Shadow & Fae

  "The Carpet Merchant" - Jean-Leon Gerome Merchants are common characters in RPGs. We need folks who have just the right item, for ( slightly more than)  just the right price. From barkeepers and armorers to alchemists and enchanters, merchants are vital. But when a player says, "Can I be a merchant?" we might be tempted to stutter through an explanation of "Well that's... uh.. a neat idea, but... economics ." Shame on us. For some odd reason we have this idea that adventurers should be poor and desperate, and it's not "balanced" to allow them to be trading large amounts of wealth and goods. If they had all that money, they could just buy whatever they wanted! True, but is that bad? They can afford Masterwork Weapons, Armors that are just as much works of art as they are impenetrable shells, potions by the bucket, and—through a very  generous donation—may even gain access to the miracles of the temples! These are powerful people! But wit...

Recently a method of writing a quick campaign opener has been floating around Phlox's GLoG server, and I decided to give it a go. The idea is to write up what happened 5 Centuries ago, 5 Decades ago, 5 Years ago, 5 Days ago, and lastly 5 Minutes ago. I actually started with the "5 Minutes ago", as I had an image in mind of what the players would be dealing with, then worked back from there. At the end of the process I realized I'd created something rather dark, and placed the heroes in a position that wasn't as unquestionably heroic as our playstyle tends to be. That's all well and good for some tables, but we just happen to like being the good guys, or at least feeling like we're good guys. So I thought, "Who else could the group play as?" Well, I found some. And it turns out they aren't perfect people either, but their story is—in my opinion—the more interesting of the two. Of course, then there's option C. The Mountain of the Sun  5 Ce...

"The Great Goblin" by Justin Gerard I played my first real game of Shadow & Fae, a quick one-shot, last Saturday, and I think it went smashingly well! For posterity's sake, here's the Recap. In the Tomb Upon investigating an ancient tomb, Miss Mindy the Bard, Old Yeller the Dogfolk Monk, Amira Schmidt the Acrobat, Paul Blart the Frogfolk Barbarian, and P. Bettleby the gnomish wizard encountered a small band of goblins. One of the goblins attempted to shove Blart down the stairs, but ended up rolling down himself, and was effectively bludgeoned to death by Old Yeller and Amira at the bottom. 2 More goblins fell to the party, and as Amira threatened the two remaining goblins with her bloody staff, they surrendered. The party accepted this surrender, and in return the goblins gave them a key to continue to the next room. In that room, the party found a dark hall. Old Yeller rushed to the other end, and found a skeleton sitting in a chair. Excited about the bones, he ...

  Sir Galahad, by George Watts "While you partied, I studied the blade." - Anon. Fighting Just for Fun Wizards sling spells, barbarians withstand fearsome blows, and clerics call upon divine powers. What glory is left for the simple fighter? Whenever I sit down to work on a class—which I've been doing a lot of lately—I ask myself a few questions. What is the "Core Feature" of this class? How and how often can the class features be used? Does it feel fun? Fun  is an interesting word. Notably, it does not mean "likely to crush everything in its path." Rather, I've found that the keenest Fun happens through anticipation, risky investment, and payout. In anticipation of a gorgeous vista, my family and I invested in a few hours of hiking, and came upon a scene of open fields of wild-flowers, and a small lake at the far end of the valley. In anticipation of an evening of laughter and hijinks, I wrote my own GLOGhack, and my friends and family spent a few...

  Cover of the D&D 5E PHB PHB Classes for GLoG The Barbarian: Stand toe to toe with the strongest of foes. The Bard: Inspire your allies through song and word. The Cleric: Strike down evil, raise up the righteous. The Druid: Become nature's claws. The Fighter: Learn powerful strikes to wield in battle. The Monk: Perfect your body. The Paladin: Make a sacred vow, and walk in the power of divinity. The Ranger: Lead others safely through the dangers of the world. The Rogue: Know the shadows, and the people who live there. The Sorcerer: Bend a Source of Power to your will. The Warlock: Wield immense power - for a price. The Wizard: Study the forgotten magic of the world, and wield it carefully. This was an interesting undertaking. My primary goal was not to stick strictly to translating the mechanics presented in the PHB, but to focus on the "Core Feel" of those classes, and what mechanics lent to that feeling. Feel free to peruse, and let me know what you think.

  The Cave of Hands, Argentina Often, when I'm worldbuilding, I start with a map.  I form coastlines, mountains, rivers, forests, deserts, swamps, etc. Then I sprinkle a few seeds onto the map; peoples, powerful beings, natural magical phenomena, etc. At this point I start writing history. How did the people interact with the contents of the map? Who ruled? Who served? Who was loved? Hated? How did borders move, and what unexpected events popped up to shift the world? The Game " Microscope " by Ben Robbins is a wonderful system to gamify this process. However, when we come to the table to play a game, the history of the world is not immediately apparent. Nor is it always necessary to know. Nor should the DM spend several hours dumping lore onto the party (unless they really enjoy that sort of thing).  What is useful, and what - in my opinion - shapes the memories  of our players, is the culture they engage with at the table. Like stepping foot in a foreign city for t...

  (Art by Everything ) 1 Page of d6 GLoG Sometimes you just want to put a big bowl of d6 in the middle of a table and play a game. This is GLoG for the dice goblins, the cubic sorcerers, and the champions of justice squared. This is a bowl of GLoG soup. Someday, I promise, I'll start writing hexes and actual adventures, in the meantime, have some soup.