#5esrd — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #5esrd, aggregated by home.social.
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Tales of the Valiant, Roll20, and Shard Tabletop
You may or may not have heard that Roll20 had determined that they aren’t going to develop a character sheet for Tales of the Valiant. This may not seem like a big deal, but that means they aren’t going to support Tales of the Valiant in their character builder, and they aren’t going to create the new stat blocks to show up in a character sheet for the new monster stat blocks.
Effectively, nothing fully Tales of the Valiant will be coming to the platform. Yes, this would be disappointing if you want to use Roll20, but can’t you just adapt? First, if you’re like me, you’ve got seven products you backed on Kickstarter with Roll20 add-ons.
Now, that may sound back, but one of those Kickstarters is still in the process of being produced, so that’s only five products behind. All of that is pretty aggravating. But there are a few mitigating factors, which don’t have anything to do with Roll20.
Mitigating Factor Number 1
Shard Tabletop and KoboldPress offer a subscription service for access to Kobold Press’ library on the VTT. For someone like me, who is extremely invested in the Roll20 version of these products, this is a major thing, as we’ll get to in a moment.
Mitigating Factor Number 2
Kobold Press is allowing people to reassign their VTT options, translate their VTT add-ons to store credit or request a refund. None of this is Kobold Press’s fault, so please don’t take any of this frustration as being directed at them.
Roll20 and Implementations
It feels to me like Roll20 announced this quietly on their Discord, and then left it to Kobold Press to break the news to everyone, which sucks since Kobold Press wasn’t the entity that dropped the ball.
Roll20 has been slowly dropping the ball on many “near 5e” conversions over the last few years. They’ve failed to set up a separate compendium and specialized character sheet for Esper Genesis. They’ve failed to implement a sheet for multiple Essence20 games (G.I. Joe, Transformers) properly.They also wholly fumbled the rollout of the Everyday Heroes line of products. Yes, I know; in the meantime, the owner of that particular product line has set fire to as much goodwill as they could . . . however . . . that has nothing to do with the fact that Roll20 couldn’t deliver.
Roll20 recently announced their plans for Demiplane integration, which includes sharing content for some companies across what you own on Demiplane and what you own on Roll20, as well as creating a “crosswalk” that will allow users to use the character sheet from Demiplane on Roll20.
Demiplane’s character builder was designed to be more modular and agile when dealing with implementing various game elements. One of the games they’ve mentioned trying to work this crosswalk with is Marvel Multiverse RPG.
That’s good because the Demiplane version of the character sheet for Marvel Multiverse RPG is much better than the Roll20 version. The character builder is miles ahead, because it’s hard to understand why you have to make decisions on the Roll20 sheet, and it’s harder to modify existing sheets.
I say all of this not because I’m not highly annoyed at Roll20, but because I want to be fair and point out that they have a lot of irons in the fire. All that said, anything 5e adjacent would be sacrificed on the altar of getting the 2024 character sheet to work.
Personal Axes to Grind
It’s not the first time I’ve had something I backed get either nuked or delayed for multiple years because it was more important to chase big money than to fulfill a promise by an RPG-related company, and I guess that’s “normal” in capitalism, but its never fun to know you aren’t the priority.
Especially when you did spend a not insignificant amount of money on a project that may not make the company as much money as another project, but still cost you the same amount regardless of their return on investment. But I’m letting a wee bit of my annoyance at another situation to bleed in.
The last thing I wanted to touch on is my current investment. A few years back, I looked at Shard Tabletop, and even though I didn’t do a deep dive until recently, even back then, I was convinced a dedicated 5e SRD site was much better for running the game than an “everything” site.
Decision Points
From the time I looked at it then, to now, Shard has only gotten better at implementing how 5e games should run. I don’t expect that they will work for everyone, but for how my brain works and for how I play and run games, I’m much happier with how Shard works.
However, when I was ramping up to move my games online, one of the considerations I had to make was how all the material I wanted to use would interact. Despite liking the interface on Shard better, I opted for Roll20, because I couldn’t get official WotC material on Shard.
I could get more of my 5e 3rd party material to work natively with WotC D&D material, so I felt like, ultimately, I wanted to go with the less ideal interface for greater flexibility. So, even though I was tempted to go with Shard for my Kobold Press purchases, I didn’t.
My current campaign is a 2014 5e game set in Kobold Press’s Midgard setting, where most of the players have options from extended 3e WotC products, so it’s not like I haven’t benefited from having all of that working together on one site.
But, if Tales of the Valiant, despite being similar and compatible, is going to be a system that is only fully supported on another site, I want access to everything I can currently use with 5e. Thankfully, the Shard Tabletop Kobold Press subscription allows this.
On Digital “Ownership”
I would much rather “own” everything I “own” on the site where I use the material. I can’t count on Kobold Press or Shard infinitely offering the subscription model, and once it’s gone, that’s a lot of material that I don’t have access to anymore.
Insert [the risk of any particular digital platform closing and you loosing access to things you’ve purchased], I know, I know. But a subscription being discontinued feels like a more immediate concern than an entire site disappearing. The thing that crystallized my frustration at this situation was putting everything from Kobold Press that I own in Roll20 into a spreadsheet and seeing what it would cost me actually to own all of that material on Shard. That comes to almost $900. Ouch.
I know it’s a risk you take in the modern era, with so much content that exists “virtually” or as a service. I’m happy that Shard Tabletop and Kobold Press do offer the subscriptions they offer, so I can run games on the site with all of the things I’m used to using.
But wow, do I wish I could go back to me a few years ago, starting to ramp up my online game materials and tell past me, “no, you can’t keep everything on one platform, so you may as well go with the platform you enjoy using rather than the one with more options.”
#5eSRD #BlackFlagReferenceDocument #Demiplane #dnd #DungeonsDragons #DungeonsDragons2024 #gaming #KoboldPress #Roll20 #rpg #rpgs #ShardTabletop #TalesOfTheValiant #ttrpg #ttrpgs #VTTs
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Ever had that feeling that you just walked into a dangerous area, where something bad could happen, at any moment? @orikes.bsky.social and @whatdoiknowjr.bsky.social talk about lair actions for the #5eSRD game. This episode will start playing on initiative count 20 losing initiative ties.
Thac0 with Advantage 59. Lair ... -
Continuing with adventures I, personally, hadn’t read through from previous editions, and also continuing our trend of looking at the UK series of adventures, our next adventure is Beyond the Crystal Cave. While the plot doesn’t directly follow any one story, there are some elements in this adventure borrowed from Shakespear, most notably with the NPCs the group is hired to find, with their feuding families and forbidden love. While I knew about the AD&D 1e version of the adventure, I only recently realized that this adventure was adapted for a season of D&D Encounters during the D&D 4e era.
As with the previous adventure, I can’t speak to what has been changed from the original, other than what the adventure itself notes. The original lovers who created the Eternal Garden were originally male and female presenting characters, and for this adventure, both original lovers that created The Eternal Garden are women. The archfey that appears in this adventure, the Gardener, was originally The Green Man, a character from real world folk lore.
Original Credits for Beyond the Crystal Cave
Design and Development: David J. Browne, Tom Kirby, Graeme Morris
Editing: Tom Kirby, Carole Morris, Graeme Morris, Don Turnbull
Art: De Leuw, Timothy Truman
Cartography: Graeme Morris
Playtesting: Jim Bambra, Jeanette Blaaser, Clive F. Booth, Michael W. Brunton, Chris Hall, Bill Howard, Kate Kirby, Gary Kirkham, Steve Mote, Chris Rick, Dave Tant, Don Turnbull, Pat WhiteheadArtwork
There are 15 pieces of art in this chapter. This includes nine images drawn from encounters in the adventure, three maps, two-character portraits, and the image of the doorway leading to the adventure that appears on the Infinite Staircase. In addition to the artwork in this chapter, there is also a picture of the Gardener that appears in the stat block appendix to the book.
The opening portrait of the two lovers who originally created the garden is my favorite piece in the book so far. It features the two women in robes of green and purple, surrounded by flowers and greenery, in the company of a young centaur, a treant, and a pair of dryads.
The Framing Device
The wish that Nafas asks the PCs to facilitate is a plea from two formerly waring families to find and bring home their children, who fell in love and ran away from their home. If the PCs aren’t going to be working for Nafas, the suggested hooks include the PCs arriving at the island as part of another trip, or as survivors of a shipwreck, and being recruited by one of the family members. The other hook assumes that the PCs were old friends of the characters and have just learned about their disappearance.
The original adventure was set in Greyhawk, so it’s got a canonical location that the introduction mentions, but it gives suggestions for placing it in Dragonlance, Eberron, and Theros. I wasn’t expecting a Magic setting to be thrown in there, but I like the reference. I appreciate that the Eberron placement mentions the unique planar structure of that setting. The Dragonlance suggestion is to make the children inhabitants of two traditionally unfriendly nations, such as the Qualinesti and the Silvanesti elves, but honestly, make it a Neidar clan dwarf and a Hylar clan dwarf and expand your horizons.
Adventure Overview
Don’t get your heart set on reading through this review if you plan on being a player in this adventure, because there are spoilers on the horizon. Seek your heart’s desire elsewhere and come back to the blog later.
Once the PCs arrive on the isle of Sybarate, they are approached by Governor Folcarae, a member of one of the two formerly feuding families. She explains about the feud, the children running off, and that she has hired multiple adventurers over the past two years to find them. She’s hoping the PCs will have better luck. She gives the PCs their last known location, the Cave of Echoes.
Inside the Cave of Echoes, if the PCs speak too loudly, they get feedback in the form of thunder damage. If they determine that the word “ask” on the wall means something will happen when they ask for assistance, the cave will answer them, potentially gaining the results of up to an 8th level spell, including a response similar to a Divination spell if they ask a general question.
While most of this adventure is designed to be resolved without combat, the cave has a few creatures that can get vicious, including some mud elementals, an ooze, and some poltergeists. The far end of the cave has a portal to the Eternal Garden, where the PCs can find the lost lovers, but they need to find a way to tame the waterfall that’s raining down with enough force that it’s almost a solid wall. There isn’t one solution here, the key is for the PCs to have some kind of creative way of dealing with the waterfall to allow them to pass through it, with some examples provided.
Past the waterfall, the PCs find the portal to the Eternal Garden, which is now a Domain of Delight, a region of the Feywild controlled by an archfey. The PCs arrive in a fairy ring and have some leprechans they can interact with, who provide several limericks that give them clues about the rest of the domain. If you aren’t the type to be able to decipher clues, none of the clues are necessary, but they are helpful.
The PCs can encounter a bronze dragon, some dryads, satyrs, awakened bears, awakened toads, awakened otters, sprites, a treant, centaurs, unicorns, or a chimera. Each one of these encounters provides the PCs the opportunity to learn more about what may have happened to the lovers that ran away and may potentially learn that the inhabitants consider the lovers to be the reincarnation of the creators of the garden, so they’re pretty happy with them sticking around.
There is a location in this domain, the Fountain All Heal, which can provide the effects of spells like Greater Restoration or Heal. However, if you avail yourself of this fountain, you no longer want to leave the domain. The only exceptions are characters that are fey or have fey ancestry. The only way to remove this effect is via a Wish.
Since there isn’t much in the way of combat, unless the PCs are terrible people, there is one encounter where the PCs may be afflicted, and thus tempted to use the fountain. Creatures called barkburs inhabit a grove, and they can turn people affected by their toxin into wood.
Eventually the PCs run into the Gardener, who invites the PCs to sit with them for some refreshments. They may pick up the benefit of the Hero’s Feat spell now, and the Gardener will provide general answers about where the lovers may be, telling the PCs to navigate the Hedge Maze nearby to get more answers.
There is an ongoing puzzle seeded by the leprechauns that will point the PCs at collecting certain leaves. Various locations mention what leaves are available there, so if the PCs have picked up on the clue, they can start gathering what they need. We’ll come back to this.
The Hedge Maze, thankfully, isn’t about navigating an actual maze. Well, it is, but not one that the players must deal with. It takes a group ability check to navigate the maze, but they can also plow through the walls of the maze, if they don’t mind taking damage from the massive thorns that will pierce them as they barrel through. At the center of the maze is a sundial with impressions for different leaves that should be set in it, which will teleport the PCs into the Palace of Spires, where the runaway lovers currently live.
In addition to the lovers Juliana and Orlando, there is another couple, two guards who are also romantic partners, who will protect the palace, Juliana, and Orlando, if threatened. Juliana and Orlando don’t want to leave, because they have both been affected by the fountain. If the PCs find Caerwyn and Porphura’s tomb (the creators of the garden), and they are respectful, the inscription on the tomb instructs them that they can make a wish, which they can use to free anyone from the effects of the fountain. Once Orlando and Juliana are free, the PCs just need to explain that their families are no longer at war to get them to leave.
The PCs need more leaves to teleport back out of the palace courtyard, however, all of the NPCs that live in the palace have tokens of the leaves that can be used to activate the teleportation effect, and some of the NPCs are noted as having an additional set of the leaf tokens. Now, if they tried to raid the tomb, things go downhill. The PCs are confronted by the Gardner and banished from the domain, which changes from a pleasant summer land to a chilling winter domain.
Assuming the PCs don’t upset the Gardener, they can leave with Orlando and Juliana, return them to their families, and collect their reward.
Thoughts on Chapter 4: Beyond the Crystal Cave
I like having more options for adventures that lean more heavily on roleplaying and exploration, although you may want to know how much your party wants that content before you use this back-to-back with When a Star Falls. I am onboard with more archfey being introduced. I would love to have the same kind of diversity in archfey in D&D lore that we already have for creatures like demon lords, archdevils, archoelementals, etc. I wouldn’t mind seeing the literal Green Man as an archfey, since we’ve got lots of other examples of singular planar beings drawn from Earth’s folklore.
I don’t think the leprechaun’s limerick about the leaves is too difficult to follow, but since the leprechans have six total limericks, one of which doesn’t mean anything, and four of with are more foreshadowing then an actual riddle the PCs need to solve to advance the plot, I’m a little concerned about limerick overload and the PCs not knowing what is immediately useful and what isn’t. I appreciate that the PCs aren’t penalized if they don’t think to bring two sets of leaves, so they can leave the palace. I also like that you can blunt force the hedge maze if you don’t manage to navigate it with your group check.
I like all the little interactions with the various creatures that populate the domain. I appreciate the callback to some well-known faerie lore, i.e. its potentially dangerous to eat or drink in the fey realm. This was a fun read through, and I think I would enjoy running it. Ready to look at the next doorway!
If you don’t mind contributing to my ability to pick up new games, and you want to look at some of the history behind this adventure, you can use the affiliate links below. It’s much appreciated!
#33cccc #5eSRD #666699 #BeyondTheCrystalCave #DD #DD5e #dnd #DnD5e #DungeonsDragons #DungeonsDragons5e #DungeonsAndDragons #QuestsFromTheInfiniteStaircase #rpgs #TalesFromTheInfiniteStaircase #ttrpg #ttrpgs
