Free and Pay-What-You-Want 5e DMs Guild Highlights: Week Ending 12.14.19

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.

THIS IS THE FINAL POST OF THE YEAR! This series will return January 4th! I hope you and your families have a safe and happy holiday season.


The Wrench's Useless Magic Items from Cita A F

I loved this one. These magic items are all worthless on the surface, but dig deeper and you find that they have some interesting uses. For example, there is a monocle that causes blurred vision...so why wear it? Turns out you get a bonus to charisma checks, because people just look cool wearing monocles. As a bonus, these are done as cards. Very funny and cool. 


A Darkness From The Stars from Sadie Lowry

This Eberron adventure is set at an observatory in the Starpeak Mountains. A great mix of roleplay, investigation, and combat. 


Three Pillars DM Screen from Ernad Osmic

This far into the life of 5e, odds are you already have DM screen you like, but just in case you don't, you could do a lot worse than this one. All of the charts and tables you really need, helpfully broken down by "pillar". 


5e Encounter-Rudolph's Revenge from Stephen Bull

Were-Reindeer. Need I say more?

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

Free and Pay-What-You-Want 5e DMs Guild Highlights: Week Ending 12.7.19

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.


An Alphabet of Legendary Magic Items from George Collie

Collie's excellent "Alphabet" magic item series concludes here with this collection. I have thoroughly enjoyed the creativity and artwork that went into these. Don't miss the Very Rare, Rare, Common, and Uncommon companions to this final installment.


Politics of the Eldeen Reaches from Joseph Meehan

Speaking of excellent series, no Eberron DM should be without Meehan's regional gazetteers. Be sure and also check out their Zilargo, Thrane, Aundair, Karrnath, and Breland supplements.


D&D Party Sheet from Ernad Osmic

I consider party tracking sheets a must, and not just for beginners. I can glance at passive skills, armor class, and more without having to ask for it, and if some of your group's player names get as weird as mine, it can take a few sessions to learn them. "Ok Zzhorlakiatharka, you're up."


MZS1 Monsters of Maztica from Jon Hild

Hild has carved out a niche on the Guild doing Maztica-themed supplements and conversions. This is a pretty substantial collection of creatures that are perfect for jungle or "lost world" settings.


Essentials Kit Companion from Andrew Sneath

This is a helpful collection of tools for running the recent Essentials Kit. One of the two pdfs is used as an encounter tracker, while the other includes tips, key locations, tokens, and more. Also check out their companion for the original starter set.

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

Free and Pay-What-You-Want 5e DMs Guild Highlights: Week Ending 11.30.19

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.


Slash, Stab, Hack, Repeat! from Duncan Rhodes

This is a collection of additional properties for the core weapons in the PHB. For example, the Parry property allows you to use a reaction to add a +1 to your AC vs a single attack. How much you like this will really depend on your appetite for complexity, but I thought it was reasonably balanced and pretty cool. 


Character Biggies XGE and Character Passports XGE from Tabletop Unglued

I featured the PHB versions of these cool character sheet variants a couple of weeks back (HERE and HERE), and thought I would mention that there are now options for Xanathar's Guide to Everything.


Mike's Free Encounters #11-20 from Michael LaBossiere

This is the second collection from LaBossiere; download the first one HERE. These are perfect to sprinkle into sessions or use as random encounters.


Trinket Busters from Star Shine

This one gets points for originality. Basically you can use trinkets to temporarily power some weapons by placing them into a special cavity in the grip. The magical effects fade within days. I know it sounds weird, but I like temporary magical effects, so here you go.


Advent of Destruction from Alex Niswonger

I thought this was a pretty ambitious and epic adventure. The dwarven city of Markheldiim is under attack, and of course the PCs are caught up in the mess. New creatures and items, with a helpful layout for DMs. Part 1 of the "Legacy of the Song Blades" series. 

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

Free and Pay-What-You-Want 5e DMs Guild Highlights: Week Ending 11.9.19

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.


Politics of Zilargo from Joseph Meehan

Certain creators are really the heroes of the DMs Guild, and Meehan is one of them. Check out the fifth installment in their "Politics of Eberron" series, as well as their excellent Thrane, Aundair, Karrnath, and Breland supplements.

An Alphabet of Very Rare Magic Items from George Collie

Speaking of heroes of the Guild, George Collie's "Alphabet" magic item collections are all can't-miss. Be sure and check out the Rare, Common, and Uncommon companions to this new installment if you haven't already. 

5e Spell Compendium from Cruxiuz

This is an ambitious attempt to collect all of the 5e spells into one document. There is some question as to the legality of this one mentioned in the comments, although technically Wizards owns anything you upload to the Guild anyway. To be honest, I don't see the problem, as the whole point of publishing on the Guild is to use WotC IP, and this is mostly useless without the core books. That said, it might not be up forever.

D&D5e Il cacciatore di goblin Roll20 (Mappe e Token) from Paolo Pinna

While I don't speak Italian, and therefore can't use this with the actual adventure as intended, this is still a killer set of maps and tokens. 

The Witch Doctor from Johnathan Platt

Oooh, this is really, really good. My fave of the three archetypes for this excellent new caster class has a sort of Voodoo doll mechanic that would be tons of fun to roleplay. Beg your DM to let you try one.

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

Humpday Blog-O-Rama 11.6.19

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 TO LISTEN!!!

ARNESON MONTH WRAP-UP

https://osrgrimoire.blogspot.com/

https://plundergrounds.blogspot.com/2019/10/110-aaa-games.html

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zz5ms0v3p0s7qh6/Us%20vs.%20Earth.pdf?dl=0

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/malodorous-miasma-meltdown/id1470078185

https://sharps54.itch.io/jasons-basi6-rpg

https://anchor.fm/jason376


BEST OF HALLOWEEN 2019

https://mapoftheweek.blogspot.com/2019/10/witches-and-ghosts.html

https://abraxarba.blogspot.com/2019/10/chill-art.html

https://randroll.com/archive/5e_spooky_encounters/

https://dumpstatadventures.com/blog/deep-dive-the-vampire


MAPS

https://www.sageadvice.eu/2019/10/31/the-forgotten-realms-original-map-draw-by-ed-greenwood-with-detailed-images-of-the-most-famous-rpg-setting-thanks-to-gameholecon-and-alex-kammer/

http://sorcerersskull.blogspot.com/2019/11/well-blow-me-down-popeye-maps.html

https://blogofexalteddeeds.blogspot.com/2019/11/session-79-30-october-2019.html

https://www.cartographersguild.com/forumdisplay.php?f=103


REVIEWS AND RETROSPECTIVES

https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=6297

https://vintagerpg.tumblr.com/post/188804566241/im-taking-a-look-at-mayfair-games-satirical

https://waynesbooks.games/2019/11/03/days-of-the-dragon-1982-dungeons-dragons-fantasy-art-calendar/

https://rollingboxcars.com/2019/10/30/all-that-glitters-is-chrome-cyberpunk-red-jumpstart-kit/

http://endzeitgeist.com/crypt-of-the-science-wizard-5e/

http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2019/11/monstrous-monday-review-d-creature.html

http://natetreme.com/blog/review-blood-in-the-water


RANDOM TABLES AND GENERATORS

http://themansegaming.blogspot.com/2019/11/gossip-from-orc-slave-pits.html

http://insidethegiantseye.blogspot.com/2019/11/2d6-potions-in-vending-machine.html

https://wasitlikely.blogspot.com/2019/10/oracular-dungeon-generation-and.html


FREE STUFF

http://frontierexplorer.org/article/issue-26-now-available

http://bearded-devil.com/2019/10/31/hex-character-sheets/

https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/2019/10/osr-ultraviolet-gloglands.html

http://blog.trilemma.com/2019/10/the-sequence-of-deel.html

https://mfov.magehandpress.com/2019/11/school-of-arithmetick.html

https://paperelemental.blogspot.com/2019/11/skeleton-post-2019.html

https://chgowiz-games.blogspot.com/2019/11/three-hexes-zine-1.html

https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/class-feature-variants


MISCELLANY

http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com/2019/10/dungeons-dragons-guide-to-mordenkainen.html

https://savageafterworld.blogspot.com/2019/10/hittin-holiday-road-to-gamehole-con.html

https://savageafterworld.blogspot.com/2019/10/gamehole-con-day-0-housefly-transport.html

https://savageafterworld.blogspot.com/2019/10/gamehole-con-day-1-grinding-snow-plows.html

https://savageafterworld.blogspot.com/2019/11/gamehole-con-day-2-housefly-riding.html

https://savageafterworld.blogspot.com/2019/11/gamehole-con-day-3-threat-of-baron-von.html


AS THE MEGADUNGEON TURNS

https://originaldungeons-and-dragons.blogspot.com/2019/11/public-notice-filed-by-robert-j-kuntz.html

https://www.facebook.com/threelinestudio/posts/2892735714091874?__tn__=-R

https://originaldungeons-and-dragons.blogspot.com/2019/11/re-public-notice-filed-by-robert-j.html

https://kotaku.com/transformers-producer-drops-lawsuit-against-gary-gygaxs-1839466600

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