Ork City: The Community of Bloomindale

Welcome to Ork City!

"This world was different once. Spirits tell us this was the greatest city in the world before the Ungods woke up. They brought death to our world as a prisoner and unleashed him as their weapon. It took them less than a week to wreck the Old World and killing billions. Humans thought their weapons made them gods but they were wrong and even their "nukes" had little affect on the invaders and their armies of Unmen. We are lucky we found Bloomindale and each other."

--Librarian Boggs, leader of Bloomingdale, a safe haven in Ork City

Bloomingdale's entire community is centered around the Bloomindale Library. It gave shelter and knowledge to those survivors that found it and hope to those that came after. Four-Hundred souls call Bloomindale home now and at times the peace of the place can all most make you forget about the hellscape that surrounds it.

The Librarians, Enna Boggs (5th Level Human Sorcerer), Uther 17 (3rd level Warforged Rogue), and Maria Estevez (3rd level Human Wizard), are the ruling council currently in charge. They hold debates on the three nights of every full moon and every soul has a voice if they so choose.

Unlike many communities Unmen are welcome and they account for about 15% of Bloomindale's population.

While religion is frowned upon there are small sects worshiping Saint Jerome, Tenjin, Thoth, and Deneir.

The Library has proven invaluable to the success of the community and its citizens have fortified the area extraordinary well. The largest threats tend to come from ratlings, dire bats, and monstrous predators that the Ungods have unleashed upon the region. 

Each member of the community is trained to use weapons for hunting and self-defense as members of the Guard.

A coven of Green witches helps to train students in the mystic arts and mundane ways of medicine. It is led by Wilhelmina Snow'Owl (3rd level Human Cleric), a half-elf and the wife of Librarian Boggs.

The Blue Sun is a secret society that existed in the Old World and it has access to information and technology from that era. Agents operate covertly in separate cells, with no knowledge of each other, providing monthly reports to their Leaders through dead drops. Bloomindale has two agents operating in the community which is unusual. 

 Mickey Irskin (2nd Level Human Ranger), is a blacksmith in his late forties that has lived in Bloomindale for nearly thirty years. He has four children but his wife passed on last winter and while he maintains his duties to the Sun his heart is barely in it. 

The second agent if Phiona Hammerfall (1st Level Halfing Rogue), a dwarven newcomer, who arrived about a year ago. She is aware there was a Sun agent in the community but was led to believe they passed on and she replaced them.

The denizens of Bloomingdale are guarded yet kind. They protect their home fiercely while allowing traveling merchants, pilgrims, or refugees in their midst though they are heavily supervised at all times.

The Commander of the Guard is Tawny Brandywine (4th Level Halfling Gladiator), halfling born in Bloomindale. She is a skilled warrior, even better scout, and the primary instructor for the Guard.

Rumors (1d12)

1. A werespider lurks in the ruins of an apartment two blocks from the Library. (True).

2. Mickey Irskin's youngest son, Bruce, has been seen having conversations with animals. (False).

3. K'kell (2nd Level Half-Orc Fighter), the community's half-orc veterinarian and the husband of Librarian Estevez, is having an affair with Phiona Hammerfall. (True).

4. Four blocks away is shop that has wall safe that holds a treasure in jewels if someone can crack it. (True).

5. Years ago, a dwarven warrior fell to ratflings eleven blocks away in the Subway and his magical hammer still lies there. (False).

6. A giant albino alligator has a lair in the Subway. (False).

7. Iago Mortenson (1st Level Half-Elf Warlock), the community's Glyphscribe of Deneir, has discovered a copy of the Necronomicon and it is slowly corrupting him. (True).

8. Librarian 17 has a pet parrot named Laverne that is three-hundred years old. (True).

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).

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.

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.

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?

One Dungeons & Dragons

Wizards of the Coast released the first playtest of One Dungeons and Dragon today. Going forward DnD won't have "editions" because WotC feels the current rules are pretty good and just need some reorganization and some new approaches.

After reading the playtest I agree with them.

Origins are packages made up of a Race, a Background, and a Language. The big changes are that Raced don't affect Ability scores, Background, however, do grant a +2 to Ability score and +1 to another and a Feat, and well, Languages...there is only so much you can do with them.

I love this approach. Background should have a bigger impact on your Ability scores and this just lets you choose whatever Race you like and gains its benefits. 

Oh, and Draw finally don't have Sunlight Sensitivity. Finally.

Other changes are Feats will now have certain levels as Prerequisites to simulate Class Abilities that are not tied to a Class, only Players can score a Critical Hit on a Natural 20 and only with weapons and unarmed attacks (I actually like this, it gives a small but important benefit to those that don't employ magic), and spells are now grouped by Primal, Arcane, and Divine categories with certain Classes granting specific spells from other lists.

They are developing a Virtual Table Top too but I'm lucky that I don't need that right now.

I'm not going to lie about the fact I didn't think WotC would retain me as a customer for DnD. Some the newer settings just aren't for me and I felt like the goals they had at the beginning of 5E were long gone (and rightly so, they have millions of new players). But this shows me they are listening and that is all I can ask.

I'm looking forward to what comes next because a successful DnD means a successful RPG industry.

2024

 I'm back. I didn't intend to be gone so long but work was killing me. Also, I turned 49. Yeah, next year, God willing, I'll have lived on this rock adrift upon infinity for half a century. I know less than I ever have about things. I think, as we move out of the zeitgeist, things just get fuzzy. Or we are in the Darkest Timeline. Or both.

I figured I'd start with the 800 lb. gorilla in the room, the Evolution if Dungeons and Dragons due out in 2024. 

I think the timing is right, especially with the 50th Anniversary of DnD and I think 5E's lifespan has been pretty darn good. I don't think 2024, what I'm calling the Anniversary edition, will be 5.5. That new gift bundle due in January (the only way to get the new Mordenkainen's book at that point) is 5.5. And I think the bundle is a good idea. I can say to my new players you need this slipcase eventually and then you'll need this slipcase when you need or want more.

My main concern is Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro, their corporate masters. I've watched WotC use digital products to compete with their tabletop Magic: the Gathering line over the last few years. I've also experienced the crunch when to prioritize Amazon, Walmart, and Target over the direct market. I get it, but those three companies don't sustain the community. Basically, I'm worried that WotC will go back to monthly DnD products and push their audience to their own digital tools for the 2024 edition. Hopefully, all the money I've invested in DnD Beyond won't be for nought but its happened with other digital assets before.

I hope the 2024 edition channels the best parts of 5E and blazes new trails but we'll see.

I also wonder about the 5E audience that chooses not to "evolve" to the 2024 edition. That market was big enough to sustain Paizo for a good run when 4E came out and Pathfinder 1E still has a larger presence on Roll20 over Pathfinder 2E.

Every version of a new edition has a lot of question marks so that is nothin new. I hope they consider having another open playtest but that is harder to do when your current edition is still selling products.

I will say that 5E is my favorite modern version of DnD. The OSR still calls to me most days, but 5E did a lot of things right, hopefully 7 years into the 2024 edition I'll be able to write the same thing.