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Redesigning skills in D&D 5e

I've thought a bunch about how I'd change the skills system in D&D 5e, and I've come up with this: Specialist skills, inspired by traits from Dogs in the Vineyard.

I’ve been playing D&D 5e since release, and in my experience, there are a bunch of problems with the skills and proficiencies systems:

They don’t support roleplaying very well

They’re often doubled-up in party composition

Too often there’s a player who always has the best check.

I’d like the skill system to be more specific but without penalising players.

Improving the system

With these flaws in…

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#5e #D&D #design #dungeons and dragons #fifth edition #proficiencies

Building a oneshot: Genlab Alpha

In my last post I mentioned that I’m having to run a oneshot session on short notice. Here, I’m going to write up the development as it as I go, and use the tips I set out to help me define the adventure.

1. Limit and define the scope of the adventure

Fortunately for me, the game I’m running, Genlab Alpha, is all about communities of genetically engineered animals living in captivity in a…

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#adventure #DM #dnd #dungeons and dragons #games #genlab alpha #oneshot #planning #roleplaying #rpg #tabletop #writing

5 Tips for DMing on short notice

I've put together a list of 5 Tips for DMing on short notice! #DnD #RPG

Thanks to some unreasonable work-travel demands (not on the part of my work, thankfully) we’ve had one of our players drop from a weekend game at the end of the month. We’ve all had instances like this here and there, so to avoid having the booked weekend go to waste, I wanted to share some tips for writing and running an adventure on short notice.

1. Limit your scope

Remember that when…

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#5e #adventure #advice #DM #dnd #dungeon master #dungeons and dragons #fifth edition #oneshot #pathfinder #planning #tips

Creating Cosy - Culture of Kernow

Creating Cosy – Culture of Kernow

This post is a bit of a catch-all bucket of information and lore that hasn’t been addressed yet. I’ve got a lot of information in my head, but it’s been rattling around in there for so long that I’m not sure which bits have ended up on the page.

Society

The culture of Kernow is more old. Not too much has changed here over the years, at least, not from the perspective of the small hamlets…

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#DM #roleplaying #rpg #tabletop #World Building #writing

Creating Cosy – Map of Kernow

It’s the first map I’ve drawn in ages, so it’s very much rough around the edges, but overall I’m relatively pleased. It’s got everything that I’ve already decided in it, and has space for putting additional bits and pieces in. Lots of room for adding things in mountain ranges, and lots of small islands to populate with interesting content.

I’m mostly content with the gameplay being centred on…

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#DM #homebrew #map #World Building #writing

Creating Cosy – Others, outsiders, and challenges

Figuring out why new people might come to my setting, and what challenges the community might face! #dnd #homebrew #ttrpg

Whilst I’m only planning on sketching out Maesmorn and Bysrath in much detail, I want the province of Rhosfer to be composed of a whole bunch of mostly small towns and villages, and only one large town: Righton, the seat of the local ruler, the Saird.

In this post then, I want to start looking at:

Adding some other villages, just names and a sentence description.

Listing some outsiders to…

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#DM #homebrew #planning #roleplaying #rpg #setting #tabletop #TTRPG #World Building #writing

Creating Cosy – The neighbourhood

Phew! Longest post yet about creating the environment and world for me new #DnD setting!

Now that we’ve sketched out who lives in Maesmorn and what they do, I’m going to start looking at the neighbours, and the larger region of Rhosfer.

The nearest village is Bysrath (Biz-rhuth), where Maesmorn is on top of the rolling hills, Bysrath is several valleys over where a small river runs into the sea. While Bysrath is only a few miles from Maesmorn, travelling between the two villages takes…

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#D&D #design #environment #homebrew #lore #mythology #planning #roleplaying games #rpg #World Building #writing

Creating Cosy - Who lives here, summary

A more detailed listing and naming of NPCs who live in the village of Maesmorn. Creating Cosy - Who lives here? #DnD #TTRPG #homebrew #setting

In keeping with the to-do list, the “who lives here” was listed as complete-ish. So we’re gonna finish that off today, summarise the people we’ve already confirmed, and sketch out some others.

This post won’t go into too much detail on the individuals, that will be for later, when this project is more formalised and written up as a series of pages, rather than posts. So, here we go:

Sairdsman…

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#characters #D&D #design #DM #dnd #homebrew #planning #roleplaying games #rpg #tabletop #World Building #writing

Creating Cosy - What's up next?

Quick roadmap post on where we're going next. Creating Cosy - What's up next? #dnd #ttrpg #dm #homebrew #planning

So I’m continuing to read the rules for Zweihander and then next up is to begin fleshing out some more of the town, getting familes mapped out and relationships between NPCs, and writing all of this down somewhere.

In one of the earlier posts about this project, I wrote a rough to-do list for the design of Maesmorn village, I’m reproducing it here so I can mark off what’s been done and what’s…

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Creating Cosy - A system for the setting

Going over some potential #TTRPG systems for my #sliceoflife game. Talking about why #DnD might be the wrong choice.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what kind of TTRPG system would work best for Creating Cosy. I’ve searched about a little on the internet, and combined with my own obsessive collecting of RPG systems that I’m never going to have time to play, I’ve come up with a few options.

To make clearer what I think I’m going to need to best support this type of roleplaying, here are some of the requirements:

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#D&D #design #dnd #homebrew #planning #roleplaying games #rpg #tabletop #World Building #writing

Creating Cosy - Setting the Stakes

The setting is coming together, but what about the action? Creating Cosy - Setting the Stakes #DnD #homebrew #campaign #sliceoflife

Having (finally) named some of the key places in the immediate setting, what are some of the events that could take place there? This post is a bit of a scratchpad of ideas for some good stories to get started with.

The first question I want to answer is what kind of stories do I want to tell in this world?

I want stories that build the community of Maesmorn.

The characters should be tied to the…

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#D&D #design #DM #homebrew #planning #rpg #tabletop #World Building #writing

Creating Cosy - Taking Names

Naming places with consistency: Creating Cosy - Taking Names #DnD #TTRPG

So far we’ve looked at what kind of genre we want the game to be, how big the village should be, who lives there, and what kinds of things they do. There has been one slight frustration along the way though, and that’s how hard it’s been to define and name things, without.. y’know.. names.

So that’s the topic of today’s post. Think about styles of names, and pick some out for use.

I found this…

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#D&D #design #DM #dming #dnd #planning #roleplaying games #rpg #World Building #writing

Monster Mash 5e - The Biggest of Big Bads

I had some thoughts about having really _big_ big bads: Monster Mash 5e - The Biggest of Big Bads #DnD #5e #RPG

A little different from the last Monster Mash post, instead of presenting a monster I’ve already made, I wanted to have a bit of a brain-splurge of some ideas I’ve had rattling around for a while.

How do you deal with a big bad? Not your conventional big bad, I mean a literally bigbad. Something colossal, tens, maybe hundreds of feet tall. The phrase “Make an attack roll” feels vaguely ridiculous…

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#D&D #design #DM #dnd #encounter #homebrew #monster #planning #roleplaying games #rpg #tabletop

Trinket Trove - Feywoven Cord, D&D 5e

Trinket Trove – Feywoven Cord, D&D 5e

Feywoven Cord

Wondrous item, uncommon (requires attunement)

At first glance, this 50ft of silver-shot knotted rope appears mundane. While holding this item, the bearer can speak a command word and take a bonus action to transform the cord into one of four forms:

Wrap it about themselves as +1 Studded Leather armour.

+1 Whip.

Enchanted net, AC 15, Escape artist DC 15.

50ft knotted rope.

Legend…

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#D&D #design #dnd #homebrew #item #magic #rpg #tabletop #TTRPG

Being Someone: D&D 5e Elf Pirate Siblings

So having some very welcome free time over the next month, I’ve returned to my rather neglected stomping grounds to clear the roleplaying cobwebs out of my head with a flurry of posts here.

So firstly, here are a pair of D&D fifth edition characters I’ve been rolling around my head for a while. A pair of wood elf pirates, both once at home on the high seas, but who are now roaming the land in…

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#5e #bard #character #characters #college #D&D #design #dnd #fifth edition #patron #player #roleplaying #rpg #undying #valor #warlock

New D&D idea: The Battle of the Bands

All barbarian party are legendary (in their minds) punk band: The Bardbarians

All the bardbarians believes themselves to be bards. The whole battle of the bands is a setup by Shelyn, Goddes of Music, Art, and Beauty to find some new Heralds. The Bardbarians subvert this somewhat.

#D&D #DND #5e #oneshot #probablybadrpgideas

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