#rpgwriter — Public Fediverse posts

Freedom Day Five Years In.

It’s really been five years since they gave me the boot.

First off, let me start with saying, “no regrets.” Let me be the first to say I don’t miss the corporate grind or the corporate culture in the slightest. I definitely don’t miss four nights on, four nights off rotating while working 12-hour shifts. I certainly don’t miss the management.

As the Weird Al song Amish Paradise says, “I really don’t care, in fact I wish him (them) well
‘Cause I’ll be laughing my head off when he’s (they’re) burning in Hell”

That particular company will always have a spot of disdain and loathing with me for the rest of my life just given the way that last year went. (I still have PTSD from the butt chewings.) I won’t set foot in one of their establishments, and my family is free to do so only as long as I don’t hear about it. (LOL!)

But hey, I should be grateful, right?

That’s true. I am grateful. I’m more grateful to my loving wife for not kicking me to the curb during the lowest point of my whole life up to that point. But not having the burden of a regular job also came at the financial cost of not having a regular job.

About the time unemployment benefits ran out and the whole insane disability application process got rolling, I realized that being broke kinda sucks. Luckily for me I write from home. I hate being around people in general and don’t leave the house unless there’s no other alternative. Funny how no one in their right mind wants to hire me and I’m really, really okay with that fact.

Fast Forward four years and here we are.

It’s wonderful how I can never leave the house and still have plenty of things to talk about here within my own adorable little niche corner of the Internet. I’m glad I held off on the spiritual/self help guru idea that I had back in 2019-2020. I’m still following UFO/UAP, ET Experiencers, and paranormal topics daily; but again I’m not pursuing those interests past learning more about the subjects.

The way things are now I only deal with the people I want to have in my life or want to meet. If you’re in my kinda inner circle, family, tribe, (whatever-we’re-calling-it-today) chances are it’s because I really want you here. I don’t bestow that level of trust lightly since July 2021.

My hobby is one of the few things that keep me going.

Yeah, I know I likely would benefit from therapy. I sure can’t wait to inflict my own brand of weirdness upon the next unsuspecting therapist. If I wasn’t flunking every depression questionnaire the doctor hands me plus I’m already medicated to the nines for depression and anxiety. I wish some of these medical folks would just accept that I’m not meant to function in neurotypical society.

That’s one of the interesting parts of being a tabletop roleplaying gamer. We accept just about everybody. That has not changed since the dawn first broke over the hobby. Almost every gamer I’ve ever known has been just a wee bit different than most people around them. I’ve earned the right to fly my freak flag high at this point and will gladly continue doing so for as long as I’m around. Contrary to what some of these new kids in the hobby might say, we never turned anyone away based on gender, disability, political stance (*except Nazis,) religion, LGBTQIA+ affiliation, neurodiversity, or any other differences you can name. There were just too few of us in those days and chances are if you fit into our gaming group, you fit into our lives elsewhere, too.

Turning my passion for TTRPGs into sort of a job amongst YouTube, this blog, and DriveThruRPG has given me many more reasons to get up every day. I wouldn’t say it’s a “job” so much as a calling. If I wasn’t constantly involved in some aspect of my hobby, what would I be doing? Would I not be miserable doing so? I figured out in early 2022 this is where I belong.

This blog has been my lifeline.

When I did what I would call a rebranding in 2022, after spending over six months laying on the couch playing Fortnite, I decided to blog every single day. I felt like I was checking in even if I was barking in the dark. It gave me something to look forward to every day. Obviously not the same as a cash-paying job and we’re still no closer to monetization now than we were then, but at least it’s something regular. For nearly three years I felt compelled to do it daily even if I didn’t have much to say.

I finally relaxed a little bit on blogging after YouTube began to take off. Now, we still have a long, long way to go on YouTube on multiple fronts. As soon as the kids go back to school or the weather cools off significantly here in Iowa, I will resume creating audio to go with some sort of visuals. I’ve got plenty of video topics I want to cover as soon as I can go without being interrupted. The blog is a lot easier to get around to doing as long as I’m not getting the “Hey Dad!” every ten minutes. It’s gotten better, though.

DriveThruRPG is a different animal. I love publishing on there. I have so many ideas and so little time sometimes. I know I might sound delusional, but I have notebooks filling up with sourcebook ideas, adventures, tables, and all kinds of other things that I haven’t done here yet. There’s always been a disconnect between the blog and the projects. When I hit certain blogging milestones, I plan to change all of that.

I’m still around in one form or another. I’m still creating content for various platforms. Still a good duck. (Yippee!)

I’m my own employer and my own best employee.

As much as I joke about The OG GM being my boss, I’m really only held accountable for my actions here and elsewhere by one guy; me. I write the schedules. I create the deadlines. I revise everything when I have a pain flare, the depression hits like a ton of bricks, or one of the kids comes home sick from school. Hey, I never said I was perfect. Stuff happens. That’s life.

I would gladly accept a bag full of money; a position writing for an established TTRPG company; one of my own works to “go viral;” my entire DriveThruRPG wish list to be cleaned off and on its way to my house; all expense paid trips to conventions to speak on TTRPG related topics; and a private studio to record YouTube videos, but that’s all vision board stuff. Those are what my markers for success right now. I’d be happy for a cup of coffee and a quiet conversation about a game these days. Or just peace and quiet…

As always, more to come. I’m plugging away at several things and staying disconnected from social media (for the most part) has helped with the FOMO and imposter syndrome. I’m getting more done or what I feel are more meaningful things done. This article series might be ending or not depending on how I feel about it a month from now.

There is no adequate substitute for having my time free to pursue the things I want to go after in the way I want to do it. I love and respect you if you’re still in the daily struggle. I get it. Do what you gotta do to get by. But if the opportunity to do what you love and still get paid for it comes around, please say “Yes.”

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#Blog #PersonalShare #Personalblog #Personalfreedom #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #life #mentalHealth #TTRPG #writing

Freedom Day Five Years In.

It’s really been five years since they gave me the boot.

First off, let me start with saying, “no regrets.” Let me be the first to say I don’t miss the corporate grind or the corporate culture in the slightest. I definitely don’t miss four nights on, four nights off rotating while working 12-hour shifts. I certainly don’t miss the management.

As the Weird Al song Amish Paradise says, “I really don’t care, in fact I wish him (them) well
‘Cause I’ll be laughing my head off when he’s (they’re) burning in Hell”

That particular company will always have a spot of disdain and loathing with me for the rest of my life just given the way that last year went. (I still have PTSD from the butt chewings.) I won’t set foot in one of their establishments, and my family is free to do so only as long as I don’t hear about it. (LOL!)

But hey, I should be grateful, right?

That’s true. I am grateful. I’m more grateful to my loving wife for not kicking me to the curb during the lowest point of my whole life up to that point. But not having the burden of a regular job also came at the financial cost of not having a regular job.

About the time unemployment benefits ran out and the whole insane disability application process got rolling, I realized that being broke kinda sucks. Luckily for me I write from home. I hate being around people in general and don’t leave the house unless there’s no other alternative. Funny how no one in their right mind wants to hire me and I’m really, really okay with that fact.

Fast Forward four years and here we are.

It’s wonderful how I can never leave the house and still have plenty of things to talk about here within my own adorable little niche corner of the Internet. I’m glad I held off on the spiritual/self help guru idea that I had back in 2019-2020. I’m still following UFO/UAP, ET Experiencers, and paranormal topics daily; but again I’m not pursuing those interests past learning more about the subjects.

The way things are now I only deal with the people I want to have in my life or want to meet. If you’re in my kinda inner circle, family, tribe, (whatever-we’re-calling-it-today) chances are it’s because I really want you here. I don’t bestow that level of trust lightly since July 2021.

My hobby is one of the few things that keep me going.

Yeah, I know I likely would benefit from therapy. I sure can’t wait to inflict my own brand of weirdness upon the next unsuspecting therapist. If I wasn’t flunking every depression questionnaire the doctor hands me plus I’m already medicated to the nines for depression and anxiety. I wish some of these medical folks would just accept that I’m not meant to function in neurotypical society.

That’s one of the interesting parts of being a tabletop roleplaying gamer. We accept just about everybody. That has not changed since the dawn first broke over the hobby. Almost every gamer I’ve ever known has been just a wee bit different than most people around them. I’ve earned the right to fly my freak flag high at this point and will gladly continue doing so for as long as I’m around. Contrary to what some of these new kids in the hobby might say, we never turned anyone away based on gender, disability, political stance (*except Nazis,) religion, LGBTQIA+ affiliation, neurodiversity, or any other differences you can name. There were just too few of us in those days and chances are if you fit into our gaming group, you fit into our lives elsewhere, too.

Turning my passion for TTRPGs into sort of a job amongst YouTube, this blog, and DriveThruRPG has given me many more reasons to get up every day. I wouldn’t say it’s a “job” so much as a calling. If I wasn’t constantly involved in some aspect of my hobby, what would I be doing? Would I not be miserable doing so? I figured out in early 2022 this is where I belong.

This blog has been my lifeline.

When I did what I would call a rebranding in 2022, after spending over six months laying on the couch playing Fortnite, I decided to blog every single day. I felt like I was checking in even if I was barking in the dark. It gave me something to look forward to every day. Obviously not the same as a cash-paying job and we’re still no closer to monetization now than we were then, but at least it’s something regular. For nearly three years I felt compelled to do it daily even if I didn’t have much to say.

I finally relaxed a little bit on blogging after YouTube began to take off. Now, we still have a long, long way to go on YouTube on multiple fronts. As soon as the kids go back to school or the weather cools off significantly here in Iowa, I will resume creating audio to go with some sort of visuals. I’ve got plenty of video topics I want to cover as soon as I can go without being interrupted. The blog is a lot easier to get around to doing as long as I’m not getting the “Hey Dad!” every ten minutes. It’s gotten better, though.

DriveThruRPG is a different animal. I love publishing on there. I have so many ideas and so little time sometimes. I know I might sound delusional, but I have notebooks filling up with sourcebook ideas, adventures, tables, and all kinds of other things that I haven’t done here yet. There’s always been a disconnect between the blog and the projects. When I hit certain blogging milestones, I plan to change all of that.

I’m still around in one form or another. I’m still creating content for various platforms. Still a good duck. (Yippee!)

I’m my own employer and my own best employee.

As much as I joke about The OG GM being my boss, I’m really only held accountable for my actions here and elsewhere by one guy; me. I write the schedules. I create the deadlines. I revise everything when I have a pain flare, the depression hits like a ton of bricks, or one of the kids comes home sick from school. Hey, I never said I was perfect. Stuff happens. That’s life.

I would gladly accept a bag full of money; a position writing for an established TTRPG company; one of my own works to “go viral;” my entire DriveThruRPG wish list to be cleaned off and on its way to my house; all expense paid trips to conventions to speak on TTRPG related topics; and a private studio to record YouTube videos, but that’s all vision board stuff. Those are what my markers for success right now. I’d be happy for a cup of coffee and a quiet conversation about a game these days. Or just peace and quiet…

As always, more to come. I’m plugging away at several things and staying disconnected from social media (for the most part) has helped with the FOMO and imposter syndrome. I’m getting more done or what I feel are more meaningful things done. This article series might be ending or not depending on how I feel about it a month from now.

There is no adequate substitute for having my time free to pursue the things I want to go after in the way I want to do it. I love and respect you if you’re still in the daily struggle. I get it. Do what you gotta do to get by. But if the opportunity to do what you love and still get paid for it comes around, please say “Yes.”

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#Blog #PersonalShare #Personalblog #Personalfreedom #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #life #mentalHealth #TTRPG #writing

What’s Going On Wednesday?

A certain degree of silence will follow.

It’s Gen Con time again. Various DungeonTubers and others are already talking about the awesome time they’re going to have all over social media. And I’m just not feeling it this year. I might be just a tad bitter this year.

Last year would have been a perfect storm for me to go and ask lots of questions, sit in on some panels, seminars, etc. There are normally game company reps and higher ups at this particular convention. It’s supposed to be THE convention to go to every year. The traditional logic of decades past was that if you went to one major convention in a year, save back for Gen Con.

Why is this one convention so important?

The last few years have taught me the importance of in-person networking. I’ve seen a couple of guys go from being virtual unknowns in the hobby to having writing gigs, recognitions, panel appearances at other cons and so on after going to Gen Con and getting their name out there. This past two years I’ve watched a couple of people really make a name for themselves and it started at Gen Con.

[Side Note: It looks like I’m straw-manning this, but I’m keeping with my tradition of not naming specific people on the off chance that someone takes offense to me mentioning them by name. Right now there are some serious creative differences between myself and a couple of YouTube personalities who I was (?) pretty close friends with, or so I thought, over the use of AI. I’m sure that will be a hot-button issue at Gen Con, too.]

Don’t get me wrong, I’m more than happy for people who find any degree of success in the hobby, industry, or just life in general. Good for them. That’s lovely, really. I’m happy for them. My point here is that it often starts by going to a major convention, such as Gen Con, and doing the networking, getting one’s name out there, meeting some of the “big names” in the industry, etc. Basically doing things that can’t be done remotely outside of a major gaming convention.

The sad reality is we don’t all get to go.

In years past I’ve been stuck here at home due to family commitments. School activities are getting going for my wife and kids. Money is always tight with back-to-school shopping, activity fees, and more recently my bloody unemployment. I know for a fact I’m not the only one in this boat. There are plenty of responsible adults out there who have to stay home during Gen Con week for one reason or another. I get it. When I was working it usually amounted to not being able to get the time off.

I truly empathize with the people who have to stay at home and be all responsible, reliable, and dependable while members of their group go off to party for five days at Gen Con. A lot of times it leaves the rest of us looking for something to do since regular gaming activities are cancelled. As an upside, it can be a great time to run one-shots or try out new games that have been sitting on the shelf for a while.

Personally, it bothers me that I’m stuck here in corn hell bumf*ck nowhere Iowa with no one to talk to aside from family, cats, and the Internet. Now that the nest is becoming a bit emptier I’m hoping to build a career in the TTRPG industry because it’s been my number one passion for decades now. (Minus the spiritual awakening phase, but even then it just made me more grateful for who I am and what I have now.)

What to do when the Internet is abuzz with Gen Con talk?

My main source of contact with the “outside world” became rife with Gen Con talk last year. I caught a major depressive episode. I was still safe, just really, really sad. I do not want a repeat of that incident.

Call me any name you’d like I guess since my main point of contact with the outside world is the Internet. Maybe that’s still unusual. I don’t know. What I do know is that my local TTRPG scene is pretty, uh, shabby. Not promising to me, anyway, but that’s a whole different article.

So I came up with a new plan this year. I’m going to stop consuming that part of YouTube and social media in general for about the next five weeks. I can schedule posts. WordPress uploads directly to some sites, so if you see my post that’s probably why. Otherwise, I have playlists full of ASMR, Law of Attraction, Affinity tutorials, and a lot of other things to catch up on. I’ll still be around to check private messages and wish The OG GM a happy birthday.

This hiatus also coincides with the Deathbringer crowdfunding campaign which I am eternally grateful to be missing. Most anticipated game of 2026? Deathbringer. The thing Professor DM has been going on about for however many years now finally coming out as Shadowdark? Thanks, but no thanks unless I’m offered a free review copy and we all know I’m such a small fry that will never happen. I don’t have the hundred plus dollars it would take to buy into that franchise, and I already have my game for 2026 on my devices. It’s called Twilight Sword and I really like it. (Full review to come at a later date.)

So off I go for now…

I’ll still check messages on X (Twitter,) Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, Mastodon, email, and my phone. I’m still around if anyone needs/wants to get in touch. I’m just not going to be actively scrolling for anything or digging through entire accounts because I like their pics. (Wait. Did that last part sound sketchy? I love artists, bunnies, and kittens.) The OG GM has assured me he has enough new channels to go a while on Saturdays.)

And as I was saying, there will still be scheduled content, just nothing terribly topical unless it comes to me directly for some reason. Let con season come and go. If you’re stuck home like me, just make the best of it with whoever or whatever you have on hand. If you’re going, have fun but please do not mention it to me directly. Stay out of trouble. Enjoy yourself.

Try solo gaming. Read a book. Take a nap. It’s all good.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter

Monday Monster: Coychure

For use with the Dragonbane RPG.

Coychure

Description:
Once someone encounters the Coychure, they can’t unsee it. Some have gone so far as to beg Mentalists to erase it from their minds. This nocturnal predator causes other cryptids to flee at the very sight of it.

It is unclear where this creature originated. Some say it is a demon, others say it was hatched in a mad Archmage’s laboratory. Deep research, as best that can be done by scholars at present, suggests that more than one of these beasts indicate they came from a pocket dimension or subplane. One victim driven mad by the Coychure claimed that it came from a strange puzzle box along with other nightmares.

Its most striking feature are its two mouths, one lupine, the other more human. Its eyes are similar to a bee, set farther back on the skull. It has a body of a coyote, wings like a vulture, warped, distorted limbs similar to vulture talons. The Coychure’s tail is almost reptilian, but also similar to a fish. Its body is covered in a mix of fur, feathers, and scales making its actual body very difficult to identify.

One interesting thing about this monster is that its flesh and even bone dissolves when it is slain, making any sort of identification impossible. Once slain the creature turns to a sizzling puddle of goo withing one Stretch. Contact with the goo deals 1d4 acid damage and burns for one Stretch unless neutralized or washed off.

Resistance:
The Coychure is immune to effects requiring a WIL roll such as Fear or mind control. Also immune to acid and poison. Takes half damage from non-magical fire, cold, slashing, and piercing attacks.

Nimble: Coychure Evades attacks at skill level 14.

Wings: The Coychure may take its movement in the air.
Swimming: The Coychure swims at normal movement speed and can hold its breath underwater for a full Stretch.

Aura of Terror: The first time a creature steps within 10 meters of the Coychure it must make a WIL roll. Failure means a roll on the Fear Table. Creatures who have seen the Coychure before have a Boon to this roll.

Ferocity: 2  Size: Medium
Movement: 12  Armor: 3 Natural HP: 22

MONSTER ATTACKS

D6 Attacks:

1. Existential Dread Howl: Anyone within 30 meters must make a WIL roll with a Bane regardless of having seen the creature. Failure means rolling on the Fear Table.
2. Bite-Bite: One target within 2 meters is bitten twice for 2d4 piercing damage.
3. Swooping Talon Rake: One target within 4 meters is hit for 1d8 slashing damage and is knocked prone at the start of their turn.
4. Gibbering Nonsense: All creatures within 8 meters must make a WIL roll to fend off a psychic attack. Failure means becoming Dazed. If already Dazed, the GM may choose another condition.
5. That Tail: The Coychure flies up into the air slapping one character within 4 meters with an attack that does 1d4 piercing damage and injects a Potency 12 Paralyzing Poison. If armor negates the damage, no poison is delivered.
6. Drag-N-Drop: The Coychure attempts to grab one character or creature (Medium or smaller) and carry it into the air 1d12 meters and in a direction of the GM’s choosing before dropping them for an appropriate amount of fall damage and starting the turn prone. An Opposed STR roll vs a 14 may be made to resist being picked up and dropped early.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #Dragonbane #MondayMonster #monsterDesign #TTRPG #writing

Monday Monster: Coychure

For use with the Dragonbane RPG.

Coychure

Description:
Once someone encounters the Coychure, they can’t unsee it. Some have gone so far as to beg Mentalists to erase it from their minds. This nocturnal predator causes other cryptids to flee at the very sight of it.

It is unclear where this creature originated. Some say it is a demon, others say it was hatched in a mad Archmage’s laboratory. Deep research, as best that can be done by scholars at present, suggests that more than one of these beasts indicate they came from a pocket dimension or subplane. One victim driven mad by the Coychure claimed that it came from a strange puzzle box along with other nightmares.

Its most striking feature are its two mouths, one lupine, the other more human. Its eyes are similar to a bee, set farther back on the skull. It has a body of a coyote, wings like a vulture, warped, distorted limbs similar to vulture talons. The Coychure’s tail is almost reptilian, but also similar to a fish. Its body is covered in a mix of fur, feathers, and scales making its actual body very difficult to identify.

One interesting thing about this monster is that its flesh and even bone dissolves when it is slain, making any sort of identification impossible. Once slain the creature turns to a sizzling puddle of goo withing one Stretch. Contact with the goo deals 1d4 acid damage and burns for one Stretch unless neutralized or washed off.

Resistance:
The Coychure is immune to effects requiring a WIL roll such as Fear or mind control. Also immune to acid and poison. Takes half damage from non-magical fire, cold, slashing, and piercing attacks.

Nimble: Coychure Evades attacks at skill level 14.

Wings: The Coychure may take its movement in the air.
Swimming: The Coychure swims at normal movement speed and can hold its breath underwater for a full Stretch.

Aura of Terror: The first time a creature steps within 10 meters of the Coychure it must make a WIL roll. Failure means a roll on the Fear Table. Creatures who have seen the Coychure before have a Boon to this roll.

Ferocity: 2  Size: Medium
Movement: 12  Armor: 3 Natural HP: 22

MONSTER ATTACKS

D6 Attacks:

1. Existential Dread Howl: Anyone within 30 meters must make a WIL roll with a Bane regardless of having seen the creature. Failure means rolling on the Fear Table.
2. Bite-Bite: One target within 2 meters is bitten twice for 2d4 piercing damage.
3. Swooping Talon Rake: One target within 4 meters is hit for 1d8 slashing damage and is knocked prone at the start of their turn.
4. Gibbering Nonsense: All creatures within 8 meters must make a WIL roll to fend off a psychic attack. Failure means becoming Dazed. If already Dazed, the GM may choose another condition.
5. That Tail: The Coychure flies up into the air slapping one character within 4 meters with an attack that does 1d4 piercing damage and injects a Potency 12 Paralyzing Poison. If armor negates the damage, no poison is delivered.
6. Drag-N-Drop: The Coychure attempts to grab one character or creature (Medium or smaller) and carry it into the air 1d12 meters and in a direction of the GM’s choosing before dropping them for an appropriate amount of fall damage and starting the turn prone. An Opposed STR roll vs a 14 may be made to resist being picked up and dropped early.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #Dragonbane #MondayMonster #monsterDesign #TTRPG #writing

Monday Monster: Coychure

For use with the Dragonbane RPG.

Coychure

Description:
Once someone encounters the Coychure, they can’t unsee it. Some have gone so far as to beg Mentalists to erase it from their minds. This nocturnal predator causes other cryptids to flee at the very sight of it.

It is unclear where this creature originated. Some say it is a demon, others say it was hatched in a mad Archmage’s laboratory. Deep research, as best that can be done by scholars at present, suggests that more than one of these beasts indicate they came from a pocket dimension or subplane. One victim driven mad by the Coychure claimed that it came from a strange puzzle box along with other nightmares.

Its most striking feature are its two mouths, one lupine, the other more human. Its eyes are similar to a bee, set farther back on the skull. It has a body of a coyote, wings like a vulture, warped, distorted limbs similar to vulture talons. The Coychure’s tail is almost reptilian, but also similar to a fish. Its body is covered in a mix of fur, feathers, and scales making its actual body very difficult to identify.

One interesting thing about this monster is that its flesh and even bone dissolves when it is slain, making any sort of identification impossible. Once slain the creature turns to a sizzling puddle of goo withing one Stretch. Contact with the goo deals 1d4 acid damage and burns for one Stretch unless neutralized or washed off.

Resistance:
The Coychure is immune to effects requiring a WIL roll such as Fear or mind control. Also immune to acid and poison. Takes half damage from non-magical fire, cold, slashing, and piercing attacks.

Nimble: Coychure Evades attacks at skill level 14.

Wings: The Coychure may take its movement in the air.
Swimming: The Coychure swims at normal movement speed and can hold its breath underwater for a full Stretch.

Aura of Terror: The first time a creature steps within 10 meters of the Coychure it must make a WIL roll. Failure means a roll on the Fear Table. Creatures who have seen the Coychure before have a Boon to this roll.

Ferocity: 2  Size: Medium
Movement: 12  Armor: 3 Natural HP: 22

MONSTER ATTACKS

D6 Attacks:

1. Existential Dread Howl: Anyone within 30 meters must make a WIL roll with a Bane regardless of having seen the creature. Failure means rolling on the Fear Table.
2. Bite-Bite: One target within 2 meters is bitten twice for 2d4 piercing damage.
3. Swooping Talon Rake: One target within 4 meters is hit for 1d8 slashing damage and is knocked prone at the start of their turn.
4. Gibbering Nonsense: All creatures within 8 meters must make a WIL roll to fend off a psychic attack. Failure means becoming Dazed. If already Dazed, the GM may choose another condition.
5. That Tail: The Coychure flies up into the air slapping one character within 4 meters with an attack that does 1d4 piercing damage and injects a Potency 12 Paralyzing Poison. If armor negates the damage, no poison is delivered.
6. Drag-N-Drop: The Coychure attempts to grab one character or creature (Medium or smaller) and carry it into the air 1d12 meters and in a direction of the GM’s choosing before dropping them for an appropriate amount of fall damage and starting the turn prone. An Opposed STR roll vs a 14 may be made to resist being picked up and dropped early.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #Dragonbane #MondayMonster #monsterDesign #TTRPG #writing

Monday Monster: Coychure

For use with the Dragonbane RPG.

Coychure

Description:
Once someone encounters the Coychure, they can’t unsee it. Some have gone so far as to beg Mentalists to erase it from their minds. This nocturnal predator causes other cryptids to flee at the very sight of it.

It is unclear where this creature originated. Some say it is a demon, others say it was hatched in a mad Archmage’s laboratory. Deep research, as best that can be done by scholars at present, suggests that more than one of these beasts indicate they came from a pocket dimension or subplane. One victim driven mad by the Coychure claimed that it came from a strange puzzle box along with other nightmares.

Its most striking feature are its two mouths, one lupine, the other more human. Its eyes are similar to a bee, set farther back on the skull. It has a body of a coyote, wings like a vulture, warped, distorted limbs similar to vulture talons. The Coychure’s tail is almost reptilian, but also similar to a fish. Its body is covered in a mix of fur, feathers, and scales making its actual body very difficult to identify.

One interesting thing about this monster is that its flesh and even bone dissolves when it is slain, making any sort of identification impossible. Once slain the creature turns to a sizzling puddle of goo withing one Stretch. Contact with the goo deals 1d4 acid damage and burns for one Stretch unless neutralized or washed off.

Resistance:
The Coychure is immune to effects requiring a WIL roll such as Fear or mind control. Also immune to acid and poison. Takes half damage from non-magical fire, cold, slashing, and piercing attacks.

Nimble: Coychure Evades attacks at skill level 14.

Wings: The Coychure may take its movement in the air.
Swimming: The Coychure swims at normal movement speed and can hold its breath underwater for a full Stretch.

Aura of Terror: The first time a creature steps within 10 meters of the Coychure it must make a WIL roll. Failure means a roll on the Fear Table. Creatures who have seen the Coychure before have a Boon to this roll.

Ferocity: 2  Size: Medium
Movement: 12  Armor: 3 Natural HP: 22

MONSTER ATTACKS

D6 Attacks:

1. Existential Dread Howl: Anyone within 30 meters must make a WIL roll with a Bane regardless of having seen the creature. Failure means rolling on the Fear Table.
2. Bite-Bite: One target within 2 meters is bitten twice for 2d4 piercing damage.
3. Swooping Talon Rake: One target within 4 meters is hit for 1d8 slashing damage and is knocked prone at the start of their turn.
4. Gibbering Nonsense: All creatures within 8 meters must make a WIL roll to fend off a psychic attack. Failure means becoming Dazed. If already Dazed, the GM may choose another condition.
5. That Tail: The Coychure flies up into the air slapping one character within 4 meters with an attack that does 1d4 piercing damage and injects a Potency 12 Paralyzing Poison. If armor negates the damage, no poison is delivered.
6. Drag-N-Drop: The Coychure attempts to grab one character or creature (Medium or smaller) and carry it into the air 1d12 meters and in a direction of the GM’s choosing before dropping them for an appropriate amount of fall damage and starting the turn prone. An Opposed STR roll vs a 14 may be made to resist being picked up and dropped early.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #Dragonbane #MondayMonster #monsterDesign #TTRPG #writing

Monday Monster: Coychure

For use with the Dragonbane RPG.

Coychure

Description:
Once someone encounters the Coychure, they can’t unsee it. Some have gone so far as to beg Mentalists to erase it from their minds. This nocturnal predator causes other cryptids to flee at the very sight of it.

It is unclear where this creature originated. Some say it is a demon, others say it was hatched in a mad Archmage’s laboratory. Deep research, as best that can be done by scholars at present, suggests that more than one of these beasts indicate they came from a pocket dimension or subplane. One victim driven mad by the Coychure claimed that it came from a strange puzzle box along with other nightmares.

Its most striking feature are its two mouths, one lupine, the other more human. Its eyes are similar to a bee, set farther back on the skull. It has a body of a coyote, wings like a vulture, warped, distorted limbs similar to vulture talons. The Coychure’s tail is almost reptilian, but also similar to a fish. Its body is covered in a mix of fur, feathers, and scales making its actual body very difficult to identify.

One interesting thing about this monster is that its flesh and even bone dissolves when it is slain, making any sort of identification impossible. Once slain the creature turns to a sizzling puddle of goo withing one Stretch. Contact with the goo deals 1d4 acid damage and burns for one Stretch unless neutralized or washed off.

Resistance:
The Coychure is immune to effects requiring a WIL roll such as Fear or mind control. Also immune to acid and poison. Takes half damage from non-magical fire, cold, slashing, and piercing attacks.

Nimble: Coychure Evades attacks at skill level 14.

Wings: The Coychure may take its movement in the air.
Swimming: The Coychure swims at normal movement speed and can hold its breath underwater for a full Stretch.

Aura of Terror: The first time a creature steps within 10 meters of the Coychure it must make a WIL roll. Failure means a roll on the Fear Table. Creatures who have seen the Coychure before have a Boon to this roll.

Ferocity: 2  Size: Medium
Movement: 12  Armor: 3 Natural HP: 22

MONSTER ATTACKS

D6 Attacks:

1. Existential Dread Howl: Anyone within 30 meters must make a WIL roll with a Bane regardless of having seen the creature. Failure means rolling on the Fear Table.
2. Bite-Bite: One target within 2 meters is bitten twice for 2d4 piercing damage.
3. Swooping Talon Rake: One target within 4 meters is hit for 1d8 slashing damage and is knocked prone at the start of their turn.
4. Gibbering Nonsense: All creatures within 8 meters must make a WIL roll to fend off a psychic attack. Failure means becoming Dazed. If already Dazed, the GM may choose another condition.
5. That Tail: The Coychure flies up into the air slapping one character within 4 meters with an attack that does 1d4 piercing damage and injects a Potency 12 Paralyzing Poison. If armor negates the damage, no poison is delivered.
6. Drag-N-Drop: The Coychure attempts to grab one character or creature (Medium or smaller) and carry it into the air 1d12 meters and in a direction of the GM’s choosing before dropping them for an appropriate amount of fall damage and starting the turn prone. An Opposed STR roll vs a 14 may be made to resist being picked up and dropped early.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #Dragonbane #MondayMonster #monsterDesign #TTRPG #writing

That Conversation I Don’t Want To Have.

That conversation I never wanted to freakin have.

I’ve been sitting on this article for months. The first draft was well over 3,000 words, and the second draft wasn’t much shorter. Every time I started writing, I got angry, and every time I got angry, the article got longer. Somewhere along the way I realized I wasn’t really writing about AI anymore. I was writing about frustration, disappointment, and feeling like I had to defend my existence as a creator.

So let’s try this one more time.

Once upon a time, tabletop roleplaying games were built on newsletters, fanzines, pamphlets, and whatever else people could scrape together. Folks typed things up on typewriters, ran them through photocopiers, stapled them together, and shared them with anyone at the wargaming club willing to read them. The hobby wasn’t built by publishing companies; it was built by enthusiastic weirdos with fantastic ideas.

Fantasy art wasn’t readily available, and layout software didn’t exist. Nobody was arguing about AI because most of us were trying to figure out how to get enough copies made before the local copy shop closed or we got kicked out of the public library (Yes, that really happened.) The important thing was the idea; the adventure, the setting, the monster, the game.

Somewhere along the line, things changed.

Today, fantasy art is everywhere, layout software is available to almost anyone with a computer or a phone, and publishing has never been easier. Yet somehow the barriers to entry feel higher than ever. If you release a product today without art, if your cover isn’t eye-catching, or if your layout isn’t polished, people notice. Art has become an expectation.

I listened to a popular DungeonTuber the other day railing against typos and grammatical errors the other day. The same guy regularly doubles down against AI tools. Do you see where this causes me some cognitive dissonance?

That brings me to the problem.

I have quietly come to loggerheads with people I admire over AI art. I’ve watched creators get absolutely roasted for using it. I’ve watched friendships fracture, and I’ve watched communities divide themselves into camps that seem increasingly unwilling to listen to each other. I’ve mostly kept my mouth shut—not because I don’t have opinions (trust me, I do), but because I knew the moment I opened my mouth someone would assume I was attacking artists.

I’m not. Not even a little.

I think artists should be paid, and I think artists deserve respect. I think artists create things I could never create. I also think reality exists, and reality is where this discussion gets complicated.

I’m a small creator. I’m not running million-dollar crowdfunding campaigns, getting convention appearance fees, or selling tens of thousands of copies of products. I’m a guy trying to make third-party Dragonbane supplements at three in the morning while dealing with chronic pain, depression, family obligations, and whatever fresh disaster life has decided to throw at me this week.

Have you seen what professional fantasy art costs these days? Holy shit.

Good artists deserve every penny they earn. The problem isn’t the artist; the problem is that many small creators simply can’t afford those prices. A custom cover can easily cost hundreds of dollars, and interior artwork can climb into the thousands. That’s before layout, editing, promotion, or anything else enters the equation.

People often tell me to use stock art. Okay. Please show me where I can find stock art for a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex with gorilla arms, vulture wings, and a venomous tail. I’ll wait.

If I need a castle, a mountain, or a goat, stock art is wonderful. If I need a bizarre monster that exists only in the twisted recesses of my brain, the options become a lot more limited. That’s where AI entered my workflow; not because I hate artists, want artists to starve, and not because I’m trying to replace anyone. It’s because AI solved a problem that otherwise had no practical solution.

The choice wasn’t AI art versus commissioned art. The choice was AI art versus no art, and that’s a very different conversation.

There’s another aspect of this discussion that gets overlooked constantly: accessibility.

My friend, The OG GM, has dyslexia and other neurological challenges that can make writing and formatting difficult, which is a well-known fact to his friends, family, and strangers on the Internet. AI helps bridge some of those gaps. Sometimes it helps with spelling, sometimes it helps organize thoughts, and sometimes it helps transform rough ideas into something easier to work with. I help when I can, too. For free because that’s what friends do. Sometimes I wish I could help more.

What I’ve discovered is that a lot of neurodivergent people use AI in similar ways. They use it to reduce decision fatigue, organize schedules, draft emails, answer messages, summarize information, and break overwhelming tasks into manageable pieces. AI doesn’t make ADHD, or Autism disappear. It doesn’t magically solve anxiety, depression, dyslexia, or executive dysfunction. What it can do is remove a few obstacles and reduce a little friction, and for some people, that’s a bigger deal than critics seem willing to acknowledge.

Now before anyone starts sharpening pitchforks, let’s address the obvious concerns.

Some artists are losing work, and that’s real. Some companies are absolutely using AI to cut costs, and that’s real too. Some people are flooding storefronts with low-effort junk generated in five minutes. I’ve seen it, and you’ve seen it. Pretending those things aren’t happening would be dishonest. Likewise, concerns about energy usage and infrastructure deserve discussion. Every major technological shift comes with consequences, and none of those concerns are imaginary.

What frustrates me is the lack of nuance. The conversation often feels like it has only two positions: either AI is the greatest thing ever invented, or AI is destroying creativity forever. Reality rarely works that way. Most people end up somewhere in the middle. Most people aren’t trying to destroy art or artists; they’re simply trying to solve problems using the tools available to them.

The thing that concerns me most isn’t the technology; it’s the growing divide inside the TTRPG hobby. Communities are splitting apart, conventions are debating policies, creators are choosing sides, and people who probably agree on ninety percent of everything else suddenly can’t stand each other because of one issue. That’s sad, especially in a hobby built on imagination and collaboration.

The truth is AI isn’t going away. Search engines use it, Microsoft Word uses it, WordPress uses it, customer service departments use it, and my dentist’s office uses it after hours. Most people interact with AI every day whether they realize it or not. Technology changes, people adapt, and nobody is rushing to bring back eight-track tapes or demanding a return to typewriters. The world keeps moving forward.

That doesn’t mean every technological change is good, but it does mean some of them become permanent. Sewing machines still exist, but they don’t closely resemble the ones from a hundred years ago.

My position is pretty simple.

Creators who want to make everything by hand should absolutely do so. Creators who want to hire artists should absolutely do so. Customers should absolutely support the creators they believe in. I have no interest in telling anyone what tools they should use; I just want the same courtesy in return.

I’ve been in this hobby for decades. I’ve written for small publications, and I’ve watched entire eras of gaming come and go. The one thing I’ve always loved about tabletop roleplaying games is that anyone could create something. Anyone could write an adventure, build a world, invent a monster, and contribute. That spirit is worth protecting.

You don’t have to agree with my choices. You don’t have to like AI, and you don’t have to use it. But I do believe people should be free to create using the tools available to them, especially when those tools help overcome barriers that might otherwise prevent them from creating at all.

At the end of the day, I’d rather spend my time creating worlds than fighting culture wars. The hobby is big enough for all of us, or at least I’d like to believe it is.

#AIart #AIControversy #Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgwriter #AIArtForCreators #AIArtInTTRPGs #AIToolsForWriters #AIAssistedDesign

That Conversation I Don’t Want To Have.

That conversation I never wanted to freakin have.

I’ve been sitting on this article for months. The first draft was well over 3,000 words, and the second draft wasn’t much shorter. Every time I started writing, I got angry, and every time I got angry, the article got longer. Somewhere along the way I realized I wasn’t really writing about AI anymore. I was writing about frustration, disappointment, and feeling like I had to defend my existence as a creator.

So let’s try this one more time.

Once upon a time, tabletop roleplaying games were built on newsletters, fanzines, pamphlets, and whatever else people could scrape together. Folks typed things up on typewriters, ran them through photocopiers, stapled them together, and shared them with anyone at the wargaming club willing to read them. The hobby wasn’t built by publishing companies; it was built by enthusiastic weirdos with fantastic ideas.

Fantasy art wasn’t readily available, and layout software didn’t exist. Nobody was arguing about AI because most of us were trying to figure out how to get enough copies made before the local copy shop closed or we got kicked out of the public library (Yes, that really happened.) The important thing was the idea; the adventure, the setting, the monster, the game.

Somewhere along the line, things changed.

Today, fantasy art is everywhere, layout software is available to almost anyone with a computer or a phone, and publishing has never been easier. Yet somehow the barriers to entry feel higher than ever. If you release a product today without art, if your cover isn’t eye-catching, or if your layout isn’t polished, people notice. Art has become an expectation.

I listened to a popular DungeonTuber the other day railing against typos and grammatical errors the other day. The same guy regularly doubles down against AI tools. Do you see where this causes me some cognitive dissonance?

That brings me to the problem.

I have quietly come to loggerheads with people I admire over AI art. I’ve watched creators get absolutely roasted for using it. I’ve watched friendships fracture, and I’ve watched communities divide themselves into camps that seem increasingly unwilling to listen to each other. I’ve mostly kept my mouth shut—not because I don’t have opinions (trust me, I do), but because I knew the moment I opened my mouth someone would assume I was attacking artists.

I’m not. Not even a little.

I think artists should be paid, and I think artists deserve respect. I think artists create things I could never create. I also think reality exists, and reality is where this discussion gets complicated.

I’m a small creator. I’m not running million-dollar crowdfunding campaigns, getting convention appearance fees, or selling tens of thousands of copies of products. I’m a guy trying to make third-party Dragonbane supplements at three in the morning while dealing with chronic pain, depression, family obligations, and whatever fresh disaster life has decided to throw at me this week.

Have you seen what professional fantasy art costs these days? Holy shit.

Good artists deserve every penny they earn. The problem isn’t the artist; the problem is that many small creators simply can’t afford those prices. A custom cover can easily cost hundreds of dollars, and interior artwork can climb into the thousands. That’s before layout, editing, promotion, or anything else enters the equation.

People often tell me to use stock art. Okay. Please show me where I can find stock art for a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex with gorilla arms, vulture wings, and a venomous tail. I’ll wait.

If I need a castle, a mountain, or a goat, stock art is wonderful. If I need a bizarre monster that exists only in the twisted recesses of my brain, the options become a lot more limited. That’s where AI entered my workflow; not because I hate artists, want artists to starve, and not because I’m trying to replace anyone. It’s because AI solved a problem that otherwise had no practical solution.

The choice wasn’t AI art versus commissioned art. The choice was AI art versus no art, and that’s a very different conversation.

There’s another aspect of this discussion that gets overlooked constantly: accessibility.

My friend, The OG GM, has dyslexia and other neurological challenges that can make writing and formatting difficult, which is a well-known fact to his friends, family, and strangers on the Internet. AI helps bridge some of those gaps. Sometimes it helps with spelling, sometimes it helps organize thoughts, and sometimes it helps transform rough ideas into something easier to work with. I help when I can, too. For free because that’s what friends do. Sometimes I wish I could help more.

What I’ve discovered is that a lot of neurodivergent people use AI in similar ways. They use it to reduce decision fatigue, organize schedules, draft emails, answer messages, summarize information, and break overwhelming tasks into manageable pieces. AI doesn’t make ADHD, or Autism disappear. It doesn’t magically solve anxiety, depression, dyslexia, or executive dysfunction. What it can do is remove a few obstacles and reduce a little friction, and for some people, that’s a bigger deal than critics seem willing to acknowledge.

Now before anyone starts sharpening pitchforks, let’s address the obvious concerns.

Some artists are losing work, and that’s real. Some companies are absolutely using AI to cut costs, and that’s real too. Some people are flooding storefronts with low-effort junk generated in five minutes. I’ve seen it, and you’ve seen it. Pretending those things aren’t happening would be dishonest. Likewise, concerns about energy usage and infrastructure deserve discussion. Every major technological shift comes with consequences, and none of those concerns are imaginary.

What frustrates me is the lack of nuance. The conversation often feels like it has only two positions: either AI is the greatest thing ever invented, or AI is destroying creativity forever. Reality rarely works that way. Most people end up somewhere in the middle. Most people aren’t trying to destroy art or artists; they’re simply trying to solve problems using the tools available to them.

The thing that concerns me most isn’t the technology; it’s the growing divide inside the TTRPG hobby. Communities are splitting apart, conventions are debating policies, creators are choosing sides, and people who probably agree on ninety percent of everything else suddenly can’t stand each other because of one issue. That’s sad, especially in a hobby built on imagination and collaboration.

The truth is AI isn’t going away. Search engines use it, Microsoft Word uses it, WordPress uses it, customer service departments use it, and my dentist’s office uses it after hours. Most people interact with AI every day whether they realize it or not. Technology changes, people adapt, and nobody is rushing to bring back eight-track tapes or demanding a return to typewriters. The world keeps moving forward.

That doesn’t mean every technological change is good, but it does mean some of them become permanent. Sewing machines still exist, but they don’t closely resemble the ones from a hundred years ago.

My position is pretty simple.

Creators who want to make everything by hand should absolutely do so. Creators who want to hire artists should absolutely do so. Customers should absolutely support the creators they believe in. I have no interest in telling anyone what tools they should use; I just want the same courtesy in return.

I’ve been in this hobby for decades. I’ve written for small publications, and I’ve watched entire eras of gaming come and go. The one thing I’ve always loved about tabletop roleplaying games is that anyone could create something. Anyone could write an adventure, build a world, invent a monster, and contribute. That spirit is worth protecting.

You don’t have to agree with my choices. You don’t have to like AI, and you don’t have to use it. But I do believe people should be free to create using the tools available to them, especially when those tools help overcome barriers that might otherwise prevent them from creating at all.

At the end of the day, I’d rather spend my time creating worlds than fighting culture wars. The hobby is big enough for all of us, or at least I’d like to believe it is.

#AIart #AIControversy #Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgwriter #AIArtForCreators #AIArtInTTRPGs #AIToolsForWriters #AIAssistedDesign

That Conversation I Don’t Want To Have.

That conversation I never wanted to freakin have.

I’ve been sitting on this article for months. The first draft was well over 3,000 words, and the second draft wasn’t much shorter. Every time I started writing, I got angry, and every time I got angry, the article got longer. Somewhere along the way I realized I wasn’t really writing about AI anymore. I was writing about frustration, disappointment, and feeling like I had to defend my existence as a creator.

So let’s try this one more time.

Once upon a time, tabletop roleplaying games were built on newsletters, fanzines, pamphlets, and whatever else people could scrape together. Folks typed things up on typewriters, ran them through photocopiers, stapled them together, and shared them with anyone at the wargaming club willing to read them. The hobby wasn’t built by publishing companies; it was built by enthusiastic weirdos with fantastic ideas.

Fantasy art wasn’t readily available, and layout software didn’t exist. Nobody was arguing about AI because most of us were trying to figure out how to get enough copies made before the local copy shop closed or we got kicked out of the public library (Yes, that really happened.) The important thing was the idea; the adventure, the setting, the monster, the game.

Somewhere along the line, things changed.

Today, fantasy art is everywhere, layout software is available to almost anyone with a computer or a phone, and publishing has never been easier. Yet somehow the barriers to entry feel higher than ever. If you release a product today without art, if your cover isn’t eye-catching, or if your layout isn’t polished, people notice. Art has become an expectation.

I listened to a popular DungeonTuber the other day railing against typos and grammatical errors the other day. The same guy regularly doubles down against AI tools. Do you see where this causes me some cognitive dissonance?

That brings me to the problem.

I have quietly come to loggerheads with people I admire over AI art. I’ve watched creators get absolutely roasted for using it. I’ve watched friendships fracture, and I’ve watched communities divide themselves into camps that seem increasingly unwilling to listen to each other. I’ve mostly kept my mouth shut—not because I don’t have opinions (trust me, I do), but because I knew the moment I opened my mouth someone would assume I was attacking artists.

I’m not. Not even a little.

I think artists should be paid, and I think artists deserve respect. I think artists create things I could never create. I also think reality exists, and reality is where this discussion gets complicated.

I’m a small creator. I’m not running million-dollar crowdfunding campaigns, getting convention appearance fees, or selling tens of thousands of copies of products. I’m a guy trying to make third-party Dragonbane supplements at three in the morning while dealing with chronic pain, depression, family obligations, and whatever fresh disaster life has decided to throw at me this week.

Have you seen what professional fantasy art costs these days? Holy shit.

Good artists deserve every penny they earn. The problem isn’t the artist; the problem is that many small creators simply can’t afford those prices. A custom cover can easily cost hundreds of dollars, and interior artwork can climb into the thousands. That’s before layout, editing, promotion, or anything else enters the equation.

People often tell me to use stock art. Okay. Please show me where I can find stock art for a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex with gorilla arms, vulture wings, and a venomous tail. I’ll wait.

If I need a castle, a mountain, or a goat, stock art is wonderful. If I need a bizarre monster that exists only in the twisted recesses of my brain, the options become a lot more limited. That’s where AI entered my workflow; not because I hate artists, want artists to starve, and not because I’m trying to replace anyone. It’s because AI solved a problem that otherwise had no practical solution.

The choice wasn’t AI art versus commissioned art. The choice was AI art versus no art, and that’s a very different conversation.

There’s another aspect of this discussion that gets overlooked constantly: accessibility.

My friend, The OG GM, has dyslexia and other neurological challenges that can make writing and formatting difficult, which is a well-known fact to his friends, family, and strangers on the Internet. AI helps bridge some of those gaps. Sometimes it helps with spelling, sometimes it helps organize thoughts, and sometimes it helps transform rough ideas into something easier to work with. I help when I can, too. For free because that’s what friends do. Sometimes I wish I could help more.

What I’ve discovered is that a lot of neurodivergent people use AI in similar ways. They use it to reduce decision fatigue, organize schedules, draft emails, answer messages, summarize information, and break overwhelming tasks into manageable pieces. AI doesn’t make ADHD, or Autism disappear. It doesn’t magically solve anxiety, depression, dyslexia, or executive dysfunction. What it can do is remove a few obstacles and reduce a little friction, and for some people, that’s a bigger deal than critics seem willing to acknowledge.

Now before anyone starts sharpening pitchforks, let’s address the obvious concerns.

Some artists are losing work, and that’s real. Some companies are absolutely using AI to cut costs, and that’s real too. Some people are flooding storefronts with low-effort junk generated in five minutes. I’ve seen it, and you’ve seen it. Pretending those things aren’t happening would be dishonest. Likewise, concerns about energy usage and infrastructure deserve discussion. Every major technological shift comes with consequences, and none of those concerns are imaginary.

What frustrates me is the lack of nuance. The conversation often feels like it has only two positions: either AI is the greatest thing ever invented, or AI is destroying creativity forever. Reality rarely works that way. Most people end up somewhere in the middle. Most people aren’t trying to destroy art or artists; they’re simply trying to solve problems using the tools available to them.

The thing that concerns me most isn’t the technology; it’s the growing divide inside the TTRPG hobby. Communities are splitting apart, conventions are debating policies, creators are choosing sides, and people who probably agree on ninety percent of everything else suddenly can’t stand each other because of one issue. That’s sad, especially in a hobby built on imagination and collaboration.

The truth is AI isn’t going away. Search engines use it, Microsoft Word uses it, WordPress uses it, customer service departments use it, and my dentist’s office uses it after hours. Most people interact with AI every day whether they realize it or not. Technology changes, people adapt, and nobody is rushing to bring back eight-track tapes or demanding a return to typewriters. The world keeps moving forward.

That doesn’t mean every technological change is good, but it does mean some of them become permanent. Sewing machines still exist, but they don’t closely resemble the ones from a hundred years ago.

My position is pretty simple.

Creators who want to make everything by hand should absolutely do so. Creators who want to hire artists should absolutely do so. Customers should absolutely support the creators they believe in. I have no interest in telling anyone what tools they should use; I just want the same courtesy in return.

I’ve been in this hobby for decades. I’ve written for small publications, and I’ve watched entire eras of gaming come and go. The one thing I’ve always loved about tabletop roleplaying games is that anyone could create something. Anyone could write an adventure, build a world, invent a monster, and contribute. That spirit is worth protecting.

You don’t have to agree with my choices. You don’t have to like AI, and you don’t have to use it. But I do believe people should be free to create using the tools available to them, especially when those tools help overcome barriers that might otherwise prevent them from creating at all.

At the end of the day, I’d rather spend my time creating worlds than fighting culture wars. The hobby is big enough for all of us, or at least I’d like to believe it is.

Additional Notes:

A few people commented on some things I forgot to mention. Sorry. I’ll try to be more thorough.

I offer an art-free, text-only document along with all of my PDFs. Don’t like AI art? Just download printer-friendly version.

Also, I’m a big fan of ethical AI use. I never claim something AI did as my own. If it doesn’t have my artist tag that I’ve been using since 1988 on it, It’s probably AI or it’s got the artist credits listed on it. I always disclose AI use on DriveThru because I need to maintain a healthy working relationship with them and the rest of the world.

Last (for now,) I’m not ever advocating for what I would consider AI slop. The people out there who pump out 3-5 supplements per day written and illustrated by AI with little-no editing with no regard for ethics are putting out slop. But one or a few AI illustrations in my 1-3 third-party Dragonbane supplements per year really don’t qualify as slop in my opinion. I do all my own writing, editing, layout, advertising, print-friendly version, and taking all the grief. That’s me.

Thanks to everyone who pointed out those oversights.

#AIart #AIControversy #Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgwriter #AIArtForCreators #AIArtInTTRPGs #AIToolsForWriters #AIAssistedDesign

That Conversation I Don’t Want To Have.

That conversation I never wanted to freakin have.

I’ve been sitting on this article for months. The first draft was well over 3,000 words, and the second draft wasn’t much shorter. Every time I started writing, I got angry, and every time I got angry, the article got longer. Somewhere along the way I realized I wasn’t really writing about AI anymore. I was writing about frustration, disappointment, and feeling like I had to defend my existence as a creator.

So let’s try this one more time.

Once upon a time, tabletop roleplaying games were built on newsletters, fanzines, pamphlets, and whatever else people could scrape together. Folks typed things up on typewriters, ran them through photocopiers, stapled them together, and shared them with anyone at the wargaming club willing to read them. The hobby wasn’t built by publishing companies; it was built by enthusiastic weirdos with fantastic ideas.

Fantasy art wasn’t readily available, and layout software didn’t exist. Nobody was arguing about AI because most of us were trying to figure out how to get enough copies made before the local copy shop closed or we got kicked out of the public library (Yes, that really happened.) The important thing was the idea; the adventure, the setting, the monster, the game.

Somewhere along the line, things changed.

Today, fantasy art is everywhere, layout software is available to almost anyone with a computer or a phone, and publishing has never been easier. Yet somehow the barriers to entry feel higher than ever. If you release a product today without art, if your cover isn’t eye-catching, or if your layout isn’t polished, people notice. Art has become an expectation.

I listened to a popular DungeonTuber the other day railing against typos and grammatical errors the other day. The same guy regularly doubles down against AI tools. Do you see where this causes me some cognitive dissonance?

That brings me to the problem.

I have quietly come to loggerheads with people I admire over AI art. I’ve watched creators get absolutely roasted for using it. I’ve watched friendships fracture, and I’ve watched communities divide themselves into camps that seem increasingly unwilling to listen to each other. I’ve mostly kept my mouth shut—not because I don’t have opinions (trust me, I do), but because I knew the moment I opened my mouth someone would assume I was attacking artists.

I’m not. Not even a little.

I think artists should be paid, and I think artists deserve respect. I think artists create things I could never create. I also think reality exists, and reality is where this discussion gets complicated.

I’m a small creator. I’m not running million-dollar crowdfunding campaigns, getting convention appearance fees, or selling tens of thousands of copies of products. I’m a guy trying to make third-party Dragonbane supplements at three in the morning while dealing with chronic pain, depression, family obligations, and whatever fresh disaster life has decided to throw at me this week.

Have you seen what professional fantasy art costs these days? Holy shit.

Good artists deserve every penny they earn. The problem isn’t the artist; the problem is that many small creators simply can’t afford those prices. A custom cover can easily cost hundreds of dollars, and interior artwork can climb into the thousands. That’s before layout, editing, promotion, or anything else enters the equation.

People often tell me to use stock art. Okay. Please show me where I can find stock art for a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex with gorilla arms, vulture wings, and a venomous tail. I’ll wait.

If I need a castle, a mountain, or a goat, stock art is wonderful. If I need a bizarre monster that exists only in the twisted recesses of my brain, the options become a lot more limited. That’s where AI entered my workflow; not because I hate artists, want artists to starve, and not because I’m trying to replace anyone. It’s because AI solved a problem that otherwise had no practical solution.

The choice wasn’t AI art versus commissioned art. The choice was AI art versus no art, and that’s a very different conversation.

There’s another aspect of this discussion that gets overlooked constantly: accessibility.

My friend, The OG GM, has dyslexia and other neurological challenges that can make writing and formatting difficult, which is a well-known fact to his friends, family, and strangers on the Internet. AI helps bridge some of those gaps. Sometimes it helps with spelling, sometimes it helps organize thoughts, and sometimes it helps transform rough ideas into something easier to work with. I help when I can, too. For free because that’s what friends do. Sometimes I wish I could help more.

What I’ve discovered is that a lot of neurodivergent people use AI in similar ways. They use it to reduce decision fatigue, organize schedules, draft emails, answer messages, summarize information, and break overwhelming tasks into manageable pieces. AI doesn’t make ADHD, or Autism disappear. It doesn’t magically solve anxiety, depression, dyslexia, or executive dysfunction. What it can do is remove a few obstacles and reduce a little friction, and for some people, that’s a bigger deal than critics seem willing to acknowledge.

Now before anyone starts sharpening pitchforks, let’s address the obvious concerns.

Some artists are losing work, and that’s real. Some companies are absolutely using AI to cut costs, and that’s real too. Some people are flooding storefronts with low-effort junk generated in five minutes. I’ve seen it, and you’ve seen it. Pretending those things aren’t happening would be dishonest. Likewise, concerns about energy usage and infrastructure deserve discussion. Every major technological shift comes with consequences, and none of those concerns are imaginary.

What frustrates me is the lack of nuance. The conversation often feels like it has only two positions: either AI is the greatest thing ever invented, or AI is destroying creativity forever. Reality rarely works that way. Most people end up somewhere in the middle. Most people aren’t trying to destroy art or artists; they’re simply trying to solve problems using the tools available to them.

The thing that concerns me most isn’t the technology; it’s the growing divide inside the TTRPG hobby. Communities are splitting apart, conventions are debating policies, creators are choosing sides, and people who probably agree on ninety percent of everything else suddenly can’t stand each other because of one issue. That’s sad, especially in a hobby built on imagination and collaboration.

The truth is AI isn’t going away. Search engines use it, Microsoft Word uses it, WordPress uses it, customer service departments use it, and my dentist’s office uses it after hours. Most people interact with AI every day whether they realize it or not. Technology changes, people adapt, and nobody is rushing to bring back eight-track tapes or demanding a return to typewriters. The world keeps moving forward.

That doesn’t mean every technological change is good, but it does mean some of them become permanent. Sewing machines still exist, but they don’t closely resemble the ones from a hundred years ago.

My position is pretty simple.

Creators who want to make everything by hand should absolutely do so. Creators who want to hire artists should absolutely do so. Customers should absolutely support the creators they believe in. I have no interest in telling anyone what tools they should use; I just want the same courtesy in return.

I’ve been in this hobby for decades. I’ve written for small publications, and I’ve watched entire eras of gaming come and go. The one thing I’ve always loved about tabletop roleplaying games is that anyone could create something. Anyone could write an adventure, build a world, invent a monster, and contribute. That spirit is worth protecting.

You don’t have to agree with my choices. You don’t have to like AI, and you don’t have to use it. But I do believe people should be free to create using the tools available to them, especially when those tools help overcome barriers that might otherwise prevent them from creating at all.

At the end of the day, I’d rather spend my time creating worlds than fighting culture wars. The hobby is big enough for all of us, or at least I’d like to believe it is.

#AIart #AIControversy #Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgwriter #AIArtForCreators #AIArtInTTRPGs #AIToolsForWriters #AIAssistedDesign

That Conversation I Don’t Want To Have.

That conversation I never wanted to freakin have.

I’ve been sitting on this article for months. The first draft was well over 3,000 words, and the second draft wasn’t much shorter. Every time I started writing, I got angry, and every time I got angry, the article got longer. Somewhere along the way I realized I wasn’t really writing about AI anymore. I was writing about frustration, disappointment, and feeling like I had to defend my existence as a creator.

So let’s try this one more time.

Once upon a time, tabletop roleplaying games were built on newsletters, fanzines, pamphlets, and whatever else people could scrape together. Folks typed things up on typewriters, ran them through photocopiers, stapled them together, and shared them with anyone at the wargaming club willing to read them. The hobby wasn’t built by publishing companies; it was built by enthusiastic weirdos with fantastic ideas.

Fantasy art wasn’t readily available, and layout software didn’t exist. Nobody was arguing about AI because most of us were trying to figure out how to get enough copies made before the local copy shop closed or we got kicked out of the public library (Yes, that really happened.) The important thing was the idea; the adventure, the setting, the monster, the game.

Somewhere along the line, things changed.

Today, fantasy art is everywhere, layout software is available to almost anyone with a computer or a phone, and publishing has never been easier. Yet somehow the barriers to entry feel higher than ever. If you release a product today without art, if your cover isn’t eye-catching, or if your layout isn’t polished, people notice. Art has become an expectation.

I listened to a popular DungeonTuber the other day railing against typos and grammatical errors the other day. The same guy regularly doubles down against AI tools. Do you see where this causes me some cognitive dissonance?

That brings me to the problem.

I have quietly come to loggerheads with people I admire over AI art. I’ve watched creators get absolutely roasted for using it. I’ve watched friendships fracture, and I’ve watched communities divide themselves into camps that seem increasingly unwilling to listen to each other. I’ve mostly kept my mouth shut—not because I don’t have opinions (trust me, I do), but because I knew the moment I opened my mouth someone would assume I was attacking artists.

I’m not. Not even a little.

I think artists should be paid, and I think artists deserve respect. I think artists create things I could never create. I also think reality exists, and reality is where this discussion gets complicated.

I’m a small creator. I’m not running million-dollar crowdfunding campaigns, getting convention appearance fees, or selling tens of thousands of copies of products. I’m a guy trying to make third-party Dragonbane supplements at three in the morning while dealing with chronic pain, depression, family obligations, and whatever fresh disaster life has decided to throw at me this week.

Have you seen what professional fantasy art costs these days? Holy shit.

Good artists deserve every penny they earn. The problem isn’t the artist; the problem is that many small creators simply can’t afford those prices. A custom cover can easily cost hundreds of dollars, and interior artwork can climb into the thousands. That’s before layout, editing, promotion, or anything else enters the equation.

People often tell me to use stock art. Okay. Please show me where I can find stock art for a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex with gorilla arms, vulture wings, and a venomous tail. I’ll wait.

If I need a castle, a mountain, or a goat, stock art is wonderful. If I need a bizarre monster that exists only in the twisted recesses of my brain, the options become a lot more limited. That’s where AI entered my workflow; not because I hate artists, want artists to starve, and not because I’m trying to replace anyone. It’s because AI solved a problem that otherwise had no practical solution.

The choice wasn’t AI art versus commissioned art. The choice was AI art versus no art, and that’s a very different conversation.

There’s another aspect of this discussion that gets overlooked constantly: accessibility.

My friend, The OG GM, has dyslexia and other neurological challenges that can make writing and formatting difficult, which is a well-known fact to his friends, family, and strangers on the Internet. AI helps bridge some of those gaps. Sometimes it helps with spelling, sometimes it helps organize thoughts, and sometimes it helps transform rough ideas into something easier to work with. I help when I can, too. For free because that’s what friends do. Sometimes I wish I could help more.

What I’ve discovered is that a lot of neurodivergent people use AI in similar ways. They use it to reduce decision fatigue, organize schedules, draft emails, answer messages, summarize information, and break overwhelming tasks into manageable pieces. AI doesn’t make ADHD, or Autism disappear. It doesn’t magically solve anxiety, depression, dyslexia, or executive dysfunction. What it can do is remove a few obstacles and reduce a little friction, and for some people, that’s a bigger deal than critics seem willing to acknowledge.

Now before anyone starts sharpening pitchforks, let’s address the obvious concerns.

Some artists are losing work, and that’s real. Some companies are absolutely using AI to cut costs, and that’s real too. Some people are flooding storefronts with low-effort junk generated in five minutes. I’ve seen it, and you’ve seen it. Pretending those things aren’t happening would be dishonest. Likewise, concerns about energy usage and infrastructure deserve discussion. Every major technological shift comes with consequences, and none of those concerns are imaginary.

What frustrates me is the lack of nuance. The conversation often feels like it has only two positions: either AI is the greatest thing ever invented, or AI is destroying creativity forever. Reality rarely works that way. Most people end up somewhere in the middle. Most people aren’t trying to destroy art or artists; they’re simply trying to solve problems using the tools available to them.

The thing that concerns me most isn’t the technology; it’s the growing divide inside the TTRPG hobby. Communities are splitting apart, conventions are debating policies, creators are choosing sides, and people who probably agree on ninety percent of everything else suddenly can’t stand each other because of one issue. That’s sad, especially in a hobby built on imagination and collaboration.

The truth is AI isn’t going away. Search engines use it, Microsoft Word uses it, WordPress uses it, customer service departments use it, and my dentist’s office uses it after hours. Most people interact with AI every day whether they realize it or not. Technology changes, people adapt, and nobody is rushing to bring back eight-track tapes or demanding a return to typewriters. The world keeps moving forward.

That doesn’t mean every technological change is good, but it does mean some of them become permanent. Sewing machines still exist, but they don’t closely resemble the ones from a hundred years ago.

My position is pretty simple.

Creators who want to make everything by hand should absolutely do so. Creators who want to hire artists should absolutely do so. Customers should absolutely support the creators they believe in. I have no interest in telling anyone what tools they should use; I just want the same courtesy in return.

I’ve been in this hobby for decades. I’ve written for small publications, and I’ve watched entire eras of gaming come and go. The one thing I’ve always loved about tabletop roleplaying games is that anyone could create something. Anyone could write an adventure, build a world, invent a monster, and contribute. That spirit is worth protecting.

You don’t have to agree with my choices. You don’t have to like AI, and you don’t have to use it. But I do believe people should be free to create using the tools available to them, especially when those tools help overcome barriers that might otherwise prevent them from creating at all.

At the end of the day, I’d rather spend my time creating worlds than fighting culture wars. The hobby is big enough for all of us, or at least I’d like to believe it is.

#AIart #AIControversy #Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgwriter #AIArtForCreators #AIArtInTTRPGs #AIToolsForWriters #AIAssistedDesign

Monday Monster: Gorvult

Compatible with Dragonbane RPG.

Description: A large, black, hairy beast that glides seamlessly between the trees and lands on prey from above. It is the terror of the night in deep forest/jungle areas.

Ferocity: 2             Size: Large
Movement: 12 (Flying) Armor: 2 (Natural)            HP: 36

Has wings, can fly. When flying at night is treated as having 14 Sneaking.

Gorvult Attacks:

D6 Attacks:

1: Big, Big Bite: Inflicts 2d8 piercing damage on one target within 2 meters.

2: Big, Big Crunch: The Gorvult leaps high into the air and comes down with all of its weight on one target inflicting 2d6 bludgeoning damage and knocking the opponent prone on their turn.

3: How Good Is Your Armor? The Gorvult makes excited noises and jumps up and down on one target within 4 meters 1d6 times inflicting 1d6 bludgeoning damage each time. Each bounce counts as a separate attack when parrying. A successful EVADE avoids the attack entirely. One successful bounce leaves the character prone on the start of their turn.

4: Big Wallop! The Gorvult swings both fists together striking up to 2 adjacent characters within 2 meters for 1d8 bludgeoning damage each. Characters struck by the attack are knocked prone until the start of their turn.

5: Thump Thump: Gorvult grabs one character within 2 meters by the ankle and slamming them against the ground 1d4 times for 1d6 bludgeoning damage each time. Armor bonuses do not apply. After the first slam, the character can make a free attempt to wriggle out of the creature’s grasp with an opposed STR roll. (Gorvult has a 16 for purposes of this check.) Characters hit with this attack also suffer the Dazed condition.

6: Snatch and Drop: Gorvult grabs one character within 2 meters with its talons and soars skyward 45 meters before dropping them. Standard falling damage applies.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #Dragonbane #MondayMonster #monsterDesign

Monday Monster: Gorvult

Compatible with Dragonbane RPG.

Description: A large, black, hairy beast that glides seamlessly between the trees and lands on prey from above. It is the terror of the night in deep forest/jungle areas.

Ferocity: 2             Size: Large
Movement: 12 (Flying) Armor: 2 (Natural)            HP: 36

Has wings, can fly. When flying at night is treated as having 14 Sneaking.

Gorvult Attacks:

D6 Attacks:

1: Big, Big Bite: Inflicts 2d8 piercing damage on one target within 2 meters.

2: Big, Big Crunch: The Gorvult leaps high into the air and comes down with all of its weight on one target inflicting 2d6 bludgeoning damage and knocking the opponent prone on their turn.

3: How Good Is Your Armor? The Gorvult makes excited noises and jumps up and down on one target within 4 meters 1d6 times inflicting 1d6 bludgeoning damage each time. Each bounce counts as a separate attack when parrying. A successful EVADE avoids the attack entirely. One successful bounce leaves the character prone on the start of their turn.

4: Big Wallop! The Gorvult swings both fists together striking up to 2 adjacent characters within 2 meters for 1d8 bludgeoning damage each. Characters struck by the attack are knocked prone until the start of their turn.

5: Thump Thump: Gorvult grabs one character within 2 meters by the ankle and slamming them against the ground 1d4 times for 1d6 bludgeoning damage each time. Armor bonuses do not apply. After the first slam, the character can make a free attempt to wriggle out of the creature’s grasp with an opposed STR roll. (Gorvult has a 16 for purposes of this check.) Characters hit with this attack also suffer the Dazed condition.

6: Snatch and Drop: Gorvult grabs one character within 2 meters with its talons and soars skyward 45 meters before dropping them. Standard falling damage applies.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #Dragonbane #MondayMonster #monsterDesign

Monday Monster: Gorvult

Compatible with Dragonbane RPG.

Description: A large, black, hairy beast that glides seamlessly between the trees and lands on prey from above. It is the terror of the night in deep forest/jungle areas.

Ferocity: 2             Size: Large
Movement: 12 (Flying) Armor: 2 (Natural)            HP: 36

Has wings, can fly. When flying at night is treated as having 14 Sneaking.

Gorvult Attacks:

D6 Attacks:

1: Big, Big Bite: Inflicts 2d8 piercing damage on one target within 2 meters.

2: Big, Big Crunch: The Gorvult leaps high into the air and comes down with all of its weight on one target inflicting 2d6 bludgeoning damage and knocking the opponent prone on their turn.

3: How Good Is Your Armor? The Gorvult makes excited noises and jumps up and down on one target within 4 meters 1d6 times inflicting 1d6 bludgeoning damage each time. Each bounce counts as a separate attack when parrying. A successful EVADE avoids the attack entirely. One successful bounce leaves the character prone on the start of their turn.

4: Big Wallop! The Gorvult swings both fists together striking up to 2 adjacent characters within 2 meters for 1d8 bludgeoning damage each. Characters struck by the attack are knocked prone until the start of their turn.

5: Thump Thump: Gorvult grabs one character within 2 meters by the ankle and slamming them against the ground 1d4 times for 1d6 bludgeoning damage each time. Armor bonuses do not apply. After the first slam, the character can make a free attempt to wriggle out of the creature’s grasp with an opposed STR roll. (Gorvult has a 16 for purposes of this check.) Characters hit with this attack also suffer the Dazed condition.

6: Snatch and Drop: Gorvult grabs one character within 2 meters with its talons and soars skyward 45 meters before dropping them. Standard falling damage applies.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #Dragonbane #MondayMonster #monsterDesign

Monday Monster: Gorvult

Compatible with Dragonbane RPG.

Description: A large, black, hairy beast that glides seamlessly between the trees and lands on prey from above. It is the terror of the night in deep forest/jungle areas.

Ferocity: 2             Size: Large
Movement: 12 (Flying) Armor: 2 (Natural)            HP: 36

Has wings, can fly. When flying at night is treated as having 14 Sneaking.

Gorvult Attacks:

D6 Attacks:

1: Big, Big Bite: Inflicts 2d8 piercing damage on one target within 2 meters.

2: Big, Big Crunch: The Gorvult leaps high into the air and comes down with all of its weight on one target inflicting 2d6 bludgeoning damage and knocking the opponent prone on their turn.

3: How Good Is Your Armor? The Gorvult makes excited noises and jumps up and down on one target within 4 meters 1d6 times inflicting 1d6 bludgeoning damage each time. Each bounce counts as a separate attack when parrying. A successful EVADE avoids the attack entirely. One successful bounce leaves the character prone on the start of their turn.

4: Big Wallop! The Gorvult swings both fists together striking up to 2 adjacent characters within 2 meters for 1d8 bludgeoning damage each. Characters struck by the attack are knocked prone until the start of their turn.

5: Thump Thump: Gorvult grabs one character within 2 meters by the ankle and slamming them against the ground 1d4 times for 1d6 bludgeoning damage each time. Armor bonuses do not apply. After the first slam, the character can make a free attempt to wriggle out of the creature’s grasp with an opposed STR roll. (Gorvult has a 16 for purposes of this check.) Characters hit with this attack also suffer the Dazed condition.

6: Snatch and Drop: Gorvult grabs one character within 2 meters with its talons and soars skyward 45 meters before dropping them. Standard falling damage applies.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #Dragonbane #MondayMonster #monsterDesign

Monday Monster: Gorvult

Compatible with Dragonbane RPG.

Description: A large, black, hairy beast that glides seamlessly between the trees and lands on prey from above. It is the terror of the night in deep forest/jungle areas.

Ferocity: 2             Size: Large
Movement: 12 (Flying) Armor: 2 (Natural)            HP: 36

Has wings, can fly. When flying at night is treated as having 14 Sneaking.

Gorvult Attacks:

D6 Attacks:

1: Big, Big Bite: Inflicts 2d8 piercing damage on one target within 2 meters.

2: Big, Big Crunch: The Gorvult leaps high into the air and comes down with all of its weight on one target inflicting 2d6 bludgeoning damage and knocking the opponent prone on their turn.

3: How Good Is Your Armor? The Gorvult makes excited noises and jumps up and down on one target within 4 meters 1d6 times inflicting 1d6 bludgeoning damage each time. Each bounce counts as a separate attack when parrying. A successful EVADE avoids the attack entirely. One successful bounce leaves the character prone on the start of their turn.

4: Big Wallop! The Gorvult swings both fists together striking up to 2 adjacent characters within 2 meters for 1d8 bludgeoning damage each. Characters struck by the attack are knocked prone until the start of their turn.

5: Thump Thump: Gorvult grabs one character within 2 meters by the ankle and slamming them against the ground 1d4 times for 1d6 bludgeoning damage each time. Armor bonuses do not apply. After the first slam, the character can make a free attempt to wriggle out of the creature’s grasp with an opposed STR roll. (Gorvult has a 16 for purposes of this check.) Characters hit with this attack also suffer the Dazed condition.

6: Snatch and Drop: Gorvult grabs one character within 2 meters with its talons and soars skyward 45 meters before dropping them. Standard falling damage applies.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #Dragonbane #MondayMonster #monsterDesign

Port Leviathan Out Now On DriveThruRPG.

You can find it on DriveThruRPG using my Affliate Link*: https://www.drivethrurpg.com//product/570465/port-leviathan?affiliate_id=305723

*Any additional purchases made through the Affiliate Link give me a small commission which goes to support the blog, YouTube, and my own meager content creation efforts.

Port Leviathan is a completely unique fantasy setting compatible with most d20 systems created by our good friend and Boss, The OG GM. There are goblins, pirates, and oh so much zombie goodness among other things. Please go give it a look today.

I’m probably going to run it using Ruttigers Almanac, since it’s d20 compatible.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Shavethewhales #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgwriter #Whalepunk #OggmAdventures #FantasySetting #OGGMAdventures #OGGMYouTube #PortLeviathan #TTRPGAdventureSetting #UniqueSetting

Ruttigers Almanac, TTRPG and Toolkit Now On Preorder!

You can get it on BackerKit using this link: https://ruttigers-almanac-ttrpg-toolkit.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/858069

#Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #Ruttigers #RuttigersAlmanac

Freedom Day: June 2026 Edition.

Almost up to 5 years away from the grind now.

Happy Juneteenth for those who celebrate.

The kittens turned 9 months old officially this month. Aww.

World War Flea has broken out in our house. Seriously contemplating NBC warfare to get rid of them. (The fleas, not the cats or the humans.) Not sure how they got in. We just want them out.

I’m slowly getting back into the groove.

Blog, blog, video, DTRPG project, then rest and repeat. My Magic Item Book is taking way longer than anticipated. I’m honestly shooting for Christmas 2026. The Dragonbane Book of Magic changed up a ton of things, but my goal is to be in line with official rules.

Other things are getting readjusted for mental and physical health, cats, kids, and my dear wife. Twilight Sword’s Third-Party expansion by yours truly is still waiting for the CAT license, and I have to write the stats for things. It’s been an idea running around in my head for years and I think the video game nature of Twilight Sword will fit perfectly. Also, there’s art issues…

2026 has been kind of a beating so far.

Depression, fell behind on all of my projects and then very slowly started getting better long enough to get hit with it all over again. The fallout over a discussion regarding AI art has driven a lot of this. But I’m not getting into all of that again. You didn’t see the first couple of drafts of this article. (Over 3K words the first time.)

On any given day I run the gamut of emotions from angry, frustrated, resentful, bitter, depressed, confused, exhausted, then quiet resolve and sleep. I’ve been all over the spectrum from wanting to abandon the hobby/industry entirely to doubling down on everything. But, knowing what I don’t want helps shape what I do want.

A DungeonTube thing I noticed is a number of creators that are either covering topics I had videos about last year or freakier yet, ones I planned to do next week. Like WtF? Am I that far ahead of the curve on some of this stuff? Odd for a guy in my position to be seeing that.

So, back to the daily grind we go. Blog, YouTube, DTRPG project, happy family. Eventually convention panels/con invites, monetization, book deals and maybe more. Sometimes I sure could use some good news. I’d like to go a week without a plumbing malfunction, sick kid, Biblical-level plague, angry wife, or major catastrophe first. We need to have a much, much larger discussion about AI art and editing tools at some point, too.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#PersonalShare #Personalblog #Personalfreedom #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #Worldwarflea

Monday Monster: X-Rex

Compatible with Dragonbane RPG.

TYRANNOSAURUS X

Description: It has a scaly hide and large mouth full of razor-sharp teeth as its dinosaur cousin would. It shares the same height and rough build as well—with one critical difference. It has long, ape-like arms ending in wicked claws, making it the true king of the apex predators.

It is unclear whether or not the X-Rex was created in an advanced science laboratory or by magic. Regardless, the creature didn’t stay contained long. Could there be a draconic, aquatic, or winged variant running around somewhere?

Ferocity: 2             Size: Huge.
Movement: 20     Armor: 4 Natural           HP: 66

MONSTER ATTACKS

D6 Attacks:

1.  Terrifying Roar: A fierce, deafening roar blasts everyone within 30 meters radius of the creature and forces them to make a Fear Roll.
2. Ferocious Bite: The creature’s huge maw descends upon up to two adjacent creatures within 4 meters of it for 3d10 Slashing Damage plus 1d6 bleeding damage per turn until a successful CON roll is made. All Parry attempts are made with a Bane on this attack.
3. Claw Swipe: The creature swings its massive arms at up to 4 adjacent creatures within 2 meters dealing 2d10 slashing +1d6 bleeding damage and knocking them prone at the start of their turn. Affected characters also take an additional 1d4 durability damage to their armor every time this attack hits.
4. Pounce and Maul: The X-Rex leaps into the air and lands on one opponent within 4 meters dealing 2d10 slashing damage +1d6 bleeding. The target creature is pinned under the weight of the X-Rex allowing for a Ferocious Bite attack on the creature’s next action unless it is distracted or the victim makes an opposed STR check vs 16 to wiggle free. (AGI may be substituted for STR if higher.) This attack can’t be parried.
5. Thrash About: The monster lashes out at every target within 4 meters dealing 1d10 slashing + 1d6 bleeding damage and begin their next turn prone. A successful EVADE moves the character back 4 meters to the nearest edge away from the creature. This attack can’t be parried.
6. Playing With Its Food: The Rex grabs one creature within 4 meters and launches them into the air. (Characters may attempt a free Acrobatics roll to tumble out of the way.) Launched characters then have a chance to find themselves in the creature’s mouth, taking 3d10 Slashing Damage +1d6 bleeding damage per round AND are trapped in the Rex’s mouth at the beginning of their next turn. An opposed STR roll vs 16 allows the character to break free of the creature’s jaws and start their turn on the ground next to the Rex.

*Bleeding damage can be stopped in a number of ways. If the player makes a successful CON roll at the start of their turn, no further action is needed. If the character or ally uses the Healing Skill on their turn as an action, they can stop the bleeding. Magic healing via potion, spell, or item automatically stops the bleeding. The bleeding can also be stopped without any roll during a Stretch Rest. The damage stops as soon as pressure is applied, presumably at the start of the rest.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter

Ask the Old Guy: When Is It Okay Not To Roll?

Yet another discussion I can’t believe we’re having.

In the annals of “You’re playing make believe with dice wrong,” we have this messed up notion that a well-known Game Master waived off a die roll in the name of progressing play. Not only did this GM waive off the die roll on account of the player’s incredible oration, but he granted a Natural 20 result in lieu of the die roll.

This, of course, set off a firestorm on social media of the old guard yelling, “You’re doing it wrong!”

One old head went so far as to say, “…if you’re telling a story, you’re not playing the game. Roleplay can and should be rewarded… With XP, bonuses or advantage, or in some other way. It does not however change the game into a campfire tale.”

To which several of us rolled our eyes. Several older members of the Dungeons & Dragons community chimed in for or against this notion. I even added an “ugh” originally. Heck I even reposted one video responding to this whole screwed-up incident but then later deleted the post due to lack of engagement. (I know I’m pretty boring.)

Were it any other table, I’d say the whole thing was no big deal.

But this whole incident with the die roll being waived happened during the popular “Live” Play Show, Critical Role. Let me just say I’m not a big fan of Brennan Lee Mulligan and a couple of the players this season, but I stopped watching a while back. The man does not get the concept of a West Marches campaign. It’s disappointing to me.

What’s possibly more disappointing is the battle over whether or not Critical Role is scripted. Matt Mercer even went so far as to go on Dungeoncraft and claim it wasn’t scripted. However, we found out recently that they film three episodes at a time. Um… what happened to “Actual Play?” These aren’t the result of three 4-hour games in a row we’re seeing. What gives?

Even the person who responded to the ditched dice roll said, “Critical Role’s Brennan Lee Mulligan ditched D&D’s dice in Campaign 4: no roll needed because a PC monologue was ‘too good.’ Performance now overrides actual gameplay. This isn’t D&D. It’s scripted celebrity theater pretending to be gaming. They. Don’t Really. Play.”

There’s now a Community Note from the Dungeon Master’s Guide on the post about the DM being able to forego a die roll in lieu of excellent problem-solving or roleplay on the part of the players. While I kind of rolled my eyes at this being a Community Note, I do agree with the sentiment regarding dice rolling. However, I also have become even more skeptical than ever about CR not being at least heavily outlined if not actually scripted.

Again, if this happened at any other table, I wouldn’t have cared. I would have likely called the guy popping off on social media a royal buffoon and moved on. (That’s okay, he has me blocked on at least one site, like half of DungeonTube and some of the OSR. Pfft. Join the club, dude.) But because the CR cast are literally trained and paid voice actors pretending to roleplay in a TTRPG, I have to raise an eyebrow in skepticism.

Critical Role fans were the new flock of gamers that came in around COVID. Critical Role was supposed to be leading the charge of new players getting into the game. Several big name DungeonTubers allegedly got into D&D or got into YouTube after seeing the success of CR. CR was/is supposed to be setting a good example of D&D play. I look at this whole fracas and wonder; are they?

The massive single player (actor) monologue that led to the auto Nat 20 success was pretty impressive, admittedly. I listened to the whole thing. I would have waived the die roll if it were one of my players. Supposedly that whole monologue was not scripted. But other big narrative-moving player monologues in the past have been pre-scripted. At what point are the old guard justified in calling bullshit on Critical Role.

It’s not a good look when the Dungeon Master is so determined to tell a story, and admitted so on Day One, that no one can derail the plot train, as even Matt Mercer himself tried to do. Letting one player deliver a massive speech that keeps the train chugging down the tracks might make for fabulous YouTube views, but is it really the essence of what a good roleplaying game is? Is this really the message we’re trying to send?

Here’s my beef with this whole freaking scenario.

Can/should a DM or GM hand wave a die roll following an epic in-character speech? Absolutely. It’s well within their prerogative. You’re not going to get it wrong. No one is coming for your gaming books or your dice even if you did.

It doesn’t even matter if CR is scripted or not. Who really cares? Except wouldn’t it be great if the producers were being honest with the audience? The only problem is that level of honesty is rarely good for YouTube, X, or whatever. If you’re going to make an audio drama, why pretend to have rulebooks and roll dice?

Should the DM of the arguably world’s most popular D&D campaign, Critical Role, be setting a good example for all of us? Absolutely. We used to worry about the Matt Mercer Effect ruining our home campaigns. I think it’s safe to say none of us worry about the “Mulligan Effect.” I think it’s because he’s so determined to tell his story that he sees the die rolls as inconsequential. Maybe not the image we’re looking to send there, guys.

But that’s not even my real beef. What I have the most trouble with is the amount of Grognard hate that this has brought out (again) on social media. We know that the Critical Role fans, aka “Critters,” are well known for being incredibly toxic toward anyone and everyone who they take even the slightest issue. It’s like arguing with random strangers on the Internet only 1,000 times worse. Most random strangers don’t threaten to injure, dox, or kill people over trivial disagreements. (Sometimes even CR cast members and their families. Ick.) I’ve even had friends on YouTube report similar experiences. (And no, you don’t get their names. Just take my word for it.)

So I didn’t even bat an eye when a couple of other DungeonTube channels reacted rather loudly to the whole kerfuffle over on X (Twitter.) I guess I should have expected as much. But wow, way to go out of your way to hate on us old white guys from the Midwest flyover states. As if dude’s loudmouth posts didn’t do enough damage to the old guard’s reputation, some of the finest examples of old fart gamers chimed in their poop-covered two cents worth. And thus we had polarization again.

Am I surprised in the slightest? No. Am I annoyed? Oh yeah.

Time to tap the sign and move on before I get into real trouble.

Look, I don’t care how Brennan Lee Mulligan runs his game any more than I care how any other rando on the Internet runs their game. I don’t care how he runs CR, either. Some of his players deserve him and vice versa. Best of luck and best of wishes to them.

The time-worn statement of what works best for you and your table may not work at mine and vice versa. Do what works best for you and your group. We say this about once per month around here, sometimes more.

Maybe Mulligan hands out automatic Nat 20s like candy. Maybe some other GM/DMs hand out Advantage, XP, or Heroic Inspiration instead. Personally, I’d say don’t roll the dice unless the outcome is uncertain and failure means something. We’ve had entire games at my table where no dice were rolled. We’ve had whole games where we were rolling constantly for one thing or another.

Another thing I say around here frequently is “Don’t be a douchebag to your fellow players in person or online.”

Please just try to treat our fellow real-world humans with kindness, understanding, and empathy. These very simple principles could have prevented this whole fiery shitshow on social media. I think it was more driven by the idea that negativity, especially on social media in our hobby, drives clicks and attention in an economy where attention is everything.  

It’s really not my place to say if you or any other GM/DM is running the game “correctly.” If your group is okay with it, fine. Personally, I’d send Mulligan and a couple of other people packing back to Dimension 20 again, but not my place to say. And not because of the die roll situation, but because they kinda don’t appeal for other reasons. Once upon a time CR was about Matt Mercer and his voice actor friends playing Pathfinder for fun. I digress.

Maybe the best approach would have been to take to social media and just say, “I disagree with how this was handled on Critical Role. I would have run it ‘such-and-such’ way. I’ve had better results with it in my group.”

We’ll never know, of course. Instead people had to go the most vitriolic, venomous, toxic route possible on both sides of the fence and here we are. Dear TTRPG “Community:” Do better.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#Critters #Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #BrennanLeeMulligan #CRCampaign4 #CriticalRole #DD #MercerEffect #RPGGenerationGap #TTRPGAgeism #TTRPGGrognard

Behind the Screen: Balance In TTRPGs.

Balance in a tabletop roleplaying game takes many forms.

The Law of Balance in and of itself is a statement of true neutrality. If light, so there must be darkness. If right, then so there must be left. Duality and separation are constantly in a state of flux with one evening out the other somewhere down the line. Without getting deep into spiritual symmetry, Taoism, Zen, or anything else where the forces of the Universe are constantly tugging on one another, let’s talk games.

The dungeon gets combative.

The first thing most of us gamers young and old think of when the term “balance” comes up is combat. This comes from the early days of wargaming where hypothetically both sides had the same number of points from which to draw their armies. Unless, of course, you were playing in a wargame that was historical reenactment where things rarely balance that well on a real battlefield. Or maybe a game like old Dungeons & Dragons where the PCs were occasionally expected to run from the fight or not start one at all.

Fast forward 28-ish years or so to 2000 when D&D 3rd Edition gave us this neato mosquito way to adjust the number and size of the monsters with the party’s number and levels of characters. I think I’m one of the few DMs on Earth who actually crunched all the math and tried to use this balancing mechanic. I mean, it usually bombed outright in the party’s favor, but worth a try.

Fast forward past 3.5 and 4th Edition to 2014. Imagine my disappointment when the 5th Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide was void of such tables. What they gave us for combat balancing was lackluster and weak sauce on a good day. Later on we found out that’s not even the same system they were using in-house at Wizards of the Coast. I actually feel embarrassed for the designers at this point.

But why even bother?

Before all the Old School keyboard warriors get up in arms about all this, I get it. We never used to try to balance encounters. If you ran into an adult Red Dragon or some gnarly demon your group wouldn’t be able to handle, the idea was to have them run away. Did they? Most often not. Then we went back to character creation.

It was fun. I guess? Personally I get a little peeved if I have to return to character creation after getting to Level 7 or even 13 and then end up a stain on some dragon’s floor. On the other hand, maybe we should have disengaged as soon as things started to fall apart, so maybe it was our own faults.

I’m astonished even now in games such as Dragonbane where death can be horrible and instantaneous that more groups don’t break and run when things get ugly. There’s not a ton of healing magic available, or magic of any kind for that matter. There are no unbeatable combos or broken characters in Dragonbane. If one of my monsters or even something out of the book that the players might recognize pops up, there could easily be a TPK. The group has to be careful.

Mechanical game balance is a myth.

Is there ever a “fair” fight in TTRPGs? Most often the PCs are the ones who triumph, which is ultimately the goal of most games. If players just go in and watch their characters get butchered every week, what’s the point of showing up? Personally, I wouldn’t show past week two or three if my characters kept getting splatted. I think the end goal of a “balanced encounter” is one where the characters expend a significant amount of resources and still come out ahead.

The group has to stop and think once they are running out of spells, ammo, and hit points. That’s not to say stop immediately and run out of the dungeon to recover, but to think carefully before engaging in more combat shenanigans. Suddenly stealth, negotiations, and maybe some creative magic casting might be better options than running in headlong into another gory fight.

Then there’s the second kind of balance.

I don’t talk much about story gaming these days. In fact I rarely walk into a game with the agenda of following a specific plot these days. Sure, I throw lots of plot hooks or adventure seeds out there to see what sticks. Most days I wait to see what the group is going to take interest in before going ahead with anything resembling a plan.

This aspect of gaming is where I’m also going to say good old Session Zero plays a hand in things. Some expectations need to be established before the game starts and probably before characters are even created. What is the world like? What kind of mood is the GM trying to establish. Obviously if the world is supposed to be grimdark and somber, making a purely comedy relief Halfling Bard is probably not the best way to go. Gallows humor in a one-off line by the Fighter might be more appropriate.

It boils down to the GM setting basic expectations for the overall mood of the game with the players. If we’re playing a beer-and-pretzels, gonzo, anything goes dungeon romp, then I don’t care if someone shows up with a screwball character that has an even more absurd name. But if we’re doing survival horror, that same goofball character will have to be packed away in a folder and a new character should replace him. Basically, don’t show up to a hockey game wearing baseball gear. The opposite is true as well. Don’t show up to a screwball comedy affair with an uber-serious character.

Truthfully, I think most fantasy games land somewhere in the middle. It’s like watching an episode of Xena: Warrior Princess where there are a few laughs and some serious moments as well. Sometimes we even get a moral of the story at the end of an episode or game session. I don’t often plan for such things as a GM or try to force them. However, if they come up through the natural course of play, I try to find some way to reward it. Always reward the good, fun stuff. Never punish the PCs for the worse stuff. Consequences should at least appear natural.

Roleplaying GMs can often be like doctors. We offer an illusion of control. The doctor knows that a surgery is necessary but still has to present it as a choice to the patient. The patient then sees the operation is in their best interest and agrees to it. The reality is there was never really a choice, but it sure looked like one.

The same goes for a TTRPG group. All we can do is drop hints, clues, and obstacles in the group’s path, but the end goal stays the same. I’m not necessarily advocating for a quantum ogre, but in a roundabout way, it could happen.

Another type of balance to come up in fantasy games especially is loot.

I know everyone wants that one crazy cool magic item on their character that will make them stand out in a truly unique way. In the books maybe only one hobbit carries The One Ring. Only one warrior wields Stormbringer. The group’s cleric of Thor finds themselves worthy of a hammer that looks a lot like Mjolnir. Only one rogue is gifted the Cloak and Boots of Elvenkind. I think almost every player wants that special item, and I try to give everyone that chance if the game goes long enough.

That’s why in the magic item book I’m currently writing I’m trying to come up with one artifact to appeal to every play style, every type of character, and at least one member of every party. I’m not saying every item is perfect, but hopefully the GM can find something for any given character to aspire to. Maybe they get a hint about a staff, a piece of armor, or even a potion that does something truly incredible for the group to quest for. I’m trying to include a little something special for everyone.

That having been said, the third and often hidden balance issue usually comes in the form of magic items and/or spells. An early Gary Gygax D&D session once pointed out the perils of giving a character a Ring of Teleportation that had line of sight range. Suddenly the character was teleporting from one mountain to the next and then another landmark until the DM ran out of map and had to start winging it.

Wish or reality bending magic is often another source of many GMs’ frustrations. Death suddenly becomes no big deal. Money is no longer an obstacle. There’s nowhere the group can’t go and nothing they can’t do. How can anyone put that genie back in its bottle?

Magic is often the thing that makes the game amazing and fun or a complete nightmare for the person running the game. Entire campaigns have been ruined because some wily player came up with a combo of magic items, spells, and actions that left the rest of the group standing on the sidelines asking, “Why us?”

At that point the campaign usually ends through player attrition or downright outrage. A player’s purpose should never be strictly to watch the poor GM rip his or her hair out. Nor should the GM’s purpose be to compete against the players outright, determined to win at his/her own game. Just play the darn game and have fun with it.

There is no right or wrong way to balance gameplay as long as the group is cool with it overall. Sometimes the hardest part is making sure all of the players share the spotlight equally, that they all have something they’ve earned for their character that is special to them. It doesn’t have to be all at once. As long as everyone is relatively assured (through the illusion of control) that their turn will come as long as they continue playing their role.

I think the main point here is communication is key. GMs, please talk to your players fairly regularly and listen to their concerns. Take note of their feedback and implement what you can. This also applies to homebrew situations as pointed out in the previous article.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgwriter

Homebrew Is Good, Actually.

Contrary to popular DungeonTube opinions.

Once upon a time in a small town in rural Iowa, lived a small group of Dungeons & Dragons players along with their humble Dungeon Master. We didn’t know what the Hell “homebrew” even really was yet because none of us were beer drinkers and the word hadn’t been applied to the TTRPG space yet. Before the Internet boom of the late 1990s-early 2000s, early players of D&D and Traveller used “homebrew” interchangeably with phrases like “house rules” or “variant systems.”

It was pretty widely accepted that if you joined someone else’s game, you agreed to abide by their house rules without question. Otherwise you were probably shown the door. The same applied to game clubs and other common spaces. Most of the time it was little things like what to do if your die rolls of the table or if your die landed at a funny angle between two numbers (cocked.) I knew one gent in college that had a 20+ page handwritten document that he photocopied because he had added so many things to Basic D&D over the years. But nothing was too wild until more recently with the advent of D&D 5E/5.5E.

Without getting too historical, D&D 3E with the OGL is where homebrew got stickier.

Suddenly everyone and their dog was making D&D content. Most companies were thriving on it in some fashion. There were D20 variations on every game imaginable and references to those core books for everything else. I kinda loved it, personally.

Designers and writers were cranking out lots of material, often from boxes and binders built around other D&D campaigns. I’m guilty of that in a roundabout way even now when I dive into my notes for old magic items and spells to convert to Dragonbane. Homebrew was the business we were in and business was good. It still stands today as kind of good, but things changed.

Even back in the D&D 3E/3.5 era, DMs had to be careful with what they allowed into their campaign. Some sourcebooks started coming out with their own class, skill, feat, and spell variants that went wildly off the rails in terms of game balance. I seem to recall something about a Level 5 Barbarian dual-wielding two handed swords and a witch class that made me want to cry sometimes. Although we were mostly blaming the players for dredging stuff up out of third-party content or DMs (like me) for being dumb enough to say “yes” to it. Yeah, I’m guilty of allowing too much added stuff into my 3.5 campaign.

Back in the BECMI era, we homebrewed everything.

It wasn’t “Greyhawk” or “Forgotten Realms.” It was Jeff’s World this weekend, or Travis’ World on Sunday morning. Everything was unique to the Dungeon Master. We didn’t even name the plane or the realm or whatever.

Later on one of us grabbed the Greyhawk box and then someone else bought Forgotten Realms because Waterdeep looked cool. Pretty soon we were exploring some published settings, but for the most part it was still homebrew with different labels. I got into Kara Tur pretty heavily right before 2nd Ed AD&D came out.

We did dip into a few published modules here and there. X1: Isle of Dread and Tomb of Horrors topped the list. I also ran a few things out of Polyhedron and later Dungeon Magazine. But probably 90% of the rest of our adventures were created by whoever was running the game that day.

I had a whole series where one of our players had to delve into five different dragon lairs to obtain Dragon Slayer swords and eventually went up against Tiamat herself long, long before 5E came about. All of the dragons’ lairs were drawn on brown grocery bags and we used whatever lead minis we had at the time for the characters. It was a hoot back then. Those dragons were tough.

So what happened to give “homebrew” a negative connotation?

First of all, I think the company entrusted with the Dungeons & Dragons game basically decided they only wanted people buying official or at least licensed adventures (via the DungeonMastersGuild.com or D&D Beyond, through which they receive a hefty cut of the profits.) It hasn’t stopped everyone and their dog from slapping the “Made for 5E” label on their products thanks to the Open Game License, but that mostly acts as a marketing tool for the third-party publishers. Like it or not, D&D is still the world’s most easily recognizable roleplaying game.

Wizards of the Coast just wants to make sure they are monetizing the players and DMs as much as possible and rake in the profits for their Reptilian Overlords at Hasbro. (It’s my tinfoil hat theory. Back off! Bwah ha-ha-ha.) In all seriousness, it is kinda their purpose as a corporation to make money for the stockholders, etc. Sometimes it’s just a matter of how ethically they go about it or don’t.

DungeonTubers remain WotC’s number one source of public relations these days. It’s pretty much in those YouTubers’ hands to make sure they play nice with WotC and discourage players from creating much of anything for themselves. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that those same DungeonTubers who have their own million-dollar Kickstarters that they would rather see people invest in rather than create their own D&D content. (But I’m not bitter.)

No joke, I see popular DungeonTubers attaching their name to any given 5E crowdfunding project and the profits double, triple or more seemingly overnight. There’s this one guy out there who loves to punch down on anyone using AI, much less homebrew, who has two separate multimillion-dollar crowdfunded products. Do you really think he wants any of us creating our own worlds, monsters, or other content? Hell no. And I’m sure other DungeonTubers are rolling in royalties or affiliate money.

There’s been a major push since late 2022 and January 2023 to go back to “homebrew.”

Disappointment with official 5E products and the Great D&D OGL Debacle of 2023 lead to many of us breaking off from wanting to make third-party content for D&D. Some returned to the Old School Renaissance/Revival/Re-whatever-this-week. Others broke off and started making stuff for other games entirely, such as my beloved Dragonbane.

WotC can’t monetize D&D players and DMs making their own unofficial content at home. I find it incredibly ironic that the hobby went from the largest company in the industry encouraging creativity to being the company who almost actively discourages it the most. We are talking about the company that put player-facing Bastion rules in the Dungeon Master’s Guide for 5.5E.

I sense a degree of irony on DungeonTube nowadays.

The core of the old guard DungeonTubers seem to have split three ways. A few, like the Professor (DM) have turned to their own projects and crowdfunding campaigns. Others have gone back to shilling for WotC/Hasbro. One guy literally went from worldbuilding tips to “This new D&D Starter Set is just the bestest thing ever.” Other DungeonTubers have quit almost entirely to go run their crowdfunding campaigns. (Buh-byeee.)

Then there’s a beautiful new wave of DungeonTubers coming up. Most of them have 1,000-3,000 subscribers with some upwards of 10K. They have gone back to creating monsters, dungeons, and encounter experiences. Some are sounding a lot like the “big names” did in 2019 or 2020. It gives me hope for the future in that area.

I know this one young lady in particular who I feature around here regularly who is what I would call the epitome of a homebrew creator. She has her own world. She has a very unique campaign. She fights the good fight for creativity and ingenuity at every turn. I got the impression she doesn’t spend tons of time with the rulebooks and can fly quite well by the seat of her pants when it comes to rulings. Gotta love Knigobi. I hope she keeps going that way.

There are some who still insist on being spoon-fed adventures.

If published adventures, prepackaged modules, and prebuilt campaign worlds are your thing, I think it’s safe to say Wizards of the Coast will always have you covered. A great deal of content is soon to be locked safely behind a paywall on D&D Beyond if it isn’t already. There’s also the DMsGuild.com for as long as it remains viable.

Honestly, no shade on people who want their official content or as close to it as possible. I still dip into the AD&D Book of Lairs 1 and 2 for one-off encounters even in games that aren’t D&D. I try to pattern the way I do adventures after the content in those two books. They are really well written. I doubt anything since 2014 will truly measure up to my standards the way those two books do.

Truly there is so much D&D content out in the world from the thousands upon thousands of modules, magazine articles, xeroxed black & white notes, and third-party materials that you could run a different published adventure every day and never run out through multiple campaigns and multiple characters.

There are some DM/GMs out there in the world who don’t want to come up with all their own material, write it, prep it, and run it for whatever reason. Some people have real anxiety around creating their own game materials. It’s good to have official or even unofficial content for them to use. That’s a major plus.

There are also some DM/GMs I know who can write a vague three word note on a dinner napkin with a Sharpie and run an entire six-hour long convention game on it. The funny part is, his players were begging for more the next day. They even showed up at his other sessions and begged him to run more of the adventure afterward. He was just that good. Homebrew improv at its finest.

It’s really all a matter of taste.

If you love prepackaged, corporate team-built modules and campaign packages, that’s great. If you’re like me and you prefer a do-it-yourself approach to basically everything, you might consider switching games away from D&D altogether and try games with very basic bare bones rules systems that haven’t been building subclasses, spells, and flogging Faerun’s Sword Coast  for the last twelve years. Admittedly, Dragonbane has some history from the Drakar och Demoner era, but it has the simple, open, red box feel from the early D&D days when everything was new, basic, and brewed at home.

Our entire hobby is still mostly a cottage industry.

I can name the biggest companies in the TTRPG industry off the top of my head. I can also tell you that the top five or six companies in the United States are under the thumb of Wizards of the Coast whether anyone wants to acknowledge it or not. There’s another handful of TTRPG companies that operate very nicely without any input from Hasbro’s lapdog. The rest of them are what I would personally call “indie” because they have fairly small or smaller catalogs and produce sporadic content. Or they’re like me and are one or so lonely third-party operations that are happy to do anything ever.

The question I always have to ask is how many game companies or how many game designers came about from making “homebrew” content for D&D or some other game? Entire companies have been born this way. Even more were born out of the 3/3.5E D&D OGL boom. Where they all are now varies because let’s face it: Business can be a cruel mistress. But the fact remains that none of them would exist without “homebrew.”

Imagine if Mr. Gygax and Mr. Arneson had listened to the old fartz in their wargaming club who probably said, “Don’t go making your own rules,” when Chain Mail was being built. Things might not look anything like they do now. Imagine if people had adopted the “euww homebrew” attitude in the early 2000s when the OGL was born. How many things would look completely different. Luckily our hobby encourages creativity for the most part.

I would go so far as to say it’s a form of gatekeeping.

Anyone telling you not to exercise your creativity in a game about elves with sticks in the name of pushing their own sales numbers is probably not someone you would want to buy a game from. Make good choices for you and your group. Sure. Definitely exercise your power as a Dungeon/Game Master to deny unbalanced, broken, or unfairly advantaged characters in your game. Sure. Not every character build works for every group.

I never want to hear about how my creativity is bad in terms of the business side of the hobby. Yes, there are games out there I won’t touch with a 3.3-meter pole. I’d say the vast majority of them simply don’t appeal to my style of GMing or their setting just doesn’t work for me. Sometimes I do stumble into a game with major statistical issues, but I try to approach those writers with kid gloves on because they’re usually really inexperienced. To them I say, “Keep going,” because someday their game might take off or their next endeavor might take off.

Homebrew is what keeps most games alive. In my many years of Game Mastering, I’ve found that the prepackaged starting adventure only goes so far. Or after you’ve chased the giant rats out of the Inn’s unusually large cellar, your characters are looking for a new challenge. While I managed to cobble a campaign together once out of mostly premade dungeons, I still had to string them together with some homebrew plot and plenty of NPCs.

But I’d never in a million years tell someone, “No, you shouldn’t be doing homebrew.”

Don’t believe everything DungeonTube tells you. That goes for all the wacky peasant railgun ideas, too. Just because one DM/GM let it fly, doesn’t mean everyone will. Always check ahead with the DM/GM before pulling something that’s not already established, especially if it sounds like it might be kinda sketchy.

I know some GMs let their players min-max their characters. I usually don’t unless it’s a limited thing. No one should be trying to win at the role-playing table unless your group is really into that sort of thing. Yes, I know some guys that do the whole one-up PvP style game and I think they’re still playing that way in my hometown. Not my fish; not my pond.

What it really boils down to for me is inviting everyone to open themselves up creatively should they want to. I don’t want to turn someone away from my table or my hobby because of a biased predisposition toward homebrew or anything else hobby related. (*I’m still not putting up with bigots or hateful individuals that spew their nonsense at the game table.) I want to invite people in to be a part of cool adventures and fun storytelling as a group. Let’s try to find reasons to get along and not let our differences divide us to the breaking point.

I’m passionate about gaming. Not video games, but tabletop gaming. Wargaming tends to have rigid rules as do boardgames. But TTRPGs are open, expansive, and often interactive affairs that deserve an environment where creativity can flourish. I know I’m being a bit overly dramatic when I say we just wouldn’t be here without a serious amount of homebrew.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#Dnd #Largecorporationssuck #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgwriter #creativity #homebrewGame #HomebrewTTRPG #homebrewTTRPG #originality

Ruttigers Almanac In Final Days On BackerKit.

Link to the BackerKit is here. Time is running out.

I love this line of reasoning. clo BackerKit.

I almost feel like this crowdfunding project went by too fast. But hey, it reached its funding goal and the stretch goal is getting closer by the hour. Let’s put Richard Whitters to work on drawing a heap of monsters. (Grin.)

It should also be noted that we got a new set of Quickstart Rules during the course of the BackerKit Campaign. That link can be found here. I highly recommend taking a peak even if you don’t end up backing the project.

Ruttigers Manifest Page One. Beautiful!

I’m a fan of the saying “Art sells games.” I’ve been saying it since I worked behind the counter in a game/comic store 30+ years ago. (Great times.) Ruttigers Almanac acts as my proof of concept. So far the art and layout have been absolutely fantastic. All Human drawn, of course.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgwriter #RichardWhitters #Ruttigers #RuttigersAlmanac

RUTTIGERS ALMANAC Is On BackerKit!

This new fantasy TTRPG is done right by people who care and know what they’re doing.

I’m really stoked for this game, and I thought I’d already found my big hits for the year. Then I ran into Richard Whitters on X (Twitter.) I’ve been following him and his art on that platform for a while now. I like what he has going on with Ruttigers Almanac.

Here’s the link to BackerKit.

To make things even better, one of my absolutely favorite sourcebook creators is helping Richard out with this one. That’s right. Andrew Cawood is helping with some of the BackerKit and production aspects. I mean, he’s one of my TTRPG idols. He’s Andrew freakin Cawood! Have you seen World of Myrr and the six monster books that preceded it?

Not that Richard Whitters is to be underestimated, either. He has helped as Art Director/Concept Artist for Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: the Gathering, and Larian Studios. That’s a lot of solid experience right there regardless of what many of us say about WotC. Art credit aside, Richard is definitely a roleplaying gamer.

A lot of loving production has already gone into Ruttigers Almanac. I suspect Richard has been working on this game for at least a year now. Just by looking at the quickstart rules alone, one can see quite a bit of thought has already gone into the unique fantasy races, 24 classes, the magic, the setting, the monster generator…

Here is the link to the Quickstart Rules. I’m absolutely amazed so far.

Obviously the art is going to be off the charts for this book, as is obvious from the previews. I haven’t heard yet if Cawood’s resident artist, Travis Hanson, is involved in the project yet. I’m kinda hoping…

The rules are going to be familiar to both Old School fans and new players alike. You’ve got the same Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, Armor Class, and Hit Points that we all know and love. Skill checks are a d20 +/- modifiers vs Difficulty Class. The weapons, armor, and some of the spells mightl seem familiar from other games. However…

Jeff, what’s a “Ruttiger?”

Here’s where Ruttigers Almanac takes a dramatic turn from what we’re all used-to. Where in most fantasy TTRPGs, adventurers coming into town fresh out of a dungeon are greeted with a hearty “Hail and well met, travelers,” Ruttigers are met with a degree of disdain, apathy, and slight loathing. No one is glad to see the tomb-pillaging, local-economy-ruining, drunken brawling Ruttigers.

If you look at the 24 character class names, it kind of gives the impression that Ruttigers generally gives. In this sort of grimdark world inhabited by Ruttigers, no one is glad to see them coming until a giant carnivorous Rhinoceros Beetle is gnawing on half their farm animals. Sure, they’re friendly as long as they need a favor, but as soon as the beetle is gone? Ruttiger reputations come back into play.

There are more surprises to come with this project,
and I’m excited to see them.

Ruttigers Character Sheet

Sure, I’m still a huge fan of Dragonbane, Shadowdark, Old School Essentials, Twilight Sword, and Fabula Ultima. But I’m making room on my shelf for Ruttigers Almanac. I think this is going to be the next step forward in basic, easy-to-teach, fun-to-play fantasy gaming. It appeals to me as a creator and Game Master. I’m also looking forward to teaching at least a couple of my kids to play. It’s got tons of potential.

I once spent an entire summer back in 1990 playing/running Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying. It was the best of times. That’s what Ruttigers makes me think of. This game is going to be awesome as a common frame of reference for players and GMs who want new takes on the old fantasy races, classes, spells, and monsters along with a bunch of new ones.

Not to mention the creature crucible, a monster generator baked into the rules for GMs who like to customize their experience. That’s not the only widget coming in Ruttigers. There are rules for travel, carousing, hunting/foraging, siege warfare, naval battles, item enchantment and more on their way.

Please go take a look at the project on BackerKit. Almost 750 people were onboard before the BackerKit even opened up. I’m one of them. We’ll be talking more about Ruttigers Almanac in the days to come.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgwriter #BackerKit #CawoodPublishing #FantasyRoleplayingGame #NewTTRPG #RichardWhitters #Ruttiger #Ruttigers #RuttigersAlmanac #TTRPG

Why the Term “Grognard” Is Becoming An Offensive Label.

Thanks, DungeonTube.

I’m hearing it more and more lately. The term “Grognard” being used in a nasty, rude, derogatory fashion by some peppy younger DungeonTuber (usually with 100K+ subscribers.) I’m tired of it, almost fighting mad tired of it.

Now, the downer here is someone is going to cry, “You’re using a straw man argument. You’re a big phony.”

Well, before everyone freaks out, I can name a handful of popular DungeonTubers (four letter word salad not included.) I’m not going to name them directly on the freakish off chance this gets back to her/zir/him, and I get chased down the street by their/zeir rabid fan base. Admittedly, some of these people already have me blocked on social media. But why risk a channel war with someone who gets more views in five minutes than I have total subscribers? Not to mention all the ones who are going to jump up and down proclaiming they were right about us old guys all along.

Rampant stereotypes on both sides of this argument.

Old guys aka Grognards:

• Middle aged
• White (Caucasian)
• From the Midwest flyover states (like Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota…)
• Fat
• Bald
• Beardy.
• Regularly forget there are games outside of B/X Dungeons & Dragons or 1E AD&D.
• Right Wingnut Conservative.
• Everything is about politics or religion.
• Assholes.
• Don’t know anything after 40+ years in the hobby.
• Bigots.
• Constantly yelling at clouds.
• Spew hate on YouTube for anyone labeled as “not-them.”
• “Those damn kids…”
• “You’re playing it all wrong.” (even if it’s a made-up game with elves and magic.)

Meanwhile on the other side of the fence:

• Younger than 40.
  (Let’s face it, honey, your younger fanbase will abandon you someday.)
• Green hair or some other unnatural hair color.
• Openly liberal/leftist.
• Former/current members of the cosplay community.
• Watch that one popular DungeonTuber who fits the first two lines.
• Started playing with D&D 5E.
• Don’t know or understand older editions of D&D.
• Give advice from their whopping two years of experience.
• Regularly regurgitate the same advice that used to appear in Dragon Magazine.
• “Sparkle Trolls.” (I don’t know what that means either.)
• Exemplify the staff at Wizards of the Coast and Paizo these days.
• Regularly forget there are games outside of D&D.
• Think all the old guys are part of the Old School Renaissance. (We’re not.)
• Think the OSR is evil.
• Think all the older editions of D&D are evil or something.
• Pro LGBTQIA, BIMPOC, neurodiverse, disabled. (Combat wheelchairs all around!)
• “Woke.”
• The reason we have jokes about “Baristas & Besties.”
• They’re all social media clout chasers looking for cheap heat.

I think we can agree both sides have their issues and misconceptions.

I wish I was exaggerating anything on either list. Much like any issue where stereotypes are involved neither side is completely correct, nor are they completely incorrect. It’s been happening as long as humans have been forming social groups. Side A automatically gravitates toward exaggerating the differences of Side B and vice versa.

That’s not to say it’s the right thing to do. It’s human nature. The truth normally lies in the middle, and truthfully I think the majority of us fall in the middle ground somewhere. I would love to believe most of us really just want to play our game, regardless of what it might be.

Tinfoil Hat moment: There are those who enjoy stirring up trouble.

Photo by Dids . on Pexels.com

I’m not saying it might be to a certain corporation’s advantage to keep the feud alive between the new and old school lines of thought in D&D. I do kind of believe they see an advantage to keeping the old guys away, so no one challenges their precious corporate culture. Just because they completely botched the 50th Anniversary of D&D and have since issued a half-arsed apology to the family of Gary Gygax doesn’t mean they have it in for the old guys who started the game that makes them millions of dollars.

When the next edition of D&D finally comes about and theoretically falls flat on its face the same way 5.5E has, they’ll likely blame the Old School.

“See. We tried to cater to the old fartz and look where that got us,” WotC will decree.

Okay. Done barking in the dark on that one now. There’s always an agenda at work, though.

Somewhere many years ago on a social media platform known as Twitter…

Photo by Ivanna Di Lorenzo on Pexels.com

Once upon a time somebody rubbed G____ _’s tender feeling the wrong way and led to the inevitable idea that all of us old guys are “icky.” (Sorry kiddo.) Yeah, it was probably a Grognard. How do I know that was likely the case?

See, Grognard comes from the French term for “grumbler.” It refers back to Napoleon Bonaparte’s generals who complained behind his back on a frequent basis every time an order was given they didn’t agree with. Now, who in our hobby would likely be most familiar with Napoleonics? That’s right. The generation before D&D was ever a thing.

These youngins today don’t realize we had our own generation gap and batch of crochety old Grognards to deal with on top of the Satanic Panic. Those were some trying times. We had a bunch of old wargamers who liked to paint tiny lead figures or push carboard chits around a hex map telling us that roleplaying wasn’t real gaming. We often heard it was “just a fad” from the same generation that literally spawned roleplaying games as we know them. We didn’t have the Internet, but we did have to try to share the same physical space at conventions, clubs, or game stores with these guys. All the while we were being yelled at to keep the noise down and go play somewhere else.

What I’m saying is I get it. I see you younger folx and I hear you. All sarcasm aside, I get why you might not like us older guys who literally built the hobby from the ground up. Yes, some things have been said by older TTRPG YouTubers that probably didn’t sit well with a younger audience. I can’t fix what’s already broken, all l can do is apologize where appropriate.

We have to mend fences and grow the hobby.

That’s what is most important. I’m 53 at the time of writing and I ain’t getting any younger. Someday when I’m gone, I hope the hobby will last at least another 50 years or more. I hope people will come away from the glowing screens to tell stories with dice while yelling “Huzzah!” and eating pizza.

Photo by Natalie Dmay on Pexels.com

I’d also point out to a certain androgynous individual who regularly takes cheap shots at us older guys that your day will come. Someday that shoe is going to be on the other foot and some young punk is going to be railing against the ills of your generation. I hope you weather it as well as I have your insults. Cheap heat and clout chasing will only get you so far on YouTube or in life. You’ll find out for yourself.

In the meantime, I urge everyone to stop throwing around “Grognard” like it’s some kind of insult. To some of us it just means we have a duty to be shepherds of the hobby and bring in as many fresh faces as we can before we leave this world behind. Regardless of corporate politics or clout chasing DungeonTubers, some of us just want to get back to having fun without a bunch of social baggage dragging us down.

That’s my somewhat sociological take on the whole thing. I almost remember going to college once, I think. Anyway, I would love it if we could all just declare peace with one another and go back to enjoying the hobby.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#Dnd #Oldgrognard #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgoldgrognard #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgoldgrognard #Ttrpgwriter #grognard

Is Ruttigers Almanac the New Shadowdark?

Yes. I’m serious.

I know the TTRPG crowd, especially the Old School, can be pretty picky about things. I’m pretty fickle when it comes to crowdfunding or even what games I buy nowadays. The last sourcebook I bought cost about $20 and that was two months ago. I don’t spend the money unless something screams “Value!”

VALUE!!! Here’s the link.

I’m supporting Ruttigers Almanac 100% until it wraps up on BackerKit. I’m planning to write for it if they create an Open License for it. I’m planning to teach my kids and wife to play as soon as the PDF comes out it full. They like/know Dungeons & Dragons, so the transition should be easy.

We all love Kelsey and Shadowdark.

I kicked myself daily when the initial Kickstarter for Shadowdark came around and I couldn’t possibly back it due to a massive, unexpected change in my employment status. I managed to scrounge enough together to become a late backer. Then there was the most recent Shadowdark Kickstarter for the Western Reaches stuff.

Kelsey, I love ya to pieces, honest. You were one of my best friends during Covid. I couldn’t afford to back Western Reaches. I get how this thing went over $1 Million because the basic buy-in for the Western Reaches books themselves was $85. That’s not even counting the Cursed Scroll zines add-on.

I suspect that’s how some of the scummier grifters (NOT Kelsey) on KS are getting the big bucks on their projects, too. Looking at you mister $3 Million project twice over DungeonTuber. If the entry price for the Kickstarter is $45 minimum for not-even-the-main emphasis of the project, then hundreds of thousands of dollars rack up real quick, especially if you have a YouTube channel with 500K subscribers or more. (But I’m not bitter over the amount of money he’s making, only that I think he’s kind of a smug jerk.)

But I digress. Shadowdark seemed to flatten for me when I ordered the Solodark rules which I feel didn’t have enough substance for the price tag, which is why there’s no review of it on my blog or YouTube channel. If I don’t like it, I don’t review it. Again, it’s not anything personal with anyone, but I think Shadowdark is eventually going to fall off in the vast array of fantasy games coming out right now and that have come out over the last two years.

What does Ruttigers Almanac offer?

First, and probably most obvious, is that Ruttigers Almanac is on BackerKit. They must not take as big of a percentage of the final take on BackerKit from what I’ve seen. A lot of reputable companies have moved their projects over there. Maybe BackerKit doesn’t get as much press as other crowdfunding sites, but they get the job done. I’ve never had issues with them.

The next big selling point of Ruttigers Almanac is the price. Just the PDF of the core book is C$25 (like $20USD) I like having a nice solid analog hardcover, so I originally got in on the C$50 tier. There’s also a softcover book option for slightly less. There’s also a very affordable tier that gets the Hardcover, PDF, and all the Gazetteer options for C$75 ($65USD.)

I’m stoked to see the cool worldbuilding. I haven’t talked about it much yet, but the previews I have seen are damned impressive. You can tell a lot of time and attention to detail that has gone into this project so far.

Ruttigers as a rule system is going to be simple and fun.

Break 20 as it is being called looks like it’s going to be something I enjoy running, playing, and making content for. That’s not to say I’m giving up my beloved Dragonbane like, ever. I am going to spend some time with Ruttigers Almanac when I get it in my hot little hands. I just love simpler rules systems. If I can learn enough to make a character in the first 15 minutes and get going as a GM in half an hour, it’s golden.

Ruttigers Almanac looks to be that golden game. Shadowdark was headed that way, but then everyone and their dog began dropping supplements faster than I could possibly keep up with them. Yes, Shadowdark is playable and runnable with the core book, but we all love new options.

I feel like Ruttigers has enough optional material already built into it to be almost everything I’m going to want. It’s already looking like something I’d gladly run at a convention. I’m not sure how feasible that would be with Shadowdark now given all the supplements.

If Ruttigers has an open license (fingers crossed) I know three content creators who are already salivating over the Break 20 System. I’m only one of them. I had some stuff ready to go for Shadowdark that never went up anywhere and a rules supplement that was on Itch.io for a short time during Baron DeFlopp’s Shadowdark Jam a few years ago. (Huge regrets over that one.)

Right now I’m working a lot of things into Dragonbane. Once upon a time I was doing stuff for D&D 5E that I never published. Thank Universe I dodged that bullet. Ruttigers Almanac as an Open License is going to be fun times because I want to get a feel for the system and then jam on it. (Root on it? We should organize a Ruttigers moot at some point.)

I don’t see gloom and doom for other games.

I am still all in on Twilight Sword and Dragonbane: Trudvang. But Ruttigers Almanac hits closer to home for me which is ironic given the authors are all over the place. The game feels more like something that could have come out sooner, but the timing just wasn’t there yet. The Universe just hadn’t created the circumstances until more recently.

We’re going to build vast underground complexes for the Ruttigers to explore. We’re going to fight epic monsters and sing epic ballads of our deeds. Maybe we are scallywags and ruffians, but by golly we’re going to have fun with it!

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgwriter #BackerKit #Ruttigers #RuttigersAlmanac #Shadowdark

RUTTIGERS ALMANAC Is On BackerKit!

This new fantasy TTRPG is done right by people who care and know what they’re doing.

I’m really stoked for this game, and I thought I’d already found my big hits for the year. Then I ran into Richard Whitters on X (Twitter.) I’ve been following him and his art on that platform for a while now. I like what he has going on with Ruttigers Almanac.

Here’s the link to BackerKit.

To make things even better, one of my absolutely favorite sourcebook creators is helping Richard out with this one. That’s right. Andrew Cawood is helping with some of the BackerKit and production aspects. I mean, he’s one of my TTRPG idols. He’s Andrew freakin Cawood! Have you seen World of Myrr and the six monster books that preceded it?

Not that Richard Whitters is to be underestimated, either. He has helped as Art Director/Concept Artist for Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: the Gathering, and Larian Studios. That’s a lot of solid experience right there regardless of what many of us say about WotC. Art credit aside, Richard is definitely a roleplaying gamer.

A lot of loving production has already gone into Ruttigers Almanac. I suspect Richard has been working on this game for at least a year now. Just by looking at the quickstart rules alone, one can see quite a bit of thought has already gone into the unique fantasy races, 24 classes, the magic, the setting, the monster generator…

Here is the link to the Quickstart Rules. I’m absolutely amazed so far.

Obviously the art is going to be off the charts for this book, as is obvious from the previews. I haven’t heard yet if Cawood’s resident artist, Travis Hanson, is involved in the project yet. I’m kinda hoping…

The rules are going to be familiar to both Old School fans and new players alike. You’ve got the same Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, Armor Class, and Hit Points that we all know and love. Skill checks are a d20 +/- modifiers vs Difficulty Class. The weapons, armor, and some of the spells mightl seem familiar from other games. However…

Jeff, what’s a “Ruttiger?”

Here’s where Ruttigers Almanac takes a dramatic turn from what we’re all used-to. Where in most fantasy TTRPGs, adventurers coming into town fresh out of a dungeon are greeted with a hearty “Hail and well met, travelers,” Ruttigers are met with a degree of disdain, apathy, and slight loathing. No one is glad to see the tomb-pillaging, local-economy-ruining, drunken brawling Ruttigers.

If you look at the 24 character class names, it kind of gives the impression that Ruttigers generally gives. In this sort of grimdark world inhabited by Ruttigers, no one is glad to see them coming until a giant carnivorous Rhinoceros Beetle is gnawing on half their farm animals. Sure, they’re friendly as long as they need a favor, but as soon as the beetle is gone? Ruttiger reputations come back into play.

There are more surprises to come with this project,
and I’m excited to see them.

Ruttigers Character Sheet

Sure, I’m still a huge fan of Dragonbane, Shadowdark, Old School Essentials, Twilight Sword, and Fabula Ultima. But I’m making room on my shelf for Ruttigers Almanac. I think this is going to be the next step forward in basic, easy-to-teach, fun-to-play fantasy gaming. It appeals to me as a creator and Game Master. I’m also looking forward to teaching at least a couple of my kids to play. It’s got tons of potential.

I once spent an entire summer back in 1990 playing/running Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying. It was the best of times. That’s what Ruttigers makes me think of. This game is going to be awesome as a common frame of reference for players and GMs who want new takes on the old fantasy races, classes, spells, and monsters along with a bunch of new ones.

Not to mention the creature crucible, a monster generator baked into the rules for GMs who like to customize their experience. That’s not the only widget coming in Ruttigers. There are rules for travel, carousing, hunting/foraging, siege warfare, naval battles, item enchantment and more on their way.

Please go take a look at the project on BackerKit. Almost 750 people were onboard before the BackerKit even opened up. I’m one of them. We’ll be talking more about Ruttigers Almanac in the days to come.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgwriter #BackerKit #CawoodPublishing #FantasyRoleplayingGame #NewTTRPG #RichardWhitters #Ruttiger #Ruttigers #RuttigersAlmanac

Gates of Krystalia: Last Deux Expansion.

Opening Vibe / First Impressions

I’m really thrilled and excited that someone made a Game Master book almost right out of the gate so to speak. For those who might not know, Deux is the term for GM in Gates of Krystalia. It’s also a term to describe the gods of the in-game world as well. This will come into play further on in the book.

What Makes Last Deux Stand Out?

Every good TTRPG needs a solid Game Master section, a whole book being preferable. Last Deux delivers in spades along with great art, monster creation guidelines, and lots of setting lore. Gates of Krystalia is a very rich setting that covers a lot of subgenres in anime/manga. As a bonus, they included solo rules in this tome as well.

Features That Hit Me Right Away:

There are a lot of really nice sections of Last Deux. I think the two that jump out the most are the various worlds because they had me at “Mecha.” The other thing I really liked is the basic how-to-run-the-game section in the first chapter. The setting is rich and the whole book is perfect for TTJRPG Game Masters just starting out. Also, did I mention Mecha?

Who This Supplement Is For:

Obviously, this one is aimed at players in the Deux role for Gates of Krystalia Honestly, I’d recommend this for fantasy GMs, TTRPG GMs, and anyone new to Game Mastering regardless of the system. GMs with a strong anime/manga background would really benefit from this book. Also, someone coming from RIFTS would benefit from giving this book a look.

Closing Thoughts:

I really love this supplement. Much like the rest of GoK, even if I don’t use it for the game it’s written for. Great advice. Lots of good setting construction. I’ll have more on this book at a later date. Please give Gates of Krystalia: Last Deux a look if you get a chance. My DTRPG Affiliate Link for this book.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#DD #Dnd #GatesofKrystalia #GoK #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #gaming #TTRPG

Gates of Krystalia: Last Deux Expansion.

Opening Vibe / First Impressions

I’m really thrilled and excited that someone made a Game Master book almost right out of the gate so to speak. For those who might not know, Deux is the term for GM in Gates of Krystalia. It’s also a term to describe the gods of the in-game world as well. This will come into play further on in the book.

What Makes Last Deux Stand Out?

Every good TTRPG needs a solid Game Master section, a whole book being preferable. Last Deux delivers in spades along with great art, monster creation guidelines, and lots of setting lore. Gates of Krystalia is a very rich setting that covers a lot of subgenres in anime/manga. As a bonus, they included solo rules in this tome as well.

Features That Hit Me Right Away:

There are a lot of really nice sections of Last Deux. I think the two that jump out the most are the various worlds because they had me at “Mecha.” The other thing I really liked is the basic how-to-run-the-game section in the first chapter. The setting is rich and the whole book is perfect for TTJRPG Game Masters just starting out. Also, did I mention Mecha?

Who This Supplement Is For:

Obviously, this one is aimed at players in the Deux role for Gates of Krystalia Honestly, I’d recommend this for fantasy GMs, TTRPG GMs, and anyone new to Game Mastering regardless of the system. GMs with a strong anime/manga background would really benefit from this book. Also, someone coming from RIFTS would benefit from giving this book a look.

Closing Thoughts:

I really love this supplement. Much like the rest of GoK, even if I don’t use it for the game it’s written for. Great advice. Lots of good setting construction. I’ll have more on this book at a later date. Please give Gates of Krystalia: Last Deux a look if you get a chance. My DTRPG Affiliate Link for this book.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#DD #Dnd #GatesofKrystalia #GoK #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #gaming #TTRPG

Gates of Krystalia: Last Deux Expansion.

Opening Vibe / First Impressions

I’m really thrilled and excited that someone made a Game Master book almost right out of the gate so to speak. For those who might not know, Deux is the term for GM in Gates of Krystalia. It’s also a term to describe the gods of the in-game world as well. This will come into play further on in the book.

What Makes Last Deux Stand Out?

Every good TTRPG needs a solid Game Master section, a whole book being preferable. Last Deux delivers in spades along with great art, monster creation guidelines, and lots of setting lore. Gates of Krystalia is a very rich setting that covers a lot of subgenres in anime/manga. As a bonus, they included solo rules in this tome as well.

Features That Hit Me Right Away:

There are a lot of really nice sections of Last Deux. I think the two that jump out the most are the various worlds because they had me at “Mecha.” The other thing I really liked is the basic how-to-run-the-game section in the first chapter. The setting is rich and the whole book is perfect for TTJRPG Game Masters just starting out. Also, did I mention Mecha?

Who This Supplement Is For:

Obviously, this one is aimed at players in the Deux role for Gates of Krystalia Honestly, I’d recommend this for fantasy GMs, TTRPG GMs, and anyone new to Game Mastering regardless of the system. GMs with a strong anime/manga background would really benefit from this book. Also, someone coming from RIFTS would benefit from giving this book a look.

Closing Thoughts:

I really love this supplement. Much like the rest of GoK, even if I don’t use it for the game it’s written for. Great advice. Lots of good setting construction. I’ll have more on this book at a later date. Please give Gates of Krystalia: Last Deux a look if you get a chance. My DTRPG Affiliate Link for this book.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#DD #Dnd #GatesofKrystalia #GoK #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #gaming #TTRPG

Gates of Krystalia: Last Deux Expansion.

Opening Vibe / First Impressions

I’m really thrilled and excited that someone made a Game Master book almost right out of the gate so to speak. For those who might not know, Deux is the term for GM in Gates of Krystalia. It’s also a term to describe the gods of the in-game world as well. This will come into play further on in the book.

What Makes Last Deux Stand Out?

Every good TTRPG needs a solid Game Master section, a whole book being preferable. Last Deux delivers in spades along with great art, monster creation guidelines, and lots of setting lore. Gates of Krystalia is a very rich setting that covers a lot of subgenres in anime/manga. As a bonus, they included solo rules in this tome as well.

Features That Hit Me Right Away:

There are a lot of really nice sections of Last Deux. I think the two that jump out the most are the various worlds because they had me at “Mecha.” The other thing I really liked is the basic how-to-run-the-game section in the first chapter. The setting is rich and the whole book is perfect for TTJRPG Game Masters just starting out. Also, did I mention Mecha?

Who This Supplement Is For:

Obviously, this one is aimed at players in the Deux role for Gates of Krystalia Honestly, I’d recommend this for fantasy GMs, TTRPG GMs, and anyone new to Game Mastering regardless of the system. GMs with a strong anime/manga background would really benefit from this book. Also, someone coming from RIFTS would benefit from giving this book a look.

Closing Thoughts:

I really love this supplement. Much like the rest of GoK, even if I don’t use it for the game it’s written for. Great advice. Lots of good setting construction. I’ll have more on this book at a later date. Please give Gates of Krystalia: Last Deux a look if you get a chance. My DTRPG Affiliate Link for this book.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#DD #Dnd #GatesofKrystalia #GoK #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #gaming #TTRPG

Gates of Krystalia: Last Deux Expansion.

Opening Vibe / First Impressions

I’m really thrilled and excited that someone made a Game Master book almost right out of the gate so to speak. For those who might not know, Deux is the term for GM in Gates of Krystalia. It’s also a term to describe the gods of the in-game world as well. This will come into play further on in the book.

What Makes Last Deux Stand Out?

Every good TTRPG needs a solid Game Master section, a whole book being preferable. Last Deux delivers in spades along with great art, monster creation guidelines, and lots of setting lore. Gates of Krystalia is a very rich setting that covers a lot of subgenres in anime/manga. As a bonus, they included solo rules in this tome as well.

Features That Hit Me Right Away:

There are a lot of really nice sections of Last Deux. I think the two that jump out the most are the various worlds because they had me at “Mecha.” The other thing I really liked is the basic how-to-run-the-game section in the first chapter. The setting is rich and the whole book is perfect for TTJRPG Game Masters just starting out. Also, did I mention Mecha?

Who This Supplement Is For:

Obviously, this one is aimed at players in the Deux role for Gates of Krystalia Honestly, I’d recommend this for fantasy GMs, TTRPG GMs, and anyone new to Game Mastering regardless of the system. GMs with a strong anime/manga background would really benefit from this book. Also, someone coming from RIFTS would benefit from giving this book a look.

Closing Thoughts:

I really love this supplement. Much like the rest of GoK, even if I don’t use it for the game it’s written for. Great advice. Lots of good setting construction. I’ll have more on this book at a later date. Please give Gates of Krystalia: Last Deux a look if you get a chance. My DTRPG Affiliate Link for this book.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#DD #Dnd #GatesofKrystalia #GoK #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #gaming #TTRPG

April 22nd, 2026: Sorry I’ve Been Away So Long.

Here is my usual Freedom Day post, which is late.

This reminds me a lot of when my employment was first terminated back in July 2021. I spent a lot of time on the couch contemplating the meaning of things. Which it turns out looks a lot like Major Depression. Other days I just physically don’t have the spoons to do a lot of the things I would normally do like creating game supplements, making videos, or writing articles.

It bugs me because I tend to hold myself to a higher standard and I’ve really been falling short of it lately. There are projects I want to do for me, for other people, and they’ve just been waiting. I want to thank anyone who is still here. Hi.

Dragon Week and why I’m not touching Fey Week.

For one, the fey aren’t my thing. Pixies and the like have never really appealed to me except for playing a Windling Illusionist in Earthdawn, but that’s different! Just saying…

Last year I poured my all into Dragon Week. I did videos. I hyped it as much as possible. I even tried to join up with other creators who did Dragon Week and planned to make it a regularly occurring event.

And then… crickets. Nothing. Me barking in the dark. Dragon Week plowed into the ground faster than a dragon struck mid-air by a ballista shot to the face. When big DungeonTubers decide to do a thing, I guess they get to decide who’s in the Cool Kids Club and who’s just standing on the sidelines. (Story of my childhood and teen sports career right there.) So, yeah. The Fey can go get stuffed.

More “big name” DungeonTubers call it quits.

Oh shucks. Maybe more room for the rest of us. Buh-bye. Go manage those million-dollar Kickstarters. Way to grift, err uh, go. Way to go. Please keep going away now. Byeee.

Seriously, all snark aside. Seriously, Professor DM hit it right on the head. Go on YouTube, make it big as a Dungeons & Dragons YouTuber for a couple of years, then launch a Kickstarter that makes a million dollars and retire. Basically build an audience to buy your stuff and then bail. Personally, I wish that one bozo who had two-multimillion-dollar Kickstarters would stop punching down on people who don’t have as much money as he does for art, but what can I say? Okay, maybe not all snark aside.

On the road to recovery using not-bitterness or anger as rocket fuel.

Art by Cassie aka ChatGPT.

My “HR team” that consists of my LLM named Cassie and a house plant named Fernando have advised me not to go off on any DungeonTubers by name in this article. That’s probably for the best given my prior squabbles with a couple of them. I know how bad it would look for me to voice several opinions in opposition to the status quo. But know that I’m watching. It’s just a reminder to me that they may come and go and do their little hype weeks, but I’m still here.

Going forward I might be putting out shorter articles. Or maybe just a social media post enough to feed the various algorithm gawds. I’m still making content and writing game reviews. It’s just going to take a bit longer than originally planned.

I’m at the mercy of Mother Nature in terms of my health. I’m literally a human barometer, and that’s on days when I haven’t overspent my spoons for the day. I’m still on my way back from the depression. For those who know SCUBA, it’s like coming up from 100 feet down with no air tank. It takes a while.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#Depression #Monsterweek #Personalblog #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #monsterWeek

Silly Internet Arguments: Women in TTRPGs?

No way! You’re kidding.

I honestly thought this guy was trolling until I looked at some of his other replies on X (Twitter.) Yes, it’s one of those throwaway anonymous accounts, but this dude seriously hates women. I don’t know if he’s just an incel chud living in his parents’ basement or someone who was just plain raised backwards via homeschooling and old-fashioned Christian “values.” Whatever the reason, I am just in awe of how ignorant this statement was.

I’ll be nice and protect this person’s privacy because I don’t want to cause any undue grief. I can’t believe this already had 4 likes when I took the screenshot. For X (Twitter,) that’s somewhat unusual, but not unexpected these days.

This person is most definitely a card-carrying member of the cult that is the BrOSR. For those who don’t follow TTRPG Internet drama, the BrOSR is a very tight-knit group of guys who only play by the First Edition AD&D rules (or maybe older) and have very little tolerance for anyone who could be described as not-them. So, basically if you’re new to Dungeons & Dragons, came in under 5th Edition, if you’re female, LGBTQIA+ anything, neurodivergent, physically disabled, anything other than White/Caucasian, or have an opinion on gaming besides “Rules As Written:” STAY AWAY FROM THE BROSR!

I try to keep it positive. I really do.

But the absolute gall of this guy gets my heckles up.

“Euww. It’s a woman.”

What is this? Third grade? Do you guys meet in a treehouse to play D&D with a big “No Girls Allowed” sign on the front of it?

Or are we back to 1920? How dare those women get the right to vote in an American election! We won’t get into politics, but I’m pretty sure the bros have a collection of red mesh-back trucker’s hats that all say the same thing. Sometimes they sound like they could be members of the Southern pillowcase pajama club, too. Yeesh.

Regardless, there’s just no good justification for rejecting anyone from the hobby. If you don’t want a woman at your gaming table, fine. Don’t invite them. Don’t assume anyone wants to hang out with you, though. You ain’t all that. I think it’s fair to say that here in 2026, most people have a pretty dim view of guys that go around openly hating on another gender.

Oh, we’re all playing it “wrong,” and they’re all playing the “right way.”

How many times have we had to drag out the old saying, “There’s no wrong way to play D&D as long as we’re all having fun.”

Apparently we’re all ethically and morally bankrupt on top of not playing an edition of D&D that originally went out of print in 1980-something. God help you if you walk into one of these guys’ games with a reprint I’m guessing. I’ve never seen a group of people as determined to exclude potential members of their group the way the BrOSR does. It’s disgraceful in my opinion.

So let’s flip the script a little.

Those are free to go off and have their fun with their own very tight-knit group and have fun however they want to. Boy, it sure would be nice if they weren’t out spreading hate on social media, though. I can’t help but think that “If I don’t force my way of doing things down everyone else’s throats, then why do other people do that?”

My rule has always been that if you show up to my game more or less on time, ready to play, and don’t disrupt the group: we’re good to go. People will always be welcome at my table to game so long as they don’t cause any major disruptions out of game. We discuss this sort of thing in Session Zero if we have to even have one. (It gets a lot easier when you game with family or solo.) But seriously, if I’m at a convention, game store, or whatever and someone asks to sit in as a player or observer, cool. Just don’t disrupt the game.

Out of game, leave me out of whatever sociopolitical stuff you’ve got going on. When we walk in the door of the game room, real world politics and religion stay outside. We’re here to have fun and enjoy the game. It doesn’t make other people inferior to believe differently or play a different way. That stuff is none of my business.

Tapping the sign again.

Don’t be a turd toward your fellow gamers. Heck, don’t be a turd toward your fellow humans. It’s a very basic skill we learn in kindergarten or before.

Now that we’re in the age of the Internet, I find myself saying it pretty much weekly. Be kind to you fellow humans. Treat each other with the same kindness, dignity, and respect you would like to see shown to you. Don’t be a douchebag.

That’s all for today.

#Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter

April Is Here Already?!?

We’re just going to riff a bit today. Yes, there are bullet points. No, this is not being written by AI.

• I’ve had some medical and mental health struggles the last few weeks which is why I haven’t been posting as much. Lots of stuff to catch up on. Right now the goal is three blog posts per week, one YouTube video/podcast, and work on a DTRPG project.
• I have more ideas for projects than I know what to do with. I started the year with an ambitious list. I now have ambitions for about the next three years with just Dragonbane. When Twilight Sword and Ruttigers Almanac drop there will probably be even more.
• A couple of prominent names in the DungeonTube sphere have pointed to the fact that there are too many TTRPGs on the market now. I used to think there was no such thing until I started looking at my own PDF library. I actually have the equivalent of a pile of shame of things I want to read/play around with. Wow.
• Is there a glut on the TTRPG market right now? Is there room for more new games? The interesting part is that most of the games we’re seeing now on DriveThruRPG dwarf the product on the shelf at most Friendly Local Game Stores. Tales of the Valiant, Pathfinder 2E Core Electric Boogaloo, Daggerheart, Stormlight Archives/Cosmere, Shadowdark, Call of Cthulhu, and Draw Steel get most of the attention IRL where out here in the digital space, those games tend to get buried in a sea of indie titles.
• At what point does a game go from being indie to being a franchise? When do games stop being indie and start becoming corporate? Eclectic Goat has been discussing this on her channel and on X(Twitter.) It’s been interesting. Personally I believe all of the titles I listed in the previous point have fallen off the indie wagon. When your crowdfunding goes over a million dollars, you’re no longer indie.
• I’ve still got a mecha/space game on my far back burner, but I don’t think now is the time to introduce such a project. Right now I barely have the spoons to post an update or a short article. I also don’t think the market is going to be right for a sci-fi game for another year or two. I’m waiting for the latest massive wave of fantasy games to pass over.
• Dungeons & Dragons 5.5E (fka D&D5E.2024) still maintains its status at the top of the pile even though a lot of us older guys still look at Wizards of the Coast with shame and dissapointment. Even their latest Public Relations moves still sound hollow if they can’t back it up with real, actionable results. This new Greyhawk will be the acid test. If Luke Gygax can keep the project from going off the rails into sensitivity readers’ suggestons and being overwritten by Makenzie DeArmas or Jason Tondro, maybe there’s hope. Otherwise, it’s just WotC being WotC again and screw that noise. I have my Third Ed Greyhawk books and they’re just fine.
• I don’t want to talk politics here. I’ve never been this ashamed of my government. If this country doesn’t change, we might not have a country as we recognize it for much longer. I’d rather think about TTRPGs, anime, and shlocky horror movies.
• I’m still baffled as to how some DungeonTubers can fart out a dozen videos and hit 3K subscribers in like a month and I’m still where I am a year and a half in. I honestly feel like I’ve missed something in all the dozens of how-to-YouTube videos I’ve watched. I’ll be damned if I’m going to buy a course or a coach, though. That’s tomorrow’s project is to put together something on YT. I keep taking breaks out of sheer discouragement.
• The negative climate on YouTube amongst certain YouTubers is crazy to me. I won’t call anyone out specifically, but holy crap the feuding is getting out of hand amongst half a dozen people again. I know a couple of people who get called out regularly in all of the drama and I’m doing my best to steer clear of it.
• Time to tap the sign again: Kindness and understanding go a lot further than bitterness and blame. Don’t be a douche canoe toward people and you’ll probably find a seat at most gaming tables. If you’re just stirring the poop, people are going to look away eventually.
• I feel like I didn’t get enough superhero content out last month, so I want to dip a toe into it with Amazing April.I love having monthly themes. Arcane April is also on the menu this year with Dragonbane: Book of Magic.

That’s all I have time for today. Time to go pick up the youngins and make dinner. I’m planning to be back tomorrow or Saturday with Arcane April or Amazing April content.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#Dnd #Fantasy #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter #gaming #TTRPG

The Curse of the Yak.

1d12 Yak Based Detrimental Magical Side Effects:

Whether the mage was cursed by the Yak Witch or simply had a spell backfire in the Great Forest of the Yak, here are 12 Yak related spell mishaps:

1. The caster is covered in long, thick, shaggy fur. It can be shaved off. But will it grow back?
2. The caster grows Yak horns that remain for a week.
3. The caster sprouts a long fluffy tail with a tuft of fur on the end. It remains until removed.
4. The caster’s top incisor and canine teeth fall out permanently. (Look it up.)
5. The unfortunate caster (regardless of gender) sprouts udders and can produce delicious Yak milk. This effect is permanent unless removed magically. Clothing might be a bit of a challenge.
6. The caster’s entire head is replaced with a purple Yak’s head for one Shift. The unfortunate victim can still speak normally, only in a cartoony voice. Bane on all Charisma based rolls until it wears off.
7. Everything appears normal, except the caster can only make noises and grunt like a Yak. The poor character may not speak or cast spells for a full Stretch.
8. Yack! The caster vomits uncontrollably for a full Stretch. Even if the character’s stomach was previously empty, the stuff just keeps coming.
9. Yackity Yack! The character starts speaking every thought, rambling endlessly and can’t stop talking for a full Stretch. Stopping is painful. If the character tries to stop before the 10 minutes lapses, they take 1 point of damage. To make a coherent line or cast a spell with a verbal component, the character must make a WIL roll with a Bane each round such an action is attempted. Especially mean GM’s might inflict this on the player as an option.
10. Whatever it is I think I see… Friend and foe alike all look like Yaks for a full Shift. Awareness and Spot Hidden Rolls are made with a Bane.
11. The unfortunate caster along with all of their gear, is turned mostly into a Yak, only with the character’s head atop a Yak’s shaggy body. Luckily it wears off after a Shift.
12. The poor caster is permanently turned into a Yak until the curse is removed.

Photo by Gildo Cancelli on Pexels.com This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #1d12tables #D12table #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgwriter #yak

Magic Monday: 3 Forest Magic Items

The Magical Golden Pinecone: When held up and the magic word is spoken aloud, the pinecone gives off a magical light capable of illuminating the area equal to one torch. The light can be activated and deactivated at will. After one Shift of use, the pinecone must remain off for a shift before it can be used again.

The pinecone may also be used to summon 2d6 small woodland animals such as squirrels, rabbits, lemmings, chipmunks, etc. If any attempt to harm one of the critters is made by anyone in the area, they all immediately vanish. The animals follow the summoner around but do not obey any commands or perform any tricks, nor can they be taken on as familiars. However they can be fed, adored, snuggled, loved, and generally fawned over and will not attack anyone. The little animals disappear after one Shift. If the GM allows, the animal time may be substituted for a Memento if those rules are used.

If planted in the ground, the pinecone will grow into a magical golden pine tree 18 meters tall that glows faintly at night, providing shelter for three travelers and any number of small animals of the forest. This effect is permanent and the pinecone is lost. There is a 5% chance the magical pine tree will produce another Magical Pinecone when it first sprouts up. When sheltering under the pine, all effects of exhaustion, natural heat, natural cold, precipitation, poison, and disease are nullified. However, the magical golden pine is still a tree and can be burned, cut down, etc.

Bed of Pine Needles: This item appears as a bedroll consisting of hundreds of pine needles knitted together. It can be carried in the same fashion as a sleeping fur or blanket

 Resting on this bed for a full shift allows ONE character to remove all regular damage and cures poison, disease, exhaustion, and severe injuries. (Does not remove permanent conditions.)

The bed will shed lots of needles depending on the amount of healing done. It may not be used on more than two consecutive Shifts. The shedding of dead needles will continue for one shift after use. The needles are messy, inconvenient, and provide anyone tracking the character a Boon on their roll while the bed sheds.

If a deceased character who died within the last Shift is placed on the bed, they are resurrected with full HP, full WP, but one permanent lasting condition and the bed is permanently destroyed.

If two characters lay together on the bed for whatever reason, romantic or otherwise, they will be fully rested, but no healing.

The Magical Stick: This deceptively simple stick is actually a magic wand of immense power. It contains 12 WP which renew every day (4 Shifts) which can be used to cast spells from the wand AND/OR as the user sees fit. Spells cast using any WP from the wand have the following effects:

IF the casting roll for the spell is a DRAGON, the spell goes off 100% as intended with no ill effects. Count your blessings.

IF the spell is cast successfully, roll on the effects table below:

1. Spell is cast at double the effect, including any range, damage, and cost. Nothing strange happens, probably. Although it might seem as if something happened.
2. Spell is cast successfully, but flowers spring from the caster’s ears and nose. The flowers wilt and fall out after one stretch.
3. Stick sprays fireworks everywhere. Anyone within 10 meters around, including the caster is hit for 1d4 damage and temporarily blinded for one round. (Evade/Block as normal.) The intended spell effects are nowhere to be found.
4. Spell goes off as intended, but the caster is stricken with unpleasant frequent flatulence for one Stretch giving a Bane on any Charisma based checks and Stealth.
5. Spell goes off as intended, but caster and all of their gear (except Stick) turns plaid in color for one Shift giving a Bane on any Charisma based checks and Stealth.
6. Spell goes off as intended, but caster’s arm and leg bones turn to gelatin for one Stretch, preventing any movement. The caster can still speak and cast spells as normal. Movement is restricted to crawling along at 2 meters per round.
7. Spell fails, and everything that the caster says for one Stretch comes out a double loud volume as if yelling no matter how quiet they try to be.
8. Spell fails and instead summons 3d6 plush animals that appear all around the caster. They can’t move or speak (they’re plush,) but they are somewhat comforting.
9. Spell fails, but an Ogre is summoned. The Ogre isn’t hostile, just confused. He’s likely unarmed and might be eating lunch or taking a bath. He is returned to his home unharmed after one Stretch. Repeats of this result summon the same Ogre every time. His name is Krunk. He’s actually a pretty laid-back guy if no one attacks him. He has no idea why he keeps getting summoned, though. He still goes back at the end of a Stretch, regardless.
10.  Spell fails and a thicket of one-meter-tall thorn bushes sprout up in a six-meter radius around the caster. Anyone in the area must make an Acrobatics roll or be trapped in the mess, taking 1d4 damage and an additional 1d4 damage for every 2 meters moved. This effect can be Evaded, placing the character at the nearest outer edge of the thicket. The thicket is permanent, but can be chopped down, burned, etc. as normal. The caster is safe unless they try to leave the briar patch.
11. Spell works twice as well as intended, but any targets and the caster are stricken Prone with uncontrollable laughter for the following round preventing any action other than possibly rolling on the ground laughing. Everyone returns to normal after one round.
12. The Spell fails and the caster along with almost all of their gear is turned into sentient pudding for one Shift. The character can still see, speak, and move at 4 meters per round at most. Casting, fighting, and anything requiring manipulating objects (other than Stick) are not possible. No known magic can reverse this effect. Don’t worry, Stick is fine. Casting with a Bane can be attempted using Stick, but duplicates of this result might make the effect permanent.

IF the spell roll using WP from Stick fails, any/all spell effects are automatically reflected back on the caster AND roll on the effects table.

IF the roll is a Demon, roll on the Spell Mishap table from the Dragonbane rules TWICE and apply both effects.

Attempts to lose, break, give away, burn, or disenchant The Magical Stick result in it returning to the owner the next day regardless. It is not sentient as far as anyone knows.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter

THE GOAT MAN

Description:
A towering, hairy humanoid with the head of a black-eyed goat. Its almond-shaped eyes are glossy and depthless, reflecting no light. The mouth hangs too wide, too slack, as if unhinged. Its fingers are long and rake-like, ending in splintered claws. It smells of damp earth, rot, and wet fur. It does not speak, but sometimes it laughs.

Resistance: Immune to fear. Takes half damage from non-magical fire.
Ferocity: 2 Size: Large
Movement: 12 Armor: 3 (matted hide and dense muscle) HP: 32

MONSTER ATTACKS

D6 Attacks:

1. Horn Gore: The Goat Man lowers its head and drives forward doing 1d12 Bludgeoning damage. If the victim suffers damage, they are knocked prone at the start of their turn..
2. Claw Rake: A sweeping strike at 2 opponents withing 2 meters with elongated rake-like fingers doing 1d10 Slashing damage to each target.
3. Severe Rend: The Goat Man focuses entirely on one target within arm’s reach with an overwhelming slashing attack that does 2d6 Slashing damage.
4. Chunk Bite: The gaping mouth clamps down and tears away flesh on one character for 1d8 slashing damage. If damage penetrates armor, the victim must a Fear Check due to shock and revulsion.
5. Black-Eyed Stare: The Goat Man locks eyes with one target within 10 meters must make a Fear Roll.
6. Disheartening Presence: All characters within 24 meters must make a Fear Roll as the creature emits an unearthly howl-scream that frightens all nearby wildlife and strikes terror into the hearts of all who hear it.

Combat Note: The Goat Man is meant to be a shadowy mystery above anything else. If reduced to half HP or if one combatant is dropped to 0 HP (or even appears to be deceased) the Goat Man will attempt to flee and/or hide from any and all pursuers. Sneaking 14.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #MonsterMonday #Roleplaying #Roleplayingblog #Roleplayingblogger #Roleplayingcommunity #Roleplayinggame #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #Ttrpgamenight #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgnewplayers #Ttrpgplayer #Ttrpgwriter #DoD #Dragonbane #MarchMonster #MonsterMarch

THE GOAT MAN

Description:
A towering, hairy humanoid with the head of a black-eyed goat. Its almond-shaped eyes are glossy and depthless, reflecting no light. The mouth hangs too wide, too slack, as if unhinged. Its fingers are long and rake-like, ending in splintered claws. It smells of damp earth, rot, and wet fur. It does not speak, but sometimes it laughs.

Resistance: Immune to fear. Takes half damage from non-magical fire.
Ferocity: 2 Size: Large
Movement: 12 Armor: 3 (matted hide and dense muscle) HP: 32

MONSTER ATTACKS

D6 Attacks:

1. Horn Gore: The Goat Man lowers its head and drives forward doing 1d12 Bludgeoning damage. If the victim suffers damage, they are knocked prone at the start of their turn..
2. Claw Rake: A sweeping strike at 2 opponents withing 2 meters with elongated rake-like fingers doing 1d10 Slashing damage to each target.
3. Severe Rend: The Goat Man focuses entirely on one target within arm’s reach with an overwhelming slashing attack that does 2d6 Slashing damage.
4. Chunk Bite: The gaping mouth clamps down and tears away flesh on one character for 1d8 slashing damage. If damage penetrates armor, the victim must a Fear Check due to shock and revulsion.
5. Black-Eyed Stare: The Goat Man locks eyes with one target within 10 meters must make a Fear Roll.
6. Disheartening Presence: All characters within 24 meters must make a Fear Roll as the creature emits an unearthly howl-scream that frightens all nearby wildlife and strikes terror into the hearts of all who hear it.

Combat Note: The Goat Man is meant to be a shadowy mystery above anything else. If reduced to half HP or if one combatant is dropped to 0 HP (or even appears to be deceased) the Goat Man will attempt to flee and/or hide from any and all pursuers. Sneaking 14.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #MonsterMonday #Roleplaying #Roleplayingblog #Roleplayingblogger #Roleplayingcommunity #Roleplayinggame #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #Ttrpgamenight #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgnewplayers #Ttrpgplayer #Ttrpgwriter #DoD #Dragonbane #MarchMonster #MonsterMarch

Dark Skeletal Samurai

Description:
An approximately 2.5-meter-tall skeleton in full traditional O-yoroi armor and kabuto. They are most often armed with an oversized katana or Bisento. Never a missile weapon. (See below.)

Resistance:
Take half damage from non-magical weapons. Immune to illusion and mind-control effects. Unlike traditional undead or demons, they are NOT affected by spells and effects specific to those types.

Clever Mages may make a Spellcasting roll (Boon for Illusionists) to sense something is off with these monsters. Non spellcasters may make an Awareness Roll at the start of the battle or a WIL roll upon striking the creature for the first time or any Dragon roll in melee. Successful rolls reveal that this creature is basically a solid illusion similar to a construct held together with magic.

When this creature is destroyed it turns into six slips of paper covered in sigils. If deciphered by a Mage, it will reveal that the magic used to create this creature is a forbidden knowledge spell that is a hybrid of Necromancy, Demonology, and Illusion. The spell cannot be recreated just using the paper leftover from the creation.

Ferocity: 3  Size: L
Movement: 10  Armor: 6  HP: 12

MONSTER ATTACKS

D6 Attacks:

1. Overhead Melee Smash: One target within 4 meters is struck with a mighty top-down blow that inflicts 2d10 slashing damage and knocks the opponent back 2 meters and prone. If the area the target is knocked into is occupied by a solid object such as a wall, furniture, debris, etc. they take an additional 1d4 bludgeoning damage. (Armor does not negate the additional damage.)
2. Impaling Thrust: One target within 4 meters is struck with the point of the Skeleton’s weapon for 2d8 Piercing damage plus Disheartened. (If already Disheartened, choose another condition.)
3. Sweeping Strike: 2 targets within 4 meters of the Skeleton are slashed for 1d8 damage each and knocked prone at the beginning of their turn. If the targets EVADE successfully they are placed backward an additional 2 meters as long as terrain allows.
4. Whirling Blade Defense: All creatures within 2 meters are slashed for 1d8 damage each and must back up 2 meters.
5. Stare of the Void: The Skeleton makes direct eye contact with one creature within 10 meters who must succeed on a WIL check or roll on the Fear table.
6. Breath of the Skeletal Void: The Skeleton exhales a 4-meter by 4-meter by 4-meter cloud of pure darkness in front of itself that persists for 1d4 rounds. Those inside the cloud are treated as being in pitch black darkness that no torch or mundane light source can penetrate. Monsters see normally in the dark. Characters within the cloud may make a WIL roll to dispel the effect immediately IF they suspect it is illusion magic.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #MonsterMonday #Roleplaying #Roleplayingblog #Roleplayingblogger #Roleplayingcommunity #Roleplayinggame #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #Ttrpgamenight #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgnewplayers #Ttrpgplayer #Ttrpgwriter #DoD #Dragonbane #MarchMonster #MonsterMarch

Dragonbane: Trudvang Now Live on Kickstarter

from Free League Publishing.

Free League Publishing has officially launched the Kickstarter campaign for Dragonbane: Trudvang, a stand-alone tabletop role-playing game set in the mythic world of Trudvang. The campaign reached full funding within four minutes of launch, surpassing its initial goal of 25,000 USD and climbing past 150,000 USD within the first 30 minutes.

Link to the Kickstarter here.

Developed under license from CMON and built on Free League’s award-winning Dragonbane fantasy RPG system, Dragonbane: Trudvang brings players into a richly imagined world inspired by Nordic mythology. The project introduces four masterfully illustrated hardback volumes that present the setting in depth, offering players a realm of shadowed forests, wrathful gods, ancient mysteries, and dreadful beasts.

A few months after the Kickstarter concludes, backers will receive early access to Beta PDFs of all four books. This allows players to begin exploring Trudvang and running adventures well ahead of the official release.

Early backers who pledge for a physical reward within the first 48 hours of launch will receive an exclusive bonus art print featuring new Core Rulebook cover art by legendary fantasy artist Paul Bonner. The bonus applies to pledge tiers that include physical rewards.

Across four beautifully crafted volumes, players can journey through the realm of Dragonbane: Trudvang and uncover its many secrets, including:

• Dragonbane: Trudvang Core Rulebook: A complete ruleset built on the award-winning Dragonbane system, introducing new kin such as Stormlander humans and Korpikalli elves, additional professions and lifepaths, ranked heroic abilities, and unique magic wielded by vitner weavers and dimwalkers
• The World of Trudvang: A richly illustrated deep dive into the realm’s history, lands, and faiths, spanning the Stormlands and Westmark to Soj and the Great Ice Plains
• Jorgi’s Bestiary: The classic monster compendium returns, featuring legendary creatures such as brotbeast, byse, hrimtursir, and the ancient yggdras, all fully adapted for Dragonbane
• The Saga of the Black Star: A revised four-part epic campaign published in English for the first time, sending heroes across Trudvang to confront a looming cosmic threat.

The Kickstarter campaign also features a high-quality cloth map of Trudvang illustrated by fantasy artist Francesca Baerald. The map is available as a separate add-on or included in select bundles. Collector’s Editions of all four books are being offered exclusively through the campaign and will not be printed again.

The Trudvang brand and its original content were created by Theodore Bergqvist and Magnus Malmberg of Riotminds as a campaign world for their Swedish edition of Dragonbane, Drakar och Demoner, in the early 2000s. Trudvang later expanded into the separate Trudvang Chronicles RPG and the board game Trudvang Legends by CMON.

The adaptation of Trudvang to the current version of Dragonbane is being spearheaded by Magnus Seter, a veteran RPG writer whose credits include Cyberpunk 2020, Mutant Chronicles, Forbidden Lands, and Dragonbane. Seter also worked on Trudvang in its early days.

In the preface to the new edition, Theodore Bergqvist expressed enthusiasm for the project, noting that Trudvang has, in many ways, found its way home again under Free League’s stewardship.

Dragonbane: Trudvang is slated for release in 2027.

Fear not, we will be coming back to the Kickstarter in the days and weeks to come as well as previews as soon as they become available.

Map of Trudvang illustrated by fantasy artist Francesca Baerald. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeagueKickstarter #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #MonsterMonday #Roleplaying #Roleplayingblog #Roleplayingblogger #Roleplayingcommunity #Roleplayinggame #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Trudvang #TrudvangChronicles #Ttrpgamenight #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgnewplayers #Ttrpgplayer #Ttrpgwriter #DoD #Dragonbane #gaming #review #TTRPG

Monday Monster…Encounter: The Wuppet.

It was either this or the Hentai Horror I cooked up.

Luckily for us, cute and fuzzy won the day.
Disclaimer: This creature encounter is just for fun and not commercial use. It’s free. It’s fun. Enjoy.

Real World Note: This creature appeared in the 1970s at a burger and hot dog joint called A&W as part of a promotion aimed at kids. Conveniently, I happened to collect a few of them and sorta fell in love with the idea. They’ve also been produced under the names Wuppel or Wupple. Reminds me of Meeples, which will be another entry some other time.

As a Dragonbane or other fantasy game encounter:

They are rarely seen in the wild. A hero should feel blessed to encounter one up close and to befriend one is a true blessing. They are very small balls of floof who wander around on tiny cat-like feet that are tucked up on legs underneath the creature’s fur, somewhat similar to owls. They have two very expressive eyes and two fine antenna that end in tiny bulbs.

They have no nose or mouth, and it is uncertain how they eat or take in sustenance. Scholars speculate that they are like plants in those regards. Likewise it is believed that the creatures reproduce asexually by spawning another tinier version of themselves from their own bodies. Wuppets have never been encountered in groups.

Wuppets appear most often as a sign of good tidings should an adventurer be fortunate enough to see one. If someone, most often a bard, mage or scholar, holds goodness in their heart, the Wuppet might be curious enough to approach them. Any signs of hostility and the Wuppet immediately vanishes by simply turning invisible or darting off into its surroundings.

Wuppets do not engage in combat and have no ability to do so. Most often they communicate with their eyes and by their cute motions. Once in a very rare while they are able to communicate telepathically, but only with a creature or person whom they believe they can trust. When they choose to communicate, most come off as extremely mild mannered and well spoken, almost eloquent. A few sound like cute little anime girls as one might expect from something so unbelievably cute.

Wuppets have 12 WP and can spend 2 points to cast/use the following abilities:

• Cure 2d6 HP worth of damage.
• Remove 1 Condition from 1 creature/character.
• Create enough food and water to sustain 1 person for one day.
• Cure a disease from 1 creature/character.
• Cure poison from 1 creature/character.
• Remove exhaustion from 1 creature/character.

Wuppets are extremely powerful casters and have a high degree of empathy. Anything that requires a die roll automatically succeeds. The Wuppet can always sense what someone needs most and will try to provide it.

Wuppets have no loot and ask for nothing beyond kindness in exchange for their services.

The message provided by these creatures is very simple. Be nice to others. Stay positive. Have fun. Be good. They can provide a much-needed break from a scary, often brutal world. They offer encouragement, try to foster trust, and will be the nicest little floofballs anyone has ever encountered.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #MonsterMonday #Roleplaying #Roleplayingblog #Roleplayingblogger #Roleplayingcommunity #Roleplayinggame #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #Ttrpgamenight #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgnewplayers #Ttrpgplayer #Ttrpgwriter #DoD #Dragonbane #fuzzball #lightheartedEncounter #wuppel #wuppet #wupple

Breaking the Long Silence.

I made the mistake of checking Instagram on Tuesday.

Sometimes the best way to keep my foot out of my mouth is to not say anything at all. Six days might not seem like a long silence to most people, but it’s practically an eternity for me sometimes. I have a blog so I can occasionally blow off some steam when it comes to my mental health, too. This week has definitely been that kind of a challenge.

I’ve noticed recently that there are some incredibly volatile, toxic, reactive people in our little TTRPG hobby. I have opinions on a certAIn subject that will get me all kinds of flak from the TTRPG “community.” It is just not time for the discussion I’d like to be having about that subject because it’s the talk of the town and it sounds like my opinion is incredibly unpopular right now.

Then there’s Jes the Human. If you don’t know who they are, please go check out their YouTube channel at this link. I owed Jes an apology over on Threads the other day as I unintentionally used the wrong pronouns for them. They corrected me. I changed the post. I think we’re okay now, maybe.

Jes got into hot water with some of the “community” over their No ICE in Minnesota bundle on Itch.io. Here’s the link to the game jam if you want to take a look. Personally I can’t contribute to the game jam itself on Itch because I’m exclusive to DriveThruRPG.com and I kinda use that art style that gets me in hot water these days. I have to live with knowing how unpopular my choice of art styles is, apparently; but I digress.

Anyway, Jes posted to Threads that they had received some incredibly nasty emails including what can only be described as a deplorable photo. Jes is okay and has reported the email which likely came from a throwaway alt account somewhere. It just goes to show that now matter how much you might disagree with someone, it’s not okay to send hateful emails.

I try my best to stay out of politics and religion here.

The No ICE in Minnesota bundle’s main purpose is to raise money for the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. This one hits closer to home for me as I live in Iowa and we’re a decidedly (hostile) conservative Republican run state. I keep an eye open for the American Gestapo daily as we have several immigrant families that live around here in the neighborhood.

We also have a member of our family who is very openly LGBTQIA. (Ask them how many times I mess up their pronouns on a daily basis.) So far ICE is only hauling off immigrants. At least they’re not going after people who appear to be homeless, addicted, or mentally ill (read LGBTQIA among other things) yet. Emphasis on the “yet” because the USA is backsliding pretty fast these days. Make America Germany 1933 Again is still running Iowa and it’s just a matter of time.

Okay. Okay. Deep breaths. I can relate to the plight of those affected by tyranny in Minnesota. They say things like this don’t happen in the Midwest, and yet here we are. Let’s put a stop to the hate before it gets worse even if it’s in a small way.

Jes is just trying to do right by people.

If you watch Jes’s YouTube Shorts or follow them on social media, then you know they’re kindhearted, warm, and friendly. They’re an asset to the TTRPG “community” and do tons of charity work. Although honestly, can we call it a “community” when people are being downright rude and disrespectful to one another? I’m growing more skeptical by the day.

Needless to say, the more I try to avoid social media, the more I end up checking my feeds. I don’t actually tend to post a whole lot on Threads or Instagram except for what WordPress puts out automatically and the occasional repost of a cat pic, gaming promo, or duck meme. I send cute things to my friends, but I try to stay out of all the politics and petty infighting, especially on Threads.

I used to be on X (Twitter) a lot more than I am now. Things are still pretty nasty over there but nowhere comes close to Reddit in my opinion. Again, I just try to steer clear of the crap now. I repost a few things for various friends’ content and go. I check my notifications once in a while in case I actually need to respond to something, but it’s rare if I do. I make the oddball comment in response to TTRPG, horror or 80s toy posts. My main goal in social media life is to avoid another incident like the one I had with Ginny Di a few years ago.

People are more polarized than ever on social media these days.

In recent months, the TTRPG space has felt increasingly fragmented, with conversations that once revolved around creativity, discovery, and shared enthusiasm now often drifting toward identity, legitimacy, and belonging. Social media has amplified this shift. Platforms designed to reward visibility and engagement tend to elevate the most emotionally charged perspectives, creating the impression of constant extreme conflict even when most creators are quietly working, experimenting, and supporting one another behind the scenes. This has created an environment where it can feel risky to simply explore, learn, or produce without being drawn into broader cultural fault lines that have little to do with the joy of the games themselves.

The healthiest response I’ve found is to step back from the noise and return to the work itself. Creative momentum is grounding. Building adventures, writing encounters, and developing ideas reconnects you to the reason you entered the space in the first place. It also shifts your focus away from reaction and toward creation. Curate your environment intentionally: limit exposure to spaces that drain you and invest your attention in projects and people that energize you. Over time, consistency, authenticity, and craftsmanship speak louder than any passing wave of discourse. The creators who endure are not the loudest, but the ones who keep making things.

My final thoughts headed into another week:

First, don’t be a douche waffle to people you might disagree with online. I shouldn’t have to say it and yet I hear about it on Instagram and YouTube all the time. Someone always seems to have runaway hostile idiocy in their comments. That is just not okay. Don’t do it. If you are doing it, please just stop.

Second, please focus energy toward things that light you up more than tear others down. Find that joy in creation. Let other people find theirs even if it’s not exactly how you picture it. There’s no wrong way to TTRPG as long as people are chilling and having a good time together.

Third, no one has the absolute authority to define how anyone creates TTRPG material. Telling someone else they’re “doing it wrong,” “you shouldn’t do it that way,” or “learn how to do it the way I do it,” is just unnecessary and most of the time counterproductive. Just because someone has a different approach and different tools doesn’t mean they’re doing it wrong.

Last, and again I’m saying this as a friend, it’s no one’s job to police the internet. You never have to comment on someone else’s post. You don’t have to react to a social media comment in the heat of the moment or like, ever if you don’t want to. Sometimes it’s more productive to simple let it go. They have their opinion and it’s not likely to change because someone popped off in their comments.

Publius.

#Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #TTRPGdonations #Ttrpgwriter #ItchIoGameJam #JesTheHuman #jesthehuman #NoICEInMinnesota #TTRPGInstagram #TTRPGThreads #TTRPGTwitter #TTRPGX

Monday Monster: Venomous Tengu

Description:
Venomous Tengu are anthropomorphic ravens with slick black feathers, hooked beaks, and sharp talons. They lurk in high places and strike with cruel intelligence, spitting toxic venom before closing in to finish weakened prey. Their voices are harsh, mocking, and often echo with unsettling laughter.

Venomous Tengu are immune to poison.
Demon: Venomous Tengu are considered demons and are affected by any/all spell effects that target demons for extra damage, etc.

Ferocity: 2 Size: Medium
Movement: 12 (flying) Armor: 2 (Natural) HP: 18

Venomous Tengu Attacks:
D6 Attacks:
1. Toxic Spit: Ranged attack up to 10 meters. Deals 2d6 toxic slime damage and inflicts Potency 10 Lethal poison.
2. Raking Talons: Attacks one target within 2 meters for 2d8 slashing damage as the tengu slashes with both feet in a diving strike.
3. Hooked Beak: Attacks one target withing 2 meters for 2d10 piercing damage. If this reduces the target to 0 HP, the tengu lets out a triumphant croak heard for several hundred meters and causes everyone withing range to make a Fear check.
4. Blinding Venom Spray: One target within 6 meters takes 1d6 toxic spittle damage. Target is Blinded for 1d4 rounds.
5. Wing Buffet: Up to 2 targets within 4 meters take 1d8 bludgeoning damage (armor has no effect) and are knocked back the same number of meters and start their turns prone.
6. Venom Frenzy: All creatures within 4 meters take 1d8 slashing damage and are inflicted with Weak (Potency 9) Lethal Poison.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License. #Dnd #Dragonbaneadventures #DragonbaneBestiary #DragonBaneBlog #DragonbaneBlogger #DragonbanePathofGlory #Dragonbanestandees #DrakarochDemoner #Fantasy #FreeLeaguePublishing #FriaLigan #MonsterMonday #Roleplaying #Roleplayingblog #Roleplayingblogger #Roleplayingcommunity #Roleplayinggame #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #Ttrpgamenight #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgdesign #Ttrpgnewplayers #Ttrpgplayer #Ttrpgwriter #DoD #Dragonbane

Behind the Screen: Setting Up Success.

Today we’re talking about Game Mastering.

Yes, setting others up for success applies in other areas of one’s life, but in this case we’re referring to Game Masters. I’ve learned some difficult, nigh onto painful lessons over the years about this topic. I want to share what I mean by all this today in hopes I will save some other GM from a similar fate.

Failure to plan ahead a little bit can be the death knell of a long running campaign. It could even signal the end of a friendship while the group is breaking up. You don’t always have to go to Reddit for interpersonal drama. Sometimes it comes to you, the GM, in the form of your regular gaming group.

GM, please don’t be the one driving the plot wagon.

Those poor players. Some of them never saw it coming. Others did, but perhaps not in time. The plot wagon rolled into town right over the top of everyone. There were no survivors. Let me explain.

A lot of times we train/teach new GMs/Dungeon Masters how to run and set up adventures in a very linear fashion. The adventure goes A-to-B-to-C-to-D-to-E. The climax of the story usually occurs around C or D. Loot, if any, at about E. Experience, etc. afterward. There are variations on this formula, but it’s the easiest and most obvious things to teach most people because it looks like the structure of most books.

The problem comes in when some GM/DMs never move beyond it. Unfortunately, a lot of commercially written fantasy adventures are written this way. It’s like the GM has a novel to write and they just need the players to fill in the dialogue between scenes.

Then, just when the players think they have an original solution, the plot wagon pulls up and runs them flat. Basically, the GM decides that the players’ wackadoodle plan isn’t actually in the module, so they’re just going ahead with what is written in the module/book regardless.

Unfortunately this approach is often referred to as “railroading.” It leaves a lot of experience players feeling like maybe their choices don’t matter at a time when they 100% totally should. The game, at the end of the day, is all about the players. I get it. It’s hard to step back sometimes as a GM and just let it run..

A lot of online (YouTube) discourse lays the railroad tracks.

There are probably a good number of us old-timers who know what I’m talking about. I hear a good amount of talk, especially on YouTube, which usually tells new Dungeon Masters about creating plot, narrative, and story structure in their games. Hey, I’ll admit it. Back 30 years ago I was guilty of giving some of that same advice. I wouldn’t now, of course.

I’ll be brutal with this advice: If you want to create a story from start to finish and the players are expected to go along with every story beat, write a book. I know that might be hard to swallow for some D&D 5E or 5E.2024 Dungeon Masters. Sorry.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

You don’t have to script every NPC dialog or figure out exactly where the group is headed next. Take some time during prep to build some NPCs, even if they’re generic, to drop into the characters’ lives whenever needed. That way you’re never caught completely off guard without a character for them to interact with.

I like to create minor NPCs with three notable traits, a description, and maybe a desired goal. No real stats unless I wholeheartedly believe they could potentially be involved in some sort of combat. Major NPCs get a description, important stats if needed, six traits, motivation, and a goal. I also put gear, spells, and a bit of personal history on them. They still take up less than a full page in most cases.

This technique can also be applied to locations the group could potentially visit. Inns, taverns, blacksmiths, bowyers/fletchers/arrow smiths, stable keepers, some random kid that hangs out around the practice area, stables, etc. In other words, people that the PCs could potentially encounter just walking down the main street of a village. I might also cook up something for a few random farmers, food vendors, townsfolk, town elders or other significant political figures, royalty (if any,) and maybe a shadowy individual who may or may not be attached to the thieves guild. Oh, and let’s not forget some military/law enforcement figures in the town. (For some reason that always seems to come up with the PCs…)

Next, not every NPC has to point the group in a specific direction.

Maybe the innkeeper really is clueless when it comes to the goings-on of the local townsfolk. Perhaps the blacksmith hasn’t ever heard of the magical MacGuffin the group is looking for. Maybe the farmer has never seen the giant ant monster that is reportedly terrorizing the other farmers. Not every character the group meets is a walking lore drop.

Sometimes the linear structure starts branching off. There are some dead ends. There are some false leads. There are some encounters or NPCs that aren’t even on the line. Some of my adventures started looking like a grid with a bunch of relationship notes and motivations. Unless it’s a dungeon with hallways that only connect certain rooms, of course.

The key here is to disconnect as a GM/DM.

Don’t pretend you know exactly what the group is going to do next. Yes, they might tell you at the end of the session, “We’re going to go to ______ (town) and talk to ______ (character.)”

Only to go a completely different route and talk to completely different character the next game. This is actually why I stopped keeping meticulous notes about plot and storyline. For one, I’m pretty sure my wife and one of my players who was a roommate were sneaking looks at my notes. For another, no plan ever survives contact with the PCs or the time table.

A lot of times I will have the name of the town, a few people who live there, and a vague idea of what they might run into. For everything else, there are random tables if I really get desperate. Otherwise, I try not to plan more than a session or two ahead. Maybe more if we’re doing a hexcrawl. (Long story for another time on that one. Yeesh.) Anything more than that and I’m probably wasting paper or pixels. The group usually manages to bypass, blow up, or overcomplicate anything specific I had plotted out, which is why I switched up my paradigm. (Which is pronounced, “pair-uh-dig-gum”)

But what about my BBEG and his plans for world domination?

If the group ignores whatever breadcrumbs and keeps offing his minions at every turn, maybe his plan goes ahead as scheduled because the group failed to interfere in time. Now the group has to wonder why the sky suddenly turned a shade of lime green and dragons are flying around everywhere like hummingbirds. Why wait for those meddling kids to interfere if they’re off starting a black smithy/bakery or hanging out with some random goblin they met at the inn? Don’t be afraid to lay down some consequences if they completely blow off that raid on the Death Star. Sometimes the villain gets their way and finishes their agenda. Now what will the group do?

Most of what I’m referring to so far is a sandbox style of play.

But there are some suggestions of other things that work. Sometimes it’s okay to have a plot in mind, but don’t get too attached. Most adventures still boil down to Who, What, Where, Why, possibly When and How. What matters to me as a GM is getting the ball rolling.

You can have the most elaborate sandbox campaign ever laid out on a hex map just waiting for the PCs to come spread some love, but it won’t do a lick of good unless they have some motivation to go explore. You can have the most sinister of BBEGs waiting for them with some crazy scheme to take over the Tri-Kingdom Area, but it does no good if the group never finds out about it and more importantly why they should get involved.

If the session or maybe the campaign starts in media res, the threat is imminent and the group must react in order to survive. Beware of overusing this tactic as players will begin to expect it. But once in a while it’s fun to leave them stranded on a mysterious island in the middle of nowhere with no idea how they got there.

Yes, PC backstories have a role to play in their motivation. Assuming they gave you anything to work with and it wasn’t a 39 page novel of their own, working some of what they gave you into the sandbox is usually pretty easy and will help later on in answering one of the big six questions above.

Other formats that might work for you.

My friend Kelsey Dionne talked about it in her monthly newsletter back in 2020. There can be a happy medium between sandboxing and railroading. I forget what she called it now, but it’s a format that starts out immersing the group in a story and then letting them decide if/where they want to run with it. Sometimes the group is fickle and they don’t. From what I know of Kelsey’s games, they usually do.

When I ran a lot of Cyberpunk, Werewolf, Deadlands, and superhero games, I usually didn’t have an elaborate plot in mind. The group had their home base and familiar NPCs that they saw daily. There was usually a villain out there, or several in some cases. All I needed was an inciting incident to get the ball rolling and maybe some sort of reward for going after the villain.

Having familiar NPCs that the group might be somewhat attached-to is pretty good motivation sometimes. The bank’s being robbed? Oh, Rex’s girlfriend was going to the bank this morning. Sure hope she’s not in the middle of a hostage situation… Of course we all know she will be. It’s not a railroad, but that one is hard for our heroes to turn down. Yes, they could let the boring old police handle it or they could hero up and go do something about it. (I used that “hero up” line once and nobody caught onto the reference until way later.)

You can build a corkboard or a marker board with names and relationships on it. If a business relationship between two NPCs falls apart, the group might be in for some financial tough times in a Cyberpunk game. If someone’s crush admits to it in the screamsheets right before the big concert, the following media scandal might make it hard to get out and do the real running. I’ve cooked up very elaborate relationship dynamics in the past. It’s fun, but the more NPCs you add, the more moving parts there are to keep track of from one week to the next. More on that in another article.

I’ve also done multi-branch linear style games where things might go A-D-C-H-Z with a lot of branches and dead ends going everywhere. Some points of the adventure didn’t even have a line drawn to them and were planned on the off chance the group pulled out something I hadn’t anticipated yet. Sometimes the outside world reacts to what the group is doing, other times NPCs have their own agendas to carry out, and the heroes may or may not interfere. Stop the train robbery or figure out why Farmer Barley’s cows are suffering from demonic possession. The stranger realization comes when the two are related.

I would also suggest taking a look at what novel writers are doing for more inspiration. Not everyone has a game modeled after a well-known actual play series. Not every GM is blessed with a dozen talented and well-paid voice actors in their cast, either. Sometimes novel writers will come up with interesting approaches that can be sandwiched into your game formatting.

I can talk about plotting and character development all day.

I used to deal with this kind of thing quite a bit. As I said originally, we teach new GM/DMs the linear formula because it’s the easiest to grasp and doesn’t require a ton of player motivation. Some people still prefer that style 20 years later.

However, some players don’t like to be told where to go and what to do. Setting them up for “success” is simply a matter of giving them NPCs, situations, and loot for them to interact with. They’ll find the adventure. It’s only a matter of when and how. Sometimes you have to just throw the module over your shoulder and ask the group, “Okay. What do you want to do now?”

As always, do what works best for you and your players. It’s fun to experiment with different presentation styles and adventure formats until you reach that sweet spot. Then just keep going. The group with thank you for keeping things interesting and engaging.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter

Behind the Screen: Setting Up Success.

Today we’re talking about Game Mastering.

Yes, setting others up for success applies in other areas of one’s life, but in this case we’re referring to Game Masters. I’ve learned some difficult, nigh onto painful lessons over the years about this topic. I want to share what I mean by all this today in hopes I will save some other GM from a similar fate.

Failure to plan ahead a little bit can be the death knell of a long running campaign. It could even signal the end of a friendship while the group is breaking up. You don’t always have to go to Reddit for interpersonal drama. Sometimes it comes to you, the GM, in the form of your regular gaming group.

GM, please don’t be the one driving the plot wagon.

Those poor players. Some of them never saw it coming. Others did, but perhaps not in time. The plot wagon rolled into town right over the top of everyone. There were no survivors. Let me explain.

A lot of times we train/teach new GMs/Dungeon Masters how to run and set up adventures in a very linear fashion. The adventure goes A-to-B-to-C-to-D-to-E. The climax of the story usually occurs around C or D. Loot, if any, at about E. Experience, etc. afterward. There are variations on this formula, but it’s the easiest and most obvious things to teach most people because it looks like the structure of most books.

The problem comes in when some GM/DMs never move beyond it. Unfortunately, a lot of commercially written fantasy adventures are written this way. It’s like the GM has a novel to write and they just need the players to fill in the dialogue between scenes.

Then, just when the players think they have an original solution, the plot wagon pulls up and runs them flat. Basically, the GM decides that the players’ wackadoodle plan isn’t actually in the module, so they’re just going ahead with what is written in the module/book regardless.

Unfortunately this approach is often referred to as “railroading.” It leaves a lot of experience players feeling like maybe their choices don’t matter at a time when they 100% totally should. The game, at the end of the day, is all about the players. I get it. It’s hard to step back sometimes as a GM and just let it run..

A lot of online (YouTube) discourse lays the railroad tracks.

There are probably a good number of us old-timers who know what I’m talking about. I hear a good amount of talk, especially on YouTube, which usually tells new Dungeon Masters about creating plot, narrative, and story structure in their games. Hey, I’ll admit it. Back 30 years ago I was guilty of giving some of that same advice. I wouldn’t now, of course.

I’ll be brutal with this advice: If you want to create a story from start to finish and the players are expected to go along with every story beat, write a book. I know that might be hard to swallow for some D&D 5E or 5E.2024 Dungeon Masters. Sorry.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

You don’t have to script every NPC dialog or figure out exactly where the group is headed next. Take some time during prep to build some NPCs, even if they’re generic, to drop into the characters’ lives whenever needed. That way you’re never caught completely off guard without a character for them to interact with.

I like to create minor NPCs with three notable traits, a description, and maybe a desired goal. No real stats unless I wholeheartedly believe they could potentially be involved in some sort of combat. Major NPCs get a description, important stats if needed, six traits, motivation, and a goal. I also put gear, spells, and a bit of personal history on them. They still take up less than a full page in most cases.

This technique can also be applied to locations the group could potentially visit. Inns, taverns, blacksmiths, bowyers/fletchers/arrow smiths, stable keepers, some random kid that hangs out around the practice area, stables, etc. In other words, people that the PCs could potentially encounter just walking down the main street of a village. I might also cook up something for a few random farmers, food vendors, townsfolk, town elders or other significant political figures, royalty (if any,) and maybe a shadowy individual who may or may not be attached to the thieves guild. Oh, and let’s not forget some military/law enforcement figures in the town. (For some reason that always seems to come up with the PCs…)

Next, not every NPC has to point the group in a specific direction.

Maybe the innkeeper really is clueless when it comes to the goings-on of the local townsfolk. Perhaps the blacksmith hasn’t ever heard of the magical MacGuffin the group is looking for. Maybe the farmer has never seen the giant ant monster that is reportedly terrorizing the other farmers. Not every character the group meets is a walking lore drop.

Sometimes the linear structure starts branching off. There are some dead ends. There are some false leads. There are some encounters or NPCs that aren’t even on the line. Some of my adventures started looking like a grid with a bunch of relationship notes and motivations. Unless it’s a dungeon with hallways that only connect certain rooms, of course.

The key here is to disconnect as a GM/DM.

Don’t pretend you know exactly what the group is going to do next. Yes, they might tell you at the end of the session, “We’re going to go to ______ (town) and talk to ______ (character.)”

Only to go a completely different route and talk to completely different character the next game. This is actually why I stopped keeping meticulous notes about plot and storyline. For one, I’m pretty sure my wife and one of my players who was a roommate were sneaking looks at my notes. For another, no plan ever survives contact with the PCs or the time table.

A lot of times I will have the name of the town, a few people who live there, and a vague idea of what they might run into. For everything else, there are random tables if I really get desperate. Otherwise, I try not to plan more than a session or two ahead. Maybe more if we’re doing a hexcrawl. (Long story for another time on that one. Yeesh.) Anything more than that and I’m probably wasting paper or pixels. The group usually manages to bypass, blow up, or overcomplicate anything specific I had plotted out, which is why I switched up my paradigm. (Which is pronounced, “pair-uh-dig-gum”)

But what about my BBEG and his plans for world domination?

If the group ignores whatever breadcrumbs and keeps offing his minions at every turn, maybe his plan goes ahead as scheduled because the group failed to interfere in time. Now the group has to wonder why the sky suddenly turned a shade of lime green and dragons are flying around everywhere like hummingbirds. Why wait for those meddling kids to interfere if they’re off starting a black smithy/bakery or hanging out with some random goblin they met at the inn? Don’t be afraid to lay down some consequences if they completely blow off that raid on the Death Star. Sometimes the villain gets their way and finishes their agenda. Now what will the group do?

Most of what I’m referring to so far is a sandbox style of play.

But there are some suggestions of other things that work. Sometimes it’s okay to have a plot in mind, but don’t get too attached. Most adventures still boil down to Who, What, Where, Why, possibly When and How. What matters to me as a GM is getting the ball rolling.

You can have the most elaborate sandbox campaign ever laid out on a hex map just waiting for the PCs to come spread some love, but it won’t do a lick of good unless they have some motivation to go explore. You can have the most sinister of BBEGs waiting for them with some crazy scheme to take over the Tri-Kingdom Area, but it does no good if the group never finds out about it and more importantly why they should get involved.

If the session or maybe the campaign starts in media res, the threat is imminent and the group must react in order to survive. Beware of overusing this tactic as players will begin to expect it. But once in a while it’s fun to leave them stranded on a mysterious island in the middle of nowhere with no idea how they got there.

Yes, PC backstories have a role to play in their motivation. Assuming they gave you anything to work with and it wasn’t a 39 page novel of their own, working some of what they gave you into the sandbox is usually pretty easy and will help later on in answering one of the big six questions above.

Other formats that might work for you.

My friend Kelsey Dionne talked about it in her monthly newsletter back in 2020. There can be a happy medium between sandboxing and railroading. I forget what she called it now, but it’s a format that starts out immersing the group in a story and then letting them decide if/where they want to run with it. Sometimes the group is fickle and they don’t. From what I know of Kelsey’s games, they usually do.

When I ran a lot of Cyberpunk, Werewolf, Deadlands, and superhero games, I usually didn’t have an elaborate plot in mind. The group had their home base and familiar NPCs that they saw daily. There was usually a villain out there, or several in some cases. All I needed was an inciting incident to get the ball rolling and maybe some sort of reward for going after the villain.

Having familiar NPCs that the group might be somewhat attached-to is pretty good motivation sometimes. The bank’s being robbed? Oh, Rex’s girlfriend was going to the bank this morning. Sure hope she’s not in the middle of a hostage situation… Of course we all know she will be. It’s not a railroad, but that one is hard for our heroes to turn down. Yes, they could let the boring old police handle it or they could hero up and go do something about it. (I used that “hero up” line once and nobody caught onto the reference until way later.)

You can build a corkboard or a marker board with names and relationships on it. If a business relationship between two NPCs falls apart, the group might be in for some financial tough times in a Cyberpunk game. If someone’s crush admits to it in the screamsheets right before the big concert, the following media scandal might make it hard to get out and do the real running. I’ve cooked up very elaborate relationship dynamics in the past. It’s fun, but the more NPCs you add, the more moving parts there are to keep track of from one week to the next. More on that in another article.

I’ve also done multi-branch linear style games where things might go A-D-C-H-Z with a lot of branches and dead ends going everywhere. Some points of the adventure didn’t even have a line drawn to them and were planned on the off chance the group pulled out something I hadn’t anticipated yet. Sometimes the outside world reacts to what the group is doing, other times NPCs have their own agendas to carry out, and the heroes may or may not interfere. Stop the train robbery or figure out why Farmer Barley’s cows are suffering from demonic possession. The stranger realization comes when the two are related.

I would also suggest taking a look at what novel writers are doing for more inspiration. Not everyone has a game modeled after a well-known actual play series. Not every GM is blessed with a dozen talented and well-paid voice actors in their cast, either. Sometimes novel writers will come up with interesting approaches that can be sandwiched into your game formatting.

I can talk about plotting and character development all day.

I used to deal with this kind of thing quite a bit. As I said originally, we teach new GM/DMs the linear formula because it’s the easiest to grasp and doesn’t require a ton of player motivation. Some people still prefer that style 20 years later.

However, some players don’t like to be told where to go and what to do. Setting them up for “success” is simply a matter of giving them NPCs, situations, and loot for them to interact with. They’ll find the adventure. It’s only a matter of when and how. Sometimes you have to just throw the module over your shoulder and ask the group, “Okay. What do you want to do now?”

As always, do what works best for you and your players. It’s fun to experiment with different presentation styles and adventure formats until you reach that sweet spot. Then just keep going. The group with thank you for keeping things interesting and engaging.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

#Dnd #Rpg #Rpgblog #Rpgblogger #Rpgwriter #Ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #Ttrpgwriter

The Twin-Tailed Lemmikyn

“Where it pauses, chance stumbles.”

Appearance

The Lemmikyn is a small, four-legged animal resembling a plump mountain lemming with unusually large, watchful eyes. Its most striking feature is its two foxlike tails, each tipped with pale silver fur that faintly glimmers in low light. Its coat shifts subtly with the weather, dusty gray before storms, off-white in snow, and tawny in autumn forests, making it easy to overlook at first. When startled, both tails flick in opposite directions, as if reacting to different futures. It moves with quick, nervous hops, often stopping to sniff the air or stare intently at nothing at all.

Nature & Folklore

The Lemmikyn is not magical in intent, but magical in consequence. It does not curse, attack, or deliberately interfere. Instead, probability bends slightly around it, like a wheel with a loose spoke.

Common folk sayings include:

• “Spilled ale follows a Lemmikyn.”
• “Two tails, no luck.”
• “If it watches you leave, something stays behind.”

Scholars debate whether it: attracts bad luck, sheds it like dander, or merely reveals instability in reality already present. Many have speculated that its origins lie in the Spirit World or Fairy Realm.

The Lemmikyn seems drawn to crossroads, mountain trails, forest edges, and liminal places, anywhere decisions are made.

Behavior

• Solitary or found in pairs (rarely.)
• Active at dawn and dusk.
• Flees combat unless cornered.
• Watches travelers from a short distance, sometimes following for an hour or more before vanishing.

If chased or captured, misfortune accelerates.

Weird Luck Wake (Core Gimmick)

While a Lemmikyn is near the party or has recently passed through, minor mishaps increase:

Examples (use sparingly, never all at once):

• A rope frays sooner than expected.
• A torch sputters out early.
• A pack strap snaps.
• Food spoils overnight.
• A door sticks, then suddenly flies open.
• A dropped item rolls just out of reach.

Important:
This is never lethal on its own. It’s inconvenience, tension, mood. The players should connect the dots afterward.

Dragonbane Stat Block:

*Please note: This creature does not follow the standard Dragonbane Monster formula. It is more akin to an NPC or animal familiar. Truly, it is not meant for combat nor cuddles. Some have speculated that it may in fact be a creature from the Fairy Realm or Spirit World.

LEMMIKYN
Ferocity: 1
Size: Small
Movement: 12
Armor: 2 (Natural)
HP: 8
Attacks: Nip – 1d6 (only if cornered)

Skills:
Evade 16
Sneaking 16
Awareness: 15

Special Abilities:
Unsteady Fortune
As long as the Lemmikyn remains nearby (or within the last watch), the GM may once per session:
Treat a failed roll as a marginal failure with consequences or introduce a minor mishap unrelated to combat. No rerolls are forced. This should feel organic, not punitive.
Forked Fate Tails
If the Lemmikyn is directly interacted with (fed, chased, trapped):
The next notable non-combat roll made by a random party member is rolled with Bane.
The effect fades once the creature escapes or is left behind.

GM Notes (The Secret Sauce)
The Lemmikyn is best used in hindsight as if almost meant to incite supersition among the party.
Let players realize later: “Oh, it was that thing.”
Never overuse it. One appearance every few sessions is perfect
If slain, bad luck stops immediately, which should feel oddly relieving… and sad.

Adventure Hooks
A merchant offers good coin for proof that one was removed from a trade route.
A village refuses to cut down a tree where one nests.
A rival party secretly follows one, hoping it will soften up their competition.
A wizard insists they bring one back alive (this will not go well.)
One decides to follow the party around, trying to become adopted.

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB.
This Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party Supplement License.

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