by W. Eric Martin

• German publisher Zoch Verlag has announced three titles for release in October 2021, with Strand Unter qualifying as its big-box game with a physical element to gameplay.


This 45-minute game for 2-4 players is the first published design from Christian Raczek, and here's the introductory pitch from the publisher:

Strand Unter is a three-dimensional family game in which everyone places their castles in the sand so that they are close to the water, while trying to stay out of the way of the tide.

Plenty of shells can be found in the ankle-deep sand trenches, and those who collect enough of them in competition with their fellow players can build a total of four sand castles. These castles differ in size, value, and required building material. In the end, the best castles are those that escape the approaching tide by a hair's breadth...

Okay, that description doesn't give you a lot to go on, but this image suggests a lot of the elements of gameplay:


• Designer Nicko Böhnke is debuting three games in 2021: a pair of memory-based storytelling games from HUCH! — Fabula Rasa: Crime and Fabula Rasa: Seemannsgarn — and Kings & Creatures from Zoch, also due out in October 2021.

Here's an overview of this 2-6 player card game:

Kings & Creatures is a set-collection game in which you take what you want to get what others need.

All players help themselves to a heroic selection of great cards to create valuable collections — but only those who combine courageous taking with clever waiting will get hold of the most fabulous heroes. Access to grandiose cards is given only to those who choose modest cards...but those who want only to preserve their future chances with clever restraint may discover that the true heroes have long been elsewhere.

• Oh, wait, turns out that Zoch Verlag has two big box games with physical elements on its late 2021 release schedule! Kipp mir Saures is a 2-4 player game from first-time designer Emmanuel Albisser, and Google translate is suggesting that "Kipp mir saures" means "Kill me sour", yet "kipp" also means "tilt", which is far more relevant to the following description, so perhaps "Tilt sours for me" or even the Def Leppard inspired "Pour some sours on me" — except that the "sours" in question here are sour-flavored candies, so the original Def Leppard song would work even better here, and I'm sure that Zoch has reached out to the band to consider licensing opportunities.


In any case, here's a summary of what's going on:

In Kipp mir Saures, three tubes are filled with dice in a tactically clever way until they dump out sweets.

In a spectacular three-dimensional rack, flavor, shape, and pack tubes are waiting to be filled with dice cubes. Once the weight of the cubes causes the tubes to tip, all the cubes tumble out. At these moments, players may grab new treats, fit candy on their cards, and pack what they've collected. The tactically clever thing to do is to use the different weights and colors of the dice in such a way that the tastiest treats arrive in their own packages.

And once again here's a highly suggestible component shot to bring the previous description to life:


• Wait a second — three titles? Hasn't Zoch released four titles every six months consistently for years? Perhaps something else is in the pipeline waiting for just the right moment to be announced... Read more »

by Candice Harris

Gen Con 2021 was an awesome experience for me, although I'm sure my feet would disagree after clocking in 14,000+ steps on day one alone. It was wonderful to reconnect, hang, and play games with Eric, Beth, and Lincoln, plus I had an amazing time wandering around checking out new games.

• The PSC Games booth was my first stop on day one. I had the opportunity to play a quick (tense!) game of Paolo Mori's Caesar!: Seize Rome in 20 Minutes!. As a fan of Mori's 2019 release, Blitzkrieg!: World War Two in 20 Minutes, I was curious to see what he cooked up with the follow-up, and Caesar! did not disappoint.


The overall gameplay and setting differ from Blitzkrieg!, but they scratch the same itch in terms of being quick-playing, two-player games with tough decisions and tension driven by a solid chit-pull system.

In Blitzkrieg!, placing your chits on particular spaces on the different World War II theater tracks allows you to activate special abilities, whereas in Caesar!, you trigger special abilities by closing off regions on the map, similar to completing a box in the Dots and Boxes game many people have probably played as a child.

When a region is closed off, whoever has the highest influence value gets to place one of their control tokens in it. The interesting thing here is that closing the region off and gaining the special ability is independent from taking control of the region, and the goal of the game is place all of your influence control markers out before your opponent. However, the special abilities are very helpful, so there's a balance of knowing when to close something to snag a special ability versus trying to take control of the region, but ultimately it's ideal to do both if you can manage it. Rarely is that possible, though, so it makes for interesting choices.

There are a few other fresh new twists in Caesar! that makes it stand apart from Blitzkrieg!, but I dig both of these games. They did not have copies of Caesar! at Gen Con, but I was able to pre-order it (targeted for shipping in November 2021), and I'm looking forward to playing it more.

• I briefly checked out Kombo Klash, a new tactical, tile-laying and combo-scoring game for 2-4 players from designer "Nero" Ondrej Sova and Hub Games, the publishing company behind Holding On: The Troubled Life of Billy Kerr and Adventure Mart.


• Waggle Dance is Bright Eye Games' new version of Mike Nudd's worker bees, dice worker-placement game for 1-4 players that's all about making more honey than your opponents, with this design having been originally released by Grublin Games Publishing in 2014.


• Shannon from Chip Theory Games gave me a gameplay rundown of burncycle, a co-operative, puzzly infiltration game in which 1-4 players command a team of robots using "creative action sequencing" to take down evil, human-run corporations. After checking it out in person, I'm pumped to get burncycle on my table and play it. Even though the components and art weren't final, I was still impressed, as always, with the component quality from Chip Theory Games.

Art and components not finalized
After I was already buzzing with curiosity and interest for burncycle, Shannon threw me another exciting bone (pun intended). Chip Theory Games is crowdfunding Too Many Bones: Unbreakable, a new standalone expansion for Too Many Bones in Q4 2021.

Unbreakable launches on Gamefound on October 19, 2021 as the final release in the Too Many Bones series, including at least two new Gearlocks, new encounters and baddies pack, a whole new narrative, and more.

• Grand Gamers Guild had a variety of new releases to share, starting with Richard Yaner's Gorinto, an interesting, Japanese, elemental, abstract strategy game for 1-4 players with scoring goals that vary each game.


For another take on the elements, Mythalix from designers Julian Gaine and Kyri Karaiskakis is an area control, battle game in which 2-4 players each command a mythical god with their own unique powers and abilities.


While I didn't get to play it, I did chat briefly with Marc Specter, owner of Grand Gamers Guild, about The Artemis Odyssey, a sequel to The Artemis Project and a reimplementation of Ad Astra from designers Bruno Faidutti and Serge Laget that is being crowdfunded on Kickstarter (KS link) for a targeted 2022 release.


• I stopped by the Cephalofair Games booth to introduce myself to Isaac Childres, who I had met digitally at Gen Con Online 2020 when he gave an overview of his 2020 hit, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. I happened to catch some players deeply engaged in a demo game of Frosthaven with the coolest custom Talisman Sabre Terrain 3D landscaping. It was very impressive and immersive thematically.


Box coverconcept art• Eric and I met up with Jim Felli, creator of Cosmic Frog, at the Devious Weasel Games booth to play Felli's upcoming 2022 release The Mirroring of Mary King, a two-player game in which one person is a mortal contemporary woman named Mary King (Eric) and the other player is the ghost of Mary's long dead ancestor, a 17th century Scottish merchant burgess of the same name (me).

The goal of the game is to get the central tableau cards, representing an image of Mary, switched completely to your respective side (mortal or ghost), so we took turns playing control cards and special action cards to manipulate the state of Mary to our own advantage. I've conveniently included a photo of when I, the ghost player, had a moment in the lead before Eric played his cards right and ended up victorious in the end.

Prototype components
There was an interesting tug-of-war feeling throughout the game, and I noticed that you have to carefully think through the implications of what you do each turn to avoid leaving opportunities open for your opponent. I had some very thinky moments as I was constantly trying to put myself in good leading position while also defending myself from any of Eric's mortal antics. I appreciated that the rules were fairly easy to digest, but the decisions were often challenging.

From my experiences with his games, Jim Felli is a master at creating unique games, with the uniqueness coming from a combo of the theme and the gameplay mechanisms as they relate to the theme. The Mirroring of Mary King continues with this trend, and I'm looking forward to checking out the finished version in 2022.

•. At Smirk & Dagger Games, I checked out a demo of its upcoming 2022 release The Spill from Andy Kim, at the tail end of its Kickstarter campaign (KS link). In The Spill, 1-4 players work together to contain an oil spill — black dice dropped through a custom randomizer tower — and save the sea life.

Prototype components
Meanwhile, at sister company Smirk & Laughter Games, I had a great time working co-operatively with brave strangers to struggle through the puzzly, horror-themed tile-placement game The Night Cage from designers Christopher Ryan Chan, Chris McMahon, Rosswell Saunders.

Read more »

by W. Eric Martin

I last attended a game convention in March 2020, all of us on the BGG team and practically everyone we encountered at GAMA Expo uncertain why they were present and uncomfortable with what we might encounter on the way home. If the event had been scheduled one week earlier, we would have carried on without regard for the happenings of the outside world; one week later, and no one would have been present. We hung there frozen in time, focusing on games because we didn't want to contemplate anything else, a world of fear having descended on us while we were on the plane to Reno.

Some of that spirit was still present at Gen Con 2021, both in me and in others. We had jobs to do, sure, but for the most part the jobs could have been done elsewhere or delayed until another time. This time everyone was uncertain whether the Indiana Convention Center would be absent life or flooded with more humans than we could reasonably stand. We recognized the folly of being there, while also wanting to connect with others, desperate to be part of something larger than ourselves and hoping that something wouldn't be a tally of the diseased and deceased.

In the end, Gen Con reported that "a unique attendance of over 35,000 gaming fans" made their way to the ICC, which was populated with "more than 320 exhibiting publishers and vendors, including more than 90 first-time Gen Con exhibitors". Many of those first-time exhibitors found room at Gen Con 2021 solely because of all the publishers that weren't on site, whether those that had cancelled prior to the sign-up deadline (such as Asmodee, Paizo, CMON, and BGG itself) or those that had cancelled later, when it became clear that the conditions for a convention weren't ideal — although who's to say at this point we're ever going to return to "ideal".

Gen Con also notes that "[p]ublishers released more than 200 new games during the convention", which is far off the numbers of years past. I barely managed to push BGG's Gen Con 2021 Preview over two hundred new titles being sold and demoed, with almost as many titles being removed from the list as added to it in the final weeks ahead of the show. By comparison, BGG's Gen Con 2019 Preview listed 635 titles.

At the show, almost every publisher had stories of games stuck somewhere in the distribution pipeline, whether due to a shortage of paper at the manufacturer, a [url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/22/cargo-ships-traffic-jam-los-angeles-california ]record number of cargo ships[/url] backed up near the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, a container tagged for and awaiting customs inspection for weeks, or a lack of drivers to move goods to a final warehouse.

Publishers spoke of previously unimaginable — yet now commonplace — prices for containers, with the highest price I heard being $35,000, roughly ten times the "normal" price of 2019. Every publisher expects retail prices for games to rise in 2022, if not sooner, given that a $35k cost on a container that contains, say, five thousand big box games equals a $7/copy shipping cost, compared to 70 cents not too long ago. One publisher had hoped to bring in advance copies of a Kickstarted game to seed the market and generate buzz, but each copy of the game would have cost $70 to ship, so that plan was out, leaving only a single copy on hand to represent what was to come...some day.

Multiple publishers stated that prices have been held down relative to what's included in a box, with the $40 game of today generally containing more components of better quality than the $40 game of 2010. Now it's time to increase prices to better represent a game's components, but more for survival's sake than anything else. Few people want to increase prices as they don't want their games to compare unfavorably on the market, but given the choice of working for nothing or maintaining a functioning business with positive cash flow, the latter seems like a no-brainer.

Despite the relative lack of new games and an attendance count half that of 2019, nearly every publisher I spoke with said that sales at Gen Con 2021 were outpacing those of 2019. Apparently the folks who did come to the show were those with money to burn, those who wanted some sense of normalcy in the simple act of attending an event and taking home souvenirs, lots and lots of souvenirs. Titles from 2020 that had been featured only on livestream presentations had their first spotlight at a convention, some moving as well as 2021 releases while others struggled to overcome the impression that they were passé.

Publishers obviously welcomed game sales, but they also talked about the value of being able to talk to players in person, see people interact with their games, and experience buzz in real-time. One publisher mentioned that Thursday demoes for a new release had seemed slow, but over the four days of the show, more and more people came to test the game and sales picked up, proving in real time the value of a convention — although the hope, of course, is that those players carry their excitement for the game back home to share it with others. Time will tell.

Time was on everyone's mind for all sorts of reasons, whether it was the short window of time between Gen Con and Origins (which many publishers are skipping on the assumption that few people will attend both shows) or between Origins and SPIEL (which many publishers are skipping due to lack of product, governmental restrictions, or medical uncertainty); the thought that conventions might all be conducted this way in the future (with everyone masked and eating furtively to avoid seeming callous); or the recognition that one of the first things to do after leaving Gen Con is conduct a Covid test to ensure that you brought home only what you had intended to carry.

On that last point, Gen Con reports that "[o]ver 90% of Gen Con’s attendees were vaccinated against COVID-19 according to surveys conducted by organizers", and while the safest choice of all is to never leave your residence, once you have a Covid vaccine, your risk of getting seriously ill due to the disease falls drastically. Whether you want to take that risk, well, that decision will vary from person to person, but anyone who does, say, go skydiving will ideally wear a parachute in order to avoid risking harm to others — not to mention yourself.

What risks will future shows carry? For many first-time exhibitors, the possibility of not finding a space for themselves on the exhibit floor at Gen Con 2022. Maybe Asmodee has exited the convention business permanently, content to pitch games to mainstream audiences, and maybe it will once again lay claim to a vast section of booths. All publishers face the possibility that increased shipping costs and the uncertainty of manufacturing will become a permanent part of the business, forcing them to land items at their warehouse months ahead of a show to ensure inventory.

For players, well, perhaps you'll have to be content with less spectacle and fewer choices, but ideally you can still make connections with others across the gaming table in this hobby that we love.

•••
Candice Harris and I will be posting overviews of specific games and publishers over the next couple of weeks as we go through all of our notes and photos. I hope you'll keep checking in to see what we saw, played, and anagrammed. Read more »

by W. Eric Martin

• For a short while, BGG sold copies of Let's Make a Bus Route from designer Saashi of publisher Saashi & Saashi through the BGG Store — then the supply dried up and it became clear (although I'm not sure it was ever specifically stated) that the game had been licensed to someone and would re-appear...somewhere.


Now the French side of IELLO has announced a Q1 2022 release date for Get on Board: New York & London, this being its re-branding of the original game with a jazzy 1950s look courtesy of artist Monsieur Z. Here's a short take on the game from IELLO:

Ah, here’s the bus! Hurry, grab a seat, and get out of the rain! Just like every trip, you're fascinated by all the other passengers on board: tourists, professionals, students... They're all traveling together, though they each have different destinations. This bus line is truly special, but will it be able to transport everyone safe and sound?

In Get on Board: New York & London, you have twelve rounds in which to build the best bus line in town. Each round reveals a new card that shows all players the route shape they must complete. Place your bus accordingly on the central board. Take the passengers where they want to go by connecting them and their destination to your bus line, avoid traffic, and gain as many victory points as possible!

For more details on the gameplay, here's a description of Let's Make a Bus Route:

The game includes a large shared map board, along with five individual player boards. All players draw their routes on the shared board, while taking note of their passengers, sights, and other elements on their individual boards.

To start a round, you reveal a colored bus route at random from the deck. Each player's board has a different combination of colors and required moves, so blue on one board might be go straight one block, while someone else goes two blocks and a third player must make a turn. Players make their moves in turn on the shared map board, then mark the icons of what they've seen at various intersections on their player board. Different types of riders all score differently, and placing checks on your personal board for passengers and areas (sight-seeing spots, stations, universities) before other players do can earn you extra bonus points, so strategically planning your route while keeping in mind your main destinations is very important. Sharing the road with someone else causes traffic, which might lead to penalties. Meet the conditions on public demand cards to score bonus points!

While I'm sure that some will be disappointed by the change of setting from Kyoto to New York and London, I would take bets that the subtitle is included specifically so that IELLO can release expansion boards down the line that will fit into the base game box.


• Two Rooms is a co-operative card game for two players in which a group of humans has entered the House of Mist and must escape the vampires within.

The game first appeared in 2020 from Japanese publisher YUTRIO, and Italian publisher Fever Games has licensed the design for a new edition in October 2021 that features comic artist Lorenzo De Felici. Here's an overview of how to play:

The game takes place in the two halves of the game box, one depicting a red door, and the other a green door. The game centers around a deck of 15 cards. On your turn, draw a card from the deck and place it into one of the two rooms. When you "open" the room to add the card, you look at the cards already present and resolve their effects in ascending numerical order. Some effects will remove cards to the casualty area, others will cause cards to switch rooms, and so on. While this is happening, the other player must keep their eyes closed.

The game comes with four difficulty levels, and the players win if the Cloaked Vampire is placed in the casualty area and the players know the location of one of the human cards, Nina. The players lose in a number of ways, such as Nina entering the casualty area or the deck running out of cards.

• U.S. publisher Renegade Game Studios and Oni Games have picked The Three Little Wolves — a design from Poki Chen and Smoox Chen that first appeared in 2020 from Taiwanese publisher 桌遊鬍子 POKI Design — for release in October 2021.

Here's an overview of this quick-playing 2-4 player game:

Centuries after a famous story featuring three little pigs, the Swine family has learned a precious lesson and become the greatest landlord in the world. (They love houses!) The Wolf family, however, has become the best architects of all time. (They hate lousy houses!) The three little wolves now work for the Big Bad Pig to build all kinds of houses. Can you help the wolves build the highest house and find the best home for them?

Three Little Wolves is a family game in which each player needs to build three houses by playing cards from small numbers to large. The higher you build, the better the chance you can score points — but your fellow players might send their little wolves to live in your nice house for big points! Plans, disguises, and a pinch of luck in your hand are all you need to win the game!

In more detail, players take turns playing one card from hand to build one of the three houses — blue, green, and red — in front of themselves, then refill their hand to four cards. If the Big Bad Pig (BBP) is drawn, it rewards the tallest house at that moment, but if you can't keep the house tall enough at the end of the game, you will get punished. If you don't want to play a card, you can discard a card and send one of your three wolves to live in other players' houses for a chance to score points!

The third time the BBP rewards the tallest house triggers the end of the game. All players compare the height of their buildings, and the shortest of each color is knocked down by the BBP! Whoever scores the most points wins!

• Japanese publisher Oink Games has licensed Kei Kajino's card game Scout! for release in a new edition that keeps the same name — SCOUT — while adopting a circus-setting, albeit mostly only on the game cover.

This new edition will debut at SPIEL '21, then be available elsewhere in Europe before the end of 2021 and in the U.S. in early 2022. Here are the details of gameplay:

SCOUT is a ladder-climbing game in which cards have two potential values, players may not rearrange their hand of cards, and players may pass their turn to take a card from the current high set of cards into their hand.

More specifically, cards are dual-indexed, with different values on each half of the card, with the 45 cards having all possible combinations of the numbers 1-10. During set-up, whoever is shuffling the cards should randomize both the order of the cards in the deck and their orientation. Once each player has been dealt their entire hand of cards, they pick up that hand without rearranging any of the cards; if they wish, they can rotate their entire hand of cards in order to use the values on the other end of each card, but again they cannot rearrange the order of cards in their hand.

On a turn, a player takes one of two actions:

• Play: A player chooses one or more adjacent cards in their hand that have all the same value or that have values in consecutive order (whether ascending or descending), then they play this set of cards to the table. They can do this only if the table is empty (as on the first turn) or the set they're playing is ranked higher than the set currently on the table; a set is higher if it has more cards or has cards of the same value instead of consecutive cards or has a set of the same quantity and type but with higher values. In this latter case when a player overplays another set, the player captures the cards in this previous set and places them face down in front of themselves.

• Scout: A player takes a card from either end of the set currently on the table and places it anywhere they wish in their hand in either orientation. Whoever played this previous set receives a 1 VP token as a reward for playing a set that wasn't beaten.

Once per round, a player can scout, then immediately play.

When a player has emptied their hand of cards or all but one player have scouted instead of playing, the round ends. Players receive 1 VP for each face-down card, then subtract one point for each card in their hand (except if they were the player scouted repeatedly to end the game). Play as many rounds as the number of players, then whoever has the most points wins.

Read more »

by W. Eric Martin

• While many of us were busy with Gen Con 2021, U.S. publisher Rio Grande Games announced Dominion: Allies, the 14th expansion in the Dominion game line from Donald X. Vaccarino.


Here's an overview of this December 2021 release:

It's a celebration! People are dancing in the streets, and riding horses through the dance halls. You've finally formed an alliance with the barbarians to the north. Instead of the streets running red with blood, they'll run, well, the usual color — let's not focus on what color the streets run. The point is, there's peace. Sure, negotiations were tricky. The barbarians are uncouth; they have no five-second rule and stick out the wrong finger when drinking tea. There are perks, too, though. They've given you skulls to drink mead out of and spices to get rid of the skull aftertaste. And you've given them stuff in return: forks, mirrors, pants. It's great for everyone. And with this treaty out of the way, you can get to work on your other neighbors. Soon, all the allies will be yours.

Dominion: Allies contains 400 cards, with 31 new Kingdom card piles that contain allies who will do favors for you and split piles that you can rotate.

• Belgian publisher Game Brewer plans to release a new version of The Palaces of Carrara from Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling, the design team behind its 2020 release Paris. This title will be Kickstarted in December 2021, and it will be followed by a new release from Kramer and Kiesling based on this calendar of crowdfunding projects on the Game Brewer website:

—Oak, by Wim Goossens — October 2021
—Palaces of Carrara (remake), by Kramer & Kiesling — December, 2021
—Camargue (working title), by Franz Couderc — January, 2022
—Lord's Land (working title), by Kramer & Kiesling — March, 2022
—Hippocrates expansion, by Alain Orban — May, 2022
—Pixie Queen expansion and big box, by Rudy Seuntjens — October 2022

• Designer Max Wikström has written designer diaries about many of the aspects of the 1-4 player co-operative fantasy game Agemonia, which is being Kickstarted by Finnish publisher Lautapelit.fi ahead of a planned 2022 release.


• HABA is expanding its "My First..." line of products in 2021 with My First Advent Calendar, and while this item isn't a game, I'll be darned if it wouldn't make an ideal expansion for the Animal Upon Animal line, possibly with players taking turns to draft critters prior to the start of play.

Read more »

by W. Eric Martin

Doodle Dash, one of the debut games from Norwegian publisher Chilifox Games, isn't a flashy design that delivers a BRAND NEW GAMING EXPERIENCE the way that most titles are marketed. Instead this game for 3-7 players from the design team Fridtjof Buvarp, Maija Buvarp, Pauline Buvarp, Åsmund Svensson, and Eilif Svensson delivers what it promises — a quick-playing, drawing-based party game — in a clean and efficient manner that doesn't overstay its welcome.

In the game, each player takes turns trying to guess what everyone else has drawn. You draw a card facing away from you with that card listing seven items, give a number from 1-7, then avert your eyes while everyone else races to draw whatever person, object, name, or title you chose. As soon as someone finishes their drawing, they grab the golden cylinder to indicate their firstness. The next player to finish grabs the die and keeps rolling it until either everyone else has finished their drawings or they roll the lone STOP sign on the die, which forces everyone else to stop drawing immediately.

The cylinder holder reveals their drawing first, and if the guesser identifies whatever the thing is, they each score 1 point. If not, the die-holder reveals their drawing, scoring 1 point along with the guesser if the latter can now identify the thing in question. If not, all other drawers reveal their images, with each of them scoring 1 point along with the guesser if the ID is finally made.

What's this?
The challenge of the game is obvious: Drawing quickly makes it difficult to draw clearly, so how much do you want to lean one way or the other? What's the essence of the object from your point of view, and can you draw that in such a way that the guesser will identify it...and can you do it before someone else does?

Sometimes that essence is surprisingly common, and I imagine such drawing experiments already take place in sociology classes to record how people represent different objects.

Cats must have three whiskers!
The other challenge that comes with weighing speed over specificity in your drawing is that — depending on the object in question — the second revealer has an advantage over the first since the guesser now has two images to ponder and compare. What might have been unclear from the initial scribble now comes into focus, although sometimes you really need to see ALL the remaining drawings before you know what the object is.

And sometimes even those images don't help when certain drawers misread the card in question or depict something other than what was written. In the image below, for example, only the image in the lower left really matches what you're supposed to guess.


I've played Doodle Dash three times on a review copy from Chilifox Games, once each with 3, 4, and 7 players, and the game does what it's trying to do. The experience was more enjoyable with the largest crowd, mostly because it was fun to see what people drew, whether you were guessing or not.

Sometimes the objects had a singular "correct" way of being drawn, akin to the drawings of "cat food" above, as when everyone depicted a telescope the exact same way. In those cases, the game was about pure speed rather than about trying to decipher what was important to depict, and I found those rounds less interesting since I wasn't interpreting what to draw, but simply trying to push an image out as quickly as possible. I like that type of challenge in Pictionary when two teams are going head-to-head, but I think that's because you're drawing in front of the guessers and responding to them in real time, modifying your image on the fly to lead them to the answer; in this game, you whip out the drawing and that's it.

I learned that I cannot draw a horse
For more on the game and how it compares to three other quick-drawing party games, check out this video:

Youtube Video Read more »

by W. Eric Martin

My apologies for the lack of posts yesterday and today, but I'm at Gen Con 2021 with a few other members of the BGG team, and I'm trying to ensure that I get enough sleep each night so that my brain keeps working.

I've been posting pics and notes about new and upcoming game releases on BGG's Twitter account, and posts will resume shortly with compilations of what Candice and I saw, played, and juggled. Read more »

by W. Eric Martin

On the Tuesday prior to Gen Con 2021, publisher Next Move Games gave a tiny bit of info about a new entry in the Azul game line from designer Michael Kiesling, namely that a fourth title would be added to the series before the end of 2021 — Azul: Queen's Garden.

Turns out that Next Move would also have a single copy on hand at the con to show to the media, and Candice and I were able to play most of a game during our appointment time with Martin Bouchard.

Non-final components
As with all of the other Azul titles, the heart of Azul: Queen's Garden is making smart choices when drafting new elements to be added to your personal scoreboard.

The first difference that stands out in this game is how you draft those elements. In the other titles, you lay out five, seven, or nine factories that you then populate with four colored tiles from a bag; in Azul: Queen's Garden, you create four stacks of five, seven, or eight(!) landscape boards and place one stack in the center of the table at the start of each of the game's four rounds.

Non-final components
You then place four tiles on the top of this stack. Tiles come in six colors with six different symbols on them, with three copies of each color+symbol combination (think Qwirkle); each symbol represents a number from 1-6, with the tree being 1, the bird 2 for its wings, the butterflies 3, and the bell flowers 6.

The start player chooses only from these tiles, selecting either a color or a symbol, then taking all tiles of that color/symbol — except that you cannot take the same color/symbol combination more than once in a single turn. (If two yellow trees are present, for example, you take only one of them.)

If after a player has taken their turn, the topmost landscape board doesn't have four tiles on it, place it to the side, then draw four tiles from the bag and place them on the revealed landscape board. Thus, the first player doesn't have access to everything that will be revealed in a round, and all players face the dilemma that if they remove something from the topmost landscape board, they will give (probably) better choices to the next player. A bit further on in a round, you'll see something like this:

Non-final components
Once all the tiles have been removed from a landscape board, it's flipped over to reveal a single colored symbol in one of its six spaces. This board can be drafted along with tiles when you draft a particular color or symbol so long as you don't take a duplicate.

All of the tiles and boards you draft must fit into your reserve area, which can hold at most twelve tiles and two boards. If you would overflow your reserve, then you can't draft whatever you had planned to draft.

Tile reserve — full!
Instead of drafting, you can choose to place a single landscape board or a single tile on your board; when you place a tile, it must go on a board, whether on your starting board or a landscape board that you've added.

To place a tile/board — henceforth called "elements" — you need to discard a number of elements equal to the value of the symbol being placed, similar to how in Azul: Summer Pavilion you must discard tiles equal to the numbered space that you want to cover, and those elements must all be the same color or the same symbol as what is being placed. The element that you're placing counts as one of the things being discarded, so a tree pays for its own placement cost since a tree has a value of 1.

As when you're drafting, when you discard elements to pay for a placement, you cannot duplicate a color or symbol. In the image below, for example, I'm planning to place the dark green 6/bell tile by discarding the six items at the bottom of my reserve: three tiles (including the tile I'll place), one board, and two jokers. I cannot use the landscape board with the dark green bell on it since I'm already "paying" with a dark green bell.

Non-final components
You start the game with three jokers, and a joker can be any color/symbol combination. As in Azul: Summer Pavilion, you can gain more jokers by surrounding certain features on your game board: one joker for surrounding the central starting fountain, two jokers for surrounding a bench or statue, and three jokers for surrounding the gazebo on a landscape board.

Instead of drafting or placing, you can pass, and the first player to pass takes the "1" marker, loses 1 point, and will be the starting player for the next round. When all players have passed, players score points for features on their board based on whatever is highlighted on the central scoring board. In the image below, for example, you see that dark green, blue, and tree elements on your board are each worth 1 point. (The central scoring board is double-sided, so you can use either side in a game.)

Non-final components
At the end of four rounds, you score points for each group of 3+ elements on your board that share a color or symbol. The left-hand column on the score board above helps you track and score each element in turn, and your score for a group is the sum of the values for the elements in a group. For example, if you score a light blue group that has a tree, butterflies, and bell flowers, that group is worth 10 points since the tree is 1, butterflies are 3, and bell flowers are 6. You cannot repeat a color or symbol in a group, so the maximum number of tiles in a group is six, and you score 6 bonus points whenever you do have a group of six. "Qwirkle!"

Ideally you place elements so that you can score them for the color, then score them again for the symbol. You can see an example of this two images up as I have a group of bell flowers and a group of light green tiles, which means the light green bell flower tile will score twice for me — 12 points total — at game end, in addition to scoring 3 points for me at the end of round four when that symbol scores. Similarly, the light green bird will score twice for the light green group and the bird group...but a bird is only 2 points, so that's not quite as much of a buzz.

This write-up doesn't cover every detail of gameplay, such as you being able to pay 6 points to grab a blank landscape tile and add it to your personal board, but now I've mentioned that as well, so hmm. In any case, ideally this write-up gives you a feel of what to expect when Azul: Queen's Garden debuts at SPIEL '21 in October 2021 and when it debuts in retail outlets prior to the end of 2021. Note that the components shown here are not final as Next Move Games in tweaking colors and other details prior to going to production. Read more »

by W. Eric Martin

As large and active as BoardGameGeek is, I think many people forget that the universe of game players dwarfs the BGG userbase, and in general that larger universe has a more casual relationship with games than BGG users. They don't want to spend a lot of time learning how to play a new game, and they don't want to feel stupid when they play something for the first time, and they are fine with a higher degree of luck in the games that they play.

7 Wonders: Architects was designed with this audience in mind, as noted by designer Antoine Bauza when the game was announced: "As I get older, I play more games with my family than a gaming group. This got me thinking about games that are welcoming to newcomers and can be enjoyed by friends and families."

To show you what Bauza has in mind, here's an example of the game in play:


You are me, the player in the lower right, and on your turn you can choose the top card of three decks: the deck to your left (which is associated with your wonder), the deck on your right (which is associated with my right-hand opponent's wonder), or the deck in the center of the table (which is associated with no one). So your choices are:

• Take the mystery card in the center.
• Take the blue card worth 3 points, after which your turn ends.
• Take the yellow card with a coin that counts as a wild resource, which means it matches your scroll, thereby giving you two scrolls, which means you must complete the next level of your wonder, which is worth 3 points and gives you the bonus ability of taking the top card from any deck at the table — which means you can still grab a blue card worth 3 points, netting you 6 points total for the turn. That seems like the choice to make!

With this short description, you already know what a turn is like — choose one of three cards — and what two colors of cards do. What other card types are in the game?


• Dun cards are resource cards, which come in five types. As soon as you're able to complete a level of your wonder — and the cost to do so varies from 2-4 resources, either matching or different as depicted on each level — you must spend the resources to do so. You must build from the ground up because you have not mastered the art of levitation.

• Green cards are science cards, and each card bears one of three icons. As soon as you collect two matching icons or all three icons, you must discard those cards and take a progress token from the center of the table, whether a face-up one or a mystery one. Some tokens are worth points, some give you bonus card draws each time you meet the right condition, and some give you a unique power.

• Red cards are military cards. Some show only a shield, and some show a shield with one or two horns (as with the one depicted above); if you take one of these latter cards, then you flip one or two of the octagonal conflict tokens to the red attack side. When all of these tokens are red, you compare your military strength (i.e., the number of shields you have) against each of your neighbors. For each neighbor you are stronger than, you score 3 points. (In a two-player game, such as the one above, you score 3 points for outranking the other player and 6 points if your military strength is double theirs.)

When someone has completed the fifth level of their wonder, the game ends at the end of their turn, then everyone tallies their points to see who wins.

You now know 93% of the rules to 7 Wonders: Architects, and if we had been sitting at the table together, we would already be through the first few rounds of the game. This is part of what Bauza means by "games that are welcoming to newcomers" — a game that you can learn as you go without having to download all of the information ahead of time, which is what is required to play 7 Wonders. (I know some people claim that 7 Wonders is a breeze to teach, but I think they're underestimating how much a new player needs to absorb so that they don't pick up their hand of cards and freeze.)


What else do you need to know?

Blue cards come in two types: 3 points and 2 points+a cat symbol, and when you take one of these later cards, you grab the cat totem from whoever has it. When you have this totem at the start of your turn, you can peek at the card on top of the central deck before drawing your card for that turn. In a two-player game, control of the totem is vital because it gives you an edge on the other player since both of you are drawing from the same three decks. With more players, the cat totem moves more frequently and someone might snatch the cat away before your turn even comes around again.


The value of many cards is situational, depending on the number of players in the game, which wonder you're building, and how far you are along in the game. In the image above, I'm the player closest to the camera, and I can choose mystery, 2 points+cat, or a shield — and while normally I might not care about a shield, four of the five conflict tokens are red, which means we'll like have a scoring soon, and if I don't take the shield, then the player after me might take it (since we share that deck), which means they would score 3 points off me instead of me scoring 3 points off them.

One additional consideration in this case is that military cards with horns are discarded following a scoring, while those without horns stay with players until the end of the game. In this case, I wouldn't be triggering the scoring myself, and I'd be halfway to matching the strength of the player to my right to keep them from scoring off me in the future.

That said, I have two progress tokens: one gives me a bonus draw from one of the three decks if I take a scroll or glass resource, and the other gives me a bonus draw if I take a wood or brick resource. (Apologies for the glare!) If I draw from the middle and get one of those resources, I'll then have a bonus draw, which means I could still grab the military card. Should we take a chance on getting two cards this turn, or go for the sure thing rather than potentially having the military used against us?


I've played 7 Wonders: Architects six times on a review copy from publisher Repos Production, twice each with two, four, and five players, and the winning scores have varied widely, as has the components making up the winning player's score.

In the case above, the player went all-in on Rhodes, used two science cards to grab the perfect progress token, then hit military regularly to score a bunch of points, while also constructing multiple levels of the wonder to end up with 52 points. In other games, a player has had 15 points in blue cards along with wonder points or multiple progress tokens that either provided points or drew extra cards, which sped building and ended the game before others really got going.

For more on the game, you can check out the videos below to see all the bits in the box — which includes my conjecture as to why this is a $50 game in the first place — and discover more examples of gameplay, while experiencing the "learn while playing" method described above and learning the powers of various wonders.

Youtube Video

Youtube Video Read more »

Publisher: Nerd Glows On

A dense urban fantasy hex-crawl through a macabre version of 1930s Kansas City - the Haunt of the Pendergeist! Featuring 130+ encounters with gangsters, sorcerers, heroin dealers, demons, and much more. Rage against the Pendergeist Machine, start a jazz band, rob a bank, find the lost treasure of Jesse James, go toe-to-toe with notorious gangsters, exorcise the ghost of Valentino, or solve numerous mysteries. Includes tables of background material for the ease of Referees and players. For use with traditional fantasy rules or any edition of dungeon-style games.

Price: $7.99 Read more »

Publisher: LPJ Design

Many superheroes have a surprising ability to return from the dead. For those who find no eternal rest, only a momentary respite in the grave, return to the world of the living good as new. Often, their return from the dead can bring tears of joy along with the perplexity and bewilderment of their friends, allies, loved ones and foes. Other times, in settings where superhero’s returning from death is a commonplace thing, resurrection and rebirth is a standard affair of daily life!

Price: $1.99 Read more »

Publisher: Seafoot Games

Join me on Patreon for $1 and get over 20 battlemaps a month. Experience how good level design can make encounters MUCH more engaging! 

Want one free map a week instead? Become part of my community on Facebook.

Price: $2.98 Read more »

Publisher: D10 Dimensions

In the futuristic genre of Cyberpunk, drugs are a common way to manipulate the masses and rack up some hefty corporate profits. And this includes offering cheap and addictive beer. Independent brewers have emerged to meet the need of thirsty citizens who want a strong drink after a long day in the rain but who don’t want to become a depressed suicidal addict after a six pack of doctored beer.

This tool can be added to any dark future campaign (like Cyberpunk Red, Altered Carbon, Shadowrun, Carbon 2185, etc.) where a bold and independent brewery exists to make quality beer. NOTE: All of the craft beers / illustrated cans in this product are produced and available in the real world from Zero Issue Brewing ( https://www.zeroissuebeer.com/ ). This is not a paid advertisement - we just like their charity work in the community, and we want to promote and support another creative small business.

This Roll Percentile list has fifty possible results in this format:

Roll result: Name of the craft beer (type or flavor of beer) Description of the can. The percent of alcohol by volume.

Example 51: Cyberhack (Sour NE Pale) This blue can shows an explorer in a laboratory full of monitors showing Winter sports. 5.2% ABV.

NEED CYBER CITY IN YOUR LIFE?

Join the facebook group: Cyber City - Dark Future RPG Ideas, Products and More

Price: $0.85 Read more »

Publisher: Fat Goblin Games

Publisher's Choice - Quality Stock Art

This collection of quality stock art figures include two versions of a Troll (b&w linework and color). Each full-body image is 4x6 or larger in size  (300dpi transparent tiff).

Publisher's Choice Stockart is provided to aid new publishing companies in creating high-quality publications by providing the design essentials to compete with larger competitors. In addition, the line is perfect for adding fresh new content to the seasoned publisher's art library and aiding in keeping design budgets manageable.

Artwork License: A PDF copy of our license is included, allowing our customers to alter or modify any illustration in this set, in addition to rules on crediting, etc.

Price: $6.00 Read more »

Publisher: Fat Goblin Games

Publisher's Choice - Quality Stock Art

This collection of quality stock art figures include two versions of a Troglodyte (b&w linework and color). Each full-body image is 4x6 or larger in size  (300dpi transparent tiff).

Publisher's Choice Stockart is provided to aid new publishing companies in creating high-quality publications by providing the design essentials to compete with larger competitors. In addition, the line is perfect for adding fresh new content to the seasoned publisher's art library and aiding in keeping design budgets manageable.

Artwork License: A PDF copy of our license is included, allowing our customers to alter or modify any illustration in this set, in addition to rules on crediting, etc.

Price: $6.00 Read more »

Publisher: Fat Goblin Games

Publisher's Choice - Quality Stock Art

This collection of quality stock art figures include two versions of a Triton (b&w linework and color). Each full-body image is 4x6 or larger in size  (300dpi transparent tiff).

Publisher's Choice Stockart is provided to aid new publishing companies in creating high-quality publications by providing the design essentials to compete with larger competitors. In addition, the line is perfect for adding fresh new content to the seasoned publisher's art library and aiding in keeping design budgets manageable.

Artwork License: A PDF copy of our license is included, allowing our customers to alter or modify any illustration in this set, in addition to rules on crediting, etc.

Price: $6.00 Read more »

Publisher: Fat Goblin Games

Publisher's Choice - Quality Stock Art

This collection of quality stock art figures include two versions of a Treant (b&w linework and color). Each full-body image is 4x6 or larger in size  (300dpi transparent tiff).

Publisher's Choice Stockart is provided to aid new publishing companies in creating high-quality publications by providing the design essentials to compete with larger competitors. In addition, the line is perfect for adding fresh new content to the seasoned publisher's art library and aiding in keeping design budgets manageable.

Artwork License: A PDF copy of our license is included, allowing our customers to alter or modify any illustration in this set, in addition to rules on crediting, etc.

Price: $6.00 Read more »

Publisher: Fat Goblin Games

Publisher's Choice - Quality Stock Art

This collection of quality stock art figures include two versions of a Svirfneblin (b&w linework and color). Each full-body image is 4x6 or larger in size  (300dpi transparent tiff).

Publisher's Choice Stockart is provided to aid new publishing companies in creating high-quality publications by providing the design essentials to compete with larger competitors. In addition, the line is perfect for adding fresh new content to the seasoned publisher's art library and aiding in keeping design budgets manageable.

Artwork License: A PDF copy of our license is included, allowing our customers to alter or modify any illustration in this set, in addition to rules on crediting, etc.

Price: $6.00 Read more »

A few weeks ago, I tweeted this…

Just curious… in this whatever part of the pandemic we are in, does anyone else have problems concentrating or being creative?

I have trouble reading and can’t even bring myself to play Minecraft.

All I can do is watch TV and TikTok.

— Phil Vecchione 🏳️‍🌈 (@DNAphil) September 1, 2021

I was not prepared for the number of people who also said that they were having concentration issues since the pandemic started. 

Before I posted that, I realized that I had been having trouble reading a rule book for a game that I was about to run, an activity that I have done hundreds of times in the four decades I have been gaming. It wasn’t just reading, I was having trouble staying focused when I was GMing and my games were very loose, with a lot of chatter, and not a lot of progress. 

Pandemic Focus Issues

To be clear, what I am talking about is not the “brain fog” that people who get covid-19 experience, that is a neurological issue that occurs because of a viral infection. 

What I am talking about is an inability to concentrate for those of us who are living in the middle of a pandemic, not sick, but having experienced the increased stress of trying to stay healthy, care for loved ones, keep working, tutor kids through virtual school, etc. This is not viral but rather psychological.

To be clear, I am no clinician, and I don’t have any official sources. There are plenty of articles about pandemic concentration if you search Google, and with all the responses to my tweet, I am not alone on this. 

That all said, I am having a serious inability to properly focus, due to the stresses of the pandemic. What does that have to do at all with gaming, and how does any of this become GMing advice? 

Hold on. I got you. I would not be posting this here if I couldn’t answer both of those.

Concentration in RPGs

RPG’s require a great deal of concentration, over a number of areas. I am going to do this from a GM perspective because we are on the Stew, but know that most of this applies to players as well. 

Away From the Table

Let’s start with things that are outside of the gaming session, where a lack of concentration could impact your gaming.

• Reading Rules – For sure, learning a new game, getting down how a new system works, requires concentration. A lack of concentration may make it hard to finish reading a ruleset or retain any of the rules. In more severe bouts, it may make reading impossible. 
• Being Creative – Focus and creativity go hand in hand. When one is disrupted the other suffers. Problems in concentration are going to impact your ability to brainstorm ideas for your game, be it the plot for a new story or some environmental challenges for your big combat scene.
• Session Prep – Session prep is work, and work requires concentration. If you are having trouble concentrating you are going to have problems getting your session prepped, and that may result in the process taking longer, impacting other things you have going on, or worse, it being so bad that you can’t get your game prepped and have to cancel. 

At the Table 

If that list was not bad enough, concentration issues are going to affect your running of the game as well. 

• Shared Narrative Space – RPGs exist in the collective consciousness of the players of the game. The reason they work is through the creation of a shared narrative space, where each of us is imagining approximately the same thing. It is through this shared narrative space that we as gamers can take our actions without colliding with each other (honestly, I need to do a whole article about this concept). Nevertheless, maintaining shared narrative space requires concentration. If you are having issues with concentration you are going to start having problems with understanding where everyone is in the room, what actions they are taking, etc., which will lead to having to re-explain things, incorrect actions taken, re-do’s, etc. 
• Table Control – As a GM, sometimes it is our responsibility (though not sole responsibility) to keep the table focused and progressing through the story. When your focus is diminished the game can drift into table chatter, side conversations, jokes, YouTube videos, etc. 
• Creativity – Turns out you also have to be creative at the table as well, more so when you are running in a more ad-lib (read: improv) style. Concentration issues during a session can mess with your ability to come up with a cool scene idea based on things that are unfolding in the game, it may keep you in your comfort zone using your go-to tropes, etc. 

All of this is to say that I think I made my first point, that concentration issues are going to impact your game somewhere. 

Ways to Combat Focus Issues

Ok, so you are having some focus issues, me too. You also don’t want to stop GMing because the positive benefits of GMing to your mental health are important for your continued survival during this pandemic. I am with you. Me too. 

So, until a time when the stresses of your life lower, how do you function with diminished concentration? I have a few ideas.

• Be kind to yourself – First thing, you cannot beat yourself up over this. We are living in extraordinary times and we are doing what we can. Getting angry at yourself for this is not going to improve things. Accept that right now your concentration is not what it use to be. 
• Stick to Familiar Systems – If you are having trouble reading new rules, it might be a good idea to run games you are familiar with. Take that pressure off of yourself, and run things that you know. Also, games you are familiar with, especially the ones that you really enjoy, are going to have a higher chance of producing those good brain feelings when you run them, and that is what we are looking for.
• Use Published Adventures – If your concentration issues are impacting your ability to prep a session, try running a published adventure. It is going to require some reading and prep, but often not as much as reading a rulebook or prepping a whole game from scratch. 
• Use some published adventure seeds – If you don’t want to go the fully published route, or the game you are playing does not have published adventures, then consider a GM aid that will give you the adventure seed that you can prep or ad-lib into a full adventure. I would be remiss not to mention Eureka: 501 Plots To Inspire Game Masters (DTRPG Link).
• Use a Focus Prompt to keep the table focused – Turns out that I have had table control/focus issues before. A few years ago (cough…cough…ten years) I wrote an article about using a symbol on the table to indicate that the table should be focused. Mine is a 75mm d6 (read about it here).
• Ask for help in keeping the table focused – The GM is not the only person who can help keep a table focused. Enlist the other players. Tell them you are having focus issues, and ask them to help you stay focused as well as keep the table settled.
• Find something inspiring – I have found, for me, that being inspired about something has given me bursts of more focus. That may mean switching games, it may mean a new adventure path, etc. 

Your Mileage Will Vary

How we deal with stress affects everyone differently. You might be fine reading- in fact, it may be one of your pandemic coping mechanisms – but your focus at the table may be impaired. It could be that you are fine at the table but can’t focus between games. Or it may be that everything is somewhat degraded but nothing is impossible, just harder. Or it could be that you can’t get a game together. 

This is to say that not everything I listed as potential issues may apply to you, and not every solution I presented may be applicable. You are going to need to do some introspection and figure out where you are and then look for ways to address those needs. 

For me, reading has been the hardest thing. This makes me sad because I love reading gamebooks and other fiction. Right now, I can’t sit and read, or at least not for any appreciable time. I am, however, able to get my prep done for my games. My games are somewhat productive, but I do have bouts where I lose control of the table; sometimes I get it back, and sometimes I don’t. 

I Think Things Will Get Better

I don’t really know. Historically, pandemics don’t last forever, and at some point, there is a reasonable chance that we will reach a post-pandemic world where some of the stresses we have experienced for the past 18 months will be gone again, and when that happens things will be better for our concentration. It is a nice thing to wish for.

In the here and now, we can make incremental progress. We can adapt and find ways to keep gaming. Not to trivialize things, but in 40 years of gaming, my life has changed a number of times (school, marriages, children, careers) and I have always found a way to game, because of how important gaming is to my well-being. The same holds true here. We can adapt and find ways to keep gaming. We just need to be kind to ourselves, recognize the change, and then find a way to stay at the table and keep gaming. 

I know I am going to, and I hope that you are as well. Good luck. 

Have you had concentration problems since the pandemic started? Where is it affecting your gaming? Have you found ways to cope or are you still working at it?

Read more »

A popular (and very wise) piece of advice in storytelling and running an RPG is to make sure all of your storylines, plot hooks, and side elements support the main story arc or campaign arc that is currently underway. I totally agree with this advice, but I wanted to point out that sometimes a side quest can be relaxing for the players. This is especially true if the players are aware that a poor decision that impacts the story of the side quest won’t negatively alter the campaign story arc. There are several factors that I’ve come up with on ways a side quest “just for the fun of it” can be beneficial to the flow of your game.

Downtime Alternative

If there is downtime in your game (either as an official mechanic or just a lax period between adventures), this would be a good time to have a side quest pop up. If the PCs don’t have any plans for the downtime that you’ll disrupt, then pull out a side quest that you may have laying around and run them through it. It’ll allow the game time to pass, but without the boring narrator voice saying, “two weeks later” and then picking up where the group left off.

Change the Focus

If your game is one of court intrigue, political plots, deep character interactions, or pulling on the threads of family ties, maybe you can change the narrative a bit with a dungeon crawl. Of course, you’ll need a sweet hook to convince the star-crossed lovers to venture into a dungeon, but that should be easy enough to come up with since you’ll know the characters and their motivations by this point in the campaign.

On the flip side, if your game is all about dungeon crawling, have the PCs receive an invite to the duke’s next ball. If they’re high enough level, they’ve certainly gained some sort of fame or reputation, and might be a “set piece” that the duke wants to include at the ball just so people have something to talk about (or someone to talk to) other than fellow nobles. Dropping your uncouth barbarian or aloof wizard into this scenario can lead to some great role playing opportunities. It might also lead to gaining a patron that will boost the PCs to greater heights.

Experiment

If you’ve found a cool magical effect, monster, environment, or setting that you want to tinker with just for a short bit, then a side quest might be the way to go. You can mix ‘n’ match these experimental elements or rules into your game as part of the side quest and have some fun with them.

Have a Blast

Has it been a while since your group just cranked out some damage in the nearby goblin caves? Maybe the troglodytes in the nearby swamp are getting uppity and dangerous and need to be put in their place. Perhaps the cloud giant king has been throwing his trash (or chamber pots) overboard from his cloud city into the lands below and someone needs to diplomatically fly up to have a meet ‘n’ greet with him.

Whatever the nature of the side quest, make it fun. Don’t over challenge the PCs. That’s not the point of a “for the fun of it” side quest. (Next article, I’ll talk about more “serious” side quests that matter to the campaign.) This should, in theory, be something that is easy for them to work through. It’ll give them a sense of accomplishment, especially if they are stymied on progress in the main campaign story arc.

Boosting Character Power

If the next Big Campaign Thing you have planned is more potent than the PCs can handle at the moment, you can send them on a side quest (or two). That will allow them to soak up those precious experience points, gain some much-needed gold, and maybe acquire a few new spells or magic items. I’ve done this quite a bit where the campaign dictates that the next story arc be more difficult than I’d like for the PCs. Yes, you can always adjust the power levels down for the Big Bad and the minions, but if that doesn’t ring true to the story you’re telling, you’ll need some side quests in hand.

Conclusion

Have you ever run a side quest just for the fun of it? How did that work out? Hopefully, it wasn’t a Total Party Kill (try real hard to avoid that on a side quest), but it should have also provided some challenges. This way the players would have felt like they earned whatever rewards were gained.

Read more »

I never spent much time with the Call of Cthulhu version of Achtung! Cthulhu, but I own the Fate version of the game. The idea that characters will potentially be bringing heavy artillery against mythos creatures sets a much different tone than I usually associate with Call of Cthulhu. The pulp action feel did feel like a good fit for Fate. Unlike Call of Cthulhu, where you may be risking your sanity to perform a ritual to send mythos creatures away, or you just run, in Achtung! Cthulhu, calling in an airstrike or finding an experimental ray gun are viable options.

Despite the more “direct approach” that characters are expected to take, however, even the Fate version of the game spent a lot of time looking at timelines of the actual war, and even the list of inspirational material skewed towards a more traditional look at WWII engagements, with Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade as the main media which engaged with supernatural elements.

Today we’re going to be looking at the new version of Achtung! Cthulhu, published by Modiphius, both the Player’s Guide and Gamemaster’s Guide. I don’t usually bite off more than one product at a time in an article, but it’s hard to separate a game that launches with both the Player’s Guide and Gamemaster’s Guide at the same time.

The version of Achtung! Cthulhu presented in the 2d20 books very much presents super-science and supernatural adventures in the forefront, with the war as a backdrop to those stories. This version of the rules feels very much at home using things like Hellboy and Captain America: The First Avenger as inspiration as well.

Disclaimer

I was provided with the PDFs for both the Player’s Guide and the Gamemaster’s Guide from Modiphius. They have also been providing me with the adventures that have been leading up to the official launch of this game line, which I’ve been looking at on my own blog.

Secret Files of the Secret Wars

This first impression is based on the PDFs of these products. Both books are full color, with covers that emulate pulp magazine covers, right down to calling these out as “issues 1 and 2” of the series. The background of the pages are slightly crumpled, with a beige and olive drab color scheme that gives them a WWII era military feel.

Artwork in the books follows a similar theme. There are pages that present information as notes on corkboards, or photographs clipped to file folders. Pages are weathered around the edges. Several call-out boxes are formatted as typed pages of a report. There may also be a few bloodstains here and there.

The Player’s Guide is 191 pages, and includes a credits page, a table of contents, a three-page character sheet, and a two-page index. It is broken up into the following chapters:

• Introduction
• A Secret War?
• Playing the Game
• Action
• Heroes are Forged
• Talents
• Tools of the Trade
• Vehicles
• Magic
• The March of History
• Allied Forces

The Gamemaster’s Guide is 271 pages long including a credits page, a table of contents, and a two-page index. It is broken up into the following sections:

• Introduction
• The Secret War
• Secret Weapons of the Secret War
• Magic and the Mythos
• The Gamemaster
• Heroes and Villains of the Secret War
• Bestiary

There is some repeated content between the two books, mainly in presenting history or general resolution structures. In these cases, the Gamemaster’s Guide generally expounds on what was presented in the Player’s Guide and adds more nuance and options to what was presented in that book.

The Game System

Previous versions of Achtung! Cthulhu were produced for Call of Cthulhu and Fate, but this current version uses Modiphius’ 2d20 system. This is the same system used for other games like Star Trek Adventures, Dishonored, Fallout, and Dune: Adventures in the Imperium.

If you aren’t familiar with the 2d20 system, each implementation has a few tweaks to better emulate the setting for which the games were written. In most games, characters will have abilities and skills. Adding both together creates a target number that the player will try to roll under on a d20. Difficulties range from 0 to 5, and if your character has a specialization of some kind, rolling under both your target number and your skill produces two successes.

There are two kinds of narrative currency for players – momentum, and fortune. Momentum is freer flowing, with fortune having some more powerful effects, but being harder to get after your initial supply. Gamemasters have their own currency, threat. You can use these to buy extra dice or pay for other narrative permissions. Characters that are out of momentum can grant the Gamemaster threat to buy extra dice, and some Gamemaster NPC effects cost threat to trigger.

In addition to Attributes and Skills, characters can have talents, which are very similar to feats or stunts in other games. They give bonuses in certain circumstances or allow the character to ignore or twist some of the other rules of the game. This includes “weird” talents, that may represent supernatural abilities, or other talents that represent characters that have learned magic from a tradition, rigorous study, or reckless practice. Battlefield magic usually involves a skill check on the field, which may take its toll on the caster in the form of stress. Spells can be miscast, and some spells may be imperfectly learned, and have lesser, more dangerous effects when cast.

Characters have a stress track, which is the same track for both mental and physical attacks. The type of stress suffered does determine if a wound is physical or mental, which changes the kind of endangerment that befalls a character. Surviving a near death (or near breakdown) gives the character a scar. There are examples of both physical and mental versions of these.

Through the 2d20 Lens

If you are familiar with other 2d20 games, the magic system is less complicated than the Sorcery from Conan, but a little more complicated than the supernatural powers from Dishonored. Unlike Dishonored, a character picks a subset of spells that are active in their mantle, rather than having access to all of their known spells all at once.

The momentum attrition in the game is more accelerated, like in Conan, where it erodes at a rate of 1 momentum per round in combat, as opposed the 1 per scene erosion that is common to non-combat scenes to other 2d20 games, and is always true in Star Trek Adventures.

Both characters and monsters in the game are meant to spend more time on the battlefield taking punishment. Unlike some 2d20 games where a single wound can take a character out, and two are very serious, characters in Achtung! Cthulhu take three before they are dying or in danger of breaking down. Various supernatural characters and creatures may gain additional wounds they can suffer before being defeated, and larger and bulkier creatures take more stress before they suffer a wound. Instead of tracking special currencies for NPCs, effects that player characters trigger with fortune are often triggered by the GM by spending multiple points of threat.

What Goes Where

The Player’s Guide gives an overview of the power groups active in the setting, broadly explaining Section M, Majestic, Black Sun, Nachtwolfe, Mi-Go, and the Deep Ones. There is an explanation of the 2d20 rules, how combat works, and the character creation rules, including talents. Mundane or generally common equipment and vehicles are detailed, as well as the magical traditions available to player characters. There is a quick overview of history, and some statistics for allied forces, but without stats for the more important NPCs in the setting.

Characters pick an archetype, pick a nationality, and a background. There is a list of common nationalities that include the following:

• Australia
• Canada
• Czechoslovakia
• France
• India
• Norway
• Poland
• United Kingdom
• United States
• USSR

All the other aspects of character creation can be determined by random die roll, and the common nationalities can be determined this way. However, there are “expanded nationalities” that can be chosen but aren’t presented as the default. These include Belgium, Cameroon, Ceylon, Cyprus, Denmark, Gambia, Ghana, Greece, Ireland, Kenya, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Nigeria, Rhodesia, South Africa, Spain, the Caribbean, the Netherlands, and Yugoslavia.

We’ll circle back around to this, but there is a sidebar stating that the game isn’t meant to be historically accurate, so marginalized people should be allowed to play whatever role they wish. They also mention that many of the nations on the expanded list are likely to have the background that denotes that they are from colonies of Great Britain, brought in to fight for the Queen.

The magical traditions presented for player character use are the Celtic tradition, Runic spells, and psychic and ESP talents. In the Player’s Guide, it mentions that the United States doesn’t have much in the way of long-term magical traditions, so they developed psychic individuals. We’ll revisit that assumption in a bit. For characters that want to play traditions other than Celtic or Runic, players are told to rename existing spell effects to match that tradition.

The Gamemaster’s Guide has a much more extensive presentation of both World War II events, with an eye towards supernatural events and the history of the organizations presented in these books. The history of the war is very much presented as happening in a very specific way, complete with what I assume are the events of previously published adventures. While it can be extrapolated, the main events that aren’t detailed are those events that are called out as being detailed in upcoming adventures and campaign guides.

There are references to more mythos creatures that play lesser roles in the overall conflict, as well as infighting between mythos creatures and power groups. The historical narrative jumps around a lot, as different fronts are revealed to have supernatural elements. This is all presented as background, and not written specifically to a GM using this setting material in an ongoing campaign.

The weapons chapter of the Gamemaster’s Guide features more super science, magical, and alien equipment, some of which can be used by player characters. Player characters can gain access to some of these items through a requisition system presented in this book. That means that when characters are going on critical missions that are known to involve supernatural threats, they have a much better chance at getting that lightning gun, or the specially empowered hand-to-hand weapons they may need to face the threat.

Some of the gear is wholly the property of the Deep Ones or the Mi-Go, with little chance that a player character is going to be able to use that item, although they may see it used against them. Since all requisitioned and confiscated items are collected by parent agencies at the end of missions, PCs aren’t expected to have an ever-expanding list of extraordinary weapons, although they can always requisition their favorites again later.

The magic section of the Gamemaster’s Guide provides more traditions and rituals, although these are more GM facing in nature. While some heroes may learn mythos spells and rituals, they are mainly the domain of NPCs. In addition to traditions stemming from service to various mythos creatures, there are also a collection of Mythos Tomes that detail various spells and rituals, as well as granting bonuses on various checks made to identify supernatural creatures and phenomenon. While the majority of both books focus on a pulp action tone, this section feels the most like a 2d20 treatment of the Cthulhu Mythos, with some pretty grim rituals, and some bleak histories associated with various tomes.

The Gamemaster section is probably one of my favorite Gamemaster sections in any of the 2d20 books that I have read. It very clearly presents how to frame scenes, how to gauge opposition in the system, and is extremely clear when presenting rules like extended tasks. It also has a very good treatment on pacing the player-facing currencies and awarding XP. While I wish it had more on safety, session zero, and setting expectations (more on this later), the advice it has specifically for this implementation of the 2d20 system is very good and is probably worth reading if you run other 2d20 games as well.

Heroes and Villains of the Secret War has more stats for Allied troops and special operatives of Majestic and Section M, as well as stat blocks for the leaders of those organizations. It also includes Black Sun and Nachtwolfe forces, including undead minions and mutagenically altered soldiers. The leaders of both of those organizations are given stats here as well. There are “famous” units associated with the Allied organizations, such as Gopal’s Gurkhas and the Pathfinder Demon Hunters, which despite being famous for their training in fighting supernatural forces, don’t seem to warrant “named” NPC leaders.

The bestiary rounds out the Gamemaster’s book, including everyday animals, horrors and monstrosities, and a staggering array of different stat blocks for Deep Ones and Mi-Go. The final section of the bestiary includes stats for various Great Old Ones. I take a weird pleasure in reading game breaking stats for various cataclysmic entities but given that in this setting you might build a supernaturally equipped tank regiment, maybe you do have a chance to temporarily disrupt the physical form of one of these creatures. This section also highlights how the system deals with extreme statistics. Since stats in the game are used for a roll under mechanic, stats above 20 don’t make much sense. In the case of powerful supernatural creatures, they instead gain a number of additional successes that are added to their initial success if one is rolled on the die.

Safety, Sensitivity, and Tone

This is a game set during World War II, where some of the greatest atrocities in human history happened. This is a time when the Nazis were capable of breathtaking evil, but Great Britain was still in its Imperialist phase, dominating cultures around the globe, and the United States wouldn’t allow the troops fighting for the nation to deploy in non-racially segregated units. Despite the atrocities of the Nazis, Great Britain and the United States heavily bombed the German city of Dresden for tenuously being a communication hub, but really killing 20,000+ people to break the will of Germany towards the end of the war. There was a lot going on.

The book has a few scattered sidebars discussing how it is important to not dwell on the most horrific aspects of the war, especially if it makes people at the table uncomfortable. Some of the sidebars mention not restricting characters from marginalized groups from taking part in aspects of the war where they would have likely been excluded. The focus, reinforced in these sidebars, is that the game is about pulp action, where the PCs are fighting clearly evil Nazis and clearly monstrous supernatural creatures.

Despite wanting to set a pulp tone, however, it’s impossible not to introduce actual historical issues into the game without completely rewriting the history of the war. The tone is very patriotic regarding the resolve and bravery of the British and the Americans, but casually mentioning the segregated fighter pilots of the Red Tails, or the Indian troops deployed by the British, without spending any time discussing the reality of the situation, feels very superficial.

There is a Japanese American character that joined Majestic after his family moved to America, fleeing Japanese Imperialism . . . but within a year of joining, that character’s family is likely to be held in internment camps in California.

The Pathfinder Demon Hunters are Tlingit Indigenous people, people from the Pacific Northwest, in Canada and Alaska, are noted as learning how to fight the supernatural by opposing “Wendigo.” Wendigo is an Indigenous spirit from Algonquin people. It’s used as the name of a mythos creature that may have been the inspiration for Wendigo and Yetis in different cultures, but since the name “Ithaqua” isn’t in public domain, Wendigo becomes the name of the entity. But the problem is, using a sprit’s name from the Algonquin people for a spirit harrowing Tlingit people perpetuates the idea that all Indigenous people are a monoculture.

I’m not saying you can’t do a pulp action story in World War II, and that you can’t focus on fighting Nazis and the supernatural. But you don’t do any favors to your own product by both pointing out racist and imperialist events on the side of your “heroes,” and then saying to gloss over those issues to not ruin the pulp feel of the setting.

What could be done in this circumstance? Having a whole chapter discussing how to address these issues in game, how to set tone and expectation, how to have a session zero, and what active safety tools to use would help a lot. Having sections of the book that deal with marginalized people highlighted instead of buried in text would be great as well. We’re seeing more and more games that deal with Cthulhu addressing Lovecraft’s racism, and more and more big budget RPGs spending significant page space on topics like safety. A book that deals with actual Nazis, Lovecraft’s legacy, imperial Britain, and segregationist America, really should have a devoted section dealing with this.

Observations

If you are wondering what you can do with the Player’s Guide, and if you need the Gamemaster’s Guide, I will say that you could run all of the adventures they have published so far with just the Player’s Guide, but the Gamemaster’s Guide is going to be much more useful if you plan on writing your own adventures, as well as better understanding why the system does what it does with its rules.

I wish that the history section in the Gamemaster’s Guide were framed more as a GM facing tour of potential game scenarios. By presenting it as history, almost all the war is mapped out, and it makes the space for your PCs feel constrained by all these things that “will” happen. Instead of the linear narrative, I would have loved to have seen different fronts described in terms of what factions and plans are active there, with a few adventure hooks for each of these fronts. From looking at the Fate treatment of the setting, I also really wish we had seen some of the Soviet supernatural organizations that were detailed in that book. Anytime the book mentions Russian or Japan, it almost feels jarring, since these rulebooks do little to establish any supernatural elements to those nations. Also, I’m pretty sure Italy existed.

Hope and Expectations

Where it does focus on two-fisted heroes blowing up super science bases, or paranormal scholars traveling to remote locations to disrupt potentially cataclysmic rituals, I want to play this game. I want to picture people like Captain Carter or Professor Broom fighting people like the Red Skull or Karl Rupert Kroenen.

I would love to see more magical and supernatural traditions detailed, rather than leaning on “reflavoring” the existing traditions. That said, if those traditions are based on marginalized communities, I really want to see people from those communities writing those sections of the books. For example, while we were told there wasn’t much in the way of supernatural traditions in America, Majestic has a base in New Orleans specifically for recruiting practitioners of Voodoo. I want to see that tradition, and details on that base, but I want to see it written by someone who should be telling that story.

While much of what I want to see probably should have been in a Gamemaster’s Guide, I would love to see an “Atlas of the Secret War” that details various sites around the world and gives marginalized voices the chance to write about those locations. I would also hope that such an “Atlas” would end up with the treatment on safety, tone, and session zero practices that these books should have included.

I may have been hard on this product, but where it does focus on two-fisted heroes blowing up super science bases, or paranormal scholars traveling to remote locations to disrupt potentially cataclysmic rituals, I want to play this game. I want to picture people like Captain Carter or Professor Broom fighting people like the Red Skull or Karl Rupert Kroenen. But seeing how great supernatural media like HBO’s Watchmen or Lovecraft Country handle uncomfortable truths about our past, I don’t want to preserve the pulp feel by just putting blinders on.

I think this game line has some amazing potential. I think it’s exciting, and it’s a great implementation of the 2d20 system. The Gamemaster’s Guide is at its best when discussing how to use the tools to tell a story. I just want to see the presentation of the setting grow beyond what may have seemed like an acceptable presentation of history in 2012 as a setting for Call of Cthulhu.

Looking Forward

What are your favorite historical settings for RPG? What is your favorite system for historical roleplaying? What game has done the best job of marrying fictional content with historical content? We want to hear from you in the comments below.

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Join Ang, Jared, and Phil for a discussion about burning out as a GM, the ways it can happen, and what you can do about it.

Download: Gnomecast #125 – GM Burnout

• Phil’s article “Losing Interest”
• Ang’s article “GMing Fatigue”
• Phil’s article “The Rebound Game”
• Gnomecast #44 – Resisting the Shiny

Follow Jared at @WhatDoIKnowJR on Twitter, check out his other blog What Do I Know?, and check out his text-to-speech podcast What Do I Know?

Follow Phil at @DNAphil on Twitter and check out his other work at Encoded Designs and Panda’s Talking Games.

Follow Ang at @orikes13 on Twitter and see pictures of her cats at @orikes13 on Instagram.

Keep up with all the gnomes by visiting gnomestew.com, following @gnomestew on Twitter, or visiting the Gnome Stew Facebook Page. Subscribe to the Gnome Stew Twitch channel, check out Gnome Stew Merch, catch the Gnome Stew YouTube channel, and support Gnome Stew on Patreon!

For another great show on the Misdirected Mark network, check out the Misdirected Mark podcast!

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Want to add intrigue to your roleplaying session? Perhaps, even to devote two or three sessions to a plot thread? 

Then consider using a jousting tournament as the centerpiece to your session devoted to courtly intrigues and all manner of opportunities for your adventuring party members to demonstrate their talents and skills. 

History, legend, literature and film all can provide great inspirational material for your tilts. Don’t think of it solely as a competition of martial horsemanship. It’s a parade and a spectacle; an instrument of statecraft; a playground for poets, protesters and political operatives; a demonstration of religion and the arts; and fertile ground from which chivalrous romance and fanciful heraldry can blossom.

A visual feast

Looking for inspiration? Consider the accession day festivals organized by England’s Queen Elizabeth, which were entertainment platforms to amuse the populace, assert the loyalty of the nobles while diverting their attention from succession issues, and generally propagandize her rule. One account from 1584 says 12,000 people crowded into the tiltyard at Whitehall to see the parade and afternoon’s contests.

Nearly the first part of the novel “Ivanhoe” is a depiction of the events and intrigues leading up to a jousting tournament. There is a great deal to be gleaned about medieval politics and how they relate to the joust, melee, and archery contests.

Even films, be they light fare such as the Heath Ledger star vehicle “A Knight’s Tale” or nearly every depiction of the Robin Hood legend, can be source material for a gamemaster.  

Working themes

Here are some themes the GM can play with in working up encounters during a tournament.

1) Masks. Ivanhoe hides his identity as the Disinherited. As does Ledger as “Sir Ulrich Von Liechtenstein”. And “disguises” were much used by the entrants into Elizabeth’s tilts – though it was less about hiding the identity of nobles (everyone knew who the players were), but the costumes were seen as ways for particular nobles to make statements about themselves, their status within the realm, or aspects of their devotion to the crown and Elizabeth in particular. It was a way to publicly make a statement, or if you judged incorrectly, upstage the monarch.

And the Robin Hood legend usually includes Robin entering the archery list hiding his identity as an outlaw so that he can win by splitting an arrow.

2) Black Knights. It’s hard to top the sneering of Rufus Sewell’s Adhemar. But it is interesting that Black Knights are not necessarily “bad.” It’s more like the mask thing. Some are out of favor, or hiding their identity for a variety of reasons.  In “A Knight’s Tale,” “Colville” is actually James Purefoy as Prince Edward, riding in disguise. Of course, the coolest Black Knight is from “Ivanhoe” – actually Richard the Lionheart, competing in the melee, using the disguise to infiltrate the tournament run by his brother Prince John, who is supposed to be caretaker of the throne, and suss out his true intentions. Sometimes, events in the tilt spill over into kidnappings and sieges as rivals take their contests to their strongholds in the countryside.

3) Chivalry. Yes, the knights ride in the name of a lady, a muse for their exploits. But this idea of courtly love can be expanded to any competitor, even to the spectators themselves, whether they be noble blood or not and regardless of gender. The tournament fosters the idea of romantic gestures, of gallant action, of the theater (and even pretense) of love. A hand to win. A token of affection. An actual marriage contract must be fulfilled. All are in-roads into the intrigues of court. 

One example of breaking away from traditional gender roles comes from the Wheel of Time novels, when Elayne, daughter-heir of the Lion Throne, publicly makes the heroic archer Bridgette the captain of her guard and privately her personal knight-protector. Bridgette forms an all-female protective brigade for Elayne. To dupe foes, the brigade adopts a foppish attitude (similar to the Three Musketeers) and projects the image of a group more concerned with fashionable appearance and frivolity. But they secretly train and drill to become an elite group. These intrigues and deceptions are all about maintaining the upper hand, especially during public appearances.

4) Power grabs. Everyone enters the tournament season looking to improve or retain their social standing, especially in regard to the sovereign. There are displays of loyalty (or either defiance or independence; sometimes a counter approach works, too).  Anyone who competes is vulnerable to being injured (and removed from the line of succession).  It’s not just knights and champions. Contests exist for every profession, mages and merchants alike. Rogues facilitate the players, or make power plays themselves. Petitioners come from every corner, as do pilgrims.

5) Invasion. The prospects of war adds spice to the proceedings. So does nail-biting diplomacy between rival states or factions. One of the most interesting uses of this device comes from the Carolingian Romances, when Angelica and Argalia interrupt Charlemagne’s Pentecostal tournament and issue a challenge: Any of the Peers who lose in single combat must accompany them and fight for their father, the King of Cathay. Of course, it is a cheat, for Argalia’s lance is enchanted and Angelica will use her charms to entice the paladins to enter the contest rashly. 

Did we forget about the joust itself? There is a tournament to win, after all! Just remember, there’s more to this than lances and charging mounts. It’s statecraft on a micro level, so salt the tournament field accordingly and see what the players pick as avenues of adventure for their characters.

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content warning: harassment, sexual misconduct. reader discretion is advised

Arcadum, or Jeremy Black as many know him, has recently come under fire as more than thirteen public-facing women have come out with allegations of misconduct. From manipulation between supposed friends, sexual harassment towards women he supported financially, to outright cheating on his significant other, Arcadum’s situation has been a mess. There are a handful of videos on YouTube covering it, from Destiny to yours truly, so you can get all the information you want from there.

Even more recently, Arcadum has released a statement confirming this situation as one where he had broken the trust and betrayed the friendships of these relationships.

With his apology, thus ends his chapter.

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So what’s next?

In this piece, I aim to analyze the current situation of Tabletop RPGs and streaming and speculate on future projections of the trajectory of the community.

The main issue with any major Dungeons & Dragons / Tabletop RPG streamer being shut down is that it casts a shadow over the entire community as a whole. Any other streamer typically flits between games so if they get taken down, it only looks bad at themselves. However, prior to the advent of Critical Role, Dungeons & Dragons has always been associated with the most negative elements of nerd culture: elitism, gatekeeping, sexism, and asocial behaviors (despite its inherently communal nature). From Dungeon Masters railroading the campaign and forcing players into situations they have no input on, to forcing uncomfortable sexual behaviors onto the players or even controlling the Player Characters in character breaking ways when absent, the history of the DM-Player hierarchy of Dungeons & Dragons has been riddled with horror stories through the decades.

This has led to many people, both among content creators and the general public, avoiding the game entirely.

More than a handful of streamers have indicated within the last year that “TTRPGs seem fun but I don’t wanna get into a game with creeps and weirdos.” This showcases that despite the vast improvements Critical Role and Arcadum have made to highlight the positive elements of Dungeons & Dragons, it has only started to shake the rusty stigma surrounding the blade.

Arcadum, in his rise, had led a community stating “D&D is for everyone,” highlighting that women’s voices have been overshadowed and they should be featured just as well as men have. Despite the truth of that statement, Arcadum’s interest seems conflicted. Moderators and other important members of his community have pointed out that he has a tendency to overshadow male players in favor of placing female players. The latest chapter of the main story of his game which had previously been occupied by important players of the past was notably given to female players with no experience or tie-ins to the game. This seems to align with recent allegations and this suggests that he placed these women in these positions in order to garner favor with them, painting a darker shade to his intentions.

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—The Foreboding Future—

Arcadum’s actions, despite his public-facing intentions of making “D&D for everyone,” have impacted the game in a negative manner, casting a cloud of doubt on Gamemasters that rise to prominence in the community. A certain situation involving Adam Koebel comes to mind. Both situations involved highly influential streamers, both loud feminists that have angrily called out sexism in social media, and both were involved in the misuse of power over female players.

With 250k followers on Twitch and 93k subscribers on YouTube, Arcadum’s influence and subsequent fall are not unfelt. As he commonly reached out to major streamers (from AdmiralBahroo, Lilypichu, Disguised Toast, Ironmouse, and many more) for games, he had potentially introduced D&D to millions of prospective players.

Is it possible that this dark narrative can cast Dungeons & Dragons into the darkness, the corners of nerd-dom where no one fears to tread? Are we doomed to be shunned back into our basements, running dice under poorly lit tables and arguing about Rules-As-Written vs Rules-As-Intended?

Not a chance.

It’s unlikely because, despite the hiccup here and there, the major influence of Critical Role and other more positive creators still shine enough of a good light on the rest of us. However, being the 2nd most subscribed D&D streamer (having topped 15,000 subscribers on Twitch) is no joke. It is most certainly a major step backward for the community and mainstream acceptance, placing many prospective players and creators on the defensive.

Dungeon Masters worldwide — at least those with players aware of Arcadum — will have to effectively prove themselves all over again, even if they or their players had never even witnessed an Arcadum stream. This sort of thing presses forward into the mainstream and the wide umbrella of hobbyists will have to take the flak in fallout. This, in many ways, is somehow even worse than the Adam Koebel situation as it points to a systematic observation of Dungeon Masters, their perceived ego, and flagrant misuse of power. Any trawler of the r/RPGhorrorstories subreddit will tell you that there is often a weird correlation between Gamemasters and ego. And, unlike Adam K., Arcadum had a major influence across major streamers and many communities past the centralized tabletop RPG scene.

I believe Tabletop RPGs will always have a niche market, with Dungeons & Dragons primarily leading the charge into the mainstream. Prominent creators will eventually arise and bring attention to it, but likely not to the massive success certain games have with far less history behind them — games such as Among Us comes to mind. This works as a dual-edged blade: those seeking a game with a rich history in its creation and in fandom will find Tabletop RPGs to be perfect for them. Yet at the same time, this history will always hold its progression back. From decades of racist caricature that’s only been recently retconned as non-canon and outdated, to a history of Dungeon Masters taking advantage of players, to toxic players ruining the game for everyone, we will always be struggling to shrug off our tainted history. Hopefully, as the hobby expands into the mainstream, more players will come in and that history will long be left forgotten… At least until the next prolific Dungeon Master lets power get to their head on stream.

 

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—Final Thoughts—

Tabletop RPGs are still a niche hobby, regardless of their (mostly 5e) surge into the mainstream. Every single major mover and shaker is a pioneer in this budding environment. A power vacuum has erupted from where Arcadum plotted his castle and the next big D&D streamer is going to rise in their place. Assuming there even will be one. Let’s just hope that the next figurehead has better intentions.

Until then, the Dungeons & Dragons category is still a fairly popular Twitch category (at least compared to the more accurate but woefully underpopulated Tabletop RPGs category — honestly it’s far more effective to stream non-D&D TRPGs but use the tag anyways than it would be to use the more general tag but this is an ENTIRE rant on its own…) just waiting for those to populate it. From prep streams to AMAs (ask me anything), to Season 2 Episode 15 of some group’s campaign, you’ll hopefully find a new favorite to watch. One far less likely to be run by a creep.

Hopefully, that favorite is me (psst it’s twitch.tv/dicequeendi).

Signing off,

— Di.

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It is common practice for tabletop RPG players to use their smartphone during a gaming session. You will see them checking their email in between turns, texting someone who isn’t there and even taking pictures of the game. Is this behavior rude? Should the DM regulate cellphone etiquette at your table?

In this article, I discuss some of the pros and cons of allowing your players to use their cellphones, smartphones, or whatever devices they have at the gaming table. I’m sure this topic has been discussed ad nauseum, but I hope to bring a balanced perspective about this issue in tabletop RPG etiquette.

1. What etiquette should be followed at the tabletop RPG gaming table

No one should play a tabletop RPG game without following some agreed upon etiquette (or common acceptable rules of behavior). In regards to the topic of cell phone use, before any campaign, you may want to ask your group if it is alright to pick up your phone and use it.

Maybe your group is more lax, and this entire issue is moot. But, like in a movie theater, it could be rude to be on your phone while playing an RPG. This is especially true, if you’re actually carrying a separate speaking conversation!

Yes, of course, it’s different if you’re taking notes on the cloud or something, or checking the stats of some NPC mob. But, just in general it may not be considered proper to do so.

Here’s another point. If the DM has a set etiquette policy about phones, it might be worth stating that pestering other players asking to use your phone to check messages or social media may also be rude. Overall, the good DM should read the room and should have a set etiquette policy, if needed, and all the players should follow this policy. This, of course, gets to my next point.

2. Should the DM be responsible for setting the table etiquette?

Many people might say that etiquette while playing tabletop RPG games should be regulated by the dungeon master (DM). However, this idea does not have universal support from all players of RPGs.

Some believe it would take too much time and effort on behalf of the DM. Others believe that etiquette while playing tabletop RPG games should be regulated by a set universal policy, which can be easily enforced and followed by all players in general. A communal policy, as it were.

At the end of the day, a DM might not want to regulate cell phone use for many reasons. It could take up too much time and effort on their part as well as being an unpleasant duty. They may not want to do it because they think etiquette should be regulated by a broad, common-sense agreement that can be easily enforced and followed by all players in general.

It comes down to whether your gaming group is mature enough to allow the DM to focus on the most important job at hand, which is to run the campaign and create an engaging narrative for everyone to enjoy.

RELATED: HOW TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL VILLAINOUS CAMPAIGN

3. Pros and cons of allowing players to use their phones during gameplay

Since we’re talking about etiquette specifically as it relates to smartphone or cellphone use during tabletop RPG (TTRPG) gameplay, there are many benefits to letting players use their phones during gameplay, but there are also drawbacks.

Here are a few pros and cons of allowing players (including the DM) to use their phones during a campaign gaming session:

Advantages:

• One potential advantage is that it will encourage more involved play for those who might be shy or less confident in their skills, because they can privately look up rules and stats on a phone during downtime instead of feeling like they have to completely rely on the DM (dungeon master) for those answers.
• The DM can also use a phone to look up information or answer questions while the game is paused, which would help them be more prepared and knowledgeable during gameplay sessions.
• Another advantage of allowing cell phone use during an RPG game is that players can use their phones to take notes and write down new ideas for characters or quests while they’re playing. That way, when the game session is over, it’s easy to review what’s been discussed during gameplay in order to make decisions about future game sessions.
• For notetaking, the smartphone is superior to pen and paper because it has that capacity to keep everything organized and at your fingertips.
• Cellphones can be used as a timer for combat rounds, which is especially helpful when you’re playing with kids who may not have good time management skills.

Disadvantages:

• Players can be distracted by their phones, leading them to get involved in a different conversation or having an argument with someone who’s not present. This is distracting for the DM and other players at the table because they’re interrupting game flow when they should be focusing on what’s happening
• A common potential issue of allowing players to use their phones in tabletop RPGs could be that it takes away from the social experience: you’re no longer talking with other members of the group, instead you are texting or doing something else on your phone.
• Another potential drawback is that it might be more difficult to monitor what players are doing on their phones while they should be focused solely on gameplay; for example, someone could easily look up spoilers online and ruin the experience for themselves and other players.
• The DM could also be unfairly biased towards some players, who might have more experience with the game because they’ve done their homework in advance by looking up information on a phone during downtime; this would provide an unfair advantage to those particular players and take away from the social aspect of tabletop RPGs.

4. Etiquette tips for tabletop RPGs when it comes to smartphone use

Dungeon masters and players may have to determine who is in charge of what is proper behavior at a gaming table. If a DM is unwilling or unable to focus on maintaining “order” at the gaming table, they have three basic choices: 1) delegate these etiquette concerns to other players, 2) ignore the issue and try to keep going with the campaign as best as possible, or 3) enforce the issue with penalties. There are other ways to handle poor behavior, too. But, without digressing into how each DM may handle their specific and unique gaming group, here are some basic etiquette tips and principles I apply in my RPG games, i.e., DnD:

• Set a firm time limit on how long someone can check their phone. For example, I allow my players 10 minutes of checking their smartphones every two hours during gameplay. This is in addition to bathroom breaks and stretch breaks.
• If someone needs to use their phone while at the table, allow them ample time to do so without disrupting gameplay. Once they’re finished, I allow them to resume play.
• If someone is using their phone at the table and it disrupts gameplay, give them a warning before any penalties are imposed.
• If someone is using their phone and continues disrupting gameplay, they will be given a verbal warning first. Then if it persists, the player will either lose an earned character slot or have to stop playing for the night (this usually only happens when alcohol consumption has been involved).
• When setting aside time in advance for break periods, also set aside time for “bathroom breaks” and “stretch break.”
• If someone is using their wifi, make sure the password is not given out to other players.
• When in doubt about etiquette rules, err on the side of caution. Ask everyone what they think about particular house-rules about what they expect of playing their game.

5. Tips on how not to be that player who is always checking their phone during gameplay

You should ask before using a mobile device at the table, if this isn’t clear at the beginning of a campaign. If you pick up your phone during gameplay, especially at an inopportune time like when the DM is describing a room, telling a story, or (worse) while they are roleplaying an NPC, you should try and apologize. Additionally, consider what playing with a device in hand could mean to the rest of the party. It might interrupt your gaming ally’s train of thought or impact their ability to make a crucial decision.

Other tips that may help you from being that player with the phone out all the time, is to have a designated place nearby where you can store your phone out of sight. You can keep notifications set to “do not disturb” mode, and while using your device, keep the screen brightness down unless absolutely necessary. Finally, you can put your phone on airplane mode during games to reduce your temptation for checking messages, etc.

Of course, after all these tips, it will be your personal responsibility to “read the room” to know whether it is good or bad form to operate your phone during a tabletop gaming session. I’m certain that you’ll know one way or another whether you feel comfortable operating your smartphone when playing a game.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, etiquette in tabletop RPGs is a topic that will likely come up at some point. Whether you’re the DM or player of an RPG campaign, it’s important to establish what rules are acceptable and how best to handle any violations without disrupting gameplay for other players.

There may be times when etiquette matters takes precedence over game-play but this should only happen if all parties agree. Otherwise, err on the side of caution by following these tips: 1) Set ground rules about cellphone use before starting your gaming session, 2) Give adequate time for using phone during play, and 3) if someone is violating etiquette with their cell phone usage (e.g., not obeying 10 minute rule), give them a warning first before taking more concrete actions.

Is it polite or rude when gamers check their smartphone while playing DnD or other roleplaying games? Should the dungeon master (DM) regulate the use of smartphones at a gaming table? Let us know what you think with a comment!

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When I watch fight scenes, I often think of the discussions on one of my favorite podcasts, Jianghu Hustle, about how in wuxia stories, the fight is a means of telling a story – an alternate form of dialogue that uses physicality instead of words. Characters are often defeated by an antagonist early in the story to establish scale and the need to get better at what they do. Family members and love interests end up having ties to events that unfold. The way a foe is defeated tells you what kind of protagonist you are dealing with.

While I had watched various wuxia movies in the past, listening to the podcast had me watching along with various movies and looking at them with a better understanding of why those movies do what they do. I watched movies like Iron Monkey, Hero, and House of Flying Daggers, not just to see cool fight scenes, but to look at how fights were paced, what the moves and counter moves said about the characters, and how they advanced the narrative.

All of this is to say that thinking about the storytelling of physicality, the concepts of scale, and the melodrama of relationships put me in mind of Hearts of Wulin, a Powered by the Apocalypse game that emulates Wuxia stories.

The Unfolding Game

This review is based on the PDF of Hearts of Wulin. The PDF is 231 pages. This includes a credits page, a table of contents, a six-page index, eight pages of Kickstarter backers, and a list of alternative entanglements. In addition to the PDF rulebook document, there are also various play aids available for the game, including a character creation summary, a core moves sheet, core playbooks, courtly playbooks, fantastic moves sheet, and fantastic playbooks, as well as an entanglement sheet for each of these.

We’ll talk more about these later, but the courtly and fantastic playbooks and moves don’t fully replace the core rulebooks or moves but supplement them for different genres being emulated. The same playbooks exist in each style of play, but some moves are added and some are removed, to better incorporate the style of story being presented. I really like this kind of thorough supplementary material because I have seen games in the past that present optional material that doesn’t have the same kind of support that the core options receive.

Who Tells Your Story

It’s worth noting that I’m a white guy commenting on an RPG about wuxia stories. I enjoy the genre, but I am, by no means, an expert either on the culture or the media. The folks at Jianghu Hustle are great, and know way more than I do, but they too, are white guys. So, it’s worth looking at the design team.

This started with Lowell Francis, also a white man, and his love of the media. That said, Lowell realized that he needed additional perspective on the topics, and a broader understanding of the context of cultural tropes. That led to additional development by Agatha Cheng, Jamila Nedjadi, Alun Rees, and Sherri Stewart, as well as picking up an additional writer in Joyce Ch’ng, with sensitivity reading done by Yilin Wang and Agatha Cheng.

Intro, Safety and Content

The introduction touches on the history of wuxia stories, originating with more fantastic stories captured in novels. These gave way to less fantastical stories in the 20th century, where the fantasy became more “heightened reality,” but the longer such stories have been told in visual media, the more that fantastic elements have been expanding again.

This section also describes where Hearts of Wulin resembles traditional Powered by the Apocalypse games, and what it does differently. Much of the unique ground provided by this set of rules exists within the concepts of entanglements, bonds, scale, and elements. The game uses the traditional resolution categories of 6- (miss)/7-9 (partial hit)/10+ (hit), but characters may spend bonds on some roles, elements may change the frame of reference for this resolution, and instead of statistics, characters roll +elements. Those elements are as follows:

• Earth
• Fire
• Metal
• Water
• Wood

Each of these elements has positive and negative traits associated with them. Often, characters are free to choose which element they want to roll with, but it needs to fit the narration of their approach, and some moves cause a character to mark their element, meaning it’s unavailable for use until something specific happens to open that element up again.

Each character has two entanglements, usually framed as incorporating the PC, another PC, and an NPC. For example, a romantic entanglement may have a PC drawn to the betrothed of another PC. Whenever this conflict comes into play, there is a special move that can be rolled representing the character’s inner turmoil.

The safety and content section includes a discussion of session zero procedures to set expectations, determining what can and can’t happen in a story at the table, and using active safety tools. There is also a discussion on dos and don’ts regarding an existing culture, diving into topics like cultural appropriation and respect for other player’s lived experiences.

Character Creation, Basic Moves, Conflicts and Advancement, Entanglements, Playbooks

Character creation involves picking a playbook, assigning numbers to your elements, picking your initial moves, and creating your entanglements. Much of this will feel familiar to players if they have created characters in other Powered by the Apocalypse games. The playbooks for this game are:

• Aware
• Bravo
• Loyal
• Outsider
• Student
• Unorthodox

While six playbooks are enough to facilitate most playgroups, the playbooks have another means of specializing the exact “type” of that playbook a character is playing. Each one of these playbooks has three “role” moves that further flavor the archetype of the character, in addition to the two starting moves that a character picks from the general playbook moves.

Each individual playbook has specific wording for its general and romantic entanglements. Characters that don’t want to have a romantic entanglement can take a separate general entanglement, and those entanglements help to create an extended cast of characters for the game. Characters also have bonds with specific characters, and these bonds can be spent to affect rolls, using the strength granted by the bond to help the character focus on succeeding in their tasks.

There are basic moves for assisting other characters (which can clear marked elements or create new bonds), impress others, deal with inner turmoil, gather information, or deal with adverse conditions. There are also separate moves for when a character fights a duel, fights troops of an antagonist, or fights against another PC.

All these resolutions are dependent on scale. If an opponent is lower in scale, the stakes of the check are much lower, and the PC will always win – but with different secondary effects. PCs will always lose against someone with higher scale, but again, with varying effects based on how well the roll goes. If you want to learn how to become better to face that opponent on equal terms, that may take teamwork, or for you to engage the move that allows you to learn new techniques.

PC versus PC duels are interesting, in that they are resolved through meta-negotiation. The initiator of the fight offers the other player something, and if they accept, their character loses the fight, but gains what was offered.

Characters advance at 8 XP, and they gain XP from taking a loss in conflict, rolling against their inner conflict, or interacting with their entanglements. One entanglement per session will be highlighted, so it’s the one the PC wants to see come into the forefront and is worth an extra XP.

As an aside, I’ve never been a fan of highlighting abilities in PbtA games, but I really like the idea of highlighting an entanglement. This is a direct comment to the GM about what the PC wants to interact with most.

Gamemastering, GM Moves, GMing Playbooks, Scenario Starters

The gamemastering section does what you might expect in a PbtA game, establishing principles and agendas, but as with the previous sections, the language feels more natural than some of the “first generation” PbtA games.

The examples for hard moves and soft moves (the moves made by the GM when a character rolls a 6- as a result) did surprise me a little. I’m used to soft moves being more narrative “heralds” of something that’s about to happen, but both hard moves and soft moves, in the examples, have instances of specifically engaging with rules content.

There is also a discussion of how to adjudicate the moves in the game. This includes making some open-ended results less so in some situations, as well as modifying how some moves work if the XP triggers occur too often for your tastes. This section also presents an extended duel variant, including a Face-Off and Concentration phase before the final clash.

There are 36 scenario starters (one for each chamber of Shaolin, according to the Shaw Brothers) to inspire game masters. I’m just going to say right now that I love these. There are some great ideas in here, many of which are drawn from some classic wuxia stories. These starters include lost scrolls of power, framed Heroes, tournaments, and mysterious invitations.

Courtly Wuxia, Fantastic Wuxia

The next section of the book deals with subgenres within wuxia stories. Courtly wuxia deals with characters that must navigate politics and noble families, as well as other conflicts. Fantastic wuxia involves wuxia stories that heavily involve monsters, gods, magic, and supernatural elements.

Instead of creating entirely new playbooks, each subgenre introduces an additional role suited to the subgenre being discussed and indicates several moves from the standard playbook to be swapped out with other moves specific to the genre. I’m normally someone that likes PbtA games to have lots of variety in playbooks, but I really like how this game deals with customization of the core six playbooks for different situations.

Characters in a courtly setting have additional moves, like The Game of Court, and the Social Duel. Players have access to a new narrative currency, Influence, which is used with some of the new moves. Characters pick an agenda for their characters, and conflicts with their agenda can trigger the character’s inner turmoil as well.

In addition to these courtly maneuvers, there is also a set of moves for resolving mass combat. These either involve characters performing a major deed that turns the tide of battle or involves characters “wagering” what is at stake in the battle and rolling to see how many of those items at stake must be sacrificed for a victory.

The Fantastic Wuxia section introduces moves for Facing the Supernatural, Seeking Experts, Using Found Magic, and Uncovering Banes. Additionally, it creates some supernatural traits that monsters and other creatures might have that could affect the PCs engaging them. For example, an undying creature may be defeated, but will always come back if its bane isn’t discovered. A venomous creature keeps a character from clearing a check on an element until some supernatural solution is applied.

While there are a lot of new roles for characters in both genres, I wanted to specifically call out the Unorthodox Playbook’s supernatural role “In Human Guise.” This really underscores the flexibility that these roles provide in changing the context of these archetypes because this allows the Unorthodox to be a supernatural creature themself.

History & Cultural Notes, Setting Alternatives

This section opens with a timeline of historical dynasties in China, and touches on various historical elements that are often included, in some form or another, in a wuxia narrative taking place in historical China. These include topics like the Emperor, philosophies and religions, codes of behavior, and the Shaolin temple, including how wuxia stories often deviate from the actual historical Shaolin temple.

There is a list of settings that can be used for wuxia stories, as well as the types of stories that work well in those alternate settings. These include themes like detective stories, adventures, heists, and science fiction twists. All of these include discussions on how those types of stories take on different trappings when associated with wuxia stories.

One genre I was hoping to see involved modern stories and crime dramas. Probably because I really like Fonda Lee’s novels. That said, there is a lot of guidance on making different campaigns in this section.

Narrative Fight Scenes

Remember when I was talking about Jianghu Hustle? This section of the book is by those podcasters, discussing in more depth what specific actions can say in the narrative of the game. Because the game itself generally resolves conflicts with a single roll, much of this chapter is about narrating what an extended fight might look like before going to the results of that role to wrap up the narration.

Greater Scale

This game hits on multiple levels. By itself, it is a strong game to engage with the various genres and subgenres of wuxia.

This is a great PbtA game for presenting the rules with natural language that is both understandable and engaging. It covers the topics in a comprehensive but succinct manner, and it covers a lot of ground. I was honestly surprised at how comprehensive the sections on courtly and fantastic wuxia were, as that’s the type of material I usually expect to see in the supplemental material. Almost every time I thought to myself, “I wonder how I would do this in the game,” the answer was usually in the next section that I read.

Marked Element

I don’t see too many downsides to this game. There are a few references to other games and rules that can be used to emulate optional items that I’m not sure were fleshed out enough for anyone that doesn’t have those rules. I might have wanted a little more information on “crossing the streams” between courtly and fantastic wuxia (for example, in a setting like Ice Fantasy).

Recommended–If the product fits in your broad area of gaming interests, you are likely to be happy with this purchase.

This game hits on multiple levels. By itself, it is a strong game to engage with the various genres and subgenres of wuxia. It includes a lot of solid advice and information for anyone that may run wuxia-style adventures with other game systems. It does some solid work in the PbtA design space, highlighting flexibility and compact design. Any of those reasons will make this a solid purchase.

What are your favorite genres from various media to see translated into games? What makes for good genre emulation? Would you rather have a game that broadly emulated a genre, or one that specifically models an existing IP? We want to hear from you in the comments below!

 

 

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Join Ang, Chuck, and Tomas for a discussion about memorable in-game locations: where to find them, how to use them, and some of their own favorites.

Download: Gnomecast #124 – Memorable Encounter Locations

Do not follow Chuck on the Internet, apparently.

Follow Tomas at @TGimenezrGM on Twitter and check out his work at Tribality.

Follow Ang at @orikes13 on Twitter and see pictures of her cats at @orikes13 on Instagram.

Keep up with all the gnomes by visiting gnomestew.tempurl.host, following @gnomestew on Twitter, or visiting the Gnome Stew Facebook Page. Subscribe to the Gnome Stew Twitch channel, check out Gnome Stew Merch, catch the Gnome Stew YouTube channel, and support Gnome Stew on Patreon!

For another great show on the Misdirected Mark network, check out The Lounge!

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GiN checked out Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous: Wrath of the Righteous is an Epic and Incredible RPG Epic role-playing games don’t come out very often. When they do, those who enjoy the kind of deep role-playing that keeps players up way past their bedtimes celebrate their good fortune.... Read more »

PC Gamer published their orignal Diablo 2 review again: Diablo 2 (2000) review It's a whole new Baal-game... To mark the launch of Diablo 2: Resurrected, we're publishing our original review of Diablo 2. This review ran in PC Gamer UK issue 86 in September 2000.... Read more »

The September update for Arcadian Atlas talks about some sub-classes, new maps, and demo feedback. Hey there, folks! Welcome to Arcadian Updates, where we share super cool updates to Arcadian Atlas the Twin Otter team are working on, including new maps, classes, mechanics, and more! We'll have more to share as time goes on, so follow along and check it out! Indie Arena Booth Demo & Feedback loading.... Read more »

The last major update before release for Age of Grit. Please note that the game is no longer on sale. Version 0.9.1 Howdy y'all!If all goes to plan this will be the last major update before Age of Grit's full release! This update includes tons of features and fixes numerous bugs/issues.... Read more »

Click4Gameplay spotted a few incoming RPGs that he finds interesting. 5 NEW RPGs That Could be Worth Your Time Another top 5 list with new RPGs, that could be worth your time.  [...] loading... Intro - 00:00 Neon Cyber Desert - 2:09 T... Read more »

MandaloreGaming reviews the PC port of Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders. The Crusaders is actually the second entry in the Kingdom Under Fire series, but debuted as a standalone Xbox exclusive and got a PC port in 2020. Smite heretics in the name of the p*pe.... Read more »

The latest hotfix for Encased includes many fixes and adds the ability to add custom portraits. More than two weeks have passed since Encased came out. We are continuing to actively work on the game and develop additional content (which we will announce separately), finalize controversial issues and, of course, read your reports and fix bugs.... Read more »

Wccftech wrote about Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One, the next game of the series developed by Frogwares. It will be released on November 16th on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S (PS4 and Xbox One yet to be announced). Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One Combat and Open World Hands-On Preview – Fight Like a Detective Back in June, I had the chance to try out the first couple of hours of Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One, the new entry in the series by Frogwares, and I enjoyed what I experienced quite a bit: the investigation mechanics are as solid as they were in previous entries in the series, the writing excellent, and new features like the ability to wear disguises promise to spice up the experience even more.... Read more »

In today's update, Gamedec receives a new hotfix solving critical language issues, and Anshar Studios share their roadmap to end 2021. Hotfix 1.0.50 is now live! + Content Roadmap for the rest of 2021 First, we want to thank you all for the feedback you are giving and the continuous support! Thanks to you, we gathered the most infuriating issues and bugs and threw them at the tour QA department [btw, we love you guys!].... Read more »

New to Sly Flourish? Start Here!

Few preparation activities are as useful as thinking through the eyes of our villains. Instead of planning out a long campaign that may never happen the way we think or building a huge campaign world the details of which never hit our table; thinking through the eyes of our villains tells us how the world acts and reacts to the actions of the characters.

To engage in this bit of magic, wherever and whenever we find ourselves with some extra time on our hands, we need simply gaze into the sky and say "what is this villain doing right now?"

Asking ourselves what our villains are doing right now gives us an idea how the game evolves based on the current character-driven situation. We may have multiple villains, each with their own goals, motivations, backgrounds, and steps to achieve their goals. If we're following the idea of "fronts" from Dungeon World we might have three villains each with their own goal and steps. These steps act as a countdown clock to their final destination, each step visible to the characters to show them the progress.

Pool Table D&D

We can think of this style of gameplay sort of like a pool table. Each ball on the table is a character or NPC. Each has its own background, goal, and potential actions. We then throw the balls of the characters into all of the others and they go crashing around, each following their motivations and directions, banging into others or dropping into pockets in ways we could never have expected. We set the stage, let the characters crash into it, and describe the results.

Example: Strahd von Zarovich

We can use one of the most popular D&D villains as an example — Strahd von Zarovich from Curse of Strahd. In the beginning of the adventure, Strahd is happy to terrorize Barovia, seek out Ireena, and draw the characters into his domain for a bit of fun and respite from the mundane world in which he is trapped. As the characters grow in power, he becomes more curious about them, eventually inviting them to dinner at Ravenloft. Later, however, he may become fearful of the characters and their power, sending in his legions to thwart them or setting up unwinnable situations to bring them back to the negotiating table. As the actions of the characters evolve in Ravenloft, so too does Strahd's reactions. How does Strahd feel about the characters right now and what does he do about it?

Breaking Away from "What Will Happen"

One of the most common DM mistakes is assuming the story is going to go a certain way. Maybe you have a good guess but you have five creative brains on the other side of the table who may take the story into entirely new directions.

Far more useful than trying to plan out a campaign or build out a huge world is to prepare to improvise. Internalizing the backgrounds, motivations, behaviors, and actions of the villains prepares you to improvise as the characters go in directions you never expected.

Next time you find yourself itching to prepare your game, ask yourself what the villains in the world are doing right now and watch the world come alive for you and your players.

Related Articles

• Running Curse of Strahd
• Running Ravenloft / Curse of Strahd in a Single Session
• Running Strahd Von Zarovich
• Playing D&D Anywhere
• Strahd's Negotiation

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• Read more Sly Flourish articles
• Subscribe to the Sly Flourish newsletter
• Watch Sly Flourish's YouTube videos
• Support Sly Flourish on Patreon

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• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Fantastic Lairs
• Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures

Send feedback to mike@mikeshea.net.

Article copyright 2021 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

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New to Sly Flourish? Start Here!

Not all D&D games go well. Games can go wrong for many reasons and often each reason needs its own approach to get past it. Today, however, we're going to offer some general advice for handling the situation when a game goes bad.

For some research on this topic I took to Twitter and asked people how they recovered from bad games. You can see the Twitter thread here. The thread contains some good suggestions and I have a few suggestions of my own. These aren't a universal cure but they might help us aim in the right direction when we need a boost after a bad game.

For a deeper look into this topic, watch my episode of the [DM's Deep Dive with Dr. Megan Connell]. Dr. Connell has some fantastic advice on how to get past bad games.

The rest of this article offers suggestions from the Twitter thread, my conversation with Dr. Connell, and some thoughts of my own.

Relax and Get some Distance

When a game goes sideways it's easy to get wound up into it. We might feel like our favorite hobby, potentially a big part of our lives, is completely falling apart. It's hard to recognize that this is a small bump in a long road of great stories shared with our friends and family.

Take a deep breath. Take a few of them. Whatever happened to cause your bad game, take a break.

It's almost never a good idea to try to solve the situation while you're still in the clutch of heated emotions unless you have to. If a game went bad, don't try to fix it right away. Give it a day or so. Get your thoughts together. Get past the initial emotionally charged moment. Give yourself time. Take a break and spend some time on another hobby. Take a walk. Anything helping you get out of the center of the emotionally charged situation can help.

Obviously, if a situation requires an immediate response, take that response. Violations of safety tools, for example, require quick intervention. If you can, take a step back and get your thoughts together.

Look at it Analytically

Once you've gotten some distance, take time to look at the problem analytically. What went wrong? What were the precursors? Once you're not in the middle of the situation you can get a better perspective of the problem. Maybe it wasn't as big as you thought it was. Maybe the problem you thought you had was actually caused by something else. Did you make a mistake? If so, don't try to avoid it. Understand it. Study the situation, your reaction, your feelings, and the reaction and feelings of your players after you've taken a step back. This helps you better understand what happened and what you might do to fix it.

Talk To Your Players

Once you've gotten some distance and looked at the problem from the outside, talk openly with your players. This might work in a group or it might work better in a one-on-one conversation. As much as we feel comfortable with texting and email to discuss things like this; face to face is often a better way to approach the conversations. It isn't always comfortable but we get a lot more information in a face-to-face conversation than we do in email or texts.

If you made a mistake, admit it. Talk about it. Don't get defensive. These are your friends we're talking about. It's much easier to get past situations like this if all the cards are on the table.

If our problem was tied to one of our players, talking to that player alone in a non-judgmental way can help. Focus the conversation on the situation and the outcome. Don't make it personal. What outcome would you like? How can the situation be better?

If it wasn't a problem with one of the players, maybe the problem was with the game itself. Maybe your players seemed bored or frustrated. This might be better as a group conversation. What went wrong? What previous games did they enjoy? What would they like to see more of? These last two are my favorite questions to ask at the end of any game. What did they love and what do they want more of? These questions work just as well for "bad" games as they do for good ones. Instead of focusing on the features of games that went bad, steer the conversation either to the areas the players enjoyed or previous games that seemed to work.

Talk to your players and really listen to what they have to say. Don't just wait for your turn to talk. Maybe a character died in a particularly gruesome way (I'm looking at you, obsidian coffin in Tomb of the Nine Gods). What would have been a better way to handle that situation? Your players may have better ideas about how to handle it than you do. Listen to them and find out.

Get Back in the Saddle

Once we've dealt with the immediacy of the issue and hopefully corrected our course, it's time to get back to the table. Keep the next game simple, focusing on the things that make D&D games great. Keep the storyline straight forward. Read up on the characters. Come up with a strong start to the next game. Plan out some interesting locations and some fun scenes that take place there. Throw a few fun monsters at them. Getting back to the basics helps us remember what makes this game so great to begin with.

The bad game we had will seem a lot less bad once we run a few good games after it.

Sometimes It's Best to Move On

Depending on the problem that came up, a hard solution might be to step away. Whether it's burning out on DMing or the wrong personalities at the table, sometimes the best solution is a clean break. This is hopefully a last resort saved only for extreme circumstances. If this happens, it's time to get back to square one and start building a new great D&D group so we can get back to the joy of our game.

Continuing to Share Our Tales of High Adventure

Bad games happen. We don't like them and, given that we're dealing with six personalities around our table, our games can get complicated and emotions can run high. These aren't easy situations to deal with. People problems are always hard to deal with. Hopefully we can get past it by taking a step back, taking a deep breath, thinking about the problems analytically, addressing the problems and solutions with our friends, and getting back behind the screen. Above all, our goal is to have fun sharing tales of high adventures with our friends and loved ones. If we can hang onto that, there are few problems we can't surmount as we share our tales of high adventure.

Related Articles

• Gaining Confidence to Run D&D Games
• Finding and Maintaining a D&D Group
• 2016 D&D 5th Edition Dungeon Master Questionnaire
• Dungeons and Dragons Tips From Gencon 2015
• Improvisation for New D&D Dungeon Masters

Want More from Sly Flourish?

• Read more Sly Flourish articles
• Subscribe to the Sly Flourish newsletter
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• Support Sly Flourish on Patreon

Check Out Sly Flourish's Books

• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Fantastic Lairs
• Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures

Send feedback to mike@mikeshea.net.

Article copyright 2021 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

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New to Sly Flourish? Start Here!

This article was updated from the original posted September 2017.

Prepare what matters to our game.

That's the core mantra of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. It's an easy statement to say but can be hard to appreciate and implement. Where should we focus our time? What should we toss aside? What tools provide the most value for a flexible game? The answer to these questions vary between DMs but we are likely to find some common ground.

Let's look at tools. What tools help us best run our best D&D games?

If you prefer a video, check out my Tools of the Lazy Dungeon Master YouTube video.

"When art critics get together they talk about form and structure and meaning. When artists get together they talk about where we can buy cheap turpentine."

- Pablo Picasso

A Lazy DM Tool Checklist

Here's a quick summary of the tools described in this article.

• Index Cards
• Pathfinder Flip Mat
• Lazy DM Cheat Sheet
• The Lazy DM's Workbook
• NPC Portrait Cards
• The Monster Manual
• Character and Monster Tokens

The Tools to Help You Improvise At The Table

When we consider the tools we want on hand to run our D&D games, it helps to know how these tools serve us. Most importantly, these tools should help us improvise as the game moves in directions we didn't expect. The more flexible the tools, the more they'll help us run a fun and fluid game. The tools in this article all fit the ideal of flexibility.

Index Cards

It's rare to find a DM who isn't completely in love with index cards. They're probably the cheapest and most powerful physical tool in our toolkit. We can use index cards for all kinds of things and here are just a few:

• Character info
• NPC info
• Magic item details to hand to the players
• Initiative tents or lists
• Combat zones for abstract maps
• Monster hit point tracking
• Quest cards
• Weird symbols or sigils the characters discover
• Small maps

Here's my YouTube video on the value of index cards for D&D for more.

The list goes on and on. Grab a pack of a thousand for about $7 and you're good for a long time.

Pathfinder Flip Mat

For more than a decade the humble Pathfinder Flip Mat serves well at my table. You can use wet or dry erase markers on it and fold it up and stick it in your DM kit. For it's size, weight, cost, and flexibility it's an amazing value. Drawing maps is the obvious use for a flip mat but there's a lot more we can do with it. Like index cards we can draw all sorts of things on it including isometric or side-view maps, zones for abstract combat, initiative lists, weird symbols the characters see, and more.

Laying the Pathfinder Flip Mat in front of you is like having a horizontal white board you can use throughout your whole game. It's an amazing and versatile tool for D&D games.

The Lazy DM's Cheat Sheet

I've built dozens of different cheat sheets over the years and the current Lazy DM's Cheat Sheet is my favorite. Print it out on nice copper resume paper, cut it down a bit, and laminate it and you have an awesome dry-erasable board on one side and a host of improvisational tools on the other.

Names, Relics, Monuments, Maps: The Lazy DM's Workbook

I designed the Lazy DM's Workbook to be your improvisational companion sitting by your side when running D&D games. The Workbook contains several useful tools to help you run games including:

• 5e Reference Tables. A set of 5e reference tables to look up mechanics quickly.
• Random Names. Likely the most useful improvisational tool a DM can have on hand.
• Random Monuments. A generator to build interesting backdrops for scenes and encounters.
• Random Items. Tables to generate unique single-use or permanent magic items.
• Random Dungeon Monster Tables. Tables to build random encounters for your game when it's time to throw a beast or two at the characters.
• Lazy Lairs. Ten maps and descriptions for common locations the characters might discover including a castle, docks, sewer, catacomb, cave, cellar, dungeon, mine, temple, and tower.

This short book, best purchased in print or even spiral bound at a local printer, is a fantastic resource to help you improvise and run your games.

NPC Face Cards

Inkwell Ideas sells an assortment of NPC face cards you can use to show your players when they run into an NPC. Along with random names, face cards like this are a great way to improvise NPCs. When the characters enter a bar and you want to highlight a particular patron, flip through the deck and find the first one that makes sense. Drop them on the table and you have a new visual representation of that NPC.

The Monster Manual

A lot of DMs like to copy down stat blocks onto cards, print them out, or otherwise manipulate stat blocks for monsters. This has never been my style. Instead, I think it's easier to grab your actual monster book of choice, often the Monster Manual, and use index cards to bookmark the pages I'm likely to need. The core Monster Manual is likely the most useful single book of monsters and, when you embrace reskinning, gives you a nearly unlimited menagerie of monsters to throw at the characters.

Keep your Monster Manual on hand and you'll never be without a threat.

The Dungeon Master's Guide

The Dungeon Master's Guide gets a bad rap and one, I believe, is undeserved. While many have quibbles about it, it does contain a wealth of useful and interesting tables to help us think about our adventures. It's particularly useful while planning out an adventure or campaign, giving useful advice and inspiration for building out our games. For more details, see my Gems of the Dungeon Master's Guide article.

Character and Monster Tokens or Miniatures

Finding the right tokens or miniatures for lazy dungeon mastering is a hard problem. Pre-painted plastic miniatures offer the best representation at the table but suffer from a high expense and never seeming to have the right number of the right miniatures to fit our needs. Simply drawing representations of characters and monsters using a dry-erase marker on a flip mat remains the cheapest and most flexible option. Think of it like drawing out football plays.

My favorite solution are lazy monster tokens. You can make a set of about 30 tokens to represent nearly any monster and even player tokens for about $30 in materials short of a printer. You can likewise find crafters on Etsy selling monster tokens like this for cheap. Generic tokens have a big advantage in price, size, and flexibility. A token with a skull on it can represent everything from a skeleton to a death knight.

For a video on this topic see my YouTube video on building lazy monster tokens.

Another solution is to print and paste your own 2d standup miniatures. I love Printable Heroes miniatures. Use a good color printer with photo-grade paper and print out beautiful 2d miniatures. They're not as flexible as the generic monster tokens though. You'd still have to print and prep the minis you think you'll need.

Digital Tools

During the 2020 pandemic, I had to go from a full slate of in-person games to running my games entirely online. This article focused on physical tools but some digital tools are excellent. In particular I found Notion, D&D Beyond, Discord, and Owlbear Rodeo served as an excellent stack for me to prepare and run my games. You can learn more here:

• Experiences Running D&D Online
• Notion for Lazy DM Prep
• Owlbear Rodeo for the Lazy DM
• Playing D&D on Discord

Lazy Tools for Improvisational Games

The tools described here fall under specific requirements. They need to be cheap enough that most of us can afford them. They need to be easy and quick to use. They need to support games that shift directions regularly. When building your own list of tools for lazy dungeon mastering, aim for the tools that, like the core lazy DM philosophy, help you run better games by doing less.

Related Articles

• Love Letter to the Pathfinder Flip Mat
• Crafting Lazy Monster Tokens for D&D
• Tools for New D&D Dungeon Masters
• Prepare a D&D Game in 15 Minutes
• A New DM's Guide to Miniatures

Want More from Sly Flourish?

• Read more Sly Flourish articles
• Subscribe to the Sly Flourish newsletter
• Watch Sly Flourish's YouTube videos
• Support Sly Flourish on Patreon

Check Out Sly Flourish's Books

• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Fantastic Lairs
• Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures

Send feedback to mike@mikeshea.net.

Article copyright 2021 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

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Even the best players sometimes build characters that just don't get along with the rest of the group. The idea of a complicated character filling the role of the reluctant hero seems great initially but at the table it can end up being a pain in the ass.

If you'd rather watch a video on this topic you can see my YouTube video on reinforcing cooperative character motivation.

Before the session zero of any of my campaigns I like to give out a one-page campaign guide such as my Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign guide, my Eberron campaign guide, and my Descent into Avernus campaign guide as examples. In each of these I like to reinforce two things: the connection between the character and the story of the adventure and the cooperative connection between the character and the rest of the group.

It works well to do this before the players start building characters. That way we slide in before they start thinking of their character as the lone wolf druid or the mercenary fighter who only cares about money or the shifty rogue who likes stealing from the group's wizard.

We can distill down this idea to it's simplest form by presenting the players with a single clear motivation they should bake into their characters:

"You're character works in cooperation with the group to accomplish X" where X is whatever the story of the campaign dictates. In Rime of the Frostmaiden it's helping the people of Ten Towns survive the endless night. In Descent into Avernus it's to serve the city of Elturel and honor the Hellriders.

Then, during character creation, you can ask the players to describe what motivates their character to work with the group. This changes the dynamic consideribly. Sometimes you'll get a blank stare as they realize they didn't even think about the group when building their character but it's better to tackle that now instead of when you're deep into your campaign.

The next time you're starting a new campaign or introducing a new character into an existing campaign, work with the player first to reinforce the motivation of their character to cooperate with the group. It saves a lot of problems down the line and gets us away from the cardinal sin of D&D, "It's what my character would do!".

Related Articles

• Rime of the Frostmaiden Session Zero
• Building a Great D&D Character
• Running Session Zeros
• Running Descent into Avernus: The Fall of Elturel
• Running Descent into Avernus Chapter 2

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• Subscribe to the Sly Flourish newsletter
• Watch Sly Flourish's YouTube videos
• Support Sly Flourish on Patreon

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• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Fantastic Lairs
• Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures

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Back in 2019 Matt Colville posted a YouTube video describing Action Oriented Monsters. The basic concept is that boss monsters typically don't have the tools or action economy to deal with a full party of adventurers. This is often true even for legendary monsters but it mostly offers a framework for a non-legendary monster to threaten a whole group and bring more drama to a combat encounter.

In a Twitch stream on 18 February 2021, Colville described his general philosophy on what made an action oriented monster which I'll summarize here:

First, action-oriented monsters are intended to hold their own against a group of characters.

Second, action oriented monsters have "villain actions" which act like legendary actions except that, on top of their typical array of actions, bonus actions, and reactions; they have additional boss actions. Often these actions can be spell-like abilities but aren't as complicated as spells. The intent is to build a highly usable and effective boss monster that isn't overly complicated to run.

These boss actions are keyed to the rounds of a battle which often mirror the dramatic arc of a story. These beats follow the typically predictable flow of combat and often follow these three steps:

• First round, move into an effective position.
• Second round, get out of a bad position and avoid being ganged up on. Sometimes this changes the battlefield.
• Third round, the boss is about to die so make the characters regret ever tangling with the boss. Explode.

I like to break these down into simpler single-word ideas:

1. Position
2. Escape
3. Explode

Action oriented monsters also often have boosted hit points (think about that monster dial).

In the original video Matt describes a goblin boss that summons goblins, lets them move around the battlefield without provoking, and lets them get a sudden burst of attacks near the end of the fight. For an action-oriented Ankheg he describes it burrowing underground, pulling characters underground, and then spraying acid like a big sprinkler near the end of the battle.

Building Action-Oriented Monsters on the Fly

As a lazy dungeon master I like tools and frameworks I can keep in my head and apply right at the table when I need them. I think we can build such a framework for action-oriented monsters as well; something beyond just bumping up hit points, attacks, and damage like we do with our dials of monster difficulty. What does this improvisational action-oriented template look like?

1. Double or triple the hit points of the monster as needed. Keep your hand on the HP dial if it's too much.
2. Give the monster initial mobility. How can this monster get into a good initial position?
3. Give the monster mid-battle mobility. How can it escape from being pinned down? Can it roar and send everyone flying back? Can it bash its way out? Can it beat its wings and soar into the air? Can it turn into a shadow and zip away? How you flavor this for the monster is the tricky part so get creative.
4. What is the monster's final burst? Can it attack all creatures in range? Can it explode into fire, ice, poison, or necrotic damage, damaging everyone around it? Does it have one big spell it can cast for free? Again, the flavor of the monster determines how it explodes.
5. We may want to fall back to standard legendary monster abilities like legendary resistance and legendary actions to avoid getting pinned down with debilitating spells or effects and give it some extra actions in the middle the characters' turns. Adding legendary resistances takes little work and legendary actions can often be either a move that doesn't provoke, a single weapon attack, or a low-level spell.

Building an Action-Oriented Vampire Spawn

I love vampires but there really isn't a great low-level vampire boss in the Monster Manual. The vampire spawn is solid but clearly isn't action oriented. What if we want to quickly make a low-level vampire boss? Here are some quick modifications we can make to a standard vampire spawn to make it a worthy boss for characters of 4th to 6th level.

• Turn the vampire's hit point dial up to 120.
• When this vampire chooses to grapple a target with its claw attack, it still inflicts its claw damage.
• On rounds 1 and 2, the vampire spawn can burst into a cloud of bats, flies, shadowy tendrils, or some other form that lets it move its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
• On round 3 of combat, the vampire can burst into its cloud-form, flying around the battlefield and attacking each character with a claws attack. If it successfully grapples one of the characters with this attack, it can follow up with a bite attack on one of these creatures.

It takes a little work and a little practice to apply changes like these to a monster on the fly but with a short checklist and some imagination, it isn't impossible.

• Increase hit points.
• Give the boss initial mobility on round 1.
• Give the boss mobility to escape on round 2.
• Let the boss explode in round 3.
• Add legendary actions or resistances as needed.

Frameworks to Tell Dramatic Stories

The more tools we have in our toolbox to quickly and easily change up the mechanics of our game, the easier it is to tune our game to tell dramatic and exciting stories as they unfold. Our goal is never to punish the characters but to bring the right excitement and danger at the right time.

Take some time to imagine how you would quickly build an action-oriented monster. Try it with a big brute like an ogre, a sly lurker like a spy or assassin, and a powerful spellcaster like a mage, archmage, or lich. If you can whip up abilities for those three, you're likely to have what you need to build them at the table.

Related Articles

• Building Legendary Creatures in 5e
• Building Legendary D&D Monsters in your Head
• Collected Experiences Running D&D 5e Boss Fights
• The Lazy Approach to Stronger Encounters
• D&D's Nastier Specials

Want More from Sly Flourish?

• Read more Sly Flourish articles
• Subscribe to the Sly Flourish newsletter
• Watch Sly Flourish's YouTube videos
• Support Sly Flourish on Patreon

Check Out Sly Flourish's Books

• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Fantastic Lairs
• Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures

Send feedback to mike@mikeshea.net.

Article copyright 2021 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

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The original Lazy Dungeon Master offered recommendations for "five minute game prep". Looking back, I oversold this idea. I don't think it's realistic to fully a prep a game in only five minutes. I find it takes me about 30 minutes to comfortably prepare for a game using the eight steps from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master.

That said, I think it's reasonable to ask where one would put their effort if they only had fifteen minutes to prepare. That's tight but doable. Let's look at one way to prepare for a game in only fifteen minutes.

For a video on this topic, check out my Preparing for your D&D Game in 15 Minutes YouTube video.

Pick Three Steps from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

The kind of game you're running dictates which steps are likely to help you the most. I've covered this topic before in Choosing the Right Steps from the Lazy DM Checklist.

For the sake of this article, we'll assume we're running something like a single-session homebrew adventure. Thus, we'll break down our fifteen minute prep into three steps:

• Prepare a strong start
• Outline three to five adventure locations
• Write down ten secrets and clues

Even these steps will be tight in 15 minutes. Secrets and clues are powerful but not always easy. I could easily spend five minutes staring at the ceiling trying to think up my final three secrets and clues. Some days they come easy, some days they're a struggle. Still, this is a reasonable model and not far off from the original steps in the original Lazy Dungeon Master.

First Five Minutes: The Strong Start

First we can ask ourselves how our game begins. What initial scene will draw the players into the game? What happens around the characters at the beginning of the game? If we're lucky, we might have an idea for this right away. If we're not, we might be starting from scratch. When in doubt, a monster comes to town.

Second Five Minutes: Three to Five Fantastic Locations

What three to five fantastic locations might the characters discover in the next game? Think of these as scene backdrops. What sets the stage of a scene? We're going to abbreviate the normal "three aspect" style of defining what makes a location special and stick to just one. Give it a cool name. "Bridge of Teeth", "The Gaping Maw", "Statue of the Fallen King", something like that. A good evocative name is all you need for a location — something that inspires your own ideas and seeds your brain when it's time to fill it out during the game.

Much of what we're doing in this fifteen minute prep is seeding what we need to improvise during the game. Good evocative location names do that.

If you're having trouble, grab some random tables like the monuments table in the Lazy DM's Workbook or the Dungeon & Exotic Locations, Monuments, and Weird Locales tables in chapter 5 of the Dungeon Master's Guide. Random tables are a great fast way to shake your brain out of a rut and inspire some ideas for locations.

If you have extra time, maybe grab a map from Dyson Logos to go along with your locations. A good map can often fill in multiple sessions.

Third Five Minutes: Secrets and Clues

With our final five minutes we'll hammer out some secrets and clues — up to ten if we can. This is going to be a stretch so don't overthink it. Grab onto easy ones if you need to. Seed your mind with the question "what interesting thing can the characters discover in this session?". You can start by breaking them down into particular types of secrets that may help you grab them more easily. These types include:

• Character secrets
• Villain secrets
• Story secrets
• NPC secrets
• Location secrets

When breaking them down by these types it's a little easier to come up with two or three per type and call it a day.

Tools for Improvisation

It's vital we have the right tools on hand to improvise during our game. For monsters, the Monster Manual is hard to beat. Understanding what types of monsters might fit the locations or story we're running will help us pick them. The monsters by challenge rating in the Dungeon Master's Guide and the monsters by ecology in Xanathar's Guide to Everything can help us pick monsters during the game itself.

For NPCs, we're best off with a good list of random names. According to many DMs, this is the number one most valuable improvisational tool for D&D. Beyond that we can improvise their view of the world, their motives, their appearances, and their mannerisms. If you need, grab a character from popular fiction, switch the gender, and you're ready to go.

The Dungeon Master's Guide random treasure tables can help you fill in treasure as you need. You can jump straight to the table you want for either consumable magic items or permanent magic items. Most of the time tables B for consumables and table F for permanent magic items serve you well throughout the game. There are also piles of random treasure tools on the web. Here's my favorite random treasure tool when you don't want to roll on the book.

The Lazy DM's Workbook is designed to be at your side when you're running the game to help you improvise as much as possible. It has tables for NPC names, items, monuments, town events, and monsters. It also has ten "lazy lairs" to give you ten commonly used locations with maps, tags, and descriptions when you need a location quick.

With the Lazy DM's Workbook, the Monster Manual, and the Dungeon Master's Guide on hand, I'd argue you have what you need at the table to run a great game.

Creativity from Constraint

Prepping an entire session of D&D in fifteen minutes sounds like a horror show but sometimes the best horror shows lead to the most creative work. Consider the story of the Klon Concert in which pianist Keith Jarrett turned a horrible piano into one of the most popular jazz piano albums of all time. With constraint comes creativity. See what kind of prep you can get done in 15 minutes and what sort of game it produces at your table.

Related Articles

• Tools of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Thinking Two Horizons Out
• The Minimum Viable D&D Game
• Spending a Whole Day Preparing a D&D Game
• Choosing the Right Steps from the Lazy DM Checklist

Want More from Sly Flourish?

• Read more Sly Flourish articles
• Subscribe to the Sly Flourish newsletter
• Watch Sly Flourish's YouTube videos
• Support Sly Flourish on Patreon

Check Out Sly Flourish's Books

• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Fantastic Lairs
• Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures

Send feedback to mike@mikeshea.net.

Article copyright 2021 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

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I love random tables. There are few more powerful D&D tools than a set of random tables feeding a creative brain. I've talked about this before in Random Creativity in Dungeons & Dragons and Breaking Conventional Thought with Random Tables.

So we know how powerful random tables can be to shake our brain out of a rut and into new paths, but where to find them? Here's a quick review of some of my favorite books of random tables.

Ironsworn and Ironsworn Delve

I'm jealous of Ironsworn. It's the kind of book I wish I had written. Shawn Tomkin wrote an awesome RPG, one you can play by yourself, with a partner, or with a group. And it's packed with the best random tables I've seen anywhere as is Ironsworn Delve, it's dungeon delving expansion. Shawn figured out exactly the right resolution, the right level of detail, to write random tables that fuel your imagination. These tables don't just give you cool ideas, they give you cool names you can use right off the page. Ironsworn is available digitally for free but you should pick up the hardcovers anyway. They're great.

Worlds Without Number

Worlds Without Number and its predecessor Stars Without Number are excellent RPGs written by Kevin Crawford. They're full RPGs but have wonderful random tables built around rolling handfuls of mixed dice. Worlds uses these handful-of-dice tables to help you build out your campaign world, from big to small things. For the randomly inspired worldbuilding alone, it's worth picking up the book.

The GM's Miscellany from Raging Swan

Raging Swan Press publishes tons of small books of random tables but three of its bigger books include the GM Miscellany: Dungeon Dressing, Wilderness Dressing, and Urban Dressing. Like Ironsworn, these books found just the right resolution to fill out our ideas. I bought all three in print and love them. The price for both print and PDF is very affordable.

The Lazy DM's Workbook

I can't write an article about random tables without pimping my own book, the Lazy DM's Workbook. I worked hard to include enough tables to help you improvise big parts of your game right at the table without overwhelming you with too many options. My next book, the Lazy DM's Companion doubles down on randomness, offering thematic packages of random tables to inspire your adventures and campaigns. If you want a sneak preview of the material, you can get it today by joining my Patreon.

The Dungeon Master's Guide and Xanathar's Guide

The Dungeon Master's Guide is an underrated book, in my opinion. It has tons of useful random tables in it. I've covered a lot of this in my Gems of the Dungeon Master's Guide article. Xanathar's Guide to Everything likewise has excellent random tables including a good set of random monster tables for various environments. Both should not be overlooked.

The Tome of Adventure Design

I'm not as big a fan of the Tome of Adventure Design but many others love it. This book, to me, is simply too much. There's just so much stuff that I get lost. The resolution is also all over the place. Sometimes it's talking about gods, sometimes its things you'd find in an old jewelry box. I'm definitely not in the majority in these opinions though. Many people love it which is why I'm including it in this list.

Online Random Generators

Books aren't the only good source for random content. There are thousands of random generators all over the web. I'm going to recommend just one, though: donjon.bin.sh. This generator is absolutely fantastic for D&D or any fantasy RPG. It has traps, treasure, NPCs, encounters, names, whatever. It has everything we could want. My only complaint is that it isn't particularly mobile friendly.

Another site worth checking out is Perchance.org. It's a website that lets you build your own random tables with tons of useful features like weighting, nesting, and a lot more. I've built a bunch of random generators using Perchance. You can even download them and save them locally in case you're not excited about having to save your random generators on a remote website. It's a powerful and useful tool.

Many Others

I'm not able to list out every single book of random tables. There are so many out there that no list can be complete. Hopefully this article gave you some ideas, though. Whatever sources you choose, embrace randomness. It's a powerful tool to fuel your creative brain.

Related Articles

• Random Tables of the Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide
• Breaking Conventional Thought with Random Tables
• Random Creativity in Dungeons & Dragons
• Run Meaningful Random Encounters
• Prepare a D&D Game in 15 Minutes

Want More from Sly Flourish?

• Read more Sly Flourish articles
• Subscribe to the Sly Flourish newsletter
• Watch Sly Flourish's YouTube videos
• Support Sly Flourish on Patreon

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• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Fantastic Lairs
• Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures

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Article copyright 2021 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

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In July 2021 I tweeted the following:

"What simple and easy tip or trick made a dramatic improvement in your #dnd game?"

Many of the answers were outstanding and I wanted to share them. Here they are!

Asking for feedback after a session can be helpful. But listening mid session (And in post session general chat) can also be super helpful for figuring out what players want more of. - @GarethThomasson

1 real day = 1 game day. - @BrianRenninger6

Actually reading the spells my players are using (very new dm) They didn't inform me about all the details - @Gob_the_goblin

Throw away the plan. At least the overly detailed parts. - @Lazy_Spade_

Switching my notes to spreadsheets - @Cayen123

Less emphasis on xp gained per kill/encounter and more xp earned via rp/exploration/learning about the world. Takes the focus away from mindless grinding and lets the players spend more time enjoying the little things/different aspects in life/their characters - @Imyourpaladin

Only one drink per hour. - @DorianCrafts

Don't ask for rolls unless you have a consequence for failure. Also, let 'em ride. Don't keep asking for new rolls unless the circumstances have substantially changed. - @brodiehodges

Mass initiative for groups of monsters. It's an ubiquitous concept now, but when I was first DMing every DM I knew rolled initiative individually. When I saw one moving all his skeletons at once it blew my mind. - @NovemberPines

Adopting collaboration at Session Zero - @civstreet

Being unafraid to tell the players "Hey, that's a really good idea!" When they're discussing plans/tactics. - @RobertKendzie

Pack of cards for initiative 🙂 - @Connors707

Don't ask for Perception checks. Just describe what you want them to know and use their passive Perception as much as possible. Let the players decide when they want to make Perception checks and the game goes far faster! - @BarbaricSpace

Variant skill check rule from the DMG. Let's the DM get creative with skill checks, and let's the PCs pitch ways to handle a problem that their character might try. - @m0dredus

Bookmarking my spell descriptions - @BaileyCheshir13

Asking how the character feels - @dm_zilla

I roll initiative before the game and at the end of combat. Makes a seemless transition between rp and combat. - @critacademy

Faking dice rolls - @SecretNerd6

Randomising everything I reasonably could. Like most DMs I am NOT as creative or original as I think I am. Randomising things forces you to push these boundaries. - @Wolfenight

Only plan on detail about 1 session ahead. Let the players choices on that session guide your planning for the next session - @Tempus_6

Went back to face to face games after a year and a half of online. Instant major improvement. - @Charkomangus

If you go down in combat and are brought back, you add a level of exhaustion, definitely makes the more squishy members of the party think about their placement and not just relying on the cleric to bring them back all the time with no consequences. - @dice_giant

Let the players make shit up about your world in the first session. It provides automatic buy-in and gets you used to being thrown curveballs early, often, and forcefully - @EmDeeEssEff

Using poker chips for spell slots and popsicle sticks for limited use abilities to help remind players of what they could do - @Kaotyk525

Telling my players the Monsters armor class. They can pre-plan their turns. Combat is so much faster and I find my players spend more time describing their actions. - @Thenuinn

Add a child. Love this trick! - @GethOverlord

Remember it's just a game and enjoy embracing how hilarious natural ones are - @Fwooshie

Yes and. - @JCFoxpox

You only need a map if you're fighting -- even then, if you can theater of the mind it, do it. - @Robbie_LandisCP

Prep the enemies turns while your players are taking their turns. There is a lot of dead time - rolling, strategizing, looking a character sheets - that you can use to plot your actions during a big fight. - @KaleStutzman

Farm out initiative tracking to a player - @MichaelChadd

Sending a survey before the campaign and periodically throughout with questions about character motivations, goals, and desires. As well as player preferences, experiences, and suggestions. Really helps adjust the campaign to ensure everyone is having fun and staying interested. - @cctechwiz

No combat. Hot NPCs. - @TJ_Witherspoon

Asking the players to recap the last session - @jeboyt

Prep Situations, not Plots. A Plot can go "off the rails". A situation has no rails - definitionally, whatever the players do IS the plot. Know who the bad guys are, what they want, and what resources they have. Repeat for NPCs, and the setting itself. - @ThomasJOHara2

Prerolling the initiatives for known encounters/ painting the bases of different enemies different colors to track damage and turn - @JRyan57789219

Haven't DMed in 10 years, but smoothing out combat with warning players they are on deck helped a lot. Having small side discussion outside of the game session helps the DM and PC to flesh out the story and helps the players feel safer with the RP aspect of gaming. - @SinisterSob

I ask my more shy players how their character feel instead of waiting for them to have dialogue improvised on the spot. sometimes their characters' feelings just become words naturally. - @tylereavey

I stopped worrying about balance and left it to the players. Once intiative is rolled, the fight is the fight. No numerical adjustments, no fudging. By not worrying about any of that stuff my mind is free to focus on making the fight dynamic and interesting. - @SammyTwoTooth

Simplify your plot lines. Everyone is still having a blast and you aren't chomping at the bit to see if they notice or throwing details at them to try to get them to make complex connections. - @dmleitchtweets

Track wounds not current hp. - @Letwookieewin

Parleying with enemy targets - @irunvillains

Dont write scripts, write bullet points. And learn from improv writing like Rick and Morty. - @CharlieWolfie96

I stole this trick from a meme, but I have found releasing a single bee into the room really spices things up. For extra spiciness, I'll also glue the bee to the back of a spider. Or yanno... Notes. - @mal_harrier

I have a mechanic I'm adapting into the ttrpg I'm making from a video I saw called dramatic HP. Basically, within the story you're telling, to up the stakes, there is a separate pool of hp with way less points. Works similar to vtm's system at that point. - @demi_dori

If there's a disagreement over rules, we don't hold court, DM make a ruling and we can discuss it further out of game. - @80sVillain

Create problems, not solutions to them. Don't try to anticipate what the players going to do, that's futile. More times than I can count, the players have come up with a much more creative solution than I ever would have. Roll with it! - @groshnik

Keep your sessions scheduled regularly and consider your less frequent attendees as featured players; that are mostly absent rear guard or camp keepers. - @joebelanger

Don't ever think that the DM is trying to beat the players - @SecretCollegeHL

Initiative tents on top of the GM screen. - @JesterOC

Be a fan of the players. Just cheer for their victories. Be sad for their defeats. Changes that mood right up. - @AbyssalBrews

Play with intention. Just be in the moment and invested in making sure everyone has fun. - @SolsRoles

Talking less. - @XvAgent

Fun facts (1gp reward) per session, a player does initiative (inspiration as reward, max 2) and recaps by a player (also inspiration) If someone incorporates a fun fact in session thats also inspiration. Allows the players to shape the story more due to heavy inspiration use - @Tim_du_nerd

Incorporated PBtA style investigation rules that trigger as the result of perception or investigation checks. (It's easy when you look at what PBtA rules work like.) - @joejoehasfun

Technically a house rule not just a trick, but very simple: PCs only get the benefit of a long rest in a place of relative safety and comfort, not when camping in the wilderness. Lets you run wilderness adventures like they were dungeons. - @AlexBro97829019

If someone read a spell/ability/rule wrong and already spent time to make something happen, rule it in their favor for the current session. They will be less disappointed and you won't need to have a rules debate until after the game! - @Sulicius

When a player fails a check, make something bad happen or allow success at a cost. - @errantcanadian

Round all damage to the nearest 5 at higher levels. Makes the maths so much easier. - @scrollforinit

1- listening to players more, taking ideas from them and using them on the fly. 2- having states of failure, meaning one dice rolling bad is not the end of the thing, for instance if someone is trying to persuade an NPC, rolling 1 or 2 fails just makes the npc act less friendly. - @Skinny__Bob

With my group, the players message me with the results of death saves rather than announce them to the table. That really makes 0 HP a more tense situation. - @MShades01

Don't count hit points for big bads. Just wait until someone does something epic and call it. - @ChrisMcLaugh1in

Always look smug behind the screen. Look slyly at a player opening a door. - @thecriticaldom

Delegating roles to the other players. Like looking up rules. Managing initiative order for combat. If a player makes a knowledge role. I don't tell the group what they know. I pull the player aside and tell them. This allows them to share in their own words and role play - @Michael63813

How do you want to do that? Or basically any call to describe a dramatic action during a tense moment, instead of me doing it - @mbuhtz

Not a trick or tip, but a piece of software called Foundry VTT. - @LeDungeonMaster

Adding a time limit to the turns; 15 seconds to decide what you do, applies to DM and Players. Worked wonders in my case; added tension and made things go by. This was added with the consent of the party. All my non-base mechanica are pre-approved by the party 🙂 - @franatus

Treat roleplaying a character like a joy ride. you're doing it to have fun, it's okay if you wreck it, don't play it safe and do the thing. this advice was given to me at @EmpireLrp and it's improved my enjoyment of every rpg and lrp tenfold - @ArtNolanis

Consider the motivation of individuals. - @wildepix

Music. Even if it's just for combat. Anything to set a tone. - @CalvinOreto

Only planning situations without any regard for what players will do, then rolling with the punches. - @pedroclima_

Always look your players in the face, unless you are playing an NPC who can't/won't. #dnd - @RJD20Writes

That's a toss up between your tip, "use static monster damage" and @dungeoncraft's tip "use group initiative, especially with bigger groups"... - @mrwalters

Say yes or roll the dice. - @Quimmaqui

For theatre of the mind, on a players turn, describe the last turn / what they are seeing through the PC's POV. Ask "what is (PC name) doing?" instead of "what do you WANT to do?" This help alleviate choice paralysis and helps players who might not have caught every detail - @Marcellus_Krowe

Give a recap before each player's turn: "Alright, the orc slashes at Fightergirl, barely missing her. He screams in frustration which is drowned out by the 3 orcs screaming battle cries as they charge toward you, Wizdude. What do you want to do? It keeps the narrative going - @BZBeezley

Calling for ability checks at the point of tension rather than before any action occurs. "You jump to a narrow ledge with barely a toe-hold over the sleeping frost giant below! Dexterity Check!" - @JoshSomers11

Steal everything you have in other board games. Cards. Figurines. Weird looking tokens. There is a lot of stuffs you can do and doesnt cost you anything cause you already have them. - @Carmelo_Sutera

Bottle rings for different conditions on miniatures. Roll one initiative for large groups or mobs especially in big army battles. - @GeekMovieHouse

Music and evocative art handouts - @Navy_DM

After the session, have a post-mortem and talk about what you liked and didn't like about the session - @andreas_mwg

Asking my players to describe why they fail at something when they roll a Nat 1. It gives the player control over a dramatic moment, it lets them scale what happens based on how they're feeling at the moment, and often gives amazing insight into the characters thoughts! - @OboeLauren

Let PC's die. Players understand it's a game. Your decisions & the dice will determine your fate. They tend to start working together better when they realize your a TPK DM. Less drama/self aggrandizing & more togetherness. - @Man_O_War_Speak

If your players struggle with RP, describe how you think they'd react to something: "the sight of the viscera makes you queasy and your hands shake." Players mostly go along with it. If they disagree, they'll let you know and tell you how they react, so it's a win win. - @PursuedByABomb

Listen to what the players say about what they like to do the most and make a point of giving them a chance to do that. Like if your monk loves running up walls or the rogue steals little shiny things, plan a moment every few games where they get a chance to do that. - @madfishmonger

Passing notes to players that they get to read and immediately have to hand back. Some of which are pre written. It could be important. It could be random - like, 'there is a faint smell of cinnamon'. It could be, 'Are you having fun?' Have them answer. Then move on. https://t.co/NDEI0AjG67 - @gasolinemoth

Electric tea light candles go on for concentration spells. - @GeekMovieHouse

Tie your story to places and not characters and try to have your events chronologically independent. That way your party has a harder time derailing your campaign. And remember that it's their story. You're only the narrator. - @GearforgedI

Keeping a "cheat sheet" for player Passives, who has Darkvision, etc. - @DanIsNotNice

For virtual games: As a GM making sure that people get a word in. It's hard not to talk over one another when missing body language cues. A simple "What was that -insert name-" after a missed cue gives more people a chance to talk and makes them feel safe doing so. - @ChichaxMorada

Having Prime actions as examples of alignment so there's always a certain line to guide players towards or away from an alignment choice - @SteelUrMind

Focus on listening instead of roll playing - @micahfaulkner13

Make sure everyone's included (even if you're not the DM) - @TheAngieVOD

Have easy fights, or hard fights - no medium resource-depleting boring fights. Choose PC awesomeness or PC jeopardy for each battle! - @milnermaths

Crit rules we changed in our games. Roll one set of your damage dice + the maximum damage of that roll + modifiers. Made crits really pack a punch. Works both ways so it's just as potent for DMs as it is for players. - @VanRilisdead

Announce whose turn it is, and who's turn is after that. "Eren, it's your turn. Lysha, you're on deck." Keeps people ready to play and action moving smoothly - @TrmntdByGnomes

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Article copyright 2021 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

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Here's a simple and lazy way to create unique magic items that fit well into the story, act as great vehicles for secrets and clues, excite players, and matter to characters.

First, choose an item. Often this will be a weapon or piece of armor but it could be something else if it fits your goal.

Second, think about the history of that item. Who built it? Where did it come from? You can use the tables on page 142 of the Dungeon Master's Guide or pages 13 and 14 of the Lazy DM's Workbook to fill in a history and creator of the item but often it works best if it's tied to the history and creators that make sense in your adventures and campaign world.

Third, if it's a weapon or piece of armor, give it a +1 bonus. If the characters are above 10th level you might consider +2 or even +3 if you're very generous.

Fourth, give the item the ability to let the character attuned to it cast a spell they can't otherwise cast. They can do so once and the ability recharges on the next dawn. If you want to choose randomly, page 14 of the Lazy DM's Workbook has a table of 50 random spells you can roll on. Or, instead, choose a spell from the [Player's Handbook] or any other 5e resource you trust that fits the item.

Choose a DC or spell attack bonus that fits the power of the item; somewhere between +4 and +8 for the spell attack or DC 12 to 16 for the DC. Likewise, to change things up, you can change what type of action is required to cast the spell. Perhaps someone finds a knight's sword that can cast true strike as a bonus action instead of an action.

You can also use this opportunity to choose spells that characters often don't take the time to prepare or cast. Many spells aren't ideal when compared to the others in their spell level but when they can be cast for free on an item they suddenly become useful again.

Finally, give the item a cool name so it feels epic and unique in the world.

As an example item, we have "Moon's Sliver". This is a rapier wielded by the drow swordmage priestess at the Temple of the Moon. Our heroic rogue finds the blade in the priestess's coffin as her mummified body hands it to him, knowing he is worthy of the blade. Moon's Sliver is a +1 rapier forged from beams of moonlight by the drow bladesmiths. When attuned, the character wielding the blade can use an action to cast the spell Moonbeam once with a DC of 13. The blade regains this feature at the next dawn.

It takes hardly any effort to make magic items like this yet such items add a tremendous amount of flavor to the game and go well beyond a typical and boring +1 weapon or piece of armor.

Use this technique to build fun and unique items in your own campaign and watch your players smile as their characters wield them in their adventures.

Related Articles

• Awarding Magic Items in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
• The Stories of Magic Items
• Relics: Single-use D&D 5E Magic Items
• Making Counterspell Awesome
• D&D 5e Gotchas

Want More from Sly Flourish?

• Read more Sly Flourish articles
• Subscribe to the Sly Flourish newsletter
• Watch Sly Flourish's YouTube videos
• Support Sly Flourish on Patreon

Check Out Sly Flourish's Books

• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
• Lazy DM's Workbook
• Fantastic Lairs
• Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot
• Fantastic Adventures

Send feedback to mike@mikeshea.net.

Article copyright 2021 by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish.

Read more »