Command Word: Fun

Dungeons & Dragons (and other Board games) inspiration and discussion

[commandwordfun]

Ronan archipelago

A part of the Inish Archipelago, this cluster of islands is well known for its dangerous waters, active volcanoes and lately, an open rebellion by admiral Rona Nepe.

This is a campaign map for a new solo adventure I'm preparing for my partner, so there will be a lot more coming about this region.

With names taking inspiration from the Maori people of Oceania, and the culture and gods yet to be determined, I'm thinking of making the central conflicts of this region be: dangerous waters vs safe harbours, pirates vs government and anarchy vs opression.

There are good chances I'm going to be using this region in another campaign, because pirate adventure are PEAK. Plus there is just so much works you can steal from, One Piece, Pirates of the Caribbean, Our Flag Means Death, even hacker stuff you can put in as comic relief if your group is into that. Playing as Julianus Assangus, Bard of the College of Secrets, who is on the run from the government because he's uncovering their lies could be very fun.

I have also made a hexagonal map because there will be a lot of traveling with survival mechanics between ports, so accurate distance measurement will be important.

One hex is 24 miles. Which means:

One hex is 8 hours of walking (or one day with long rest and sleeping)

Two hexes is 24 hours of sailing under average weather in a sailing ship(with a speed of 3mph)

On second thought, I realized this scale is nonsensical for island sizes and the distances between archipelago Islands. So the actual grid is going to look like this probably:

[commandwordfun]

Basic DnD session playlist

First aid for all your ambient needs.

DnD: Basic Soundtrack

It's extremely basic, but it should cover most of what you need for an average D&D session. For style points, layer the ambience over fighting music when players are engaged in a fight.

It contains:

Fantasy Tavern

Dungeon

Medieval City

Ambush Combat

Forest Daytime

Forest Nighttime or Magic

Wizards Library

Desert

Shore

Sea

[commandwordfun]

Equipment cards

Tired of your players forgeting they got the MacGuffin 5 sessions ago? Is their handwritting one symbol away from summoning a Demon Prince? Would your players rather be playing poker tonight?

All of these problems and more can be solved with EQUIPMENT CARDS!

Handing them out cards feels more rewarding than them writting stuff down. They'll have a more accurate overview of what they have, and may consider items to be used for outlandish purposes just because they see their card at the right time.

One fun idea to really torture your players can be a survival game in which they are in the wilderness for an extended period of time and have to manage resources such as food and ammunition. Players having to see their food cards go down while they still haven't found the treasure they're looking for can be a traumafun experience.

I was so happy when i got this idea, I thought it was revolutionary, unfortunately a quick google search crushed my dreams, this set is done by Paul Weber and these and more decks can be found at https://www.sageadvice.eu/dd-equipment-treasure-and-condition-cards/

I will be printing these soon and showing you the results!

[commandwordfun]

Musings on nomenclature and pacing

Nomenclature

A session is a base unit for ttrpg play. Everything counts according to it and everyone is submitted to its supreme rule. A rule of thumb i use is one session = 4 hours of play. In a session there are encounters players engage in, according to the story they choose to embark on. Encounter is a situation or a problem the party is presented with whether it's combat, skill check, puzzle, an npc interaction, etc. It can last from a couple of minutes to hours. One shots are adventures meant to be played in a single session, usually presenting a single short story, usually having all the elements dnd is expected to have (combat, npcs, puzzles)

An adventure is a story, a series of encounters and story beats the playes face, and which is impacted by their actions. It can be played over a series of sessions, and it ends with a resolution of the main plot thread. My reccomended pacing for adventure sessions (on a 4 session adventure example) is: 1. Session: plot hook, exploration. Low tension 2. Session: clues, harder encounters. Medium tension 3. Session: more clues, recovery from last session encounters, planning. Low tension 4. Session: Hard encounters, big reveal. High Tension

A campaign is a series of adventures following an overarching plot. Either some great villain that has been moving the pieces from the background or the leader of the group that has been the enemies of your parties adventures.

Leveling

Personally, huge fan of story beat leveling. Usually either after every adventure or every second adventure I'll give my party a level. I can absolutely see the value of leveling via XP and it sounds fun but it's added stuff to what both you and the players have to keep in mind and it might ruin the pacing of the session if a player were to level up in the middle of it(if you're doing XP and not allowing players to level up as soon as they get enough XP you're a Dung Master)

Map size

Strong opinions on map sizes and types. Alpha males must like these maps in order to attract FEMALES.

No maps for one shots (except battlemaps of course) Small and medium regional maps for adventures(four or five points of interest, maybe more if its a longer adventure or an "open world" adventure) Large regional and Continental World maps for campaigns(the size of four or five regional maps, less or more depending on the campaign length)

[commandwordfun]

Southern North Kala Draft #1

Trying out Inkarnate pro, the options are pretty versatile honestly. This one is done with Regional HD, which I prefer for adventure maps. The slightly cartoonish style really adds character to the map in my opinion, although its not very useful for bigger campaigns with many travels between adventures.

I will definitely be adding more stuff to the map, as it still feels a bit empty. As well as detailing the points of interest.

Major Points of Interest

Hemene - first bigger settlement after the border with Eglasian Empire to the South. Themes: Native American and Viking culture, houses spread a bit apart, in the center of the town there is a temple, an inn, a blacksmith and a big woodworkers shop.

Bigby's Train - Magical train conjured by the Great Mage Bigby, running back and forth from Taurum Forest to the Free City of Xi Xi in the East.

Grand Tribehall - Serves as a meeting point for the Chieftains and Clan Leaders of North Kala, who meet there twice a year, on equinoxes. Elected Great Chiefs of Kala stay there during the whole year, and every tribe and clan is expected to provide a certain amount of warriors to the Host Army which deals with bigger threats to the region.

[commandwordfun]

Hi all!!!

This is going to be a:

Dungeons & Dragons inspiration, discussion and artwork blog. I plan on making challenges similar to r/worldbuilding challenges as well.

DIY posts for DMing. Cool trinkets and projects for the cheap DM. I firmly believe in using random things you've found around the house supremacy over professionally done miniatures.

General boardgame talk. I like Game of Thrones the board game, Dune, Catan, Ticket to Ride, Twillight Struggle and many more.

I am yet to determine a post schedule, feel free to let me know what you would like to see!