Great Content I've seen in May '23

A Better Damage System: https://whatdoyoudorpg.blogspot.com/2023/01/my-better-damage-mechanics.html.

It makes damage taken more ambiguous, while still respecting hit dice. It also makes the impact of damage more meaningful.

5e quick character generator: https://fastcharacter.com/

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On Names

Note : There are a lot of external links in this post. None of them should be affiliate links If they are, please let me know . Note2 : This has been bouncing around in my brain informally for a while, but putting it to pixel was prompted by Rook’s post on names on Beneath Foreign Planets as part of the RPG Blog Carnival . There’s a lot of great material that comes from these prompts. I encourage you, dear reader, to check that out. Note3 : Link to the GDoc version this post was originally composed in. On Names One of the holes new Game Masters fall into while playing D&D-esque games is names. I’ll start with random NPC names first, to get the subject out of the way: Make a d20 or d100 list of names for each gender, and for families. Either stick it on the fourth panel of your DM screen, or pre-roll five of each, and stick those lists on your fourth panel. If you need a list of real world names, use an onomastikon . Onomastikon “What is an on...

How I Generate Home Brew Fantasy Towns Quickly

I was prompted to write this by an article about world building ( https://ofdiceanddragons.com/rpg-carnival-world-building/ ). One of the challenges of a gamemaster (GM) is spending time building things that are useful in play. From that point of view, after sketching out the world in thirty words, it seems more productive to me to focus on the places the player characters are most likely to go. Generally, for a sandbox style exploration game in the West Marches style, I want it to be some sort of town or small city. A village is too small to do more than provide food and fodder, and maybe shelter in a farmer’s barn. A large city can be an interesting setting, but is probably a little too large for a new GM to start with, even though it basically extrapolates on what’s outlined here. Why? In our elf games, we typically focus on going to wild or hostile places to bring something back or handle a threat. We don’t really spend much time in ...

The Elements of Magic Weapons, and Most Especially the Side Effects of Wielding Them

Through September Attronarch of Attronarch's Athenaeum is hosting September 2024's RPG Blog Carnival! The theme is Wondrous Weapons and Damning Dweomers . In relation to that, I would like to talk about the elements of generating a magical weapon with a touch more depth than Old Gary got into. Typical D&D weapons provide a benefit, but with no drawback. This is great as far as it goes, but I believe a little more thought should be put into it, since each weapon should have the following elements: A numeric bonus An allegiance An intended enemy A weapon effect A side-effect First, I believe all magic weapons should have a numeric bonus, even if it's just +1 to hit and damage. Call me old-fashioned. Second, gentle reader, all weapons should have some sort of magical effect, even if it's just an elemental damage bonus. Weapons are made for a purpose, and are made by some person or group. The makers of the weapon set the allegiance. That doesn'...

Elemental Reductions

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