Why Read so Many RPG Magazines?

A few months back, I read Anatomy of an Adventure by M.T. Black. Then I also noticed Black’s highly viewed posts on EN World looking at old issues of Dragon Magazine. He practices what he preaches in terms of adventure and game design—read and copy the masters, and when you finish you’ll have discovered your own style. So though I was reading both old and new RPG magazines before this, it gave new impetus. 

In fact based on what I’ve read about this hobby, the zine predates the game, and provided a common forum for discussion of ideas and concepts. Later descendants of the fanzine format were and are the official magazines of various publishers. 

These types of products play an important role in continuing to develop the hobby, I think even to this day. Take a look at the names in many of the magazines, old and new, for newer and more established publishers. Then take a look at the writers and designers in their books on your shelve or in your digital library. Magazines provide a place for new freelance writers and designers to cut their teeth in a more traditional publication space. Anyone can make a product and put it on DriveThruRPG (that’s not to diminish the self-publishing route, which is very hard on its own). But the process of working with editors and other designers fostered by magazines seems to fuel the larger TTRPG industry, and is the path towards authors credits in hardbacks from established publishers. 

Take a look at the early publishing credits of most of Wizards of the Coast’s design team if you don’t believe me. Experienced designers learned their craft writing then editing for Dungeon or Dragon magazines. More recent designers have some of their first publication credits in MCDM’s Arcadia. You’ll see En5ider authors in the author and designers credits sections of hardback titles from MCDM, Kobold Press, Ghostfire Gaming, and more.

So if you want to understand this hobby, find great ideas for your home games, or even start writing, take a look at EN Publishing’s En5ider, or Gate Pass Gazette. Learn from the work in Wildmage Press’ Horizons. Read the magazines from decades past and you’ll find things that inspire you, and you’ll drive your own creative energy.

Fan Kobold Press Northlands Adventure: Return of the Azure King - Pitch

I was a little disappointed to discover that my submission to Kobold Press' (KP) most recent open pitch call had not been selected. I would like to offer a hearty congratulations to those whose adventures were selected! According to the latest KP update on their Northlands kickstarter project they were:

• In the Hall of the Hill Troll Chief by Atgeir

• Storm Champion's Barrow by Miranda Crowell

However, I enjoyed my pitch, and I have an abet small platform to share it here under the KP fan content policy, as it uses elements from their outstanding Midgard Campaign setting. Further, the guidelines provided to folks who were eligible to submit is that we can do with it what we please, while of course respecting KP's copyright. So I have decided to post my idea and make a personal goal to follow through as if it had been selected, using the KP fan content policy to share it for free here on the blog.

Over the next couple months, I will draft an 8,000 word adventure based upon my pitch and post it here (perhaps broken into several posts for readability). The non-specific eventual deadline of early Spring 2026 was provided, so I will look to have this project completed by the beginning of March. Significant spoilers for the adventure are in the pitch. I will look at including a brief non-spoiler blurb when it is completed for any readers who would like to suggest this adventure to their GMs, while any GMs potentially interested in running an original adventure set in KP's Northlands region of Midgard should read on.

So without further ado:

Return of the Azure King

For Adventurers of 8th Level

The Cradle Cave at the heart of the city of Tanserhall was breached and the holiest relics stolen, a hammer and anvil of Thor and Volund. The rulers of Tanserhall tracked the thieves to Veles Fang, where the trail goes cold amongst the rivers and marshes. Panicked by memories and legends of Thor’s wrath when he cast Tanserhall down, they request the adventurers’ aid. 

On a journey for the sagas, they encounter Khazzaki riders, Kariv wanders, and dwarven reavers, discovering clues leading to the fabled Red Mounds of Rhos Khurgan. These clues and rumors are dark—that the shadow of Ulf the Azure King has returned, a despot so terrible that fallen Domovogrod and Tsar-ruled Vidim allied over half a century ago to defeat him. There are dark symbols of a god spoken of only in whispers—Chernobog. All leads point to the cursed 32rd red mound. 

Exploring the red mound, the adventurers discover the truth. Fjolmod, son of the Azure King, has returned from exile in Vellarsheim alongside troops of the Thursir warlord Mensnark Obsbane. Allied with cultists of the Cauldron of Chernobog, Fjolmod seeks to imbue his father’s weapon, Menneskelig-dod, with unholy power and conquer the whole of the Northlands.

2e AD&D Birthright Campaign Setting Review

This article is spoiler free, only providing specific information that the original books describe as safe to share with players as part of setting background.

Birthright is an interesting setting, and frankly not discussed much in my abet limited experience in the hobby. On ENWorld I've seen its fanbase called "small but vocal." It is small indeed, with much of the community residing on a fan website that has existed for roughly two decades and a more recently created discord server. For me personally, I didn't hear about Birthright until I heard it mentioned in passing in a video by Matt Colville. Appearing later in the life cycle of 2e AD&D, it seems as though Birthright never got as much attention as other settings like Planescape and Spelljammer. 

It's also of note that as older materials, the Birthright Campaign Setting and other supplements, available on DriveThruRPG, include the disclaimer that "Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today." Those interested in exploring this setting should keep this in mind and use player safety tools. 

The setting and rules of the original box set is laid out in three books. Let's take a look at them.

Atlas

Really interesting overview, providing the meat of the setting lore. It is written from an in-character perspective, by a chamberlain waiting for a wise emperor to rise and rule the fallen empire once more. I found the narrative style less annoying personally than when it was used for the Planescape 2e sources. The lore sets the continent of Cerilia up as a land that has been settled by humans, in a generally low magic setting. There still remain untamed frontiers to explore, which seems a major idea for some regions (there are some potentially problematic themes of colonialism as elves, dwarves, and orog peoples lived in Cerilia before the arrival of humans). 

The background of the setting is that a thousand years or longer before the present timeline there was a massive battle between the forces of evil and good, in which the gods also participated and destroyed one another. Their energy created new gods from some of the combatants and also diffused amongst those who survived on both sides, creating powerful magical bloodlines amongst the humanoids and also creating the dark antagonists, the awnsheghlien. These adversaries are functionally immortal and are natural bad guys for your adventures. 

There is a mystical element to the awnsheghlien, particularly as these are unique monsters, which I think is sometimes lost in D&D. So while normal versions of monster stat blocks might easily be used for some of them, it would also make sense to make modified or legendary versions of some (like a modified medusa stat block for the Gorgon).

Then the setting takes the bloodline theme and combines it with the divine right of kings to create a feudal system of rule. After the battle an empire arose that unified much of the continent, but it fell as the ruling bloodline weakened. The seeds of a plot that could be as radical as reuniting the empire, or as small as dealing with the local politics and the threat of nearby neighbors emerges. The rules presented in the rulebook then support this different style of gameplay. I like the fallen empire trope, and already planned to employ a similar theme in my own world. The world is distinct and interesting, and I’d definitely consider a campaign here.

The descriptions of the various lands are interesting, and I think you could do worse than using Cerilia without the domain system as an adventuring setting alternative to others like the Forgotten Realms.

Rulebook

Character Options

It’s always been interesting considering the class and character restrictions based upon ancestry which are included in older sourcebooks. Honestly seems rather silly at this point. However, I do appreciate the brief sections on each people that detail their culture and what makes them unique.

Domains

The domain system is what really makes this setting unique and cool. It will not be for everyone. There's a lot conceptually you need to take in and understand to effectively use the system. The GM really needs to be an expert, and it is more akin to a strategic simulation game than a roleplaying game. It's the intersection of these two styles of games that makes Birthright truly shine though.

First, you really need this beautiful stitched together map of Cerilia to understand this system. If you want to use another setting with this system, you'll need to figure out how to divide up the map according to provinces, which according to the book should be between 1,000 and 1,500 miles square, or about 30-40 miles per side if you are doing rough squares. The book notes the exact dimensions aren't important, but if you want to maintain some of the verisimilitude in ability to communicate and travel quickly within the area then this is a good rule of thumb. You don't need to do the entire map necessarily though, just the area you are interested in running your campaign. Then you can follow the principles of spiral campaign development as your players venture further afield, then detailing the provinces and new regions they are going to.

(Major aside: Khorvaire in Eberron, and Midgard are good settings to potentially look at for this. Khorvaire would function well if you wanted to play out the Last War, and Midgard has this type of intrigue and warfare baked into the setting already. The Forgotten Realms works less well because the Sword Coast is primarily city states, and the nobles aren't as tied to geographic holdings in the lore outside of those cities).

Provinces are assigned a level (the book essentially suggests these will primarily range from 0-9). The level assigned generally reflects the population, and through that the economic and political potential of the province (the book says importance and prosperity, but words from actual scholarship are much more descriptive and helpful to us in conceptualizing these). A major city of greater than 40,000 people is at least level 7 (i.e. a province containing Ptolus would be 7 or 8). 

Within a province you have four types of holdings:

• Guilds (Associated with the 2e Thief class)
• Law
• Sources (Sources of magical energy derived from the land itself)
• Temples (Centers of divine power and influence)

There are a number of slots for each of these holdings within a province equal to its level (except for sources, they have other rules later). There is also a limitation based on the size of the province for how many regents (rulers) those holding slots can be divided between (for instance, a level 3 province can only have one regent per type of holding. This is true even if the holding doesn't use all the available slots. Meaning this province can have a level 1 temple holding, but no other regents can take those slots.

Next the various types of assets that a regent can have are discussed, which is essentially anything other than a holding, including armies, money, and more. 

Reading this, it becomes very apparent that some sort of digital ability to manage data is necessary—those folks who did this by hand in the ‘90’s deserve a round of applause. A CSV file might suffice, with holdings nested under provinces and listed with their respective levels and regents. Regents' assets need to be tracked too. There's also the added wrinkle of tracking the interrelations of regents, scions, and their bloodlines. The type of hyperlinking available in Foundry or other non VTT document management tools also could be a way to provide lists of provinces, the holdings, and regents, along with their associated resource gain each turn.

In addition to all of this, there are the procedures for running domain turns and a skirmish battle game with cards for units (wait this sounds familiar). These rules provide some parameters that to me make them more usable that the more amorphous domain rules that Kingdoms & Warfare provided, certainly inspired by this previous product. Though you definitely need digital tools to keep track of everything, the procedures follow a certain logic, and some lists and flowcharts nicely demonstrate how everything ought to flow. The domain rules also explicitly are designed to work alongside adventures and guidance is given on how to advance time and interweave the domain turns with adventures—a degree of specificity that I find more helpful than the tired “make it up as you go” advice that I've also seen. The framework allows for deviation better than having to haphazardly create something on the fly.

Ruins of Empire

This book is densely packed, providing the domain data for a number of NPC regents and domains in Anuire, which is essentially a European fantasy themed portion of the setting. The level of detail included in this and other Birthright supplements (which we'll also take a look at in future posts) 

Final Thoughts

This setting offers a type of play not everyone is interested in. That’s okay, but I’m glad that people still continue to think about domain management and building kingdoms as part of the fantasy TTRPG hobby. This is an interesting setting from a historical point of view and offers one example of how to approach this problem. Various aspects of Birthright could be drawn from or combined with other systems—for example, division of a map up into regions is very similar to A5E’s exploration mechanics. If I were to run this setting, I might make use of the exploration encounters from A5E in this way to do pointcrawls with regional nodes.

You can also see how Birthright emphasized an ideal of generational play, with characters developing their holdings, perhaps gaining control of a province with regency, and passing on their power to a trusted heir. I like this idea in other works I've seen it in, like the much more recent Broken Weave. Similar mechanics from games like Pendragon could be adapted too.

There are also obvious different styles of play available in Birthright. For example, each player a ruler of a kingdom, which would focus significantly on the domain level game, and potentially include conflict between player domains. There's also the ability to place an NPC or a player in charge of a kingdom, with the others acting as vassals, promoting both cooperation, or providing a smaller scale for intrigue. There's also the option of simply adventuring in the setting with no players acting as scions or regents, but getting to interact with the politics and intrigue.

I would love to try out this campaign setting one day. For more reading and reflections from an older fan of the hobby than me, check out the blog post from Grognardia on the setting.

Gate Pass Gazette Issue 0 Reflections

This issue contains four articles: Constructed Heritage, Artificer, Lycanthropy Synergy Feats, and Jabberwock. Written to support EN Publishing's Level Up A5E system, I think the Gate Pass Gazette is a great way to dig into what differentiates this from 2014 or 2024 5e. For readers, I highly recommend picking up a copy of the Annual 2022 Gate Pass Gazette compilation which I am reading through in this series. However, one of the incredibility generous things about EN Publishing is that almost the entirety of this content has been released in the Creative Commons, ORC license, and OGL through the A5E SRD. 

Constructed Heritage by Anthony Alipio provides essentially a Warforged or Gearforged heritage option. This generally seems in line with A5E's other options. It's of note that this character option largely disallows magical healing, requiring the mending cantrip to be used on the construct in the same round for magical healing to be effective. I particularly like the heritage gift option of the Military Frame which provides some really cool features. 

The Artificer by Andrew Engelbrite is an A5E version of the Artificer class. I've taken a look at this class before and been struck by how similar it is to the original 5e version rather than being a significant revision like KibblesTasty's Inventor class. As mentioned above, the major benefit here is that this work is licensed under Creative Commons, meaning that if more creators were aware they  could potentially create Artificer content compatible with most variants of 5e (disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and you shouldn't take this as legal advice).

The next article is Lycanthrope Synergy Feats by Thiago Rosa. There are outstanding and interesting mechanical ideas here and essentially a cool way to progress and increase the power of a character infected with lycanthropy. I think it certainly provides an interesting character progression option. I would have appreciated some more clarifying language to explain how to implement this subsystem and to take these as feat options when feats are normally provided in the character's class progression. 

The Jabberwock, by the amazing monster designer Paul Hughes takes it's inspiration clearly from the poem by Lewis Carroll. This monster entry is written in the same style as the Monstrous Menagerie for A5E (not coincidentally Hughes was lead designer for that product).  I really appreciate the extra details like encounter ideas and signs of the monster that are provided. The Jabberwock itself is a great example of the fantasy driving design, with interesting mechanics for the jabber curse that the creature can inflict and for it's flight, among other things. 

Overall, some interesting material. The Artificer offers interesting possibilities for design and could be potentially adapted for other versions of 5e. The Jabberwock can definitely be used in whatever version of 5e you are playing in a forest infulluenced by the Fey lands, or even in that other world itself. 

Looking forward to checking out Issue 1 next!

Gate Pass Gazette Reflections Main Page

Eberron: Rising From the Last War Reaction

This post was originally written and posted on Amazon as a product review.

I'd never heard of Eberron prior to getting interested in D&D. When I did heard about it, I was unsure if I liked it. I considered myself one of those people who didn't necessarily like technology in my fantasy setting. Also the book had some weird halfling and a velociraptor-thing on the front, so it must be a little weird, right? Man, was I wrong.

Eberron is AWESOME. Fantasy noir, magic so common it appears like advanced technology, political intrigue, mysteries all around just the continent of Khorvaire as detailed in the book. And there's like four or five more continents left to find.

This book is probably one of the best WOTC products for 5e. It is a true setting sourcebook, providing setting information and practical advice for crafting adventures in Eberron. The level of setting info is particularly rare amongst 5e products which have lately focused their page count on player options and mechanics as well as providing long adventures instead of providing useful setting information and story hooks (see Dragonlance and Spelljammer as examples of this). That deficiency is not the case in Eberron: Rising from the Last War. There are descriptions with adventurer hooks for numerous locations in the continent of Khorvaire and short sections on other continents and locales in the world of Eberron.

There is a good player section with mechanics for Eberron character and a significant amount of setting information. If you just let your players read the first few chapters of the book they will have all the setting info they need for a satisfying experience in Eberron. The bestiary isn’t bad either. I always think there could be more monsters though.

The flip side of this is that all of the work to create an adventure is on the DM. This is not an “out of the box” adventure. It is a setting book. There are plenty of story hooks and villains provided that can be used to create adventures. Other adventures can be adapted to the setting fairly easy with several like Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Princes of the Apocalypse, and others having notes on how to use them in multiple settings including Eberron. The plus side of this exclusively being a setting book is that it has significant longevity. You can still use your Eberron book regardless of the edition of DnD you are playing. When the new core book versions come out in 2024 this book will remain relevant to anyone planning to use the Eberron setting in the future.

Heretic's Guide to Devotion & Divinity Review

I've had my eye on this title from Eventyr Games for a while now. The Heretic's Guide to Devotion & Divinity delivers on tools that I was hoping for from Green Ronin's Book of the Righteous but which were missing.

Rather than outlining a pantheon and established lore, this title seeks to help a GM in the solo play of setting creation by providing practical advice on creating your own material that touches on themes of religion. 

I don't know that I can provide high enough praise for how Heretic's Guide to Devotion & Divinity delivers on its promises. In the spirit of sourcebooks from earlier editions, this book truly delivers a GM options into interweave religion and its themes into their RPG. It approaches its purpose from a mature perspective, and provides awesome tools. This includes a section on building stat blocks for deities should you decide that you want to go the way of previous editions of D&D and allow them to be fought—and possibly killed. 

Further chapters provide actionable and inspirational advice on weaving elements into your campaign, whether that be through descriptive or ritual elements, or in holidays. There are flavorful examples and idea seeds for religious ceremonies like funerals and weddings ready to employ in games, and providing an awesome vehicle to add lore or secrets and clues of your story into. Others include discussions of how to make the use of spells like Resurrection more impactful and descriptive. This makes sense! This is a powerful moment in a narrative, and giving a GM tools to make the use of these spells more evocative leads to more immersive games.

Compared to similar books on employing religion in your fantasy tabletop roleplaying games, this book stands head and shoulders above competition like the Book of the Righteous. The tools that it provides to GMs are the type of world building materials I wish were more common. I highly recommend anyone interested in exploring these themes or creating their own fantasy pantheons with realistic details for their games to check out Heretic's Guide to Devotion & Divinity.

En5ider Issue 7 Release!

En5ider Magazine, Issue 7, image by EN Publishing

I am thrilled to announce my debut published adventure in En5ider Magazine, Issue 7, from EN Publishing! The End Has Come is a tier two adventure where adventurers must combat the rebirth of a dark god, and attempt to prevent—or at least delay—the apocalypse. 

En5ider Magazine, Issue 7, image by EN Publishing

Working on this issue was another amazing experience—with even more authorial collaboration that my previous articles. My adventure leverages heavily the wonder work of Chris Rippee on both the Raiment of the Devouring King, and the Society of Tasteful Friends. Those who check out this adventure will also find magic items and monsters from the other great contributors’ articles to this issue. With the awesome leadership of our editor, Mike Myler (who also has an awesome ongoing Kickstarter project you should check out!) this really was the type of experience I have always hoped to have with other creators.

I hope you will consider checking out the En5ider magazine Patreon, and that those who do will enjoy these carefully crafted articles for your 5e tabletop games!

Dungeon Magazine 1 - Part 1

Spoilers for the adventures within…

The first issue of Dungeon appeared in 1986. I find it really fascinating to examine and see elements that are still part of publications of the past several years and even now in En5ider. This magazine, unlike its elder sister publication, Dragon, is noted to be providing adventure modules. This is principally the reason that I am most interested in examining this publication throughout its history and recording my thoughts; after all, modules are the easiest content to use in any edition or even other fantasy RPG. It’s important to note that I’ll be spoiling most of these adventures. So if you plan to ever play any, then maybe duck out.

The idea behind the magazine too is interesting—encouraging readers playing the game to submit their own adventures for publication. Of course, it’s noted that they become property of TSR once submitted—hence why we still see Dungeon modules crop up in official D&D products from WOTC. It’s also noted that the magazine will be bimonthly at this time.

I love the cover art by Keith Parkinson, which references one of the adventures within. This is what I imagine when I think of a dragon hoard. Indeed, one so large that it is essentially impossible to carry all of it at once.

The letters to the editor are also fun. They are very reminiscent of social media comments. It’s interesting to see how the more some things change, the more others remain the same.

The first adventure of the new publication is The Dark Tower of Cabilar, by Michael Ashton and Lee Sperry. It’s noted that these two are college students in a brief biographical paragraph—I don’t know that many modern, even amateur, designers fall into that demographic now—would be cool to see again. The module is quite substantial too, taking up fourteen pages of the publication. It is designed for 4-8 AD&D characters of 4-7th level.

The adventure set up is rather elaborate in backstory, but gameplay starts with a hard cut to the dungeon. I like the backstory though, as it’s a generic enough story to adapt to any setting. Briefly, a city’s king and city council were assassinated by an evil spellcaster, but the prince was saved along with the crown. The crown was stolen by a vampire who happens to live in the evil spellcaster villain’s former lair. The adventurers are tasked to retrieve the crown to establish the prince’s legitimate claim. 

Some odd bits of design include making saving throws for wooden ledges with modifiers based on adventurers’ encumbrance. Another is a d10 roll to determine how many firedrakes are in an area of effect spell—an interesting idea for randomizing theater of the mind combat. I’m not a hundred percent on board with the dungeon design. Entering involves climbing or flying up to the top and then going down, with the main chambers under the town in a three level dungeon. While reminiscent of the Tower of the Elephant, this design feels a bit contrived. There’s also odd omissions—like a door in room nine, described in the read aloud text, which doesn’t seem to lead anywhere or be referenced any further in the room description. Finally, it’s interesting how the HP for every single monster is individually specified. Even the weapons load outs for a band of orcs is laid out in a table.

It is certainly an example of a fun house dungeon, with touches like exploding books with no save for the damage, and more. It would be fairly easy to run using 5e, and probably even easier with Shadowdark. I don’t know if the dungeon is to my taste in some aspects, but I like the overall framing for the story.

The next adventure is Assault on Eddistone Point, by Patricia Nead Elrod, designed for 3 to 5 adventurers of 1st to 3rd level. The introduction and adventure set up is pretty involved (holy one and a half pages of exposition Batman!) It sets up a mystery, basically with a trade network that is crucial to the peace between two previously warring cities. A system of signaling towers connects the cities for communication and to guarantee each abides by the rules of their trade and peace treaty. The cities are now making the signaling towers capable of functioning at night through magic, and a magic user accompanied by a group (all fully described by the way) are traveling to each tower—but wait! They’ve gone missing! 

It’s a fairly simple exploration of a linear watchtower, and the antagonists are a group of bandits, but it’s good to see these tropes appear in the work of years gone by. The level of effort put into the cartography and three art spots for this article is fascinating, and the maps provide some good references for inspiration. But all in all, a middling adventure too, but more usable for me personally than the Dark Tower.

Part 2

Barrow Mounds of the Valeran Elves - A Reflection

Cartography by Dysonlogos

The Barrows of the Valeran Elves are a location that interested my players on my hex map of the Southwestern Marches of the Blood Kingdom. They only elected to explore the large mound in the bottom, center of the map above.

The mound's ancient stone doorway is marked by a large visible cleft or divot in the ground, perhaps left when erosion caused the earth over and around the door to fill the space. It requires several hours of digging to unearth the door, which however opens with a DC15 Strength check.

I had a nasty Neophron demon named Gnasher, acting as a scout for the Band of the Twice Damned circling over the party ominously throughout this time outside.

Within, as it's a simple dungeon, I had the characters pass stacked bones of servitor halflings, as the nobles of the elven empire possessed in ancient times in the Midgard setting. Inside the first of the tomb's rooms was a peacefully resting champion of Valeresh who possessed a magical lance that the cleric took. The largest room held a banshee, who was a minor elven noble, killed by dwarven reavers as they came South, eventually to settle in the Ironcrags and create the modern dwarven cantons. 

Ptolus: The Lord of Flies - A Reflection

Mild spoilers from the Ptolus sourcebook and Doctrine of Ghul adventure. Content warning for insects and bodily functions.

Sometimes the funnest games happen when the session comes totally off the rails and your players give you ideas you would have never created yourself. Such was the case in my Ptolus campaign the other night. The characters had traveled to the city Necropolis, a relatively benign location by day, but haunted by packs of undead and the occasional fiend in the night. 

The adventurers were looking for an individual who understood Abyssal, the language of demons. There was added urgency because Vesper, the Wild Magic Sorcerer, had only two more days until she disappeared into the mystical Utterdark due to a curse placed upon her when she read the "Doctine of Ghul."

Through a series of encounters, the adventurers found their way to a lair of a hermit, who consorts with the demons of the Necropolis. His name was Igor. Both a drunk, and a visionary man, Igor is also accompanied by a horde of flies, which I described him as being covered in when he emerged from his dwelling in a crypt. One of my players immediately provided me the funniest idea I could have never come up with myself: 

"I wonder if he has clothes on under those flies?"

I mean, come on? Who am I to leave that on the table? So the character—while we used player safety tools—added this quirk to the existing character. Having him live in relative filth and excrement seemed like a natural progression.

For weeks after, my players enjoyed a good laugh when returning to the Necropolis and considering whether or not to once again visit Igor. 

Review: Anatomy of an Adventure

Anatomy of an Adventure is the first book I've encountered by a TTRPG designer for other designers. Written by M.T. Black, a prolific writer of 5e D&D material, I found it to be an extremely enjoyable and inspiring read. 

Written in a conversational voice, Black's work is enhanced by his own analysis of his earliest works, identifying strengths and areas he'd do things differently given the chance. It certainly leans towards the art side of the craft of adventure design rather than the science. 

Most work in this very niche subject area is actually advice written for GMs, who act essentially as their own independent adventure designers routinely. Instead Black approaches the subject as an introduction to the industry and aid for aspiring designers to create their own first adventures.

Some nuggets that I took away:

• Emulate (i.e. copy) those adventures and elements of stories that you love. Adding enough things together and doing it you way will make it your own.
• Other adventures, or old issues of Dragon or Dungeon magazine provide great inspiration and examples of things to try.
• This journey takes practice, repetition, and failures. Working through these and learning from them is valuable.
• Random tables can provide inspiration and break up stale thinking.

This was an extremely interesting and engaging read for me. In parallel I took a look at some of Black's adventures to see other examples of his thoughts. I think this is a great resource and motivator to try designing their own original material.

Lore Book: The Edict of Deviltry

The lore book below was created to facilitate a church trial in my Ptolus campaign on the fate of the Ghostly Minstrel of the famous inn named after the spirit…

BE IT PUBLISHED THAT THE SECOND COUNCIL OF DOCTRINE DOTH DECLARE THE

EDICT OF DEVILTRY

The corruption of the arcane knows no bounds. Thus the Council of the High Priests of the Nine issues this CONDEMNATION. The believers must eschew and destroy the worshipers of fiends, hiding amongst us. They must cast down the arcane, removing that which the wizard, warlock, and occultist have profaned by their touch. The faithful must DESTROY the undead in all their forms, and loath the worshippers of the restless dead.

The rest of the document expounds on the theological grounds for the edict, and explains the doctrines of the gods.

The Book of Iron

Lore book for my Ptolus campaign...

This book is made of forged iron plates, joined by rings into a spined book. Its symbols glow with a mysterious white light, similar to the light of the moon. It is the writings of a monk named Sister Ilathira. She writes the tragic story of Mima Goldentongue, and of how her husband, Kedar Goldentongue fought the Disciples of Karcius to attempt to save her. The dark cultists kidnapped her from their inn—the Golden Boar. They sought to sacrifice her to summon their dark lord Karcius from the beyond.

Kedar Goldentongue died defending his inn from the cultists, but was unable to save his wife. However, the ritual failed, and Lord Karcius remains in the Hells. Sister Ilathira speculates that the sacrifice of the husband and wife compelled the gods to prevent the return of dread Karcius. She further notes that the cultists of Karcius are pursuing her, and seek to prevent her from recording this history.

This particular lore book was a crucial clue in an arc involving the party preventing an an over zealous order and inquisitor from exorcising the titular Ghostly Minstrel from the inn of the same name in Monte Cook’s Ptolus setting.

En5ider Issue 5 Release!

En5ider Magazine, Issue 5, image by EN Publishing

I had another awesome experience recently working on Draconic Finds, a collection of original 5e dragon-themed magic items that you can check out from EN Publishing. Researching when coming up with the concept for this piece I realized how few items in 5e across many sources are only tangentially related to dragons and the lack of both draconic motifs or items crafted from dragons. It was also a great opportunity to practice my design skills and once again getting to work with veteran editor Mike Myler. 

There’s also some amazing work from the other authors here including a villain, dragonettes, and more for your 5e game!

The Lament of Karcius

This dark tome tells of the rise and fall of Lord Karcius, said to be one of the "blessed of demons." The book purports to be the visions of those events recorded by a prophet of the "Potentates Abysmal" named Zecharn. 

Zecharn writes: "First a fiend of the tiniest variety came to me, calling itself Farnasoth. This being extracted greater and greater demands from me for the taste of forbidden knowledge." Finally a being called Jakozark, said to be "of terrible visage, horned and trailing chains with the scent of sulfur and brimstone on the air" dictated the words of Karcius after his death. Now blessed as a "dreadknight of the dark potentates" Karcius awaits his faithfuls' efforts to open a way back to the world for him to reap terrible doom against the hated followers of the Nine.

5e Table Aid: List of Approved Familars

I have a multitude of interesting monster and sourcebooks that have lots of cool options for familiars for spellcasters. However, it’s difficult to provide players a consolidated list of their options when making spellcasters. Thus this page.

First, the section below provides the text of the spell Find Familiar from the SRD.

Find Familiar Spell

1st-level conjuration (ritual)

Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: 10 feet
Components: V, S, M (10 gp worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs that must be consumed by fire in a brass brazier)
Duration: Instantaneous

You gain the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form you choose: bat, cat, crab, frog (toad), hawk, lizard, octopus, owl, poisonous snake, fish (quipper), rat, raven, sea horse, spider, or weasel. Appearing in an unoccupied space within range, the familiar has the statistics of the chosen form, though it is a celestial, fey, or fiend (your choice) instead of a beast.

Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. In combat, it rolls its own initiative and acts on its own turn. A familiar can’t attack, but it can take other actions as normal.

When the familiar drops to 0 hit points, it disappears, leaving behind no physical form. It reappears after you cast this spell again. As an action, you can temporarily dismiss your familiar to a pocket dimension. Alternatively, you can dismiss it forever. As an action while it is temporarily dismissed, you can cause it to reappear in any unoccupied space within 30 feet of you. Whenever the familiar drops to 0 hit points or disappears into the pocket dimension, it leaves behind in its space anything it was wearing or carrying.

While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. Additionally, as an action, you can see through your familiar’s eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of any special senses that the familiar has. During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own senses.

You can’t have more than one familiar at a time. If you cast this spell while you already have a familiar, you instead cause it to adopt a new form. Choose one of the forms from the above list. Your familiar transforms into the chosen creature.

Finally, when you cast a spell with a range of touch, your familiar can deliver the spell as if it had cast the spell. Your familiar must be within 100 feet of you, and it must use its reaction to deliver the spell when you cast it. If the spell requires an attack roll, you use your attack modifier for the roll.

Gaining a Familiar 

Additional ways to gain a familiar include finding one. Typically this should involve discussion between a player and a GM, so that such an opportunity can be provided, and an appropriate familiar that doesn’t impact the play experience negatively can be selected. These types of familiars normally can choose to leave the spellcasters at anytime should they act in a way that is negative or perhaps as a dramatic story element.

Options that can be used in this way include the traditional animal familiars, along with those in the other familiars section below.

Other Familiars

Faerie Dragon (Monstrous Menagerie, pg 205)

Flumph Familiar (Monstrous Menagerie, pg 207)

Psuedodragon (Monstrous Menagerie, pg 363)

Imp (Monstrous Menagerie, pg 85)

Quasit (Monstrous Menagerie, pg 74)

Alkonost (Creature Codex, pg 12)

Kuunganisha (Creature Codex, pg 245)

Leonine (Creature Codex, pg 250)

Living Shadow (Creature Codex, pg 255)

Wolpertinger (Creature Codex, pg 382)

Stryx (Tome of Beasts, pg 369)

Library Automaton (Tome of Beasts, pg 273)

Witchlight (Tome of Beasts, pg 409)

Lymarien (Tome of Beasts 2, pg 248)

Wicked Skull (Tome of Beasts 2, pg 368)

Aviere (Tome of Beasts 2, pg 36)

Blood Imp (Tome of Beasts 2, pg 103)

Keyhole Dragonette (Tome of Beasts 2, pg 118)

Light Drake (Tome of Beasts 2, pg 125)

Barnyard Dragonette (Tome of Beasts 3, pg 148)

Sedge Dragonette (Tome of Beasts 3, pg 149)

Shovel Dragonette (Tome of Beasts 3, pg 150)

Light Eater (Tome of Beasts 3, pg 262)

Rock Salamander (Tome of Beasts 3, pg 333)

Sunflower Sprite (Tome of Beasts 3, pg 358)

Torch Mimic (Tome of Beasts 3, pg 370)

Catterball (Tome of Beasts 3, pg 76)

Tomegrub (Monstrous Menagerie II, pg 245)

Midgard: The Legend of Valeresh & the History of the Elves

This lore is based on my own Midgard campaign experiences and the information available in the Midgard Worldbook. Some is research and some is information that will be revealed diegetically. It was created as a GM aid to tailor campaign lore for my player running a cleric of Valeresh. 

While conducting the research for this article, it became apparent that there are both large gaps in the Bard’s Chronology timeline as provided in the Midgard Worldbook, and very vague language throughout that book and the Book of Ebon Tides. Perhaps the most confusing portions are the conflicting references to events and locations, such as Thorn. It is said to have fallen during the Reaving of the Dwarves, but then reappears during recorded history as a center of elven civilization. The Northlands source book refers to Thorn as fallen in the Vanir War, yet the Worldbook says that the capital of the second

The History of the Elves of Midgard

The Earliest Days and the Vanir War

The elves of Midgard have a long history defined by different eras. In the far distant past was the age of the first elves, who allied with the giants and the ancient elements as part of the Vanir against the dwarves and the Northern gods (Aesir) in the Vanir War. It appears that Valeresh may have lived as a mortal and ascended to godhood during this time based upon available sourcing. The gods of the elves likely worked together as they forged this early empire, forming a elven court of Thorn that set the pattern for their current elven pantheon and presaging the structure of current elven and fey courts. Valeresh's wife likely died during this time period, and somehow he and his court ascended to godhood. It is also said that at this time the elves planted the seeds of Yggdrasil in the Silendora, or Summer Lands. The elven version of this story attributes this act to Yarila & Porevit, while dwarves and Northerns say it was Freyr & Freyja (these are both true, as Yarila & Porevit were exchanged as hostages in the peace that settled the Vanir War and their now are gods who dwell with the Aesir). 

The elven court that became the pantheon consisted of at least:

• Baccho (Baccholon)
• Holda
• Valeresh (Valeros)
• Yarila & Porevit

And potentially:

• The Green God
• Gytellisor
• Volund, in his aspect as “armorer of Valeresh”

This empire’s legacy is seen in truly ancient elven ruins and the legacy of great magic later used by the Second Elven Empire. The Reaving, in which the rival Dwarven empire fell and drove many dwarves South, caused the fall of this empire, as elves retreated into the lands of the West in Midgard and to their strongholds in the Summer Lands, much like the Great Retreat that sealed the end of the Second Empire.

The Coming of the Valeran Elves

Roughly 2,200 years ago, a new group of elves departed the Summer Lands to reestablish the elven peoples in Midgard. Over the 1,300 year reign of the elven empire, there emerged five centers of civilization. The first was under Emperor Xindrical the Explorer, who founded the River Court of the Arbonesse. The second was Sephaya in modern day Perunalia on the Ruby Sea, ruled by Queen Shillesh Greensun Sephaya. Queen Sephaya was said to be the daughter of Yarila. The third, abet short lived comparatively, was the High Court of Liadmura, in the modern Ironcrags, under the Eagle Emperor, famed for his conquests and veneration of Valeresh. The fourth and longest was at Thorn under the High Queen Lelliana Thorntree Endiamon. Most notable was the influence of her daughter, Shadow Princess Sarastra Aestruum, whose actions resulted in the creation of the Shadow Fey and their and her exile into the Shadow Realm. Queen Osilessi in the late fourth empire also built the “Summer Garden of Queen Osilessi,” or Osilessidra. She sought to restore the ruling caste of elves’ dominant position.

The final elven capital was at Valera after the fall of Thorn, with Triolo as another great elven colony (though it appears that Thorn and other cities remained inhabited by elves, due to their sudden vacancy in the Great Retreat).

The expansion of this period was driven by the combination of elvish magic, including prowess in navigating the Fey Roads, and in their martial strength with their archers and light cavalry. Valeresh took on a grim aspect in this time, with many conquered adversaries purged or sacrificed to him. 

Corruption of the Shadow Fey

In the dark days of the Black Sorceress’s Revolt, Shadow Princess Sarastra and her followers joined with the dark mages of Caelmarath, calling upon dark powers. This corrupted them into the Scáthesidhe, or Shadow Fey. This people departed the Summer Lands and Midgard, breaking with the other elves, to follow Sarastra (Hecate) into the Shadow Realm. The Shadow Realm was reached by the corruption of the ley lines by the fiend-aligned mages of Caelmarath. The Shadow Fey, lured by the promise of powerful magic from the darkness and infernal—hence why many possess horns. This schism occurred roughly 582 years ago.

At some time after this, Sarastra, the Queen of Night and Magic, fell out with her husband, Ludomir Imbrium the XVI. He is better known as the Moonlit King of the Shadow Fey. Before the Moonlit King followed his wife into the Shadow Realm he was a high born noble, as the Duke of the Ironcrags, Baron of Bratislor, Earl of Zobeck, and Count-Palatine of Salzbach. His regret at leaving the world behind drove him to sorrow and madness. During this time, Sarastra also corrupted the Miremals of her sister, the Faerie Queen Titania.

The sable elves followed after the exodus of the Shadow Fey. Their motives are shrouded in mystery, but the truth is that unlike the true elves who remained in Midgard and were driven from the Northlands by the dwarven empire before the Reavening, or the Shadow Fey who forged pacts with the darkness, the sable elves instead fled this destruction in disgrace. This era is called the First Flowering of Shadow. Both these groups brought their own servitor peoples with them into the Shadow Realm. 

This period led to the rise of the dark elven god, Sarastra. The worship of Valeresh is not wholly lost in the Shadow Realm though. The sables elves and Queen of the Court of the Golden Oak worship him under the name “Valeros,” prizing martial and arcane power.

The Great Retreat

482 years before the present time, for unknown reasons, the priesthood of Valeresh led the Great Retreat to the Summerlands under the direction of Emperor Jorgyn. The cities of Thorn, Valera, Liadmura, and Sephaya are left vacant. The elves left behind are few and scattered like windrunners of the Rotheian Plains, and a larger concentration in the River Court of Arbonesse, which closes its border. These pockets are but a memory of their former glory, and the worship of Valeresh is all but forgotten. Besides these small groups of true elves, only the elf-marked, those descended from their dalliances with human servitors, remain.

Stirrings of the Elves

After long centuries the elves show signs of restlessness once more. The Deathsworn, fanatical warriors dedicated to Valeresh (Creature Codex, of. 142) haunt the ancient forests. The relics of Valeresh, Illethandril (the Silent Sword of Valeresh), Korren-Gadresh (the True Bow of Valeresh, or Farseeing Bow), remain untouched in his temple at Hirschberg, said to be reclaimed when the elves return from exile. It is said a light appears at the Cathedral of Bright Honor on a hill outside Valera, and a voice speaks to those present in Elvish. In the same city, the Scolia Valeresh teaches martial and arcane battle skills, led by First Fencing Master and Ley Adept Tikkalan Illuvitesh. The First Fencing Master also calls himself the “Last Knight of Valresh.” Cults of the Return worship the elf-marked, and foretell of the elves’ coming back to Midgard.

Other portents seem to be appearing as an elven knight, dressed as the “Chosen of Valeresh” made a pilgrimage to the Seat of Mavros in the Western Wastes, praying to the warlike aspect of the deity. Elves examine old lore related to the shadow roads, and the ancient learning of the Magocracies that remains in Bemmea and Friula. Even the rumors of war pressed Magdar speak of a portal to the Summerlands, and elven hosts that will emerge to halt the growing Dragon Empire.

En5ider Reactions Issue 17

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Issue 16 of EN5IDER merits its own post due to longer length and it being a pretty cool stand alone adventure. This is your spoiler warning.

Titled Don't Wake Dretchlor, this adventure is by Kiel Chenier, designed for characters of 5-7 level. It's a unique and creative scenario which employs a couple different spins on the typical dungeon crawl, while maintaining the ease of use of that structure. The transitioning into a defensive "cat and mouse" game as it describes itself, as players work to defeat and slow down the advance of a bound demon they unleashed from its wards during their exploration.

The adventure features a forgotten mansion as the dungeon, and provides just enough detail about a nearby settlement and the history of the site that you can run with it and flesh it out further, and easily modify it to fit into whatever setting you are playing in. The description of the village of Sacred Bend is particularly good, detailing the basic services of the settlement, a named tavern, and the healing services of the local priest in a brief paragraph!

The structure also adds relics, or small sites/objects within the house that can be destroyed to weaken the demon. These make great secondary objectives to break up the simple combat loop of D&D, yet containing the action to the bounded space of the dungeon. 

The adventure synopsis is another impressively organized, concise, and well written portion, effectively providing a roadmap of all the relevant high level details of the scenario to the GM. Many adventures miss this, burying critical plot info deep in a room's descriptive text.

Overall, I think this is a great adventure to insert into a campaign or even use as a contained one-shot.

En5ider Author Debut: Falkenburg Times-Pale Moon Consortium

I can't begin to convey how excited I am to announce the publication of my first effort as a freelance RPG author in EN Publishing's En5ider Magazine #4! As announced by EN Publishing earlier this year, En5ider, which has run for over ten years, has been relaunched in a monthly magazine format. I had the amazing privilege of having my article on the Pale Moon Consortium, and intriguing organization specializing in smuggling magical items and other illicit goods in and around the town of Falkenburg in EN Publishing's Elissar setting.

I had an outstanding time working through this new experience with veteran editor and creator Mike Myler and hope for future opportunities to collaborate with the amazing team at EN Publishing. If you'd like to check out the article, along with access to over 600 past En5ider articles, please consider subscribing to their Patreon!

En5ider 16 Reactions

By Mark A. Hart, King and Country in En5ider 16, outlines the idea of using nationality as a background. This is in contrast to the typical approach in 2014 5e of basing backgrounds on occupation. It provides a list of fourteen nationality background themes, and provides the tools to create custom backgrounds, along with a couple examples of fleshed out ones.

Overall I like the approach this article takes. Equating background with nationality could be a problematic topic, leaning into negative stereotypes. However, this treatment does a good job of showing how various fantasy tropes can be tied into a player character’s background about an interesting place. As a practical matter, it is a great guide to how to develop custom backgrounds in general, breaking down the pieces into a more step-by-step process.

Looking forward to future En5ider articles!

Ptolus: Doctrine of Ghul Review

Spoilers follow for the Doctrine of Ghul...

An adventure for Monte Cook's Ptolus city setting, Doctrine of Ghul, provides some awesome dungeon design for adventurers to explore, but makes a few major missteps with its overall plot and adventure hooks.

The Doctrine of Ghul, like many Ptolus adventures, involves investigating another of the many (oh so many) chaos cults the city is afflicted with. However, it doesn't provide a very strong investigative structure to lead into finding the first dungeon, nor does it provide any clues for a GM to use. You have to come up with those yourself. I would also argue that it lacks strong motivation and direction on what to accomplish with the adventure hooks. 

Instead the party needs to be guided to the point when they can read the eponymous doctrine, which then railroads them into the plot of seeking additional pieces of the text to avoid being pulled into "Ghul's Utterdark." The adventure, and frankly the Ptolus sourcebook are also pretty unclear on what that means too, meaning that should the party fail to complete the adventure on the generous timeline provided, the GM may also need to generate their own consequence. There is also a bit of a snub section providing a rival adventuring party, but it lacks much assistance in how to utilize the rival party in the adventure, and doesn't provide any specific encounters or vignettes to guide those interactions, especially in the dungeons.

The three dungeons are the best part of the adventure. They are amazing in terms of cool ambient effects and generally just being different from normal dungeon fare. They aren't perfect thought. One problem with the Frozen Crypt is that if the players don’t touch anything and aren’t aggressive in their investigations then nothing happens. They can largely walk through the dungeon except for the ambient cold effects. 

While I love the concept of the Breeding Pits of Formless Hunger, and really enjoyed the fact that the characters could generate oozes due to the environment, the dungeon didn't work completely for my playthrough. I think this is because it is based on a couple of assumptions—one that characters will climb down into gross pits, and two that the GM will use fiat to have the Formless Hunger shove characters into random pits throughout the dungeon. My issue too with the tentacle of the Formless Hunger is that it plays a bit of a deus-ex-machina role. Shuffling the characters around or herding them seems to be the intention. There also isn't really any fleshed out discussion of whether you are able to make opportunity attacks against it as it slams through the doors of the dungeon and even down the long passage to the secret shrine almost instantaneously.

Galchutt Cyst is a really cool and well crafted dungeon, just hurt by some unclear layout of information placing essential bits in different portions of the text, making referencing it difficult to do quickly. The musical puzzle is evocative and cool, and my players really seemed to enjoy it, although one disliked the GM fiat in calling for saving throws against the ambient noise generated in the Cyst.

As an overall comment on the plot, it seemed completely out of left field for a wizard from the Inverted Pyramid to be behind everything. Nor did it make much sense for that individual to 1) be interested in promulgating the Doctrine of Ghul, or 2) to appear at the end to fight the party themselves. The adventure also leaves an escape for this appearance though, as it implies the wizard does not appear if they leave his magical dark blot which is a lens for scrying into the Galchutt Cyst's shrine. My characters did nothing to damage this magic effect, although they found it unnerving, so I never had the mage appear. Perhaps he'll make his appearance known later, if I can make the plot make sense. 

Lacking a player who speaks Abyssal or with comprehend languages makes finishing the questline of reading the doctrine difficult. As mentioned above, the consequences of being pulled into “Ghul’s Utterdark” are also not well defined. What does that mean? Is it GM fiat where I make a player character disappear like the Void card from the Deck of Many Things?

A final critique, perhaps localized to my particular game and group of players. My players never engaged with the Chaositech devices causing the effects in each of the shrines, which was a disappointment. I described them in such a way that I think any other group would have investigated further. However, they may need to return to the shrines, as their own actions have not stopped the effects of the doctrine by breaking the chain.

To recap, the dungeons of Doctrine of Ghul are generally amazing, and well worth playing through. The overall plot is a bit take it or leave it. If you can work in either a current or fallen BBEG who experiments with weird magic, then these dungeons would make great drop in pieces for any campaign.