Fatigue Failure

Playing tabletop role-playing games is a surprisingly exhaustive experience.  Just as driving during a long road trip, constantly being mentally attentive puts a hit on the energy reserves.  When participants are not rested, irregardless of adventure prep, the session is set to be frustrating.

Daily Dram: The Silver Sea

The warm wind blew across the tops of the aspen making their silver leaves shimmer in the sun.  It continues eastward, flowing over the hundreds of miles of forest and up into the Helzoun Mountains where it finally loses all warmth and life. 

Daily Dram: Hael Thornweaver

His hands had slight tremble.  Hael shook them trying to stay relaxed for the final portion the trial.  He had to strike five of the seven targets with only three castings of Stinging Nettles.  What made it worse was that the targets would be moving to simulate an actual battlefield, thanks to Captain Thandrin Ulim's magic.  Hael stepped into the training ring determined to earn the wings of Owl Corps

Daily Dram: Bee Stings

Hael Thornweaver stood among the aspen, surveying the goblins encamped in the clearing.  This latest foray of the Split-tongue clan would be turned back, as always.  With the signal given, Hael and the others of his order began sending needles streaking from their fingertips.  By the time the sides joined in melee, the goblins had their numbers reduced by almost a third.

Swelling, fading, and never was.

Flavia was thrilled.  The decision to travel to northwestern shore and build a tower there had proved correct. Every day she was making new discoveries in transforming materials. There was no telling how deep this convergence pool went.

Wonder of wonders. The light from the lantern spilled out across the dusty armory with glittering pricks of reflection. The tunnel Benth had discovered while exploring the ruins in the South Wood apparently had belonged to some long dead kingdom. Where else could such marvelous items of workmanship come from?

Gwyneth's hands quickly snapped up, nocking an arrow.  The band of brigands she was hunting were returning to farmstead they previously pillaged.  It wasn't her problem to fix, but when she would arrive at Lord Winston's home with an extra four scalps, there would definitely be an extra pouch of coin in thanks. Coin she needed since her horse had just been stolen in Shandon.

...

In trying to think about MW, I cant seem to decide on which direction magic is going.  Everything I think of seems derivative or cliche; it is too like Tolkien, or Jordan, or Gaiman. I want to have a world where not only no / low magic campaigns and adventures could take place, but also high magic.
My first thought was to have them to be time shifted along a spectrum, but then is that increasing, decreasing, or even cyclic in magical properties.

Currently I am toying with a cyclic plan, with the cycle to be too far beyond the generations of men to properly recall the time of high magic or prepare for the time of none. Nonhuman peoples perhaps do know of the cycles in better terms due to much longer lifespans, but keep this knowledge withheld. Magic must be earned so that the proper respect is given to it.  As magic is used, pools of it drain. When they dry, people cease and forget, allowing time for the pools to refill and replenish.

The Concentration of Magic

Henrik raised his hand to his eyes to try to give shade to them.  For the last several minutes, the air had a brightness and haze to it that belonged on a summer's midday, not the wet and chill spring morning they were enduring.  Indeed, it felt as if they were at sea as the prairie's grasses undulated around them.  And just as at sea, they kept their eyes up searching for a tower that might provide the guidance that would save their lives.... 

Daily Dram: Lansig Marble

A tale of caution concerning a fate much worse than quicksand...

Daily Dram: Elma's Crook

A tale of the shepherd's crook used by a human shepherd near the Greyspine Mountains...

Daily Dram: Elma Driviner

Among a copse of trees below the Greyspine mountains, there is a stone house with wisps of smoke snaking upwards. It is the home of Elma Driviner...

Daily Dram: Stone Speaker

Among the dwarves of the Grayspine Mountains, some are called to be Stone Speakers. These clerics tend to the spiritual needs of not only their clan, but also the Mountain itself...

Daily Dram: Krojen

If you travel to the foothills of the Greyspine Mountains, those that live there will tell you stories of stone wolves that stalk the mountain forests...

Level 0 Attempt #2 Guidelines

Here is a link to my latest idea of how I hope to run a better "Level 0" session in the future.

I would hope to follow the idea that user famoushippopotamus suggests the next time the opportunity for individual "Level 0" sessions presents itself.  At the end of the "Catalyst" segment, I would figure that would be the Minor Adventure segment.

Lessons in "Level 0" Sessions

Due to the absence of a few players I chose to try a “Level 0” adventure based in the same town as the main story and heroes.  I enjoy roleplaying and often the best experiences come from the situations with the least rules.  Players having to imagine and be creative are preferred to players who look at a sheet of paper for their two or five word answer to a problem.  By limiting what is written on that sheet of paper, I hoped to encourage players who could engage themselves and not rely on me or the system to get them to “buy in”.

Magic Items Found While in Krezk

Holy Symbol of Ravenkind

Wonderous item, legendary

Attunement

A cleric or paladin of good alignment

Material

Platinum and Crystal

Weight

4 lb.

Cost

10,000 gp

The Holy Symbol of Ravenkind is a unique holy symbol sacred to the good-hearted faithful of Barovia. It predates the establishment of any church in Barovia and, according to legend, was delivered to a paladin named Lugdana by a giant raven--or an angel in the form of a giant raven. Lugdana used the holy symbol to root out and destroy nests of vampires until her death. The high priests of Ravenloft kept and wore the holy symbol after Lugdana's passing.

The holy symbol is a platinum amulet shaped like the sun, with a large crystal embedded in its center. Around the symbol are inscribed symbols of light and truth.

Charges.

The symbol holds 10 charges for the following properties, regaining 1d6+4 daily at dawn.

Hold Vampires.

You can expend 1 charge to make the holy symbol flare with holy power. Vampires and vampire spawn within 30 feet of the holy symbol when it flares must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, a target is paralyzed. It can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns to end the effect on it.

Turn or Destroy Undead.

You can expend 3 charges when you preset the holy symbol while using the Turn Undead or Destroy Undead feature. When you do, undead have disadvantage on their saving throws against the effect.

Sunlight.

You can expend 5 charges to make the holy symbol shed bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet. The light is sunlight and lasts for 10 minutes or until you end the effect (no action required).

The Martyr of Krezk

Magical Greatclub, rare

Attunement

Spend at least a short rest in meditation with the item, and agreeing to the charge.

Properties

Simple, Two-handed, +2 Magical

Material

Gold, blue and red gems, and steel

Weight

10 lb.

Cost

5,000 gp

The Martyr of Krezk is a heavy 5 foot tall acolyte candle. It has a golden base and column, decorated with blue and red gems. At the top is a large polished steel receptacle for a candle or incense. The candle was blessed by Saint Martikova at her Abbey and used in ceremonies by her chief acolyte. Part of the blessing that her god imparted to the wielder was upon the contract to take the life of another living creature--no matter how vile, no matter if their own life is on the line.

Should a living creature the wielder attacked die from direct action of the wielder or the wielder's allies, the wielder takes the damage as well, and bears the scars of such trauma for life. They can only be removed with divine intervention.

It is to be noted that the stipulation is against living creatures, and not binding when confronting undead.

Damage.

1d8+2 bludgeoning (+2 fire damage if alight)

Flaming Beacon. 3/Day

As an action, you may utter a prayer to the Morninglord to cause a flame to erupt from the end of the candle. This flame will burn for 10 minutes, shedding bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet.

5e SRD-OGL RELEASED!

Great News Everyone!

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/dungeon-masters-guild-now-open

Say yes to the Runes, no to the Prestige

As I explained previously, I do not agree with the introduction of prestige classes in the 5th Edition system.  The added complexity of a prestige class with the various requirements that make character creation builds that must be anticipated from level 1 is something that I would want to avoid in the 5th Edition system.

Here is my specific analysis of the Rune Magic and Rune Scribe Unearthed Arcana, with a proposition of how to change such a great magic and class concept into working with the existing 5th Edition system.  Specifically, I believe this class would function exceptionally as an Archetype of the Wizard class, as well as additional Feats for other Wizards or those who do not wish to multiclass.

Just say NO! to Prestige Classes in 5th Edition.

This week WotC released another Unearthed Arcana with the subject of Rune Magic and specifically, the Rune Scribe as a prestige class (PDF).

My initial reaction was shock and disbelief that they would actually bring up the concept of prestige classes returning to 5th Edition.  Prior to the release of 5th Edition, during the play test, I had heard explanations of the overall design philosophy was to learn from the problems of the past editions and not to repeat them.  One of these problems that were named was the "Bloat" from 3.x Editions that particularly arose from prestige classes.  The amount of numerous book surfing, and extensive planning necessary for character progression really took away the organic character development that followed the story of the campaign.  The solution that was presented in 5th Edition was the "Archetype" system.  Having a single class, but multiple iterations that branched upward and outward.  This system allowed for simple progression and minimized the chaos of "Frankenstein-ing"multiple classes to get a unique character concept.  Also the updating of Feats to become fewer but MUCH strong and flavorful allowed for the unique crafting of numerous characters all within a single class structure.

Part of the original "restrictions" were RP based "must find object/teacher" but were mostly ignored by the players and thus guiltily pressure the DM to not deny them the character that they want to build, thus making the DM have to build all the requirements needed for this player into the story.  I'm not one to say the DM is an dictator, I subscribe to the "co-storyteller" school of thought, but at the end of the day, it is the DM that shoulders main onus in this situation.  Also there is the party parity concern that players who have access to more books/sources have the potential to skew the power balance among the others.  Finally, the greatest burden is placed on the developers because suddenly balancing has opened Pandora's Box.  Every future class will have to be balanced with every other possible combination.  Every prestige class that is built for a class, race, skill, country, will then have to be given equivalents for every other class, race, skill, and country.  All having to be attempted to balanced.  It is a VERY dangerous spiral of side effects.  The current answer provided to players of the game is to place such unique design requests in the hands of the DM and let them work in tandem with their player(s) to craft exactly what they want in that specific microcosm.  This allows for a simple solution to DM, player, developer, with all being happy.

With all that being said, the Rune Magic system and class concept is very interesting to me and I will attempt to take this information and present it as an option without worrying about the stigma or plethora of problems that prestige classes present.

Double or Nothing

The smell of bacon wafting up the stairs woke me instantly. Walking over to the water basin I splashed water on the face and looked into the mirror. I always had a good looking face. Thank Tymora for letting me keep it that way.

Boots of the Many Paths

A tale of the boots worn by a gnome ranger in the Icewind Dale region...

Boots of Seldarine's Hand

A tale of boots that can sometimes be found still in the Icewind Dale region...