Weapon Properties for Shadowdark is On Sale Now!

A few weeks ago, Jeff Kraykovic brought up the idea of importing 5.24's Weapon Mastery into Shadowdark in the Facebook group and this is what I worked up. It uses luck tokens to power properties a weapon has for a special affect in combat. Additionally, I have optional rules to use them in Pulp Mode.

You can purchase it exclusively here (it is an affiliate link).

A to Z of the Polyverse: A is for And then there was light! (A to Z Blog Challenge 2025)

This is the A to Z of the Polyverse.

What is it? Glad you asked.

The Polyverse is what I call the setting of the various DnD campaigns I have run stretching back to the early 90s starting with ADnD 2E's Haunted Halls of Eveningstar. It was the first module I ever ran and my first time running ADnD 2E. I made a ton of mistakes. A. Frickin. Ton.

I had read the Avatar Trilogy and stupidly had Lolth tempt a player who wholeheartedly tried to kill the rest of the party. As they chased him out of Eveningstar he set fire to some grasslands to cover his tracks.

Those actions created a group of Elven terrorists who are plotting to take back their homeland known as the Kinn'A'Nacht.

From there a high level Wizard named Dunwich began recruiting for a secret society known as the Circle of Fire with the ultimate goal being to kill the Gods and replace them with him and his fellow members.

Then I didn't run much DnD for a long time. 

However, when 5E came out I started making up for all of that lost time. The Polyverse saw the murder of Tiamat and the ascension of Ashardalon as the God of Chromatic Dragons. 

Then Saint Cuthbert was trapped in the Demiplane of Dread known as Ravenloft.  The last group who tried to rescue him wiped each other out when one of the PCs found the Hand of Vecna.

The City-State of Jarlsburg and Duchy of Saint Cuthbert/Saint Albus both became major areas for my games. 

In my most recent game the city of Greenway and its Hexenschule came into focus and a plot by the Elves to murder Lolth and replace her with her brother Vulkoor was revealed. And Dunwich and his secret society began to set things into motion in the open by recruiting the PCs...it just took me over 30 years to get there.

Things are very much afoot.

State of the Planes February 2025

Art by Andrea Ardinghi

I've worked very hard at limiting my Gaming ADD over the past 12 months and I'm finally finding success with it. I'd like to impart some secret to it but I've just been focused on story over rules and being very intentional with my focus.

The upside is that my DnD 5.5 game is cruising along. Since being honest with myself about disliking the resource management aspect of combat encounters most of our sessions are filled with roleplaying with a combat every 2-3 sessions.  The plot is player driven with a fairly light outline in place but player goals are prioritized.

The game is set on Greyhawk and the group has just recently visited the sprawling metropolis to lie low from several agents of Iuz the Old.

I have come to except, to some degree, that 5E and its derivatives are what my group is most comfortable playing and honestly, while I do have a strong interest in Savage Worlds, Shadow of the Demon Lord/Weird Wizard, and Basic Role Playing, I do like the current version of DnD quite a bit and the 2024 update is an excellent product.

There are three plot threads in play right now: Finding a ritual called the Ebon Maw that can break a pact made by one of their allies; Acquiring a spelljammer to tool around in; And a mission into the sewers of Greyhawk to locate an asset of the Violet Spiral Thieves' Guild.

We finished up last night with the group entering the Black Ziggurat looking for the Ebon Maw. They encountered some skeletons, bypassed some traps, and are on the verge of meeting its primary resident.

The Ebon Maw ritual was created by a lich named Ikabod Langstrüm and is believed to be hidden within the Ziggurat which he used as a sanctum for many decades. There has been a lot of negotiating in this game and that is fine by me. At one point the players were really skirting the line of villainy but they pulled themselves back from the edge by putting some distance between themselves and those agents. I'm really leaning into the high fantasy aspects of DnD with a Greyhawk lens. All of my past successful 5E campaigns have formed a setting I call the Polyverse which feature Ashardolon as the God of Chromatic Dragons and Saint Cuthbert being imprisoned within Ravenloft. My intention is to allow them to rub elbows with the big players and I am prepared for them to make permanent changes to the mythology of DnD. 

The Future Starts Today!

Or some such thing. 

Happy 2025.

My blog is 12 years old and I didn't manage to post once a month on here. I don't know what 2025 holds but I'm trying to get back into the habit of expressing myself creatively on here.

I really struggled with my interests in RPGs this year. I've been with my Friday group 9 years now and our goals weren't always aligned this year. As a game retailer I'm often angry at whatever antics Wizrds of the Coast is up to and when it comes to my own personal money I often don't want to give it to them. Which means I have resented our DnD Beyond sub and really wasn't sure I wanted to even play DnD.

However, while WotC is often spot on in how it targets its customers. My store's Magic players, good people who are essential to my business' success, are often very happy with what they are doing. Even within my group there are people who are heavily critical but give them their hard earned sheckles with every new release.

Lets be frank: I'm lucky to have spent 25 years selling comics and games to our customers. I love my job and my customers. Its not my job to tell them what to play. Its also not my job to tell my group they shouldn't support WotC. I am the only member of my group that wants to move from DnD though.

It led me to realize that I don't enjoy the power level of 5th Edition. I like many of the mechanics but I'm drawn to the OSR due to its DM and player empowerment but most of my players were introduced to DnD with 3rd, 4th, or even 5th edition and they don't share that preference and that is okay. I struggled with just stepping back and moving on.

I didn't move on and instead started a 5.5 game.

Yeah...

I expected 5.5 to be a dumpster fire and it is a really well laid out and organized core book. The 2014 PHB had a small team and DnD was very much in danger of possibly fading away if its launch hadn't gone well by Hasbro's standards. The 2024 PHB takes into account the millions of new players we now have and the 2024 DMG is a significant upgrade over its earlier counterpart.

And like it or not DnD Beyond is a really good resource for a lazy player like myself. In looking at games like Savage Worlds or Basic Role Playing or Shadow of the Weird Wizard and their biggest miss is not having a tool like DnD Beyond. I get why they don't but it sure makes things much, much easier on everyone.

My 5.5 game is set in a version of Greyhawk and I'm about to finish my first adventure. Combat has been minimal because I'm often disappointed with it. Maybe its because I came from ADnD 2E but I don't like that encounters as resources to be managed and I'm a lot happier as a GM with exploration and interaction so we will see how it goes.

With all of that being said about DnD I'm a member of Mike Mearls' Patreon where he is building a fusion of 5E and BX (who isn't amiright?) that I'm finding delightful. Each preview really, really hits a sweet spot for me and while I really dig Shadowdark I think I'm going to like this better.

He's previewed the Fighter, Magic-User, Cleric, Rogue, an Ape & Mountain Dwarf ancestry, and a Miner & soldier background. I urge you to join it.

Dungeons & Dragons 5E: Thoughts on Rogues & Rangers

Our group has kept up with Wizard of the Coasts Unearthed Arcana playtest material for the 2024 Edition/Printing of DnD and there two things the boggle us, how underwhelming the Ranger is and how overpowered the Rogue is.

When it comes to the Ranger I'm sure there are numerous people coming to DnD because of the Drizzt novels and we wonder if Hasbro/WotC isn't too keen on that? I mean Drow are nearly unplayable with Sunlight Sensitivity and the 5E Ranger doesn't seem to have a very clear vision for what it wants to be. We had a bit of hope because at one point Hunter's Mark no longer required Concentration but according the notes WotC felt that made the Ranger too good. We were all left shaking our heads at that.

Then, from the other side is the Rogue who can deal Sneak Attack damage once per turn, can gain Advantage on attack rolls by not moving on their turn, can use a Reaction to take 1/2 damage, and can sacrifice Snake Attack dice for special effects. The Rogue, in our estimation, is just too damn good. Realistically, how does WotC walk that back? They just don't and we get it.

I'm going to be really honest about the fact that WotC's tactics with DnD and Magic: the Gathering leave me fairly bitter. I've been pretty clear with my group that I just don't see myself running 5E...at leas anything published by them. I will say that I am fairly excited by Kobold Press' Tales of the Valiant and ENWorld's Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition and may very well do something with either or both in the future.

If You Build It They Will Play: Hedrons

I started playing Magic: the Gathering with the Antiquities set...so 1994, I guess? I've always found many of the game's Planes fairly interesting and Zendikar is among them. In the setting, a geomancer, created these floating monoliths or Hedrons, to imprison the game's riff on the Great Old Ones known as the Eldrazi.

Since the Craglands have been dealing with the threat of expansion of the Far Realms I decided to use the Eldrazi as a change of pace.

The Hedron appears, passing through a newly formed Rift, moments after an unexplained explosion within a nearby mine and immediately begins floating at about 15' in the air where it remains stationary and vibrates at a frequency that is just barely audible, DC 13 Wisdom (Perception) check.

The Rift, which appears as a night-black oval set into the ground, is a slightly larger than an average human and is 15° cooler than the rest of its environment. Looking directly into the Rift requires a DC 12 Wisdom Saving Throw which causes a level of Exhaustion on a failed roll.

Anyone who succeeds on a DC 12 Intelligence (Arcana) check knows what the Hedrons are and that they are rare on this Plane. If the total is a 15 or higher then it is known that the Mage King Suleiman III of Khersia wrote that our Plane and Zendikar's were somehow linked during the sinking of Hem-Hoomod, the Ivory Seat of the Woodeel Empire, which marked the end of the 7th Age and the beginning of our current one. With a total of 18 or higher it is known that Ur-Hukar, the High Vizier to the Ivory Seat, came upon the Invector Prima, a foul tome devoted to the Higher Ungods, the name of the Eldrazi during the 7th Age, which corrupted him body, mind, and soul. If the total is 20 or higher then it is know that that Hussars of Vim use a strange form of magic to detect, track down, and destroy Hedrons and then cleanse the area via the Meteor Swarm spell.

If You Build It They Will Play: A Simple Start

A few months back I put our Tuesday Deadlands game on pause and started a Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition game with mostly the same players.

I chose 5E because two of my players hadn't really had much of a chance to try it, DnD Beyond is a HUGE time saver, and if I'd run B/X or ADnD I'd have used a fair number of house rules to make it somewhat closer to 5E.

I decided having a good introductory adventure to get things moving worked really well with Deadlands so I looked for something similar for 5E. With DL I used a sandbox setting but I feel more comfortable with DnD fantasy so something simple would just fine. We were starting at Level 3 and I chose the 4th Level adventure A Deep and Creeping Darkness from Candlekeep Mysteries because two of my players had play tested the 3rd Level adventure before. 

Without going into too many details the adventure gave me two locations the town of Maerin and the abandoned village of Vermeillon. Additionally, I know that I will be dealing with the Feywild and the Far Realm. I cut the part about Candlekeep and have the Players being hired by an older woman who is looking to return her Mother's ring to enhance the dowry of her great-grandaughter.

I'm going to take a step back and share that some goals this campaign: I want this campaign to be 99% player drive and since I have some very active players they make this easy for me to accomplish.; I'm not looking to make the Big Damn Heroes who have to save the world; the rules are far less important than fun -- again, my players have all kinds of ideas if sounds good why not do it? For example: our wizard had an idea to distract an enemy and while he knew Color Spray he didn't have it prepared, so I let him make an Arcana check and since he succeeded he was able to cast it. I think there should be some extra incentives for utility spells that might get overlooked and I've enhanced this process by giving him a magic item with several utility spells he can cast once per day.

We are couple sessions into this campaign and I've been sketching out the setting as the Craglands. There is something sinister trying to turn a nature portal into the Feywild into a hole to the Far Realms and they have met someone from 50 years in the future of Vermeillon whose exposure to the aberrant energies of the Far Realm have twisted him physically and impaired him mentally and there has been some concern about Hill Giants making deep forays from their mountain strongholds.

More soon.

Dungeons & Shivan Dragons: Sword of War and Peace for B/X D&D + Old School Essentials

Sword +3, War and Peace

Grants special benefits of healing and protection from against fire and evil creatures.

▶ Healing a living subject: The wielder gains the following benefits: 

• Healing: Restores 3 hit points of damage. This cannot grant more hit points than the subject’s normal maximum. 

▶ Protects against evil: The wielder gains the following benefits: 

• Save bonus: Gain a +1 bonus to saving throws against attacks and special abilities of affected creatures.
  
• Defense bonus: Affected creatures gain a -1 penalty to attack the wielder.
  
• Magic protection: Affected enchanted, constructed, and summoned creatures cannot attack the wielder in melee but may make ranged attacks against them.

▶ Protects against fire: The wielder gains the following benefits: 

• Normal fire: Unharmed by non-magical fire.
  
• Save bonus: Gain a +2 bonus to all saving throws versus fire-based magical or breath attacks.
  
• Fire-based damage: Is reduced by 1 point per damage die rolled. (Each die inflicts a minimum of 1 hit point damage.) 

Clerical Work: The Gods of Conan Part 2

 

Ishtar’s Midnight Courtship, 

from Ishtar and Izdubar, 

the epic of Babylon, 1884.

The British Library/flickr

I recently picked up Modiphius' Conan Bundle and was reading through the Nameless Cults and thinking about using the deities presented it for a Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition campaign. I figure I'll work a few each post.

Derketa

Alignment: Neutral Good

Domains: Grave, Life, Order

Erlik

Alignment: Lawful Evil

Domains: Death, Grave

Ishtar

Alignment: Neutral Good

Domains: Order, Twilight

Mitra

Alignment: Lawful Good

Domains: Knowledge, Order, Peace

5E vs the OSR vs What is Best for Our Group

I've spent the last year working on combating my Gaming ADD so that I could run games that would last more than 2-3 weeks. I'm glad to report it's been working. My Deadlands game is 9 months in and sadly had to go on hiatus as one of my players is buying and moving into a new house.

We decided to run a different game while he is unavailable and I started looking at the OSR and 5th Edition. On one hand, I'm royally pissed at Wizards of the Coast for their shenanigans and would like to support creators who actually care about their audience. But on the other hand I have some players in this game that want to play 5E, have never gotten to play it, and love DnD Beyond.

I did some heavy thinking about this and what I came away with is that I tend to agree with many of the 5E changes that were made while also altering many OSR games to be closer to 5E. And when I look at what has been successful for me as a DM in the last 9 months  is focusing on story and fun over game system.

In fact, when I look back at my Gaming ADD it always comes back to finding that perfect system. The 3 games that come closest to perfect for me are Castle Falkenstein, Shadow of the Demon Lord and Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. Right or wrong, 5E captures my vision of DnD as a game designer. I like Bounded Accuracy and Sub-Classes. If I were designing DnD it would look a lot like 5E.

After looking at all of this I went back to 5E and for my players and for me it was the right decision. I'm not giving WotC any of my money and I'm picking up excellent 3rd party products. I'm also backing Kobold Press' Tales of the Valiant as I feel that Kobold is doing some of the most exciting work on 5E.

My group is invested in 5E and I'm invested in them. They are my best friends and it's great that I get to run a game for them. I still am angry at WotC and I'm sure that will affect things at some point but honestly, I have enough material for 5E to use the engine for years to come.

I hope someone knocks WotC off of their block but in the meantime I'm going to enjoy DMing my friends.

Clerical Work: the Gods of Conan part 1

I recently picked up Modiphius' Conan Bundle and was reading through the Nameless Cults and thinking about using the deities presented it for a Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition campaign. I figure I'll work a few up each post.

Adonis

Alignment: Neutral Good

Domains: Life, Nature

Anu

Alignment: Neutral

Domains: Knowledge

Bel

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Domains: Trickery

Bori

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Domains: Order, War

B/X D&D x BRP Version 2

I've worked a Version 2 of my B/X D&D X Basic Roleplaying Mashup. It goes off on its own but I think it's more streamlined this way. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated.

PDF is here.

B/X Roleplaying: B/X D&D X Basic Roleplaying

I remember when I first encountered Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying system in Call of Cthulhu 4th Edition. I was amazed at how simple it was to make a character and how elegant and easy the system performed. Years later, I encountered RuneQuest 3rd Edition and was blown away at all the things BRP could do and how ingenious many of its designers were.

I've been trying to nail down an OSR game that used B/X DnD's "skills" as the basis for a BRP style game for a bit and this is my current rough draft.

I love many editions and clones of DnD but after working with a lot of first time players I've come to lean toward a skill-based solution with a percentile chance of success. Telling someone they have a Difficulty of 18 and a +6 to their d20 roll certainly isn't hard, but if you are new to RPGs and you are a bit scared of math I think having a 45% of success can ease some of that anxiety.

Leather armor has an AC of 60%; Chainmail has an AC of 70%; Plate has an AC of 80%; and a Shield adds 10% to that value.

When in combat the attacker rolls their weapons skill and the defender rolls their AC and if both succeed the highest roll wins.

Any feedback is great appreciated.

Here is a link to download BX RP Character Creation PDF.

I saw Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

On Sunday night my wife, son, his wife, two of my daughters, and I went and saw the new DnD movie and I thought it was a really fun movie. Everyone liked it (though my 9 year old daughter got a little bored) and my son, 21, said the flow of the story taught him ways to bring a party together and inspired him to run another game after a hiatus of about two years. I'm not sure you can get a much better review of a film based on an RPG than it "made me want to run DnD again".

Full disclosure: I found all of the recent trailers I'd seen very appealing and I went into the film with the hope that we could get at least a good movie and I wasn't let down. I think we got a good film and a fun action-adventure and the creators of the film understood enough about DnD and RPGs to give us some nice easter eggs. The DnD movie exceed my expectations and I'd like to see it a second time so I can look for more of those hidden gems.

I'm not usually a big Chris Pine fan but I found this to be his most compelling performance and I think he delivered a man with little left to lose but who cares about people and doing the right thing even when he messes up. 

I will say that I did guess that a certain situation would play out at the end of the film based on the McGuffin (not a hard leap at all) but was surprised who it happened too.

I like all of the actors and would have liked to get to know more about Dorric, though I understand there is a prequel novel featuring her and I might actually pick that up.

One thing that has surprised me this week is how few of my customers have seen the film. I've recommended it to all of them and maybe it will have some legs at the box office. I wouldn't mind seeing more of these characters and I think it is an easy way to expose non-players to the game. 

I couldn't really ask for a better DnD movie and I highly recommend seeing it to anyone. Its a good ambassador for the game and a fun time for a family and friends.

Back This: The ShadowDark the RPG

I discovered the ShadowDark RPG several months ago and I was hooked right away. It's an Old School approach to adventuring with New School mechanics that are streamlined and easy to teach and learn. It captures the heart of early Dungeons and Dragons while embracing a modern approach separate from the wargaming roots of the OSR. The Arcane Library publishes well-designed adventures that help a busy DM focus on the game at the table in a very elegant and clear manner.  Kelsey Dionne, the owner and designer, has created a wonderful community to interact with. The game funded in 12 minutes and I am so excited to be able to finally back it.

I've already purchased the Quickstart rules and the Cursed Scroll Vol 1 Diablerie! as physical products, something I rarely do these days. I urge you to take a look for yourself.

You can back it here. 

Full disclosure: I have gotten access  a beta PDF of the rules.

I have produced a supplement with new Races for it here and material on the blog here.

My Path Forward as a FLGS Store Owner, a Blogger, and a Fan Post-WotC Apology

I've taken some time as a store owner, a blogger, and a fan to really look hard at what WotC has done to the rest of the industry in the past month and I've reached a decision on how I plan to go forward this year.

As a store owner, I've restocked Savage Worlds, Deadlands, Savage Pathfinder, Savage Rifts, Numenera, The Cypher System, GURPS, Complete Champions, Call of Cthulhu 7E, Fallout 2d20, RuneQuest, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Transformers RPG, Starfinder, Pathfinder 2E, Modern AGE, Scion 2E, and Vampire: the Masquerade. Sales have been stronger than  expected and I'm glad. I won't lie, I still stock the full line of DnD 5E but I am only giving it about 10% of the face-out space it occupied before this whole fiasco. I am not telling anyone to abandon 5E, but if someone asks me about the OGL situation I will answer them with my personal opinion while emphasizing that is all it is a personal opinion. 5E is a very good game and you should play what you like. I hope the right people are put in charge of WotC and I hope they stick to the plans they announced last week, but we'll see.

As a blogger I'm going to switch over to Savage Worlds and The Cypher System for the time being. Maybe adopt some "Old School" ideas for both. I've published for both of them before so maybe I'll do that again. Either way, I'm taking a break from the OGL and DnD. I mean how many "skill systems" or "thief classes" can I keep coming up with? Most of its been covered at least as well as I have.

As a fan, I don't want to say I'll never try One DnD or I'll never run DnD again, but I was bored with it and this just gives me an excuse to move on. I'm in a Curse of Strahd campaign and another of our DMs is planning a City of Brass campaign so I'm sure we'll be playing it. We like 5E and will always have it to use if One DnD isn't our jam. I'm sure at some point I will miss it and maybe I'll go back? At the same time, I think Shadow of the Demon Lord is a better game overall and maybe I'll just use it for dungeon fantasy since I like horror in all of the games I run and really love the "Old World" Warhammer vibe it has.

I am very interested in Kobold Press' Black Flag and will playtest it. In my opinion, Kobold and other 3rd party 5E publishers have been doing the coolest stuff for the last couple of years. Their monster books are used by all of the DMs in our group. I hope what they do is just as cool.

I don't think WotC will miss me as a fan or a blogger and they are a large part of my professional life so they will continue to deal with me. At the same time, I rarely deal with anyone at WotC and have great reps at several distributors that make my life easy. I would like Hasbro and WotC to learn from this situation but I doubt they will. Lets be honest, if the new DnD movie is a hit and the playtest numbers for 1DnD aren't too low they will eventually segment their section of the industry, a substantial segment, behind some pay wall. Its inevitable in my opinion.

I will add that I really enjoyed the most recent trailer for the new DnD film and will probably see it within the first 2 weeks of release. I hope it's fun because DnD is fun. Maybe if DnD is successful we will get a Deadlands movie! Right? I can't be the own one who wants it, right? Right?

My Response to WotC's Announcement on the OGL 2.0

I love Dungeons and Dragons. I love playing it, running it, and introducing it to people. I am grateful for the people it has introduced me to, of the barriers it shatters, and of the memories it has made for me.

But I'm tired of Wizards of the Coast. I'm tired of Hasbro.

I'm sure most of you know Wizards of the Coast responded. Finally.

You can read it here.

Things that piss me off because it show their contempt for us:

"However, it’s clear from the reaction that we rolled a 1".

Other choice passages:

"First, we wanted the ability to prevent the use of D&D content from being included in hateful and discriminatory products."

Like the Hadozee in Spelljammer?

"And third, we wanted to ensure that the OGL is for the content creator, the homebrewer, the aspiring designer, our players, and the community—not major corporations to use for their own commercial and promotional purpose."

And yet when it was launched for 3E you included White Wolf, Atlas Games, Green Ronin, Necromancer Game, and Mongoose Games. The OGL has always been for the industry. How can it hurt DnD to be used in a video game? How? Yeah, I'm sure it really sucks that it was used in one of the most beloved CRPGs ever made.

"Driving these goals were two simple principles: (1) Our job is to be good stewards of the game, and (2) the OGL exists for the benefit of the fans. Nothing about those principles has wavered for a second. "

You are "stewards"? That is why you wanted to steal people's work? DnD was united even those that didn't like you used DnD's "language" to keep playing and ou don't know what a "principle" looks like?

"In addition to language allowing us to address discriminatory and hateful conduct and clarifying what types of products the OGL covers, our drafts included royalty language designed to apply to large corporations attempting to use OGL content. It was never our intent to impact the vast majority of the community."

Sure. "Corporations". If someone had a $1 million Kickstarter your proposed cut was $50k. Is that even worth your accountant's time? "Large corporations"? Is there anyone anywhere involved with the OGL and RPG industry bigger than Hasbro? No.

"Content already released under 1.0a will also remain unaffected. "

We can't ever trust you again unless you add "irrevocable" to the OGL 1.0a. Otherwise it's all a hard pass. Buh-bye.

"What it will not contain is any royalty structure. It also will not include the license back provision that some people were afraid was a means for us to steal work. That thought never crossed our minds"

The fuck it didn't. You guys are the poster child for "greed is good". We weren't afraid, we were pissed off because we SEE you.

"As we continue to invest in the game that we love and move forward with partnerships in film, television, and digital games, that risk is simply too great to ignore."

The "game" doesn't matter to you. You see it as a "lifestyle brand" now. You want to sell lunch boxes, underwear, toothbrushes...the game is barely on your radar. The only "risk" is you. 

"Second, you’re going to hear people say that they won, and we lost because making your voices heard forced us to change our plans. Those people will only be half right. They won—and so did we."

Wow. You don't have any idea how hollow you sound do you? This isn't a cartoon or comic or film you make to sell toys this is a game that helps us make friends, meet our soulmates, make lasting memories with, helps us fight our mental illness', and helps us deal with any number of physical, mental, or emotional challenges we face on a daily basis. No one won here. We didn't. And you sure as Hell fucking didn't. But we stood up to you. We beat you but it's hollow because you showed us how much you despise everyone of us. You despise your customers, fans, and even your staff. You put this on people that are new to your company and are having deal with your greed and fallout you created.

"Our plan was always to solicit the input of our community before any update to the OGL; the drafts you’ve seen were attempting to do just that. We want to always delight fans and create experiences together that everyone loves. We realize we did not do that this time and we are sorry for that. Our goal was to get exactly the type of feedback on which provisions worked and which did not–which we ultimately got from you. Any change this major could only have been done well if we were willing to take that feedback, no matter how it was provided–so we are."

You are fucking liars. You were planning on dumping this yesterday and having the holiday weekend to dodge any heat. You are so fucking clueless that you had no idea that your customers have some backbone. You didn't leak this. You didn't even know how to respond so you had to cancel the original announcement and you are still hiding behind the holiday weekend. This isn't going away. We aren't going away. You created competitors that understand this industry better than you. You empowered the last publisher to challenge one of your mistakes, again over the OGL, and then gave a slew of others to join in taking your down again. The damage is done. We are moving on and good riddance to you. We will never trust you again.

Spotlight on Essential Classes for 5E

 I've been a fan of Joseph R. Lewis' Dungeon Age products for DnD 5E and OSE for a while now. His adventures are really easy to use as a Dungeon Master as he lays out his products in a very clean way while maintaining loads of flavor and atomosphere and his products have become a must-buy for me. 

With Essential Classes for 5E he has created four full classes, the Mercenary, Necromancer, Occultist, and Spyder, all with unique mechanics and tons of flavor that are best suited for dark fantasy. These classes give characters new unique Actions, Bonus Actions, and Reactions as their class abilities and each has special mechanic that involves failure when rolling a 1 on a d6 and damage to yourself.

The Mercenary Class is a combination of a fighter and a thief in the tradition of Conan and at 2nd Level you gain the Crude Medic ability: As an Action, heal yourself or one creature within 5 feet using old bandages smeared with a salve. Gain HP equal to 1d6 + your Mercenary level. Some of their abilities use a mechanic powered by Fortune that requires you to roll a d6 and on a 1 the ability fails and you take damage equal to 3 x your Mercenary Level. 

By level 20 a Mercenary gains 7 new Actions, 6 new Bonus Actions, and 5 new Reactions and all of the other classes, the Necromancer, Occultist (think Hellboy, Simon Belmont, or John Constantine), and the Spyder (assassin/thief), gain similar mechanical abilities.

Here are a few examples:

For the Necromancer at Level 6: Animate Greater Thralls which is powered by their Mortis mechanic: As an Action, choose any dead creature that is Medium or smaller within 60 feet and animate it as a Undead version of its original form. Use the Ghost stat block for this thrall. It obeys you and acts on your turn. It endures until you dismiss it or it is destroyed. A destroyed thrall cannot be animated again. At any one time, you can have a maximum number of ghastly thralls equal to half your Int modifier rounded up. Since it uses Mortis that means you roll 1d6 and on a 1 you take damage.

Here is an example of an Occultist ability at Level 2 called Bell of Law and it is powered by the Doom mechanic: As a Bonus Action, ring this small copper bell. All creatures within 60 feet that can hear suffer Psychic damage equal to 1d6 + your Occultist level. Lawful creatures are immune to this damage. Doom works the same way as Fortune and Mortis.

For the Spyder at Level 5 they gain the Metal Hair ability: You infuse your own hair with the iron in your blood. This natural helmet makes you immune to Charm effects and Psychic damage. This effect works no matter how short you cut (or shave) your hair. Their equivalent to Fortune and the others is Spyder. 

These classes pair old school pulp archetypes with 5E's modern mechanics as full classes but they lack of sub-classes and I don’t mind that choice as much as I thought I would. I’ve never complained about sub-classes but its a mechanic I’ve grown bored of and would happily run a game using just these Essential Classes. I’m going to add that Joseph is very clear that these classes aren't balanced against the traditional classes and that was not one of his design goals.

I hope we see more of these and I'm trying to find time to see them in play with one of his many great adventures.

I heartily recommend this or any other Dungeon Age product.

The OGL 1.1 from My Perspective as a FLGS Owner

First, we don't know if the leak of the proposed OGL 1.1 is actually real and until we all see it everything here is pure conjecture. However, I really think this the path Wizards of the Coast will pursue.

The main reason I'm processing it is that I have products both on the DMs Guild and on OneBookShelf using the OGL 1.0a for OSR products.

While the money I make helps me with Kickstarters and action figures I'm not going to create a headache for myself in any way. This is a hobby at best and not my livelihood, thankfully.

Second, I've dealt with Wizards of the Coast for close to twenty-five years as a vendor. I own two comic and game stores and I sell a lot of their products. Hasbro has spent the last five years or so trying to find their customers floors and ceilings. I've noticed the Magic: The Gathering team doing this in the last three years and I think they are now turning their attention to Dungeons and Dragons. 

The CEO of Wizards of the Coast was promoted to CEO of Hasbro earlier this year due to the unexpected death of the previous CEO and we also learned that WotC was responsible for 70% of their profit in 2021. Think about that for a minute, Magic and DnD made them more money than Transformers, GI Joe, Star Wars, My Little Pony, etc.

Hasbro was ecstatic with the millions of people DnD has brought in and its growth is important to them. Sadly, they don't realize that Critical Role did more for DnD than anything WotC did. They have projected that they can double their profits by 2025 from $1 billion to $2 billion, however Hasbro's earning report fell short of their goal which caused some concerns amongst their stockholders. Another complication occurred when they announced a Magic release that cost $1000 for four boosters packs and were only available through direct order from WotC, these cards are not playable in tournaments or organized play which led to Bank of America down grading Hasbro's stocks because they believed that WotC was trying to "kill Magic: the Gathering". 

WotC then had a "fireside" chat where they claimed everything was fine, that yes, some customers were "price sensitive" but everything was great. Additionally, they mentioned that 20% of DnD's fanbase are Dungeon Masters who account for 80% of their sales. They want to better monetized the other 80% of DnD's base. For December's Dragonlance release you could order a version direct from WotC and got access to it on DnD Beyond two weeks early. This echoes what they have done with HasbroPulse for toys and print on demand sets for Magic: the Gathering. 

The unusual part is that WotC used to be a distributor but converted that infrastructure to only fulfilling product to Amazon, Target, and Walmart about five years ago. I foresee, as demand grows for DnD fulfillment, that this will be a customer service challenge for them because a few of those Magic direct to consumer products are months late for fulfillment. They keep releasing several of those print on demand products every month and last year around 70 were released. Those sales are full profit for WotCs as there is no middle-man in that chain of sales while it also trains their customers to be fulfilled by them not a local store or an online retailer. It's ironic because part of Pathfinder 1E's success was their implementation of subscription services too so obviously, WotC was watching.

If this leak is real I think WotC has decided to gain more of that 80% of DnD's player money by trying to get royalties from publishers who use the OGL rather than make cool and interesting projects. They have data from 3E and 4E that told them multiple releases each month was competing with themselves so maybe this is their "killer app"? 

Royalties are an easy money grab and doesn't really affect most DnD players (who know little about what is going on by WotC). I also think that they might be content with the DMs Guild for 5E material but want to own any marketplace they develop for One DnD or "6E". I have a feeling that a benefit of using the OGL 1.1 could gain access to your material being available on DnD Beyond, which is huge for some publishers.

Hasbro wants to protect its IP and make sure that if something is cool they get access to it via the new OGL. We won't see another Pathfinder 1E or Critical Role without them getting some of that money.

At the end of the day Hasbro is a corporation with stockholders and it is their job to make those people as much money as possible and that is what they are going to do.

I'm uncertain how to proceed as a publisher but I'm currently thinking about altering all of my products to exist without the OGL and contact the publishers of the games they support to see if this is acceptable and if not, I'll pull them down until another solution presents itself.

I'm really torn about what is happening and the development of 1DnD. I think WotC is picking a fight with our whole industry but I don't think most DnD players are going to know about it. Yes, social media is prevalent but if you aren't looking for this kind of thing does it cross your radar?

Race vs Species in D&D

The newest One DnD playtest packet, featuring the Cleric and the Goliath Species, dropped today. Wizards of the Coast also announced that they would drop the word "race" and start using the word "species" going forward. I don't think this change surprised anyone as WotC is just the latest in a long line of publishers within the "DnD genre" to do this and I'm sure many saw this "grand conspiracy" coming and its yet another reason to be outraged about a game of make believe with math.

I doubt I'm going to change anyone's mind but I'm going to roll with this change because I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable about the lingo DnD uses. If it were up to me 8 Billion souls would be playing DnD so I'd like to be as accessible as possible.

So, in short, I don't want to be a Dick and I encourage all of you to not be a Dick either.