Ikea’s modular sofa designer is Game of the Year
my longcouch is perfectly constructed
Dungeon Maker
Been thinking about changing my url because I want to make more system-neutral and non-d&d homebrew but also I really don’t want to have to update all the links in my directory
The sooner you make the change, the less painful it’ll be
Am I biased? Absolutely yes, my forgiveness to Wizards of the Coast will be coming approximately never. But it is an important shift to make TTRPGs discourse more system agnostic even if you have gotten past the OGL debacle
Fortunately no part of this is sentimentality and I’ve played other systems
I’m just lazy and don’t wanna redo 500+ links, but you’re right that it’ll only get worse if I make more ^^;
But yeah fuck WoTC
Been thinking about changing my url because I want to make more system-neutral and non-d&d homebrew but also I really don’t want to have to update all the links in my directory
you can always steal from wizards of the coast. it's always morally correct.
attention, d&d dorks
yada yada rb to get a bigger sample size, you know the drill
I found your Runalong creature via Tumbler, but I cant seem to find the original post you made that for. I'd love to be able to get a download or pdf of your monster for use in my campaign, is that something that is possible?
if you've never considered playing anything other than D&D 5e, now might be the time to start.
as you may have heard, Wizards of the Coast wrote up a new Open Game License that was leaked and it's really, really bad. (i linked to the article about it yesterday but here's a twitter thread of the author of that article summarizing it.)
i'll attempt my own breakdown of what this means here:
- the new OGL revokes the previous OGL. this is bad for so many reasons, and will affect all kinds of TTRPGs like Pathfinder, and third-party publishers like Kobold's Press.
- it also means that character sheets wouldn't be able to be used in unauthorized virtual table tops anymore, including Roll20, Foundry, etc.
- the new OGL grants WotC a perpetual, irrevocable license to all third-party content produced and published under the old OGL, as well as future content. for example, if WotC hypothetically liked Dimension 20's Unsleeping City setting enough, it could sell products related to that setting, without needing D20's permission.
- the new OGL can be updated, changed or revoked with only 30 days' notice. truly wild.
- anybody who makes more than $750k revenue (not profit, but revenue) has to pay 20-25% over that amount in royalties to WotC. this will affect so many kickstarters raising funds for indie TTRPG systems that used to fall under the original OGL. $750k sounds like a lot but keep in mind publishing books is expensive.
this is really, really bad. WotC will probably go back on some of this based on public response, and a lawsuit may make them go back on even more. (some of what they're trying to do here is illegal? i think?) but they'll likely still push forward with some of it.
it seems WotC's goal is to 1) appease shareholders (which in late-stage capitalism means "exponential growth forever") and 2) create a closed ecosystem for d&d that's completely under WotC's financial control. think: D&D Beyond being the only place you can access any D&D content, character sheets, etc. and i mean, in general, they've shown a pattern of greed and weighing corporate interests more heavily than their customers or employees.
now would be a great time to move away from d&d if you've ever considered doing so, or to consider it if you haven't.
if you want something similar to d&d 5e mechanically but a bit crunchier, try pathfinder 2e. if you want narrative-focused storytelling games, try Powered by the Apocalypse or FATE systems. if you want a mechanics-forward episodic style of play, try Forged in the Dark systems. if you want a cross-genre game with freeform character creation, try Savage Worlds. and this is an extreme short list of the great TTRPGs out there! a lot of systems that, IMO, people would have more fun playing than d&d, just based on preferred style of play. try them out and please don't give WotC anymore money lol.
#this is based on a leaked document iirc so it Could be changed but. this is still staggering#and despite the name of my blog (which I will likely change at some point anyhow once I can figure out how to change a bazillion links)#I heavily heavily advocate for trying other ttrpgs and especially indie ones
Thank you everyone, for the sentiment and kindness. It makes me smile to see familiar names in the notes after all this time.
I think about coming back to this blog every now and then. There’s some things stopping me, but it honestly isn’t time.
I always think it’s time. I always think it’s work and school eating away at it, but it really isn’t.
Part of it is that I can’t look at my old work without cringing. My writing was rough and my balancing wasn’t (and isn’t) very good. And that’s okay- I’m not a game designer. When I play D&D, I adjust things on the fly constantly.
And in terms of writing, part of it is just the natural inclination to grimace at your old work. Part of it is that I tried to keep up a persona, to be professional, and it made me seem a lot more competent than I actually am. People came to me with all sorts of questions I had no answer to.
I think it’s good that I cringe a bit at my old work, to be honest. It’s a sign that I’ve grown as an artist. I can see what was wrong, now! I can make better things!
It ended up being a lot of energy to keep this blog up, but that’s because at some point I started treating it like work to be done. Sure, I made a lot of things because I wanted, but some of it was just because I was too afraid my actual ideas weren’t any good. It was the whole “arms length can’t hurt you” thing.
On some level, I never got over being embarrassed about when I was a teenager and using images with credit, but not asking the artist. And that wasn’t right of me! I should’ve asked or not used them at all! And that’s sort of a weird guilt thing that I don’t forgive myself for. Part of me thinks that the right thing is to delete it. I don’t have the files anymore, so I wouldn’t be able to replace it. I’m not sure what the right call is, but I think just being honest about it is better than ignoring it at least.
It’s a little weird to be reminiscing about this. I mean, this blog is from 2016. I’m 21, now. It wasn’t right of me to lie that I was older, either. I thought people wouldn’t take me seriously if they knew I was like, 15 when I started this thing.
I guess I was afraid to be vulnerable. And that was a good thing when I was 15 or so, because the internet is a scary place. But in doing so I projected an image of someone I wasn’t, of someone who had all the answers and knew what they were doing. And I think, now, I’d much prefer for people to see me as just someone who likes to write things about a silly dice game.
I don’t want to be pretentious or professional or polished, I just want to make things.
So maybe I will come back and make things, but it’ll probably look a little different than how it did, before.
Put other adventuring parties in your game for your players to interact with. Either as friends, allies, or even enemies.
Oh yeah totally! I’m a big fan of making players aware of the fact that the world moves without them and telling them their rivals did the quest they’ve been meaning to do for the past four months is a pretty great way to accomplish that.
Important Party Types and Their Uses
- The Rival (derogatory): party that is, whether seemingly or legitimately, significantly more accomplished than the players. Best used to stir up petty drama and/or inspire subtle action.
- The Rival (affectionate): the party that happens to show up to claim the same or parallel jobs, is as skilled as the players, and is fair about competition. Best used as a non-lethal testing method, or as a resource to be tapped in large, multitask quests.
- The Kennys: just as skilled as the players, only job is to show the players they are in deep shit, usually by rushing in and dying or worse.
- The New Kids: significantly weaker than the players, but eager to prove themselves. Use to either inspire mentoring or to trick the players into calling themselves dumb by calling out repeats of the same dumb shit they pulled.
- The Experts: hired agents by the government, use to show how you interpret law, procedure, and the relative power of elite officials in your setting. These parties should be both generic and static; if an elite dragon hunting team is level 5, they stay level 5 forever.
- The Sweepers: as or more skilled than the players, they exist to take on time sensitive quests in exactly the ways they don't want. They are the bad ending group, and exist to add, not relieve, time sensitive pressure.
- The Kevins: a party that exists only to be found injured and going away from the quest location. Use to drop clues about encounters and to instill fear.
- The Five Daves: a joke party that the players will of course get attached to and of course seek out for jolly cooperation and thus you find yourself having to voice these clowns in increasingly unlikely and unclownlike situations until they become as or more fleshed out than the players characters.
Clarification: nothing bad happened with the Discord, I just closed it because I’m a full time student with a full time job and I haven’t been able to make homebrew in pretty much years, so I decided to close it since it was mostly inactive. I’m sorry, I just haven’t had the time to maintain it.
ramadan mubarak everyone! inshallah it’ll be a month of peace & growth & lots and lots of blessings 🌹💝🌙📿❣️🕌
Can I use your idea of the divine thunderstorm (or really any of your trinkets and such) in a product I’m working on for DMsGuild, which I intend to sell? I’m not talking about selling your content alone, but incorporating bits and pieces I like as small details in my homebrew world.
I ask that you don't sell or make a profit off of any of my homebrew or lore. The trinkets in the Torrisian table are from my own homebrew world, and I may someday publish it as a full book. You're more than welcome to be inspired by things and change them to suit your homebrew world and needs, but I'd really prefer if you didn't sell or repost anything I've made.
I appreciate you asking!
Inspiration is hard lately so, I decided to make smth fun! Here’s a simple character prompt sheet made by me! All you need is some time and a D20. Tag me, if you make a character with this sheet, I’d looove to see the results!!
I rolled and here’s my result: A smug firbolg knight with an otherworldly guardian at his side!
Y’ALL
HeroForge has added Wheelchairs for your Characters!!
While Strata Miniatures did it first… (and if you check their post on Painting Polygons they have links to find 5e compatible Combat Wheelchair rules), HeroForge offers customizable options and thats fuckin’ awesome
Bruuuuuuh….
Joy! Lookit!
I could finally make my bard😭😭😭
Just wanna say, that is some really nicce art, and I was just searching for more trinkets. My players love them. Thanks for sharing it on here :D
Aw, thank you! I’m really glad!
Trinkets from the world of Torrid, which I will hopefully get to run a game in, soon! Torrid is a world thought to be abandoned by the gods, with their only remnant being a divine thunderstorm called the Winged Light. It’s just a storm, with no consciousness or morality, but those who survive a lightning strike from it become “Torches” - demigod-like heroes. The world has survived a cataclysm already, but it’s looking like it could be due for another…
I did the art for this one! I’m looking to do most / all of my homebrew art going forward.
Link to the Homebrewery sheet (without the art, unfortunately) will be in the reblogs for readability, since these got a bit crunched.
Trinkets from the world of Torrid, which I will hopefully get to run a game in, soon! Torrid is a world thought to be abandoned by the gods, with their only remnant being a divine thunderstorm called the Winged Light. It’s just a storm, with no consciousness or morality, but those who survive a lightning strike from it become “Torches” - demigod-like heroes. The world has survived a cataclysm already, but it’s looking like it could be due for another...
I did the art for this one! I’m looking to do most / all of my homebrew art going forward.
Link to the Homebrewery sheet (without the art, unfortunately) will be in the reblogs for readability, since these got a bit crunched.
I feel redundant making yet another one of these posts, but it’s been almost a year since I’ve actually made any homebrew so I wanted to give an update as to the state of this blog.
I am still active and plan on making and posting things, I’m just struggling with motivation and life stuff. College and chronic health issues have taken up a lot of my time, and I’ve been focusing on other hobbies. Don’t worry though, I’m okay. I’m actually not in a bad place, right now, I’ve just got a lot on my plate.
That said, I doubt I’ll ever be able to finish the promised setting guide book. I haven’t made a lot of progress and a whole book is a huge undertaking. I’ve done novels in the past but nothing that’s meant for other people to use, so there’s a bit more pressure. I’ll still release stuff for my settings, since I mainly make homebrew that I’m planning on using, but it won’t be in guidebook form.
I’m absolutely still going to keep making homebrew, but it will probably be slow. Thank you for sticking around.
Hi Basalt! I made a player race inspired by your igniasces monster. Hope you enjoy it!
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/kvsg15/the_igniasces_an_elemental_merfolk_race_created/
That’s awesome, thank you for showing me!