A character who wanted to become a Bard and so went to Bard School, but was so bad at it that they had to take levels in Wizard to actually do any magic. So they graduated with barely-passing grades at Bard School because, well, they managed to make the magic happen I guess so C- but all their verbal spell components are just, like, terrible raps and all their somatic components are truly awful drum solos or instrumental pieces like,
“Anyway here’s fireball” -begins playing Wonderwall completely off key-
“Yo my name is Mikey and I’m here to say I’m gonna shoot lightning at your fa...ce”
Hey y’all, so as some of you may know, I’m in the midst of a worldbuilding project to make my own homebrew D&D setting. One aspect of this is making a calendar system because I hate the Gregorian calendar with such a burning passion and will not use anything even remotely as terrible as it in a world with magic and dragons.
So I need help. I’ve already got the skeletal calendar set up (I’ll probably post it when it’s done if folks are interested), but right now I need names. I’ve got a lot of months that don’t have names and that’s gotta be fixed. My current plan is to have months named after relevant events/weathers/themes to the time (for example: the month of Reaping, the month of Winds, the month of Hearth) kinda like in the Dishonored games. But, right now I’m having a hard time coming up with enough words for that. So, it’d help a lot if y’all could send me some words and what time of the year you associate them with. Or, if you’ve got another idea for a naming system, I’m open to that. I’m probably gonna stick with this idea, but I’m not completely closed off to others yet. Thanks!
Item Idea Type: Wonderous item Name: Mazemaster's Ring Lore: This ring was made by 20 master artificers who always got lost, their bones are around the duengon, they couldn't find the way out of the duengon, or to the ring Abilities: instantly know the shortest route to any location within 500KM, teleport enemies to personal pocket-dimension maze, knowledge of all within the maze. Imma gonna need some dice rolls.
This seems like it could be a fun thing for a villain to have. Like, you have a story arc where the party gets put in the Big Bad’s pocket torture maze and has to find their way out. But I’d definitely have it lose that power when/if it gets into the party’s hands. Just being able to shunt any enemy into your own personal torture maze seems like a pretty good way to break.... pretty much any combat encounter, honestly. Could be cool instead to maybe make it so that, once the party gets the ring and takes control, they use it as a hideout/getaway/home-base-demiplane instead. Or maybe allow it to still have that power, but it has very limited uses and/or a long, irregular recharge time (with a chance to resist either way), so that way they’re not just popping every bandit they run across into their DeathKill Maze
Excuse me I need to take notes in my worldbuilding binders about something that is definitely completely different and not this exactly now
Petition to rename the ability “Turn Undead” to “Repel Undead” in an attempt to lessen the disappointment of future generations when they use it and don’t immediately become a skeleton.
Don’t be afraid to change some story stuff behind the scene to match what your players suspect, especially if it’s better than what you’ve got. Don’t do it all the time, but it’s really encouraging and engaging to give them the occasional “I called it!” moment, especially if they haven’t had one in a while.
Also, bonus tip: NEVER DO THE OPPOSITE! Never, upon hearing a player correctly guess what’s gonna happen, change your story out of spite. That’s just a jerk move, and overall it’ll almost certainly weaken the story.
D&D (or some other TTRPG), weird-numbered dice (d2-d20), breathalyzer, alcoholic drinks
How to play:
At start of game, everyone (except maybe the GM?) takes a shot/drink. Then, as the game progresses, at any point, they can choose to take another shot to gain a bonus to whatever roll they’re currently making. The bonus is the result of them rolling a die with a max number of sides equal to their BAC (meaning someone with a BAC of .07 would roll a 7-sided die, BAC of .12 would roll a 12-sided die, etc), up to a maximum of .20 (d20).
Once you hit .20 BAC, you can’t do this anymore and have to drink water and eat bread or something until you drop down to .10 or less ‘cause no one wants to deal with your alcohol-poisoned ass.
When planning encounters, especially if you use the Challenge Rating system, keep in mind enemy abilities. Take into account what powers and features a monster has, and make sure that they fit the difficulty that you want the encounter to be. Some things are low CR but can easily wipe a party because they have some ability or another (energy/level draining is a big one for this). Also, make sure you actually remember and use said monster abilities during the fight, otherwise you are severely nerfing the encounter (which may be something you want to do, but make sure you do it intentionally and not accidentally).
Example 1:
If a monster has resistance or immunity to magic, it will be incredibly more difficult for a magic-heavy party than a melee-heavy party. A Pathfinder Stone Golem is listed as CR 11, but it will be an infinitely harder fight if your party is primarily magic-based, rather than just a party of fighters, rogues, and rangers.
Example 2:
I recently ran an encounter that was basically supposed to be something like a boss fight against an ancient guardian construct thing, and it was supposed to be a difficult fight. Most of what was gonna make the fight difficult was just because the enemy was supposed to be hard to hit, due to having a 50% miss chance as its body separated and reconstructed itself to avoid attacks. However, in the heat of actually running the game, that ability slipped my mind until I saw it in my notes a few moments after the fight ended, which meant that a fight that should have been difficult was a cakewalk.
So, for the longest time, I’ve mostly played/run games set in the Pathfinder setting of Golarion. It’s a good setting, with lots of interesting stuff, and it’s one I’ve spent a lot of time reading about. But, as I think is the case for a lot of GMs and aspiring GMs, I’ve always wanted to make my own setting.
I’ve tried it before. A few times, actually. The first was an exercise in hubris, where I sought not just to make An Entire Planet, I decided to make a whole system of 9 Planets (one for each alignment), each created/ruled by a homebrew God. In the end, I made a single planet poorly, and I’ve long since abandoned that attempt at a setting.
My second attempt was really only half an attempt. I believe I had drawn up a rough world map, and I had roughly outlined a few countries and their loose politics, but that’s about it. I got sidetracked by other things (namely college and the other games I was running at the time), and my interest in that world waned.
I’m not yet ready to make a third attempt. I’m far better prepared than I was before, but I’ve neither the time nor the energy currently to put pen to paper and draw maps, nor set any names in stone. However, there have been a few very rough worldbuilding ideas that I’ve had bouncing around my head for a while now, and I want to put them out here to A) potentially inspire others to use them and 2) have a place I can look back to so I remember, should I find the time/energy/etc to actually begin to build a world again. This might go long (this has already gone long), so the rest will be under a Read More.
1. Ritual Magic
I really like the idea of Ritual Magic. By that, I mean I really like the idea of, if you’re not a Wizard (or maybe just not a good enough one), you can still cast Scry by taking a pitcher of spring water that was taken under the light of the Full Moon and placing it in a silver bowl under the darkness of a New Moon while holding something representative of the target of your Scry and burning the proper incense. Obviously this is just an example, but you get what I mean.
5th Edition has rules for “Ritual Magic,” but that’s just “it takes longer to cast but it doesn’t burn a spell slot.” You still have to be high enough level to cast it. I want magic that literally anyone can do, even a level 0 commoner, if they have the time, patience, resources, and know-how. It’s not Easy, but it allows literally everyone to have some degree of magical ability. Because, after all, it’s High Fantasy, and the world is filled with (made of?) Magic.
Not everyone is a Wizard/Witch/Sorcerer/Warlock/etc, but everyone can potentially be a Magician/Thaumaturge.
2. No Gods, only gods
Pantheons are cool, but one thing that always kind of bugs me is thinking “okay, but what is Sarenrae doing now?” Because as far as I know, for most Gods, there is no great answer for that. Like, Pharasma is judging the dead, that’s her thing, but what’s anyone else actually up to? I guess you can play the “It’s not for Mortals to know or even be able to understand the plans of the Gods” card but also I find that remarkably uninteresting. So, no Gods. But, instead, gods.
Lower-case gods. “Gods” that are just really strong spirits, or maybe Fey or Demons or Angels or Whatever, all of which have gained a following. The power of that Prayer boosts them, but never to Capital-G God status. Maybe there is a God or Gods, but they’ve long since fucked off and left this world to whatever may happen. So, instead, gods. Lots of little gods. Dozens of them. I guess more Shinto Kami style is vaguely what I’m thinking, but I also don’t know nearly enough about that belief system to officially say that.
But yeah, the folks of Town X pray to the spirits of the nearby River, or the Forest, or the Bird species that always seems to caw just before something bad happens, giving just a little heads up but only to those who remembered to leave out a few berries right before they went on their most recent hunt. Some are good, some are bad, some get along, some are fighting. Maybe the Spirit of the River gets overcome and defeated/devoured by the Spirit of Industry that took up residence once the factory got built upstream. Then, sorry buddy, the followers of the River Spirit are out of Divine Spells until they can either find someone else, or take out that Industrial Spirit and get their now-weakened River back in order.
And yeah, there would be some that span more globally. Sky and Rain and Water and Earth would be pretty strong and pretty universal, but because of that they’d also be a bit more Neutral about things, not really stepping in to help much, but granting Divine spells to anyone who worships them right. Worshiping them is something pretty universal, and I don’t think there’d be anyone who doesn’t do at least the occasional rite to the Sky, but arguably more practical for the Adventurer is to perform rites and worship the Crow. ‘Cause Crow looks out for those who look out for them. Feed the crows, do the right rites, and now you’ll have something of an advance warning system any time there’s a Crow around.
Or, if you’re worshiping a particular Angel or Demon or Some Other Kinda Outsider, maybe they actually step in every now and then when you really need it. After all, you spread word about them, and 3 folks in that last town built little shrines to them because of what you said and did. So hey, don’t worry about that bandit camp ahead, ‘cause one of the bandits suddenly found themselves overcome with rage and went a little nuts with his crossbow. Or maybe a few wolves decided to prowl in and take a few strategic throat-bites while everyone slept. Or, just possibly, a big Holy Orbital Laser blasted them all to oblivion, but holy cow I gotta take a nap for a bit so don’t get into too much trouble and hey if you could burn a little extra incense today that’d be great.
Both of these things will obviously take a lot of time and effort to flesh out. I mean, a whole new system of magic, and considerations for the nearby Spirits, as well as what “Deities” would be powerful/prominent enough to be worldwide (or at least country-wide or region-wide). Like, a lot of work would have to go into these systems/ideas, but they’re definitely something I want to make happen when/if I ever actually decide to make a full Setting. I don’t know if that’s ever gonna happen. I’m pretty happy overall with Golarion, and hopefully the open-world game I’m running there will last a long time and I won’t need to think about this stuff. But yeah, who knows what the future will bring?
