I recently spent money…
I too was taken aback by this turn of events, but I was presented with something I had never seen before. Ok, so I have trawled through an abundance of shops and online stores for RPG resources for items that fit a tight budget but still look nice, and I have to say that while there’s a lot of very nice products out there, I rarely encounter anything that shows me something particularly different.
Between the MDF, printables, and neoprene mats, I encountered at the Nationals in Bradford, Inked Adventures: (more…)
April 19, 2018 | Categories: Reviews, RPGs, Traditional Gaming | Tags: fantasy maps, Inked Adventures, map tiles, modular maps, playing cards, product review, RPG, RPG maps, RPG resources | Leave a comment
A three-way tie between the choices: three dragons, three NPCs, and three extra-planar threats. This can only mean one thing. You get one of each.
As usual I will generally be drawing upon Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition rules, but most of the content here should easily be modifiable to any other system or edition you choose. (more…)
April 17, 2018 | Categories: RPGs, Traditional Gaming | Tags: 5th edition, D&D, Dragon, Dungeon Situational, Dungeons & Dragons, Extra planar threat, Gehenna, Homebrew, Ideas, inspiration, Necromancer, NPC | Leave a comment
Here’s all the warning I got:
“Hey, I’m going to a big role-play weekend event, do you want to come, ’cause the guys who’s organising it needs names as soon as possible!”
I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the incredibly vague gist. Further information included three possible venues, and the idea that you could pay a pound to charity to have a dice re-rolled to impact the game. Sounded fun, if maddeningly lacking in detail or organisation but what the hell, I coughed up some money for a shared hotel room with a complete stranger one of three possible cities none of which I’d ever been to with a man I’d met through the GeekOut Shrewsbury Meets (next event is the 26th by the way, thanks for asking).
Worth it.
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April 12, 2018 | Categories: Events, Gaming posts, RPGs, Traditional Gaming | Tags: Bradford, call of cthulhu, John Robertson, National Student Roleplaying and Wargaming Championships 2018, Nationals, NSRWC, Role Play, scooby doo, Special Effect, Special Effect Charity, The Dark Room, University of Bradford, Yorkshire Cancer Research | Leave a comment
Items sets have been a classic component of RPGs for many years, perhaps most commonly in ARPGs. Groups of lootable items brought together by a shared history, each powerful in their own right, but together immensely potent. They might have been crafted together to work in unison, or perhaps they were brought together once and never again can be divided.
In this, as in most other Dungeon Situational articles, the items below are written with the Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition rules in mind, but can be modified to suit any edition or system you choose. Presenting…
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April 10, 2018 | Categories: Gaming posts, RPGs | Tags: 5e, 5th edition, cleric, couatl, Dungeon Situational, Dungeons & Dragons, flying mount, Homebrew, item set, Loot, paladin, Skyguard's Honour, Treasure | Leave a comment
Your players have just reached the end of their first major plot arc, you suddenly have a lot of planning to do, and while you reach for ideas for next session, your group have a few plans of their own to execute. And maybe it all goes well, maybe they know exactly how to spend their hard-earned cash, or have some personal loose ends to tie up. And maybe you spend a session staring blankly at each other. What fortune for you that the ground has begun to quake, and skies in the east have begun to blacken.
Presented below is a short dungeon for 4-6 level 5 players, and as in all Dungeon Situational articles presumes Dungeons & Dragons 5e, but can be readily adapted to other levels or systems in a high-fantasy setting. This adventure is presented without a map, but can easily be mapped using the descriptions given, and random encounters can be placed in specific locations rather than stumbled across. (more…)
April 3, 2018 | Categories: Gaming posts, RPGs | Tags: 5th edition, Dungeon, Dungeon Situational, Dungeons & Dragons, Elemental, Orcs, salamander, short adventure, volcano, walking volcano | 3 Comments
Would you believe that’s the shorter title?
Shrewsbury has just had a busy weekend, pouring into the growing geeky community we have played host to a Steampunk festival for which I rearranged some booked holiday time to ensure I’d be free to attend, and then I foolishly organised an all-day Dungeons & Dragons marathon for the sake of advertising the new business on the same weekend. So I squeezed a couple of hours out of the festival on the Saturday before D&D on the Sunday, let’s talk about that one first.
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March 29, 2018 | Categories: Events, Gaming posts, RPGs, Traditional Gaming | Tags: All Day Dungeons & Dragons, Pokenomicon, Pokethulhu, shrewsbury, Steampunk, Steampunk Festival, Steampunk Spectacular, The Shropshire Dungeon Master | Leave a comment
A Prestige Class is a class that one can take when advancing in level, but is not available to starting characters as they require a greater degree of training or esoteric knowledge that they could possibly possess as lowly hedge wizards or mercenary thugs. For more information check out this Unearthed Arcana from WotC themselves, but let me add that I firmly believe that a Prestige Class should only be issued as an option or opportunity by the DM or GM, as they make for a reward on-par with magic items or greater boons.
The following Prestige Class is designed for Dungeons & Dragons 5e, and being heavily detailed may be harder to adjust to other systems and editions than other Dungeon Situational articles. I’d also like to say that this material is not playtested, not even a little bit! The balance of this character option is based upon my familiarity with the system as a whole, but has not been checked against such complications as feats and mixing them with multiple classes. So if you use this material let me know how it goes.
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March 27, 2018 | Categories: RPGs, Traditional Gaming | Tags: 5e, Blade Dancer, Dungeon Situational, Dungeons & Dragons, Homebrew, play test, player options, prestige class | Leave a comment
In a high-fantasy setting we have a tendency to lean on magic as the driving force of the world and most wonders that one can behold, you have to sink as far as low fantasy before you stop using it as a crutch to create a spectacle. Here assembled we have some curiosities and marvels that do not depend on magic (although some stretching of the imagination may be required).
Most of the series relies upon D&D 5th edition rules, but this one is completely without rules, leaving you free to interpret and apply rulings as you desire.
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March 20, 2018 | Categories: Gaming posts, RPGs, Traditional Gaming | Tags: Dungeon Situational | Leave a comment
You’re starting a new game and trying to come up with a setting, at least to kick off the first few levels, somewhere with intrigue and danger, somewhere they’ll remember for levels to come, the place that they’ll one day be thinking of when they save the world.
Usually these articles make no small use of 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons rules, but as a heavily narrative oriented piece there will be little to no need to adjust any components for your own game, but tinker with anything you like. Welcome to… (more…)
March 13, 2018 | Categories: Gaming posts, RPGs, Traditional Gaming | Tags: campaign setting, Dungeon Situational, Dungeons & Dragons, half ogre, NPCs, Pipestone, RPG, Town, Witch | Leave a comment
The Warlock draws his power from strange and terrible forces from beyond the world. Often evil in their own particular way, these are entities who cannot garner followers, and so must bargain for indentured servants to do their bidding. Cruel fiends, capricious fey, deranged elder things, and dead gods need things too.
Here I give some examples of how patrons may approach, co-opt, or otherwise bargain with their warlock servants. I’ll be referring to and utilising Dungeons & Dragons 5e rules, but I’ll leave it suitably ambiguous so that it can readily be adjusted for warlocks, shady spell casters, and dark cultists in any setting or edition.
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March 6, 2018 | Categories: Gaming posts, RPGs, Traditional Gaming | Tags: Archfey, D&D 5e, Dungeon Situational, Dungeons & Dragons, Fiend, Great Old One, pact magic, patron, Warlock, Warlock pact | 5 Comments