) works once or twice, and is overall an unsatisfying way to remove magic items from the game.  This is because it is too often a temporary fix, as PCs will scry the item and pursue the thieves until the item(s) is/are safely where they belong - in the PCs' hands.

So a more permanent solution is necessary.

Earlier rulesets had rules about items needing to make saves if their bearer failed a save, so a barrage of fireballs could generally prune the party of lesser items.  Mordenkainen's Disjunction was another means to permanently destroy a magic item.  Even the lowly Disenchanter and its appetite for magical auras provides a DM with a means to remove bothersome magic items from players.

Disenchanters.  Destroying magic items since 1981.  Artist?, Fiend Folio

The drawback to all these methods of item removal is that they come across as DM fiat or even adversarial DMing.  Nobody wants that in their game, not even the people that think fudging dice in combat 'for narrative reasons' want this.

So what is a poor DM to do?

That poor DM gets the players to dump the items themselves.  This opens up many doors and puts the onus on the players/PCs, rather than on the DM.  

Some examples:

Magic items in hand can be dropped and lost in a PC's haste to escape. Especially in deep water.  Doubly so if the magic item(s) is heavy, like a weapon, shield, or metal armor.

Magic items are the perfect gifts for potent beings, to curry favor or the like.

Magic items are ideal bribes to escape potent angry beings.

Magic items can be suitable trades for other items (a slippery slope) or specific, rare services.

Magic items might be an acceptable ransom for an ally or innocent. 

Magic items sacrificed on pagan altars or to power door locks or to run magitech machines for ... purposes.

Magic items buried with their owners are a fitting end, presuming your game lets PCs die, moreso if your game has a mechanic or reward for a proper Heroic Sendoff (in the middle of the post - an awesome houserule).

AD&D DMG, 1979

My experience is that players gripe far less when the choice is in their hands.

Even if that choice is a bit of a Faustian bargain.  Perhaps especially so.

Sentient Items

Sentient items - historically swords, at least in Dungeons and Dragons - are often a fun addition to a party's arsenal of oddities and options.  Moorcock's Stormbringer is perhaps the classic example, but it isn't always weapons that are sentient.  Fiction gives us Bob the Skull from the Dresden Files, as well as an odd Dragon Amulet from the Return to Brookmere Endless Quest book.  

A fun book from my youth.  As I recall, it features Tim Truman art - well worth the look.

Monte Cook extensively covered rules for creating sentient items in the Book of Eldritch Might III (compiled here with the first two books), and to be honest, that was what opened my eyes to the possibilities. (As an aside, I find all of the Malhavoc Press product I read to be inspiring, and if 3.x is your jam, I recommend looking into them).  

The point being that anything can be sentient, with a bit of effort and creativity.  

In addition to their powers and plusses, sentient items bring their own agendas and occasionally dominate their wielder, forcing the wielder to pursue said agenda.  On rare occasions, the item's agenda and the wielder's agenda match, so no domination is necessary.

Dancing Scimitar, Anson Maddocks, 1993

Still, the question of where the sentience comes from is there, hanging in the air.

The rules for 5e have a few suggestions: possessed, haunted by a previous wielder, or self-aware because magic.  These rules work, but there are so many more, entertaining options.

I'd argue that starting with who/what is providing the item's sentience makes a better start point for the item's abilities, personality, alignment, and even goal.

After all, there are a good many powerfully magical creatures in the various Monster Manuals to provide a source of magic.

Djinn, Efreet, Marid, and Dao provide elemental options and occasional wishes.

Celestials provide a myriad of powers, and a few might have deliberately chosen to be bound to the item.  Alignment of wielder matters to these items.

Demons, Devils, Yugoloths, and other Fiends bring their own powers to bear, but like the Celestials bound, alignment matters, in that these items actively strive to bring the wielder's alignment to match the item's.

Dragons, Sphinxes, Kraken, Morkoths, and all the other beasties out there that have intelligence of their own, some degree of power, and preferably lair actions.

A wide variety of fey beings and assorted faeries could make for interesting spirits.

Expanding on the official options means asking who/what has possessed the item, who/what is the item haunted by, and what type of magic can create a fully sentient creature (then again, that is the dream of AI, correct?)  

An item that is actually the phylactery of a lich (or a horcrux, ala' Harry Potter), provides an opportunity to redeem the lich or at least use its powers for good before it destroys you.  

Hauntings might be the creator, one (or more) former wielders, beings slain or corrupted by the item or some combination of the above.  Related to this may be the beings that were sacrificed in the creation of the item itself.  A blade called Mocker that is imbued with the spirit of a polyglot sarcastic bard that regularly uses Vicious Mockery on opponents and wielder alike is a fine example, as is the sword named Glory, created from a glory-seeking fighter (or perhaps crusader) that forces the wielder to attack the biggest thing in sight.

Something fashioned entirely from magic would be beyond mortal ken, though not divinely (infernally?) inspired accident.  This isn't to say such items don't exist, merely that mortals (like ALL PCs) won't be creating these items.  

The 5e rules linked above state that "consumable items like potions and scrolls are never sentient."  That is hogwash. Horsefeathers, if you prefer.  A sentient consumable spends its time either desiring a suitably dramatic consumption or begging for its life, such as it is, to be spared.  From the DM perspective, this can provide a wealth of entertainment. 

Sentient items can be delightfully one-dimensional in personality and committed to their agendas.  If ever in doubt as to how to portray an item, I lean on Telecanter's Creepy Commentary for inspiration.

With all this talk of sentient items, I should probably provide a few of my own.  Here are three:

Hemp: Hemp is a sentient CN 50' coil of Rope that functions as a Rope of Climbing as well as a Rope of Entanglement.   Hemp wants to be useful and regularly makes suggestions for use.  If ignored, Hemp will uncoil and 'do it myself' in a huff, moving like a snake towards its objective.  If Hemp feels unappreciated, it is not above slipping away in the night.  If truly offended, it will strangle its owner in the night before slipping away. 

The spirit of a Brownie is bound to the rope, the process shattering the fey's psyche in the process, but leaving its desire to be helpful.  Aside from its Climbing and Entangling, the carrier of Hemp has a strong urge to seek out and consume honeyed milk.

Thirst: Thirst is a sentient LE dagger, technically an athame or maybe a kris, due to the wavy blade (when in a mood, Thirst will argue this point).  Thirst enjoys the terror that killing defenseless sentient beings brings, and feeds on it, because a fiend is bound to the dagger.  

The bound fiend is an Amnizu, and as such, it communicates solely through telepathy, and takes delight in compelling its wielder to commit vicious murders, through Dominate Person if smooth words fail to work.  Its regular urgings (and subsequent murders) cause all sorts of complications.

Wielders benefit from innate knowledge of Infernal, Darkvision, an immunity to poison, and resistance to both fire and cold.  When murdering a bound and conscious victim, the wielder is not only Healed as per the spell, but also gains temporary +1d4 to a random stat (S, D, C, I, W, or Ch).  Yes, murdering several helpless beings allows for multiple stat boosts that can stack.  These temporary boosts last until the next long rest.

What Thirst really wants is to be set free from the bindings.  Destroying the dagger is the simplest means to do, but the bound Amnizu is incapable of telling anyone how exactly to destroy it. 
  

Fortunato: Fortunato is a sentient NE ceramic theater mask of a bearded man wearing an odd helmet. An ancient bard is bound to this mask (due to well-deserved divine curse, but Fortunato is unlikely to share that, preferring a different story that paints him as the victim). Close inspection reveals the mask had been painted in the past, and Fortunato would love to be painted in full color again (being quite vain).  When carried, Fortunato haunts the dreams and whispers in the mind of the carrier, urging them to don the mask.  When worn, Fortunato confers all the skills, abilities, and spells of a 13th level bard with an 18 Charisma and can (and WILL) speak on its own.  Ideally, Fortunato is able to dominate person the wearer and become the dominant member of the relationship.  If Fortunato feels that attempts to dominate may not work, it instead urges to 'let me do this for you,' and strives to ingratiate itself with its usefulness.

If Fortunato successfully dominates its wearer, the wearer spends all ready wealth on a long bout of debauchery, carousing, and other forms of excessive hedonism - all while wearing Fortunato.  Of course, when the wearer regains control (if the wearer regains control), they are the ones left to suffer the regrets and consequences of Fortunato's actions. 

Note that Fortunato will force dominated wearers to attack bricklayers and anyone offering its wearer Amontillado to drink.

It occurs to me that two of the three items above are likely to get the boot once their agendas are discovered, so here is a fourth that PCs are more likely to keep around.

Astrophel: Astrophel is a sentient LG hand mirror with a Planetar bound to it. 

The bearer of Astrophel is immune to poison and charming, resists radiant damage, and saves at advantage against gaze attacks.  When aligned with Astrophel's purpose, the wielder knows when it hears deliberate lies, and can see through illusions via True Seeing.  In addition, Astrophel will Commune 1/day, Raise Dead 1/day upon anyone reflected in the mirror, and provide Healing Touch to anyone that concentrates while looking into the mirror.  

Those that do not align with Astrophel's purpose (not necessarily alignment) only see their doom when they look into the mirror, as the Planetar truly knows the myriad ways the viewer is likely to die in any number of possible futures.

Astrophel's purpose is to throw down the unjust Tyrant King and his infernal allies.   

Overall, sentient items bring lots to the table, and can be an interesting way to increase the capabilities of a single or few PC campaign without too many NPCs.  

What sentient items have shown up in your games?

 

DoMT: Talons and Ruin

A slow-rolling series of how the Deck of Many Things works in my homebrew world of Ironguard.  (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

Infuryana is an ancient red hellkite, spawned in the chaotic fire and madness at the beginning of the time, the template from which all stories of dragongreed (and other dragons) come.  Even Tiamat and Bahamut are respectful in her presence.

But Loki wasn't.  His bargain with her was that based on the cards, her hoard would increase significantly.  And over the centuries, it has.  He neglected to tell her that her hoard may shrink as well, as the cards required.  

She has vowed to deal with Loki eventually.

Talons:  All magic items you possess disappear, permanently.

Such items, be they on the person, loaned to another, or hidden away, immediately disappear, fading into nothingness, to reappear in the horde of Infuryana.  Observant card drawers have noted a rumbling laughter rolling through the air as their treasures disappear.  This laughter is Infuryana's gloating at her newfound loot.

Ruin: Immediately lose all wealth and real property.  (nonmagical wealth is specified later in the description.)

This card, too, is accompanied by deep peals of laughter, as Infuryana's horde increases by the amount the drawer has lost.  Granted, this only applies to monetary wealth and portable trade goods.  Property such as land and buildings suffer a disaster of some sort (infuriating the various deities of nature and specific places besides).  

Recovering lost wealth is ... not exactly impossible, but certainly improbable.  Other cards in the Deck of Many Things may recover, or at least replace the lost goods.  Wishes, divine boons from certain deities, and DM fiat also return treasured things.

In theory, diligent PCs could discover the location of Infuryana's lair, and then beard the hellkite in its den, but that is considered folly by even the most jaded treasure hunters and explorers.

Still, the glory of being the ones who broke the Deck of Many Things is alluring to some.

Crowdsourcing Faith

The other day, in my post about using College Football Teams as the basis for Cleric religions, I half-joked about the new deities Avrae and Ikea, then hit FB to crowdsource more in that vein.  As can be imagined, it was a popular topic in both groups I posted in (Dungeon Master Resources and D&D DMs Only).

So thank you to all that participated, to include the honest individual stating that they would avoid a game that used such deities.

One of the responses sent me to a pair of blog posts by the Angry GM: Conflicted Beliefs: Building a Perfect Five God Mythology for D&D | The Angry GM and Conflicted Beliefs: Fluffy Story Bulls$&% | The Angry GM.  Both are worth reading if you’re serious about building your own pantheon.

A few kind folks shared their homemade pantheons, and one even went so far as to provide some creation myths and necessary domains.  While I was initially planning to politely ignore the bit about domains, it occurred to me that having them allows me to focus my researches.

When it is all said and done, several recurring themes appeared: Disney, Uber and Lyft, and Amazon.  Between this and my recent perusal of the game iHunt, I hit upon the following plan: to make full use of the panoply of apps out there and to avoid the easy pickings of using political figures/policies in the main pantheon (although it can be easily argued that such figures would be saints and champions of various deities).

Typing this up, I realize that it is American-centric.  It happens.

I present to you the Meme Pantheon.   Clerics (and others) praying to these deities first reach a Cosmic Call Center, where they are put through to the proper extension.  Clerics with some levels already know the proper extensions. There is but one holy set of scriptures, contained within the Book of Faces.  Each temple holds a copy of the Book of Faces, and the (not-so-)faithful carry a copy with them.

Holy Symbols of each faith are the brand symbols, worn on chains and/or tattooed to body parts.

Alexa - Goddess of Servants

Amazon - a demigod of delivery and messages and couriers 

Avrae - Goddess of Chance

BigBox - known variously as WalMart, Target, and other names; once known as KMart, but that aspect died in the godswar.

Bowie - genderless Deity of Change and Music

Caffeine - God of Inspiration and Relief

Contractor - God of War and Ill-Gotten Gains

Covid - God of Disease, Fear, and Ignorance

Discord - God of Communication

Disney - God of Illusion, Entertainment

Dyson - God of Winds and Cartographers

Emoji - Deity of Symbolism and Misunderstandings

Evian - Goddess of Water

Gig - God of Short-term Jobs; favored by adventurers and mercenaries

Ikea - Goddess of Creation

Kellogg - God of the Harvest and Grain, attended by three faithful servants named Snap, Crackle, and Pop

Montsanto - God of deceit, greed, and the destruction of nature

Nestle - God of Drought, Rain, and Chocolate

Nicotine - Goddess of Diets, Appearance, and Anxiety

Petroleum - God of Energy (slowly dying as he is worshipped more and more)

Propaganda - Goddess of Truth

Twitter - Goddess of the People

Uber and Lyft - sibling demigods of travel, transit, and pilgrimages

Viagra - Goddess of Insecurity, Fertility, and ; loyally served by Tindr, Grindr, Zoosk, Eharmony, and others.

WHO - God of Healing

Wikipedia - Goddess of Information and Rumor

Zippo – God of Fire

Of course, the list can be refined, both with names and which domains they represent.  Still, I think it can be fun, and at least some will find their way into my homebrew world.  If I get to play a cleric and am offered the opportunity to choose my own religion, it is bound to be one of these (because Ecnep, Voice of Pmurt the Orange has been played and died by sentient pumpkin.  I'm not even lying.)

DoMT: Knight and Rogue

A slow-rolling series of how the Deck of Many Things works in my homebrew world of Ironguard.  (Part 1, Part 2, Part 4)

There is a temptation to tie Knight in with Throne, but for now, they will fall under two separate posts.

Knight: gain the service of a 4th level fighter.

When Ser James 'Jamie' Blackthorn cut a deal for immortality and travel, this was not his intent, but it is what he has.  Over the centuries, he has served dozens of masters and mistresses, primarily adventuring sorts, and has visited cities before they were ruins, tombs and dungeons when they were new, and mountains before they were rolling hills.

So he is a jaded bastard who has been everywhere and seen everything.  This makes him a sarcastic font of information, who may or may not volunteer knowledge, depending on how well he likes his current master or mistress.  

Despite his vast experience, Ser Jamie never mechanically proceeds past the fourth level.  

When active, he makes it a point to check up on his known and suspected heirs while traveling, going so far as to steer his master/mistress in their direction.  On the rare occasion that an heir draws his card, Ser Jamie is overjoyed, and has been known to shower that lucky soul with locations of hidden treasures (that Ser Jamie may have hidden away himself), as well as useful advice.  There is a reason that certain upstart kingdoms lasted as long as they did - Ser Jamie was the voice in the ear of the King.

If slain, dismissed, or the current master/mistress is slain, Ser Jamie awakens/appears in his chambers at the Keep of the Throne, holding and wearing whatever he had when he left.  Once there he passes time playing chess with Steward, drinking wine, and writing his never-ending memoirs until the card is drawn again.  

At that point, Ser Jamie is whisked away, wearing and carrying whatever he had at the time the card was drawn.  Tales note that several times, he has arrived naked, the Card having been drawn while he was bathing.

Rogue: one of your friends turns against you. Nothing less than a wish or divine intervention can turn the traitor back - which suggests that if the Rogue is slain, they will rise as undead or otherwise return to haunt the Card drawer.

DM Note: at no point will Rogue turn Ser Jamie of the Knight card, STEWARD of the Throne card, nor any PC against the card drawer.  This leaves a wide range of meek and mighty NPCs at the DM's disposal, however.  That said, the Card prefers to turn those with some measure of power against the PC, if only to ensure grief.  It will not hesitate to use family, if that is the best choice.

This card is powered by the unnamed deity of lies and treachery and narcissism, sometimes referred to in whispers as the forty-fifth.  When drawn, a cold chill and mild electric shock passes through the drawer as the magic of the Rogue card examines the drawer's being to decide who best to turn against them.

At this point, the Rogue realizes that it is card drawer who is the cause of ALL the Rogue's woes.  The magic bound within the card nurses the fears and suspicions until what begins as a smear campaign becomes outright attempts at assassination.  If confronted, the Rogue attacks the card drawer in a blind rage.

On occasion, the Rogue falls in league with the Fiend of the Flames card, and then life turns ugly for the poor fool that drew both cards.

DoMT: Donjon and The Void

A slow-rolling series of how the Deck of Many Things works in my homebrew world of Ironguard.  (Part 1, Part 3, Part 4)

Donjon:  You are imprisoned. You disappear and become entombed in a state of suspended animation in an extradimensional sphere.  Everything you were wearing and carrying stays behind in the space you occupied when you disappeared.  You remain imprisoned until you are found and removed from the sphere.  You cannot be located by any divination magic, but a wish spell can reveal the location of your prison.  You draw no more cards.

All this time, I thought it was just like the Imprisonment spell, itself a reference to the Dying Earth story Cugel the Clever.  As for the spell - I must say that I far prefer the AD&D version of Imprisonment.  (Both a summary of Cugel the Clever and the AD&D version of the spell are HERE).  Regardless, the 5e rules are rather... tame.  Leaving behind the gear and belongings means that some tables will never bother with a search, because the replacement PC will get most of the last one's gear, anyhow.  

So much digression to say that this card will see change.

Dragon Isle (so named due to its shape - an open-mouthed dragon's head) is lost to modern navigators, as is the ruined settlement upon it.  One building that stands strangely intact is the Dragonseye Beacon - a lighthouse rising up from where an eye would be if the Isle would be viewed from above.  Under the right conditions, it is said that the Beacon can still be seen and followed into the decaying harbor of nameless ruins from which it rises.

Within Dragoneye Beacon dwells the Keeper.  Another mortal bargaining for immortality with Loki, the Keeper now guards those imprisoned by the Donjon card.  Deep beneath Dragon Isle, deeper than the caves that are said to run under it, teeming with darkness, water, treasure, and horror, lie the hundreds of spheres imprisoning the unlucky fools that drew this card.

If found and bargained with, the Keeper can call forth a specific being's sphere, allowing freedom.  

Of course, what the Keeper may want in trade for such a service is unknown.

The Void: Body functions, but soul is trapped elsewhere.  

Dao are exemplars of greed and power, rivaling dragons in the hoarding of wealth.  When Loki offered the Dao Sultan Haris al-Sijan a chance at becoming a private jailer of sorts in exchange for gems, Haris gladly accepted.  

Since that time, whenever The Void is drawn, the stolen soul becomes a large, pampel-cut ruby, appearing on a cushion near the throne of Haris al-Sijan.  These soul rubies glow with their own inner light, and upon close inspection, a humanoid shadow can be seen within.  The Sultan has these soul rubies affixed to gold chains, and he wears them as proof of his might.  

A pampel-cut gem. 

On rare occasions, someone has been freed from their gem, and this freedom comes at the cost of negotiations and deals between the Dao Sultan and the card-drawer's allies.  

Those freed return to their home plane and tend to embrace life to the fullest, having seen what missing it is like.

It is said the half-elf sage Anacharsis in the city of Skara Brae has spent the last two centuries collecting tales of those who have been affected by drawing from the Deck of Many Things, and among those tales are the location of Sultan Haris al-Sijan's palace at the intersection of Carceri and the Plane of Elemental Earth.

The bodies of those that draw the Void must be kept alive, and are effectively in a deep coma, from which only the return of the soul can waken.  Given lack of care, these bodies die, leaving the soul forever trapped in its ruby.  That said, there are whispers of great-great-great-grandchildren still tending to an ancestor's body, waiting patiently for the soul's return.  Perhaps Anacharsis can provide details.

Note that the Vizier card (or perhaps consulting with Heimdall, the Far-Seeing) can provide the location of people trapped by both Donjon and the Void.

Heimdall, himself.

Hexcrawling Youtube

Maybe a month ago, I began compiling hexcrawl resources on an irregularly-edited post.  Missing from it are YouTube videos.  This post addresses that.

A rather simplistic hexmap, source unknown.

I have given in to YouTube; typically, I am not a fan of YouTube gaming things, because I cannot watch them in meetings that are really just conversations between two people with mandatory attendance for the rest of the staff.  Despite this, there are several DnD-related channels and videos.

In today's edition, we look at various hexcrawl videos.  Not addressed are various videos on Sandboxes, a related term.

Bandit's Keep shares Building a Hexcrawl.

Dungeoncraft offers How to Design a Hex Crawl.

Matt Finch  RPG Studio interviews Bill Webb in the episode How to Run a Hexcrawl.

WebDM runs a two-part hexcrawl-related series: part 1 and part 2.

Bardic College provides Advanced Hexcrawling Kung Fu: Techniques and Tools.

Hexed Press has a variety of videos, including How to Play through a Hexcrawl, Designing a Random Encounter System for your Hexcrawl, Prepping Your Hexmap for a Hexcrawl Campaign, and a Dungeon Master's Intro to Running a Hexcrawl.

It appears that Hexed Press is a prolific hexcrawl video maker; Hexcrawl Tools: d30 Sandbox Companion part 1 and part 2.

GFC's DnD posted How to Hexcrawl.

For now, here is the search I ran on youtube.  Most of the above are there, plus a few more, if 105 minus the above is a few.

Is there overlap across these videos? Assuredly.  Is it still worth watching them all? Also yes, if only to learn or better understand hexcrawls, or at least discover new resources for your own games.

Latest edit: 11/7/21

MtG Monday: The Forgotten Realms Set

It's been some time since my last MtG Monday post.  It has been almost as long since my last game of Magic, in person or on Arena.

Inevitability exists in many circumstances, to include my buying a bundle of the Forgotten Realms set of Magic cards.  While the cards intrigued me, it was the promise of the d20 that sealed the deal, as it were.

Isn't it pretty?  Below it towers over some of my other d20s, but not the d30.

Opening the packs, I know I didn't break even, monetarily, but I'm not all that concerned about doing so, because I got some neat cards, to include a few I want to eventually jam into a Commander Deck or two.  That is the allure of packs, though, the rush from opening one, the sound of the foil tearing, the smell of the ink, and the crush of disappointment as you realize the Rare or Mythic is shitty draft chaff or worse.  Sometimes, though, you win the lottery and open a card that has actual value of $5 or more.  For me, that was one card out of the ten in the bundle.

Mordenkainen.

I know - Mordenkainen is a staple of the Greyhawk universe (as his biography attests).  Yet WotC brought him to a new generation of gamers (but not his Disjunction, that needs to be houseruled back into games - and it should be), first in the adventure Curse of Strahd in 2016, and then with the hardback Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes in 2018.  

So it was inevitable that he end up in the Forgotten Realms.  Maybe next set will take us back to Greyhawk, with Mordenkainen leading the way.  I doubt it, but a man can dream.

A card that had to be included in this set, given its title.

Modal spells (cards that provide options, like above) are a big deal in Magic the Gathering, especially when you are trying to keep your deck to the minimum allowed amount of cards due to math.  There are several modal spells in this set, of which I ended up with five: You Come to the Gnoll Camp, You See a Guard Approach, You Find the Villain's Lair, You Find a Cursed Idol, and You Happen on a Glade.  These card titles suggest demand some means to turn them into a random events table, kind of like random encounters, but instead of dicing for them, you shuffle up and draw one.  The biggest hurdle is how few there are -11, if my math is right.

I would need to buy the others, which is easily done, but they are so cheap that I would inevitably buy other cards from the set, if only to get a reasonable order of $20 or so. It will be simple, as WotC did a fine job in choosing which DnDisms to place in the set.  

Chiefly, though, I would buy Froghemoth, because Froghemoth.  Plus, I am a firm believer in keeping opposing graveyards empty, and Froghemoth lends itself to this belief.  

Inevitably, I will play MtG again, but I really can't say when, or if I will be bothered to actually use any of these cards in the decks.

 

DoMT: Introduction and Flames

I've written before about how the Deck of Many Things creates stories for sandbox games.  Now I would like to explore this theory more in-depth, by providing a homebrew history of the Deck of Many Things, then detailing a card or two with each post, and how it fits in to my game world as a whole.

To prepare this series, I spent some time comparing the DoMT between rulesets: 3.5e and 5e.  Both hew close to the original from AD&D, but wow, does the 5e version break down specifically how each card works.  

I'll be using the 5e rules for this series, but will likely mix and match rulings to better fit my game.  (Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Basically, the DoMT was crafted by Loki to embody the lyrics of Tom Waits, who said, 'the large print giveth, and the small print taketh away.'  Along the way, the DoMT spreads Chaos throughout the planes, as it forces those bound to it to act in rather specific ways.

Flames - Enmity between you and an Outsider. 

The specific contract between Loki and Etrigan is unknown to mortals, but it stings the devil enough that when Flames is drawn from the Deck of Many Things, Etrigan takes special delight in ruining the mortal drawing the card, if only because Etrigan cannot affect Loki even if it wanted to - and he dearly wants to.

So with Loki unavailable, the poor fool drawing Flames is a suitable replacement.

Initially, Etrigan sends cultists and agents to learn about the card-drawer and regular companions - with the goal being to ruin his life, not end it.  Ending the life and ruining the soul comes later.  

With time, Etrigan sends potent devils and sublieutenants to ruin the card-drawer.  These agents are under strict orders to speak before and during combat.  Specifically, they tell all within earshot that they are doing what they are doing because of the card drawer.  

The final fight between Etrigan and the card drawer has so far resulted in the death and dissolution of several world-class heroes through the ages.  The truth is, though, that most often the card drawer dies to a minion of Etrigan.

At the table, this means that that - like it or not - there are attacks aimed at the card drawer every other session, with evidence of other mischief designed to ruin the reputation and life of the card drawer during the in-between sessions.  All told, drawing Flames results in Etrigan's ire being seen and growing as the card drawer foils attempts on his life and reputation until the final battle.

Note that whether or not the DM embraces Etrigan's namesake and only speaks in rhyme is very much table dependent.  That said, I will do my best to speak in such a manner.

Wizards!

I may have mentioned before that I want to revamp my Random Encounter table for the Ironguard Campaign (despite it being on indefinite hiatus), modeled on what is going on here at Papers and Pencils.

2d6	Encounter
2	Dragon!
3	Weird
4	Weird
5	Weird Place
6	Build Place
7	Recurring Characters
8	Build Place
9	Weird Place
10	Weird
11	Weird
12	Wizard!

I'm a fan of Weird encounters, be they from books I've read, other blogs, or my own fevered imagination.  Anything that gives a player pause is good.  

To make the above work, I'll be making using of nested subtables, because I like nested subtables. I failed the search check for my notes on these four wizards, so was forced to build them from scratch.  Here are four, their modes of travel, and their majordomos. 

1d4	Wizard!
1	traveling in a carriage (with apprentice and choice retainers) made from the animated skeleton of a Mastadon trudging along; retinue consists of various undead.  Majordomo is a well-mannered ghoul in decaying finery.  They'd love to invite you to dinner!
2	traveling on roc-back (with apprentice and choice retainers), with retinue of flying monkeys (use gargoyles for stats).  Majordomo is larger flying monkey in a red velvet vest and matching Fez.  The Fez grants the ability to speak and understand all languages heard.
3	traveling in a large floating bubble (with apprentice and choice retainers in their own, smaller bubbles) seemingly drifting on the wind.  Dozens of smaller bubbles float among the larger ones.  Majordomo is a bubble golem, coalescing out of many bubbles joining together into a rough humanoid shape.
4	traveling in a palanquin carried by 8 large, headless, humanoids.   Majordomo is a large floating head sporting a monocle.

When it comes to naming wizards, I dip into history.  So far, no one has noticed, or if they have, they don't mention it.

Yes, all the Wizards! are traveling to and from somewhere, on one inscrutable purpose or another.  

d8	Purpose
1	Returning home from another mission; d6 1-3 celebratory mood of success, 4-6 dour mood of defeat.  PCs either get an invitation to party or are attacked out of frustration.
2	To investigate rumors or following a map; may trade information with PCs.
3	To make war upon a neighbor; mercenaries are welcome.
4	On a pilgrimage to a holy site; faithful are welcome to join, unbelievers are coldly turned away, heretics are destroyed utterly.
5	To fulfill a vow, oath, or other promise to provide aid of some sort; unhappy to be doing so, but promises must be kept.  Will gladly let the PCs serve in its stead.
6	Off to the city, on a supply run and some well-deserved r&r; whether or not they will be welcomed is another question.
7	Gathering ingredients/specimens for research; PCs may provide needed item through trade or mere existence.
8	Exploring for its own sake.  Will gladly trade information and tales and a feast with PCs.  In the morning, when PCs awake, it will be as if nothing happened.

Once the hexmap is finalized, home and destination hex numbers can be assigned, but until then, these Wizards! are adrift in time and space (which probably doesn't bother them all that much).

Bonus Wizard!: traveling on the back of a gigantic millipede, with apprentice and retinue also on board.  If necessary, different sections of millipede break away into six-legged mounts, each with its own rider.  Major domo rides at the rear and breaks off to come address PCs; he is just a normal-looking human, with vibrant purple skin and a pair of antennae.