The Fourth Blight

Pet Shop - This isn’t just any pet shop. This pet shop sells only creatures of reptilian origin. Snakes, lizards, turtles, and monitors. Being related to his product, doesn’t phase the lizard-folk shop owner.

Wine Shop - Filled from wall to wall with wines from the ages. Some wines in the shop were created by great lords while others were made by orcs and goblins. The owner is a crotchety old man whose teeth have been stained by years of daily wine drinking.

Hat Shop - Top hat, bowler, beret, bonnet, and turban. This shop has them all. If you need something to cover your head, Miss Wemblmore the halfling has what you need.

Spice Shop - Spices have been an important part of society. These spices have all sorts of uses. Most pertain to flavoring foods, but some can be used medicinally and others magically. The shop keeper hails from far away lands and boasts stock representing her homelands.

Furniture Shop - If you are looking to furnish a hovel, home, manor, or castle, furniture is a must. Making sure that your home has the proper furniture starts with picking the lumber and hiring the proper carpenter.

Bone Shop - Entering a shop that sells bones can be a bit of a disturbing experience. Seeing the shopkeeper can be downright traumatizing. Goblin skulls, orc teeth, horse femurs, and tiefling jaws all find themselves in use in one way or another. Watch your back in the shop, no one knows where the shopkeep gets the human toes.

Fruit Shop - Delicious, juicy, and colorful, this fruit shop boasts all the local produce you would see in a market. In the back of the shop they stock special fruits only found from far away and magical lands. Fruit that comes from living breathing trees, fruit that sprouts wings and flies, fruit that drips with liquid magma when cut open. This shop has it all.

Adventurer Shop - A shop with a single book inside. Within the book is a list of names. Each name corresponds to an adventurer ready to go on a quest, for the right amount of coin. There is no shopkeep and the book mysteriously cannot be moved from its central pedestal. 

Statue Shop - Each statue has been carefully and skillfully carved from dozens of materials ranging from wood to platinum. Perhaps a skilled artist could convince the shop owner of hosting his work in the shop to sell. 

Something that seems to happen all too often in my games is an unforeseen lull in the action or the story progression. Sometimes the best way to fix that is to come up with something on the fly to change things up. I struggle to come up with reasons after many times of this happening, so I created a roll table to mix things up in a random way. Whenever you get to a point in a session and have the thought “This is getting stale... something needs to change”, just roll on this table to throw a wrench into things.

Weather increases problems

The quest must be completed without killing anyone

An old ally is now working against them

A certain item must also be acquired

An ancient artifact is now involved

A main character involved in the quest, run into problems

A separate quest is created from the problem

Surrounding wildlife/villagers is beginning to change

Heavy migrations of creatures/people.

Another party/group/etc attempts to resolve the event, and is captured, and in need of rescuing.

Another party has begun searching for a McGuffin associated with the event, and the party is racing against them.

The location of the event has been moved or fortified, but this information is not disclosed to the PCs.

The reward for completion of the event has been lowered due to 3rd parties bidding on the job

A natural disaster has occurred, making completion of the event more difficult.

Local government gets involved, adding a layer of red tape to the event.

A red herring is introduced.

Prices for supplies for the adventure have gone up due to a decrease in supply, or increase in demand

The antagonist has gained in strength

The antagonist has had more time to prepare for the arrival of the PCs. Add or improve traps.

It happened. I finally decided to start working on an entirely new world unrelated to the world that I have worked on for the past 3 years. It was tough taking that first step, but it had to be done. When I sat down to start working I began to think back to all the things I learned in building my first world, and imagined what I could have done better. The first thing I wanted to do was ask myself some questions about building a world for the first time and to make sure that I covered the basics. Here are the questions that I asked myself. I hope they can help you spark creativity in your world creation process. Some of these questions I was able to snag from various blogs, but I compiled them into a list that I felt better suited my needs.

Who/What is keeping the world going?

What is the biggest threat to society as a whole?

How strong is magic?

How civilized is civilization?

How many cities are there?

How many people typically live in cities compared to rural areas?

What era of tech has society reached?

Is there public education?

Is there an army?

Is there a draft?

What kind of government are the cities run by?

What type of government is most common?

How large is the landmass that the story covers?

How much of the world is explored by the people in the particular area of this story?

How much of the world is covered in this story?

What are the 3 main ideals and principles to society as a whole?

How safe are people in everyday life on average?

What motivates society as a whole?

Is religion common?

How many gods are there, if any?

What is the religion structured like?

Is there a systematic worship or a free form?

Is religion taken very seriously?

Are there any important religious sites?

Are there any important religious items?

How is religion expressed?

How long has society existed?

How long has society documented history?

What events have led to the story’s present situation?

Are there different social classes?

What is the geography like?

How has the past shaped the geography?

What do people eat?

How many languages are there?

What are 4 common ways to pass the time for enjoyment?

How do rich people dress?

How do common people dress?

How do poor people dress?

What is the political climate?

1 - A two-faced silver coin with the image of a fox. When it is flipped, the face of the person who flipped it appears in place of the fox.

2 - A torch that burns green flame.

3 - A knife made out of bone. It is much heavier than it looks.

4 - A silk hat that has two head holes, as if it was for someone with two heads.

5 - A carrot that, when eaten, turns whoever ate it vivid orange.

6 - A handkerchief made out of golden thread.

7 - A pendant in the shape of a cat’s head. The pendant causes the wearer to always land on their feet, whether they want to or not.

8 - A vial that slowly and endlessly fills itself with beef stew. If all of the stew is consumed in one sitting, the vial stops producing the stew.

9 - A wooden mouse carving, that when coming into contact with cheese makes a ear-piercing squeak. 

Something that I have learned that is very important for those of us who enjoy telling a story when we are DMing or GMing our games is getting the history of our world across to our players. The thing that makes this difficult is the method in which the information is given. Every player that I have DMed for has become bored by the reading of my world’s history, and would much rather just hop into the game and play. This was very frustrating to me because I felt as if they didn’t care about all the work that I put into my world.

After playing several games that I ended up looking back on and thinking “man, I really enjoyed the lore, history, and overall feel of the world”, I began researching what made those games make me feel so involved and connected with their worlds. What I discovered was that those games and worlds were interesting because of the ways that the game gave you the information about the world. There were no long cutscenes with a narrator explaining what or why something was happening in the world, or long in-game texts that I had to read. I was tossed into this lore rich world and was given small bits of information as I played. It made me ask questions like, “why are these armies at war?” or “what makes everyone so scared of magic?”. When I discovered the answer, I wasn’t told by a narrator or the tutorial, I discovered it while talking to NPC’s or finding notes, or overhearing a conversation between two NPC’s talking to each other. 

This method is a fantastic way to tell the lore and history of your world, because it is interesting and intriguing to the player. Since the information comes from a character that lives in the world, it seems more real. It doesn’t seem like something set in stone. It feels more like old stories that may have partial truths or may be entirely made up. It is mysterious and makes you want to know more.

The key is letting your players slowly discover things over time and over time they will become more and more invested in your world and the many events that are going on.

Farmer

You were what most people are- a farmer. You worked on a lord's estate or their land, or you worked for a company, and you produced resources from the land in return for food, shelter, clothing, protection, and other benefits. Farmers focus on raising living things and harvesting various useful goods- mostly food- from them. Farmers make up the vast majority of the peasantry, alongside other raw resource producers, such as miners and fishermen. Farmers are a hearty, enduring folk, they work long hours under the sun, often doing dirty and exhausting- or even disgusting work. How did you become a farmer, and for how long were you one? What did you do on your farm? Were you the landlord of the farm, or were you just a farmhand? And what caused you to leave that life behind? (description credit)

Skill Proficiencies: Animal Handling and Nature

Tool Proficiencies: Land Vehicles and one Farm Implement

Equipment: A farm implement, (such as a pitchfork or shovel) a set of work clothes or common clothes, a wide brimmed hat, a sack containing 5gp worth of trade goods, and a belt pouch containing 5gp or (d4+2)gp.

Farm

Not every farm is alike, there are a vast range of goods produced by farmers of different sorts, and nearly all farms focus on just one product, or a limited group of products.

d6

Specialization

Rancher. You raised animals for slaughter, most likely for food, but may also be done for leather, furs, and other useful materials.

Grazier. You harvested goods produced by animals, such as milk, eggs, feathers, or wool.

Stockman. You bred animals to sell for work or as pets, such as guard dogs or racing horses.

Peasant. You harvested edible or useful plants, such as wheat and corn crops, or apples at an orchard.

Forester. You grew trees for ornament or construction, such as trees grown for bow staves, or boat masts.

Silk. You raised silk worms and harvested their silk.

Feature: Of the LandSuggested Characteristics

You have a practical, working knowledge of astrology and meteorology, and can easily track the time and date, as well as know without a doubt tomorrow's weather conditions. You also have advantage on all nature checks that have to do with plants and all handle animal rolls that have to do with animals that are typically domesticated (horse, cow, pig, chicken, etc.)

Alternate Feature: Of the People

For better or for worse, you are just very normal. Among commoners and on the road, most people just don't even notice you, and security checks at city gates or on the road are often brisk and half-hearted. You have advantage on all diplomacy checks that are with commoners or other farmers. You always manage to find people to sell your crop to for a decent price. You can never lose money on the farm as a downtime action, if you were to lose money you break even instead.

Suggested Characteristics

Apothecary

You have studied the myriad illnesses and ailments of the mortal body as well as the treatments for each. You know which herbs can soothe a fever and which oils can help prevent the pox. Not all medicine is good for the body, though: you have also learned which toxins can stop the heart or drive a man to madness. You know how to manufacture and refine all of these things, and you make a living dispensing tonics and tinctures to those in need. In a pinch you can even perform minor medical procedures, although these things are better left to a proper surgeon.

Skill Proficiencies: Investigation Medicine

Tool Proficiencies: Herbalist kit Poisoner's kit

Equipment: Herbalist kit, a merchant’s scale, a set of common clothes, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp

Feature: Alchemical Expert

You have advantage on all nature and medicine rolls that have to do with any type of potion, elixir or oil. Additionally, whenever you use the Alchemist you have access to 3 extra potions that can be crafted. Antitoxin (Level 1), Potion of Acid Splash (Level 2), Alchemist's Fire (Level 3).

Suggested Personality 

This is a short post, but really changes the dynamics of my game. I run a hex based game as you probably know by know, so travel is very important. I know some DM’s hand wave rations, but I think that they should be the #1 worry of adventures miles away from a way to get food easily. In order to make sure that rations became a real concern was I removed 5e’s built in backgrounds and replaced them with my own. (Don’t worry, those will be coming out soon.) It is baiscially how the book tells you do do things, but this is how I now deal with rations:

I think that in reality, starving would cause issues. Going without water would cause even bigger problems. From now on I have created a way to determine what happens when you run out of either food or water. When you are not able to access food, you must roll a CON saving throw. Upon a fail take a level of exhaustion. On the second day with no food, you roll your CON rolls at a disadvantage until you find food. After seven days without food, you no longer roll a saving throw, and will automatically take one point of exhaustion every day. When you are not able to access water, you must roll a CON saving throw. Upon a fail, take two levels of exhaustion. On the second day with no water, you roll your CON rolls at a disadvantage until you find food. On the seventh day of no water, you no longer roll a CON saving throw and automatically take two points of exhaustion every day. Your score is reduced by 1 point every day when you have BOTH food and water.

When the party decides to travel an extra hex, they will gain 2 levels of exhaustion. The exhaustion can be removed by taking a long rest followed immediately by a short rest.

Exhaustion Table

Disadvantage on ability checks

Speed halved

Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws

Hit point maximum halved

Speed reduced to 0

I was thinking about some video game mechanics that I really liked that could be transferred over to my 5e campaign as a homebrew rule. I thought about mechanics in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Mount and Blade: Warband, and World of Warcraft. I couldn't come up with anything practical. Then I came to an older game called Fable. If you aren't familiar with Fable, you play a character that is in a fantasy world, not unlike most Dungeons and Dragons settings. The interesting thing about Fable is there is a system that monitors your good and evil acts. As you act more and more evil, your character begins to show it physically. He sprouts horns and starts to turn red. Adversely, when you are good, you begin to glow and a become “holy”. I thought this would be an awesome way for my characters to role play their characters very well. I made this rule with not many mechanical effects, just because I want it to be a purely role playing aspect of the game. If my players don’t want to participate in the rule, they technically don't have to. Although, if they players character has a goal to become something more than just a powerful adventurer then they could play into this rule. The handout I gave them is below. 

Yellow, Light and Dark Experience

You will now have 3 exp pools. Yellow is the exp that you have always earned. It comes from killing creatures, completing quests etc. When the term exp is used, it is referring to Yellow exp. The second type of exp is called Light exp. Light exp is received by doing something exceptionally good, such as saving someone even though it may harm you.  This experience can also be earned by coming into contact with an exceptionally powerful divine or ascendant. Dark exp is the third and final type of exp. This is earned by committing something exceptionally dark, like burning down an orphanage. This exp is also received by coming into contact with an exceptionally powerful divine or ascendant. Dark and Light exp do not affect your class level, but unlock certain effects based on your Dark or Light level. 

Light

Level 1: 500 exp. Your soul feels purer. Its as if your inner being has been cleansed.

Level 2: 1000 exp. You have an otherworldly connection with mankind. You can sense when people are suffering nearby.

Level 3. 2000 exp. You have become an ascendant. A golden halo (or something similar) resides above your head. You find yourself thinking about the cosmic and far future more and more. You must commune with the cosmos daily to remain sane.

Level 4: 3000 exp. You are a demigod. You have otherworldly strength and intelligence. You have become too powerful to be concerned about the mortal realm and leave your group to achieve your cosmic goals.

Level 5: 5000 exp. You ascend to godhood. You have unfathomable power. Only a few have ever achieved this since the beginning of time.

Dark

Level 1: 500 exp. A darkness has stained your heart. You feel a Dark magic pierce your soul.

Level 2: 1000 exp. You have an unnatural connection to the dark. You have a sixth sense of where chaos may emerge.

Level 3: 2000 exp. You become an ascendant. Short putrid horns (or something similar) sprout from your head. You desire blood, death and suffering constantly. The only thing that can sait your worldly hunger is human flesh.

Level 4: 3000 exp. You have become a monstrosity. You are a blight on the world, only here to wreak havoc and death. You no longer care for gold, fame, or success. You only want to feed.

Level 5: 5000 exp. You transform into a horror. You are an abomination that's very being inflicts souls with despair, grief, and suffering. You no longer want death, you want total holocaust.

I was browsing Reddit the other day and saw that someone had posted a link to a map building website. I was skeptical at first because I have yet to find a program that does as well as Photoshop does. I clicked the link just to see what it looked like and I was very surprised. It is exactly what I would expect out of a map building program. There are a few issues, but it is currently in early alpha and I’m sure will have those fixed in no time. 

Here are some of the maps I made.

Hex based campaigns. You need to get in on this. I am telling you that as soon as I started building worlds with hex maps, it has increased the ease of world preparation as a DM tenfold. There is a lot written about hex map generation, so if you are interested, first you need to pick up Hexographer. It is well worth it. I promise. After you get Hexographer you need to go read what The Alexandrian has to say about making a hex based campaign. 

Okay now we are ready to talk about the exploration method I use in my world. Instead of using just an encounter generator with a percentage die and having all my locations predetermined, I let my players show me what is out there to be explored. I use a d20 table that will tell me what they encounter every time they enter a hex. Whether that be a half-buried treasure chest, or a pack of angry wolves. The table also has locations on it, so when they are out exploring and they roll a location on the table, I mark down the hex coordinates in my notes and add it to the map for next time. 

The table I use is weighted so my players aren't finding a village every hex or treasure every hex, etc.

Discovery 1d20

1-10. Nothing of interest

11-12. Abandoned Items

1d6

A tipped wagon. No horses. Various assorted trade good remain. Roll on treasure table and trinket table.

1d4 dead travelers laying on the side of the road. Roll on the treasure table and trinket table.

A dead horse lays on the ground. There is an adventurer's kit nearby.

A chest that seems to have fallen off a cart. Roll on the treasure and trinket table.

1d6 chickens in a cage. There is no one to be found nearby.

An injured person lays on the ground that has been robbed. He is barely living.

 13. Event off the event table

1d20

Site of recent natural disaster: flood, forest fire, lightning strike, etc.

Lost child who wandered too far from home/village or someone's lost pet.

Shepherd and his flock.

Find an animal in a trap.

Find an empty burrow.

Someone stepped into a yellow jacket nest. Dex checks for the whole party. On a fail 2d6 Dmg. On success, half damage.

Wild, non-dangerous animal approaches closer for an inspection.

Strangely shaped clouds seen on the horizon

DC 18 Nature, on a fail stumble into Poison Ivy. -2 Con for 48 hours.

Find a fully ripe fruit tree or other easy food source, do not expend a ration for today.

Minor earthquake ripples across the ground, scaring horses. Delay of journey by 1 hour.

Toll station. 2d8 GP required to pass, else take 2 extra hexes to go around.

An eclipse occurs, a comet flies past, or other astronomical event.

DC 18 Nature, On a fail the person in the lead falls in quicksand. Str 18 saving throw to escape, takes 2d6 every turn without a success.

A large forest fire blazes in front of you. Navigation roll 15. On a fail, take an extra hex to go around.

A cryptic old sign post, that reads "Thy bones rattle before ye."

DC 20 perception check. A partially buried treasure chest. Roll on the treasure and trinket table.

Several people wearing colorful checkered shirts with large woodcutting axes. They have an odd accent and large beards. Extremely friendly and apologetic.

Footprints. DC 15 tracking to find human corpse.

You run into a traveling merchant who claims to sell all kinds of items. Roll on the cursed item table.

14. Location off the table

2d20

This will never be rolled (lol)

Old wind mill

An abandoned campsite

A totem or shrine

A black iron cylinder mounted on a stone platform. The back of the cylinder rounds off and has a spherical shape attached to it.

Tree house

Old well

Abandoned bandit hideout or fort

An old smuggle tunnel

Abandoned village

Ruins of an ancient city

A shipwreck, but there are no bodies of water near by

An abandoned house

Temple/Church/Chapel

A watch tower

Witch hut

A hermit’s shack

Bandit stronghold

Inhabited village of savages. Roll % die. 25% chance they are hostile.

Cages with a lone prisoner

Ancient city built into a cliff (DC 20 athletics)

Haunted ruin

A portal to a random other land location

Ancient wizard’s tower

Goblin fortress

Mystical obelisk

Fairy spring

Dragon’s lair

A pool of lava that bubbles out of a small cave entrance

Misty lake with undead ferryman

Temple to an evil deity or a demon

Haunted cave, shaped like a skull

Spider infested caves

Stonehenge

A friendly giant's home

Entrance to the Fey world

A small village nestled in the in some hills. They only speak orcish.

An ancient ominous castle.

A stone staircase that leads into a wine cellar filled with century old wine.

Village of cannibals. They seem friendly at first.

15-19. Combat. Roll off the random encounter table.

I have a separate random encounter generator that I use for this. You can find it here.

20. Fantastic event.

1d6

You see a lightening bolt descend from the sky followed by a loud clap of thunder. Smoke floats up from the location that was hit. Roll on the magic item table.

You spot a herd of wild horses. DC 20 Animal Handling to get them to approach.

You see a lone man in the distance. He is covered in all sorts of jewels and gold. He looks very suspicious, almost as if he is running from someone.

You see an ox tied to a tree. There is a note tied to the rope that says "Please give Timothy a good home. I can't afford to feed him any longer."

A piece of paper that is flying through the wind hits you in the face. Its a spell scroll.

This is another home brew rule that I am absolutely in love with. It was designed by Last Gasp, a blog about role playing games and other interesting topics. The general idea is that spell casters should be able to cast spells even if they don't have any prepared. The issue is that spell casters have to memorize the spells so they don't screw up. When you don't have a spell prepared you can still try to cast it, it just opens you up to all sorts of horrible effects. Trust me, the table that the Last Gasp blog created for casters to roll on when they cast a spell unprepared is horrific. It is not for the faint of heart. I’m serious, if you don’t want disturbing mental images burned into your brain DO NOT read this. If you are interested though, you can check out how he outlined the principal here.

I have the baisc idea outlined and use it with my players. If you want to create your own version, like the Gloomtrain blog did and use the roll table to determine the result, that works well too. I personally take a mixture of the results from Gloomtrain and Last Gasp. You will roll on the table below and use either the Gloomtrain or Last Gasp Result tables to determine what happens. Again you can find Goomtrain here and Last Gasp here.

Casting Unprepared

Typically when you cast a spell, you are casting a spell that has been memorized, which is safe. When you can’t cast any more spells safely, you may attempt to cast further spells followed by a 3d6 Cast the Bones roll. A penalty is applied for every spell level above 1st, but bonuses may be applied if you use any item worth at least 1 gp as a fetish. The penalties to the Cast the Bones table will be removed and the fetish will be destroyed. There can be consequences to this, though. Based on the result on your Cast the Bones roll, there are many different things that may happen to you because of your attempt to tear open the void to draw power.

Cast the Bones Table:

3d6

1-4. That What Should Not Be

5-7. Success & That What Should Not Be

8-10. Chaos Reigns

11-13. Success & Chaos Reigns

14-18. Success

With the way inspiration goes, it is very difficult to be able to know when a good time to hand out inspiration for me as a DM. I have considered using a system where players may hand out inspiration to each other when they see someone roleplaying their character well, but this either ends up never being used, or players will intentionally give each other inspiration even when there was no impressive roleplaying involved, which ends up making inspiration imbalanced. I want to make sure that inspiration is used because of how much it can help the players in a tight spot. I was watching a YouTube series called Hack Attack and they have come up with a solution to gaining inspiration on a more predictable timeline, that way players can count on inspiration to help them throughout each session.

I found this idea really useful and it really encourages role playing from the players. Here’s how it works:

Character Scenes

Once per session each character during a short OR long rest may choose to take a character scene action. With this action the character has one of the scenes listed:

Flashback:

With a flashback, the player describes a scene that their player had experienced in their past. It can be funny, sad or serious, and doesn't have to contribute to the current ongoing story.

Conversation:

With a conversation, the player holds a conversation with another character of their choice over a subject that occurred between the current and the last rest. Typically the subject discussed contributes to the ongoing story.

Character Reflection:

With a character reflection, the character considers the effects of what they have done between the current and the last rest. This can be the character explaining why he is concerned that he helped his party destroy the hermit’s house, or maybe the character brooding over how one of their fellow party members didn't tell them about the trap door that nearly killed them.