 If you want to help High Level Games continue to produce great content and launch the careers of the next generation of creators, we'd love it if you stopped by our Patreon to show your support. Of course, if you'd like a little something for your hard earned money, you could always pick up one of our fine game products as well. Greetings, traveler! I must say I’m relieved you survived your excursion in Lamordia. Also, I wouldn’t worry overmuch; I’m sure the Baron’s soldiers will eventually tire of looking for you. Since hiding in the basement of a safehouse can get quite dull (as I well remember!) I thought you would appreciate a little light reading material. Thinking of Mordenheim’s wayward creations got me thinking about the nature of corruption. It seems as though corruption from a person or thing’s original purpose is a not uncommon occurrence in the Mists. We’re all familiar with notable examples like Blackroot, of course, but the once noble treant is hardly the only such case. 1) Splinterwaif Travelers through the unspoiled wilderness may have encountered the elusive dryad: an innocent forest spirit tied mystically to a single virgin tree. Folk legend holds that harming the tree harms the maiden, and should the tree perish, so too will the dryad. (Folk legend also holds that driving a knot on said tree will compel the spirit to become your bride, but I suspect the latter part of the tale has more to do with woodsmen starved for feminine affection than actual fact.) But what happens if the tree is not merely cut down, but hacked to pieces, sliced and planed, rendered into dozens of boards, and then hammered together with iron spikes to fashion a pigsty, fish stall, brothel, or other shelter of slaughter or vice? Are fey spirits not just as prone to malevolent haunting as human spirits? They are. Such atrocity can give rise to a splinterwaif: a dryad spirit twisted by hatred and abuse. These hideous creatures lurk in slums, junkyards, and alleys, stalking children and the infirm to drain the life force of the living to sustain themselves. Only small, woody shrubs remain where their victims once stood. Stats for the splinterwaif can be found in the Monster Manual III. 2) Midnight Unicorn Many outlanders I’ve spoken to have told me stories of the noble unicorn: a creature of purest innocence, which dwells in forest glades and blesses those it deems worthy with protection and healing. Legend has it that the touch of their horn can banish any impurity, even poison or illness. The only such being I’ve encountered was far from these legends. Its coat was as black as coal, and a fierce malevolence burned in its glowing red eyes. The silver horn spiraling from its skull sported wicked barbs along its razored length. Most disconcerting of all was the unearthly shriek that it accompanied its arrival. When it vanished, just as suddenly, the silence was nearly as terrifying. If I had to guess, I would suspect that unicorns are occasionally drawn in by the Mists just as Outlanders are. Their close connection to the land, like elementals, eventually seeps into their very being, and they find themselves twisting into a hateful mockery of their former selves. Black unicorns can be found in the Monsters of Faerun compendium. 3) Boxwood Defenders Once, on the invitation of Lord Pennybore, I travelled to Darkon to attend a large dinner party. Woefully, it turned out to be an ambush, as Pennybore (in reality the hidden Blackburn-Bruce scion I’d been hunting for nearly a year) had laid out an elaborate trap to kill me. Perhaps most terrifying was his hedge maze. Filled with blind turns and dead ends, as well as dozens of boxwood sculptures, each trimmed to the shape of a fearsome soldier or diabolical beast, it was very nearly my tomb. The sculptures came to life, and I found myself pursued, unarmed and unarmored, through an unlit maze, stalked by living extensions of the hedges themselves. I’ve heard that such creatures can be created by skilled mages, but I fear that exposure to too much wickedness (and the tainted nature of the Mists themselves) can lend these guardians a cruelty they would lack in their ‘natural’ state. To add boxwood defenders to your haunted mansions, check out the topiary guardian statistics in the Monster Manual III. 4) Cyclopes Religion is a powerful thing. When twisted by grief and neglect, that power can be terrible indeed. Although rare, I’ve encountered more than one instance of a religious idol persisting even after the death of the congregation that once worshipped before it. Regardless of the tenets of the original faith, these fallen icons mar their features beyond recognition and pursue eternal vengeance against those they hold accountable for the loss of their faithful. (I assume there’s a convoluted reasoning at work, but typically this category includes everyone they meet.) Dripping spectral blood from their ruined visages, they strike fear into the hearts of those they assault, and madness in the minds of any unfortunate enough to touch their ectoplasmic vitriol. Fortunately for most, these cyclopes tend to be somewhat unsociable. They are most often found in the wild, isolated places their faithful once gathered, haunting the sites of their former glory. Unfortunately for you, these are just the sorts of places your profession sends you to time and time again. Renegade religious statues use the rogue eidolon stats from the Monster Manual II. Conclusion Scholars have gone back and forth on the corrupting nature of the Mists and the truth behind outlander tales of unadulterated versions of some of our more common monstrosities. If nothing else, these sorts of discussions make an interesting diversion when one is hiding from overzealous law enforcement. If you continue to have difficulties, send word in a return missive and I shall see what I can do to find a suitable escape for you. In the meantime, good luck and happy hiding, Frankie “Farshot” Drakeson, Lord Mayor of Carinford-Halldon Frankie Drakeson is a retired rifleman and the current mayor of Carinford-Halldon in Mordent. He is married to Gwendolyn Drakeson, making him Nathan Timothy’s grandson by marriage. Jim Stearns is a deranged hermit from the swamps of Southern Illinois. In addition to writing for the Black Library, he puts pen to paper for High Level Games and Quoth the Raven. His mad scribblings can frequently be found in anthologies like Fitting In or Selfies from the End of the World, by Mad Scientist Journal. Follow him on Twitter @jcstearnswriter, or listen to Don, Jon, & Dragons, his podcast. Picture Reference: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/156218680804888437/   While only recently converted into a traditional roleplaying experience, Infinity has been a fantastic tabletop war game with lots of flavor and a robust setting to match. One of the coolest aspects to the game is the unified alien threat known as the Combined Army, the inclusion of which allows a player assume control of various extraterrestrial archetypes found throughout sci-fi, each with an original spin. These servant races were brought together by the Evolved Intelligence, an extremely advanced A.I. that seeks to conquer the stars and advance its hidden, sinister agenda. With the release of the TTRPG, players can now come face to face, so to speak, with these dedicated villains and explore their intricacies firsthand. I’ve listed some of my favorite member races of the alien menace below.
1) Morats The Morats appear as humanoids sporting shaggy white fur and red skin. They form the backbone of the Combined Army’s forward military force, and are also used as shock troops when fully armed and armored. What sets this group apart from other standard brutish aliens is their universal and unwavering discipline. In the wargame, this translates to an effect that prevents them from breaking or routing even when their leadership structure crumbles. They fight to the last; their higher cause eliminates all room for doubt or fear. In the tabletop RPG, players encountering the Morat should expect to face hardy opponents that don’t retreat even when singled out, as well as experts in small team tactics. Morats can be heard humming their battle songs mid salvo, are almost universally resistant to torture tactics, and thoroughly enjoy killing in the name of the Evolved Intelligence. Player characters are advised to freely utilize their array in-game assets and equipment if they plan on facing off against these worthy foes. 2) Shasvastii The perfect counterpoint to the aggression of the Morats is the quiet, subversive force known as the Shasvastii. “Diplomats,” assassins, and infiltrators, these lithe creatures attack from stealth or the skies, or sometimes even from the ranks of their enemies. Shasvastii make for the perfect surprise that keeps your players guessing, as they can practically be anywhere at anytime. One variant, known as the Speculo Killer, can disguise itself, nearly instantaneously, as a member of another species (such as Homo Sapien, for example). They are masters of deception and learned in both the languages and cultures of their targets. GMs will particularly enjoy introducing these terrors by way of a trusted friend who turns on them suddenly, and even when the player characters succeed in laying low the surprise assassin, they must deal with the pervasive suspicion that follows. Fans of John Carpenter’s the Thing will certainly have fun with this enemy. 3) The Hungries Rounding out the list of capable and terrifying baddies are the Hungries. They appear much like the Tyranids of Warhammer 40k (and by extension the Zerg of Starcraft), and are essentially mindless killing machines. The best things about these critters are that they come in waves and can crawl over any surface. The player characters could be picking through an old battle site, looking for lost data cubes or recoverable armament, when a nest of these monsters is riled up and sent screeching after them. What’s more, they come in two flavors: Gakis, which rush up and claw at you, then explode upon death; and the Pretas, which spray acid on an entire group of characters. When put together, they make for an exciting and horrifying chase sequence wherein player characters scramble to keep their distance and kill enough of them to stem the tide, or make it to an escape vehicle before they are overrun and/or covered in acid. Now, imagine a fighting force that combines these individual races into a cohesive, near-perfectly drilled and deployed unit overseen by an intelligence far greater than any that humans can dream up. Arguably the most fun a gaming group can have with the Combined Army is to actually combine the different species into one encounter, and to have the players try to overcome the unique challenge presented by this cohesive whole. Are there other unified fighting forces that use a similar model in games you’ve played? What’s your experience with Infinity as either wargame or TTRPG? David Horwitz is a gamer and freelance writer with an obsession for exploring new forms of leisure. If you’re looking for an inquisitive mind and a deft hand, or just want to chat about gaming, contact him at www.davidhorwitzwrites.com/contact . Picture Reference: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/modiphius/corvus-bellis-infinity-roleplaying-game  It can be argued the NPCs are the RPG games that we play. They’re the way the GM interacts directly with the player characters. For me, they’re at least on par with the locations and sensorial information, in making the experience of the game a bit more intense and realistic. I’ve recently changed my approach to NPC building dramatically. I’ve had really great feedback from my players, and here is what I did:
1) Voices Everyone can do a different voice. Cast it higher or lower, make it distinctive. Give him/her/it a characteristic speech cadence. When you come back to the NPC in a few sessions time, the players will remember him/her/it, and what he/she/it did. I am a horrible impersonator, but I have a couple of good ones (e.g. Mr Burns, Palpatine, HAL 9000, Watto, Admiral Akbar on a good day, a posh, quiet guy from a previous game, cockney on a REALLY good day, etc). It truly doesn’t take much, heck, just an accent or a cough will do. 2) Three Times Three Give the NPC three things they are, three things they’d want to achieve and three things that define them. Not much else, at this stage. Let’s say we have a dodgy pawn shop owner. Untrustworthy, Greedy, Astute / Money, Respect, Status / Sniffly, Hunched, Darting eyes. And there we go. I know, I know, I punched all the stereotypes of ‘dodgy money lender,’ but you get what I mean. Don’t overdo it! This is the main thing! Keep it vague so you can adapt it on the fly (more on that below). 3) Randomization This is the greatest change I’ve made to my NPCs. Now that I have an idea of what and who they are, I then write down tables. I make a series of numbered bullet points of events, and then I roll a die. I find this works much better for me, keeps me on my toes and forces me to roll with the punches. I used to plan too much and became much more inflexible when things - inevitably - went off track. I used to plan everything, write massive backgrounds to each NPC, and then, the players would say ‘hello!’ (if that) and move on. I then had to find another way for them to find the info and there goes Miss So-and-so background as an old merc. Don’t. Stay loose, roll with the punches. 4) Take In EVERYTHING I am now picking up on every single silly thing me and my players say, and weave it into the narrative, no matter how stupid. Believe me, these will become the groups’ memories that they will retain years after the game is long forgotten. 5) Use The Players Now and again, I tell the players, I need an NPC, and vaguely describe what I need. You’d be surprised how well this works and how much the players will contribute to the cause. 6) It’s All In The Past Before the game starts, ask a few random questions of the players, about places where they grew up, people that were important to them, etc. They then basically have done all the work for you. You now have half a dozen NPCs you can bring over at any stage to destabilize things/make them more interesting. 7) Box Of Sand Here is where my love for sandbox rule systems shines through. RPGs are a sandbox. Allow your players to play with the sand. Allow them to ask and try and do things (within reason) with the NPCs that you didn’t think of. Make it hard for them if its weird, but what are you going to lose? 8) Bringing It All Together By definition, an NPC is not a character. It’s not ‘alive’ in the real world, but there’s no reason why he/she/it wouldn’t be so in the narrative. In this sense, I keep coming back to something I read years ago, about some long forgotten sci fi show where the characters were so forgettable and two-dimensional that one episode, when the fate of each of them was hanging in the balance, there was simply no drama, no stress. I remember reading someone’s comment on a forum, ‘If they all died, would you actually care?’ No. No, I wouldn’t. You don’t need to make the NPC important, vivid or interesting in any shape or form, but they need to be relevant. The fact they’re imaginary is beside the point. At the time of the game, they are important. If they died, would the characters/players care? If so, those are the NPCs that will stay with them. Rui is a Portuguese scientist that, after ten years doing strange things in labs, decided to become a teacher. Then, three years ago, like he was bit by a radioactive D20, RPGs came into his life, and he’s now juggling teaching, playing and GMing quite happily. He lives in the UK with his partner Joana, an ungodly number of potted plants, 4 to 5 RPGs at various stages of completion (and across as many rule systems), and maps, cursed idols, evil necklaces, and any other props he can get his hands on. He’s been writing for HLG for a few months, and is one of the resident vloggers. He can be reached at @Atomic_RPG. Picture Reference: http://3dnpc.com/forums/topic/3d-npc-look-overhual/  When man first began to tell tales of magic, “the curse” was one of the most prevalent legends ever told. Mortals burdened by the weight of their sins and mistakes all accumulating in a literal and magical effect. Typically they are bound to a specific item, such as an amulet, ring (perhaps just one ring. Or three. Maybe seven? I’ll settle on nine. Ah screw it,) or perhaps even a suit of armour. But really, powerful magic items aren’t as cursed as the seemingly normal ones. Demons armour? Boring. Shoes of dancing? Exhausted. So, let’s see some absolutely wicked trinkets and baubles for all you vagabonds, ne'er do wells and villainous folks out there. (All of the following curses can be removed with a remove curse spell using a 5th level spell slot or higher.)
1) Sigurd’s Mace Sigurd was a relatively kind soul, a hunter in the cold, bitter north. As such he had to be away from home for many, many months at a time to actually find game. He hunted with his longbow, but arrows were scarce, so for protection, he carried a mace in case he was jumped by bandits or waylaid by a pack of rabid wolves. One lucky afternoon, as he had just left only hours ago on the hunt, he stumbled upon a family of elk. He managed to get three down before the rest escaped him. He thought about chasing the last two down, but three elk was better than he had done in years. He started to drag them back, ecstatic at the prospect of showing his wife his freshly caught game, fresher than she had seen in a long time. He walked through the front door, trying to track her down, and found her in the bedroom. It was a mess. Clothes were strewn about and his best friend was lying there naked beside his wife. He stood, stunned above their nude forms. They stared back at him. Honey… I can explain… That was all it took. He drew his mace and beat them both to death. After breaking their knees to stop them from escaping his wrath, he proceeded to destroy the rest of their limbs. He caved in his wife's chest, and as the last breath escaped her lips his old friend looked to him. I’m sorry Sigurd. I love you like a brother. Sigurd pushed him off the bed, onto his back, and sat atop him. He pressed the haft of his mace against his throat, and forced the life out of his friend. He stood over the two lovers’ mangled forms and realized his sin. Sigurd took the pointed tip of mis mace and jammed it through his skull. But there’s no rest for the wicked… Sigurd’s Mace, also known as Cripple, is a cursed mace. It's a black iron mace with a 5 inch protrusion at the top used for stabbing, which is always wet with blood. Once attuned to Cripple, the wielder cannot unattune until a proper remove curse spell or similar effect is used on them. While attuned, you have a +3 to attack and damage rolls, and a +5 if attacking a creature who is or was friendly towards you at one point or another. However at dawn each day you must roll a DC 18 constitution check or begin to attack your closest friend, believing they have betrayed you. You can reroll the check whenever you take damage, or every minute the effect lasts. If you have failed the check three days in a row, roll on the long term madness table in the DM’s guide. You also have a +2 on rolls to track animals while attuned to this mace. Cripple seems to get warm to the touch whenever near someone the wielder cares for. 2) The Witches’ Coin Deep within coves and hobbles lie witches. Witches crafting spells. Witches cursing. Doing more… witchy stuff. The point is they make a lot of little trinkets and whatnot. One of the most prized is the witches’ coin. Crafted with clove, cinnamon, clear quartz, smoky quartz, a topaz, an opal and rosemary, all casted upon in an elemental circle with a single coin of any value within. This enchantment has been known to be put on gems, but that is a significantly more expensive and less versatile idea. Many an empire has risen and fallen thanks to these simple coins bound to witches and their strings of fate. A witches’ coin is bound to a witch. If a witch gives you this coin, you fall under the curse. While cursed, the witch always knows your general direction, can cast Scry on you whenever they want without expending a spell slot and cast Hex on you without expending a spell slot. When the coin is flipped, the witch can choose weather it lands on heads or tails or its side. You cannot rid yourself of the coin, if you try to throw it away or dispose of it in a non-magical way, it simply reappears in your wallet or coin purse the next day. If the attunement with the witch is broken a wizard of the necromancy school or a warlock of 5th level or higher can attune to it. While attuned to the coin, you have a +3 to arcana checks. Additionally, you learn one cantrip of your choice on the warlock spell list. You also gain one extra first and second level spell slot, and can choose how it lands when it’s flipped. If you give the coin to another creature as an action, you can curse them. While they are cursed, you lose all other bonuses the coin grants and the curse as described above passes to the other creature. 3)The Cat’s Eye The Rakshasa are a dangerous and mysterious style of fiend. In and of themselves they are powerful, but their real power lies in their influence. A hundred years ago a legendary but forgotten adventuring group faced such a creature. They fortunately managed to wound it; the warrior gouging out its eye before it shifted planes and disappeared. The wizard jumped at the chance to experiment with such a magically infused component and eventually made The Cat’s Eye. This amulet was a powerful magical artefact for a long time, but the cat came back. He spread his influence to the bearer of the amulet and made the wizard kill his old allies. He slowly became more and more enthralled by the Rakshasa, until he was but another slave to its will. The Eye was lost to time for ages, and has only recently resurfaced. The Cat’s Eye is a Legendary Magical Amulet. The second it is equipped it begins to affect the user. Each day the bearer must succeed on a DC 1+X Wisdom saving throw or instantly change their alignment to Lawful Evil and serve a Rakshasa’s wishes. (X is the number of weeks the amulet has been equipped.) When equipped the bearer gains limited magic immunity to spells of third level or lower. They can also cast Detect Thoughts once per day without expending a spell slot, as well as cast Disguise Self at will. The Cat’s Eye grants advantage on all Perception checks that have to do with sight and gain darkvision out to 120 feet. Curses have always been the bane of adventuring parties and always will. Because the simple fact is, people are greedy. Greed after all is one of the seven deadly sins, and don’t sins seem to lead to curses? Meh. Maybe I’m just slowly going mad from repeated exposure to the visage of hell. Anyways, till next time: don’t die. Jarod Lalonde is a young roleplayer and writer whose passion for both lead him here. He’s often sarcastic and has a +5 to insult. Dungeons and Dragons is his favorite platform. Although he’s not quite sure if it’s Cthulhu whispering to him in the small hours of the night, or just persistent flashbacks to the Far Realm. Picture Reference: https://xcentury.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/sviatopolk-the-cursed-and-the-varangian-from-bodzia/  Editor’s note: There are always wheels turning here at High Level Games. I have been involved in a small handful of the many little projects we are undertaking. I have been creating new player character races for 5th edition, and have also released a small document on Time Demons. There are also one page adventures, and much much more coming to high level games. Help us grow by supporting our patreon, and get access to cool stuff! It’s a win win.
Ever wanted to add a theme to the spells that your player character, NPC, or villain has up their sleeves? I have created 18 new spells for 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons to help make your spellcasters feel unique. You can either use these as a player character (DM permission required obviously) or a DM can use these spells as either treasure (scrolls) or have their NPCs or villains use them. 1) Aftershock (Level 1 Transmutation) Cast Time: 1 bonus action Duration: Instant Components: VS Choose one creature within 60 feet of you that has taken thunder damage during your turn. They take a further 2d8 Thunder Damage. AT HIGHER LEVELS: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, increase the maximum number of targets by 2 for each level above first. All targets must have taken thunder damage from you during your turn. 2) Arcane Blast (Level 1 Evocation) Cast Time: 1 action Duration: Instant Components: VS Choose a target within 45 feet of you. The target takes 2d10 force damage, and must pass a Strength saving throw or they are pushed up to 10 feet. A successful save halves damage. AT HIGHER LEVELS: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, increase the damage by 1d10 for each level above first. 3) Arcane Pocket (Level 2 Conjuration) Cast Time: 1 reaction, when a creature moves next to you, or when you are forced to make a dexterity saving throw against a spell or ability. Duration: Instant Components: S You teleport up to 15 ft to an unoccupied space you can see. If the triggering target attacks you this turn, they have a penalty to hit you equal to your spellcasting ability modifier. If the trigger was a Dexterity saving throw, you take half damage on a fail and no damage on a success. 4) Blaze (Level 2 Evocation) Cast Time: 1 action Duration: Instant Components: VS You create a blaze in a 45ft long cone with a 180 degree arc from you. All creature in the area must make a Dexterity saving throw. Creatures take 3d6 fire damage on a failed save, and half on a successful one. AT HIGHER LEVELS: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, increase the length of the cone by 15ft for each level above second. 5) Cone of Acid (Level 3 Evocation) Cast Time: 1 action Duration: Instant Components: VS All creatures and objects in a 20ft cone area from you are blasted with a torrent of burning acid. Targets take 5d10 acid damage. A successful Constitution saving throw halves damage. AT HIGHER LEVELS: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, increase the damage by 1d10 for each level above third. 6) Death Coil (Level 1 Necromancy) Cast Time: 1 action Duration: 1 round (concentration) Components: VSM (A wilted flower or a rotten vegetable) You steal the essence of an enemy and then slowly claim it for yourself. A target within 20ft takes 3d6 Necrotic damage. A successful Con save halves damage. At the start of your next turn, if this spell hasn’t ended, you gain temporary hit points equal to the damage you dealt. AT HIGHER LEVELS: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, increase the damage by a further 1d6 for each level above first. 7) Divine Glow (Level 2 Conjuration) Cast Time: 1 action Duration: 1 round Components: VS Target a 15ft by 15ft area that is no further than 60 feet from you. All enemies in the area take 2d10 Radiant damage. A successful Wisdom saving throw halves damage. All allies in the area are under the effects of the Bless spell until the start of your next turn. AT HIGHER LEVELS: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, increase the damage by a further 1d10 for each level above second. 8) Feedback Bolt (Level 1 Abjuration) Cast Time: 1 reaction Duration: Instant Components: None You can cast this spell as a reaction after another creature casts a spell. You must be able to see this creature, and it must be within 120ft of you. After the triggering creature’s spell has been resolved, deal 2d6 psychic damage to the target, plus an extra 1 psychic damage for each level the triggering spell was. AT HIGHER LEVELS: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, increase the damage by 1d6 for each level above first. 9) Focus (Level 1 Abjuration) Cast Time: 1 reaction Duration: Instant Components: S You can cast this spell as an immediate reaction when you fail a concentration test. You pass instead. 10) Forked Lightning (Level 2 Evocation) Cast Time: 1 action Duration: Instant Components: VS Choose a target within 30 feet of you. Choose a second target within 10 feet of the first target. Both targets take 3d10 lightning damage, but a successful Dexterity saving throw halves damage. AT HIGHER LEVELS: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rdlevel or higher, increase the damage by 1d10 for each level above 2nd. 11) Healing Wave (Level 3 Evocation) Cast Time: 1 action Duration: Instant Components: VS A target within 15 feet regains hit points equal to 3d8+ your spellcasting ability modifier. You can choose for a second target, within 15ft of the first target, to regain hit points equal to 2d8+ your spellcasting ability modifier. From here, you can continue choosing additional targets, provided that each target is within 15 feet of the previous target. Each target after the second regains hit points equal to 1d8+ your spellcasting ability modifier. No creature can be targeted by this spell more than once. Once the healing wave heals three targets, the spell ends and it cannot bounce to any more targets. AT HIGHER LEVELS: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, increase the maximum number of bounce targets by 2 for each level over third. 12) Ice Lance (Level 4 Evocation) Cast Time: 1 action Duration: Instant Components: VS Line 20ft, 5ft wide. Creature in the spell’s area must pass a Dexterity saving throw or are restrained until the start of your next turn. Targets take 5d8 cold damage on a failed save, and half on a successful one. AT HIGHER LEVELS: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, increase the damage by 1d8 for each level above fourth. 13) Mitigate (Level 1 Abjuration) Cast Time: 1 reaction Duration: Instant Components: VS You can cast this spell when you are to take an instance of damage. Reduce that instance of damage by 2d10 + your spellcasting ability modifier. AT HIGHER LEVELS: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage reduction increases by 1d10 for each level above first. 14) Phantasm Blast (Level 3 Illusion) Cast Time: 1 action Duration: Instant Components: VSM (A small handful of sand) You create an illusionary cone 25 feet long from your position. This illusionary cone is one that represents a spectral charging horde of a creature you decide (ghosts, stampeding elks, etc) All targets in the vicinity of the cone must pass an Intelligence save or take 4d8 psychic damage and fall prone. AT HIGHER LEVELS: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, increase the psychic damage by a further 1d8 for each level above third. 15) Pillar of Radiance (Level 4 Evocation) Cast Time: 1 action Duration: 1 minute (concentration) Components: VS A pillar of searing radiance is channelled into a cylindrical area with a 10ft radius and a height of 120ft, centred on a position you can see within 60ft. Creatures in the area must take a Charisma saving throw, they take 5d8 radiant damage on a failed save, and half damage on a successful one. They also have disadvantage on attack rolls while in this area. On your subsequent turns, you can use your bonus action to deal a further 2d8 radiant damage to all creatures in the pillar’s area. Affected creatures who succeed on a Charisma saving throw halve damage. AT HIGHER LEVELS: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, increase the radius of the cylinder by 5ft, for each level above fourth. 16) Searing Ray (Level 1 Evocation) Cast Time: 1 action Duration: Instant Components: VS Line 5ft x 15ft. Creatures in the area take 3d6 radiant damage. A successful Con save halves damage. This deals an extra 1d6 damage to fiends and undead. AT HIGHER LEVELS: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, increase the radiant damage by 1d6 for each level above third. 17) Skeletal Expulsion (Level 3 Necromancy) Cast Time: 1 action Duration: 1 minute (Concentration) Components: VSM (The dust of a crushed human skull) You choose a living creature within 45ft who you can see, and attempt to rip their skeleton out of their body. The target takes 3d8 Necrotic damage. A successful Constitution saving throw halves damage. At the start of each of your next turns, you may use your bonus action to deal a further 1d8 Necrotic damage to the target (no save). If the target drops to 0 hit points while under the effect of this spell, their body is ripped open and their skeleton leaps out. If the creature is a humanoid, this skeleton is under your control for the next 10 turns (1 minute) as a basic skeleton (CR 1/4), after which it crumbles to dust. It acts on your initiative, but must wait until the start of your next turn to act. If the creature is not a humanoid, the skeleton is not animated, and it crumples to the floor. AT HIGHER LEVELS: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, increase the initial damage by 1d8. 18) Timeshift (Level 1 Enchantment) Cast Time: 1 bonus action Duration: 1 round Components: VS You get one extra reaction this round. If you do not use it by the start of your next turn, it is lost. I hope that these spells have spurred you into wanting to try one, or more of them out, either as a Player or a Dungeon Master. Do you have a favourite spell in this list? Let me know! What custom spells do you use in your campaign? Peter is an avid dungeon master, role-player, and story teller. When he's not running homebrew campaigns, he is creating new worlds, or he is reading and writing fantasy stories, forever immersing himself in the gaping black-hole known as the fantasy genre. Picture Reference: https://www.walldevil.com/artwork-fantasy-hunter-magic-wallpaper-11538/  You’d be hard pressed to find a tabletop RPG that veteran game designer Kenneth Hite hasn’t touched in the last few years. Like D&D 5e? His name is on the credits page of the Player’s Handbook. World of Darkness, he’s contributed to plenty, not to mention being brought on as the lead designer of Vampire the Masquerade 5th Edition. Cthulhu? In addition to contributing to Delta Green, Ken only wrote Trail of Cthulhu, widely considered one of the best versions of Call of Cthulhu on the market. Google his bibliography, the point is, he’s widely sought after because he’s good at what he does and he knows what he’s talking about. Vampires have become a fairly ubiquitous subject in tabletop RPGs. Even outside of the obvious culprits Vampire the Masquerade/Requiem, D&D 5e got a playable vampire race in Planeshift: Zendikar, (and before that Vampire was a class in Heroes of Shadow) and just about any game can feature a vampire as a villain. In another of his creations Night’s Black Agents, (a game of super spies versus vampire conspiracies, and yes it is as awesome as it sounds) regarding the possibility of vampire agents as player characters, Mr. Hite says rather definitively, “If it were up to me, nobody would ever get to play the good vampire again, in any medium.” If that’s the first time you’re reading that sentiment, I know what you’re thinking. It sounds like totalitarian drivel from someone who’s trying to tell me how to run my game. I felt the same way, but, given the pedigree involved, I decided to give it some thought. Do we humanize vampires too much? A vampire is a predator. A vampire is undead. A vampire doesn’t belong in nature. The question that needs to be asked is, how do these experiences shape the character? How do they affect the way the character thinks, acts and sees the world? 1) The Vampire Is Fundamentally Alone “When the last vampire is extinct, who will mourn our passing? Will she? Will anyone? Can anyone understand this pain, this loneliness?” - Meier Link, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust Do you have a “safety blanket?” Have you ever tried to turn to something familiar after a traumatic or life changing experience to try to regain some feeling of normalcy? Imagine a freshly turned vampire, who has not only faced their own death but come through the other side. What would they turn to for that sense of normalcy and comfort? Doesn’t matter, it’s all gone. All of it. A vampire is cut off from that which would bring them comfort in a way that we who will live and die as humans will never understand. Their relationship with anyone they could turn to is now forever one of predator and prey.Their loved ones are in danger any time they’re in each other’s company. Should they ignore that fact and selfishly seek them out anyway, they will always feel that pull, that urge to rip open their veins. Depending on the specific folklore, they may not be able enjoy their favorite foods any longer, or any others for that matter. Even if they can, it will never be as satisfying as it once was, never as satisfying as what flows through someone’s veins. Smaller things like a favorite movie or a sentimental gift can sometimes tend to lose their impact for a time following a sufficiently traumatic experience, but even if they don’t, it was made for a world the vampire no longer belongs in. From the moment they reawaken,the vampire has only themselves to lean on, except maybe, if they’re lucky, an even more inhuman monster monster that’s already completed their slide to Hell; the one that turned them. 2) Violation Is A Matter of Survival “Evil is a point of view, God kills indiscriminately… and so shall we.” - Lestat, Interview With The Vampire Consider, for a moment, all the institutions put in place to facilitate your survival. If you are hungry, there is very likely a store within a few blocks where you can go to purchase food. If you can’t afford to purchase food, we have programs in place like food stamps and WIC to help you afford it, or at the very least there’s a soup kitchen or a mission somewhere where you can get something to eat once in a while. We as a society have made absolutely no provisions for the survival of vampires (ignoring the fact that it would be absolutely ludicrous to do so). Ergo, a vampire has no legal means whatsoever of securing the sustenance they need to survive. It has to be taken. It has to be stolen. Even if a vampire decides to prey solely on animals, the animals have to come from somewhere. They might be able to live off pigeons and sewer rats for a time, but there’s a litany of studies out there to show what happens to a population when a new apex predator is introduced into an environment. It’s only a matter of time before little Timmy’s puppy goes missing. It’s only a matter of time before the neighborhood runs out of puppies. Let’s say our fledgling vampire was lucky enough to find a human friend that consents to letting them take blood from them. What happens if one day the vampire needs more blood than their donor is willing or able to give? What happens if the vampire desperately needs blood and their donor isn’t around? Just by drinking blood or killing animals, the vampire has most likely already made a compromise they never saw themselves making. As much as we’d like to think of ourselves as paragons of morality, the sheer fact of human nature is, once you start giving an inch, the next compromise is only just another inch. Eventually, just to continue “living” the vampire is going to have to break the law. To continue “living” the vampire is going to have to completely disregard the law. They give another inch, and they’re attacking people. They give another inch, and they’re killing people. 3) Eternity Fans The Flames “Gazing out across the plains of possibility, do you not feel, with all your soul, how we have become like gods? And a such, are we not indivisible? As long as a single one of us stands, we are legion. That is why, when I must sacrifice my children to the void, I can do so with a clear heart.” - Kain, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver You can only have never killed someone before once. You can only not be used to killing people for so long before it becomes just another Tuesday. At this point the fledgling has long ago discarded the rules and moralities of others as a matter of survival. They’ve seen human lives come and go, and they realize that they’ll most likely see the cycle continue for generations to come unless they’re destroyed. A vampire at this stage would have absolutely no respect for human life. It’s just a human, and we would reproduce like rabbits to their worldview. This is why so many elder vampires think nothing of killing indiscriminately, either a stranger or a servant. It’s just a human, and humans are a dime a dozen. Consider the casual disinterest of Rudolph Hoss, the Nazi commandant of Auschwitz who, when tried for his crimes expressed that his only regret was not spending more time with his family. He was 46 when he died. What would someone be like who’s had hundreds of years to become desensitized? Looking back So, do we humanize vampires too much? Honestly, when we create a “good guy vampire,” I think the problem is that we don’t humanize them enough. What if the real horror of the vampire is not that they’re inhuman, it’s that they might be too human. It may be as small as the guy who cuts you off in traffic, or the guy on the internet who feels comfortable displaying his cruelty behind anonymity. It could be as big as the drug pushers and human smugglers we see on the news. Either way, does humanity not constantly display how callous and self serving it can be? What if the nature of the vampire is simply what happens when mankind is forced outside of its societal obligations and tribe mentality, no longer forced to uphold a false veneer of empathy? Never forget, humans tell stories of monsters to reflect upon humanity. What does the vampire reflect about us? Chaz Lebel is a fiction author and member of Caffeinated Conquests, a YouTube channel dedicated to nerd comedy and tabletop gaming. He and his team once produced some promotional videos for High Level Games that they probably wish they could forget. Chaz can be found on Twitter @CafConIsOn Picture Reference: https://lefturn.wordpress.com/2012/11/21/vampire-art-wallpapers-by-artist-avelina-de-moray-vampires-9800318-1600-1200-jpg/   Fomori: not just a mythological people from Irish myth, the fomori in World of Darkness are human beings (and other creatures) that have been infested by Banes. For those of you who might not know, Banes are the spirits of the Wyrm. They are the corrupting, destructive, and corrosive spiritual servants of the ultimate nihilistic force of oblivion. They are also mainly a feature of Werewolf: The Apocalypse. That said, why keep them only as antagonists for those furry chainsaws? Here are four story hook ideas for you to use in your games.
1) Fomori Against The Kindred A group of Brujah move into a set of dilapidated buildings in the center of Gary, Indiana. They’ve decided this will be the site of their next Rant. As they are sifting through the building, they notice a group of ‘homeless’ people that have a makeshift camp in the center of the space. That’s the last anyone heard from these Kindred. The only hints to what occured are the puddle of worms in a heap in the burn barrel. As the coterie investigates they discover that other young Kindred are being killed throughout the city, with little puddles of worms being found near their ashes. This is likely a collection of vampires infected by Thirster Banes, called Bloodworms, but perhaps it is some other form of Fomor. The options are numerous. 2) Quintessence Spiral The cabal has had a hard time of it lately. They have been chased by a cadre of Men in Black for nearly a month, finally settling into a small hotel far away from anything on an old tourist route. The group initially feels a sense of peace here. They set-up wards that they hope will ensure the MiBs don’t find them. As the days pass, one of the cabal notices that the hotel manager is a tad… eccentric. One of the other members discovers a small font of tass hidden in an old shed. Wait, there is a node here? Wait, is that the…. Ahhhhhhh! Ahhhhhh!!! This version of the Bates Motel is run by an Enticer or some other form of Bane that creates an initial sense of peace and tranquility. Then it feeds on the impending terror of its victims. This is great for a LARP idea too. 3) Dreams; Dark, Dark Dreams “Is it a Thallain?” the Pooka asked. “No, Michelle, no it’s something stranger... worse, maybe,” the Troll responded. Together they shivered as the creature crawled along the heads of the sleeping people. It had their brains exposed, but they were still alive, and it buzzed with glamour, even as it dripped with blood. I’d argue that Changelings themselves can’t become fomori, as they already are beings possessing a body. Still, they may be forced to interact with the powerful and evil forces of the Wyrm as it seeks to corrupt the world. Where do the Dark Dreaming and Malfeas meet? This is a Dream Devourer, a being that feeds off the dreams of the dying. Worse, they can merge with a human body and become something akin to a Dauntain, using a mix of Wyrm tainted gnosis and glamour to wreck havoc. 4) The Devil’s In The Details What is a Demon? What is Fae? What is a Spirit? These beings all share similarities and differences and it is nearly impossible to discern one over another. A group of Demons think they are battling against one of the ancient Earthbound. Instead they face a talon of the defiler Wyrm itself. Locked on Earth for millennia the talon has grown its own awareness, building up an Army to fight, destroy, and scour the world. How do the Demons react? Do they care? Do they destroy it as if it were an Earthbound? The fomori offer demons a challenge that appears familiar, but is mechanically different from the norm. What other ideas do you have for using Fomori in your games? Josh is the intrepid Chief Operations Officer of High Level Games. With 20 years of playing rpgs, Josh started with Mind's Eye Theater LARPs and loves the World of Darkness. He runs, www.keepontheheathlands.com to support his gaming projects. Josh is the administrator of the Inclusive Gaming Network on Facebook. He’s running a Changing Breeds game. He’s a serious advocate for inclusive gaming spaces, a father, and a graduate from the International Peace and Conflict Resolution graduate program at American University in Washington, D.C. You can also find Josh’s other published adventures here and here. Picture Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomorians#/media/File:The_Fomorians,_Duncan_1912.jpg  All right, tabletop roleplaying gamers. It’s time to talk about a real problem for your long-term roleplaying happiness: enemy NPC fatigue (ENPCF), or “boredom,” for short. We’ve all been there: you’re on a dungeon crawl, twelve levels down the tower, and the monsters are starting to blend together. What was that last one? Tarrak, tarrasque, tourrette… it doesn’t really matter, actually. The slavering mandibles, grating claws, and magical damage resistance all look the same at that point. Granted, it’s been fun to collect loot and advance your character, but if you wanted to go grinding or farm resources, you might as well be playing Skyrim. It’s time for a serious villain overhaul. The following are a few memorable monster villains from my own playing history. Let these creatures and people be an inspiration to your own memorable villain repertoire and take your games to the next level. 1) Rifts - The Evil Blob A telepathic alien entity had taken control of a supercomputer. The supercomputer/monster then embraced (enslaved?) a race of cave-dwelling creatures. It taught them to read, write, and manufacture; it trained them to build and use amazing technology, established a social structure and government, and it even served as a quasi-religion. All it demanded was food in return, and it received enough that it grew into an enormous, fleshy blob. Our party came at this creature sideways. We were being attacked by bands of these small, hairy, Gollum-like cave-dwellers. We didn’t think much of it, random encounters being what they are, but we started to wonder when we accidentally captured one of them. The creature told us that we had to leave, that we were invading the territory of their tribe, and that their great leader would destroy us. Intrigued, we did a bit of reconnaissance, and discovered “the blob”. In the end, however, our group determined that this blob-like creature had in fact improved the quality of life for these cave-dwellers immensely. Rather than invade and fight the blob, we decided to establish a bi-lateral trade agreement with it. Whaddya know? This was memorable because we didn’t have to fight it at all. There was enough grey area to decided that killing it would probably be worse for the hairy creatures in the end. To keep things interesting, create villains that the characters don’t need to fight, but can be overcome in other ways. 2) D&D 3.5 - The Vampire Lord With The Crazy Castle This villain is both a creature and an environment. At the beginning of this encounter, our party was warmly welcomed into a castle. The castle was well appointed, tastefully decorated, and we were fed a luxurious meal. We were waited on by a group of lovely ladies, the daughters of the lord, who later surprised various members of our party by arriving in their bedrooms. That’s where the red flags went up. They were, of course, vampire spawn who were working for the vampire lord of the castle. As the illusions faded, our characters began to see that the tapestries in this castle were rotting, there was black mold and cobwebs everywhere, and our hostesses were, in fact, undead abominations. The castle then became a magical labyrinth of bloodstained dungeons, torture chambers, decaying dining halls, and all-round horror. The castle itself eventually herded us into the great hall for a final showdown with the vampire lord. While I don’t remember the name of this creep, I will surely never forget the feeling of sick dread I had while moving inevitably through his castle of horrors to meet him. Environment can make the villain! 3) Shadowrun - Bug Spirits What is big, horrifically alien, deadly… oh, and can’t be harmed by ordinary weapons? Shadowrun Bug Spirits. Denizens of a poorly understood nether dimension, these spiritual creatures have manifested on Shadowrun’s parallel earth to… well, nobody really understands why they’re here, which is part of what makes them so scary. To destroy the living? To consume everything? To reproduce? Also, if they get ahold of you, they will either eat you (which would be a mercy) or they will take you back to their nest, where a gentle, well-meaning madman plants a spirit larva inside you. It takes possession of your body, and you will become either a true believing member of a bug spirit cult, a hybrid bug-human drone, or the shell of an egg that will hatch into a spiritual insect. I still shudder. During an extended Shadowrun game, Bug Spirits were just one element in probably the most convincingly storied game world I have played in; they were nevertheless one of the most memorable creature villains I have ever encountered. Better than Ridley Scott’s Alien, it makes the so-called ‘mindless’ monster deeply personal on both a physical and a spiritual level. Did I mention that ordinary weapons don’t hurt them? 4) Rifts - The Coalition The Coalition forces from Kevin Siembada’s Rifts are a great, multi-layered enemy. Xenophobic, merciless, and dressed up in black skulls, they make perfect cannon fodder for gamers just out to bash some bad guys. It’s like being Indiana Jones and punching Nazis. In one game, however, we players got a closer look at them and the Nazis began to look more like the Germans from Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. Some prisoners we had captured seemed a little too human, a little too close to home. Think about it: these people are the last major human power in the game world, the descendants of those who survived the coming of the rifts. Why do they fight against DeeBees? Because this is their earth. Why are they xenophobic? Because many, many of the things that have come through the rifts have been incredibly dangerous, or utterly evil. What made these villains most memorable was being able to stand in their shoes. We realised that, if the world really did erupt with magic and extra-dimensional beings, humans would likely only survive if they banded together - and it becomes easy to see yourself joining up with the Coalition just to survive. Have some sympathy for the devil; there is a lot of power in having sympathetic villains with their own agenda. 5) D&D 3.5 - The Desolator The Desolator was an evil half-orc, half-ogre chieftain who allied to dark powers that planned to unite the orcish hordes to annihilate the world. Sounds like a fairly straightforward Dungeons & Dragons character at first glance, but I could have kissed the Dungeonmaster. Maybe I did, I don’t remember. This villain was capital ‘A’ awesome for me because he was a direct response to the character I was playing. My character was a half-orc barbarian (classic!) who had become the king of a tribe of orcs who were trying somehow to be good. Yes, we took some liberties with the canon, it’s a part of the hobby. I made a long write-up trying to reconcile this bizarre situation, but the short version is this: My character, whose leadership was in dispute, had used a once-in-a-generation war cry to call all the orcish tribes to war against the Desolator and his buddies. The Desolator, on the other hand, had used the same war cry to call the orcs to fight against my character and the forces of good. Part of the final battle involved an argument between him and I to persuade the orcish onlookers whom they should follow The physical victory over the villain was that much sweeter because of the moral/political victory of winning the hordes over to my side. The best villains have a personal connection to the players’ characters and the characters’ players! Create villains who have a rational agenda to create interesting grey moral areas. Allow more than one way to overcome villains in order to keep things interesting. Add an environment that matches your villain to create a more memorable experience. Use monsters that can do worse than just killing a character. Finally, make villains personal by connecting them with characters in important ways. These are just a few suggestions; hopefully these experiences will help you to change things up and keep your games fresh! Landrew is a full-time educator, part-time art enthusiast. He applies his background in literature and fine arts to his favourite hobby (role-playing games) because the market for a background in the Fine Arts is very limited. He writes this blog on company time under a pseudonym. Long live the Corporation! Image source: Art of the Genre’s article on Shadowrun’s Bug City   Being a person who lives for a good debate, how could I back down from the hastily concocted opinion in the article here? “Proving it would be a little too dangerous for me today,” I said, laughing at the idea of bringing a shambling mound into a tavern to prove a point. It was obvious, he had drank so much that just the very smell was starting to make him sick. The only thing keeping him from heaving was probably the taste of the freshly poured beer. I had him now. “We can agree that those smelly lizard-dudes aren’t the best to deal with, but every time I suspect there’s a mound nearby, the question that makes me panic is…” 1) Where Is It? Look, shambling mounds don’t smell like a bouquet of roses, even if they did just devour one five minutes ago. Trogs may stink but at least you know where they are (generally) because of it. Shambling mounds only exist in places that would easily suit them, like jungles and marshes, so the smell only becomes a problem when it’s too late! Finding them before that happens is the real issue. A smelly lizard guy sounds like a walk in the park compared to a huge, ever-hungry, and ever-patient pile of sentient plant matter that is impossible to spot in its own environment. Just thinking about it turning me into compost over the course of who knows how long gives me the chills. What makes it even worse is... 2) They’re From Every Place… Almost I can’t disagree; the Underdark is some scary business. However, when it comes to what I’m scared of down there, troglodytes probably fall low on the list. In the habitats of the shambling mound, one could argue the same, but consider the fact that they’re made of plant life. They’re supposedly created by lightning, or magic, or lightning magic; nobody really agrees what it is. I think I recall someone saying that it was fey magic lightning or something… but I digress. The point is this: say some of that lightning magic decides to take a crack at your garden. What’ll you do then? Probably be consumed because these guys are... 3) Eternal Devourers Troglodytes are motivated by gold, which means that there’s at least a shot of working with them. Well, maybe not, but some charismatic bastard around here might. Shambling mounds don’t really have a motive; they just feed, and feed, and wait until something comes by to feed some more! It’s ceaseless, and it’s just like dandelions in the lawn. If you don’t completely destroy the central root system (the location of which is unknown, presumably at the center of its rotting mass. Thanks, weird anatomy), the shambling mound will just sit. It’ll literally play dead, let you walk away, and start feeding again so as to haunt your grandkids. At least a gold coin tossed into a load of trogs will give you enough time to get out of there. What makes it even worse is... 4) They’re Not Picky I’m sorry about your run in with the cannibals, but I have a quick question. Does eating yourself count as cannibalism, in a sense? Because that’s what shambling mounds do. They feed on everything around them, including itself. Trying to figure out how consuming its own mass only helps replenish it makes my head spin, but it’s made from magic lightning and some moss, remember? It was scary enough when we found out it would eat literally any organic material, but the discovery of its resiliency, shall we say, was the true horror. Not entirely sure that my entire argument landed, I eyed my competitor. The blank expression seemed like an indicator that I had failed. However, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing as it gave me a moment to reflect on everything I had just presented. “You know what,” I said after a moment, “If you really think about it, they’re both awful. At the end of the day, I’d rather be here than fighting either of those anyhow. Cheers?” I raised my mug inquisitively. He smiled and raised his to mine with a satisfying clink before we emptied the contents in unison. Sean is the Heavy Metal GM. He’s a writer and blogger that loves the hobby more than life itself. Always up for a good discussion, his blog covers general gaming advice as well as specialized advice/homebrew rules for 13th Age RPG. You can find his website at www.heavymetalgm.com, join the conversation. Image Source: Forgotten Realms Wiki   The room was smoky with the fires of a comfortable longhouse, “Don’t tell me you think shamblers suck that much, have you ever encountered a troglodyte?” I may have drunk too much by this point, but I was still coherent enough to argue. “I got news for you,” I slurred, “There are creatures out there far more terrifying than a plant that eats people.” Slamming my empty mug on the table, I continued, “Before you ask me, let me just spell it out…”
1) They Stink! You think Shamblers are bad? At least you can get close to them; troglodytes on the other hand have an organ that releases an odor that is so foul that it's hard to be within 30 feet of them, let alone actually hit them. The smell is reminiscent of rose boiled cabbage and mild skunk, and it’s enough to put you on your rump! The first time I encountered them, I barely escaped without taking a nap. So yeah; If you ever bump into a group of Troglodytes, have fun not breathing. The odor is extremely hard to wash off, even if you do manage to survive. I had to throw away a brand new suit of armor I was wearing that day because I just couldn’t handle smelling so bad that even beggar’s plugged their noses at me. Next time you’re travelling and you think you smell troglodytes, be prepared to leave because you are going in the wrong direction, because... 2) They’re From The Scariest Place Troglodytes come from the most dangerous place I know: The Underdark. All manner of crazy creatures exist down in that hellscape, and troglodytes are usually a good warning sign that you’re getting too close. Somehow troglodytes have managed to survive so close to that environment despite the fact that they’re the lowest on the food chain. Here is my theory on why: The combination of darkvision and chameleon skin allows them to see in their environment and blend in with their surroundings at the same time. Troglodytes can approach their prey while being invisible, even if you can smell them. Troglodytes are the start of your descent into the Underdark, and boy are, they scary. The problem with this is that there are far more terrifying creatures down there. Despite being on the bottom, troglodytes go on... 3) The Boldest Raids I've never seen this but if the hearsay is to be believed, Troglodytes go on raids in search for shiny metals. They just go from settlement to settlement in the Underdark, to steal from creatures stronger than them! This is probably due to the fact that they follow the god Laogzed; a massive toad-lizard that sleeps in the Abyss, wanting nothing but for his troglodytes to be as fat and content as he is. I mean a very devout following, to the point of killing each other for food and riches without regard for much else. Yea, shamblers murder everything, but they don’t carry the ambition of some Toad God who wants you to be a glutton like him. Troglodytes form tribes to achieve their personal aspirations, as a way to please Laogzed. Sometimes their ambition leads to the tribe being torn apart over something as simple as a longsword. Just like noble-born adolescents fighting over music taste, troglodytes will go to the extreme in swaying belief. Tribes are created by this sort of mentality. The multiple tribes are constantly at war with each other for leadership. If you’re unfortunate enough to be a troglodyte leader, you better make sure that Laogzed sees you as worthy. Otherwise, you’ll most likely become food or game to chase. Just like we don’t make waste of a deer that we hunt for sport... 4) They Will Eat Anything With Meat Including Each Other! I don’t really like delving into cannibalism because I witnessed it once, but this has to be the scariest thing about troglodytes. They will eat anything with meat on it; it doesn't matter if it’s alive or not, and it definitely doesn't matter if its a troglodyte. Despite their tendencies, they love humanoid flesh. Not only is this bad news for me, but for all of the people that like to adventure these days. The whole sociological structure of troglodytes is based on procuring food and riches. When you only have two necessities in life; morality is something that gets thrown out the window, so much so that the population takes pleasure in hunting intelligent creatures who are “weaker” than them. This is the mentality of the troglodyte. As you can see, you may have had bad experiences with shamblers, but the troglodytes are no joke. They have a biological defense that prevents you from getting close to them. They are from the Underdark, and I don’t think I have to tell you (a second time) how bad that place is. They have zero fear when it comes to food and plunder. Cannibalism is a tenet of trog life; do I need to reiterate? At this point, the empty mugs in front of me were beginning to smell like something resembling a troglodyte; or maybe that was my vivid imagination. After realizing the one in my hand was also empty, I asked for another. I looked over to the man who got me all riled up in the first place. He had one empty mug and a devilish smile on his face. I knew I was in for it; for a second, I hoped he didn’t understand a single word I said. Laughing, I asked, “What’re you smiling about? You really do think shamblers are worse? Go on, prove it!” I said boisterously. I crossed my arms with a smug expression and waited for his reply. Benjamin Witunsky, artist, writer and nerd savant. Cofounder of the NerdMantle Podcast available on Soundcloud, Itunes and Google Play Music. Photo credit: Terminally Incoherent  Dungeons and Dragons is littered with dungeons containing enemy encounters. Some of these dungeons may contain the titular dragons; however,most parties start at lower levels and end up facing the same type of enemy over and over again. Orcs, goblins, skeletons, and zombies make the flavour for the majority of new adventurers. Ultimately this flavour is becoming a bit, dare we say, vanilla. It’s monster month at High Level Games so here are three enemy ideas to spice up a campaign. These enemies are all structured as a leader of their respective encounter. A good leader is nothing without their number two, so each enemy also has their second in command to optionally add to each encounter as well.
1) The Mushroom Men in the Bog An interesting idea to throw at players is that they sometimes may be hired to eliminate monsters that aren’t necessarily evil. The mushroom men in the bog could be an encounter to exercise it. The citizens fear these fungal headed monstrosities that live in the swamp outside of the city, and who better to rid this problem than a group of intrepid adventurers? The party can muck their way through the swamp and confront their quarry only to find that, although the creatures look fearsome and strange, they are actually quite peaceful humanoid creatures. The inspiration for this encounter are the myconids, a humanoid group of fungi that live in the Underdark. They deplore violence and will gladly treat peacefully with individuals in kind. When the players discover that their enemy is this peaceful and diplomatic it goes against the tropes that they come to expect. An unexpected situation leads to spontaneous roleplaying decisions, which often lead to memorable moments to be talked about. This particular group of mushroom men are lead by a myconid sovereign, a lawful neutral creature with a challenge rating of two. Myconids gather in circles which are usually twenty or more of their kind. A sovereign is able to bring any large or smaller creature back to life and animate them as a fungal creature called a Spore Servant. A fitting second in command could be a shaman that leads this spore-servant army. The sovereign will be interested in treating with the players, while the shaman may be a bit more interested in feeding the players to her fungal crocodile army. The retinue of mushroom-y crocodiles could also provide engaging enemy encounters for players as they make their way to the myconid civilization. 2) The Ghost On The Spooky House on the Hill When a party first arrives in a town they inevitably check out the tavern for drink, fun, and quests. It’s very easy for a dungeon master to put an abandoned, secluded house in the town and build an encounter out of it. The townsfolk all steer clear of the ominous house that overlooks the moors, but the adventuring group is drawn to the story of the person in white that haunts the house. An innkeeper can share the building’s folklore with the party and the premise of the encounter builds itself. The ghost inside the small house is a banshee, a woeful spirit formed out of spite, forever bound to the place of their demise. A banshee has a challenge rating of four, making it a medium difficulty encounter for four level four heroes. Their ability to detect life and move through walls can provide an interesting combat beyond standing still and exchanging blows. The Horrifying Visage and Wail abilities also add some horror to a fight with banshees. A dungeon master could keep this classic ghost story structure as an encounter of its own, but there’s an opportunity to surprise players in a way they’d never expect. The second in command isn’t really a second in command at all. What if, instead of one ghost, there were two within the house, and they weren’t hostile towards the players but rather were hostile towards one another? Unbeknownst to the players, they venture into the house right as the haunted couple is in the midst of a lovers’ quarrel. They’re throwing objects at one another and screaming all their frustrations out for the entire world to hear. Unfortunately a banshee’s scream isn’t something humanoids enjoy hearing. The players will now have a choice to intervene in the form of combat or as marriage counsellors. 3) The Mighty Morphin’ Giant Rangers Let’s preface this suggestion by saying an idea like this won’t resonate in a serious campaign. For a session doesn’t take itself too seriously, the Mighty Morphin’ Giant Rangers are a perfect fit. In Dungeons and Dragons there are six types of giants: hill, fire, stone, frost, cloud, and storm. If we stick to the book, giants of different races don’t coexist in similar habitats; putting them together is both unbelievable and silly. However, that shouldn’t stop the potential fun that this idea could provide an adventuring party. Due to its ridiculous nature, an idea such as this needs a ridiculous setup. Outside of a large city, a sacred temple sits atop a small mountain. Recently this temple has been taken over by a rebellious group of giants who have decided to use this temple as their base of operations. Many heroes have tried to take back the temple and failed, but now it falls onto the shoulders of this party. Will they be able to defeat this unlikely collection of giants? The challenge rating of these giants vary and some of them are quite high. The lowest is the hill giant with a challenge rating of five. The highest is the storm giant with a daunting challenge rating of thirteen. A higher leveled party is recommended for this kind of encounter. Furthermore due to the silly feeling players should be rewarded for more out of the box thinking. Players should be able to deal with these giants diplomatically if handled correctly, and each giant should have their own unique personality (and maybe for good measure: a unique costume). The storm giant seems as if they would be the best final encounter for this campaign. The cloud and fire giants are both good candidates for the second in command, but the mood to this encounter has ample room for a rigid power structure to be thrown out the window. Players could meet the enemy’s camp with even more camp. Another line to follow is the players can find enough pieces to build their own ‘giant’ and battle these beasts on an even height. This encounter might have enough humorous hooks be its own adventure with some more planning. There are many unique monsters hiding in the 5e Monster Manual. Randomly flipping the book open to select something and make it fit in the situation can add memorability to a campaign more than a skeleton or brutish, green-skinned humanoid could ever provide. Messing with the stats and lore for a monster can also provide a few fun twists that a group isn’t expecting. When planning an adventure a dungeon master can add their own flavour to a world, and they can be creative with the monsters they put into their story. Just because Orcs running a city’s bank in D&D seems ridiculous it doesn’t mean a dungeon master can’t make it work. Experimentation breeds creativity, the most fundamental resource in Dungeons and Dragons; a resource we all have a ravenous hunger for. Justin Cauti is a writer and Twitch streamer. He plays board/roleplaying games on the internet at http://www.playingboardgames.tv. Follow him on Twitter for updates on his boring life and writing projects @LeftSideJustin. Image Source: Forgotten Realms Wiki Myconid  This is Leyshon Campbell. Before I give you some totally free content, including shortcuts to some of the finest game materials ever made, I want to thank High Level Games for dragging me back into a hobby that I love. They are truly a Makerspace for game designers, and they deserve support. If you see the value here like I do, check out our Patreon, or pick up one of our excellent products. Lycanthropy in Ravenloft is intended to be a curse rather than a blessing, but it's a curse that is notoriously hard to lift. According to the official guide to the subject, once the progenitor is dead, there’s a ritual involving a number of high level spells cast on the afflicted person in their beast form, with saving throw penalties reflective of how deeply the beast has taken hold. If the afflicted doesn’t have the means yet to kill the progenitor, obtain the spells or make the saves, their life becomes a matter of managing the dread disease. Here are a few suggestions to make that easier. 1. Get Informed Do you change with the phases of the moon, or the tides? What about violence, hunger or the smell of blood? Use redundancies, such as manacles inside a locked and barred room. Not only is this safer, but it will give you a rough idea of how strong it is by what doesn’t work. Read up on cheap STR/DEX poisons, such as whiteshoot root. The worst they can do is paralyze, and they can make other precautions more effective. Learn about the laws wherever you go, especially smaller offenses that warrant jail time. Getting thrown in jail for unpaid fines may prevent manslaughter. If anyone knows of your condition, they may lock you up longer than you intend, but that’s still more manageable than running free. 2. Get Help Many champions of the Mists are familiar with precautions against lycanthropy, but some are more helpful than others. George Weathermay may take pity, especially if he sees a connection to his nieces. Ivan Dragonov might be convinced to assist in hunting down the progenitor, with strict warnings as to what will happen if they delay in a cure. Carnagan Wolfe may not know about being infected, but might share some insight of his life on the fringes of werewolf society. And an infected lycanthrope in truly dire straits might learn a lot from Vjorn Horstman, even if they have to escape his lab after learning it. 3. Get Magic Finding a relic like the Hands of the Dawn Healer might be a bigger quest than getting cured, but it’s certainly worth following up on rumors, especially if you’ve hit a dead end on your bloodline. Anyone wearing a Wolfspaw Amulet can trap the beast in any corner, alcove or pit on very short notice. Some shared party items like magic manacles, a bag of holding or portable hole could keep the beast in check for a few days and then turned to other uses the rest of the month. A Silver Amulet of the Beast is a comprehensive solution, but it’s not a shared item, and may work best financed through a sponsor or on temporary loan from an ally. Finally, if you start to transform, buy yourself a little time by drinking a spiritual purgative. It may only hold off the curse a few rounds or minutes, but that may be enough time to get someplace more secure. 4. Get Hunting Even if you don't have all the ingredients for a cure, tracking down the progenitor is a great way to gain needed experience. If you were lucky enough to be infected by a true lycanthrope, this means only one hunt, but occasionally it means tracing back through any number of infected to find the original. As Celia Whitmoor and her companion Argent can tell you, the danger and logistical difficulty of a long bloodline hunt belie the fact that this is an emotionally grueling journey, with any number of false ends where you find not the object of your quest, but another hapless reflection of what you are turning into. It may be best to lay out some rules for how long you will hunt, and how much you will tolerate, until you decide to try for control instead of cure. 5. Get Control Taking control of the beast is no easy choice; even attempting will make it more difficult to be cured in the future, and success will prevent it entirely. Van Richten’s Guide had no rules for it, but John W. Mangrum wrote up some pretty good rules in the Book of Shadows (“Wild at Heart”). The Duskpeace Outcasts are the obvious ones to turn to for this kind of help, but the Keepers of the Black Feather might offer some small assistance to other kinds of werebeasts, if you’ve proven yourself a worthy ally. BONUS: Get Re-infected As a third option against control or cure, some might consider re-infection. Only the most recent phenotype takes effect, so why not replace your slavering wolf with a more fastidious panther, or less hungry rat? The ideal might be to join a flock of wereravens, but there are also outlander varieties of tigers, bears or boars whose beast-selves are not evil. It’s up to the DM how a “reboot” against a different phenotype interacts with ranks in control shape. Managing an afflicted PC requires a tricky balance; if lycanthropy is too easy to lift then it loses its gravitas, but it shouldn’t be so harsh as to make the PC unplayable or derail the rest of the campaign. By making plans and taking precautions, you can make lycanthropy an ever-present part of the life of a character while still allowing them to have as productive a life as an adventurer in Ravenloft can have. Leyshon Campbell has been playing and writing for Ravenloft for over twenty years, from the Kargatane's Book of S series, playtesting D&D 3E in a Ravenloft campaign, to the ill-fated Masque of the Jade Horror. He married his wife on Friday the 13th after proposing to her on Halloween. By tradition, the first story read at birth to each of their three children was The Barker’s Tour, from Ravenloft’s “Carnival” supplement. He is currently running the “Queen of Orphans” Ravenloft campaign on Discord.   BPB Games is honored and excited to be official licensees of the Savage Worlds game system, and equally excited to share our love of the tokusatsu genre. Savage Tokusatsu has approximately 100 pages of new content to transport you right into your own action packed story. While you may not be familiar with the term, you are likely familiar with the giant kaiju, transforming heroes, and giant robots that make up the genre. If you have ever dreamed of piloting a mech with your friends, fighting monsters that tower above cities, or having your own transformation catchphrase, this is the game for you! Here are our three reasons for why you should check out our Kickstarter. 1) Fast Transformations Going from a mundane character to a transformed hero is a simple endeavor in Savage Tokusatsu. We have created unique Frameworks, a small ‘class’ to add to a character, to help you choose the best way for your heroes to come across their powers. We have also included an in-depth system for designing the monsters that you would expect to see in the genre and 40 new statblocks for example heroes, kaiju, monsters of the week, and big bads to tailor your adventure to your play style. Tokusatsu heroes are also known for their signature style and weapons. We made sure to include a system for you to design your own iconic weaponry and armor to help you stand out while still remaining a core part of your team. 2) Furious Fights Whether you are interested in fatalistic battles against massive kaiju with only modern military technology to aid you, or the colorful transforming heroes tokusatsu is known for, Savage Tokusatsu has everything Game Masters and players will need to craft their own heroes and begin a campaign. We have included a full Plot Point campaign for a lighthearted, transforming hero themed adventure that will have your team of heroes matching wits with Fire Team Omega and their quest to put out Earth’s most dangerous fire: the Sun. One of the additions we are most excited for is the collaborative system for creating and controlling a shared pilot mech. You and your fellow players will share an equal part of the decision making in thrilling mech combat. You will either succeed as a team or fail as a team as your mech goes against obstacles and monsters that tower over skyscrapers and threaten your world. 3) Fun Downtime While tokusatsu is known for its bombastic fights and over the top visuals, it also focuses on the heroes’ normal day to day lives. We’ve created many new Edges, powers your hero obtains, and Hindrances, their personal flaws, that reflect the cooperation necessary between a team of heroes and the feel of youths making their way in the world. Is your clique making it difficult to concentrate in school and with your team? Does jumping to conclusions end up opening new paths or destroying your leads? Your personality and those of your teammates can affect your relationships throughout your adventures. You also get to decide what specialized knowledge skill your character has, whether it is their favorite video game, school subject, music, or any other hobby, and use that to your advantage both as a civilian and as a hero. We have grown up obsessed with the tokusatsu genre and would love to pass on our passions to you through our Kickstarter. Learn more about what we have put together HERE and try out our Test Drive HERE! We are also grateful for our guest writers Sean Patrick Fannon, Eran Aviram, and Aaron Carsten who will be creating special one-shot adventures as we complete our stretch goals. We hope these three reasons will get you excited to transform and fight as true tokusatsu heroes! Kyle Carty is the writer and designer for BPB Games and Savage Tokusatsu. He has also written for EN5ider, Deadlands, East Texas University, Savage RIFTS, and has also done graphic design for Red Markets and Base Raiders. You can keep up with BPB Games on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitch, and on Twitter. Picture Provided by the Author   Creating monsters for Savage Worlds is a fairly simple process, but it may seem daunting to the uninitiated. Monster creation is more of an art than it is a science, and each GM will find that their process is only slightly different but unique nonetheless. There isn’t a set list of rules a gamemaster has to follow to create awesome foes for the heroes of their games to face. This can be a blessing to some, but a bit frustrating for others. Below are a few things that I have found useful to keep in mind when monster building. 1) Don’t Play By The Rules One of the beauties of the Savage Worlds system is its ease of use. The core rules encourage the gamemaster to give their monsters Edges and abilities as needed so they can focus on the story. Since monsters aren’t given a traditional difficulty rating as they are in other RPGs, you’re free to mix and match things as you will. You don’t truly need to limit yourself to five attribute points and only $500 worth of gear as used in standard character creation. Once you embrace this, you are free to create whatever you want. As an example, I’ve created the statistics for a stealthy saurian creature below. Note that if I was using the normal character creation rules, the Attributes would be too high. Parry, Toughness, and Pace are all still calculated according to the rules, but everything else is distributed as I see fit. Shadow Lizard These black-scaled humanoids have piercing green eyes and sharp, nasty teeth. They are cunning, but brutal beasts. Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d12, Vigor d6 Skills: Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d10, Stealth d10 Charisma: -; Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6 (1) Special Abilities • Armor +1: Thick Scales • Bite: Str+d6. • Low Light Vision: No penalties for dim or dark lighting. 2) Don’t Reinvent The Wheel A lot of gamemasters like to have a monster statted out, despite the fact that their concept is only slightly different from an existing beast. Save yourself some time by using an existing creature as a base. Given the example above, if I wanted to save time, I could easily use the goblin statistics found in the core rules and give it a bite attack. Remember, the players aren’t looking at the monster’s stats as you play; what they don’t know won’t hurt them. 3) It Doesn’t Have To Be A Wild Card When a Gamemaster wishes to create a difficult encounter, it can be tempting to make a creature a Wild Card in order to achieve this. While this may work to an extent, it can also be unnecessary. Considering how volatile dice can be, even basic minions can be a threat. Wild Card is a status reserved for characters that are important to the story, and truly stand out. There are many ways to make a monster dangerous besides making them a Wild Card. Save that title for characters that are important to the story. The Shadow Lizard I created works well as a minion, but can pose a threat without being upgraded to Wild Card. Simply by playing to its strengths and allowing it to sneak up on the players and potentially get the drop, a minion like this one can be very deadly. 4) Toughness Isn’t Everything At first glance, it may seem that having a higher Toughness is the key to a more challenging monster. While this can be true, it is far from the only way to ramp up the difficulty of a creature. Increasing Toughness is an easy way to slow combat down, if it gets inflated too much. Instead, giving your monster appropriate Edges can really make a creature deadly and challenging. By giving the creature Improved First Strike, it can keep enemies at bay while Quick improves its chances of going first and activating its Power. which leads me to another alternative to Toughness boosting. Another way is to give enemies Powers, as they’ll keep combat interesting. I’ve decided to give the Shadow Lizard the Invisibility Power, making it able to hide with ease. Shadow Lizard These black-scaled humanoids have piercing green eyes and sharp, nasty teeth. They are cunning, but brutal beasts. Their scales can become almost transparent, and they use this ability to devastating effect. Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d12, Vigor d6 Skills: Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d10, Stealth d10 Charisma: -; Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6 (1) Edges: Alertness, Fleet-Footed, Improved First Strike, Quick Special Abilities • Armor +1: Thick Scales • Bite: Str+d6. • Low Light Vision: No penalties for dim or dark lighting. • Invisibility: The Shadow Lizard has the power to warp and distort their features to the point of transparency. They have 15 Power Points for use with the invisibility Power. They use their Smarts as their Arcane skill. 5) Make Them Come Alive It can be easy to forget what motivates a creature during an encounter, combat or otherwise. Hindrances make a monster stand out. The Shadow Lizard I’ve made is intelligent, but very primitive, though giving it the Bloodthirsty (Major) Hindrance can make the creature feel menacing if properly roleplayed. Since the creature loves the dark, it would be nice to add some sort of weakness to it. Giving it the Phobia (Major, Sunlight) Hindrance will reflect this well. It may be fine with artificial light but will avoid sunlight at all costs. These simple modifications can really make the monster come alive to the players. The final result looks like this: Shadow Lizard These black-scaled humanoids have piercing green eyes and sharp, nasty teeth. They are cunning, but brutal beasts. Their scales can become almost transparent, and they use this ability to devastating effect. They fear the light of day and prefer hiding in sewers, caves, and other dark places. Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d12, Vigor d6 Skills: Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d10, Stealth d10 Charisma: -4; Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6 (1) Hindrances: Bloodthirsty (Major), Phobia (Sunlight, Major) Edges: Alertness, Fleet-Footed, Improved First Strike, Quick Special Abilities • Armor +1: Thick Scales • Bite: Str+d6. • Low Light Vision: No penalties for dim or dark lighting. • Invisibility: The Shadow Lizard has the power to warp and distort their features to the point of transparency. They have 15 Power Points for use with the invisibility Power. They use their Smarts as their Arcane skill. Savage Worlds is a fairly easy system to grasp, with a great emphasis on ease of use. This philosophy clearly extends to monster making. If you keep these simple guidelines in mind when designing your new beast, you will be well on your way to Fast! Furious! Fun! Nathan Carmen is the founder and head writer of the Indie RPG company and Savage Worlds Licensees, Tricky Troll Games. Nathan loves building worlds and improving his craft when he’s not busy parenting. Reach Nathan at [email protected] or check out the TTG website at https://nathanccarmen.wixsite.com/trickytrollgames Source: Shadow Lizard by Fae Dragon   Here at HLG, our Corporate Overlords actually ARE benevolent and have sunk countless hours and their own actual money into the upkeep up the site and taking care of us lowly content producers (you know, the ones whose work you enjoy reading and listening too). Help them help us entertain you, and supportour Patreon here. If you’ve been playing RPGs pretty much at all at any point over the last 25 so years, the name Rob Heinsoo has probably popped up. He’s best known for his work on Dungeons and Dragons and 13th Age (a favorite of myself and editor Sean “Heavy Metal GM” Clark), he’s also worked on board, card and miniatures games like Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures, Three-Dragon Ante, and Shadowrun Crossfire. Rob was kind enough to spare some time to talk about designing monsters for 13th Age, D&D, and the awesome that is Glorantha. Q: 13th Age monsters tend to be simpler than those found in other F20 systems. What was the process for you and Jonathan Tweet in developing that stripped down format? A: I thought about it a couple minutes and realized that when Jonathan and I first collaborated on a stripped-down format for an F20 system, it wasn't for a roleplaying game. It was the Chainmail miniatures game that Jonathan and Chris Pramas were working on with some other folks, and then I came on board. Though we didn't always stick to the mission, the plan with that game, and with the D&D Miniatures game that grew out of it, was to provide just enough abilities that people would enjoy the monster's special flavor without having to cope with an overload of complexity. I wanted to handle 4e in a similar way, but I wouldn't say that was entirely successful, many legacy-abilities crept in or got added for simulation purposes. By the time we designed 13th Age, Jonathan and I agreed that the purpose of a monster is to help the players and GM have fun, usually during a single combat, since most monsters don't last long. If a monster does something exciting or weird or effective that evokes its place in the campaign world or its unique attributes, that's all that players really need in order to get a different impression than they get from all the other monsters. Players are focused on their characters, they just need enough from the monsters to frame the PCs' actions in the best light! GMs, on the other hand, simultaneously need something fun or elegant to keep them interested in the game, but not so complex that they have to think too much about each move the monsters make. So that's why a lot of our monster abilities get triggered in unpredictable ways. You want the players to be surprised and the GM to wonder how things are going to play out without having to make all the decisions as if they were half-a-dozen cunning monstrous combatants. Q: Matching theme and mechanics is one of the trickiest tasks in monster design. Do you typically start with flavor or mechanics? How often do you start from the other part? I nearly always start from the flavor, from thinking about what the monster is like in the world and how it relates to other creatures or to the many types of magic. Having said that, I do have a list of unused monster mechanics, a list that started as something Jonathan wrote when we were doing the core book. I've been adding things to the list and occasionally drafting ideas ever since, but I don't remember starting by looking at a mechanic on the list and thinking "we need to design a monster based on that mechanic." Instead, I'll look at the list when first-thoughts for a monster's mechanics aren't working out, looking to see if there's anything in the list that could be adapted. As far as I know, the only monster in our recent books that was designed mechanics-first is the salamander from Bestiary 2, but that's only because it got designed as a fire-moth at a GenCon monster design panel. Way after that initial design I realized it might be more accessible to GMs as a fiery salamander instead of as a moth that lived in volcanoes. Q: When developing a new monster, where do you go for inspiration? Is there a particular author, director, or selection of mythology that stokes your imagination? I read all the time and watch TV and movies only-a-tiny-bit, so for me inspiration is much more likely to be from the word than the moving image. And when I'm working on games, it's often games that inspire me. I have giant maps of Glorantha on the walls of my study, and when I'm stuck designing RPG stuff I often grab a Glorantha book, something like Cults of Prax or Cults of Terror or a Heroquest book or one of Robin Laws' books from the various Gloranthan incarnations. Q: The most recent book of monsters for 13th Age, Bestiary 2, features monsters from a slew of individuals. What elements do you look for in a pitch for a new creature, especially if you’ve never worked with that designer before? I ask the designer to provide a hook. Usually it's an exciting new story for the monster that I know will be enough to inspire cool mechanics. Usually this amounts to an answer to the question: "What is cool about this monster that GMs and players are going to care about and remember?" Q: For the upcoming 13th Age Glorantha, was there anything about the setting that changed how you approached the new monsters? Yes! Glorantha is organized around runes, fundamental magical forces of creation, instead of around the icons. So the monster chapter is organized that way too, with a few nasty tusk riders and baboons in the Beast rune section, the magical Puppeteer Troupe in the Illusion rune section (with strange campaign-affecting powers like nothing we've done before), and so many many monsters in the Chaos rune section, because Chaos is the destroyer, the anti-cosmos, the uncreator. Gloranthan Chaos is freaking nasty, so some of the limits we observe in most 13th Age games got ignored or temporarily suspended. A quarter of the time Chaos steals the escalation die from the PCs, and we escalated the consequences from there. To redirect the question, many of these Chaos monsters, and monsters from other runes, are creatures I've always wanted to have truly interesting battles with! 13th Age is a system that encourages combat and showcases personality during combat. That applies to the monsters as well as the PCs, so in a lot of cases we were able to find fun new ways of showcasing monsters that haven't necessarily been *fun* to fight before. They can be! And part of that excitement is tying into the Gloranthan runes and themes in ways that will be exciting for new players and resonant for long time fans. Q: Which monster from Monsters of Faerun do you wish had more stage time? I immediately thought about the tall mouther, a creature I'd invented with a silly name. It doesn't really deserve more stage time! But there was something dear about it to me. I decided I should leave my garage work-studio and go into the basement to find my copy of Monsters of Faerun. In the basement, before heading to my game shelf, I looked at my wall of old journals and pulled out a green hardcover book from the third shelf. I haven't looked through the journals for years and they aren't in any kind of order, but the second page I flipped to in that green book was the page where I wrote: "Forgotten Realms monsters: Big guy with Mobility and a 10' reach; or with Combat Reflexes" That's the note that turned into the tall mouther, which I described as a "one-creature whirling skirmish." It was the first F20 creature that I made up for WotC, and I designed it around a mechanical concept, the opposite of how I usually design now. "Tall mouthers speak Common and broken Halfling, both in accents that can only be described as obscene." Welcome back, big guy. Check out 13th Age Glorantha and Lion & Tigers & Owlbears: The 13th Age Bestiary 2 at DriveThruRPG. Phil Pepin is a history-reading, science-loving, head-banging, river-running nerd, who would like nothing more than to cuddle with his pups and wife. Picture Reference: http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page   Japan has been sharing its pop culture with the rest of the world for decades. One of the earliest such examples of this is the animation Tetsujin 28-go, better known to English speaking audiences as Gigantor. Japanese animation’s always seems to ebb and flow every decade or so, picking up swaths of new fans and reigniting the nostalgic passions of old with every passing wave.
There was also no shortage of such fans who also loved roleplaying games that wanted to leave a mark in the roleplaying game community. They were marks that said “I love both anime and role playing games. I wonder what the two would look like together?” Let’s take a look at some of these marks, shall we? 1. Mekton The original Mekton was first released in 1984 by R. Talsorian Games as a table top wargame with players controlling armies of giant humanoid robots, as if it were some kind of love letter to the anime Mobile Suit Gundam. All the following sourcebooks for the original Mekton were very dry rules manuals for adding new elements to the game, such as modular robots that could change shape. (A la Macross or Robotech.) Years later in 1987, Mekton 2 was released, which takes a form we’d recognize as a proper RPG: players stat out not only their giant robots, but also a pilot for said robots. The rulebook also makes the occasional mention of Japanese animation, making the Mekton series an proto-anime RPG. It isn’t until 1994 with Mekton Zeta that it becomes apparent that the game is being designed to appeal to fans of anime. Mekton Zeta followed one of the trends of 90’s RPGs by including numerous different optional rules, (many of which were not meant to be used together) including a stat called “kawaii” (lit. “cute” in Japanese) that allowed a character to mimic some of the cartoony, slapstick gags characters from anime. In the year 2000, a game in Japan called Gundam Senki is released: an RPG explicitly based on the Gundam franchise that makes use of the rules system Mekton Zeta introduced. This effectively makes Mekton a game that has gone full circle from being vaguely to directly related to anime. As for the game itself, almost every version of Mekton is more or less a war game featuring giant robots with a role playing game attached to it for when characters aren’t piloting mechs. The majority of character creation in Mekton often revolves around devising a build for your character’s war machine, and a bulk of the gameplay rules are how to use them. Despite this, conflict resolution remains simple: in almost all cases it’s 1d10 + Attritbute + Skill. 2. Teenagers From Outerspace Teenagers From Outerspace, is another series from the R. Talsorian Games, and is another oft cited title in the list of “anime RPGs.” TFOS was originally released in 1987, and much like its predecessor Mekton, didn’t initially bill itself as an anime themed game. TFOS eventually became a love-letter to the “strange neighbor” genre of anime. It emulates such shows as Urusei Yatsura where the titular teenagers from outerspace come to earth and live alongside the more ordinary earth teenagers. In fact, the covers of later editions even feature characters that resemble those from Urusei Yatsura! The 3rd edition of this game was published in 1997, one year before R. Talsorian Games went on an 8 year hiatus. This was also the same year that another company from Canada would take their hand at making an RPG that capitalized on the popularity of anime. 3. Big Eyes Small Mouth Released in 1997 by Guardians of Order, this title is what many think of when the term “Anime RPG” is brought up. This was the first RPG that explicitly billed itself as a game for fans of Japanese animation. However, it wasn’t necessarily the first RPG that was used as the backbone for a licensed RPG product; prior to the creation of BESM, R Talsorian had published sourcebooks for shows such as Bubblegum Crisis and Armored Trooper VOTOMS. Guardians of Order came onto the scene at the right time, though. Anime began rapidly picking up in popularity in North America in the late 90s, and without competition from R Talsorian, they were able to amass a considerable amount of licenses for publishing RPG books. (Most of which made use of BESM’s Tri-stat system.) These acquisitions provided an outlet to develop new rules for specific settings that would later be translated into newer editions of the game. For example, the magic system that was introduced in the first edition of BESM was very loosely defined, though the version that was used in its second edition was first pioneered in their Sailor Moon sourcebook, which was released between the two editions. This modus operandi of experimentation in sourcebooks and codifying rules in new editions and spin-off games continued until 2007, with the release of the third and final edition of Big Eyes Small Mouth. It was just barely completed before Guardians of Order had to go bankrupt and shutdown, with White Wolf taking over this final publishing effort, and only briefly supporting it under their Arthaus subsidiary. From a rules standpoint, anybody familiar with GURPs will feel right at home with BESM 1st and 2nd edition. The games are very similar when it comes to character creation, and coincidentally, many writers for GURPS also at some point worked on BESM. The 3rd edition had a lot of great ideas for standardizing how various character powers worked, thus allowing crafty GMs to devise new powers to without damaging game balance too much. 4. OVA (Open, Versatile, Anime) OVA was originally released in 2005 by Wise Turtle Publishing, with a revised edition being released in 2013. Since this is a game that’s still supported and relatively fresh on the market, this title doesn’t so much tell any sort of history as it’s still in the making. With that in mind, it may be best to keep criticisms and praises for this franchise to a minimum. One point that can be said for certain to OVA’s credit is that it improved greatly from one edition to the next, as well as compared to some of its predecessors. The illustrations used in OVA were drawn by a singular artist, which gave it marvelously consistent style, unlike what you’d find in the core BESM books. As far as gameplay goes, OVA stands strong on its own. It takes a more narrativist approach, with most abilities being descriptive characteristics. Descriptions are short, and abilities are distinct enough that knowing the name of it is sufficient for determining if it could apply to a given situation. 5. Defenders of Tokyo (Defensores de Tóquio) Fondness of roleplaying games and Japanese animation aren’t traits that are exclusive to the people of North America and Europe. In 1994, Brazil joined in on the fun of combining imagination, dice, and a fondness for drawings with oversized eyes with the game Defensores de Tóquio, otherwise known as Defenders of Tokyo. There currently isn’t much known about this game in English speaking communities, however in recent years (circa 2015) english fan translations of the game’s third edition have appeared on the internet. It features the games basic rules, as well as the cover art for the rulebook, but little else. There’s something important I’ve learned in all the years I’ve spent reading over these rulebooks, playing many of these games, and researching the histories of these companies. Anime is not a genre; it’s an audio-visual medium from Japan that, at best, has a somewhat unified aesthetic that changes every decade or so. For anybody who wants to run an “anime” game, I have some advice. Be more specific with your setting, and pick a game suited to that setting. That’ll be much more satisfying than trying to get an a generic game trying to follow a certain aesthetic. However if all it takes is for something to be from Japan to excite you, I do have a few suggestions I can make for you. Aaron der Schaedel would like to take this opportunity to display some transparency by stating that he is on friendly speaking terms with the creator of OVA. You can follow Aaron on Twitter @Zamubei though there’s no guarantee that it’ll enrich your life in any way. (Yet people still smoke tobacco...) Picture Reference: https://www.heypoorplayer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/RPG-Maker-Fes-1024x576.jpg |
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