dmsden

[dmsden]

Yearly Wrap-Up - And a Hiatus

Hullo, Gentle Readers. I can’t believe the end of 2022 is upon us already. I wanted to put out this special article as we look ahead into 2023.

It’s getting closer to being a really big year for D&D, as 2024 is the game’s 50th anniversary! I can’t believe that I’ll have been playing the game for 45 of its 50 years! Crazy pants! Even though next year isn’t the big anniversary, there’s lots of cool stuff coming, like Bigby Presents Glory of the Giants, the Book of Many Things, and the return of Planescape! There’ll be lots of playtest material for One D&D, and I’m sure there will be some surprises, too!

Next year will also see the release of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves into theaters in March. I have increasingly high hopes for this movie. I just hope we don’t get hurt again.

On a personal level, this has been a challenging few years, as it has for everyone. And I've had to make a difficult decision. I have two big writing projects I want to get done in the first half of the year. I am going to put the blog on hiatus and use the time I normally spend writing these articles towards this other writing until they're finished.

This is for sure not goodbye. I will still answer Questions from our Denizens, share photos of the upcoming finale of my 12-year D&D campaign, and share news I hear about. I just need to break from the weekly structure until I'm happy with the other writing projects I'm committed to.

Until we cross paths again, may the dice fall ever in your favor. Happy New Year.

[dmsden]

Communication - Why is it so important?

Hullo, Gentle Readers! This week's Question from a Denizen comes to us from another shy, Anonymous reader. They say, "I enjoyed the write up on fizzle, it really captures your experience with my favourite trick: talking to each other. Do you have more stories about a time when you and others have different POV on the same session?"

I have to be honest...I can't think of many times where I felt the need to check in or apologize after a session and then found that my players and I were in disagreement. I think this recent fizzle was a situation of me being tired and not feeling great about the game. I reached out to apologize and got reassured that other folks had enjoyed themselves.

I thought instead I would talk a little bit about one of my favorite pieces of advice, why I think it's important, and when I think you should follow it. Everyone who reads this blog for more than a couple of articles will have seen my mantra of "Talk to your players." I say it all the time, because I really feel it resolves 99% of problems in a game. So with that said, why do I think it's so important?

So here's the thing...yes, D&D and other TTRPGs are games, but, at their core, they're relationships. Joining a game is essentially a social contract: I will meet with you, abide by the rules of the game, respect the GM, and we'll tell amazing stories together. This is a relationship, and one that hopefully connects socially in other ways as well. I'm friends with all my players, and, even when I invite new players into a game whom I haven't met before, I often become good friends with them over time. TTRPGs are an intensely social activity. And in any kind of social activity or relationship, communication is absolutely essential.

Now I'm not just talking about the communication around the table, although that's obviously important, too. It's not like the game would work if people wouldn't talk or couldn't understand each other. I'm talking about clear and honest communication where people talk outside the game, discuss how things are going, offer feedback, and the like.

Now, I'm not advocating for having a sit down discussion with your players for every session (although for a starting DM, that could be quite useful). I'm just talking about an occasional casual check-in. Ask your players how they're enjoying the game. Do they like where the story is going? Are there any NPCs they'd like to see more of? Is there anything from their backstory they're wanting to play up more or less? Are there any plot threads they want to make sure don't disappear or that they would like to go away?

A key time to talk to your players, of course, is during a Session Zero, but all the things you discuss at a Session Zero can come up down the road. Maybe someone would like to introduce new safety tools at the table that they were unaware of when the campaign started. Maybe there's some plot element that they hadn't considered for their character that they'd like to add, which requires a tweak to their backstory. Maybe they've realized they've never fought a beholder in D&D, and they want to ask you to add one to your campaign.

Another use of communication is to give feedback to a player on behavior you want to encourage or discourage. You might give someone Inspiration after a session, because after thinking about it, you realized just how great something they did was. Alternately, you might want to ask a player to change behavior in some way, such as not challenging your decisions during game play, not bullying another player, or looking up information they shouldn't have access to during the session.

You may also want to discuss plot with a player. Maybe you have an upcoming plot that they would tie into very naturally, but it would require a minor tweak to their backstory. Maybe you want to make sure they get a cool magic-item soon, and you'd like to know what the player might want. Maybe you want to do a story involving the PC's family, but you don't have a lot of details, so you might need to pick their brains.

If you notice a player seems uncomfortable with something, but they don't comment or invoke a safety tool, you could approach them outside the game and just check in and make sure they're okay. It could be that they're just roleplaying, or that they didn't feel comfortable interrupting the game to voice a concern. If you don't want to call them out specifically, you can send an email to everyone inviting them to reach out to you privately if they have anything they want to talk about.

I hope every DM makes it a habit to talk to their players. Until we chat again, keep those dice a-rolling.

[dmsden]

Christmas in Greyhawk - Adapting real world holiday traditions into your game

Hullo, Gentle Readers. With the holiday season approaching, I’ve been chatting with some friends about potential Christmas games of D&D they’re going to run. It’s made me imagine working on my own game, and I thought I’d share a few ideas I had that might be enjoyable for a game set at a festive wintry time of year.

Anything related to Christmas is, of course, somewhat overshadowed by the figure of Santa Claus. He’s so rich with fantasy and mythology, too, that he seems like a character ripe for a D&D version. He has magical powers, he works closely with elves, he associates with flying reindeer...if you look at the Rankin/Bass specials, or the book The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum, you can add even weirder elements to his story. In Baum, especially, he’s connected to nature spirits, immortals, and various animals. This makes me consider creating an Archdruid called Nicholas the Giftbringer.

Druid is a surprisingly good class build for Nicholas. Timeless Body would make him age much more slowly, allowing him to live over many years. Druid spells could make awakened and magical reindeer. I’d go with Circle of Dreams, to attach him to the fey (the elves again) and to traverse through dreams...how else can he make it around the world in one night?

In modern times, a lot of people are rediscovering the fun of an “Anti-Santa”, most often in the form of the Krampus. Krampusnacht remains popular in Germany, and it’s starting to catch on here in the U.S. in some areas. A figure that punishes naughty children seems like a good piece to add to our crazy Christmas materials.

To avoid making this a straight Krampus analogy, I’m thinking it would be fun to have a powerful figure as the center of this, but with servants who seek the naughty children. I kind of want to borrow the concept of a Snow Queen from Hans Christian Andersen, before she became Else in Frozen.

This could be an Archfey, similar to the Prince of Frost, or it could be a monster the PCs could fight. Depending on the level of the party, it might be a Frost Druid, a Bheur Hag, a Frost Giant Everlasting One, a White Dragon, or something else entirely. As far as servants to seek out naughty children, the Banderhobb seems a natural choice.

It’s worth noting that you don’t have to do anything traditional. This is your story, and you’re more than allowed to go in a crazy direction. Maybe Santa Claus is a polymorphed silver dragon who works with a wintry variety of gnomes to make toys. Maybe orcs of the frozen lands are his steadfast guardians. In his Guardians of Childhood books, William Joyce has Nicholas St. North, the Santa figure, as the leader of a group of Yeti.

To close out this bit of holiday fun, I thought I’d share a traditional wassail recipe, because drinking alcohol on the holidays is always a good time.

Ingredients

1 gallon apple cider

2 cups orange juice

1 cup lemon juice

½ cup sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 orange, sliced

½ cup brandy

Instructions

Mix juices, sugar, brandy, and seasonings together.

Slowly bring to a boil in a large saucepan or pot. Boil for 1 minute.

Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Serve hot with sliced oranges floating in the punch bowl.

Note that I’ve mostly looked at Christmas traditions, but there are many holidays at this time of year. I’m sure my clever readers can come up with all kinds of story elements from holiday traditions they enjoy. And whether you run a game during this time of year, I hope you have a very enjoyable holiday season.

[dmsden]

Spare the Dying? - Handling character death in D&D

Hullo, Gentle Readers. This week’s Question from a Denizen comes to us from fatescribe. They ask, “Hello! DM of 13+ years here....for players new and old I always like to talk about player character death before the game starts, as I typically run my games with this occurrence being a real possibility. How do you approach talking about player character death, and what are some ways other DMs could talk about this to players who aren't as enthused by the concept?”

This is a great question, scribe. Character death is a legitimately difficult thing for some groups, and a simple rules matter for others. I’ve written about it several times before, and you can see those articles at these links: https://dmsden.tumblr.com/post/182270577778/beyond-the-veil-helping-players-deal-with

https://dmsden.tumblr.com/post/173545328268/hullo-gentle-readers-this-weeks-question-comes

https://dmsden.tumblr.com/post/625074664593620992/death-and-consequences-should-a-player-have-a

https://dmsden.tumblr.com/post/190422014268/if-by-my-life-or-death-i-can-save-you

But let’s look at this particular issue. I have mixed feelings about death in my games myself. I know death is important in the game, as it’s one of the game’s major consequences. but I also recognize that it can lead to a player losing interest in the game and/or cause a major halt to the storyline as the players look into either finding a way to bring their fallen comrade back or start dealing with a new member of the group...or both!

I do think that death is important to be a part of a campaign. If death means nothing, then it’s hard to make things meaningful in terms of a narrative. So with that in mind, how do you handle character death, and what if someone doesn’t want it in the game?

To start with, I would go into the campaign with an idea of how to handle character death. I think you can go one of several routes:

Death Is a Hassle 

This is more or less the default assumption of the game. There are spells to bring back the dead, such as Revivify, Raise Dead, Resurrection, True Resurrection, and Reincarnation. They have a cost (usually a certain amount of diamonds), but PCs will eventually gain access to them, and, if needed, NPCs can usually cast them on the PCs behalf.

Death Is the End

I have played a campaign like this, and it was pretty terrifying. In a situation like this, the DM removes the spells that bring back the dead from the game. Neither PCs nor NPCs have access to this magic. When a character dies, that’s it, and they won’t be coming back. It makes death very significant, and it makes a lot of players act in a very different way. Players are much more likely to retreat in a situation like this, knowing that, if their characters die, they won’t be able to keep playing the same characters

Death Is a Revolving Door

I haven’t played in such a game, but I’ve certainly heard of them. In a game like this, not only are the death reversing spells available, but the material component cost is usually waived. Even before the PCs have access to the spells, NPC clerics might cast them for very small favors or payments.

Death Is Difficult But Not Impossible

This is perhaps best exemplified by the Critical Role campaign. The spells to bring folks back from death exist and have their material component cost, but there is also a ritual involved to overcome death, with its own set of rules. There’s always a chance that someone won’t return from death. This is also the way many LARPs handle death.

So maybe you now have an idea how you want death to be in your campaign; how do you broach the subject with your players? To be honest, I would be very open and upfront with the players and get everyone’s thoughts during a Session Zero. Tell your players how you’d like to handle death, and see if everyone will buy into the idea. If not, it’s a good idea to have a conversation about their concerns.

Other things to discuss on the concept of death would include how to handle the absence of the character and the player’s involvement, how to replace a dead character if the PC decides to play something new, and how difficult you want to make the process. The toughest part is in levels 1-4 before the PCs have access to magic of their own. Are there powerful enough clerics in the world to raise the dead? Where are they? What will they ask the PCs for in return for casting the spell? These are things to keep in mind.

I think, in the end, you have to be ready to compromise what you want with players, especially new ones, who might want something more or less restrictive than you want. I think if it’s properly presented, most players will understand that death is there to be a necessary consequence of the dangerous lives adventurers have. If someone absolutely balks, then you should talk with that person and try to get to the bottom of their concern. It may be that, especially if they’re new, they won’t be used to the cooperative storytelling aspect of D&D and won’t understand that you won’t just kill their characters arbitrarily. You may need to discuss this and explain the DM’s job of challenging but not opposing the PCs. In the end, as usual, if they won’t budge, and you’re not willing to budge on your own position, then you have to weigh how much you want to play with them.

For what it’s worth, my own current campaign is pretty much in the default zone of death being a hindrance. Certain events that may be happening by the end of the campaign may mean that, the next time I set a story in this world, we’ll be at Difficult But not Impossible. It’ll be interesting to see what happens!

scribe, I hope this gave you some thoughts on how to handle and discuss death in your own campaign. Hopefully your PCs won’t have to deal with character death TOO often.

[dmsden]

Monster of the Month - the Yeti

Hullo, Gentle Readers, and happy December 2022. Well, we haven’t had any snow yet other than a light flurry, but it’s definitely getting colder. Before long, I’m sure we’ll have plenty of white stuff all over the place, and we’ll be wishing it would go away! And that’s the kind of weather that our Monster of the Month, the Yeti, loves the best. As always , I owe a huge thanks to Scott Fabianek for the awesome original Yeti art.

Originally hailing from Tibetan myth and folklore, the Yeti came to D&D via 1st edition, where it appears in the Monster Manual. Oddly, I don’t think I ever used Yeti in any of my games until 5E. Now, I’ve come to realize what a useful monster they are for low-level games set in colder climes. I’m sure I’ll be using them again in the future.

Cold is the Yeti’s home; they are completely immune to Cold damage. Yeti abilities gear them towards being ambush hunters. They have a decent Perception and Stealth, while their Keen Smell and Snow Camouflage abilities give them advantage on those rolls under the right circumstances. They also have Darkvision, which suggests they might be nocturnal hunters as well. I can imagine a caravan in snowy lands huddled tight, while the yetis come out of the darkness, terrifying and silent, to snatch stragglers away.

Yetis are also fast, with a 40′ speed, and have an equal Climb speed. This would work well for ambushes as well, allowing them to attack people clinging to icy rock faces, toss them down the mountainside to let the fall do the work for them, and then collect the bodies when danger was past. They’re clearly strong melee fighters with good hit points for their challenge rating, a high strength for grappling, and a good Claw attack, which does Cold damage as well as slashing. I love this, because it suggests that the Yeti is supernaturally tied to the element of Cold. Their multiattack lets them attack twice with their claws, as well as to use their most terrifying ability - the Chilling Gaze.

Chilling Gaze turns the Yetis from a simple melee encounter to a creature with a chance to massacre groups of adventurers. Each round, as part of their Multiattack, they have a chance to do a solid chunk of Cold damage and to Paralyze a single opponent for 1 minute. This makes me imagine a pack of Yetis laying into a caravan, guards freezing in place, being torn apart by claws, leaving the civilians to flee through the snow as the Yetis give chase.

The Yetis have two vulnerabilities that are probably why they haven’t devoured everything in their mountains. First, if a creature makes a saving throw against or outlasts the duration of Chilling Gaze, it’s immune to all Yeti Chilling Gaze attacks for an hour. This would allow some hardy rangers to get past this dangerous ability and thin the Yeti numbers. Their other weakness is fire. While they aren’t technically vulnerable to it in D&D terms, they are afraid of it. If they take fire damage, they have Disadvantage on all attacks and ability checks until the end of their next turn. This allows even a 1st level Wizard with Firebolt to make a major contribution to a battle with Yetis. It’s important to note, however, that Fire doesn’t impose the frightened condition on them, so Yeti may very well react to a wizard hitting them with firebolt by leaping on them and tearing them apart.

When a normal yeti just isn’t enough, you can always upgrade to the larger model - the Abominable Yeti. They are mostly identical to normal Yetis, but they’re just more...stronger, hardier, stealthier, more perceptive. In addition, their Chilling Gaze is a bit more dangerous - it’s harder to save against, does more damage, and, if it’s resisted, only makes the target immune to the Chilling Gaze of this Yeti, meaning other Yetis can try to use it. They also possess another power tied to elemental cold - a 30 foot cone attack of very solid cold damage. It’s a tough recharge to regain it, but they can definitely put some hurt on a party with this ability. If you have Rime of the Frostmaiden, you also have access to Yeti Tykes, which are chaotic evil little bundles of mischief. Fun for the whole family!

Yeti are intelligent and have their own language, but they’re chaotic evil in general, which might make them difficult to bargain with. They’re also super voracious creatures, which might make them difficult to pair them with other monsters. I can’t help but like the idea of Yetis working with Winter Wolves, though, as their powers are so similar and compliment each other rather nicely. I like the suggestion in the Monster Manual that a clever mountain tribe might channel the Yeti by using food to lure them to specific places, thus using them as guards or shock troops without the Yeti realizing it. I could also see pairing the Yetis with inedible monsters like elementals or golems made of ice.

I’m imagining a story now where Yetis begin to attack various settlements in an Icewind Dale like environment. A powerful goliath warlord comes in and gains allegiance from the various villages who’re being raided. Slowly, the PCs come to realize that the villages being attacked are ones that were resisting the goliath’s rule in the first place. As they investigate, they’ll eventually realize that the warlord is finding ways to motivate the Yeti to attack the areas that resist his rule, then come in to offer protection after the fact.

I hope this chilling little article has gotten you thinking about the Yeti. They’re a fun and very different encounter from monsters like ogres and the like. Next month, we’ll be kicking of 2023 with a brand new set of monsters. Until then, have a great holiday season.

[dmsden]

The Den Needs Questions!

Hullo, Gentle Readers. I so appreciate all the questions people ask, but we’re getting to the bottom of our mailbag. If we don’t get more questions soon, we won’t even make it to the end of 2022! If you have a question, whether about a rule, something you’d like to see homebrewed, a piece of lore, my opinions on a module or monster, or anything else, please ask!

[dmsden]

Taking the Low Road - Tips for a low-magic campaign

Hullo, all. This week’s Question from a Denizen comes to us from yet another Anonymous source. They ask, “ So, I have this idea I have had on the back burner for a while that I now want to try and commit to putting it into practice. What are some tips you would provide to someone wanting to run a lower magic setting, specifically one with a horror-survival elements?”

Well, my Anonymous friend, I actually just did an article on survival horror fairly recently. Here’s a link to it so you don’t have to search backwards: https://dmsden.tumblr.com/post/697733766358171648/survive-the-night-using-survival-horror-tropes

So, having addressed those types of elements, I thought I’d look instead at the low-magic aspect, with an eye towards how that would work in concert with a survival horror campaign.

D&D is not a game that immediately lends itself to low magic. Many of the classes, sub-classes, races, and so on trend in the direction of a high magic setting. As a result, the DM of a prospective low-magic/survival horror campaign (let’s just say LMSHC from now on) has a bit of an uphill battle. The first thing I would do if I wanted to run such a campaign would be to (say it with me folks) Talk to My Players. I swear, if I ever have a shirt made for the blog, it’ll say that on it.

If I ran a LMSHC, I would explain to my players what I had in mind. I would make sure that they were all cool with the idea before I got far in development. After all, if I say “I want a campaign of all humans,” and my players have their hearts set on being an aarakocra, a rabbitfolk, and a firbolg, then this might not be the best campaign for them. In a situation like this, I might offer this campaign to other players, or I might plan a different sort of campaign.

You don’t have to play all humans to be a low-magic campaign, but it helps. Human, half-elf, half-orc, halfling, and dwarf all lend themselves easily to such a setting. Wood elves could work, but high elves tend to be a bit too magical, as are dragonborn, gnomes, and tieflings. Some other races, like orc, kobold, goblin, hobgoblin, could fit as well. Other races, especially ones with inherent spellcasting, flight, waterbreathing, and other, similar effects, are likely inappropriate for such a setting. If you really want it to be all humans, you might even work with your players to have them play a character who is cosmetically human but who has the racial traits of another race, such as a dwarf. In a situation like this, they might just be a very hardy human who’s very knowledgeable about stonecraft and smithing.

Many of the classes are likely going to be off-limits. If you’re trying to keep things to low-magic, then you pretty much need to eliminate bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, and wizard. You’ll probably need to think about classes like paladin and ranger, too, although the powers these classes have could work, depending on how the players role-plays them. Some of the sub-classes like eldritch knight, soulknife, arcane trickster, arcane archer, and the like are probably out, too. On the other hand, Artificers might shine in a campaign like this, especially the artillerist.

Now all of this is not to say there can’t be any magic or spells. Usually in a low-magic setting, however, magic is mostly in the hands of the enemies. Wizards aren’t trusted by many, and for good reason, as they’d tend to be more like warlocks, trucking with dark powers for the magic they possess. This will make the magic they wield feel special and scary, since the players won’t have access to the same abilities.

Monsters in the classic sense should be rare, with most combat encounters happening with other humans or humanoids, animals, giants, giant animals, strange beasts, and the like. Even something as “mundane” as an owlbear or an ankheg could be a sign of a sorcerer going rogue, or maybe they spring from ancient evils. A monster like a chimera is an absolute abomination, while summoned devils or demons are blasphemous entities that must be sent back to their home planes. And a full-on dragon should be an encounter that the players will never forget.

For magic-items, things like a wand of wonder or an apparatus of Kwalish isn’t something very low-magic feeling. Appropriate items would include basic magic weapons and armor, enhancing items like an elven cloak, amulet of health, or gauntlets of ogre power, some potions, and similar items. Ultimately, you’re the right judge of power levels and what feels right for your LMSHC. To get any magic-items, however, especially powerful ones, there should be a big adventure. Such items were obviously made by the gods, by magical beings, or by ancient empires using long-forgotten techniques...perhaps the vanished dwarves and elves.

The nice thing about a LMSHC is that it makes running the Survival Horror elements much easier. Undead are WAY scarier when there’s no hope of a cleric to turn them or to use radiant magics to combat them. If there’s no character with the ability to create food and water, then you don’t have to worry about supplies not being an issue (a staple of survival stories and often a powerful motivation).

I hope these suggestions are useful, Anonymous, and you have a good time with your LMSHC. Until next time, may the dice fall ever in your favor.

[dmsden]

Fighting the Fizzle - What to do when you felt a session fell flat

Hullo, Gentle Readers. Let's face it - not all game sessions are created equal. You have intense sessions where it feels like everyone's engaged, you're on top of your game, and the atmosphere is electric. And then you have sessions where it feels like you're going through the motions, no one's paying attention, and you wonder why you do this to yourself. Those are the times I call the Fizzle.

The Fizzle is different from DM Burnout. A Fizzle can happen when you're feeling at the height of your game, and they can take you by total surprise. They come accompanied with the feeling that maybe you're not that great a DM after all, and they can legitimately make you question your commitment to the craft.

And the Fizzle can happen to anyone. I've been DMing for 43 years, and it hit me just this last Thursday. I had all my notes in order, and I was ready to go. I had a rough day at work, but I didn't want to cancel, because I knew we wouldn't play the following week due to Thanksgiving. I knew a tough combat was coming up, and I figured that would be the main focus of the session. We got through the first part okay, with some good description I thought, but then the combat started, and everything just seemed to fall apart.

I knew I wasn't feeling the normal sense of fun and excitement I get when I throw a monster at the PCs they haven't faced before. The monsters stunned half the group in the first round, and they did a scary amount of damage. But then things dragged on, with several people out of the fight, more or less, coming in and out of it as saves were made and the attack is repeated. They won, and we wrapped a little early.

After the combat, I realized that I hadn't fully reviewed my notes (prepared several weeks ago). I had some things prepared to give interesting visions to those who were stunned, to make the effect of being stunned slightly less awful and make the encounter more interesting and unique. I had descriptive text of the monsters I'd completely failed to say when they were close to characters with high perceptions. I just didn't follow my own narrative at all, and I felt the game had suffered for it. I'd made a couple of bad rules calls, I felt, and I'd kind of snapped at one player. I woke up the next day just feeling like it had been a terrible session.

I sent an email to one player making sure we were on the same page as far as a complicated ruling I'd had to make (9th level spells get wacky), emailed another player apologizing for snapping, and emailed the whole group apologizing for the overall poor quality of the session. To my surprise, three players emailed back telling me they thought it was a great session, the player with the rules question was 100% on board with my ruling, and the player I'd snapped at not only accepted my apology but apologized for the behavior that had set me off.

It turned out I was being my own worst critic, which I think it often the case with DMs. I still don't think it was a great session, but it reminded me of a few things to do when I feel that way. With this in mind, I wanted to offer some advice to DMs experiencing similar feelings.

First, step away from the game itself for a while, at least overnight. Do something totally different. I jumped on Lord of the Rings Online and did a few simple, repeatable missions to clear my head out. Then I got a good night's sleep, got up, and worked for a few hours before I shot off those emails on my break.

Second, talk to your players. In my case, they were emails, but I took the time to address the fact that I thought it went badly to the group. I talked about when our next game would be, and I addressed specific issues privately with a few players. I made sure they knew that, just because I wasn't happy with how the game went, I was still committed to running the next game and making it better...even though they didn't seem unhappy with it. After all, they didn't know what I'd had planned...they just knew I'd run a combat that most folks had had fun with.

Third, look at your notes for the next session. Are there things you'd missed that you wanted to make sure got out there? Is there something you can change or improve to make sure the same thing doesn't happen next time? Do you want to add something to throw events last session into a different light? Add those to your notes, and maybe call them out with some highlighting so you put it out there and don't forget it.

Maybe some of your players will agree with you that it wasn't a good session. That was true with one of mine. In that case, I encourage you to do what I did...talk to them. See what it was they felt wasn't great, think about how you can improve it for the future, and assure them you intend to do better.

The most important thing to know is that Fizzles happen, they happen to everyone, and they aren't the end of the world. With some good communication, you can make sure everyone's okay with what happened, reassure those who weren't, and plan to do better next time. No one's perfect every session, and you shouldn't expect to be.

[dmsden]

Greyhawk Lore Request

Hullo, Gentle Readers. This week’s Question from a Denizen comes to us from wulfenboss. They ask, “Bit of an odd question, but do you have any deep lore drops from living greyhawk, greyhawk in general, or any of the older editions other wolds beyond Faerûn?”

Easy answer to this, really...

No.

To be honest, wulfenboss, I’ve almost always set my campaigns in my own homebrew worlds. Yes, I’ve run games set on Oerth, Toril, Krynn, Eberron, Athas, and the other worlds of D&D, but those were often just one-shots, and I rarely did any deep lore dives on them. I usually only knew the information contained in the Gazetteer, Compendium, or hardcover sourcebook, and you can find all of those out there to be had, either through eBay or in many cases PDFs on the DM’s Guild.

Having said this, I invite any of my readers who have some deep lore dives on any of the old worlds of D&D (other than the Forgotten Realms) to share what you know. The great thing about our hobby is that we’re surrounded by local experts.

My profound apologies, wulfenboss. You managed to get a question that stumps me pretty hard, and I’m not above admitting when I can’t provide an answer. I hope that our fellows Denizens will have good lore for you!

[dmsden]

Monster of the Month - the Gorgon

Hullo, Gentle Reader. Today, we’re delving into a combination of Greek Mythology and classic D&D for our November monster - the Gorgon. As always, gotta thank Scott Fabianek for some wonderful original art.

Before we dig into this critter, let’s address something anyone with a modicum of Greek myth knowledge must be wondering...given that Medusa is described as the mortal sister of the immortal gorgons, why is this critter a metallic bull rather than a snaky-headed lady? Well, I did some digging, and folks have found a book from 1607 by Edward Topsell called “ The Historie of Four-Footed Beastes”. In it, it gives the description of the “GORGON or strange Lybian Beast” which looks fairly bull-like and has a poisonous breath.

From reading the Gorgon’s description, it comes across more like the Catoblepas (and indeed that name is mentioned in the text), but this at least turns our Gorgon from a snake-haired lady to a bull-like critter.

The gorgon has quite a high AC at 19, so we’re looking at it being difficult to land a solid blow. It also has excellent hit points at an average of 114. This critter is a tough fight for its CR of 5, even before you add some of its abilities. It had darkvision and a good perception, so a party without darkvision of its own could find itself in for a surprise.

It has a high strength and constitution, so you know you’re looking at something that loves to melee, and its high attack and damage bears this out. While it doesn’t have a multiattack option, its trampling charge gives it a nice combination move. It can move 20 feet and then gore, forcing the victim to save vs being prone. If the victim goes prone, the gorgon gets a bonus action hoof attack, which will be at advantage due to the victim being prone. Definitely unfortunate for the victim.

The big signature move of the gorgon, however, is the same reason it has an immunity to being petrified. If the gorgon can get a group bunched up together, then its 30 foot cone of petrifying breath is potentially devastating. It’s a constitution save, which means your rogue doesn’t get to dodge it. The DC isn’t super high, but a few low to average rolls could mean that a chunk of the party will suddenly find themselves restrained for a round. Obviously even this is in the gorgon’s favor, since it means the restrained party members can’t run away, have disadvantage on their attacks, and the gorgon gets advantage against them. If they fail the save on the second round, then they are petrified. This puts them out of play until a greater restoration spell or something similar can be used.

This suggests that the gorgon might be an attrition fighter, especially since its breath has a pretty easy recharge of 5-6. On average, it’ll have access to its breath every 3rd turn. If the gorgon has room to move, then, it might make a strafing attack run, moving into range, breathing on one round, making a melee attack or two, and then disengaging and moving away to let its breath take hold. Then it might run back in, breathing again, and repeat. This isn’t an effect where saving against it makes you immune for 24 hours, so it can try again and again to affect unaffected party members. And the odds state that, over time, the party’s effective numbers will be dwindling.

This is definitely a fight I would describe with lots of senses engaged - the sound of the gorgon’s metal plates clashing together as it charges, the metallic whine as a party member’s sword skitters along its hide, its hot, greenish breath smelling of heated metal, the feeling of creeping paralysis as flesh slowly begins to ossify...I could make this nightmarish for the players.

This is a monster I definitely suggest taking care with. A couple of bad rolls could essentially “kill” a PC for a period of time, leaving one of your players with nothing to do until the others can get them to a temple, since greater restoration is out of the range of most parties fighting CR 5 monsters. Of course, if you have a party high enough to cast greater restoration (around 10-11), then you can throw multiple gorgons at them...3 or 4 should be a hard challenge!

Gorgons don’t have a ton of story to them, unless you give them that story. They’re mostly a hungry predator. A village turned entirely to stone would certainly be a creepy way to start a gorgon encounter. Gorgons are of animal intelligence, so they’re unlikely to be allying with anyone, and they don’t strike me as super trainable. I could see a few scenarios being possible for putting other monsters in close proximity of a gorgon or gorgons.

Creatures with immunity to being petrified might find it useful to use gorgons as a kind of early warning system. This includes most incorporeal undead, many elementals, and some fiends. Golems also tend to be immune to petrification, but they lack the intellect or self-motivation to take advantage of this situation.

Intelligent creatures might find ways to live in proximity of gorgons while remaining vigilant not to become their victims. I could imagine a hobgoblin commander finding the occasional loss to their goblin troops acceptable collateral damage for the usefulness of a gorgon guardian.

A powerful spellcaster who can cast charm monster or dominate monster (and who has the spell slots to afford it) could use a gorgon as a guardian. Likewise, a spellcaster capable of teleporting directly to their home location and bypassing the dangerous stretch that a gorgon inhabits might find it useful to keep one around.

I hope this has you thinking about how to work gorgons into your campaign. Next month, we’ll be digging into a monster that originates in the myths of the Himalaya Mountains. Perfect for December and an early winter! Until then, may your saving throws always come up 20s.

[dmsden]

Horror Round-Up

Hello, Ghouls & Goblins. This article is posting on Halloween, my favorite holiday. Since this is a 5th Monday in a month, it's Dealer's Choice here. I've written a number of articles about running a horror-based D&D campaign, and it seemed like as good a time as any to do a round-up of these articles. I've also included some autumnal-oriented articles, just to round things out.

[dmsden]

My Filing Technique Is Unstoppable - Organization at the table

Hullo, Gentle Readers. This week’s Question from a Denizen comes to us from crustygaymer. They ask, “ Hey, I'm new to DMing and I'd like some advice! I'm having trouble finding all the notes I need when we get the different parts of my sessions - how do you organize your notes (tabs in the books, printed sheets of notes, computer with multiple screens, etc...)?”

Great question, crusty. Speaking personally, I’m almost completely electronic these days. I still love to grab a notepad when I’m planning a campaign, but for the day-to-day running, I’ve got most of my notes, calendars, etc online. So here’s a bit of a glimpse into how I work and what I have active when I’m running a game.

Most of my note-taking these days is in an organizational program called Notion, which you can find online at Notion.so. I like this because it’s cross-platform and updates live. So if I take notes on my iPhone while I’m on the road, when I next connect my phone to the internet, any version of my notes I look at, on my iPad, Desktop, or Laptop, will be updated with what I had written.

Before any given session, I sit down and prep a Game Notes sheet for that session. In there, I jot some bullet points for a Recap. I also add in a few bullet points for the various plot points I feel we might hit for the evening.  If, for example, I know they’re likely to head to a specific tavern, I may have some notes like:

Tavernkeeper is Liam Whitetree, ex-soldier, human, male, salt & pepper hair, scar along right cheek makes him look like he’s always grimacing.

Tiefling bard with purple skin plays lute in the corner, golden eyes looking at each newcomer warily

Many rumors about the war in the west. Gnolls have some kind of secret weapon.

Gnome drinking everyone under the table. She has fiery red hair and a gap-toothed grin.

Sometimes these carry over session to session. If they don’t go to the tavern, I don’t toss the notes out; I copy them into the notes for the next session. If they leave that area, I might not include the tavern notes each session, but I won’t delete them. I’ll either reuse them when they finally do visit that tavern, or I’ll rename the tavern and use the notes for another such establishment down the road.

Most of my world-building notes now exist on a website called WorldAnvil. I found that I liked the format of this site much more than others. It’s fairly easy to organize and make it useful for both myself and my players. As the campaign has moved along, I’ve made entries for most NPCs, items, places, and so on that the PCs have heard of or encountered. This makes a robust wiki for the players to use to look up details they may have forgotten. It even allows me to note DM secrets about the various entries and to have secret notes that some players can see and others cannot.

For combat encounters, I’ve been using D&D Beyond’s encounter creator. I also like to use D&D Beyond in general for looking up monsters, spells, magic-items, and rules.

When I’m running a session, I have a number of websites up in their own windows. I have my Notion page up with the notes for the week’s game session. I have a D&D Beyond up for looking up references and to run any needed encounters. I have a WorldAnvil up in case I need to refer to any worldbuilding info. And in general, I find this is all I need to run a solid session.

After any game, I make notes about any new NPCs, places, or important info I may have improvised over the course of the session. I will then generally make sure I make a new WorldAnvil entry for them before the next session. I’ll also make some brief notes about what seems the likely next move for the PCs, and I’ll use these notes when I’m prepping for the next session as well.

I hope this helps, crusty. If you have any follow-up questions, feel free to ask. Until next time, Gentle Readers, may all your adventures lead back home in the end.

[dmsden]

A Little Bit of History Repeating - Using history to build your world

Hullo, Gentle Readers. As I write this, I’ve just returned from 7 days in Central & Eastern Europe. I got to visit Budapest, Bratislava, and Vienna, sailing on the Danube between cities. Traveling through these old world cities was an incredible experience, and travel is something I hope everyone will take a chance to do in their lives. I’ve been super-fortunate to have lots of opportunities to travel outside the U.S., but, even if you just travel to another state, you can get new experiences and perspectives that you might not have gained in your own backyard.

The reason I’m writing all this is because, as you can guess, being so immersed in these different cultures and hearing about the histories of the places filled me with a ton of inspiration. Without particularly meaning to, it gave me ideas that I will certainly incorporate into my campaign world. While travel is certainly a great way to do this, just learning about other places and histories is sure to get your imagination going, even if it’s just through watching a documentary or reading some articles about it.

For example, during my travels, I saw a place called Devin Castle, which stood sprawling over a high hilltop on the Danube. There was a huge rock cliff with what was almost certainly the original castle on it, and then more walls and towers sloped down over the declining hillside next to it. I loved the idea of this castle, how it must’ve grown over time, and how the first builder must’ve seen that rock over the river and thought, “This is the perfect site.” It makes me want to add a few of those riverside castles to some of the great rivers in my own campaign world.

Just sailing on the Danube and observing how people still use the river to this day inspired me. It was clear that the river wasn’t just an obstacle to them - it was a means of travel, commerce, fishing, and defense. My world has a number of rivers similar to the Danube, and it’s made me think a lot about how important they must be to the people who live along the banks. Many of the great cities of the old world use riverports over seaports, and that’s something I’ll be pondering in the days ahead.

In a way, I got to actually visit a place from my campaign world. The Gellert Baths in Budapest are a sprawling complex of indoor and outdoor swimming pools and thermal baths in an ornate setting. I have been aware of them for years, and one of the landmarks in the city of Estwald in my campaign is the Palace of a Thousand Pools, which was directly inspired by the Gellert Baths. Now, I’ve visited the Gellert Baths, and it was absolutely wonderful. I also visited the Rudas Baths, a Turkish Bath almost 500 years old. While not as ornate as the Gellert, Rudas really felt like I’d stepped back in time. I’ll certainly use elements from it somewhere in my world.

Hearing the history of these countries and places also greatly inspired me, and not always the good parts. History is full of dark things, and some of these dark things will no doubt find their way into my campaign. Even as my own campaign comes right up to the moment when our heroes will challenge the Worldbreaker Tarrasque, I’m already looking ahead to how this event will change the world afterwards. Just because this story ends doesn’t mean I won’t use this campaign world to tell my next story. Various forces are surrounding the Worldbreaker, and the end of it might end up inspired by a lot of discussions about what happened at the end of World War I, because that still informs history in Europe to this day.

Now obviously, I recommend traveling if you have the chance. Not everyone has the chance to jump on a plane, though, but that shouldn’t stop you from seeing new things. Where I live in MA allows me to jump in my car and be in 5 or 6 different states with an hour or two of driving. But you don’t need to do that to see something you haven’t seen before. Do a little research about your own area, and find out about local historical sites. Go check them out, take a few photos, grab all the promo materials they offer, and sit down and see what inspires you. Maybe there are local sites you can adapt into something new for your campaign world. For example, I live fairly close to a couple of odd little mysteries like Norumbega Tower, Dighton Rock, and “America’s Stonehenge”. The idea of ancient, missing cultures lurked into my world as the “Old Ones”, a group of mysterious entities whose identity has been revealed only fairly recently in the campaign.

I hope this has inspired you to look around you at our world, and find ways to use it to inspire the world you create. Until we meet again, may your eyries receive you at the journey’s end.

[dmsden]

Survive the Night - Using survival horror tropes in D&D

Hullo, Gentle Readers. This week's Question from a Denizen is an an Anonymous one, and they ask, "Hello, I was wondering how you would go beyond simply adding horror elements. Instead, I am interested in having a heavy focus on Survival Horror elements! I have Van Richten's Guide, which I know is a great starting point."

Well, Anonymous, that is a very good starting point, but I will try to offer my own thoughts on the subject.

Survival horror is a genre that can lend itself well to D&D, but you really have to think about how to get that mood injected. One way you can start is by changing the essential formula of D&D's nature. Instead of making the PCs heroes that go out and seek out evil in a relatively normal world, you can create a world (perhaps your own Domain of Dread, should you be so inclined) where evil has more or less already won. Maybe the necromancers already cast their spell, and the world is overun with undead. Maybe this kingdom is patrolled by potent starspawn who walk the lands after the Great Old Ones have already come. Or maybe these forces still work in secret, but anyone could be their agent, adding an element of paranoia to the mix.

For survival horror, I would lean in the direction of making the world feel under siege. Maybe the home village that the PCs live in comes under regular attacks by what I'm going to simply call The Threat. The Threat could be cultists, zombies, aberrations, orcs, a neighboring kingdom, or what have you. In a scenario like this, if the PCs dare to leave the relative safety of their haven, it'll probably have to be for a good reason. Dungeons would still be all kinds of dangerous...possibly more dangerous than a simple night spent fighting The Threat. Obviously gold is not going to be a motivating factor here. Instead, it's more likely that the PCs would go to dungeons to seek lore, weapons, magic-items, or possibly even allies to help them turn back The Threat.

I remember a campaign I played in where we were traveling through a kingdom that had already been conquered by our enemies. We built up a caravan of refugees, guiding them through the dangerous lands to what we hoped was safety. We had to deal with patrols, check-points, potentially being betrayed from within, and the evil hunter-rangers that were pursuing us all the while. It was a nightmare, to be sure, and I will certainly never forget it.

One thing you can do to emphasize the survival horror element is to limit resources. Whether those are coveted material components (especially ones with a gold piece cost); weapons, armor, and ammunition (perhaps using rules for these getting worn-out and increasingly useless); healing magicks (if the Gods aren't granting them, why not, and what can be done to restore them?); or something as simple as food and clean water - limiting things can make a situation seem more dire. It also gives you a great alternative reward in the game to gold. Finding a decanter of endless water in a dungeon is likely as valuable, if not more so, than finding a holy sword, if the land is a parched desert.

One trope of survival horror that's difficult to manage but that is absolutely necessary to leverage is despair. While you don't want things to be completely bleak (as that can be kind of a bummer), the victories that the PCs have should be small, and there should be terrible things happening that they can't stop or fix.

Make them make difficult choices...maybe they have to decide between protecting a small farm community from a full moon zombie rampage and entering the Temple of the Moon at the once in a hundred years moon's height to get the Necklace of Prayer Beads stored there. In a game where the gods are blocked from offering healing magic, a Necklace like that can be an absolute, literal life-saver...so do the PCs retrieve it, thus letting staunch allies be wiped out, or do they turn their backs on it, knowing they need all the allies they can get.

I'm going to recommend two non-D&D sourcebooks that I think handle these kinds of things well. The post-apocalyptic RPG Legacy has a lot of cool things about it, but I particularly like its scarcity system, in which specific items are abstracted into scores of what the PCs have a surplus of or what they lack. If I were looking at a survival horror game, that's what I would look at to handle those mechanics. I also recommend the small book Keeper Tips from Chaosium. Even though this is advice for people running the Call of Cthulhu RPG, it has a series of essays with fantastic tips for maintaining the mood in a horror game. Both boosk are available physically or in PDF format, and both are excellent additions to your gaming library.

Anonymous, I hope this has given you some ideas on how to run survival horror in D&D. I have an idea for a future campaign that might be fairly survival horror in tone, so I might be using this advicem yself before too long. Until our next article, keep ahead of the zombies, and may your crossbow never run out of ammo.

[dmsden]

Monster of the Month - Oni

Hullo, Gentle Readers. Once again, the wonderful month of October is upon us, and I thought I would stir up a cauldron's worth of suitably spooky monster for the season. This time, we look at a creature with its roots in Japanese mythology - the Oni. As always, a big thanks to Scott Fabianek for the delightfully dreadful original artwork of our creepy critter.

Oni have, under the name of "Ogre Mage", been in D&D since the beginning. Even in the art for the 1st edition Monster Manual, is was clear that the monster was supposed to have a Japanese flavoring about it, and it strongly resembled traditional art of Japanese Oni. It was presented as a variation on the ogre, more intelligent, with better weapons and the ability to use magic. As the editions have moved on, the Oni has really moved into its own niche as a stealthy, terrifying creature.

The 5e Oni is a powerful combatant for its challenge rating, with decent hit points and a good damage output. Its weapon attacks are magical, which bypasses things like the barbarian's damage resistance and the stoneskin spell. It has a potent regeneration, as well, although, unlike trolls (for example), it doesn't keep getting up from being reduced to 0 hit points. It also has a fly speed and a potent array of spells, including the ability to cast invisibility and darkness at will. The combination of invisibility and flying with cone of cold would be a particularly damaging way for it to begin a fight, especially if the PCs don't realize what they're dealing with yet...and this brings me to the best way to use oni in your game.

Yes, you can have a fun fight with an oni, but it might be best to use one as a low-level boss and manipulator in your game. With their change shape ability, their very high Deception, their Invisibility, and their ability to cast Charm Person, Oni can weave webs of deceit that could entangle entire villages. They could create multiple identities within the same community, shifting from one to another, even "revealing" that they were Carvess, the Baker, and letting themselves be rooted out of town, when in reality they just murdered Carvess and dumped her down the well a few minutes ago, and their real long-term identity in the community is kindly Brother Argos at the temple.

Oni are constantly hungry, love human flesh, and particularly love the taste of human babies. This should lead to some really terrifying and awful scenarios, as an Oni attempts to get access to its favorite prey. A town with an orphanage is sure to get an Oni's attention, and kindly Brother Argos might volunteer to protect the Orphanage while the adventurers go into the creepy caves to deal with the Oni...

When the Oni is finally discovered, it's unlikely to give the PCs a fair fight. It has invisibility, darkness, and gaseous form to allow it to flee if it doubts its ability to battle the PCs toe to toe. As previously mentioned, the ability to toss a cone of cold into battle, particularly if it can catch the PCs unawares (perhaps while camped for the night), is going to even its odds considerably, possibly putting a previously confident party more on the defensive. The Oni is well-served by a series of hit and run attacks, as its Regeneration can make it essentially fresh to the fight after a minute at most.

With an average 14 Intelligence and 12 Wisdom, Oni can be smart and clever. If they realize the PCs can see them despite their Invisiblity, they will likely begin relying on Darkness instead. If only one can see their Invisible form, they are likely to try and single that one out to remove them from the situation. If desperate, they could try to charm an innocent, putting that innocent in harm's way to force the PCs to make a hard choice in classic supervillain style.

Like normal ogres, oni are fairly likely to work with others in order to further their own goals. They may be the masterminds of a network that's meant to bring them power and access to those they long to devour, such as the innocent. They may provide riches to those in a community willing to serve them, or they may simply employ normal ogres, goblinoids, or orcs like a blunt force weapon to demand what they need. They might even use these others to make it seem like a community is being attacked, then come in as a hero to "drive" the monsters away, gaining them access to the village and the peoples' trust.

On the flip side, Oni are willing to serve suitably powerful masters who can provide them with what they want. I love the idea of the PCs dealing with the machinations of an Oni at low levels, only to defeat the Oni and discover that, all along, the Oni was just the servant of a vile coven of powerful hags...who will be the major villains of the next leg of the campaign.

I hope this article has you in a Halloween mood and ready to put an Oni in your game to horrific effect. And if you thought this month was scary, join us next month when we'll look at a monster from Greek mythology that just might petrify you! Until then, may your neighbors be who they say they are...

[dmsden]

One Chance - Running D&D for new folks as a one shot

Hullo, Gentle Readers. Once again, an Anonymous reader comes to us, with hat in hand, asking for help. They ask, “ So, I’ve been chatting to a coworker about our respective dnd games and long story short now I’m going to be running a one shot for 8 of my coworkers, 7 of which have never played before. How the hell do I do this and make it fun for people? Right now my plan is to make a classic Indiana Jones style dungeon and just let them run around in this closed space. What would you do?”

Well, Any, what you just outlined sounds like pretty good fun. I’m sure you could have a good time just doing that. If you’re asking me what I’d do in such a scenario, these would be my plans:

1. Make sure everyone was fine playing pre-generated characters. I might even start an email chain explaining the types of characters you’re offering to let folks play, and let people talk out what they want to do. If you have the time, you could suggest that the players come up with some flaws, bonds, ideals, and personality traits, just to make the characters more theirs. The reason I recommend this is that it can be very intimidating for a new player to come in and have to make a lot of decisions right off the bat, and creating characters involves a LOT of decisions. It also frees up valuable table time that could be used playing the game.

2. I would also briefly talk to the players about their characters already being established as friends and allies and play up the cooperative nature of things. This tends to prevent someone from deciding to strike out on their own, which can big things down.

3. I would put together a storyline with a defined goal. In the case of the Indiana Jones type story mentioned above, the goal could be, “Locate the dungeon, survive its perils, claim the golden idol, and escape alive with it.” Having a clearcut goal provides directions for the players to follow. When they’re in doubt, they can fall back on this goal to push them forward. If you’re ambitious, maybe each character could also have a subgoal. Just make sure that the players’ goals don’t contradict each other; you don’t want anyone to walk away feeling they lost and someone else won.

4. Put together an adventure that takes into account both the characters your group is playing and D&D’s three pillars.

4a. Make sure there are some fun and interesting combat encounters. Sure, you can fill the dungeon with nothing but orcs, but changing things up adds variety and surprise. Maybe toss in a mimic, stirges, some undead, and some encounters that can be avoided through cleverness or diplomacy.

4b. Make sure your adventure includes chances for social interactions. Maybe one of the orcs seeks out the PCs to parley after the first combat encounter, seeing an opportunity to betray the chief to his advantage. Give the PCs a chance (and a reason) to interrogate a prisoner. Have the evil cleric monologue at them. Have the mimic be one of the intelligent variety and have it bargain with them. Players love to talk to monsters, in my experience, and some characters may consider this their time to shine.

4c. Make sure your adventure has meaningful choices and interesting locales. In any given room with a choice of things to examine or doors to leave by, there should be something to differentiate between them. For example, if there are three doorways, don’t have them identical and featureless. Maybe one them has a briny smell, and the PCs can hear the lapping of ocean waves from it, one smells faintly of decay, and the buzzing of flies it audible, and one smells wet dog and blood, and there are sounds of snarling and growling. The PCs don’t know exactly what’s down each one, but they now have interesting information they can use to inform their decision. This is always preferable to just going down a path arbitrarily, because it doesn’t seem to matter.

4d. Look at the classes, races, and backgrounds the players chose. Are there a lot of martial classes? Make sure there’ll be plenty of chances for fighting. Is there a wizard? Perhaps include a magical puzzle their spells can help with. A cleric and a paladin? Definitely put in some undead. Maybe someone’s playing a dwarf; if the dungeon is an old dwarven ruin, make sure to add some details that they’ll pick up on that the others won’t. If one is a Noble, perhaps put some clues that the evil high priest is being bankrolled by a rival family. These touches will make it all more personal and hopefully interesting to the group.

5. Plan for success, but accept that not everyone will want to keep playing. If you enjoy playing with these folks, maybe you’ll want to propose that you keep playing and expand things into a full campaign. If they’ve had fun, they just might be interested. You have to understand, however, that D&D isn’t for everyone. Some people may simply be being polite in agreeing to play. Or maybe Bob from Marketing just doesn’t get into it and would rather pass on future games. That’s okay. You gave them the chance to play, and, if it’s not their thing, that’s nothing for you to take personally.

I hope this helps, Anonymous. I myself am going to be running for some people who’ve never played before in the near future. I’ll wish us both luck in these games.

[dmsden]

Homebruin - the T’k’chek

Hullo, Gentle Readers. Once again, I’m back with one of the races of my campaign world, Tol, that I’m revamping in line with the way the One D&D playtest is going. I was previously using the very excellent Ratfolk from Kobold Press as the template for this race, but this gives me the opportunity to put my own spin on things, as well as to fit the race into the new format that the game is using going forward.

Thanks for the art this week go to Scufflesrat who commissioned the piece. The artist is @sneakygnida on Twitter.

Whenever possible, I like to put my homebrew materials up on D&D Beyond in order to let people use them, and these folks are no exception. You can find the article at https://www.dndbeyond.com/races/1155988-tkchek

Oh, and it’s pronounced a bit like TUH-kuh-check.

T’k’chek, also known as ratfolk, are a diminutive race of humanoid rodents. They are believed to have originated in Dojhan, and they are extremely rare outside of those lands. Some can be the size of a short human, but many are as small as a gnome. Even the taller ones often seem even shorter, as many have a hunched posture. They have very rat-like snouts, teeth, and ears, bony hands and feet, a covering of fur over most of their body, and long, naked, semi-prehensile tails.  

Because of their rarity, many t’k’chek outside of Dojhan wear baggy clothing, cloaks, and masks to conceal what they are. This is partly because of the ill reputation that were-rats have in the other lands of Tol.  

T’k’chek don’t seem to serve any God, but they often make little shrines to the Primal Spirits, who they believe imbued them with their gifts. They are, by nature, secretive, and they love ferreting out secrets from others. As a result, t’k’chek are excellent information brokers, although they usually trade for new information as often as coin.

T'k'chek Names

T'k'chek do not differentiate between different genders in their naming conventions, choosing syllables that "sound right" for the child. These birthnames are often held as a t'k'chek's favorite secret from outsiders, one to be shared only with those who win their trust and become true friends. Instead, they develop descriptive names like a surname, and these are most often used with non-t'k'chek.

Birthnames: Che'tak, D'bik, H'rik, K'tek, P'rok, Thath'rik

Public Names: Clever, Fastfoot, Greycoat, Longtail, Patch, Scurry, Whiskers, Wisenose, Yelloweye

T'k'chek Traits

Your t'k'chek character has a number of traits in common with all other ratfolk.                                       

Ability Score Increases                

When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one score by 2 and increase a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1. Follow this rule regardless of the method you use to determine the scores, such as rolling or point buy. The “Quick Build” section for your character’s class offers suggestions on which scores to increase. You can follow those suggestions or ignore them, but you can’t raise any of your scores above 20.

Languages                

Your character can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character. The Player’s Handbook offers a list of languages to choose from. The DM is free to modify that list for a campaign.

Creature Type                

You are a Humanoid.

Size                

You range from Small to Medium size, chosen when you create the character.

Speed                

Your base walking speed is 30 feet. You also have a burrowing speed of 10 feet, thanks to your strong jaws and clever fingers.

Darkvision                

Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Labyrinthine Recall                

You can perfectly recall any path you have traveled.

Nimbleness                

You can move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than yours.

Squirm                

You are remarkably dexterous when squeezing through small openings. You are considered one size category smaller for purposes of squeezing through a smaller space. In addition, you have Advantage on skill checks made to escape a Grapple.