Category Archives: D&D

Going Underground – a first look at the new D&D DM Screen Dungeon Kit

D&D, first look, RPG

Whilst everyone else is doing back flips and cartwheels over the latest WotC D&D 5e adventure The Wild Beyond the Witchlight.

The new Dungeon Master’s Screen Dungeon Kit (DMSDK) seems to be flying under everyone’s radar. I’m not seeing any of the “BIG” D&D names talking about it. It’s all about the feywild or the upcoming Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons previews that are dripping out.

Don’t get me wrong I’m pretty excited about what Fizban has to say about dragons. Well as excited as I can muster considering. I have little to no interest in Witchlight. It’s just not for me. Which is fine. Not everything WotC does has to be.

However I do like a good DM screen.

With the arrival of DMSDK I now have four (if you don’t count the thin cardboard one from the Essentials Kit).

When buying a DM screen I tend to avoid adventure specific ones (although if I was running the adventure I might be tempted to get the matching screen) and go for the more useful for me general ones.

Naturally my first DM screen was the official WotC Dungeon Master’s Screen Reincarnated (DMSR) for 5e. Which I really like and is the screen I use the most.

However nearly a year ago WotC released the Dungeon Master’s Screen Wilderness Kit (DMSWK). I did a pretty bad unboxing video for it here. Which focused on running wilderness adventures.

I also have the Galeforce 9 DM screen for the Ghosts of Saltmarsh adventure book Of Ships & The Sea. Remember what I said earlier. Yes that breaks that rule. But mainly because this is aimed more at running campaigns that are at sea, so is more generic.

Which brings us to the latest addition to my DM screen collection.

  • Front cover
  • Back cover
  • Inside

As the name suggests the DMSDK is focussed on running adventures/campaigns in the depths of the earth. You know the dungeon part of D&D.

The player facing side of the DM screen has some beautiful art by the artist Greg Rutkowski that just evokes going into a dungeon.

Player side of the DM screen has art by Greg Rutkowski

Even if I didn’t need the tables on the DM side I’d quiet happily double up on the DM screens with this on the outside and most likely the DMSR behind it for me to use. I have done that before with the Saltmarsh screen and used the art to help invoke the mood and setting for the session and used the tables from the other screen.

On the DM side we get tables geared towards dungeon delving, along with the usual condition reminders. The tables look useful. But the real test to this is when you have to use them in anger.

Maybe in another post I should compare the information on the official WotC DM screens and see how much over lap there is. Definitely a project for another day.

DM Side of the DM Screen

After the DM screen there is a doubled sided sheet dry erase sheet which has a summary of actions players can take during combat. Then on the other side a blank grid for drawing on.

  • Front
  • Reverse side
Dry erase sheet

Unsurprisingly there is only one of these included in this Dungeon Kit. A second would have been nice for those that don’t have the other kit. I think this is a handy DM tool to include.

There are two sheets of condition cards included. Each sheet is nine cards. Giving a total of 18 condition cards. Three of those cards are tailored towards a dungeon adventure (brown and yellow mold plus green slime).

  • Example reverse side
Condition Cards

These condition cards use the same art as those from previous kits, just scaled and toned differently. Best I can say about this art is it’s functional.

I think these cards are so handy to have to pass to a player when they get that condition. It doesn’t just remind them and you they have that condition. But the reminder text on the reverse about the condition is very useful for the player to refer to.

I’m getting a nice little collection of these cards now.

As I am of the initiative cards that are included. These like their wilderness kit versions use the art from their respective DM screens.

You can use these a couple of ways. The first is as reminders to players and you where they are in the initiative order after everyone has rolled for initiative. Or taking a leaf out of the Year Zero system, shuffle and deal out randomly to determine players initiative order. Either way works.

  • Front of the Initiative Cards
  • Deck box

The included deck box also uses the DM screen art. But like all other WotC deck boxes they include in products (especially on the MtG side of things) you have to “assemble” the box. Describing it as flimsy is being generous.

Now onto the real star of this kit for me.

Included with this kit are four sheets of Dungeon Geomorph cards. We all know what a fan of this sort of thing I am. So nine cards per sheet, which gives us 36 Geomorph cards.

With the cross hatching, these cards have a Dyson Logos feel to them. I don’t know who created these. But they are nice.

  • Front
  • Reverse
Dungeon Geomorph Cards

These can be used while preparing for a session or on the fly at the table.

I’m a fan of these focused DM screen kits WotC have produced. I really like the little extras they add to them. Personally I think they are great for new and old DM’s.

P.S. for the record I was never a The Jam fan. Luckily one of their more popular hits gave me a song title I could use in the title of this blog post.

An idea “borrowed” from an episode of Scandal

Alien, Cyberpunk Red, D&D, Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, RPG, session planning, Strontium Dog

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.

Ok this warning may be over dramatic but this post is here to record an idea down for a future session. I needed to capture it before I forgot all about it. So by reading this post, it may spoil an upcoming session for them.

I’ve been binge watching the tv series Scandal on Disney+. I’d seen it before but there are many things I like about it that warranted a second watch years after first watching it.

In Season 5 episode 21 there is a scene between the main character of the show Olivia Pope, her father Command (ex-head of a secret Government shadow organisation) and one of her love interests who also happens to be one of her fathers shadow agents, Jake Ballard.

Olivia is trying to help Jake escape from her fathers influence, and has turned up to take him away to “safety”. However a stand off develops with her father pointing a gun at Jake’s head. During this stand off Command says the following (I’m paraphrasing) “It may look like it’s my hand on the trigger, it may look like I’m pointing a gun at his head. But it’s an illusion. In fact it’s you whose doing it.”

That’s so cool.

Those words spoke to me. Inspired me.

I can use them, use this scene in a campaign.

The most obvious use would be in say a modern or scifi setting where there are guns. But I can see it working in a fantasy setting also with maybe a knife at the persons throat.

It could easily be the culmination of a rescue mission where the big bad replaces Command, the party replaces Olivia and the hostage replaces Jake.

I like how it adds a “final” twist to overcome for the party. It’s not an original twist. There are many examples of the kidnapper being cornered and holding the victim at gun point trying to save their own skin. There is a NCIS scene that comes to mind immediately for example.

But the word illusion also inspires. What if the person holding the gun/knife to the victim looks like one of the party using an illusion spell? Will it make them doubt who the real one is, mistrust the person, confuse?

How the party handles the situation will be interesting. I have no idea how it would play out, what the outcome will be. That’s something that’d be decided at the table at the time.

Turning Angrath into a legendary creature

D&D, RPG, session planning

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.

In what seems an age now (and technically it was) I made an initial stab at bringing the MtG Planeswalker Angrath to D&D, the Forgotten Realms, and my campaign.

Time passes, DM’s grow, get more experienced, learn new tricks (yes this old dog is learning new tricks!)

Although the adventurers in my campaign have not met Angrath yet. They have come across his minions, and herald. And they have definitely incurred his wrath by attacking his pirates liar, and stealing a boat from his pirate fleet.

So a reckoning is on the books for the party sooner than later.

The encounter with Angrath most certainly is a boss fight.

For this post I thought I’d revisit Angrath and reimagine him as a legendary creature.

To do this reimagining I will be following the Sly Flourish template for improvising legendary monsters (I only did a none post about it a couple days back).

Let’s get started…

The initial monster stat block for Angrath will remain the same, which is the Minotaur stat block.

Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the monster fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.

Legendary Actions:

  • Misty Step
  • Melee attack

Hit Points: 152 (doubling the Minotaur HP – but this most likely will be adjusted at the time of the encounter to take into account the level of the party and how the encounter is going).

Tweak Damage: Angraths whip will do 15 slashing damage plus 10 fire damage. His warhammer will do 8 bludgeoning damage plus 10 fire damage.

Spells:

  • Fire shield
  • Shield
  • Scorching ray

Minions: naturally Angrath will not be alone when he brings his wrath onto the adventurers. There will be pirates supporting him. He will also be able to redirect damage to his minions.

I do like the idea of Angrath being a legendary creature. It seems more fitting for the boss of a pirate fleet, and his Planeswalker heritage. I’m also now of the opinion these spells he now has access to are more in keeping with the character.

So that’s Angrath as a legendary creature. How balanced or challenging he is is another thing. That will only be known once he is used in anger in a boss encounter.

But the process of making Angrath legendary was fairly quick and painless. Vraska next I suppose. But less pressure as the party are a while off from meeting her.

Improvising Legendary Monsters the Lazy DM Way!

D&D, DM/GM Tips, RPG

Yesterday Sly Flourish put up one of his DM Tips/Short Cuts videos that was about “Improvising Legendary D&D Boss Monsters” (video embedded below).

I love videos like this. I love how they help DM’s, whether new or old, have the tools to help them up their game while running a D&D session. But especially videos like this that help build up tools you can use to react to unplanned events at the table.

After all even in my short time as a DM I know that the party of adventurers will go off book, do the unexpected. You can’t plan for everything. And the way of the Lazy DM doesn’t try to.

But it does give you the tools to be able to handle everything. Even if you are making it up as you are going along at the table. Or improvising as it’s called.

I was going to write up some notes on the video for me to refer to at the table. An aid memoir.

But before I did that I thought let’s just see if Sly Flourish has written a blog post on this to go along with the video. He had not. There was a post on “Improvising Colville-style Action Oriented Monsters in D&D” which has been added to my notes.

There was one last place to check before sitting down and scribbling down some stuff. That place was the Uncovered Secrets pdf on his Patreon for patreons (although later this year will be part of a third book in the Lazy DM series).

I hit pay dirt. Sly had written up the notes for me already. How kind. That saves me a lot of time. I know I have the pdf, and can print the page out. But I’m hoping that when it comes to putting the new book together that this makes the cut. Sly has said on his live streams that one or two of the Patreon articles that makes up Uncovered Secrets and the Adventure Generators pdf (both will make up the new book) will remain Patreon exclusives.

I’m also crossing my fingers that the above linked article about Action Oriented monsters gets added.

So you’ve just read a post about how I haven’t made some notes on a video I like! Is this a none post? I’ll try better in the next post.

Quest Models

Cyberpunk Red, D&D, DM/GM Tips, Eberron, genesys, Judge Dredd, Paranoia, Rogue Trooper, RPG, Strontium Dog, Uncategorized, W.O.I.N.

This recent video by Sly Flourish is one of many short DM advice videos that he has released recently. They are rather nifty, and brilliant for those with busy lives.

The reason I’ve embed the video and talking about it here is that I think this advice is pretty universal to which ever RPG system you are playing.

The three common quest models Sly briefly covers in the above video are:

  • Kill the boss quest
  • Recover the artifact
  • Rescue somebody

Sly points out that it’s the flavour that makes these quest models interesting. To aid in that flavour I think the adventuring party needs a patron of some kind. Whether that patron is a crime lord, guild leader, a fixer, wealthy, powerful, a corporation (I think you get the idea) they are a handy plot device to use to introduce one of the quest models above, and not just away to give the party useful equipment.

For instance they could have to eliminate a rival crime lord, steal a top secret device/plans from a rival corporation, or rescue hostages.

This isn’t the first time that Sly has talked about quest models. In the video below he talks about “The Three-of-Five Collection Quest”.

“The Three-of-Five Collection Quest” is a variation of “recover the artifact” quest. Sly also lists three other quest models within the above video, the “heist”, “kill the lieutenant” and “destroy the thing”. But in reality to the initial list from the quest models video we are only adding one new quest to our tool box.

  • Kill some-one
  • Recover the thing/heist
  • Rescue somebody
  • Destroy the thing

I would argue a heist is a variation of the recover the thing quest model, if not the same thing. I don’t see any difference between the “kill the boss” and “kill the lieutenant” quests. They are basically go kill some-one for some reason. So I think count as one.

UPDATE: adding a fifth quest model escort/protect someone/thing.

With these handful of quest models it should be easy to come up with quests for your campaign or even at a push on the fly.

Oh while I’m talking RPGs. It struck me as I was binge watching Leverage for the third or fourth time that the Leverage team is the perfect party make up for a cyberpunk (Red or Android) party.

I’m not sure what the mastermind role would map to, but they are basically the brains of the group. But every other role maps I believe. At a push this could be a D&D party too. What do you think?

It’s that portal song title post again

D&D, Fenland Gamers, magic, MtG, new arrivals, news, vampire the masquerade: rivals

Time sure flies.

Before you know it over a week has passed since the last post.

Not much has happened to share on here. Obviously world events are still putting a dampener on things like playing board games in person. Plus there hasn’t been much online gaming using apps (outside of Star Realms and Epic the Card Game) either.

My “secret” project is going slowly. I’m not sure what folks will make of it. It is a departure for me and this blog. Which I hope folks will like.

On the Kickstarter side of things Vampire the Masquerade: Rivals finally landed (after it hit retailers).

Naturally I’ve sleeved it all up with the official sleeves that came as part of the Kickstarter. I’ve even used a couple of the Stonemaier token containers to surprisingly store the tokens for the game.

From a recent Renegade live stream it was revealed what the next expansion will be after the first expansion Blood & Alchemy comes out. It will be called The Wolf and The Rat. But it was also revealed they have a third expansion that has finished production and a fourth currently being worked on. Both of them currently remain unnamed.

And yes for the record I have pre-ordered Blood & Alchemy. The bonus for doing so are a couple of alt art vampire cards, one for each clan.

Vampire the Masquerade: Rivals first 3 OP kits

Another big reveal from the stream were the contents of the first three OP kits for Vampire Wednesdays. These will be available for your FLGS to order, or for those that can’t get their local store interested, or get to a store to participate you can order direct from Renegade. These OP kits introduce three new vampires that will eventually be available on the Renegade website to purchase.

I got the season 0 OP kit as part of my Kickstarter and plan to get these as well. These will form part of my attempt to kick off a Rivals scene in Wisbech once Fenland Gamers starts up gaming sessions again. Although my track record in doing that sort of thing is pretty poor.

Which brings me nicely onto the news that Jonathan and I have had chats between ourselves and also with our hosts The Luxe about when and how we will start gaming sessions back. Taking into account current world events we are eyeing September as our target month for once more holding meet ups.

Hopefully in the meantime those corrupt, lying bullies in charge of running our country will not screw things up (although history is not on their side on that front) and we will indeed be able to safely once more gather to roll dice, shuffle cards and move pieces of plastic around a board.

On the D&D news front apparently next week (Tuesday) instead of releasing stories setting up the next MtG set, because that set is a D&D/MtG standalone crossover set, WotC will be releasing five free D&D adventures for players to download. These 15 to 20 page adventures are aimed at tier 2 characters, specifically levels 8 – 10.

Hopefully the next thing you read on here is the “secret” project. But you know me!

D&D Product Round Up

D&D, news, RPG

Yesterday saw the start a week long “celebration” of all things D&D by WotC with their “Week of Legend Lore”.

I’d like to say yesterday’s announcement of the next campaign book “The Wild Beyond The Witchlight” was a big surprise. But it wasn’t. A couple of days earlier a leak on Amazon happened giving brief details about this book and one other.

The two covers for The Wild Beyond The Witchlight

The Wild Beyond The Witchlight takes players and DM’s to the Feywild for the first time.

WotC are pushing D&D Live 2021 on July 16 and 17 for the reveal of more details including new characters, monsters, mechanics, and story hooks. The book itself is due out on 21st September.

Next up is the other D&D book that was leaked early. On 16th November the third MtG crossover with D&D will drop called “Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos”.

I’m expecting “Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos” to be similar in format to the other two crossover books. So new character options, world info, adventure hooks and a sample adventure, plus new monsters and npc’s.

With its 5 schools of magic, and wizard world theme Strixhaven has been compared to a certain intellectual property featuring wizards. And it is this that WotC are hoping will appeal to young players, and attract them to the game. So there will apparently be advice included on running a campaign that appeals to all age groups included.

We getting our first sneak at this new books contents when some stuff to test drops on Unearthed Arcana later today. But also expect a bit more info to be forth coming at D&D Live 2021.

I’m not sure when this dropped last week, but on the 17th August WotC release a new DM’s Screen called the Dungeon Kit. Similar to the Wilderness one last year, this new kit will be aimed at dungeon delving.

“The Dungeon Master’s screen features a painting of a fantastic vista that plunges into the deep reaches of a mountain. Useful rules references cover the screen’s interior, with an emphasis on dungeon-delving.”

  • “DM screen specially designed for dungeon delving, with tables for encountering monsters and exploring ruins and dungeons
  • Features 36 punch out dungeon geomorph cards with pathway connection points, perfect for planning a dungeon during game preparation or for coming up with a map in the middle of play
  • Customizable double sided dry-erase sheet offers unlimited versatility for tactical game play. Numbered grid for sketching maps on one side, and summary of the main actions a character can take in combat on the other
  • 18 illustrated punch out condition cards, including mold and slime cards for dungeon encounters
  • 9 punch out numbered and illustrated initiative cards to easily track the turn order for players, monsters, and nonplayer characters”

I think I’m most excited about the geomorph cards. I like my Deck of Many Dungeons and Map & Dice Playing Cards for generating random dungeons. Whether it’s in advance acting as inspiration for writing/prepping an adventure or using to create a dungeon on the fly during a session, they are damn useful.

And oh joy my third set of initiative cards! But more condition cards are always welcome. They are very handy.

Hopefully with such a strong start to the week WotC will be able to keep the momentum and interest levels up.

My notes on ideas for a campaign in the Domains of Dread

D&D, RPG, session planning

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft (VRGR) as I mentioned in the previous post hit FLGS and online retailers last week.

Since then I’ve listened to a couple of podcasts reviewing the tome (The Tome Show and The RPG Academy). The consensus seems to be VRGR is a pretty good book.

Whilst listening to these shows and the odd skimming of pages, ideas started to flow through the ol’ noggin. Hence this post to capture them before I forget them.

The first was I’d love a party of adventurers in a horror/Ravenloft campaign/one shot to have an illrigger amongst them.

An illrigger is a new class created by Matt Colville for one of his players and released to the general public (you can buy the pdf on the MCDM webstore). Illriggers are “elite shock troops, the terror-commandos of Hell,… . Knights of Hell, they are high charisma counter-paladins who master devils and cast their own unique spells.” (https://mcdm.fandom.com/wiki/Illrigger) And yes it’s also crying out for use in an Avernus campaign.

The way the mists are described and used within the Domains of Dread had me instantly thinking of the small and big screen adaptations of Stephen Kings story The Mist (sorry not read the words themselves). So this is such an obvious source of inspiration for using the mists within a campaign. I like the idea of a Dark Lord using the mist to terrorise and subjugate the population of their Domain of Dread. But James Herbert’s The Fog could also be another influence here, along with John Carpenter’s The Fog (not the 2005 remake, ok if you are desperate to make it a teen horror story then maybe!)

Mist talismans, which are used to navigate through the mists to the Domain of Dread it is for/from, also present interesting opportunities for the adventurers. I see these allowing influences such as Stargate SG-1, The Fantastic Journey, The Time Tunnel, where the party are traveling from one Domain of Dread to another as part of some larger campaign story line. Whilst in the current location one of the party’s objectives is to find the next mist talisman, and possibly get the Dark Lord to open up the mists. Although I do like the idea of a generic mist talisman that works with any Domain of Dread, but its random which domain it guides them to. Or they can chose the domain but it’s “glitchy” and the majority of the time takes them elsewhere.

It’s hard to list or suggest inspiration for a campaign as it all depends on the horror genre(s) being used.

My teenage years were the Eighties. Which included the whole video nasty thing. I saw most of those movies that the moral minority had banned, and frankly the acting in most of them was awful. Worse than the actual plot of the movie. I particularly enjoyed zombie and slasher movies such as Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween and the Living Dead movies.

So I know that they would influence my suggestions. But that session zero and the results of the content and themes questions (chapter 4 of VRGR) will have a major impact on suggestions for inspiration.

Although I’d love to do something based around Alice Coopers classic album Welcome to My Nightmare. Or even using Coopers The Last Temptation (along with the accompanying Neil Gaiman graphic novel) for the Carnival Domain of Dread.

Talking of graphic novels the classic Hellblazer comic and it’s antihero John Constantine would definitely be an influence. Although the dire Constantine movie and watered down single season tv series are best avoided.

I hope this brain dump given you some ideas for your own campaign in the Domains of Dread.

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

D&D, first look, new arrivals, RPG

Yesterday saw the release of the new D&D source book Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft (VRGR).

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft Alt FLGS Exclusive Cover

VRGR takes players and DMs back to Ravenloft and the Domains of Dread. But this isn’t an adventure like the Curse of Strahd. This is a campaign source book.

A campaign source book that gives players and DMs the tools to run horror themed D&D campaigns.

Contents page (Image taken from EN World)

As the content page (above) shows those tools include new options for players such as lineages, dark gifts, new backgrounds and subclasses.

For the DM there is a chapter on creating your own Domain of Dread that also covers the various types of horror. Followed by coverage of the Domains of Dread that make up the Ravenloft setting. DMs also get a chapter on running horror games that also includes an adventure “The House of Lament”. This adventure is for first level players and takes them up to level 3. From a cursory glance over the adventure it looks like a haunted house type of affair.

This brings me onto a minor criticism, and I know that page space is an issue in these sort of things. But considering the advice earlier in the chapter about session zeroes etc, you would have thought there would be a paragraph or two that a DM could use summarising the themes and content for the adventure. But to be fair I’d like to see this sort of thing in all of the official D&D books.

I’ve not run the Avernus campaign, so was shocked when I saw in a Sly Flourish video that it uses body horror in part of the campaign. There needed to be some sort of paragraph at the start of the book, and also at the start of each chapter similar to what I suggested above. If nothing else it forewarns the DM that there might be problematic content for their gaming group.

The final chapter is the good ol’ bestiary for the Domains of Dread. More monsters is always a good thing.

VRGR is the latest instalment in what seems like a fixation with horror for the WotC D&D crew. Since the release of Avernus, we have had Icewind Dale, Curse of Strahd Revamp and now this. It will be interesting to see if they lighten things up.

I’ve been looking forward to VRGR since it was announced. And apart from the comment above, my initial look through the pages hasn’t disappointed.

I’d like to run a campaign in the Domains of Dread. But luckily the way my current campaign is structured I can introduce horror elements to it using VRGR and Tasha’s as well. Naturally before doing so there would need to be a conversation with the players. (Is there a name for a mid game session zero? ) And although this book is specifically for D&D some of the information like horror genres, or running that session zero are applicable to other systems. Horror Cyberpunk Red anyone?

Quick and Easy Dire Creatures

D&D, DM/GM Tips, RPG

I think it’s no secret to those that read this blog that I like the advice that Sly Flourish gives, and the whole Lazy DM approach to preparing for a D&D session.

A while back I was watching his YouTube video (embedded below) for the preparation he does for the weekly D&D session he runs.

These are great to watch because you get to see the Lazy DM approach in action, and pick up snippets of great advice about running D&D at the same time.

The video I was watching had a doozy at the beginning. As usual the start of the video Sly retells the events of the previous session. However during that retelling we get a great bit of advice about creating dire versions of creatures on the fly.

I liked that advice so much I thought I needed to write this down somewhere. Which brings us to the whole point of this post.

Before I note the simple steps used to create a dire creature, what is a dire creature? Up to this point like many the only other time I can remember hearing of one is from A Game of Thrones with the dire wolves. So a dire creature is a larger, tougher, meaner version of the creature (there is a brief interesting discussion about it here).

I think these following notes will be simpler to follow with an example. So I’m going to create a dire ankheg!

The first thing Sly does for a new dire creature is double the hit points of the base creature. So this dire ankheg would have 78 hit points.

Give it an extra attack action or double the amount of attacks it does. So the Ankheg can now do two bite attacks a turn.

Basically bump numerical things up a couple of points.

Give it a couple of points on the Attack & Damage, so the Bite is now +7 to hit and does 11 points of damage.

Or you could do as Sly so succinctly summarises in this tweet I stumbled upon yesterday.

I have plans for using this a lot, it’s a dire world we live in out there!