The other no brainer is the latest in the Lazy DM series of books, Forge of Foes.
This is not a bestiary. This is a 128 pages by Mike Shea and friends that is all about creating your own monsters and running them.
Just like the Lazy DM Companion Kickstarter there is a 30 page (can’t remember the exact page count) sampler that is useful and allows you to create your own monsters right away.
Both of these kickstarters are at a point where they are virtually ready to send to printers. So I’m expecting to get digital copies of these goodies not long after the campaigns complete.
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign/session. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one. REMEMBER you have been warned.
So the Bagman has been seeded in the campaign. Which means I will need stats at some future session.
In Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft (where they introduce the Bagman) they use the stats for a troll (from the Monster Manual) as it’s base.
Taken from the srd 5.1 2023 covered under the Creative Commons
Then they do the following to make the Bagman unique, and feel like the Bagman.
“With tactics and traits in mind, you think of your troll as an abductor and give it the Grappler trait of a mimic and the Amorphous trait of a black pudding so it can sneak in anywhere. Finally, you don’t think of the troll as a minion, but you give it the Alien Mind trait to reflect its tormented psyche.” Page 225,Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Here are the relevant bits from the srd and Van Richten’s for those traits.
“Grappler. The Bagman has advantage on attack rolls against any creature grappled by it.”
With this trait I do need to remember this rule from the Monster Manual for any player the bagman is trying to abduct and is trying to escape.
“GRAPPLE RULES FOR MONSTERS … A creature grappled by the monster can use its action to try to escape. To do so, it must succeed on a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against the escape DC in the monster’s stat block. If no escape DC is given, assume the DC is 10 +the monster’s Strength (Athletics) modifier.” Page 11, Monster Manual
“Amorphous. The Bagman can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.” Taken from the srd 5.1 2023 covered under the Creative Commons
“Alien Mind. If a creature tries to read the minion’s thoughts, that creature must succeed on a Intelligence saving throw with a DC equal to 10 + the minion’s Intelligence modifier or be stunned for l minute. The stunned creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.” Page 225,Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
However in the Dragon+ issue 37 article about the creation of the bagman they drop the following that the “bagman should be an entity with high Stealth”.
So in addition to the additional traits that the WotC designers gave the Bagman I’m tempted to also give the Bagman this additional trait.
“Sneaky (Trait). This creature has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.” Page 12, The Lazy DM’s Forge of Foes sampler.
Plus an additional skill of Stealth +7
Which I think gives the Bagman that high stealth ability they thought he should have. So that the Bagman can recreate the idea of “nothing’s more disturbing in a horror movie than when something horrible is in the background and the main characters don’t see it.” Dragon+ 37
Going by the “MONSTER STATISTICS BY CHALLENGE RATING” table on page 274 of the Monster Manual the proficiency bonus for the Bagman is +3.
But does the Bagman need to be an “elite” monster? An “elite” monster as described by Mike Shea in his uncovered secrets volume 2 (a pdf for patreons of stuff that didn’t make it into the Lazy DM Companion) “elite monsters are equivalent of two characters of their level”.
“Elite monsters have the following additional traits:
They have double the listed hit points.
They inflict double the listed damage.
They have one use of legendary resistance per day, letting them turn a failed saving throw into a success.
For that last one Mike describes Legendary Resistance as:
“Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the monster fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.”
Let’s face it the Bagman will not be taking on the party with the aid of minions or any other creatures. So when they do finally face off against the Bagman he needs to be tough enough to last longer than a single round.
I think making the Bagman “elite” does that.
So that’s my initial thoughts for a hopefully easy to run Bagman. Now to just fit that all onto an Arcane Library blank monster card!
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign/session. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one. REMEMBER you have been warned.
In a weeks time we should be holding our twelfth session of this campaign set in Sly Flourish’s City of Arches.
We should be back on track now for having the session fortnightly with the change of job.
After the last session turned into a side quest for those that could make it. It did give me the opportunity to give a bag of holding to the party. Which means I can start seeding in a session or two the bagman.
But at the moment I think the session will be an improv session.
At the moment the party are having a long rest, no idea what they want to do next.
I need to get some adventure seeds planted with them, and progress the main one about the cult, maybe even have the rival to Adel popping up.
In between lesson prep, and the #dungeon23 stuff I need to get my head round the direction of some of these potential threads.
I don’t know about you, but these session planning posts are very useful for me to go back and review what I was thinking.
I’m sure there will be at least another prep post this week. Catch you there.
The party hadn’t been back at their digs long before there was a knock on their door. Drenol, Jeb, and Babs answered the door.
It was their neighbour a gnome called Nala. She needed their help. Her husband Hornwin had gone down into their cellar and hadn’t come back up and she was worried. Apparently they had a rat problem.
After a little debate whether they would help, they did indeed end up going next door to find Nala’s husband.
In the basement after destroying a swarm of spiders, triggering a stink cloud and throwing up. The trio found Hornwin lying unconscious in the corner of a room that had dire giant rats in it.
After defeating the dire giant rats and a were rat that appeared the party had the corpse of Hornwin in front of them. It would seem Hornwin had been a were rat.
After breaking the news to Nala that here husband was dead the trio returned home.
Post Mortem
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one. Don’t give in to temptation go read something else.
This was our first session since the end of November.
Work shifts and the seasonal thing that happens in December being the main factors getting in the way of the session happening.
The change of job opened up my ability to say “I’m free on …” and for regular sessions to be planned again. I think if the work front hadn’t changed the campaign would of just ended. My old job was getting so that planning or committing to anything was just not possible.
It was good to be back behind the DM screen.
As there was fifty percent of the players unable to make this session I went with a one shot adventure for those that were there.
I went with a Mike Shae adventure idea he said he used as an introduction adventure for level one characters of clearing out the basement of the tavern of the rat problem.
But my party were a couple of levels higher. So I could use dire giant rats!
I used a map from the Lazy DM Companion for the basement. Well part of it. I didn’t need the whole thing.
In one of the rooms I added a glyph of warding that when triggered (which it was) cast the spell cloud of stink. If any character had covered their nose (as warned) I gave them advantage on the constitution saving throw. It did lead to a comedic moment of describing the character throwing up with reference to the infamous scene from Team America. With the added bonus of the Babs character slipping up in the resultant pool of vomit.
My dice rolling during combat was atrocious. I don’t think I landed one hit! Although I did roll high on saving throws. So it evened out in the end I suppose.
Once or twice I used the fumbled searches deck to come up with items to find. I should of made a note of the items. One was a book that I said was titled 101 rat recipes, and a burnt bit of parchment. Despite the party trying to find any hidden writing on the parchment they found none. But they only used the old heat and lemon juice ideas to find any. I still have an opening to use this as a plot hook at some point. But I did like using the deck and found it very useful.
I felt the dire giant rats were underwhelming. I think the hit points could have been maybe three times the original value, instead of doubling them. It might have helped if I landed an attack.
I did have the npc they were meant to be saving turn into a were rat. Which they killed.
There was a little discussion over whether the npc got death saving throws. My train of thought was they were killed as a were rat, there was no mention before delivering the killing blow they were “pulling their punch” and aiming to just knock out the npc. So taking the were rat down to zero hit points killed them. As they died they obviously reverted to their original form.
I liked the ingenious use of the bag of holding to get rid of the grimiskas. Now theparty have a bag of holding. I have a plot thread there to pull at some point now.
I thought the session worked well as a side distraction from wherever the main campaign is going for those that were able to make the session.
The creatures for level 2 are coming from The Tome of Beasts 2 by Kobold Press. I love the creatures in this and Creature Codex. They are so fresh and cool to run.
It’s been another busy week at work, so it’s been another struggle to keep to the daily schedule.
One thing I am enjoying about this project is the time I spend inking the map. Not only does it transform the map. But I do find the whole inking and doing the cross hatching very therapeutic.
I’d never have thought that doing the cross hatching especially would be so calming and relaxing. But it is.
I am wondering have I managed to tell a story, or at least attempted to tell one with the rooms on this level? Does it come across with the room names and descriptions?
I’m trying to tell two stories at once. That of the dungeon itself and the fall of the dwarven kingdom that built it, and also the story of the current inhabitants.
Another week has passed where I’ve written and played little.
It’s been the regular weekly pattern of work and sleep.
Work has been ballistic. Lots and lots of customers and no staff!
On the plus side I only have a week or five shifts left before my return.
Which means last nights club night will be my last (hopefully) one that I miss. It’s not great that the first two club nights of the new year I’ve had to miss.
At least I’m managing to find folks to play a game or two with on Sundays.
Now onto some D&D news that broke yesterday.
It’s pretty big news.
Remember all that #DnDBegone, boycott WotC and D&D stuff that happened over the last few weeks over the OGL 1.0a?
Well yesterday WotC announced a complete surrender over the issue after the survey feedback (so far) for their draft OGL 1.2 was overwhelmingly negative.
Der! They already knew that. The massive loss of D&DBeyond subscribers, the single voice of descent from content creators, social media.
I suspect this draft and survey were a ruse to allow WotC to backdown without losing face. Or that was the plan.
Whatever their motivation, we got to the right result that community were after. The OGL1.0a is safe. Plus the SRD 5.1 (that’s the document covered by the OGL that allows creators use core rules, classes, races, spells, etc) has been put under a Creative Commons license.
It’s a big win for the community.
The only question remaining is has this been enough to stop the haemorrhaging of creators and players? Or is this too late the damage has been done?
I feel as I’m coming up with these rooms that they are encounter light.
However this first level is meant for tier 1 parties, and story wise in my head is “controlled” by religious fanatics (priests, clerics, cultists, etc) loyal to the rising evil.
As we get deeper and closer to the rising evil we’ll see things get weirder and more monstrous.
I also don’t like my map until I have finished the inking on day 7. It’s only then that it comes together for me. Until then it doesn’t seem like a real map worthy of sharing.
The one that sold it to me was Endless Encounters: Dungeons.
“Endless Encounters: Dungeons is an encounter and adventure generator for characters level 1-10 using the 5th edition game system!”
I looked at the sample pdf and instantly thought I want this book. In fact this has jumped onto my “I want a physical copy” list.
The others in this great bundle that I think will be useful for the challenge are Kobold Presses Vault of Magic, plus some bestiary that will be useful in sticking the megadungeon.
One of my personal rpg goals this year is to DM/GM (hopefully) a D&D game at a con or FLGS.
Obviously it’d be a one shot. Especially at a con.
I already have the Matt Colville Lost Tomb of Delian Order, or Sly Flourish’s The Obsidian Skull (from the City of Arches) that both make great single session adventures.
Plus I have a copy of the Frank Mentzer single map (Dyson Logo version) AND an A3 printout of the classic Keep on the Borderland dungeon.
Add in my copies of the Lazy DM Workbook and Companion are always in my bag. Which will be joined by his Ruins of Grendleroot and Fantastic Locations.
I nearly forgot my cards that allow me to generate dungeons completely on the fly. Plus the npc cards.
I could at the drop of a hat improvise a session. But as a DM I’m a long way off being that good.
However being a patreon of Sly Flourish I have access to some patreon exclusive adventures. There are three adventures that I have had printed out that potentially could be used at either a con or FLGS. But they are by the looks of them a couple of sessions minimum. One is aimed at a one on one session (DM plus player).
I also took the opportunity to print out the City of Arches source book as a temporary stop gap until an official version can be purchased (a Kickstarter is planned for later this year).
These have been added to the folder.
I’m not up to going through the official UKGE channels and running a session that people buy tickets for. So in the run up to the UKGE I will try to organise something informal at the show.
In the meantime if an opportunity comes up to run a session at my FLGS I’ll take it as that will help build my confidence.
