What are /r/mattcolville's favorite Products & Services?

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Strongholds & Followers has given us a pretty big glimpse into the details of Matt's campaign setting. In particular, the Servitors and their details tell us a lot about the universe beyond the Mundane World, the cosmology of Matt's universe.

I felt inspired to make something like the diagram in the back of the PHB, but for the planes presented here. Some of the details are supplemented by details gleaned from the streams and campaign diaries, and, where necessary, by my own imagination. I have no doubt that this is significantly different from what Matt has in mind about his campaign universe, if he even has a fixed conception of the planes in this manner

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For those wondering, this was all made in Inkscape.

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^(The globe icon used for Terra, the chaos sigil, and the alchemical symbol for brass were created by shashank singh, Avana Vana, Evgeni Moryakov, respectively, and downloaded from the) ^(noun project) ^(under the) ^(creative commons license)^(.)

I'm currently a subscriber to a guitar magazine, and I really value the advertisements there. They are all related to the subject matter at hand, and I've learnt about some cool companies from them that I otherwise wouldn't have learnt about. As long as the adverts in Arcadia are relevant to the hobby, I'd be quite keen for them to continue.

If there start being adverts for Squarespace or NordVPN, that would turn me off.

I'd frame it as a trap. This works nicely because you have the sense that someone just tried to kill you, but there's no clear target you can go after, but you know who did it.

I'd pick a deadly 3rd level trap (4d10 damage, 16ish DC save for half--poison gas traps, dart traps, flame bursts, killer molds and slimes, magic runes that touch of lightning or frost blasts) that looks fun and treat it just like you would in a dungeon--except it's set up in his room at the inn, behind his door or under his bed, maybe in his fireplace activated when he goes to start a fire. Or you could have a package arrive for him--a box that has a trap in it.

https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Traps#content

If he detects and overcomes it, he gets XP. If it goes off then you guys will have a story to tell. Maybe he'll be lucky and survive. Maybe not. Either way the group will super hate that rogue NPC, which is great. Maybe leave a taunting note from the would-be killer!

And they won't get angry and think you're cheap the same way they would if the rogue just one-shotted him by backstabbing him in an alley or set him up against an unfair combat encounter, or framed the PCs for a crime and had them all get executed or killed in prison. That kind of thing is perhaps realistic, but can cause players to ragequit.

On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace. I just picked up my copy a couple of days ago based off of Matt's recommendation. The part about the German soldiers on the Imperator sold me.

um, appendix N (the old one is great): https://www.amazon.com/Appendix-Literary-History-Dungeons-Dragons-ebook/dp/B01MUB7WS6

and the new one in the 5e PHB: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/2de2u7/the_new_dungeons_and_dragons_players_handbook/

if you haven't read all the original Conan articles yet, or Fritz Leiber, there are lots of fresh, nearly forgotten ideas buried in the old-style fantasy schtick.

As a current Fantasy Grounds user with an ultimate license, I highly recommend giving it a shot. Been using it once a week for 1.5 years. The learning curve is a little high, but it's worth it. And the ultimate license is a bit expensive, but consider having your group of friends chip in for 1 ultimate license (and the base modules you'll need like the PHB and MM).

The one downside about FG that I don't really have a solution for is that drawing a quick map or writing notes on a map within FG really sucks. You'd have to edit the image outside FG and then import it back in.

If you're interested in trying it without paying anything, check out the Fantasy Grounds forums (http://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/index.php) and ask around for an ultimate license user who would let you connect to their campaign

You should checkout Miro, it's essentially a collaborative whiteboarding tool. I started using it for my online D&D games over a year ago, and turned all the mcdm playtesters into it.

My players like it because they can keep all their notes on there as well, along with any handouts they find, and reference them. Also because you can turn on seeing other peoples cursors it's easy for them to point at stuff they're talking about.

Good sources. I've found Krita to be a better free alternative to Photoshop than paint.net. It's got a lot of the same workflow and capabilities if you're already familiar with PS.

The Upside Down definitely is a great analogue for the Shadowfell (using 5e language), because it resembles real world geography and features, just like an "echo plane."

My initial thought in answering your question is: she doesn't actually go anywhere. Remote viewing was something that the U.S. government was recruiting psychics to do in the 1970s when they thought the Soviets were spying on us in the same manner. She's scrying, if anything, because she still stays connected to the real world whenever she scries.

I think it's quite by accident that she [Season 1 Spoiler:] >!first meets the Demogorgon during her scrying. She has accidentally scried into the Upside Down (Even though 5e scrying is limited to the same plane, we're talking about the series, here). It's her reaction to the Demogorgon that rips open a hole (the "gate") from our world to the Upside Down!<. In S3, [Season 3 Spoiler:] >!Billy is able to "see" her scrying because the Mind Flayer is able to see her "sensor" (from the 5e spell description). Her ability to probe his mind is remiscient of the Detect Thoughts spell.!<

• I don't think it's the Astral Plane, even though it seems like she's astrally projecting, because in D&D, the Astral Sea links the Material Plane to the Outer Planes, not the Shadowfell.
• I don't think either place is the Far Realm, even though the monsters from the Upside Down appear to be aberrations. The Far Realm isn't an echo plane.
• If the place she goes when she scries is an actual place, I theorize it's a "world between worlds," the veil itself, or some kind of demi-plane.

Well,

https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Monsters%20List#content

There's that list, for starters, but I would say that the best bet for this (very cool) idea would be to take a look at other monsters you think you could "re-skin" or alter to fit in to your story. Whose to say that the stats for a Quaggoth can't make for a fun demon with a simple paint change, or that the stats for a goblin plus a web ability could make interesting spider-themed weak fiends.
Get creative! If the demon has a money aesthetic make things that are based around the concepts that can make money evil. Cultists and other non-fiendish villains can be just as important too, so remember that not everything they fight *has* to be an outsider. Just as an example, Odin Quincannon from the first season of Preacher (yes I know it's a comic book first, but I haven't read it yet :p) is just a regular person, not a demon, but he leads a truly horrifying cult that you would think must have been controlled by some unnatural spirit of greed and the corruption of wealth. Good enemies are as much in how they bring you into and immerse the world as they are mechanically interesting, from my vantage point.

Hope that helps!

You thinking something like what I did with the Lizard spearmen here? I am new to Figma and have no idea what all it is capable of but honestly it was not too bad. And in the original OP's defense his art is a bit more subdued and works better with the white I think.

https://www.figma.com/file/rjm4sWz7sHEAOK45kStG48/Custom-Units---KnW-(Copy)?node-id=0%3A1

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The battle is not until next week but I will give Roland your best wishes. Also I am realizing I need an apostrophe...

There are a few virtual tabletops that have official stuff.

Fantasy Grounds and Roll20

Beyond that, dndbeyond has all the SRD stuff, plus some(I think) and will eventually be a subscription service for all the non-srd content, such as the DMG and adventure modules.

It is not any direct quote, the best I have been able to find is a section in The Summa Theologica on whether human action deserves praise or blame. The relevant section that I found is in part 2 which you can find here on project Guttenberg I used the keyword "artist" to jump to the relevant section.

You may also try asking around the /r/Catholicism chat or discord or on their free talk Friday. There are a bunch of Thomists in the subreddit who may be able to point you to the correct work if I got it wrong.

The scumbag that nobody stands up to because they're all 1d6 peasants is the thug.

The bandit captain is more than a local tough guy, he's a 10th level bandit. If he rolls into town it's because his bandit faction is moving in; he sends other people in to shake down the townsfolk.

They've updated to Worldographer btw, which I highly recommend. It's basically an updated version with tons of QoL improvements

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For small beautiful maps I recommend Hex Kit over Worldographer/Hexographer. However, it tends to chug when making very large maps.

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Wonderdraft is my go to for full world creation.

She'd definitely have some statue constructs that could fight for her. Use the stats for Animated Armour but obviously just describe it as stone:

https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Animated%20Armor#content

In order to buff her, I suggest adding Warlock (Blade) or Ranger (Hunter) levels on top of her vanilla stats.

The only Thing a player needs of their own to keep things "smooth" is a set of dice.

If I were you I'd go on amazon and buy a bulk set of dice

Both of these are cheap (even though they're not sexy) options for having enough dice at the table for everyone to share and everyone can have their own d20 instead of having to pass around 1 or two.

The PHB is less of an issue because you can turn the act of character creation into a group activity and for first time players that can be fun and efficient since everyone is learning at the same time.

First, I'd say that people tend to care about people who care about them (there's some recent research on this). Also, they identify with people who experience circumstances that are similar to their own. If a theme of the campaign is the characters fighting against oppression, give them an NPC who is, herself, oppressed. Bonus points if it's by the same person/group. Have your NPCs engage characters with questions about their mission/adventure/whatever, and then relate that back to their own experiences "Oh yeah, the headman of this town is as bad as your Nefarious P. Badguy." If you'd like to drop a hook, feel free to "why just the other day..."

Also, people respond to others who either bring them success or with whom they share success. Whatever it is that turns your players on-- fighting, treasure, intrigue-- have your NPC give it to them (by giving them somewhere to find it), or ask them to help with it ("I'm waiting on some important goods traveling on a caravan from Nuyorick, and I've heard rumors that someone is going to intercept it.").

Your players may enjoy the relationship itself or they may enjoy the benefits of it, but if they keep coming back, then removing that person mysteriously, threatening that person with harm, or threatening their beneficial relationship is more likely to catch the team's attention.

"You automatically revert if you fall Unconscious, drop to 0 Hit Points, or die" To quote the section on Wildshape.

Due to "drop to 0 hitpoints" once you are felled in a polymorph, you revert to normal, not wildshape.

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I would say that because of this little piece, " The transformation lasts for the Duration, or until the target drops to 0 <strong>Hit Points</strong> " once you drop to 0 in any of the forms, your transformation is reverted. Other than that, 100% agree

Any sort of custom automated tool would run into copyright issues, since K&W Warfare rules aren't Open.

However, if you're just looking for a tool, most of the playtesters, and people at MCDM use Miro https://miro.com/ to run their battles.

I think probably the resource I've found that most reminded me of the bits of writing advice I've heard scattered throughout Matt's videos is Beating the Story, a book coincidentally authored by Robin Laws, who is himself a trpg creator and author of Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering, which is itself a book that Matt has discussed before in at least one of his videos on categorizing players into descrete "types."

Anyhow, if you happen to remember Matt's writing advice where he defined drama as tension followed by resolution, you can consider this book to be a deep dive into that in particular: it's a book all about breaking down the structure of stores into their constituent narrative "beats", all of which are either down beats (roughly analogous to tension in Matt's phrasing) or up beats (likewise approximating Matt's conception of resolution); and the thesis of the book is that stories fundamentally engage their readers by alternating up and down beats in a satisfying rhythm.

Along the way there's also a bunch of advice on the differences between procedural and dramatic plots and the respective heroes audiences expect in each kind of narrative. It's all interesting stuff, and I had a lot of fun connecting dots between sections of BTS and tidbits from Matt's videos.

When running in person I use a mix of dungeon tiles (if in a dungeon and I have the time to prep it), a vinyl grid when in dungeons, underground or other set-piece combats ( https://www.amazon.com.au/Chessex-CHX-96246-Reversible-Battlemat/dp/B0015IQO2O - note that pens are becoming hard to find, at least here in Aus) and then a massive whiteboard for everything else.

Understood! THey have been adding more and more content that can be "Printed" each month; you might be able to find a used/new copy of dungeon delve by other legal means like through amazon stores https://www.amazon.com/Dungeon-Delve-4th-Supplement-Adventure/dp/0786951397

The state of Conan ebooks is REALLY iffy. Anyone can rip the text from Project Gutenberg, run it through Calibri and add it to Amazon. (Well, not exactly--but you get the idea.)

Compounding the problem is that these things get pulled all the time, usually for formatting issues. I have two different versions of the same Conan collection in my Kindle library, neither of which is for sale anymore.

My advice is: Either stick with free resources like Project Gutenberg, or shell out for the superb three-volume Del Rey Conan collection. These are the primo, A#1, fully guaranteed versions. The price is steep, but it brings a certain peace of mind that you're getting the real thing edited by actual humans, and not some machine generated nightmare riddled with mistakes. If you like turning pages, used physical copies are considerably less.

They also come packed with cool artwork.

But yeah, either go big, or go free (so you have nothing to lose). Anything in between is probably a cash grab.

If you're looking for cheap, buy 1-inch hexgrid paper. You can get a note book of it for $5 on amazon or your local office supplies store. Or you could buy something like this, Gaming Paper. Matt himself I think uses this stuff from time to time. It's basically wrapping paper that you can draw on with markers and it's pretty cheap.

If you want to invest in an actual reusable mat, I have a Chessex Roleplaying Mat that works great, but it's exclusively wet erase. Dry erase will be like permanent marker on this thing. But you should go for wet erase anyway that way people won't smear the battle map when they move their figures or reach for pizza.

Really depends on what edition you're planning on running/playing. RHOD isn't updated for 5E, as far as I know, but 3.0/3.5 is still very good.

For me, I really enjoyed Kenzer & Company's Kingdoms of Kalamar setting. They released an adventure path (or a couple of adventure paths) for 3.0/3.5. They were some of the first premade adventures I ever purchased, mostly because that's what my "local" Waldenbooks had available in the days before amazon.com became a thing.

The issue you may run into is that they aren't "concentric" as most adventure "paths" are. They're sort of stand-alone adventures tied together by setting. I'd highly recommend Aldriv's Revenge, which is 1-3rd level. It's a great little murder-mystery, dungeon crawl, and your players get to encounter ghosts, leprechauns, and a werewolf. The adventure and maps are fully fleshed out, there are numerous illustrations to show the players, and it's very easy to run. And, honestly, it can be dropped into almost any setting.

From there, pick up Deathright. It's a 4-6 level adventure in the same setting. A fantastic adventure (and a big ol' dungeon crawl with a lot of fun traps and riddles (and a lot of undead) wherein the party has to contend with a plague, hordes of undead, and a love-lorn lich whose bardic paramour has died.

Both adventures run for about $5 on amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Aldrivs-Revenge-Dungeons-Dragons-Adventure/dp/1889182567/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1518123903&amp;sr=8-23&amp;keywords=Kingdoms+of+Kalamar

https://www.amazon.com/Deathright-Dungeons-Dragons-Kingdoms-Adventure/dp/1889182575/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1518123903&amp;sr=8-20&amp;keywords=Kingdoms+of+Kalamar

Edit: a word.

i keep record of my stuff on trello. its free project management site that actually works well for dnd.

https://trello.com/b/4ilYBLSH/pyramid-of-the-dragon-pharaoh-one-shot

some of my notes that i have for a 1shot. these are notes i had before hand but it would be the same as afterwards and like others here have said, ill keep a small notebook on me to take notes during and after the session and transfer the info on trello.

Ah, excellent clarification. I would say that because of this little piece, " The transformation lasts for the Duration, or until the target drops to 0 <strong>Hit Points</strong> " once you drop to 0 in any of the forms, your transformation is reverted.

I used the Kindle keyboard for a few years, but I upgraded to the paperwhite and I absolutely love it. The adjustable backlight is perfect. You can also find tons and tons of public domain ebooks at Project Gutenberg.

I love using the paper mini's from Order of the Stick
Here is the digital store!
They're fairly cheap and if you're comfortable with Adobe products moderately customizable.
Also many find them cute which make their violently described deaths all the more unsettling (like Game of Thrones with Muppets)

If you're playing with vanilla rules, a HD isn't really much of a problem to spend. Normally partys doesn't take so many short rests that they would spend all their HD anyway. On level 1 the adventures are often too short to take any short rests, while later on you get more HD than you need.

Also, 1d6/4 HP aren't really much as well. A single 1st level Cure Wounds can heal 1d8+spellcasting modifier HP, so you would actually have them spend only a fraction of the HP they can heal with the spell slot they just recovered.

There is an Item called the "Pearl of Power" that lets you recover a spell slot that you've used before as an action, but if the spell slot was of 4th level or higher, the new slot would be 3rd level. The Pearl resets every dawn.

So if you're making this item a 1/day use, then you should consider aligning it with the Pearl of Power in effectiveness. If you want to let your PCs gain more than one spell level per day back, you should instead increase the drawn HP to at least 8 per level.

I almost exclusively use soundtracks from computer games, but I haven't used a single Elder Scrolls soundtrack. Some favourites include Homeworld , Myth 3 and Arcanum.

I also like to use background noise generators, like mynoise.net for stuff like wind, rain, fire and rivers, but also vocal drones (for magic/occult stuff) and machine noise.

For spooky electronic stuff that you may not have heard of: check out Krater by Christian Gabel, Tribes of Neurot (e.g. Fires of Purification), or Music to die alone in space to by DJ Spruke.

Never goes wrong to just have a town in the middle of nowhere. Have some 'interesting' locations and nothing else. A lake, a forest, a ruin.

As the campaign expands you can start adding cool stuff that the players decide to invest into. Example: If one is a cleric is there an abandoned temple somewhere they can restore? Or if there's someone with a sailor background maybe there's a treasure island out there?

If you need some idea of how this expands try this small game: http://adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com/

Thanks! I used Wonderdraft and this is the "Adventure" theme. I used some of the Avoro custom textures - I think. I made this about a year ago but I'm pretty sure I used those textures at the time.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I think the perspective on some of the rivers/ the lake bugs me a bit but not enough to go back and change it. I'm probably just being overly critical.

I'm partial to the Roll20 5e and Pathfinder compendiums, which are real nice. Allows a Roll20 player to look up what they need to know in the game without opening any new browser tabs or books. Also, you can access it without needing to be in a Roll20 game, and it's fairly easy to browse.

Oh it's taped together, it just didn't show too well in the photo. I used photoshop to make the map using madcowchef's free tiles and then posterazor to chop it up into printable bits while maintaining the correct measurements.

https://tabletopaudio.com/ FTW it's a web-based alternative to syrinscape. Might find what you need there.

What you actually want to achieve this is procedural/scripted music generation, think of like in comuter games when enemies are about the audio changes.

I recommend the one with Scott Brick. It's a bit strange, vacillating between fully cast voice actors and a single reader, but it's got good audio design.

https://www.amazon.com/Dune-Frank-Herbert-audiobook/dp/B000R34YKC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3PIDS8WHHIT0A&amp;dchild=1&amp;keywords=dune+audiobook&amp;qid=1620322654&amp;sprefix=dune+audiob%2Caps%2C210&amp;sr=8-1

It's one of my all time favorite novels, so I hope you like it, but the mindset of "I should have read it by now" is not a healthy one. Just because Matt likes it doesn't mean it should have the same impact for you.

The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (SCAG, for short) is rad. Brief histories of the Sword Coast and other parts of Faerun by region. Profiles on the various races and classes. Couple new class archetypes and a few new spells.

Amazon has the SCAG on sale now for 31$.

https://www.amazon.com/Sword-Coast-Adventurers-Guide-Accessory/dp/0786965800/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1487940243&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=sword+coast+adventurer+guide

I also recommend Matt Forbeck's DUNGEONOLOGY book. It has a mini-setting manual on the Forgotten Realms (FR) but also has the best map of the Sword Coast in print to date.

https://www.amazon.com/Dungeonology-Ologies-Matt-Forbeck/dp/0763693537/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1487940329&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=dungeonology

You can also easily ignore the mechanics of previous editions and just focus on the flavor text in the campaign setting guides.

If you can find the 3e or 4e FR Setting Guides on eBay or Half Price Books for cheap, they are pretty useful.

The Volo's Guide to series from AD&D are boss as well; V'sG: to the North, to the Dalelands, to the Sword Coast, etc. They should all be on the DMsGuild in PDF for dirt cheap.

When all else fails, look for FR setting books written by Ed Greenwood (Volo himself); Ed is the Tolkien of the Forgotten Realms.

I asked because I’ve been struggling with miniatures from boardgames (Massive Darkness, Zombicide and Load as of now, ~400 miniatures). This week I finally found a solution in these things from Stanley (3x the Junior, 1x of the other) [Italian Amazon link, sry]. You can stuck and lock them and they feel very sturdy, while being extremely cheap (18€ and 7€).

If you're looking for an adventure to adapt that's set in the Astral Sea there's Hunt for the Heretic in Dungeon #203 http://www.dmsguild.com/product/155343/Dungeon-203-4e

The upshot is that there's a pirate ship that's been raiding the world from the Astral Sea and the authorities want to bring that to an end. It's geared toward players around level 14 or something like that so you'll need to pull the numbers back quite a bit, but the bones of it might make for a fun adventure--you might even make whole different encounters with different, more level appropriate threats.

Another suggestion if you want to go with a published adventure would be Horde of the Dragon Queen. At the end of that adventure you end up teleporting to a somewhat unusual location to face off against the main villain. That final battle could just as well be on the Astral Sea, at which point the PCs might find themselves having that place to themselves, as in they have a stronghold (ehem and potentially a dragon friend) to enact their Skyrim fantasies as they fly around IN THE ASTRAL SEA!

Here's that one on Amazon if you're interested: https://www.amazon.com/Hoard-Dragon-Queen-Adventure-Wizards/dp/0786965649/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1506588515&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=Horde+of+the+Dragon+Queen

I picked up a pack of these on Amazon the other day, and so far they work great. Easy to pick up and move, fun to mess around with. So far I've just been grabbing a fistful and numbering them ("Here are six cultists, or four troglodytes, or...") but when we get to a point with more mixed encounters I might combine with your method and start gluing faces to the faces.

Most local game shops should have them. but if you don't have access to one Amazon carries all the sizes.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015IUAAG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1

I'm not sure, I stopped watching the series after 7 or so episodes. It seemed to transmit through bites but there was a weird mystical quality to the whole process.

If you have Amazon Prime you can watch some episodes for your self.

It's beautifully animated and starts out incredibly strong. The second half kinda fell flat, though I can't remember specifically how.

Yeah. I have the Rage of Demons screen for OotA. Has a nice map of the Underdark and some tables specifically from and for the adventure. And generally applicable to the Underdark.

Good investment? Depends. I love the art so ya also a bit of a collectors item. But you could just prep those tables into a Word document and have on a phone, tablet or printout and use with the standard screen.

I also have the Murder in Baldur’s Gate screen and I love it. Has some really good tables for running a large city. I hope they do the same for Dragon Heist.

I wouldn’t pay full price for the niche adventure screens but if you can find them on amazon for like 40% off or something, I think they are worth it.

My only major critique is the same as the standard screen: too much art and wasted space on the DM side. Especially for the adventure specific screen. There are 3-4 tables worth of wasted space that could have included other bits from the adventure.

Amazon has it for 12.50. Which is about what I paid for it last year. https://www.amazon.com/Gale-Force-Demons-Screen-Board/dp/B0195NPHPK

Oh, Elspeth? That's an interesting idea but my favorite fan theory is that it will be Vanora. Which is pretty goddam brilliant and I wish I'd thought of it.

Yeah, you can get them on Amazon in print.

https://www.amazon.com/Priest-Ratcatchers-Book-Fantasy-Hardboiled/dp/0615512151/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=1561903628&amp;sr=8-2

https://www.amazon.com/Thief-Ratcatchers-Two-Fantasy-Hardboiled/dp/0692203214/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=colville+ratcatchers&amp;qid=1561903671&amp;s=gateway&amp;sr=8-1

I bought this one on Amazon and love it. I comes with some premade 5th edition inserts or you can just make your own.

Stratagem The Master's Tome... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06WLQP1SB?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I'm really enjoying a series available free on Amazon Kindle Unlimited called The Dungeoneers. It's about a band of dwarves that are relic/artifact hunters.

Also recommend The Dwarves you know, if you like dwarves. Markus Heitz does a good job world building a world where dwarves live with the other standard races but they aren't the side story, they are the main story. I also think he does a good job of creating dwarves with different personalities instead of making them all the same as is typical. I listed to it on Audio book last year and the second book in the series. Nothing ground shaking but great for D&D inspiration.

Why didn't you link it?

Great idea, love the option to either be inspired or original?

I would love an option to generate 5-10 at a time so I can pick one, as well as an option to generate nicknames for the randomly created ones! I really liked the nicknames slash titles!

Finally, any plans to port this to a website?

Good luck!

Good advice here in this thread. Earlier this year I combined two separate campaigns / groups into one. I'll skip my experiences / philosophy and jump straight into what's working.

What's Working

• Low expectations. The only thing I expect from players is participating in scheduling polls if they want to play.
• Clear, direct communication. I use email subjects that start with [D&D To-Do] or [D&D Session Recap] to help separate what a player needs to respond to, and what can safely be ignored. I also use the Respondable plugin for Gmail to help me write these communications.
• Using Doodle for scheduling. I set up a poll with days I'm available to DM in a given month. I send it out on the 15th of the month prior, and typically text players individually that it's coming.
• Limit the number of players in a session. My ideal session size is four players, but I'll take five no questions asked. I'll go to 6 or 7 once in a while if necessary.
• Focus on the PCs and prep using Mike Shea's The Lazy Dungeon Master
• At the end of a session, ask the players what they're thinking. What questions do they have about what just happened? Who they just met? What do they want to do next? It helps them clarify their version of events in their heads, and gives me a head start on things to include in the future.
• Use Downtime Activities between each session to set up hooks for the future. PCs meet NPCs before the rest of the party and have their own interactions/opinions, or learn information that becomes important in the not-too-distant future.

Cypher (also Numenera, which is the flagship setting for the system) is super easy to improv. It streamlines lots of mechanics and offloads as much mental load off of the GM as possible.

WebDM has my favorite primer/description of the Cypher system and the Numenera setting I've found.

GM rolls almost no dice (usually just if you have a random table you want to generate something). Instead of rolling for attacks, players roll to defend.

Difficulties on everything are just assign a difficulty level 1-10. That x3 is the target number you need to meet or exceed on a d20 roll. Players can expend resources to lower difficulties or increase the power of effects.

NPC stat blocks follow this same mechanic, and are stooopid simple. Just give them a level 1-10. Level sets the difficulty number to hit or dodge (level x3), health (level x3), and damage (level). Then add a few little bonus things like a special ability, attack, armor, etc. if you want.

All this cuts down on prep time. Focus my prep energy on plot points, locations, NPC motivations and other &quot;Lazy Dungeon Master&quot; tasks. Then it's super easy for me to improv during play.

Yeah, they were these ones! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NRH97D9?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

They fit perfectly in the hole that the gem post was meant to fit in, but you just need to be careful when you put it in that it goes in with the right orientation.

I used super glue to attach it and then flooded a bit more on top to really seal it in. Because the magnets are so strong, even with a bit of material between them, they still hold together.

Yeah, it's actually something I found on Amazon.

FolkArt Multi-Surface Dragonfly... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QQH7JWG?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I started by painting the gems black and then putting a glassy varnish on them, then a couple (3?) Layers of the dragonfly glaze, then finished with another glossy varnish :)

When looking on MCDM I only found the PDF version. Therefore I checked on Ebay and Amazon to find a physical copy. The result can be seen below. Including Shipment this would have scratched the 100$ mark.

https://www.amazon.com/Strongholds-Followers-Staff-MCDM-Productions/dp/0578409623/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

Thank you for providing a link though! I am genuinely considering buying it for 30$. Eventhough my current party may only use the Followers rules (for now), I also like to just collect DnD related content (especially the books).

I like using these guys, you can just paint them basic colors if you want or get into fine detail

Wood Peg Dolls, Peg Doll Kit (2.4 in, 50-Pack) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q79TVVY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_7P2B2XYM9N2YXDFWSBYX?_encoding=UTF8&amp;psc=1

Others have posted a bunch but didn't really address the "how to get started" and the cheapest, fastest, and easiest way to get started is to buy an all-in-one kit.

Like this or this.

Buy a $30 set, watch a tutorial for that set, sit down and paint your three minis. This will probably take you a couple of nights and at the end of them you'll know if you want to keep going.

If you want to add mini painting to your list of hobbies, then watch a bunch of how to videos, look at their setups, and decide what you need/want and can afford.

If not, you're only out $30 and have a few painted minis

Old school dungeon crawls are slow and grindy. The DM verbally described each passage, intersection, room, and whatever. The players...if they were smart...used their own graph paper and recorded what the DM described.

My group...bless their hearts...can't deal with that. I use virtual tabletop software and a pair of linked laptops to display maps and remove fog of war while we play. Back before I lucked into a couple of spare laptops, I drew everything on dry erase grid boards.

I used these tiles for that, btw. They were handy because I could erase and reuse boards without erasing everything. https://smile.amazon.com/Pack-Gaming-Paper-Erase-Tiles/dp/B073V3W83Z/ref=sr\_1\_8?crid=2J4IP35IMHXI9&amp;keywords=dry+erase+grid+tile+pack+d%26d&amp;qid=1647157348&amp;sprefix=dry+erase+grid+tile+pack+d%26d%2Caps%2C124&amp;sr=8-8

At the very least, Matt has a plethora of options at his disposal beyond reading it himself. Liam is a great pick though. He's done plenty already.

A budget option is the printable paper minis from Giant in the Playground: https://gumroad.com/richburlew

They're on the cartoony side but you can print an absurd number of minis in a consistent art style. Comes with color and line art versions of the PDFs.

$24 gets you all four PDFs for 1200+ monsters.

Well, if it's really bothering you then I would suggest to use Roll20 instead of a camera, dice, and battlemat setup. It's costs the time to set up a free account and the feeling of rolling physical dice, but you can definitely be sure that no one cheats.

Another option would be to make the rule that only rolls that you can see will count, so if he can't set his cam up so that you can see the die being tossed, his roll doesn't count and after the third failed try it will be counted as a natural 2. See how fast he will be able to set up his cam so that you can see the dice.

Of course it might well be that he will just become so salty that he will leave the game, but if you can't overlook his cheating and he can't bother to prove beyond a doubt that he's not cheating, then the only option will be to not play together anyway.

This should be the top comment in my opinion! Notion has completely changed everything for me since I started using it. I used to use Trello which was almost everything I needed, but I had so many lists that I needed to scroll through to find anything. With Notion, all it takes is a couple of clicks and I can be literally anywhere in my entire campaign journal. If there is a file size limit, I haven't yet reached it, even with my free account. Technically Notion isn't local, but it's pretty dang fast and I've never felt slowed down by loading times.

For anyone getting started with Notion, I recommend duplicating Jorphdan's Tabletop RPG Campaign template and customizing it to fit your needs. I added a section on the main page for quick rules reference (sort of like a mini DM screen).

Shields still get their own boon which makes them really good when another one is going to be available soon. Honestly, I liked using a bandit captain, and thought that parrying is within the purview of any competent creature, and has nothing to do with commanding a gang.

https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Wolf#content

Replace "Wolf" with "Tamaskan"!

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=tamaskan&amp;source=lnms&amp;tbm=isch&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwim2uzb8sncAhVDXMAKHXF5CW4Q_AUICigB&amp;biw=1100&amp;bih=1963&amp;dpr=2.63

I was in an online Call of Cthulhu game a year or so back. Our DM made character portraits for all of the NPCs using Art Breeder. It helped a lot with the immersion to be able to put a face to a name.

What did you expect? 100k? 300k? I'm just showing you the complaints about the company itself from within the reddit community. Look here... https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.steampowered.com I'm saying one day they will bite you but you, do you.

There's an article on how the videogame Horizon: Zero Dawn optimizes performance by only rendering in detail the part of the world the player is looking at. You can apply the same philosophy to game prep: Only flesh out in detail the parts of your campaign world that are going to come up in play. If all your PCs come from the same small town, you should devote more prep time to that town than you would for the entire continent on the other side of the world that your players will never see. If none of your players plan on playing a Dragonborn, you don't need to figure out the origins of Dragonborn in your world until you have a reason to introduce a Dragonborn NPC in your game.

I use the cardboard pawns from the Pathfinder Bestiary Box. It covers a wide breadth of monsters but ultimately you're putting a monster printed on piece of cardstock into a slot on a disc that occupies one, four or nine squares on the grid. When there are multiple instances of the same creature I might put dice next to it with the value indicating which one it is (Orc #2 for instance)

Rich Burlew has a series of .pdfs entitled 'a monster every season' in the art style of his webcomic (which also is famous for being a Kickstarter success). The idea that you print the page with the monster you want, cut it out, fold it and tape it together at the bottom with a penny for weight.

If you have enough technical know-how to create a form-fillable version of the blank party sheet, the module PDFoundry lets you use form-fillable PDFs in Foundry – I cludged something together for my game that I think will cover the main bases for domain stuff.

Yeah, it's a bit different. I don't have a page number for the rulebooks, but here's what I'm talking about from the SRD. In my case, I'm trying to be less stingy handing it out, awarding inspiration for any cool thing they do, especially if I think it will help with those pesky dice rolls to make the cool thing actually work out.

Well, Eve Online just released their first soundtrack album on to Spotify.

It's been on Soundcloud for ages, but I've never enjoyed using Soundcloud - partly due to the "we want you to discover other stuff from artists you've not put in this playlist" function (I don't always like Spotify, but it tends to be the least-worst solution for my purposes more often than not). Soundcloud might be a plus for you, so you can get more of their music there, it just means I don't know enough about the platform to recommend it.

So I really like these and have started using them for my campaign! The only thing I was missing from these is an empty printable version, so I went ahead and made one.

https://www.figma.com/file/OaklSFcC7HMHNiCGcj6ghf/Editable-Unit-Card?node-id=0%3A1

I thought this would be a good thing to post, but I wanted to run it by you first as it is your template.

Don't use Skype, use Discord. Skype is like saying "I'm using MSN or AOL"

https://discordapp.com/

You then want to sign up to Roll20

https://roll20.net/

It takes some time to get used to, but once you have both up and running you'll find your games run smoothly.

Finished putting together my new template for KnW units. These are just some examples, including a couple converted up from my previous SnF game.

Template: https://www.figma.com/file/uKegjyhlTGahuezVHQ09XO/Custom-Units-KnW?node-id=0%3A1

To use, login and then go up to the top and make a copy of the file to your own drafts. From there you can edit the file and make copys of the Main Template to fill in.

Artwork is from L5R and Crusader Kings 3, icons from game-icons.net and The Noun Project.

Haven't made any pdf link but here's a figma link if ya'll wanna try it out yourselves :)

https://www.figma.com/file/DO6Iws0pefsm4eBg7NZPSN/Last-Age-Character-Sheet-2.0.1?node-id=25%3A201

I think the very best horror music still comes from Metallica and is called "Call of Ktulu". The only music that seem to jump into the same niche that I've found so far is the Chtulhu horror ambience soundtrack from Tabletop Audio but it's rather calm and not a great listen compared to "Call of Ktullu".

The first two maps were initially hand drawn and then scanned and traced in Inkscape. The last one was made using Azgaar's Fanstasy Map Generator, based on a loose template of what i wanted the continent to look like

This one, you can download the .map file for offline use, or even save it in the cache of the browser, but with the default settings it's label nations, cities, pre-route roads across multiple continents and the like.

This is a favorite of mine and is actually linked to Azgaar's. The cities you create in the World Generator can be clicked on and generate a city in Watabou.

I use Miro and a Discord voice chat to run all my online games. Which was then adopted by most all of the Kingdoms & Warfare play-testers and eventually Matt. It's basically a collaborative whiteboarding tool. So think Google Doc but whiteboard that lets you draw, make shapes, upload images, embed websites, etc.

I walked through it during a livestream at somepoint. I think I talk about a weird workaround to setting up a team so everyone can edit stuff, instead of just viewing it, while remaining in a "free tier"—but that's outdated. You can just invite your friends to edit it from any email/account they have without issue.

I, and a lot of the K&W playtesters, use Miro to run our battles and fights online.

I might have a highlight around somewhere from one of my streams that walks people through the process; if you wanted.

That depends very much on the game you play.

I've had games that are completely irregular, where we didn't play for months or even years at a time, but then still come back to kick in doors, kill monsters, and take their stuff.

I'm also currently running a game where 2-3 of the 5 players wouldn't be able to get to a fixed date, because they're working in shifts. So what we do instead is to check each week when we would be able to play with at least 3 of the 5 players available. We get 4 around 50% of the time, all 5 around 40% of the time, and 10% of the time there are only 3. I use doodle for this game and check every Friday for dates on the following week.

https://airtable.com/tblF0e18gH2gJYnOV/viwQOfR6m9kAYiDUP?blocks=hide To give you a starting point.

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Like Matt, I find cells more helpful than straight text for this type of organization, but the fact that you can link entries together to give context as well as easily add photos makes Airtable indispensably better than Excel/Sheets for my purposes.

I use and love Airtable! I used to use Google Docs, and still do for handouts and things that require longer writing, but otherwise use Airtable exclusively.

https://airtable.com

I started with the book writing template and adjusted/added a few things. I'll post the table for my campaign when I get home, so you can have something to go off of.

I use a mix of spreadsheets, FreeMind, and cherrytree depending on exactly what kind of information I'm managing.

I've been reading Life in a Medieval City and it's been great, it does a good job laying out the basic structures of medieval day-to-day life within larger population areas. They have similar books that are devoted to village life as well.

The run is collected here! https://www.amazon.com/Shadowman-Garth-Ennis-Ashley-Wood/dp/1682151352

If you're a fan of the game the comics run is fun to read too, to really see the origins of this version of the character that you don't get in the video game. The guy you're speaking of is, unfortunately, I think just kind of a generic mook with a weird design, but it's worth reading anyway!

I don't really get your question/proposition. Low-quality cheap miniatures from bendy plastic exist and are being sold. For example, you can get 100 skeletons with 6 weapon options for 25$.

Or if you want higher quality at a lower price you could try going for a smaller scale. 10 and 15mm models are pretty great and very cheap. Heck, there's even 6mm, although at that scale individual figures really start to disappear.

And there's also Ebay or Trolltrader for used minis.

> Heden looked for a place to sit. There was none. Visitors to Saint Alithiad, the Dark Veil, the Saint of Worms, were not encouraged to stay long.

From chapter 56 of Thief (Ratcatchers Book 2)

Doesn't mention what god IIRC, I'd guess Cyrvis/Fate.

$15.69 on Amazon (US). (No referral link, but the Smile subdomain has Amazon donate a percentage of the purchase to charity, of your choice, if you're a member, at no additional cost to you. I have it on and don't bother to change it; if it really bothers you change the smile to www and reload it. It doesn't track like a referral link.)

I don't recall any recommendation having a cover like that, but there is one that he recommended that had wing like imagery...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CWGZMGQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_7-6FFb7VVVQEH is the link to it.

Asunder: A Vatan Chronicle

Anyways, I do hope you find the book you're looking for.

I use these for my enemy NPCs. Dirt cheap for the quantity you get and the color variety allows you to keep track of them a little more easily - either "orc 1 is red, orc 2 is blue, orc 3 is yellow" or "the green ones are zombies, the white ones are skeletons, and the red dude in the back is the necromancer."

I’m late to this post, but a few months back I came up with a DM screen that has made my life super easy. I was so tired of having random pages of notes, maps, and other scraps of paper to keep track of in addition to the DM screen. So I got on Amazon and bought one of those plastic folding storage clipboards - you know, the kind that you can store papers inside. Make sure it’s the kind that folds on the short edge, not the long edge - this is crucial. Pop it open, hinge it open on its side, and boom, perfect screen!

I also made myself two pages of DM cheat sheets (a quick google search will yield some good pre-made ones) that I taped to the inside.

I’ve also 3D printed clips that rest on the top edge to track initiative. They are small enough to fit inside the closed clipboard, so they’re still easy to transport. You could do the same thing with folded index cards if you don’t have a printer.

Now everything is stored away inside the clipboard between games - and we rotate hosting, so it’s made transporting things much easier. I use the clip on the front to hold pictures and maps for the players. I found most other screens I’d tried in the past to be a bit too tall for me to see over/manipulate minis, but this one is perfect in height. Granted, it’s not as wide as a traditional DM screen, but that also allows me to fit my iPad on the table more easily as well.

Do you think something like this would work? I’ve never even thought of using a 3D printer but I just consulted with some of the players and they could maybe help me set it up and such so I’m really thinking about it now. I’m only going to get one if it’s on amazon though so I can get rid of this damn gift card lol.

https://www.amazon.com/ANYCUBIC-Photon-Impresora-3D-Negro/dp/B07TVW9HGH/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?dchild=1&amp;keywords=anycubic+resin&amp;qid=1594413355&amp;sprefix=anycubic&amp;sr=8-5

I do my mapmaking in inkarnate and wondercraft, and for writing I usually just use my G2 pens on whatever notebook I'm using at the time (usually from the school supply section of the grocery store). But one thing I am really picky about is my pencil sharpeners. I've never had a sharpener that didn't just end up breaking my pencils or sharpening one side way too much, making it easy to break. Finally invested in a sharpener that could make THICC sharp pencils. Would HIGHLY recommend if you're into that golf-pencil-like sharpness. My players really like them

https://www.amazon.com/Kutsuwa-Adjustable-Pencil-Sharpener-RS017LB/dp/B006CQW2LQ/

I use these: Board Game Pieces- 50 Pack- Blank 1 x 2 inches Rectangular Tombstone Diecut Token Cards with the Paizo Pawn bases. Just print the miniature on mailing labels and stick to the cardboard.

You could also use something like this: Game Board Markers - 12 Stands Plus 24 White Die Cut Cards if you don't have Paizo Pawns.

For those that are truly interested in Appendix N, there is a short book on Amazon about it.

https://www.amazon.com/Appendix-Literary-History-Dungeons-Dragons-ebook/dp/B01MUB7WS6

About Appendix N, it will resonate and make a lot of sense for any player that is perhaps Gen X (I’m 49) or older. Without the interconnectedness of the Internet, a lot of our discovery was word of mouth or by accident. Appendix N became a source of gold in the day.

Oh, and the Dying Earth series, much better when it sticks to short stories. I could only handle so much of the roguishness of Cugel.

Some wires have gotten crossed somewhere because I have no idea what you're talking about. Yes, post-its. This is the product Anna recommended, it's Post-It branded. https://www.amazon.com/Post-Colors-47-Dispenser-Dispensers-684-ARR4/dp/B00006RSO4

I have a Stanley rolling toolbox I got at walmart for around $30. Upper box carries minis, dice, wet erase markers for the battle mat, and a box of monster cards. Lower box carries books, clipboard, Ipad, and dice tray. I have seen more modular systems at Home Depot and if I ever out grow this setup I would probably get one that can be added onto. But those cost more as well.

https://www.amazon.com/STANLEY-STST18612-2-in-1-Mobile-Workshop/dp/B00BDPTCAU?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&amp;tag=duckduckgo-ffsb-20&amp;linkCode=xm2&amp;camp=2025&amp;creative=165953&amp;creativeASIN=B00BDPTCAU

I use the Asmodee Digital app* which IIRC comes with the original set included and let's you buy the 2 other non-branded 9-dice sets for around $2 and the 12 non-branded 3-dice sets for $1 each. I don't know prices for sure because I have every single set unlocked.

So yeah, big fan. Love it to death, use it often, well worth every cent.

• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thecreativityhub.RSC