RPG

If you need plans for an arcology as big as “20 Empire State Buildings” for your cyberpunk game, look no further.

I hope everyone is having a Fantastic December! With the Holidays in full swing, I wanted to give everyone here a present, by doing all the prep work for a fantastic Holiday One-Shot for you! Then, in turn, you can gift that experience to your players! And what better gift is there for players who have been so good, than an opportunity to let loose and be evil for a change! Yes, that's right, The Night before Wintermas is specifically designed for Level 5 Evil/Neutral aligned players.

Thanks to the creative mind of jmanc, you'll bring your players to The Town of Frosthold and join a morally bankrupt Toy and Tabacco company to put an end to Santa's charitable operations by Infiltrating his workshop and dealing with the problem for good!

Experience holiday music to fit every scene, face your favorite Christmas Characters...in a battle to the death, earn unique magic items to help you take on the fat man, and live vicariously through your newly evil characters! This is a One-Shot you won't want to miss!

Without further ado:

• Google Docs Notes for The Night Before Wintermas: DM Notes (Preview)
• Google Docs Notes for The Town of Frosthold: DM Notes
• Link to: The Night Before Wintermas PDF
• Link to: The Night Before Wintermas Playlist
• Link to: The AAA Collection

Included in The AAA Collection is:

• A Word document with all my notes including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
• Special PDF for the encounter. This includes the enemy stat block organized neatly along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP
• An Alternate encounter PDF for Frosty and The Snowmen *(Updated 2023)
• Custom Maps for Santa's Grotto
• Custom Boss Fight Music
• Handouts for the Scrolls of Haste and Invisibility
• A Preview PDF of Flee Mortals

Other One Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns:

• Dragons of Stormwreck Isle - Click Here
• The Wild Sheep Chase - Click Here
• The Haunt - Click Here
• We Be Goblins - Click Here
• Scarab of Death - Click Here
• Don't Say Vecna - Click Here
• The Egg of Estyr - Click Here
• Into Ivy Mansion - Click Here
• Wolves of Welton - Click Here
• To the End of Time - Click Here
• A Most Potent Brew - Click Here
• Moon over Graymoor - Click Here
• The Drunken Treasure - Click Here
• Curse of Strahd - Click Here (W.I.P)
• A Grimdark Adventure - Click Here
• A Wild West One-Shot - Click Here
• The Wizards Treehouse - Click Here
• D&D vs Rick and Morty - Click Here
• A Prison Break One-Shot - Click Here
• A Holiday One-Shot (2023) - Click Here
• The Barber of Silverymoon - Click Here
• The Tavern at Death's Door - Click Here
• The Night Before Wintermas - Click Here
• L'Arsène's Ludicrous Larceny - Click Here
• Shadow of the Broodmother - Click Here
• Grammy's Country Apple Pie - Click Here
• The Secret of Skyhorn Lighthouse - Click Here

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! If you have any advice on how I can improve my notes further, please let me know either here or leave a comment on the Google doc itself! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early, feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,

Advent

Hasbro is shedding 1,100 jobs. SEC filing doesn’t say if they will continue renting Pinkertons.

In its 2024 lineup of #stamps, the US Postal Service is including stamps commemorating the 50th anniversary of Dungeons and Dragons.

Finished a big rewrite of my rulebook. It's a goofy time-traveling action mess of a game. I've been working on and playing the game for almost 3 years now, but the rulebook is falling behind where the game is at the table. I would really appreciate it if anyone that likes reading rulebooks could check out the Google Docs version and see if there is anything obviously incoherent or typos.

The entire game is 100% free and will always be that way, I'm only interested in sharing my esoteric design.

If you see this big pile of gamma world inspired jokes and think it sounds like fun, I'm down to talk about how to run the game, or answer any questions. Thanks Y'all

Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc. and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes fully fleshed-out notes, music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

We're back at it again with another Level 1+ One-Shot, this time by the amazing Jennifer Adcock! Grammy's Country Apple Pie is the perfect One-Shot to run for a group of kids who are looking to just have some fun. They can go in the hard way and try to fight everything or they can try to practice those bard-like skills and converse their way through the challenges!

In Grammy's Country Apple Pie, a wizard named Tyndareus develops a craving for a special treat from his childhood, he will stop at nothing to get his hands on the best apple pie in the whole world. He hires your group to seek out the bakery that once produced the wonderful dessert – unfortunately for them, the bakery has long since been overrun by goblins. But all is not as it seems at Grammy’s Bakery, and Tyndareus isn’t the only one who’d do anything for those pies.

Parents and Teachers can oftentimes be even busier than the rest of us and with this Fully Prepped One-Shot I hope I can help get families together and bring new generations of players to the table!

Without further ado:

• Google Docs Notes for Grammy's Country Apple Pie: DM Notes (Preview)
• Link to Adventure: Grammy's Country Apple Pie
• Link to: Grammy's Country Apple Pie Playlist
• Link to: The AAA Collection

Included in The AAA Collection is:

• A Word document with all my notes including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
• Special PDF for all encounters. This includes the enemy stat blocks organized neatly along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP
• Custom Maps of Grammy's Bakery

Other One Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns:

• The Lost Mine of Phandelver - Click Here
• Dragons of Stormwreck Isle - Click Here
• The Wild Sheep Chase - Click Here
• The Haunt - Click Here
• We Be Goblins - Click Here
• Scarab of Death - Click Here
• Don't Say Vecna - Click Here
• The Egg of Estyr - Click Here
• Into Ivy Mansion - Click Here
• Wolves of Welton - Click Here
• To the End of Time - Click Here
• A Most Potent Brew - Click Here
• Moon over Graymoor - Click Here
• A Wild West One-Shot - Click Here
• The Drunken Treasure - Click Here
• A Grimdark Adventure - Click Here
• D&D vs Rick and Morty - Click Here
• The Wizards Treehouse - Click Here
• A Prison Break One-Shot - Click Here
• The Barber of Silverymoon - Click Here
• The Tavern at Death's Door - Click Here
• The Night Before Wintermas - Click Here
• L'Arsène's Ludicrous Larceny - Click Here
• Shadow of the Broodmother - Click Here
• Grammy's Country Apple Pie - Click Here
• The Secret of Skyhorn Lighthouse - Click Here
• Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk - Click Here (W.I.P)

If you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc. please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,

Advent

Thoughts on creating a Spellcaster that uses hit points for spell casting instead of spell slots.

I was just wondering about home-brewing a walock NPC who's patron saps hitpoints in exchange for spell casting. Essentially, as long as the character has hitpoints they can cast as many spells as they like but with each one it takes a toll.

Balance is obviously an issue here in preventing them from just being healed by the party and used as a spell battery in exchange for healing but Im thinking perhaps balancing that out by making con saves to prevent them from passing out from blood loss or something from wounds appearing on their body as till for the spells. Aswell as that, spells would have different hit point costs that scale with levels like a first level costing 5, 2nd 10 and so on.

Backstory and lore could be pretty interesting as to how they received their patronage, why they took such a harmful deal, they could be good or evil depending on their motives for doing so and other fun stuff!

Let me know what you think or if you have any ideas!

Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc. and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes fully fleshed-out notes, music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

It's October, the month of Halloween, so of course I had to prep a spine-chilling One-Shot! The Haunt is one of the highest-rated 5th-Level Horror-Themed One-Shots around by Phil Beckwith. In it, your players will have to survive, solve puzzles, and uncover the mysteries of Montarthas Manor.

In ages past, an ancient town was lost and destroyed by a siege of orcs. Only one building survived and to this day, the manor is the only still standing building to be seen for miles around. Some say it is haunted, a few whisper of great treasures within, whilst others whisper that it is the manor itself that lives! No one knows for sure, only that a great evil haunts its halls. Do you dare enter Montarthas Manor?!

Without further ado:

• Google Docs Notes for The Haunt: DM Notes (Preview)
• Link to: The Haunt PDF
• Link to: The Haunt Playlist
• Link to: The AAA Collection

Included in The AAA Collection is:

• A Word document with all my notes, including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
• Special PDF for all encounters. This includes the enemy stat blocks organized neatly, along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP
• Handout for The Scroll of Invisibility
• Custom Maps (Credits: just_2_clarify, Before the Lore, Anonymous, PogS_3)

Index:

Other One Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns:

• The Lost Mine of Phandelver - Click Here
• Dragons of Stormwreck Isle - Click Here
• Curse of Strahd - Click Here (W.I.P)
• The Wild Sheep Chase - Click Here
• The Haunt - Click Here
• We Be Goblins - Click Here
• Don't Say Vecna - Click Here
• The Egg of Estyr - Click Here
• Into Ivy Mansion - Click Here
• Wolves of Welton - Click Here
• To the End of Time - Click Here
• A Most Potent Brew - Click Here
• Moon over Graymoor - Click Here
• A Wild West One-Shot - Click Here
• The Drunken Treasure - Click Here
• A Grimdark Adventure - Click Here
• D&D vs Rick and Morty - Click Here
• The Wizards Treehouse - Click Here
• A Prison Break One-Shot - Click Here
• The Barber of Silverymoon - Click Here
• The Tavern at Death's Door - Click Here
• The Night Before Wintermas - Click Here
• L'Arsène's Ludicrous Larceny - Click Here
• Shadow of the Broodmother - Click Here
• Grammy's Country Apple Pie - Click Here
• The Secret of Skyhorn Lighthouse - Click Here
• Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk - Click Here (W.I.P)

As always, If you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc. please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,
Advent

Guten Abend, meine Frau hat beim Crowdfounding von Littel Wizards mitgemacht und seither haben wir es noch nicht bespielt.

Ich habe mir jetzt überlegt zum 31.10.23 für unsere Tischrunde ein Halloween Horror Special anzubieten und habe auch schon eine Idee.

Da ich jetzt erst anfange, das Werk zu lesen, könnte mir von euch ein wenig Input helfen. Ich habe mir überlegt das es auf einem Jahrmarkt geht, mit entsprechenden Schaustellenden.

Viele Besuchende haben sich zum Feldfrüchtedankestag verkleidet um auch im Nächsten Jahresabschnitt die Bösen Geister fernzuhalten.

Am ersten Tag wo die Spielenden dort hin kommen ist noch alles normal so wie es soll. Am nächsten Tag allerdings wenn sie sich dem Fest nähern hängt ein schauriger Nebel über dem Jahrmarkt und der näheren umgebung.

Falls die Abenteurer aufmersam sind in der Nacht zuvor, können sie vom Himmel ein herabfallendes Objekt beobachten und ggf. das es irgendwo in der nähe des Jahrmarktes herunter gefallen sein muss.

Was es ist und wie es aufzuhalten sein wird, das weiß ich noch nicht, aber um seine macht zu schwächen müssen die Helden 4 - 5 aufgaben bewältigen.

Die Besuchenden die noch auf dem Jahrmarkt waren, wurden zu dem verwandelt, wozu Sie sich verkleidet haben und benehmen sich auch so.

Bevor die erste aufgebe gelöst wurde Interessieren Sie sich noch nicht für die Abenteurer.

Nachdem die erste Aufgabe erfolgreich gelöst wurde werden die Monster sich ihrer Bewusst.

Nachdem die zweite Aufgabe gelöst wurde, werden die Abenteurer angefeindet und Beäugt.

Nachdem die dritte Aufgabe gelöst wurde finden erste Angriffe statt. Einige fangen aber auch an ihr Wahres bewusstsein wieder zu entdecken.

Nach der vierten Aufgabe ist der ganze Markt hinter ihnen her, also müssen sie sich schon gut verstecken, allerdings erwachen einige und wollen den Abenteurer Helfen.

Ich habe allerdings keine Ideen zu den Konflikten, soll schon was mit Feldfrüchtedankestag und Halloween zu tun haben.

Eine Aufgabe könnte sein, DIE richtige Jacko Laterne zu bekommen um genug zu sehen in dem dichten Nebel.

Eine könnte sein, in einem Maislabyrinth zu gehen um dort an einem Artefakt zu gelangen was ihnen den richtigen weg zu dem Finalen Konflickt zu leiten. Aber woher sollten die Abenterer das wissen und warum ausgerechnet ins Maislabyrint gehen.

Ach und, sobald sie eine Aufgabe angehen werden die Charaktere in eine andere Domäne gezogen, bei Jacko Lantern kann es ein Kürbesfeld sein wo die richtige Lampe gefunden werden muss. Sollten sie eine Falsche nehmen versucht der Kürbis sie für sich ein zu nehmen um somit laufen zu können.

Nehmen die Charaktere die richtige entseht direkt ein Konflikt mit Jacko Lantern und er wird sie nicht angreifen oder sowas sondern er wird versuchen diese übers Ohr zu hauen. Aber dafür habe ich auch noch keine Idee.

Und hier kommt ihr ins Spiel wenn ihr mögt gebt mir doch Infos, ihr dürft euch auch dieser Idee selsbt annehmen und ein Abenteur draus stricken.

Zu den anderen beiden Aufgaben und dem Finalen Konflikt habe ich noch keine Idee. Achja, es darf ruhig dunkel und düster sein, es spielen keine Kinder mit. Nur Erwachsene, ab 36 Jahren aufwärts. :)

I played Forbidden Lands and loved everything, except that it uses dice pool.

It had the perfect level of crunch and lethality in combat. I loved the critical injury system.

So im basically looking for Forbidden Lands but not dice pool.
And Dragonbane seems kiiinda similar?
But deathsaves and larger hp pools kinda bums me out.

So, need advice on DB:

Do you think the game supports a mature and dark story?
How lethal is the combat?
Can you easily modify the system to be like I want it, without breaking it, or is it better to stay with Forbidden Lands?

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/371761

A list of over 200 gaming systems available in various free formats, classified as follows:

• Open Source
• Free
• Retroclones
• Quickstarts
• System Reference Documents
• Card Games

I really dislike the modern look of RPG sprites. They all have a blended look of cartoon and cutsie. A double-sized head with gigantic pie-sliced eyes and crazy stupid weird colored hair. I really can't stand it. I could go on for hours about how I dislike them. Suffice to say I'm seeking alternatives.

Anyone know of any artists that make and sell a different look? I don't mind dropping a few bucks for art if it's worthwhile. Its very frustrating that everything I find has gigantic heads with more @$#%^ eyes. It doesn't need to be lifelike but I would want it to be better proportioned.

Anyone know of any good software for making the animated spreadsheets yourself via posing a 3D model? I tried Easy Pose last month with low success, though it was my first attempt and arguably there's a learning curve here. There is a disconnect between the style of the clothed sprite and the style of my other tiles (world, furniture, etc) so I must redo them. I'm considering using them as a base underlay to create my own from scratch. It's going to be a butt-load of work and am unsure how it will turn out. Would hate to do all that with low success only to find out later there is a better way.

Also monsters/enemies would be something additional, though I don't mind the RPGMaker enemies anywhere near as much as the horridly awful actor/character sprites. I would not like to see a huge difference in style between monsters and characters.

As for my specifics, I'm kind of looking to end up with a 96x192 top down rpg sprite with idle and animated walking. Side view battle would be nice but not necessary. Other animations are a bonus but can live without. I intend to strive towards a a base model character that I can swap out layers on to create numerous permutations of featured characters.

I'm using the RPG Maker Unite engine which is similar to other RPGMaker products in their design style for the sprites. I can do a fair amount of pixel art myself so even like a base model body that I can expound upon would be something to consider. My base tile size is 96x96.

As a note, I am also a 3D cadd designer by trade. Working in Blender or other cadd software isn't too much of a problem for me, though I run AutoCAD and Inventor mostly and am still largely new to Blender. I often know what I want to do, but have to research how I get the software to comply. As such, I am usually just exporting out of AutoCAD to an intermediary format and importing that into Blender. I do all my own touch ups in paint dotnet, and am pretty proficient with it as well.

Just looking for recommendations from someone who may have been there before. I'm no worse off if I get no replies. It's also notable to mention that I'm just a hobbyist doing this for fun. I certainly lack a lot of knowledge that a true video game designer would have. I can use tips if you've been there and got em.

Wrote a new blog today on two different topics. 1st my inability to finish a project vs my desire to start 20,000 more projects. 2nd about saying yes to players.

Making a storytelling first game, taught me to bend over backwards to say yes to my players. Really excited to take this philosophy with me into other running other games. The line behind enforcing the rules and giving players what they want can be hard to navigate in some systems, it's not even always easy in my super squishy system. I have never gotten so much narrative collaboration from players though. Letting them invent their own answers, being flexible, and rolling with player ideas.

Curious about any stories experiences with saying yes, especially to something you never thought of before they uttered it. I think collaboration is something ttrpg excel at and is underused in lots of game styles. I want to hear about it. Anybody have anything they put into their own designs to encourage collaboration?

Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc. and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes fully fleshed-out notes, music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk stems from The Lost Mine of Phandelver a classic and beloved starter set that many new DMs run. Even with this being the most recent release it still has an issue, the same as with many others...it doesn't describe the best way to transform the book's contents into an actual session. The Book-to-session conversion can be difficult between figuring out when things should happen, understanding motivations, and even organizing encounters.

Well, fortunately for you, 99% of that work is done! Only a few things are really left:

• Read the book, I know surprising, but It can be extremely confusing when you don't know where everything leads to.
• Consider the needs of your group. As you've heard or are about to hear a million times, every table is different. If you plan on combining this with a campaign, you'll have to make tweaks here and there.
• These notes aren't meant to be the end-all-be-all. Tweak to your heart's content, and don't consider any of what's written to be set in stone. For me having notes like this helps give me the confidence to go off the rails and follow along with what my players want. It helps me understand where things were meant to go and why. Having that understanding allows me to guide the players and create other new and interesting stories. These are all things that will come with experience, though, so don't freak out and enjoy the journey!

Advent's Notes: I was surprised with how few changes were made in the book considering how long this adventure has been around and all the wonderful things the community has come up with, I was even more surprised when they started adding more monsters to Cragmaw Cave. It's already pretty rough in there and with the additional creatures, it's almost assured there's going to be a TPK. I've kept most of the fights the way they were with only a few minor adjustments, the most important changes are just subtle nods to the Psi Goblins that will be encountered later on.

Without further ado:

• Google Docs Notes Part 1 Cragmaw Hideout: DM Notes
• Link to: Intro + Cragmaw Hideout Playlist
• List of changes in Phandelver and Below: Change List
• Link to: The AAA Collection

Included in The AAA Collection are:

• A Word document with all my notes, including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
• Special PDFs for all the encounters. This includes all the enemies' stat blocks organized neatly, along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP.
• An additional PDF with Sildars stats should he join the party as an ally
• Custom maps of Cragmaw Hideout. I enlarged and printed this out for my players as a battle map!

Index:

Other One Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns:

• Dragons of Stormwreck Isle - Click Here
• The Wild Sheep Chase - Click Here
• We Be Goblins - Click Here
• The Egg of Estyr - Click Here
• Into Ivy Mansion - Click Here
• Wolves of Welton - Click Here
• To the End of Time - Click Here
• A Most Potent Brew - Click Here
• Moon over Graymoor - Click Here
• The Drunken Treasure - Click Here
• Curse of Strahd - Click Here (W.I.P)
• A Grimdark Adventure - Click Here
• A Wild West One-Shot - Click Here
• The Wizards Treehouse - Click Here
• D&D vs Rick and Morty - Click Here
• A Prison Break One-Shot - Click Here
• The Barber of Silverymoon - Click Here
• The Tavern at Death's Door - Click Here
• The Night Before Wintermas - Click Here
• L'Arsène's Ludicrous Larceny - Click Here
• Shadow of the Broodmother - Click Here
• The Secret of Skyhorn Lighthouse - Click Here

As always, If you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc. please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,

Advent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl0z5Z8bvro

In this video Seth talks about quantum orges, or what I call Schrodinger plot point. He had a mostly positive view. So do I, in fact I wa blinded sided that some people see this thing in a bad way.

What is everyone's view on this?

Hankerin Ferinale simplifies Burning Wheel down to three steps:

• Map Relationships with Intent
• Reinforce Relationships Again and Again
• Build Massive, Compound Stakes on Dice Rolls

Has anybody else ever had people show up to your convention games expecting to be playing a completely different game based on a sloppy reading of the description?

I had a group expecting Apocalypse World because I used the word Apocalypse in the scenario name even though the game description was clearly something else.

I had someone expecting 5 Torches Deep come to a game of Torchbearer.

There was another time that GURPS Transhuman Space got mixed up with Eclipse Phase.

These sessions were by far the worst convention games I've ever been in. The players quickly disengaged, dicked about, fell asleep or left the game when it wasn't what they thought it was.

How can a GM stop this from happening? Or if it does what can you do if this is clearly happening at your table?

Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/7742150

Apologies if cross-posting isn't appreciated, the RPG community is splintered enough over here that I'm never sure where to post things.

I wrote this as part of the CBR+PNK Jam, and if people aren't familiar CBR+PNK is a super condensed Forged in the Dark one shot system where you play a group of cyberpunk operatives on their last run.

Cloud Crawl was sort of an experiment to see if I could capture the sort of procedural generation depth crawl games (as epitomized in Stygian Library) in a small sized single pamphlet package. I'm pretty pleased with how it turns out, and I'm also pretty sure no one has ever done a depth crawl in a binary tree before (happy to be proven wrong here if someone can find an example!).

The game is half off this weekend for its launch, but I'm also keeping it fully stocked up with community copies for the time being so feel free to grab one for free if you want to take a look!