Dungeons & Dragons - Blog Posts
Tome of Travelers has lunched on Kickstarter!
So CRAZY NEWS! The project I have been working on for over 2 years has finally launched on Kickstarter--- AND we got 30% funded with in our first couple of hours. AND the creator and CEO of Dwarven Forge has shown his support for the project. Its insane. Our small team has been incredibly humbled the last couple of hours. But we aren't done yet. We still have 44 days to get our full funding. If you like Dungeons and Dragons go check out our project: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tabletopgamingcenter/tabletop-tome-of-travelers/
A lot of blood sweat and tears have gone into this project and its going to an extensive 5e supplement that will contain a guaranteed 48 fully play-tested character subclass options, 11 new player species options, and even 20 new spells.
A D&D character I’ve made. A down-to-his-luck half-dragon warlock (formerly a paladin).
Figuring out a tortle’s head.
Based on the Alligator Snapping Turtle.
I’ve still been slowly catching up on the Oxventure podcast while at work and just finished the Extinction season. I was gladly surprised with the Corazon centric seasonal finale and thought his internal reflection was fascinating, I just wish we were able to see more of it! The whole dungeon crawl and boss battle in the Curse Hole had me stressed out so much that I’m sure my coworkers thought I was going insane. The Oxventure crew has a special place in my heart and I’m excited for some more Blades in the Dark and Deadlands on my horizon!
Another Tes, for your viewing pleasure. I need to dig up some really old D&D drawings cuz I’m sure I have a very very old “Tes” illustration from before I ever even played D&D.
My DM said I could probably use Mage Hand in combat so take that nerds.
More from the Reading Pile
Fortunately The Milk A fun children's story that can be enjoyed by all ages. Skottie Young's art works perfectly with the wild story (a dad tells the story of why it took him so long to go buy a bottle of milk). It's written by Neil Gaiman, so decide for yourself if you want to support it (I had already purchased it before all the news broke). Harper Collins Children - HC $19.99, SC $9.99
Wrestling Unmasked: Ripping the Mask off the Crime, Politics and Intrigue Beyond The Ring A collection of various articles from the British Wrestletalk Magazine from the early 2020s. They are well written and dive into the ugly history of the industry. If you're a long time wrestling fan like me (since the mid '80s), you probably know most of these stories already. But the articles are well written and in some cases personal. Worth picking up, especially if you are recent fan to the squared circle. Wrestletalk.com - ebook £6.99, print SC £14.99, also available from Amazon
Snarf Quest: The Book A graphic novel of the first story line of Larry Elmore's "Snarf Quest" comic from the back of Dragon magazine of the 1980s. It's entertainingly silly and goofy and doesn't take it's self seriously at all (it features a time traveling wizard, a robot that crash lands in front of Snarf and a dragon that thinks it's a duck). Also, it's Larry Elmore, so all of the women are beautiful and scantly clad, but at least they don't fall into the "damsel in distress" trope. A fun read. If you can find it cheap, snap it up. TSR Inc - Cover Price $9.95 (out of print)
I would add in https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com, especially if you’re like me and absolutely suck at naming things.
The New DMs Guide to: Building a Homebrew World
Every creature, class and caricature can be found for free on the internet, with almost no digging. Dungeons and Dragons has never been easier to play. These are the resources I used to build the beginning of my campaign. This one isn’t for building story, this one is for building world. (Story Masterpost coming soon)
What I Use
The Obvious: dndbeyond.com - Character Builders, Rule Guides, Guides to Monsters, Tips, Tricks and everything in between. Does require a little money to access the full scope of the site, but the free version is superb as well.
Create your own world map: Inkarnate.com - awesome map creator with free and Pro versions (at very reasonable prices). Example:
The Best of the Dungeon Builders: http://www.dungeonographer.com (free and paid versions. I use the free one) - dungeon builder, but you can make anything! The best dungeon maker I’ve found, with sheer simplicity of use balanced with scope of opportunity. Example:
How deep do you want to go? Donjon’s Generators - https://donjon.bin.sh Calendars? Loot? Dungeons? Demographics? Inns? Towns? Magic Shops?
Cities are big. Someone else can build it. fantasycities.watabou.ru (free) - City Map Generator. Great for creating big cities or tiny towns, and so much easier than building every single major city of your world, if you want to have those maps.
There are plenty of places to download and print tokens for combat play (if you want to use a map at all) online, but I bought mine from: SidequestTTM
Watch and Learn
The Bare Basics of D&D - Handbook Helper. New too Dungeons and Dragons? The team behind Critical Role have a whole (and continuing) series on the basic rules of D&D
Matthew Mercer and Satine Phoenix’s GM Tips - Some of the best Game Masters in the world share their tips for Mastering the Game. I’ve watched the whole thing twice and always learn more.
Matt Colville’s Running the Game - An incredible video resource that goes from building the very start of a campaign to how to navigate tough spots, how to plant story hooks and some of the best advice I’ve ever seen.
Other Great Resources
“All You Need” Site, http://autorolltables.github.io/index.html - need an npc? A plot? A settlement? A monster? An encounter? autorolltables will make it.
World Map Making: http://www.hexographer.com - specific style of simplistic map making, very useful though I don’t use it myself.
Azgaar World Map Generator: has landscape, political boundaries, names and more. If you don’t want to design your own, this one’s a perfectly viable option.
https://sketchbook.com: free drawing software, very intuitive but no map making specifics.
https://rpgtinker.com: great for more complex characters.
Dungeon Building: https://deepnight.net/tools/tabletop-rpg-map-editor/ - a fantastic but very simple map maker, works best in Chrome and requires flash.
Extras
Make your homebrew content look official
Need a Monster? - roll20