Intro So here I am now writing the 3rd piece in what was supposed to be a one-off explanation of a useful game concept. I guess I have more to say about this than I originally thought.Once again we must go back to the first piece in this series wherein I discuss the shift from … Continue reading Running the Sandbox: Finding the Quest
Revisiting the Clockwork Setpiece: Roguelikes
Intro So a little under a year ago I posted This Piece that discussed something called the ‘Clockwork Setpiece’. This is a convenient catch-all terms used to describe things like time loops and other resetting challenges. I’m incredibly proud of that piece. I would say it’s one of my best.I’ve recently re-explored the concept in … Continue reading Revisiting the Clockwork Setpiece: Roguelikes
So You Want To Run A Bank
Intro Alright, it’s time for the last piece in this series. Or at least the last piece for the time being. As always I might revisit this if I find there’s more to say.So far we’ve broken down how currency was actually used in medieval societies and used that as a framework to more realistically … Continue reading So You Want To Run A Bank
Managing Multiple Currencies
Intro It’s time to tackle this tricky topic I first talked about over in This Piece. If you haven’t read that one then it’s not the end of the world, but it is highly related. If you’re reading this piece because you want a better understanding of medieval economics then you’ll find that piece helpful … Continue reading Managing Multiple Currencies
You’re (Probably) Using Currency Wrong
Intro So this has been loosely on my mind for a while. In the endless strive to have my games feel more immersive I’ve started running up against a few problems when it comes to money. You may well have come up against these problems yourself. The PHB’s price lists relative to villager wages are … Continue reading You’re (Probably) Using Currency Wrong
Design Insights: Defining Success
Intro We’re continuing the Design Insights series with a bit of a different topic. It’s one that’s probably more fundamental than the ones we’ve covered off so far, but I wanted to get the other ones out first to set the tone of the series.Anyway, the whole point of this series is to help you … Continue reading Design Insights: Defining Success
Design Insights: Power Budget
Intro We’re continuing to unpack various design concepts to make ourselves better at homebrewing and creating 3rd-party content for D&D 5e. In the last piece I mentioned Power Budgets, so this piece is going to focus on that concept. Before I dive in, this is going to be almost exclusively relevant for designing classes and … Continue reading Design Insights: Power Budget
Running the Sandbox: Overarching Narratives
IntroWell I wasn’t necessarily intending on following up my piece on Reactive vs. Proactive questing in the context of a sandbox campaign, but there was something contained in that piece that I think could stand to be elaborated on.I discuss in that piece how in a sandbox things will tend to start off as Reactive … Continue reading Running the Sandbox: Overarching Narratives
Design Insights: Static Bonuses
Go into any homebrew community and post a non-item brew that gives a +1 bonus to something (like a subclass ability that gives a +1 to saving throws). You will get eaten alive. Why is this?
Running the Sandbox: Reactive vs Proactive Questing
IntroI’ve been thinking about this for a while, and for a good span of time I felt there was a concept missing from the subject I was trying to tackle. Earlier today (at time of writing) MCDM discussed something fundamental about how rewards drive player motivation and suddenly the final piece of this write-up clicked. … Continue reading Running the Sandbox: Reactive vs Proactive Questing
Memory and Longevity: Anomalies NOW LIVE ON PATREON!
Big Loud Link, Click Here to Read I've been promising since the founding of this blog that there would be Patreon-exclusive pieces, and I'm aware some of you then went and backed me on Patreon in anticipation of this content. Well I'm pleased to announce that the first of these pieces is now available! The … Continue reading Memory and Longevity: Anomalies NOW LIVE ON PATREON!
The Three Layers of Storytelling
IntroToday I want to talk about what I would say is one of your most powerful tools as a DM. In order to do that, I need to lay out what I call the Three Layers of Storytelling. I’ll be discussing what these layers are, how they combine to make a cohesive narrative, and how … Continue reading The Three Layers of Storytelling
Memory and Longevity: The Failings of WotC
Intro I have, over the last few months, gone to great lengths discussing the ramifications of having long-lived races in our DnD settings. I’ve discussed how the length of their lifespans influences the cultures they develop. I’ve discussed how to reconcile those different lifespans and cultures into a single cohesive campaign world that doesn’t buckle … Continue reading Memory and Longevity: The Failings of WotC
A Tiny Teaser
So by now the last Runic Language has been released over on Patreon (do check it out if you've missed the releases so far). It's time to post a small teaser of what's in the works... I love this cosmological model of the elemental planes. I grabbed it from an old 2e supplement and commissioned … Continue reading A Tiny Teaser
Memory and Longevity: Half-Elves
Intro We have been discussing the long-lived races of the D&D multiverse. They bring with them a fundamental challenge of reconciling the length of their lives with the need for a timescale approachable to our mere human selves, both narratively and historically.We have used the anchoring concept of memory, its limitations, and how those limitations … Continue reading Memory and Longevity: Half-Elves
Ready-To-Use Backgrounds
I have a pretty simple post for today. This is a bunch of backgrounds that I've developed for my campaigns. You may find them useful for your own games, flavour permitting. They're relatively setting-agnostic, but some may not be suitable for certain settings (such as Apprentice Golem Smith). The backgrounds are, in alphabetical order: - … Continue reading Ready-To-Use Backgrounds
Memory and Longevity: Halflings
Intro The long-lived races of the D&D multiverse create a number of worldbuilding challenges and over the course of this series I’ve sought to address some of those challenges using the unifying concept of memory. We’ve discussed Dwarves, who pursue a multitude of masteries, Elves, who carefully manage their memory, and Gnomes, who seek a … Continue reading Memory and Longevity: Halflings
Making Underdark Encounters
Intro So this is a direct follow-up to This piece that discussed the ecology of the Underdark. The main takeaway from it is that the Underdark as an environment favours ambush predators as the dominant species. This piece will discuss how that informs encounter design when running adventures in the Underdark. To Catch A Predator … Continue reading Making Underdark Encounters
Memory and Longevity: Gnomes
Intro Today we continue the discussion on how to reconcile long-lived races with the desire to have realistic worldbuilding and roleplaying in our D&D games. There are many challenges presented to us as DMs wishing to create robust settings when one must include in them races that live for hundreds of years at a time, … Continue reading Memory and Longevity: Gnomes
Memory and Longevity: Elves
Intro We’re examining the longer-lived races of D&D and discussing exactly how to make sense of their lifespans in the context of a world that we as humans seek to navigate. Having fully sapient beings with lifespans of hundreds of years is challenging to handle from a worldbuilding and roleplaying perspective.I maintain that there is … Continue reading Memory and Longevity: Elves
Apothecary Press 