Tag: dungeons and dragons

How To Play: Kithkin of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

This article is a part of a How-To series aimed at both players and DMs (or whatever equivalent works for you). You will find role-playing, worldbuilding, and storytelling tips for you to make the most of the kind of game you’d like to play.

If you’re only here to see whether there are game mechanics you can use directly, I’ll save you the time and send you right to the mechanics section.

Last time I presented a quickstart general guide to the setting with its various special features. This article will concentrate on one of the tribes of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor, the kithkin. These stocky humanoids are either the plane’s most hospitable all-around good guys, or its furtive distrusting weird little hairless ewoks. It all depends on which aspect of the plane we’re talking about, and to some extent the time period.

Endure card art by Ralph Horsley depicting a bunch of tough-as-nails Shadowmoor kithkin. All rights reserved to Wizards of the Coast and/or other respective owners.

Before we get started I strongly suggest you do some reading both from official sources and this site. The summaries for each aspect of the kithkin – Lorwyn, Shadowmoor, and Eclipsed (the present-day state of the plane, after the fusing of its aspects) – are a good way to start. You can find a list of resources at the end of this article. To keep yourself informed of any further articles please subscribe using the form below:

Contents

  1. Period
  2. Game length
  3. Party setup
  4. Genre and Themes
  5. Mechanics

1. Period

Let’s get this figured out first. When will your game take place? The period will determine a lot, both on the general level and regarding each tribe. We can divide the known history of the plane into the following periods:

  1. Pre-Maralen
  2. Old blocks
    1. Lorwyn block
    2. Shadowmoor block
  3. Post-Oona
    1. pre-Invasion
    2. Phyrexian invasion
    3. post-Invasion (=Eclipsed set)

The time before the Lorwyn block is to a large extent carte blanche. You should adhere to the general principles and laws of the plane, but otherwise you can put a lot of your own stuff into the game. Just don’t mess too much with the balance of the plane (and Oona). Great Auroras happen every 300 years and at any given time only one aspect, Lorwyn or Shadowmoor, is present.

If you choose to play during either of the original blocks, you should take the story into account, but you should be okay running a parallel storyline. Which block you choose makes all the difference, as Lorwyn and Shadowmoor are exact opposites. Characters, kithkin included, will differ dramatically between aspects. Some options will simply not make sense, or be available at all. A game in Oona’s time is actually more true to the original idea of a dual plane with only one aspect active. Is this a plus? That depends. All of the periods have their pros and cons.

Post-Oona the plane goes through some tough stuff, with the Phyrexian invasion of course the worst of it all. The Invasion changed the plane most dramatically, and for the kithkin it means there’s a third subspecies available, the nomads. Also things can get complicated when there are both aspects present at once. Lorwyn kithkin can interact with Shadowmoor kithkin (the latter not very willingly), and players should be ready to have their characters flip into the other aspect, should they go into the wrong part of the plane.

2. Game length

Do you want to run a one-shot, a single adventure, or a sprawling campaign over months of game time and years of real time? Kithkin are a good choice for all of those, because they are easily understood and relatable. Sure, they have thoughtweft and all, but they are still the most humanlike.

With kithkin you should be aware of one thing, and that’s their communality. Kithkin will have lots of relatives, acquaintances, friends, and kinsmen. For a one-shot you probably won’t have to think too much about it. In a longer campaign this might require work both on the player’s and dungeon master’s side. If you want to do it by the book. Which I assume you do, because you’re reading this guide.

3. Party setup

You have a lot of options regarding your party composition, when it comes to kithkin. It of course depends on the era and the aspect you have available, or are aiming to focus on. Your choices include:

  1. All kithkin – the default for Shadowmoor, viable in other eras/aspects, but you’re missing out on the diversity of the plane’s species
  2. Mixed natives with Lorwyn kithkin (or nomads) – the most traditional party setup
  3. Mixed natives and outsiders – possible for later eras, when travel to the plane from other planes gets easier

These three main options leave a lot of space to manoeuvre in. The only restrictive option is a Shadowmoor all-kithkin party, where you probably wouldn’t be able to pull off any deviations. Maybe having a gwyllion join could work, but it’s not easy with the little xenophobes.

A Lorwyn aspected party should be easier to play with, regardless of the party composition. It might get more complicated if you include outsiders (characters from other planes), but that really depends on what you bring.

Whatever the rest of the party consists of, as long as you have at least two kithkin, keep in mind they have the thoughtweft. The original supplement doesn’t provide any guidelines how to handle this, so you have to either improvise, or take some inspiration in my thoughtweft solution a few paragraphs below.

4. Genre and Themes

What genres go well with kithkin?

Kithkin, especially in their Lorwyn aspect, fit nicely into most genres. You can have your classic heroic fantasy, but also stuff like crime and mystery, or even some war epic. If you set your game in the time of the Phyrexian invasion, you’ve got yourself a solid base for a horror game.

Shadowmoor kithkin are special in their paranoia, and so lend themselves especially well to horror games. Imagine a game where something haunts the doun, or stalks your all-kithkin party through the forest. You can play it nicely with the horror in question being a bunch of mischievous fairies, or a particularly playful elemental incarnation.

What themes to include?

As for themes to explore with kithkin, there are few as pronounced as community and belonging. The kithkin are very communal, and they take it to eleven in Shadowmoor. So to portray them right you should have this in mind all the time. The kithkin know each other, and probably have ties of varying warmth with everyone in their clachan or doun. A strong motivation for a kithkin character should be the well-being of their friends, and in better periods this might include members of other species.

Figure of Fable card art by Omar Rayyan depicting a kithkin farmer, and kithkin heroes from both Lorwyn and Shadowmoor. All rights reserved to Wizards of the Coast and/or other respective owners.

Shadowmoor kithkin have to be special again, because they have one additional theme to include, and that is fear. Fear of outsiders, in particular. They view the world in a very insular way, and this makes them very specific in a setting where everyone else interacts. They are very focused on their doun, but there’s not warmth inside their communities. There never is, when the members are gripped with fear and paranoia all the time. Doun above all, but the bonds are harsh and cold.

Regardless of the aspect of your kithkin, there are strong bucolic and rural motifs interwoven into all kithkin. The clachans/douns are canonically the size of really small villages, and the kithkin spend much of their time tending crops and caring for animals. Sure, that’s true for a lot of pre-industrial societies, but in Lorwyn-Shadowmoor kithkin are *the* rustic guys.

Last but not least, we have the kithkin nomads. I have only touched them lightly so far, but they are are not to be omitted. You will encounter nomads only in post-invasion era, i.e. if you’d like to bring Eclipsed to the table. As we know, the nomads are kithkin that severed their connection to the thoughtweft. This must come with a great sense of loss, even if it was to escape the horrors of the invasion. You could and should make use of this in your game, because the nomads aren’t to be simply “clanless” kithkin. They’re the ones who chose to lose their sense of belonging and identity to escape the shared pain.

6. Mechanics

We finally get to the part that you might’ve been waiting for the whole time. How to use kithkin in your D&D game. Sadly the official supplement doesn’t provide much. Or let’s rather say that the solution provided is really bland. But I won’t be reinventing the wheel, so we take the base halfling species and spice it up with some Lorwyn. Or Shadowmoor.

Surge of Thoughtweft card art by Randy Gallegos depicting a group of charging Lorwyn kithkin. All rights reserved to Wizards of the Coast and/or other respective owners.

Lorwyn kithkin

For a Lorwyn kithkin create a small-sized character with ability score increases Dexterity +2 and Charisma +1, basic speed 25 feet. Make them Brave and Nimble, same as a vanilla halfling. Ditch the rest of the traits, because we’re getting thoughtweft.

Thoughtweft lets you feel intense emotions of any kithkin within a mile. You don’t know the location of the kithkin you feel, but you know whether it’s someone close to you (and who). Like a parent, child, sibling.

You can send and receive short sentence (three to four word) messages to and from kithkin within 30 feet of yourself. It is as if speaking out loud, so you can’t send and speak at the same time.

You also gain the Kithkin Ambidexterity trait. As long as there’s another kithkin within a mile of yourself, you get the Dual Wielder feat.

Keep Out card art by Ron Spencer depicting a group of determined Shadowmoor kithkin guarding their doun. All rights reserved to Wizards of the Coast and/or other respective owners.

Shadowmoor kithkin

To create a Shadowmoor kithkin, you will make a small-sized character with ability score increases Dexterity +2 and Wisdom +1, basic speed of 25 feet. You still get the Nimble trait, but you won’t get the Brave trait. Instead you receive 60 feet Darkvision, and mindweft.

Mindweft works as thoughtweft on steroids. You still sense intense emotions of other kithkin in a one mile radius. You can send and receive messages to and from any kithkin within 30 feet, and for members of your doun the range is 100 feet.

You can also use the Help action to aid any kithkin within range (30/100 feet) for a number of times equalling your proficiency bonus each day. In combat this could mean sending information about the enemy from a different perspective, revealing their weak spots. Outside combat you’re like a phone-a-friend.

Shadowmoor kithkin also receive the Kithkin Ambidexterity trait, giving them the Dual Wielder feat whenever they’re within a mile of another kithkin.

Protective Response card art by Gustavo Pelissari depicting a group of kithkin nomads. All rights reserved to Wizards of the Coast and/or other respective owners.

Kithkin nomads

Nomads are also small-sized creatures, and for ability score increase get to choose between Charisma and Wisdom for the +1 bonus. They get the Dexterity +2 as well, and their speed is 25 feet. The rest of the traits depends on the aspect they find themselves in. In Lorwyn they get Brave and Nimble, while in Shadowmoor they retain Nimble and get Darkvision 60 feet.

The nomads severed themselves from the connection with other kithkin. Therefore they have neither Thoughtweft nor Mindweft, and they also lose the Kithkin Ambidexterity trait.

What they get instead is the Closed Off trait, which gives them resistance to psychic damage, and advantage on saving throws against being charmed.

Kithkin nomads, being On the Move most of the time, also receive proficiency in survival.

Aspect Changes

As you all probably know by now, there are two aspects to the plane Lorwyn-Shadowmoor. For most of the plane’s history one has been dominant, but after Oona’s defeat, the aspects can shift and their affected regions migrate.

If you decide to play in such a period and happen to cross into the opposite aspect, native characters change, unless they have the necessary relics to stay in their own aspects. The characters remember nothing of their time in the other aspect, and their personalities change as well. You should have this in mind and prepare at least a rough outline of what would your character be like in the opposite aspect.

Mechanically I would handle it like this: your character retains all of their ability scores, proficiencies, class features, etc. What changes are the character traits. So a Lorwyn kithkin undergoing Eventide would lose the Brave trait, gain Darkvision, and replace Thoughtweft with Mindweft. And vice versa.

Conclusion

There you have it, my guide to playing the kithkin of the dual plane Lorwyn-Shadowmoor. I’ve touched both the fluff and the mechanics, and I believe the guide would help you create a fun and lore-friendly character. If you have any questions you’re welcome to write them in the comments section. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you should consider subscribing, because this is not the last of my Lorwyn-Shadowmoor How To Play articles.

The card illustrations were obtained on Scryfall and all rights to them are reserved to Wizards of the Coast and/or other respective owners.

The author is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast or any other party mentioned in the text.

[Dungeon Cluster] Halls of the Crackling Pack

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

This is my contribution to the “Dungeon Clustering” presented in the Dungeon Cluster article by Seba from Kritischer Fehlschlag. Go see the article for details, I’ll just summarize it here. As I understand it, the cluster approach to dungeons makes you think of the dungeon as a series of clusters you can mix and match. Within their depth, or dungeon level. Each cluster occupies several rooms and represents a logical unit.

The mix and match possibility is fine for when you need to put together a dungeon in a hurry. You can open your cluster library, pick some, and play. The other benefit is that clusters make you look at your dungeon in terms of larger areas, that make sense internally. The next step is to make them make sense within the dungeon as a whole, and it should be easier when you have the clusters worked out.

The guys at Kritischer Fehlshlag presented a great opportunity to practice creating a dungeon, so naturally I want to take part. Below is a cluster I’ve made for the purpose of this exercise. I wanted to adapt something I’ve already made, but it’s probably better to start anew. Since I am not familiar with Swords & Wizardry, the system preferred in Kritischer Fehlschlag for this exercise, I will write system-neutral.

The Halls of the Crackling Pack

How the pack feels about your party.
Public Domain image by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Cluster Description

The Crackling Pack is a group of gnolls that went exploring the lower levels of the dungeon and never came back up. One or two at a time were recruited by the pack leader, Frath, who has made a pact with a powerful elemental imprisoned below. The pack keeps their presence a secret from those on the upper levels, especially from other gnolls.

How dangerous is this Cluster? (How deep in the Dungeon?)

The Crackling Pack is a formidable group of experienced gnoll warriors and scouts, many of whom are also adept at magic. As foes they would prove quite a challenge. They reside in the mid-level of the dungeon. 

Who lives in this Cluster?

Gnolls, forgotten by the mixed horde of orcs, gnolls, minotaurs, and others, that live in the upper levels. They were the ones who survived the defeat of the horde due to getting lost in the dungeons. When they finally got to the upper levels, they found the remainder of their kin in a desolate state. With mainly the young and wounded among the survivors, the gnoll tribe lost its standing within the remnants of the horde. The Crackling Pack decided to stay in the deeper levels and pull the strings of their brethren above, while maintaining a foothold in the mid-levels.

Who is the leader?

Frath, a cunning and resourceful one-eyed gnoll. He’s one of the initial scouting party that got lost down below, only to have found the prison of the Elemental Lord of Storm. Frath made a pact with the elemental and received powers that enable him to survive and thrive in the dangerous environment of the dungeon. He approaches the scouts from above and recruits them to his cause. To this end he also utilizes a trinket enabling him to contact the leader of the above gnolls. Froth keeps his identity hidden, acting as a mysterious entity.

How many inhabitants are there?

The Crackling Pack counts 15 members, including Frath. All of them are combatants, most with experience as scouts or warriors. Six gnolls other than Frath have magic capabilities.

What does this faction desire (Want)?

Frath wants to build a stronghold in the mid-levels for his gnolls to live in. Eventually he wants to approach those left closer to the surface and offer them to come below. To strenghten their position Frath sends his gnolls to search for potent artifacts in the dungeons.

The members of the Crackling Pack want a place to call their home and rebuild the strength their tribe once posessed. Individually they might desire riches, the thrill of fight and exploration, and even revenge against the ones who doomed their tribe in the war (in my setting the dwarves).

What does the faction guard (Resource)?

The gnolls have taken over an ancient dwarven outpost that provides them with an easily defendable position, as well as access to the lower levels. They guard the crystal containing the Elemental Lord of Storm because of the power it gives them. They also have several magical items found in the dungeon.

What do the inhabitants eat?

There is plenty food to be found roaming the untamed mid levels, and the gnolls have the power to hunt most of the unintelligent (and sometimes even sapient) life of the mid levels for food.

Which rooms do they occupy?

[UPDATE 29/09/2026: Added map of the cluster]

Map of the Halls of the Crackling Pack. Made using Dungeon Scrawl, with some assets by Daniel F. Walthall/ Axebane Games (CC BY NC 4.0).

1. Crinoid Hall

A large hall cut into the natural cavern entered through a large intricately carved stone portal resembling the interwoven arms of a crinoid. The hall is mostly empty except for the everpresent rubble, and several pillars carved out of the bedrock. Another, smaller and less ornate portal leads to the dwarven outpost. It is closed by a sturdy stone gate. Concealed arrowslits from other rooms can be found if the wall is carefully examined.

2. Outpost Bailey

The stone portal opens to a medium-sized rectangular room. Several doors lead from the bailey to parts of the outpost. Low barricades meant to slow attackers are placed strategically. There are alcoves with arrowslits leading to the hall outside. The surrounding walls also feature arrowslits to shoot from the rooms of the outpost.

3. Mess Hall

The door opposite the main gate leads to a hall furnished with stone tables and benches. The gnolls use it as their main meeting area, and any dealings with them will probably take place here. The large crystal containing the Elemental Lord of Storm sits in the middle of the hall, fused to the floor.

4. Froth’s Study

A room behind the mess hall taken by Froth. It lacks any comfort, but is filled with various artifacts and trinkets, inscribed tablets, bones and skulls, and other occult clutter. Many of the items are worthless, or at least damaged or discharged. Froth spends a lot of time in his study, but not exclusively.

5. Sleeping Quarters

The left door from the bailey opens into a dormitory that’s been converted into a gnoll den. There is no furniture, and there are nests of moss, fur, hides, and other soft bedding everywhere.

6. Descending Stairwell

The right bailey door leads to a stairwell leading one level below. In addition to the outer door there is also a metal grate, and another stone door opened from the outpost.

What does the cluster smell like, and what’s the lighting like?

The gnoll enclave smells like wet dog and stale piss. The gnolls are not keen on hygiene, and while they don’t relieve themselves in the the living quarters, they don’t bathe. A heavy smell of ozone lingers in Froth’s quarters and around the elemental.

Without a need for light the majority of the caves is only lit when the gnolls light a campfire, otherwise it’s dark. Froth uses magical light when researching, and the crystal with the Elemental Lord of Storm gives a faint glow, that grows brighter when approached.

Pressing problem of the faction

The mid levels are not without competition, and several other factions keep looking for ways to get into the gnoll compound. There is also a group of scouts missing after being sent to a lower level.

Internal conflict withing the faction

Froth commands respect and loyalty from his pack. Unless he shows weakness (e.g. not finding the missing scouts), no one will challenge him. If there’s any kind of considerable failure on his part, at least one warrior and one magic user will openly challenge his leadership. Gnolls being gnolls, discussion could quicky turn to violence.

Do residents often leave the cluster?

Hunting parties leave daily, and dungeon explorers every now and then. The gnolls take care not to be noticed by the denizens of the upper levels, and prefer to roam the mid and low levels instead, as far as danger permits.

Behaviour towards adventurers outside the cluster

Depending on the perceived power of the party they might attack or avoid them. The gnolls will not initiate non-violent encounters, but might be persuaded to talk, especially with bribery.

Behaviour towards adventurers entering the cluster

The gnolls are territorial, and should a party of adventurers approach from the outside, they would feel the need to protect their den. The guards will be prepared and they will try to ambush the party unless hailed openly. Carefully approached with gifts, the gnolls might be open to discussion.

Froth is reasonable enough for a gnoll, and would use the party for the benefit of the pack. Bargains and temporary alliances might be reached if the party seems capable. Hidden challengers might contact the party should Froth seem too soft in negotiations. They would offer their help if the party agrees to help with leadership exchange.

If the party manages to commune with the Elemental Lord of Storm in private, the elemental might strike bargains of his own, even make a pact and become a patron to a character. His agenda might not be the same as the gnolls’.

Behaviour towards other dungeon inhabitants (humanoid)

The Crackling Pack sees the near-surface gnolls as inferior, but they wish to give them a chance to prove themselves. Those worthy may join their new underground enclave. The other monstrous humanoids are viewed as competition at best, and enemies whenever there’s any hint of conflict. The gnolls of the Crackling Pack don’t suffer witnesses.

Behaviour towards other dungeon inhabitants (monstrous)

If it’s edible, the gnolls hunt it. If it’s dangerous, they usually avoid it, but sometimes the risk is worth it. With how few the pack counts, however, the gnolls had to learn caution.

Conclusion

I’ve made a simple dungeon cluster for middle dungeon levels, that I’ve tried to make setting-neutral. You could probably use it in a dungeon with only small changes, such as providing the stats for the system of your choice. It was a fun exercise, and I might try using this approach on an entire dungeon.

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Dungeons to Dig Up

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

This week’s post will be a short one. Not that I have nothing to write about, but I really want to focus on finishing a few things, while I’m distracting myself with swords.

Digging Better Dungeons

Those who visit this site regularly might have noticed my interest in dungeons. That’s nothing rare among Dungeon Masters, Game Masters, and other suchlike individuals. There are many approaches to creating and playing dungeons, and none of them is wrong, as long as everyone’s having fun. Some people like their dungeons to be challenging first and foremost. Others want an engaging story, brimming with emotions, that somehow takes place in a dungeon. Some want their dungeons to make sense.

You probably already know I belong to the third mentioned group, and I’ve started a series of articles dealing with various aspects of dungeons. There are still topics I want to look at, but I’ve set this series aside to work on other stuff. You can have a look at what I’ve finished so far on the list below:

German Inspiration

Recently I’ve had some contact with tiny fragments of the German role-playing scene. I’ve mentioned Roland several times already, and his feedback is one of the things that make me return to the dungeons. He also gives a lot of thought about the dungeons he’s designing, and it’s very interesting to see the process.

The other German blog I’ve started following is Kritischer Fehlschlag. It’s operated by a group of TTRPG enthusiasts, and there’s a lot of stuff in there. What caught my interest immediately is the Erde & Wasser megadungeon project by Rackhir. My first contact with it was a newsletter email about the second zine being published, so I looked it up, and it’s looking great. Check out the Design Principles and you’ll see why I like it. There’s lot of overlap between our views, mainly in that the dungeon has to make sense. This is definitely something I’ll be watching closely and looking forward to updates.

What to expect?

I’ve already advertised it somewhere, but now it’s official – Digging Better Dungeons is the new name of the series. I’m really bad at giving estimates and promises when it comes to publishing schedule, but there are at least five articles I would like to add to my series. Two of them are in draft stages, the rest is just in side note stage for now. But I will finish them somehow. The first on the list is an elaboration of the Palimpsest Dungeon, a case study.

Video Game Shorts

This will be very short as well, it’s called “video game shorts” for a reason. Anyway, there’s one thing that’s extremely common in one video game genre, and I think underused in TTRPGs. The genre is platformer, and the thing is that enemies often send you towards doom. Without touching your HP, at least not in a significant way. Whether it’s by actually pushing your character off a ledge, or by one-shotting you and the in-game explanation being this.

By having the enemies use the environment in this way you can create danger where there normally would only by little of it. Small goblinoids get trivial at higher levels no matter their numbers. But if they throw you full-plated paladin into a pit, they’re much more dangerous now. Ogres are formidable foes for a low-level party, but later they’re just a large nuisance. Let your ogres fling the high-level party around and suddenly they’re another thing.

As with all things use hero-tossing enemies with moderation. And if your players take a liking to doing this to their enemies, maybe change the scenery a bit. Don’t let your campaign become Jedi Academy with force choke. But that’s another story.

Final Remarks

Once again I have to state that I’m not affiliated with any of the mentioned entities, and I receive no compensation for any promotion.

If you liked the article or any of the ones I linked, please subscribe! It’s the best way of letting me know you like what I do. Also tell your friends, they might be interested as well!

Swords everywhere!

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

The title might be an exaggeration, but since it’s #swordtember, there’s bound to be lots of swords in many places. Even here. I promised to post more often, so here’s a summary of the last week.

Cooperative Curiosity

Mentioned last week, the fruits of collaboration between Roland (Dnalor the Troll) and me are finished and published. The whole thing started when Roland felt that I discarded curiosity as a motive for entering a dungeon, and we agreed to both write about our views of curiosity in TTRPGs.

Roland’s article An Ode to Curiosity – what drives us forward in the dungeon? is a fine one, and he makes many strong points. It is indeed an ode, and Roland manages to capture and describe the curiosity that drives both players and their characters forward, onwards to new challenges, secrets, and experiences. You should definitely check out his article, in which he uses many fine examples to prove the necessity and worth of curiosity. And while you’re there, browse through the rest of his blog as well, there’s a lot of interesting stuff in there!

Mine is a bit different approach, though I appreciate curiosity in many forms and in many aspects of a TTRPG game or setting. You can read my thoughts on the matter in the Motivated by Curiosity article. To sum it up, I believe the curiosity we usually see while exploring a dungeon is not sated by simply knowing. There’s always something it’s connected to. The knowledge has to have some use. Or it’s not knowledge the party seeks, but wealth, fame, and powerful artefacts. When they’re curious, it stems from those desires.

#Swordtember

As you might have noticed, I am doing the #swordtember challenge again. As usual there’s the “official” #swordtember prompt list by Faith Shaffer (who originally came up with the challenge), and several alternatives. Last year I combined the original with one of those alternative lists, and tried to come up with swords that combine two prompts. It wasn’t always easy.

This year I’m of course doing the official one, as well as one that’s mostly been made by my four year old daughter. You can see it below, and feel free to use the prompts, if you like them.

I post my rough sketches on my Bluesky account, until I can remake them into usable item sheets for D&D. The plan is to publish all of them, maybe batched together with the last year’s swords, but first they all need have passable illustrations, and descriptions. Below is an example of an extremely rough sketch and a first description draft.

A massive two-handed sword with a broad perforated blade. The perforations lighten the blade while keeping anything sticky from adhering to the sword. Ideally suited for slicing puddings, jellies, and blancmanges. Will also cut nicely through killer tomatoes and other soft murderous berries.

D&D Feat Paths

The new Underdark-themed Unearthed Arcana offers, along with two subclasses, the option to slowly turn into a mindflayer. The Path of Ceremorphosis is a feat path, i.e. a set of feats that are chained and offer additional character development options.

This apparently isn’t a new thing, as The Kind DM kindly pointed out to me (and you can read his review of the UA Underdark Options here). WotC used the same mechanic in the Villainous Options Unearthed Arcana with their Path of the Lich and Path of the Death Knight in. I admit I haven’t been paying attention to those, but it seems this is something that’s been repeatedly done.

Why is this interesting to me? I have several such developments on my table, and so far I’ve played with creating special “technical classes” you would multiclass at the prerequisite level. This is similar to the way feats work, but sacrifices some levels of your main class. And since campaigns don’t always get you all the way to level 20, you could miss out on important stuff.

The feat paths provide a better option, in my opinion. You still get to progress in your class as usual, and you get the benefits (and other, less beneficial effects) of the feats you choose.

Anastasios, aka the Kind DM, also pointed out the feat path option is not ideal either, and I agree. But it’s better than technical classes, and better than just slapping new powers and mechanics onto a character. Things like this are better suited for classless point-buy systems, but then we would be playing a whole different game and blogging about that one, right?

Long story short, I will be working on a few of these feat paths. There are several I have in form of notes, and I’ll have to see if they’ll amount to two paths, or somewhere in the region of five.

Jack Vance & TTRPG

Jack Vance is one of my favourite authors. Even though he’s not in my Top 5, and I have read but a fragment of his body of work, I like the way he wrote. And his ideas are often worth reading even today, after decades of authors being influenced by him.

There’s an article on Jack Vance’s Influence on Dungeons & Dragons by Bill Ward on the Goodman Games site (home of the Dungeon Crawl Classics). It’s a good article summarizing all the stuff D&D owes to the visions of Jack Vance. As expected “Vancian magic” takes the spotlight, but not for the whole time. Bill Ward also focuses on the contribution Vance has (unintentionally) made to the image of the D&D thief class, later replaced by the rogue.

Ward names Cugel the Clever “the original murder hobo”, and I couldn’t agree more. Vance writes him in a way that it feels in character, even though as a DM you would probably hate your players for half of the stuff Cugel does. I bet many never heard of Cugel the Clever, yet they manage to re-enact him very well.

Even though Cugel is the archetypal murder hobo, I don’t remember him murdering that often. Characters in the Dying Earth series often choose other means of defeating their enemies. Disgrace and mockery are regularly viewed as more fitting, and perhaps even worse punishment than death.

There’s of course more to Jack Vance than Dying Earth, even though his other works probably didn’t influence D&D and by extension other TTRPGs as much. If you haven’t read anything by Vance (hard to believe, if you’re my target audience) you should definitely remedy that. The four volumes of the Dying Earth series are obligatory, of course. And I would also recommend one of his later works, the Night Lamp. It’s a bit slow at first, but then gains momentum and finishes with pretty much a Dying Earth vibe.

Last but not least, if you want to play a game in the Dying Earth setting by Jack Vance, you can check out the DCC modules presented at the end of the linked Goodman Games article. You should also check out Pelgrane Press, as they’re dedicated to publishing everything you need to bring Dying Earth to tabletop life. And if you want a really good deal, they have a bundle ending in about three days currently on Humble Bundle. The Dying Earth RPG Collection costs just short of 20 €, so I guess about $23-24.

Video Game Shorts

Every few years I have the urge to replay the Shadowrun games by Harebrained Schemes. I finished the original game a few years back for the third time, and I’ve started my second Dragonfall run recently. Of course I will have little time, so I might finish it somewhere around New Year.

I consider Dragonfall the best of the three, although they are all very good. What I want to focus on today is the way the game(s) build a sense of belonging, both inside the party and towards the broader community you become part of.

There’s a lot of characters, many minor, around your base of operations. It often take s a while until they become relevant, but you slowly become familiar with their stories. And you start to care about them. This is something that games (and to some extent other media, such as TV series) can’t quite pull off. A lot of the newer RPGs manage to do this with one or two characters, but rarely with a whole community.

My advice for DMs therefore is go play the games if you haven’t. You get tens of gameplay hours in great TTRPG video game adaptations, and can get inspired by the way the communities around the PC headquarters are written. Not to mention the rest of the very good writing. Dragonfall is really something.

I actuall never read too much into Shadowrun. There was a Humble Bundle with a complete ruleset for one of the newest editions a few years ago, but I still have to get to reading any of the books. I’m definitely looking forward to, there ought to be lots of inspiration there.

Oh, and for anybody interested, I’m making a chromed-up melee street samurai, after playing a pure mage last time. Glory will sit on the bench most of this run, I’m afraid.

Final Remarks

Once again I have to state that I’m not affiliated with any of the mentioned entities, and I receive no compensation for any promotion.

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Motivated by Curiosity

Estimated reading time: 14 minutes For the last month or two I’ve been exchanging messages and comments sporadically with Roland, or Dnalor the Troll. He’s writing a TTRPG blog and there’s about a decade of quality content. You should really check out his page and delve in, there’s a lot of inspirational stuff to be … Continue reading “Motivated by Curiosity”

Estimated reading time: 14 minutes

For the last month or two I’ve been exchanging messages and comments sporadically with Roland, or Dnalor the Troll. He’s writing a TTRPG blog and there’s about a decade of quality content. You should really check out his page and delve in, there’s a lot of inspirational stuff to be found there! If you have any interest in the The Dark Eye (Das Schwarze Auge) system, it’s a must! That’s the system behind the Realms of Arkania video game series (one that I hope to beat one day and write about it).

Anyway, at first we talked about dinosaurs and their TTRPG applications, because every sane person loves dinosaurs. Then Roland read some of my old articles, such as Dungeons: How to Behave, where I discussed the various motives for the party being in a dungeon, and he wrote this comment:

Another interesting article on the subject of dungeons.

“Note that I have omitted exploration from my categories. Of course one can imagine a party that just ventured down some stairs to see what’s down there. But I also think in this kind of situation there is something missing – motive.”

However, I would disagree here. I think curiosity is a very strong motive for entering a dungeon. The best real-world equivalent that comes to mind is urban explorers who enter old, forgotten bunkers, villas, or other abandoned buildings, hopefully taking nothing but photographs and leaving nothing but footprints. They, too, explore a dungeon out of pure curiosity.

— Dnalor the Troll

On one level I agree wholeheartedly, curiosity is one of the strongest motivators. You can see my whole reply below:

I understand what you mean. And certainly for urban explorers the motivation is curiosity, the thrill of exploration, perhaps thrill of trespassing. But it’s a completely different state of society we’re talking about. The urban explorers probably have their day jobs and go “dungeon crawling” for fun. In a typical TTRPG setting the characters do so either out of necessity, or feel some calling. Even if they’re just curious, the curiosity is based on what can be gained, or what has to be eliminated. The urban explorers have it in their code not to take anything, and certainly they’re not looking for potential dangers to be eliminated before they manifest.

So essentially I agree that curiosity can be a motivation. Maybe the settings I’m used to and like don’t cater to curiosity for the sake of curiosity well. My “school of thought” is based on a more realistic and less heroic take, where you don’t take risks you don’t have to, etc.

It’s however a valid point, thank you again! Perhaps we could both write articles with our takes on curiosity as a motive, what do you say?
Cheers!

— Rashundai

Roland agreed that we would both write down our views on curiosity, and we set a date. This is my part of the deal, you can see Roland’s here – An Ode to Curiosity – what drives us forward in the dungeon?

What are we talking about?

Let’s start with the basics, and clear out the terms we’ll be using. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines curiosity as a “desire to know”, either in the form of a) intellectual curiosity, or b) nosiness. There are other meanings, but this is the one I’ll be working with, and I believe it’s the one Roland meant.

A curious man. Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.

Motivation is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a motivating force, stimulus, or influence”. Again I won’t be dealing with other meanings, such as the act of motivating someone. Let’s also include motive, which is “something (such as a need or desire) that causes a person to act”, again courtesy of Merriam-Webster. For some unknown reason the Cambridge dictionary keeps giving me blank pages, so I guess I am pledged solely to Merriam-Webster from now on.

Now that we have this out of the way, let’s take a look at the different levels both curiosity and motivation are used in TTRPGs. I will also be using examples from other media, such as video games, where appropriate.

Curiosity as a Characteristic

Being curious is often a prerequisite to becoming an adventurer. Character backstory doesn’t always have to be riddled with betrayal, loss of loved ones, and suffering (really, trust me!). Sometimes all you need is the thirst for answers. What lies beyond the woods? What does the capital look like? Are the elves real?

Most commonly associated with either scholarly types, or cheerful upbeat characters. Bards, rogues, young apprentices, they often have in common their curiosity. But not only those; a fighter wishing to see the world (out of curiosity) might join the army, then leave to become an adventurer.

Curiosity is also something that is relevant in many types of settings. Your “regular fantasy”, space opera, hard sci-fi, early 20th century mystery, modern weird, whatever. What could be different is the way curiosity is regarded by the majority of the society, and whether it can be a motivation in itself.

Curiosity as an Attribute

Before we tap into the fields of motivation, let’s discuss curiosity as an attribute, something measurable that influences the way the character acts mechanically.

This is definitely Roland’s field, because one of the few things I know about the Das Schwarze Auge system is that there is curiosity in the form of a negative attribute. There are others, such as acrophobia, claustrophobia, or avarice. A character has to succeed on check, or give into the vice/phobia. So much I remember from the video games, and I apologize if I’ve got it wrong. Roland will surely correct me in his part.

Similar mechanics exists in Darkest Dungeons, where curiosity is a negative quirk that raises the chance of the character interacting with tomes and other pieces of knowledge. The video game describes the quirk as “obsessed with the acquisition of knowledge”. Needless to say, opening and reading every book found in the evil-infested biomes of the Estate often leads to unnecessary fun.

I can also imagine curiosity being beneficial, for example when researching, or learning something, even in small talk. In the Crusader Kings series it is a childhood trait, and it usually helps becoming better at learning and diplomacy. There’s also the chance the Curious child gets the Cynical trait as it grows up, which in-game essentially means you don’t like religious zeal at all. And the religions don’t like you.

Curiosity as Motivation

Now we’re getting to the part that started all of this. My premise was that exploration for exploration’s sake, just out of curiosity, is rarely the real motive for entering a dungeon. As you can see from the quotes above, and will probably see in his article, Roland disagrees. And it’s absolutely fine, because anyone can play these little pretend games anyway they like.

In this part of my article it’s my objective to explain my point of view. Why exploration simply out of curiosity is not something I would expect or support in a game or story. And what kind of game or story I would find better suited for curiosity to be motive enough in itself.

Curiosity Killed the Cat

Everybody knows the saying, though in our world it’s not always spot on. Our lives would be much poorer if not for curiosity, both our own, and of those who brought us the wonders of the modern age. We could rightfully sing odes to scientists, explorers, and great thinkers, who were led by their curiosity and made the world a better place.

TTRPG games usually take place in settings different from our world. Even if the setting is a version of the real world, usually there are some supernatural or sci-fi elements. Those are usually dangerous to some extent, and the same curiosity that could bring progress and prosperity could bring death and suffering. Opening a container and releasing a plague/demon/AI/whatever. Stepping inside a monster’s lair and becoming its victim. Reading a forbidden book, or downloading a malevolent virus. Inventing teleportation technology that unfortunately uses literal hell as a shortcut.

Those are all actions that stem from being curious, and can have negative outcomes. Or positive ones, for example the container might store vital knowledge or a cure. The monster might not actually be a monster, but a potential ally. Either way it’s perfectly reasonable for such things to happen, for the characters to act out their curiosity. But we’re talking about one action, or a set of actions. Jack opened the container out of curiosity, but he had a different motivation for being in the mansion in the first place.

Moreover there are settings where it’s common knowledge, or at least common enough for the player characters, that there’s a danger to being curious. An unmarked flagon is not something to drink. You take it to an alchemist. An amulet found in a crypt is not to be worn immediately. You seek out someone who can check it out and find any curses (“identify” in video game jargon). If you’re on a quest from a mage to recover an old tome, you’ve been briefed not to browse it and to absolutely never read from it aloud. A character might of course think otherwise, but that’s the fun part. Realistically it can be known that being too curious can be very dangerous in such a setting. You can literally die from curiosity.

Crawling out of Curiosity

One of my basic assumptions when it comes to dungeons is that they are dangerous. The source of danger might vary, there might be monsters, traps, environmental hazards, but still it’s no walk in a park. You can realistically die in a dungeon, and it’s many times more probable than bandits or goblins raiding your village. Or than a catastrophic failure of your ship’s systems. You are actively pushing your luck when entering a dungeon, and you better have a good enough reason.

The reasons for entering a dungeon can be varied, but I tried to sum them up in Dungeons: How to Behave. The table below is supposed to list some of the various “behavioral modes” for dungeon crawlers. It’s not exhaustive, but many times what the party will be doing is a variation of one of those.

Explore everythingDefeat everythingTime spanManpower needed
Transitnonoshortparty
Assassinationnonomediumparty
Exterminationyesyesmedium to longarmy
Treasure huntnonomediumparty
Reclamationyesyeslongarmy

Now the thing Roland was missing is exploration. Crawling through the dungeon out of curiosity. As I mentioned before, there are situations where I can imagine such an undertaking. Roland mentioned urban explorers, and yes, they indeed “crawl dungeons” purely out of curiosity. They also have a code that is very much the opposite of what most dungeon crawls do. There’s no “official” Urbex Codex, but the one I linked is more than enough for the purposes of this article.

Exploring a storm drain tunnel. Photo by Alejandro De Roa on Pexels.

In most TTRPG dungeon crawls, unless it’s specifically forbidden or unwanted, the party loots, damages, and destroys. Sometimes there’s nothing to destroy, but even if looting is not the main reason for being there, it occurs. And even if a character’s motivation for entering the dungeon is curiosity, they are curious about what could be found in there. Or perhaps they are curious what threats could escape if left unchecked, the next step being stopping those threats, or at least spreading the news.

The curious mind seeks knowledge and information, but in the settings I’m familiar with, these are akin to other treasures. The curious mage doesn’t crave knowledge because it brings them joy to learn something (though it might as well), but to further use it in their research. Or apply it directly. Same with information in a space opera or cyberpunk setting. Sure your boss is curious what’s with the increased activity near that moon. But they want to use that information as a bargaining chip, not just sit contently knowing something new.

I will however offer one situation in which curiosity becomes acceptable even for someone with my mindset. The betterment of the society through knowledge, experience, and sensations gained from satisfying curiosity. Something that should ideally be happening right now in the real world, or at least that’s the idea behind a lot of research being done. There’s another “however”, though.

The Luxury of Curiosity

There is one other thing that prevents me from accepting curiosity as a motive for dungeon crawling. And it’s the same thing that makes me resent most treatments of archaeology in games. I will write an article about how most works use archaeology the wrong way one day. Yes, it is my field, and most of the time archaeology in games is as annoying to me as a lot of sci-fi staples must be to engineers and physicists.

Sunlight entering a cave. Photo by Heber Vazquez on Pexels.

For curiosity to exist as the primary motivation the world, or at least the society in question, must meet some conditions. Since research and exploration just to satisfy curiosity would sit quite high in the pyramid of needs, conditions enabling at least some members of the society to engage in such activities must exist. In most settings those people would not be the player characters. More likely it’s the quest givers, and the rewards are probably something other than satisfied curiosity.

People with means to fund the satisfaction of their curiosity also often need those means to either secure their own position, or further the needs of their society. As in an archmage devoting their power to the protection of the realm, a brilliant scientist working to find a cure for an epidemic. If no such threats exist, the setting is either a utopia, or something like the real world. Down to the fact that the people with means to battle the existing threats would rather not.

We’re getting close to cyberpunk territory in those last sentences, and I’m reminded of the times I’ve seen curiosity as a motive in Shadowrun. And indeed often the runners are sent on a mission just to learn something. Whether it’s true that X, or what happened at Y. We could say the motivation is curiosity. But there’s usually a follow-up, such as revenge. I would perhaps say that it’s more of a “need for information” than curiosity. And information is just like any other treasure, so a dungeon crawl/run/mission/whatever motivated by the acquisition of certain knowledge would fall into my “treasure hunt” category.

Summary

In this article I have tried to present my views regarding curiosity as a motive for entering a dungeon. In my opinion in many settings the real motive is different. Curiosity is then something often possessed by those who make a living of crawling dungeons, perhaps the driving factor for their life choices, that might influence the outcome of certain situations.

In other words, the party came to the dungeon to gain something, or perhaps eliminate a threat. The curiosity of individual party members might help them, they might for example find hidden loot, or alternative paths. It can also harm them, for example by making them more susceptible to traps and lures.

There are settings and context where curiosity can serve as the primary motivation for dungeon crawling, or whatever the player characters do. These however might not make that much sense unless several conditions are met. I might get to describe those in detail in another article. For now let’s say that doing dangerous things only to sate one’s curiosity requires a lot of more basic needs met, and that TTRPG settings are often not built that way. If yours is, please share a link in the comments!

Curiosity is a wonderful thing, both in the context of TTRPGs and in the real world. DMs build worlds and adventures hoping to pique the players’ curiosity so that they want to see more and more. And curious characters can be both fun and rewarding to play. So definitely build your stuff around curiosity and be curious yourself!

February of Magic and Wonders

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Gathering Magic

Over the past few months I have come to realize that my relation with Fantasy has been shaped by Magic: The Gathering more than I would think. Possibly more than by Dungeons & Dragons. It makes sense, Magic influenced other works for decades as well. Nothing exists in isolation and everything is influenced by something.

While not a TTRPG itself, Magic: The Gathering is a game into which tremendous creative effort has been poured over the years. You may not like every set, particularly the newer ones are questionable at times, but there’s a lot worth it about Magic. It took quite long before Wizards realized they could cross-over with Dungeons & Dragons, but now we have supplements for whole nine planes! Ravnica, Theros, and Strixhaven have their own physical sourcebooks you can buy. You can find older stuff for Ixalan, Kaladesh, Innistrad, Zendikar, Dominaria, and Amonkhet in the Planeshift series available on DM’s Guild for free.

Jesper Ejsing’s art from the upcoming Lorwyn-Shadowmoor D&D Supplement! All rights reserved to Jesper Ejsing, Wizards of the Coast, and/or other respective owners.

Now we’ve been promised another supplement taking place in the Lorwyn-Shadowmoor dual plane! I am both excited and frustrated. The Lorwyn and Shadowmoor blocks were the first ones that got caught my attention for real when they came out. I didn’t collect Magic back then, and only read the lore and oggled the art, but I was captivated by the setting. It’s a fey setting that doesn’t scream “FOLKLORE” in every sentence. Many settings I see being advertised these days are trying real hard to convince us they are full of folklore. I believe they are, and that they will be great when they’re finished. I just don’t need it so explicitly stated, subtlety works wonders sometimes. Lorwyn did this well in my opinion. You can see the British Isles folklore clearly, but nobody is forcing it onto you.

A Shadowmoor elf shaman. All rights reserved to Wizards of the Coast and/or other respective owners.

But as I said I am also frustrated. Remember my last post, where I advertised an exciting new series? I meant to start writing commentaries on various Magic: The Gathering cards, and their potential for your TTRPG needs. With an emphasis on the plane I liked the most. You already guessed which one it is, didn’t you?

The cinders of Shadowmoor should not be messed with. All rights reserved to Wizards of the Coast and/or other respective owners.

So what I’m going to do is probably go for it anyway. We will be getting a supplement with lots of lore, stats for various monsters, place descriptions, etc. done by professionals with access to the original notes (hopefully). In the meantime I can offer my take on the already published stuff, and speculations about what will be in the sourcebook. That should not be seen as anything wrong by Wizards; if anything, it would be a warm up before the release. There’s no date, yet, so I might be able to put out a few articles before then. We’ll see.

A beauty-obsessed elf tending to a bloom. All rights reserved to Wizards of the Coast and/or other respective owners.

Hope you enjoyed those original wallpapers I saved from the Shadowmoor and Eventide releases back in 2008. Are you excited for the new Lorwyn/Shadowmoor sourcebook? Leave a comment and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the upcoming articles!

JAGS Wonderland

While writing about Lynchian gaming in the last month’s post I found out about JAGS Wonderland by Marco Chacon. It’s a free TTRPG about descending into madness and transcending reality. Or at least so it seems after some fifty pages. I have to say the book is wild. Though I consider myself not easily shaken, Wonderland made me quite uneasy. Well done. The rulebook references Lewis Carrol’s works heavily and combines it with secret agencies, aliens, cults, and conspiracies.

The cover for JAGS Wonderland. All rights reserved to Marco Chacon and/or other respective owners.

There’s a lot of thought behind the rulebook. It’s a game more suited for experienced players wanting a different sort of game than dungeoneering and monster slaying. It should be possible to do that in JAGS Wonderland as well, if anyone was so inclined. And vice versa you could probably use some worldbuilding elements and game mechanics from Wonderland in your game regardless of the system. Imagine Dungeons and Dragons with the “traditional” cosmology of planes replaced with that of Wonderland. Would you be interested in a setting like that?

I still have over a half of the first book and then the Book of Knots sourcebook to go through.There’s a lot of interesting stuff in this game and I will probably mention it from time to time in these summaries. And if there’s anyone with experience with JAGS Wonderland (or JAGS in general), leave a comment below!

Kickstarter

There are some new campaigns on Kickstarter that caught my eye. I will have to think some more before I pledge, but the least I can do is spread the word.

Firstly there’s the Blades of Gixa campaign by Quadra. It is the result of #Dungeon23 challenge by a person who actually managed to finish it. Those are quite rare, and from what I’ve seen on social media, Quadra’s work both looks great and is captivating to explore. The product should be system agnostic with some stats etc. provided by the author. Definitely worth a look.

Another campaign I am watching is the Heavy Metal Monster Manual by Greedy Gorgon Press. You might recall their earlier works, all of them with catchy names showing heavy influence by rock and metal bands and songs. What I’ve seen so far was funny and with lot of appeal to rock and metal fans, so don’t forget to check it our, if you’re so inclined. 

Miscellanea

I’m still working on the class options mentioned earlier, and the Arco review. Regrettably I’ve been neglecting both due to life and recently the spur to action caused by the Lorwyn announcement.

One thing I should not forget to state – I am in no way affiliated with any creators mentioned in this article. I am simply sharing my enthusiasm and there’s no compensation I get for this. That being said, I am waiting for your move, Wizards, I want in on Lorwyn!

As always, thanks for reading this far, and I’ll be glad for your thoughts in the comments section. Also please share this post on your favourite social media if you liked it, it means a lot!