Marching Dead by Pavel Kolomeyets (pav327 on artstation)
occasionally subtle

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Jules of Nature

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art blog(derogatory)
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styofa doing anything
KIROKAZE
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸

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trying on a metaphor

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JBB: An Artblog!
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Marching Dead by Pavel Kolomeyets (pav327 on artstation)
Dungeon Those Dragons! - Dungeon delving as an intro to the game
Hullo, Gentle Readers. This week’s Question from a Denizen comes to us from frequent quesioner graham-chesir who asks, “ Hello again. I’ve been mulling over running some D&D games for my family who haven’t done D&D before and was considering doing the typical dungeon-delving to make things smoother & simpler. What do you suggest would make good plot hooks or story goals as to why one would go dungeon-delving?”
Well, my friend, back in the day, dungeon delving was the only reason we needed to play D&D. It was good stuff, but it became somewhat passe, and I know a lot of people prefer their Dungeons & Dragons without the dungeons. In my mind, there’s really no wrong way to play, and you can absolutely play the game without dungeons. Speaking personally, I love dungeons, and I think they’re a wonderful way to bring new players into the game.
Dungeons are self-contained, so, short of the players leaving the dungeon, they can’t exactly head in a direction you don’t expect. They give opportunities for players to engage in all three pillars of the game: combat, exploration, and social encounters. Let’s look at how they support these elements.
Obviously, dungeons give great (perhaps the best) options for exploration. You can do just about any crazy thing in a dungeon, from puzzles and traps to mystical portals, fountains with random effects, chessboards with living pieces, and anything else. They can and should be a spotlight for your players’ ingenuity and problem solving. If you have someone playing a rogue, definitely give them chances to show off the skills they picked their expertise in. A bard can bring out bits of legend lore. A cleric can recognize ancient profane symbols. Druids and rangers can interact with the biosystem of the dungeon itself, using lichen and vermin to cast their spells in place of flora and fauna.
Many social interactions are possible in a dungeon, despite the “waste ‘em with a crossbow” attitude of many players. When I ran the Caves of Chaos during the D&D “Next” Playtest, I created divisions among the various sections of the dungeon based on alignment. Chaotic evil orcs feuded with lawful evil hobgoblins, while the kobolds just tried to stay under everyone’s radar, making them potential allies to the PCs if treated well enough. Prisoners could be found in the dungeon who might be allies or enemies. The ogre was a mercenary who might be able to be bribed into switching sides. I wanted everything to be fluid and changeable depending on how the PCs approached things.
I hardly feel like I need to mention that there can be combat in a dungeon, but dungeons give some unique terrain for combat. Kobolds and goblins can retreat into warren-like tunnels, forcing the PCs to crawl in after them or else unleashing traps on the PCs as they try to continue their explorations. Gargoyles could harry a group of PCs trying to cross a swinging rope bridge over a chasm with lava at the bottom. Piles of bones can continue to disgorge undead in a swarm unless the PCs can destroy a glowing red gem at the end of the chamber. Cave fishers or ropers can attack from above, forcing the party to split their attention…just as a choker strikes from the shadows or darkmantles descend! Combat in a dungeon never has to be an orc in a 10 foot by 10 foot room guarding a chest, and it probably never should be…unless you come up with a compelling reason for that encounter.
As far as motivations, they can be many. Almost any plot you can imagine can happen in a dungeon:
- Greedy adventurers may hear rumors of a dragon’s hoard that lies deep in the lower levels of the Mountain King’s Hall.
- The Dungeon of Dread has a door that has been closed for a thousand years. Now it has reopened, and the must plumb its secrets before a rival group finds out about it.
- Lareth the Beautiful, disciple of Lolth, has taken up residence under the ruined moathouse. His evil plans must be stopped…through his death!
- The Crypt of Catamir is the final resting place of a devious evil wizard, and his spellbook is said to hold a spell needed to end a curse on the kingdom.
- Neogi slavers may have kidnapped a PC’s sister, and the Castle of Thorns is where they hold slaves before transporting them into the Underdark. The party must enter the Castle of Thorns to rescue her and any other slaves being held there.
- It’s said that the statue of Bahamut at the end of the Dragon’s Delving blesses those who persevere to pray before it.
- Without the Sword of Lions, the new aspirant to the throne of Leondara cannot claim the crown. They hire the PCs to enter the Hall of Lions to claim it.
- The dwarven paladin inherited a broken magical hammer from their parents. It can only be reforged in the Forge of the Fundament, located in an ancient dwarven stronghold that was long ago taken over by undead.
I honestly don’t think there’s any shortage of reasons for adventurers to enter a dungeon. Come up with a compelling story behind the dungeon and let the PCs head in. They’ll make their own story as they explore.
Well, graham, I hope this inspired you with new desires to get your players dungeon delving.
Spirits of Chaos by Anna Astrid
New Knights! Master of Swords, Knight of Arms, and a nameless knight made out of hair
Some undead creatures. Used them a while back, thought they were fun.
These definitely need a rework.
Hello, everyone!
I want to share with you my latest battle map. This week I’ve made an underground map where a mysterious green liquid flows beneath.
The map features different elevations so you can place some monsters in hard to reach places and it also features plenty of environmental hazards. Falling to the green lava is a real possibility and who knows what kind of effects it might have on a creature.
Located on the center of the map there’s a crystal of sorts that I’m sure has something to do with all the green stuff and I hope one of your players dares to touch it.
The creature tokens included in this map are an Azer, a Flesh Golem and a Gibbering Mouther. Emerald tier gets the Flesh Golem while Diamond tier gets all three.
You can see a preview of all of this week’s Patreon content here.
Thank you very much for taking a look and be sure to check out my Patreon where you can pledge for gridless version, alternate map versions as well as the tokens pertaining to this map.
Cloning facility by adamkuczek
the Prince of Cats Cover - Shen Fei
Green Vest by Dominik Mayer (dtmayer on artstation)
Death from above by Artem Demura (stargrave on artstation)
Mortal Shell concept art
Fantasy Guide to Ships, Boats and Nautical Lingo
Of all the ways to travel in fantasy and historical novels, there are two favoured ones: horses and ships. But I covered the horses already so here we have some ship terminology and kinds of ships.
Common Boat Terms
Aft/Stern - The back of a ship.
Bow - The bow is the front part of the ship, the pointy part or the place where Kate Winslet stood on in Titanic.
Port - The left side of the ship
Starboard - The right side of the ship
Windward - The wind the direction is blowing.
Hull- outside of the ship
Leeward - Or sometimes called the lee. This is the opposite direction of the wind is blowing
Boom - A horizontal pole extending from the base of the main mast. It adjusted toward the wind direction in order to harness the wind for the sails.
Rudder - The rudder is a flat piece of wood below the ship, used to steer the ship. It is connected to the wheel of the ship.
Tacking - A common sailing maneuver that involves turning the bow through the wind, to change the wind direction from one side of the ship to the other, making the boom move.
Underway- This is when the ship is moving
Astern- The ship is moving backwards
Amidships- Middle of the boat
Topside- when you move from the lower decks to the upper deck
Compartments of the ship
Most ships would have compartments inside the hull and underneath the deck.
Cabins- most war ships and merchant ships would only have one or two main cabin occupied by the captain and higher crew.
Galley- The kitchen on board the ship. The galley would be fitted with tables and cabinets. Galleys were built in such a way that they were more resistant to the heaving of the ship. Most galleys were built with special stoves to stop people from colliding with them and things from spilling out of pots and pans.
Wardroom- some ships are built with a common room for the crew. The wardroom acted as a common room as well as a dining room. It would usually be conjoined with the galley.
Sick Bay- is the compartment of the ship that is given over to the injured and sick. The sick bay would hold the medicines and medical devices and would often be under lock and key.
Hold- This will be the largest compartment in the ship were the cargo or the ship’s weapons.
Crew and Positions aboard the Ship
Captain
When we think of captains we imagine them as blackhearted slave drivers (something akin to managers in the customer service industry) but on further research you will find that is not true. There are two kinds of Captains you find in history. Pirate captains and Legitimate Captains. Pirate captains were elected by their merit in battle and dedication to the crew. They were considered equal to the crew, only taking full charge during raids and battles. In the Navy or any legal-bound ship, captains were selected by rank and wealth. There was no equality between captain and crew as in pirate ships. Legal ships were Capitalists and the Pirates were Democratic.
First Mate
First Mate is the captain’s deputy. They act as captain when the captain cannot. This was mainly seen in Navies and merchant ships as Pirates usually placed their quartermaster as their deputies.
Quartermaster
The Quartermaster was in charge of ensuring that the ship ran smoothly, rather like the ship’s HR manager. The Quartermaster was in charge of supplies and had certain powers such as being able to punish the crew for minor infractions.
Sailing Master
These were officers in charge of piloting the ship. They would have to be educated enough to read a map and was a much desired position because it was a fair paying job. Pirates usually kidnapped sailing masters from ships they attacked to use aboard their own ships.
Gunner
Gunners were the overseers of any many qualified to load and fire guns. They were in charge of aiming cannons and making sure the crew were safely using guns. Most the guns were loaded by young boys called powder monkeys.
Boatswain
Boatswains or junior officers would act as supervisors, watching over the crew as they did their duties. If things were not going well they reported to the captain or quartermaster to punish the crew.
Surgeons
Surgeons handled any diseases and wounds. Since being at sea limited the amount of medicine available. Most ship’s surgeons were forced to cut off limbs to avoid infection pike gangrene. Surgeons may not always be found on ships. Cooks or carpenters were often pressed to do amputations: meat was meat and cutting was cutting.
Cooks
All ships needed somebody to cook. Navies and merchant ships would often have trained cooks while on pirate ships it was just a crewmember who was handy in the kitchen.
Kinds of Ship
(Not a complete list, may post more later.)
Brig- A brig is the ship that one most thinks of when you think of a ship. The brig is a large vessel, set with a pair of square-rigged masts. Brigs were fast ships and highly maneuverable. They were used as merchant ships and warships.
Galley- The galley is propelled via oars. The hull is long and slender and most of them featured larger sails. Galleys often were rowed by slaves and used in war.
Galleon- Galleons were large ships, built with multiple decks, carrying three or more masts with square raised stern. The Galleon was usually rigged with square sails on the fore-mast and main-masts.
Caravel- The caravel was a small ship with triangular sails, famed for its manoeuvrability and speed.
Longship- The longships were the ships of the Vikings. They were slender ships, narrow. They were able to keep afloat in shallow waters as well as the deep sea. Longships were able to reverse quickly, a very important skill. The longship was a warship, a raider’s ship propelled by oars.
Carrack- the carrack was a large ship, often built with mass cargo holds making the most popular ship to go on long voyages on. The carrack had three or four masts.
Cog- This ship was a large vessel, the hull wide and large. The ship is propelled by a great single sail flown from a tall mast.
Junk- The junk or Chinese junk was a kind of coastal or river ship used as merchant ships, pleasure ships and sometimes houseboats. They are small ships and made with battened sails rather resembling wings.
Trireme- the trireme was a slender ship set with three banks of oars pulled by one man each. The trireme had a concave hull and usually had an underwater ram at the prow of the ship.
For @viola-cola
Idk why I fixated on this but I want add two small thing:
The walls inside the ship are called bulkheads.
The thing sailors get their drinking water from is called a scuttlebutt. Because they would gather around it to gossip just like office workers around the watercooler, rumors and gossip are also called scuttlebutt. (“You heard the latest scuttlebutt?”)
DOLBOLEN’ CHALLENGE by Artem Demura https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oOr8Y4
by Tooth Wu
Looking to start a Campaign?
First time DM? Looking to freshen things up? have an idea for rad high level adventure but unsure how to ensnare the party in your amazing scheme?
I’ve been in all those situations before, so I’m making a compilation posts of all my best “Starter” adventures. These prompts are intended to give you a very clear idea of who your party will be, what sort of adventure they’ll be going on, and lead to further stories of a similar genre.
The Commodore’s Manor: A classic “haunted mansion” that can make a great first adventure for either apprentice thieves or aspiring witchers. Better yet, the final loot haul includes a pirate’s treasure map, which can send your party sailing out into a wider archipelago of adventure.
A Fellowship forged in Fire: While delving a ruin, the party ends up overwhelmed by the appearance of an elite level drake, and are only saved by the intervention and sacrifice of a pair of veteran monster hunters. With an injured mentor to escort back to safety and a life-debt to avenge, the party has their mission set out to become hunters of renown themselves.
Cavern of the Venom Queen: A simple mission to squash some bugs under a sea-priest’s temple gets sidetracked when the players discover that they were hired by a smuggler’s gang. Do they make new enemies, in their home port or sign up with the scoundrels and begin a carrier of crime on the high seas? As a bonus: this dungeon comes with a free, massive battle map from the amazing @czepeku,
Burglars and Brigands: The bumbling antics of a pair of thieves ends up saving the realm from invasion, but ends up with the foreign army breaking up and scattering across the realm they were trying to save. Engage in glorious battle as your players save their town from bandits, rescue a foreign political prisoner, earn the favor of the nobility, and maybe even track down the idiots who started this whole mess and the fortune they made off with.
The least kindly Usurer: Interested in getting a party with scattered goals to work together for their first couple missions? Just do what this villain does: put them in debt, threaten their loved ones, and force them to take dangerous job to pay back. This is a great start for bountyhunters and economically minded players, who can earn their freedom and their fortunes once they find their way out from beneath the moneylender’s thumb.
@tenleaguesbeneath raised an excellent concern about the fraught nature of including a corrupt monneylender as the primary antagonist of a story. I tried hard to distance this character from anything related to the “Shylock” archetype, as well as to highlight the essential nature of money-lending in your typical d&d setting. I wanted much more of a loanshark/robber baron feel for the character, but if I ended up not distancing myself enough from that racist archetype, I sincerely apologize.
Along the same lines, I want to encourage anyone who sees me edging into problematic territory with my writing to call me out asap so I can fix my mistake! I try very hard here to present story material from an inclusive, de-colonial lens, but if my narrow viewpoint means I end up missing some important details, I’d like to know so I can correct my writing and do better in the future.