THOUGHT EATER: 5e

Showing posts with label 5e. Show all posts

Saturday, February 22, 2020

Free and Pay-What-You-Want 5e DMs Guild Highlights: Week Ending 2.22.20

Every week, talented creators upload Dungeons and Dragons products to the DMs Guild, pricing them as free or pay-what-you-want in order to reach customers. Dozens of new free and PWYW products are added each week alone. It is a lot to sort through. My hope is that highlighting a few of each week's best supplements will help the designers get the attention they deserve.

You can find previous posts in this series HERE.

Kakobear: The Beast from the South from Green Bird RPGs

I have spoken before of my love for the Green Bird team. I am basically just waiting for them to break out and find a massive audience. Their lovingly illustrated supplements tend to feature intriguing creatures, and this one is no different. What do you get when you cross a parrot with a bear? Download this to find out.

Mike's Free Encounters #21-30 from Michael LaBossiere

La Bossiere is back with another compilation of their excellent Free Encounters series (see previous installments HERE and HERE). This includes a zip file of the maps and Hero Lab character sheets of the monsters. You can't really have too many random encounters to sprinkle into your game, and these have good enough hooks to use them for mini-adventures.

The Witch from Jeroen Boogaard

I'm kind of a sucker for Witch classes; I just find them appealing for some reason. This is a really nice take on them, with a cool "hex" mechanic, and a choice of four "covens" akin to Wizard schools.

Dragon Scales: A Gambling Mini-Game from Woopdeedo

You may find yourself in need of a quick and simple gambling resource at some point, and I actually really liked this easy-to-learn one-page game. The basic idea involves placing and removing coins from a beam scale. Thankfully, you don't actually need a physical beam scale to play.

Blood Hunter Class for 5e (2020) from Matthew Mercer

It was pointed out to me that the updated Blood Hunter class from Critical Role's Matt Mercer had gone PWYW, and just in case you were living under a rock like myself, I thought I would post it up here.

If you enjoy my free zine, podcast, and/or blog, please consider supporting my work for only $1 per month.

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Review: SWAT: Special Wizards and Tactics - 5e Encounter from Oz Mills

Howdy all, today I am taking a look at SWAT: Special Wizards and Tactics - 5e Encounter from Oz Mills. The author sent me a review copy, and the product is available right now on DriveThru.

BUY IT HERE!

So, this is basically what is says on the tin, a combat encounter for 5e. Well, actually a single encounter presented in numerous ways. The encounters center around an elite city watch team that for whatever reason has been sent after the PCs. Several maps are provided, along with the titular "SWAT" team and some suggestions on various ways to flavor the encounters to fit your campaign. There are three possible encounter locations: an apartment, a street scene, and a tavern.

So, the first thing I will say is that I am all for short adventures and encounter ideas that are easy to drop into a game. My prep time is nil, so over the years I have increasingly relied on published products even for the simplest of scenarios.

I would say that the most valuable pieces of this are the maps, which are quite clean and easy to understand, and the enemy combatant design. Mills does an especially good job in planning for the enemies to work together as a unit, thus the "SWAT" moniker. The author has clearly run their fair share of 5e, and the enemy design shows it.

If I had to complain about something, some of the read-aloud text seemed superfluous and unnecessary. That is maybe more of a personal preference, as I just don't like read-aloud text in general. I also would have liked to have seen "player" maps for all of the locations, but these are all simple enough to sketch without too much trouble.

At only two bucks, you definitely get your money's worth out of this. If I was to use it, I would just model an entire city's law enforcement on the "SWAT" team and treat it as a mini-adventure, with the PCs having to escape town without being captured.

If you want to check out more of what Oz Mills is working on, I recommend checking out their Patreon HERE! I look forward to more from them!

If you enjoy my free zine, podcast, and/or blog, please consider supporting my work for only $1 per month.

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Humpday Blog-O-Rama 2.19.20

Blogs are an integral, vital part of the RPG hobby. They serve as incubators for new games, sounding boards for fresh ideas, and platforms for up-and-coming talent. They keep "forgotten" games alive, foster discussions, and build communities.

Every Wednesday on the Thought Eater podcast and blog, I take a look at what is going on in the vibrant RPG blog scene. Check out previous Humpday Blog-O-Rama posts HERE.

CLICK HERE for listening options, or stream with the embedded player below.

INTRO

https://yaldabaothofficial.blogspot.com/

https://thetabletopalmanac.wordpress.com/2020/02/14/rpg-reviews-romance-of-the-perilous-land/

http://adventuresingaming2.blogspot.com/2020/02/regarding-robert-bledsaw-i-and-bobs.html

https://www.martinralya.com/tabletop-rpgs/bigotry-from-judges-guild-and-the-endless-treadmill-of-bad-actors-in-the-old-school-rpg-hobby/

STAR WARS D6

https://rollingboxcars.com/2020/02/13/holocron-lessons-for-playing-the-d6-star-wars-rpg/

JEZ WARS!!!

https://www.feralrpg.com/

http://www.d6holocron.com/

https://hishgraphics.com/star-wars-rpg-d6-gm-screen/

MAPS

https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=46057

https://www.patreon.com/New_Horizons

http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2020/02/deep-carbon-observatory-remastered.html

https://grodog.blogspot.com/2020/02/renovating-the-monastery-in-greyhawk-part-1.html

http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2020/02/subterrane-surveys-caves-of-chaos.html

REVIEWS AND RETROSPECTIVES

https://www.nonzerosumgames.com/first-adventure/

https://noahms456.blogspot.com/2020/02/weview-wednesday-diy-zenopus-vs-sleek.html

https://knighterrantjr.blogspot.com/2020/02/what-do-i-know-about-reviews-5e.html

https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=6508

https://waynesbooks.games/2020/02/15/omega-war-science-fantasy-adventure-game-1983/

RANDOM TABLES AND GENERATORS

http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2020/02/d100-more-empty-room-decor.html

http://www.paperspencils.com/d100-secret-weaknesses/

FREE STUFF

https://www.knightsinthenorth.com/non-player-sheet/

https://profaneape.wordpress.com/2020/02/15/the-grand-document-dump/

https://goodberrymonthly.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-manticore.html

http://leicestersramble.blogspot.com/2020/02/updated-adventures-for-sword-wizardry.html

https://www.paulsgameblog.com/2020/02/12/ten-dead-rats-rules-update/

MISCELLANY

http://dmmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/02/kim-eastland-has-passed-away.html

https://oldschoolfrp.tumblr.com/post/190844581532/1980sactionfigures-troglodyte-and-goblin

http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2020/02/holmes-day-2020.html

https://chgowiz-games.blogspot.com/2020/02/garycon-vii-prep-moathouse-complete.html

http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/Wyrd-Announces-Delays-in-Release-Schedule

https://followmeanddie.com/2020/02/15/how-to-stream-with-obs

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/53553/five-best-practices-teachers-can-learn-from-dungeon-masters

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/14/d-d-character-alignments.html

SACRED COWS

http://www.remixesandrevelations.com/2020/02/killing-sacred-cow-attribute-scores.html

http://chaudronchromatique.blogspot.com/2020/02/vancian-magic-and-world-building.html

If you enjoy my free zine, podcast, and/or blog, please consider supporting my work for only $1 per month.

Saturday, February 15, 2020

Free and Pay-What-You-Want 5e DMs Guild Highlights: Week Ending 2.15.20

Every week, talented creators upload Dungeons and Dragons products to the DMs Guild, pricing them as free or pay-what-you-want in order to reach customers. Dozens of new free and pwyw products are added each week alone. It is a lot to sort through. My hope is that highlighting a few of each week's best supplements will help the designers get the attention they deserve.

You can find previous posts in this series HERE.

Curse of Strahd Vallaki Propaganda Posters from Luka Lock

Curse of Strahd Vallaki Festival Posters from Luka Lock

I soooo wish I had these back when I was running Curse of Strahd. The propaganda posters in particular would add wonderful flavor and a bit of humor to any CoS campaign. Grab these if you are running it or are planning to in the future.

Locke and Key: Keyhouse Maps from Jeremy Christensen

I know nothing about these comic books and I haven't seen the Netflix show. I don't even know what these have to do with D&D. What I do know is that this is a high quality set of "manor" maps, very usable for a variety of different games.

Spell Tattoo from Heath Israel

I like the ideas presented in this brief supplement (two pages of actual content). Spell tattoos kind of work like scrolls. There is a spell tattoo artist background and some pricing ideas. This made me envision a villain with tons of spell tattoos, or maybe some wizard school where all of the members are just covered in these. Free.

Divok's Pamphlet of Epic Mini-Boss Monsters from Divok

This interesting monster supplement introduces the idea of "epic actions", basically weaker legendary actions that have to occur in a specific order. A common complaint I see about 5e is how easily solo monsters can get locked down. If you are looking for new ways to challenge your players, you might want to take a look at some of these creative concepts. Free.

5e Encounter: The Behemoth Strikes from Stephen Bull

I have featured a lot of Stephen Bull's products, as they have a lot of great ideas. This "encounter", really a mini-adventure, would make for an excellent campaign starter. A godzilla-like creature is attacking the town! There are a bunch of ways to involve the PCs, from dealing with widespread panic, to dodging falling rubble, to freeing trapped civilians. Sort of feels like the beginning of Tyranny of Dragons; in fact, I might combine the two down the line. Good stuff.

If you enjoy my free zine, podcast, and/or blog, please consider supporting my work for only $1 per month.

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Humpday Blog-O-Rama 2.12.20

Blogs are an integral, vital part of the RPG hobby. They serve as incubators for new games, sounding boards for fresh ideas, and platforms for up-and-coming talent. They keep "forgotten" games alive, foster discussions, and build communities.

Every Wednesday on the Thought Eater podcast and blog, I take a look at what is going on in the vibrant RPG blog scene. Check out previous Humpday Blog-O-Rama posts HERE.

CLICK HERE for listening options or use the player below!

INTRO

THIS IS FINE

http://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2020/02/concerning-judges-guild.html

https://www.geeknative.com/71137/rpg-publishers-cut-ties-with-the-judges-guild-game-company-after-bigotry-expose/

http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/02/choose-side-or-one-will-be-chosen-for.html

https://chgowiz-games.blogspot.com/2020/02/when-our-heroes-become-those-people.html

http://adventuresingaming2.blogspot.com/2020/02/regarding-judges-guild.html

https://oldschoolfrp.tumblr.com/post/190774680587/companies-cut-ties-with-judges-guild-after-owners

We are proud to have published Scott Malthouse's Romance of the Perilous Land. Games are designed to bring people together, and we're saddened to see anyone fighting against that. We remain fully committed to creating games that everyone can enjoy. pic.twitter.com/Fv4LvJU7re
— Osprey Games (@OspreyGames) February 11, 2020