roll initiative

A reupload of literally, hands down, my favorite subclass I’ve ever made. Go forth and be spooky.

Quite a while ago, I helped someone design an elemental warlock pact. My main contribution was the fire section, which I wrote nearly in its entirety, but I was never actually credited for the project and have had half a mind to make my own version of it since. Well, I finally did! For when you can’t stop listening to Arsonist’s Lullaby, or you make a warlock who’s patron is accidentally a phoenix.

These

Tables

Are

So

Freakin

GOOD!

Wizards have the same trust in magic that software designers have in software, which is to say, almost none at all.

“Are you fucking kidding me I worked in a reagrent shop for a few years I don’t trust any of that stuff. Who the hell knows what other components are in the ashes.”

“Yeah I was in the circle that made Alston’s Divine Circle of Teleportation. There’s some pretty nasty corner cases you can get into but the headmaster published it without us. I just take ships. It’s way safer.”

“I call bullshit on that Necromancer channeling spirits of loved ones. What did he say he was using? ‘Medium Conduit Ruinic Circles’? That’s just a bunch of buzzwords slapped together, and they don’t even interact with each other.”

*passes a scroll* *a few moments of silence*

“I think you missed a bookend rune right here-”

“GODS DAMN IT! IT’S ALWAYS SHIT LIKE THAT! THANK YOU!” *angrily scribbles on parchment*

Inspired by: https://lair-master.tumblr.com/post/186427249862/dd-paladin-idea

Hey you know those condition rings Matt uses? I found the legit same ones on Etsy! They are licensed for production and sale by the guy who designed the ones Matt uses, so if you want the exact ones Matt has, this is actually the only place to get them legitimately.

They are great quality and a good size! Plus when I ordered them he sent me some great joke ones as a bonus:

Definitely recommend!!! PLUS I found out the dude who prints these runs a game shop in my city so I stopped in and met him. He’s SUPER cool and committed to producing a quality product that is licensed and supports the original creator, plus he keeps his prices lower than the competition. Support Mike! He’s rad!

Like fermentation stinks to high heaven and you typically hide it away in dark and cool places. It fits lore wise for a creature that lives in a cave and is described as unclean.

and like, throughout the whole session, to keep the players convinced that the fake not-horror movie is real, the DM keeps mentioning weird, specific details about the fake movie, like, “oh yeah, didn’t i mention? your character is played by crispin glover before he was famous” or “so in the actual movie, you got lost and had a nice scene in an orchard, but so-and-so succeeded on his navigation roll”

and this has the players lulled into a false sense of security for the most part. but over the course of the game they get more and more suspicious of all the weird, doom-harbinging horror-movie details the DM keeps sprinkling in. every once in a while a player will be like, “okay so these identical hitchhiking twins are hot, right? wait, why are they speaking in unison” 

it’s so genius. the DM introduces a small child who creates and collects ultra-realistic, cinema-quality latex monster masks, and none of the players even bat an eye. they don’t clock this creepy horror movie child at all. they’re too busy trying to hit on his older sister, just like their characters would be. 

World building is important in any setting. There are places, such as fantasy literature where it can become the difference between a believable world and an unbelievable one. Suspension of disbelief is often a critical part to stories. 

Many fantasy books take place during times of war, or revolution or even a fall of a corrupt empire.  I love reading these sorts of stories, as many people do.  Power structures can be complex.  They can be used to create tension and drama between characters - take for instance the hero versus the corrupt government troupe in fiction such as The Hunger Games, Harry Potter or even more traditional fantasies such as Tigana ( by Guy Gavriel Kay) or The Wheel of Time series (by Robert Jordan).   As a reader it can be compelling to follow these stories.  For writers though, it can seem daunting to go into the details of shaping a believable power structure.  Here are some basic tips for creating one.  

There are four crucial factors to any power structure.  These are as follows:

1. Military - this includes the size of the army, the types of technology used (guns or swords? navy or land army?), the basic structure of the army (is it highly regimented like the Romans? What are the different groups within the army? How are they divided - by technology, skills or social status?). Another important question here is why has the military developed in this way? The Roman military, for example, grew out of competition with other Italian states. The opposition is equally important here - who were/are they within your story? Apply the above questions just as much to them, because empires and other structures are influenced by the world around them. The military can be the reason an empire begins in the first place.  The military should also play a role in sustaining the power structure/empire.  It doesn’t have to be the strongest factor by any means.  It may even become the downfall of the structure in the end.

2. Economy - How is your power structure or empire funded? Does this change over time? Does your empire take part in internal or external trade? Is trade important to the running of the empire? Resources such as crops, fertile land or people are also a part of this and influences the larger actions (such as conquest) your structure takes towards other countries. Trade can be a form of control and influence as well, even outside of the structure’s territory. In terms of story, a lot of decisions that are made involve trade or economic reasons - no one wants to get on the wrong side of someone who controls valuable resources or trade with other entities. The British Empire was based mainly on trade and this insured a global influence even as it declined in actual power.

3. Administration: The system of government and the way it manages itself is important to know. Is it a traditional monarchy or a democracy? How is leadership decided? How is power delegated throughout the larger administration? Hierarchy? One person can’t do or know everything. In terms of empire and conquest this is equally important. Does the empire recruit the local elites from conquered areas to administer to the general public, like the Romans? If your story is set in the outskirts of your empire, this could effect the outcome of the story - local elites might enjoy the power they have gained through an alliance with the larger empire and thus be unwilling to revolt against it. What other ways does your power structure control its territory? Does it use culture, or a set language to spread out into new territory? What kind of empire is your empire? Is it land based (only conquering territories linked by land) or maritime (navy focused with overseas territory)?

4. Culture: How does your power structure interact with its subjects? Even in a small area, different ethnic groups exist, so what unites all of them together? Are they all united, or is there groups of people the power structure leaves out? Have they always been left out deliberately or have these groups formed over time?How does the the government and the people from inside the empire view outsiders and their culture? Does this influence your story or characters? Do negative stereotypes or different language create a barrier between your character and others? In newly conquered areas is the empire’s language, laws and social ideals endorsed to locals or is it forced upon them? Is religion important to how the empire works or interacts? For example, before war do the gods need to show approval for the empire’s commanders? What about clashes of religion with other areas? Where do cultures intersect? Is your empire influenced by an older power or a hard past? What is seen as integral to your structure’s culture - art, literature, music etc? Are allies connected with your structure through culture, a shared distant history?

Most power structures rely on all of these factors - but none are ever equal in importance. Your government will identify one or two of these areas as important and focus on them. This can impact how the structure comes together and eventually falls apart - the greatest strength becomes a weakness, or something is overlooked until it is too late.

If you’d like to help support me to keep doing what I’m doing, as well as get some great benefits, check my page or the notes for the links to my Patreon and kofi pages.

Can you believe I almost didn’t end up doing this conversion? Man, what a mistake that would have been!

The first land from Arabian Nights happens to be the Bazaar of Baghdad, an incredibly popular (and expensive) card used frequently in Legacy. Making it was definitely fun- what player or DM doesn’t just love ridiculously large markets where you can buy anything you want? Always rife with plot ideas and adventure seeds, I love putting my players into the fantasy equivalent of Mall of America and letting them run wild like sugar-high 8 year olds. Also trying a bit of a new thing here by putting the lands/locations into a nice format before posting them, to save space and make them look a bit better. What do you think?

I really enjoy doing these early Arabian Nights creatures, since they’re all based on famous stories from the 1001 Nights. This lets me take some already existing source material, and twist them just enough to give them a unique flavor, and drop some hints to potential plot lines or adventures involving them.

If you’d like to support me and get some great benefits at the same time, feel free to check out my Patreon! Or if you’d like, buy me a coffee for a chance to get a card of your choice converted.

Up until a couple hundred years ago, the world’s magical background radiation level was much lower than it is today. Most magic items were once minor lucky charms and simple household conveniences; being designed to function in what’s now considered a low-magic environment, their effects have not only increased considerably in power, but have also become warped in unexpected and frequently ironic ways.

It’s impossible to create a magic item on purpose. Random objects just become magical, and nobody really knows why. Living things are never affected, and the phenomenon seems to favour manufactured objects over natural ones, though it’s unknown whether this is a real trend, or a reflection of the fact that people rarely “use” natural objects in ways that are likely to trigger any powers they might possess.

Magic items are the larval form of monsters. They spend the first part of their life cycle sessile, feeding off of the heroic destinies of the adventurers who carry them. When those adventurers eventually TPK, it triggers the next stage of the items’ development; shortly thereafter, the items “hatch” into a new colony of monsters and spawn the next generation of magic items, continuing the cycle.

There exists a possible future where the forces of Order and Chaos fuck up so badly that the world is torn apart and smeared across its own past. The wreckage of that future are/have been/will be raining down over the entire span of history leading up to it. Being indestructible, magic items comprise the bulk of the debris, but sometimes creatures, buildings or chunks of terrain make it through, which is where dungeons come from.

The world’s supply of magic items is actually very limited, but is constantly being manipulated by the gods to place them in the paths of people who will make best use of them – where “best use” is defined roughly as “hey, you know what would be hilarious?”. The random magic item tables the GM rolls on aren’t a game-mechanical conceit, but a completely literal modelling of the gods’ decision-making process.