#playingdd — Public Fediverse posts

How my campaign changes when a new product drops

The recent addition of Drops subscription content to DnD Beyond is going to challenge me.

I’m running only a single intermittent 5e campaign right now. The Ferments uses 2024 as its base set, but permits things from Black Flag, 2014 and A5e in general, with a quick scan to make certain that the addition fits within the campaign themes and the setting’s common lore.

In the past it’s been easy to judge what works and doesn’t. Book releases are heavily themed. Most grimdark will not fit in The World of the Everflow. Dragon stuff always fits. Giant stuff rarely fits. The new dinosaur book added to Beyond fits well in an undiscovered-to-this-point land.

But now there are weekly drops. The player facing stuff needs a quick review. Maps and stickers won’t matter because we aren’t using the Maps VTT. The cosmetics are fine, because they help a player connect with their character.

Teos explains the broader program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJMyKu0cqDw

Evaluating the content to fit The Ferments and The World of the Everflow

First off, the five feats added are all extra planar in a way that has not been explored in our games through the several hundred sessions of play plus writing and backstory. There’s only been a single Warlock.

Those are going to be easy to ignore. If I could toggle them off at the campaign level I would.

• All five feats = no
• Pact Seeker background = with lore tweak and different feat
• Astral Flood = yes, fully
• Buzzing Bee = yes, fully
• Insidious Rhythm = yes, fully
• Leomund’s Lamentable Belaborment = yes, fully
• Sticks to Snakes= yes, but DM content only

The Pact seeker background doesn’t fit as written. The lore doesn’t work because of the demand that the pact is extraplanar, but if a player wanted to rework that and take a new origin feat it would be allowed. Maybe they are seeking a pact with a religious figure, an elder dragon, a scholar or something similar.

There are also five spells in the first Drops.

Astral flood fits unchanged. The Astral and Ethereal are somewhat merged in my world and opening that up to the physical realm would be devastating.

Buzzing bee is excellent. My first encounter with Bee was the useless cantrip from Unearthed Arcana back in the 80s. This is better and needed. It fits the use of animals for the Kin too.

Insidious Rhythm is a fun spell too. The magic of performance by Bards and others would be the path of introduction.

Leomund’s Lamentable Belaborment may not fit combat well. It does fit in social and political settings. Players will definitely find a way to turn a crowded room into a debate-disaster.

Sticks to Snakes is a classic spell, but this version is quite underpowered for 2024. It adds in-combat complexity for low damage. It reads more like a 2nd level spell and not a 4th. For narrative purposes it fits the world well. But it’s a waste for a player. This will be DM content only.

Eleven player facing items this week needed to be reviewed. Next week there will be more. And then there will be more. And more.

It’s going to be too much.

And each drop and each book from every publisher stretches and pushes a world. But fantasy worlds are not only defined by being permissive. They are also defined by what’s forbidden.

Every world a DM and their tables creates can choose to be a global fantasy (kitchen sink) or be as neatly defined as the group wants.

With Drops the default in the Everflow will not be for permission, but to evaluate what a player wants to add as they want to add it in order for us to continue to explore the themes of the world — how strong can the love between person and animal be, who gets to control access to knowledge, how can our local connections make the world better for most.

How my campaign changes when a new product drops

The recent addition of Drops subscription content to DnD Beyond is going to challenge me.

I’m running only a single intermittent 5e campaign right now. The Ferments uses 2024 as its base set, but permits things from Black Flag, 2014 and A5e in general, with a quick scan to make certain that the addition fits within the campaign themes and the setting’s common lore.

In the past it’s been easy to judge what works and doesn’t. Book releases are heavily themed. Most grimdark will not fit in The World of the Everflow. Dragon stuff always fits. Giant stuff rarely fits. The new dinosaur book added to Beyond fits well in an undiscovered-to-this-point land.

But now there are weekly drops. The player facing stuff needs a quick review. Maps and stickers won’t matter because we aren’t using the Maps VTT. The cosmetics are fine, because they help a player connect with their character.

Teos explains the broader program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJMyKu0cqDw

Evaluating the content to fit The Ferments and The World of the Everflow

First off, the five feats added are all extra planar in a way that has not been explored in our games through the several hundred sessions of play plus writing and backstory. There’s only been a single Warlock.

Those are going to be easy to ignore. If I could toggle them off at the campaign level I would.

• All five feats = no
• Pact Seeker background = with lore tweak and different feat
• Astral Flood = yes, fully
• Buzzing Bee = yes, fully
• Insidious Rhythm = yes, fully
• Leomund’s Lamentable Belaborment = yes, fully
• Sticks to Snakes= yes, but DM content only

The Pact seeker background doesn’t fit as written. The lore doesn’t work because of the demand that the pact is extraplanar, but if a player wanted to rework that and take a new origin feat it would be allowed. Maybe they are seeking a pact with a religious figure, an elder dragon, a scholar or something similar.

There are also five spells in the first Drops.

Astral flood fits unchanged. The Astral and Ethereal are somewhat merged in my world and opening that up to the physical realm would be devastating.

Buzzing bee is excellent. My first encounter with Bee was the useless cantrip from Unearthed Arcana back in the 80s. This is better and needed. It fits the use of animals for the Kin too.

Insidious Rhythm is a fun spell too. The magic of performance by Bards and others would be the path of introduction.

Leomund’s Lamentable Belaborment may not fit combat well. It does fit in social and political settings. Players will definitely find a way to turn a crowded room into a debate-disaster.

Sticks to Snakes is a classic spell, but this version is quite underpowered for 2024. It adds in-combat complexity for low damage. It reads more like a 2nd level spell and not a 4th. For narrative purposes it fits the world well. But it’s a waste for a player. This will be DM content only.

Eleven player facing items this week needed to be reviewed. Next week there will be more. And then there will be more. And more.

It’s going to be too much.

And each drop and each book from every publisher stretches and pushes a world. But fantasy worlds are not only defined by being permissive. They are also defined by what’s forbidden.

Every world a DM and their tables creates can choose to be a global fantasy (kitchen sink) or be as neatly defined as the group wants.

With Drops the default in the Everflow will not be for permission, but to evaluate what a player wants to add as they want to add it in order for us to continue to explore the themes of the world — how strong can the love between person and animal be, who gets to control access to knowledge, how can our local connections make the world better for most.

How my campaign changes when a new product drops

The recent addition of Drops subscription content to DnD Beyond is going to challenge me.

I’m running only a single intermittent 5e campaign right now. The Ferments uses 2024 as its base set, but permits things from Black Flag, 2014 and A5e in general, with a quick scan to make certain that the addition fits within the campaign themes and the setting’s common lore.

In the past it’s been easy to judge what works and doesn’t. Book releases are heavily themed. Most grimdark will not fit in The World of the Everflow. Dragon stuff always fits. Giant stuff rarely fits. The new dinosaur book added to Beyond fits well in an undiscovered-to-this-point land.

But now there are weekly drops. The player facing stuff needs a quick review. Maps and stickers won’t matter because we aren’t using the Maps VTT. The cosmetics are fine, because they help a player connect with their character.

Teos explains the broader program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJMyKu0cqDw

Evaluating the content to fit The Ferments and The World of the Everflow

First off, the five feats added are all extra planar in a way that has not been explored in our games through the several hundred sessions of play plus writing and backstory. There’s only been a single Warlock.

Those are going to be easy to ignore. If I could toggle them off at the campaign level I would.

• All five feats = no
• Pact Seeker background = with lore tweak and different feat
• Astral Flood = yes, fully
• Buzzing Bee = yes, fully
• Insidious Rhythm = yes, fully
• Leomund’s Lamentable Belaborment = yes, fully
• Sticks to Snakes= yes, but DM content only

The Pact seeker background doesn’t fit as written. The lore doesn’t work because of the demand that the pact is extraplanar, but if a player wanted to rework that and take a new origin feat it would be allowed. Maybe they are seeking a pact with a religious figure, an elder dragon, a scholar or something similar.

There are also five spells in the first Drops.

Astral flood fits unchanged. The Astral and Ethereal are somewhat merged in my world and opening that up to the physical realm would be devastating.

Buzzing bee is excellent. My first encounter with Bee was the useless cantrip from Unearthed Arcana back in the 80s. This is better and needed. It fits the use of animals for the Kin too.

Insidious Rhythm is a fun spell too. The magic of performance by Bards and others would be the path of introduction.

Leomund’s Lamentable Belaborment may not fit combat well. It does fit in social and political settings. Players will definitely find a way to turn a crowded room into a debate-disaster.

Sticks to Snakes is a classic spell, but this version is quite underpowered for 2024. It adds in-combat complexity for low damage. It reads more like a 2nd level spell and not a 4th. For narrative purposes it fits the world well. But it’s a waste for a player. This will be DM content only.

Eleven player facing items this week needed to be reviewed. Next week there will be more. And then there will be more. And more.

It’s going to be too much.

And each drop and each book from every publisher stretches and pushes a world. But fantasy worlds are not only defined by being permissive. They are also defined by what’s forbidden.

Every world a DM and their tables creates can choose to be a global fantasy (kitchen sink) or be as neatly defined as the group wants.

With Drops the default in the Everflow will not be for permission, but to evaluate what a player wants to add as they want to add it in order for us to continue to explore the themes of the world — how strong can the love between person and animal be, who gets to control access to knowledge, how can our local connections make the world better for most.

How my campaign changes when a new product drops

The recent addition of Drops subscription content to DnD Beyond is going to challenge me.

I’m running only a single intermittent 5e campaign right now. The Ferments uses 2024 as its base set, but permits things from Black Flag, 2014 and A5e in general, with a quick scan to make certain that the addition fits within the campaign themes and the setting’s common lore.

In the past it’s been easy to judge what works and doesn’t. Book releases are heavily themed. Most grimdark will not fit in The World of the Everflow. Dragon stuff always fits. Giant stuff rarely fits. The new dinosaur book added to Beyond fits well in an undiscovered-to-this-point land.

But now there are weekly drops. The player facing stuff needs a quick review. Maps and stickers won’t matter because we aren’t using the Maps VTT. The cosmetics are fine, because they help a player connect with their character.

Teos explains the broader program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJMyKu0cqDw

Evaluating the content to fit The Ferments and The World of the Everflow

First off, the five feats added are all extra planar in a way that has not been explored in our games through the several hundred sessions of play plus writing and backstory. There’s only been a single Warlock.

Those are going to be easy to ignore. If I could toggle them off at the campaign level I would.

• All five feats = no
• Pact Seeker background = with lore tweak and different feat
• Astral Flood = yes, fully
• Buzzing Bee = yes, fully
• Insidious Rhythm = yes, fully
• Leomund’s Lamentable Belaborment = yes, fully
• Sticks to Snakes= yes, but DM content only

The Pact seeker background doesn’t fit as written. The lore doesn’t work because of the demand that the pact is extraplanar, but if a player wanted to rework that and take a new origin feat it would be allowed. Maybe they are seeking a pact with a religious figure, an elder dragon, a scholar or something similar.

There are also five spells in the first Drops.

Astral flood fits unchanged. The Astral and Ethereal are somewhat merged in my world and opening that up to the physical realm would be devastating.

Buzzing bee is excellent. My first encounter with Bee was the useless cantrip from Unearthed Arcana back in the 80s. This is better and needed. It fits the use of animals for the Kin too.

Insidious Rhythm is a fun spell too. The magic of performance by Bards and others would be the path of introduction.

Leomund’s Lamentable Belaborment may not fit combat well. It does fit in social and political settings. Players will definitely find a way to turn a crowded room into a debate-disaster.

Sticks to Snakes is a classic spell, but this version is quite underpowered for 2024. It adds in-combat complexity for low damage. It reads more like a 2nd level spell and not a 4th. For narrative purposes it fits the world well. But it’s a waste for a player. This will be DM content only.

Eleven player facing items this week needed to be reviewed. Next week there will be more. And then there will be more. And more.

It’s going to be too much.

And each drop and each book from every publisher stretches and pushes a world. But fantasy worlds are not only defined by being permissive. They are also defined by what’s forbidden.

Every world a DM and their tables creates can choose to be a global fantasy (kitchen sink) or be as neatly defined as the group wants.

With Drops the default in the Everflow will not be for permission, but to evaluate what a player wants to add as they want to add it in order for us to continue to explore the themes of the world — how strong can the love between person and animal be, who gets to control access to knowledge, how can our local connections make the world better for most.

Using Feats to expand your setting: Church of Quar

In the new Forgotten Realms books, Strixhaven, 5e Dragonlance and a recent Unearthed Arcana official D&D is using Feat trees/chains. Every published instance so far is a set of two.

While there are mechanical reasons to have tiered Feats every expression to this point also leans quite heavily into the story elements added. In Strixhaven the feat-taker goes from early student to late in the class. In Dragonlance a squire becomes a knight. In the Realms you are early in a Faction and then a powerful member of it.

The Feat helps tell the story in ways that a subclass wouldn’t because in all cases the feat has two expressions in Tier 1 available where a subclass gets a single expression. By the end of Tier 2 a subclass gets two expressions while a Feat chain can be up to four. There’s more space for story.

An initiate becoming an expert is the most common example. The chain (I prefer that to tree as the published versions are two options linked) naturally fit this.

Let’s explore how a Feat chain could tell a story in my homebrew world by looking at three feats connected to the Church of Quar.

In the Six Kingdoms of the World of the Everflow the Church of Quar is a hybrid church-healing center-merchant guild. It controls access to the healing waters of the Everflow at the Font of Two Paths in Telse. Their tongue became the common language of the Six Kingdoms because of the strong influence of their healing elixir in a world without magic.

No faith, no kingdom, no magic school after magic returned to the land has the influence of the Church of Quar. They’re in every town. That does not mean that every town has an Acolyte, a formal role represented by a member of the faith who is becoming a hero.

The following three feats expand the story of the Church of Quar for heroes (and villains) using the Feat system.

Acolyte of Quar

Origin Feat

You gain the following benefits.

Cultured. You learn an additional culture (or language).

Balm of rest. During a Short Rest you create a balm using a Healing Potion that removes one level of exhaustion and grants the creature advantage on a saving throw versus one condition with a save.

Blessing of the Everflow. When you administer a Healing Potion to a creature they may use a Hit Die to heal as well as gain the benefits from the Healing Potion.

Minister of Quar

Feat (prerequisites: Acolyte of Quar, 4th+ level)

You gain the following benefits.

+1 to Charisma or Wisdom

Oratory. You have Advantage when using Influence Action with Indifferent or Friendly peoples with which you share a culture or language (and Hostile creatures who are members of the Church of Quar).

Lord of Life. You learn the Aid spell and may cast it one time a day without using a spell slot. It becomes a known spell for you.

Lord of Rivers. You know how to create a Healing Potion (vial of Everflow) with only water and herbs. This lesser potion costs only 5 gp and can be created during a Short Rest. This potion is only half as effective as a standard Healing Potion. Sharing this concept is forbidden.

Free Minister of Quar

Feat (prerequisites: Acolyte of Quar, membership in the Reformed Church, 4th+ level)

You gain the following benefits.

+1 to Charisma or Constitution

Rivers and Roads. You learn two cultures or languages and the Religion skill (or another skill if you are already proficient). You have Advantage on Constitution checks brought about by Environmental Effects.

First Aid: Taking one minute you can grant a Hit Point to a stabilized creature. They are also subjected to Blessings of the Everflow if you have a Healing Potion available.

Together these dual Feat chains tell the story behind the Orthodox and Reformed Churches of Quar.

In just the tiniest bits of flavor text you see examples of how two branches of the faith are different, not just in their ability to be heroes, but what is expected from their most ardent believers.

Where a subclass gains features at 3rd, 6th and 10th level (mostly). Classes have feats at 1st, 4th, 8th, 12th (mostly). By 8th level a member of Quar’s faith could take all three faith feats, going on a journey from being part of a merchant-church to dedicated hedge healer.

This story doesn’t need to be connected to a class because they aren’t spellcasters. Plus, in the fiction inspiring the game contains people who are faithful without being clerics or druids or paladins.

Maybe another feat deals with Quars pantheon. After being an Acolyte of Quar the individual is a Devotee to Belsem the Untamed (leaning into animal companionship?) or a Teacher (adherent to Glight becoming an expert at knowing things). These would emphasize branching, which fits the pantheon.

The other pantheons may start dispersed and then unify (The Siblilngs) or emphasize bonding (Az and Sel) or only be about fellowship (Mehmd’s faith).

Maybe an aspect of your world is a military organization and feats could be ranks or branches. Does your world lean into magical schools like Strixhaven? A feat chain from underclass, to senior student, to teacher, to dean could work. A setting that anchors the horrors of the environment could use feats as a way to describe various paths to survival (water, shelter, food, community).

Feats are a discreet, light space that empowers all classes to carry bits of lore that connect to the world mechanically.

This isn’t something I talk about publicly much. The stutter and the lisp are a large part of the reason that when I worked full time in sports radio I was an off-air producer. Once in a while the on-air people would mock me.

Years later I would appear as a subject matter expert on those same shows.

I’ve also hosted 100s of podcasts, appeared on many dozen more. I used to be an analyst on ESPN+. I’ve been the MC for crowd events of four figures. Even now I host and sometimes appear as an analyst on security briefings.

Some people may have noticed the stutter. Others might not have. But it’s always something I think about while prepping. I also avoid words that would trigger the lisp — these happen to include the most common names I like for fantasy characters, which isn’t ironic. I think I like those names in writing because I struggle to say them. The lisp will often trigger bad stuttering.

Once upon a time I spent several hours a week in speech therapy for the stutter and lisp. I don’t remember those lessons consciously. They seep into how I grew up and who I became.

Somehow I won trophies in competitive speech while in high school. The stutter was still there.

It was there haunting me today in the Global Security Briefing. It haunts me when I DM. It haunts me when I’m a player.

One of my compensations is to spit out words as rapidly as possible. I don’t permit my mind to pause and think. I just do it, rapidly. My current character Xabal talks this way at the table. It’s easy for me to channel because it’s something I do. Xabal is an Artificer, inherently magical and constantly tinkering. Their speech pattern is part of them and has no impact on their magic or heroism. It’s just who they are.

I think that’s important when you consider playing a character with a stutter, lisp or other ‘issue’ with language. I’m not a weak speaker. It’s nearly been a profession for me. Xabal is different because of their speech, but isn’t weaker because of that.

I know coaches, other broadcasters and pro athletes that stutter. They are very good at their jobs. Yes, like me there are times when they doubt, when they compensate. But they aren’t lesser. They have a trait.

If you play a character with a stutter recognize that this is a trait. Don’t play it as a weakness. Don’t play it as a strength. It is a state of being.

I’ve been rewatching Agents of SHIELD lately. Early in the story cycle Leopold Fitz suffers an injury that causes him to stutter, but it’s because of a brain injury. In this case actor Iain De Caestecker was using the struggle to find the perfect word as a character element that was initially a weakness, but became a state of being.

Watching and rewatching Leopold Fitz develop and not-quite-conquer the stutter helped me open up about my own lisp and stutter. Because De Caestecker isn’t mocking me and others. He’s honoring that struggle. He also does a brilliant job of removing the in-character stutter during the season 4 Framework arc when Fitz is again his whole self, mentally.

I don’t get to remove my stutter.

I’ve listened back to various podcast and broadcast appearances and know when it has happened. I speed up in a way that harms communication because I don’t want to get th-th-th-that moment. I don’t want the obscenely long pause as my brain can’t tell my mouth the words to use.

So I go fast. It’s part of why I was decent at cross-ex and impromptu. I could spew words out rapidly.

But also there are times when I lose track. These tend to be emotional moments. My practice and therapy disappear. Since it happens at highly emotional moments and then the pause or micro-chunks of words happen I get interrupted.

That’s probably the time I get the angriest about the stutter — the interruptions (this is also where De Caestecker got it right). My state of being stops being valued. People can’t wait for me to find the proper word.

I don’t know why this is going up on my mostly D&D blog at this time. Probably because of Agents of SHIELD, probably because of the passing of James Earl Jones a few weeks, who I didn’t know stuttered until he passed. Jones is one of my favorite voices ever. His work in Star Wars, Field of Dreams and as the voice of CNN were inspiring to me, a dream voice that I wish I had!

And yet as a youth who loved those performances I didn’t know a stutterer could be one of the grandest voices in the world. Maybe that knowledge would have helped me be a better speaker, maybe I would have been a radio host.

I’m in a great place without that knowledge. But Jones passing caused me to wonder about my youth.

If you’re a D&D reader who has stuck through this long, remember — a stutter isn’t a weakness. If you don’t have a stutter don’t use a character with a stutter as inspiration for a Wild Mage. If you do have a stutter channeling that trait into magic would be awesome.

Yes, that’s the same general guidance for playing other characteristics that you don’t have. It’s not a joke. It’s not a weakness. It is. And no, I’m not stuttering right now.

https://fullmoonstorytelling.com/2024/11/07/i-stutter-sometimes-a-little-sometimes-a-lot/

#acting #broadcasting #debate #personalEssay #PlayingDD #RolePlaying #stutter #stuttering