Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
I’ve got exciting news to share this week, as well as some recommendations, so read on and don’t keep yourself waiting!
What to read?
How I wish I had more time to read all the stuff that gets published everyday! Lately I’ve been able to read some during my daily commute, which is great. I will try and share articles that caught my interest.
First there’s a dungeon cluster by Dnalor the Troll – The Lich’s Harem. Dnalor’s contribution to the dungeon clustering can be a nice “change of pace” in combat-oriented dungeons, with its plenty of social encounters. The descriptions set the mood nicely, and I’m eager to read about the connected cluster mentioned in the article.
I stumbled upon Bruce Wright’s, aka the Crafter DM’s article on the current state of D&D maps titled Has D&D Beyond Maps ruined D&D maps?, where he raises several interesting points. I won’t spoil the article, you should go read it on his site. There are several points made by Bruce that I’ve felt as well for some time, but couldn’t (or couldn’t be bothered to) put into words. A lot of the maps being published now are a completely different thing than what a map should be. And I have to agree with Bruce on the culprit. Go read it for yourselves!
There’s also an article by The Grognard’s Almanac on the fighter class titled Is the Fighter Really Boring? A Tour of OSR Fighter Design. The author explores the notion of “fixing” the fighter, and analyses the approaches of other theorists. Again you should read the post to see his reasonings and conclusions. I’ll just add my two cents. Now there’s a few things I have to state. I didn’t visit any of the links presented and only read Grognard’s summaries. The second thing is that OSR isn’t really my main thing. I can see the appeal of Mörk Borg and its clones, but I belong to the “trad tribe”. However I’ve never seen fighter as a boring class, and it’s not really because of the class itself. I believe that classes are fine as far as the mechanics are concerned, but they’re not what makes the game interesting. You can have an interesting character with the most basic fighter class, and a bland character of a special snowflake homebrew class. And I say this as someone who is intent on writing classes and subclasses for D&D. I guess I should write an article about this, because I might sound confused and this is not the best space to go into too much detail. However, if you’re interested in different takes on the “fixing” of the fighter, go have a look at the Grognard’s Almanac.
#MÖRKTOBER
It seems there’s an endless supply of challenges, jams, and similar events everywhere. MÖRKTOBER by Exeunt Press is *the* Mörk Borg event, and this is my third year. I never finished all the daily prompts, and this year won’t be different. But it’s a nice exercise in creativity, and I’ll surely do at least some of the prompts this year. Below are the ones I scratched on paper during lunch breaks so far.
Last year I based my entries on the Mörk Borg hack I’ve been planning to make, Purk. That project is temporarily on hold, as it’s not really a priority for me. If you’re curious, you can see a small glimpse of what Purk was supposed to be by searching for #PurkRPG on Bluesky.
This year I’m leaning towards the intended Mörk Borg grimdark feel. It’s got more leeway than the very narrow niche I’ve carved for Purk. I will probably post the more interesting MÖRKTOBER stuff I make in these weekly updates.
Kithkin Guide
As you probably know, I write quite a lot about the MtG plane of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor. You might have also noticed I wasn’t very satisfied with the official D&D supplement Lorwyn: First Light. To sum it up, it didn’t offer much. I have started writing articles in which I predicted how it will look like almost a year before First Light came out, and will continue to do so. To make up for the lackluster official supplement I also write How To guides for people who want to play a D&D campaign in Lorwyn-Shadowmoor.
After a general guide to playing a game on the plane I’ve now published a kithkin-specific guide. In the article I explore the various options you have regarding the chosen period, or discuss the themes and genres that go well with kithkin. There are also bits on the mechanics part of playing a kithkin, so if you wondered how to translate thoughtweft from the lore into D&D rules, why don’t you check out my solution?
I would like to work on flamekin next, and I’m still wondering how I should go at it. Since the supplement is already out, there’s no need for predictive articles. I could do articles similar to the ones I did on kithkin and merrows, and then write a guide to actually playing the flamekin. If you have any thoughts on this, I’ll be glad to read them in the comments!
College of the Beast Within
I have published another subclass for 5e D&D, this time for the bard. This time it’s not not themed around technologically advanced invaders, as with my previous ranger and barbarian subclasses. It has a more fantasy/mythic flavour, and comes with subtle hints of the expected setting. It is perfectly setting neutral, though.
The College of the Beast Within is a combat-oriented bard college, one that favours brute strength and direct approach over flourish or finesse. You can create a rowdy mythical warrior poet, a savage rockstar-type extrovert, or any kind of tribal hero with a different than usual set of abilities.
You can get it at your favourite TTRPG outlet, including, but not limited to RPG Trader. Links to other platforms are are at the end of this section.
I have opted to make the College of the Beast Within paid, though it has a symbolic price of $1. The reason is simple – I’ve commissioned an artist, Kauã da Silva, to make the titular art. I’m not getting rich this way, but I would like to break even eventually, so I can commission more art for my next projects. It’s also a measure of interest in the subclass.
Included in the document is a sample 8th-level NPC, and six unique wondrous items that fit the theme, but can be used regardless of whether there’s a Beast Within bard in your game.
If you want to play a bard who takes a more direct approach to both combat and social encounters, give it a try!
Here are all the links:
- RPG Trader
- Itch.io
- Ko-fi
- DriveThruRPG in progress!
Video Game Shorts
There was this trend where everyone posted their nine games that “make them.” It’s not easy picking only nine, when many games had an impact on you. But I tried and came up with these nine:
It might seem like I stopped playing video games in the early 00’s, but that’s the period when the games were made differently. Dwarf Fortress is the newest on my list, I started playing in 2011.
Every single game on this list has something that I consciously or unconsciously integrated into my work. I wish I had the time to write an article about each of them, analyzing what can be applied to TTRPGs and storytelling. But time is precious and I don’t want to concentrate on video games that much. There will be times some of these will be mentioned in other articles, though.
Summary
It seems I might have provided more links and reading material than I usually do, and you’re welcome. The articles are thought-provoking and surely worth a few minutes of your time. There’s also a new playable bard subclass for a paltry sum of one dollar for you to get at the outlet of your choice.
If you decide to try out the College of the Beast Within bard, I would love to hear your thoughts!
As always thanks for reading this far, and don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already!