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jaednd · 4 months

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jaednd · 1 year

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20 mysterious finds paired with a rolling table, for RPG groups exploring underground realms.

Grab the high rez from our patreon for free 👍 patreon.com/rpgtoons

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jaednd · 2 years

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neato: a 13th-century number notation system created by european monks

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jaednd · 2 years

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25 Wood Elf City Adventure Seeds

by Robb at readytorole.com

The birds the elves use to deliver messages across the city have slowly been losing the color in their bright, beautiful feathers, and the birds themselves appear to be growing sluggish.

The vintner has created a new wine that everyone is clamoring over! However, the queen is inexplicably paranoid about the new drink.

The streams and rivers that run through the forest near the city have started to turn purple, and nearby vegetation are now becoming purple themselves.

Will-o’-wisps have been reported to be seen in the city late at night by several children, but the elders just think the children are playing games or are seeing fireflies.

A thick fog rolled in a few weeks ago and still has not dissipated. Furthermore, several people who have gone into the forest to try and figure out what is happening haven’t returned.

The normally peaceful centaur have become aggressive towards the elves who hunt and forage for the city, not through violence by through mockery and threats. This shift coincided with the changing of seasons, though it has never happened in the past.

Last week was a festival in the wood elf city, and during it all the druids turned into animals. However, now a week later, they either won’t or can’t turn back and are exhibiting more animal behaviours.

After a magical experiment went awry, the local squirrels have gained the ability to blink in and out of existence. They also seem to have gotten smarter, using this new ability to steal food and work together.

Spring is in the air! That means it’s the time of year when the dryads come out and play friendly tricks on the elves… or at least it usually is, where are the dryads?

After it’s realized that a prominent elf in the city has gone missing, they searched his treetop home for clues. They found a hole into the tree which is apparently hollow and leads deep underground.

A half-elf has appeared in the city as an emissary for a nearby human tribe who wish to join the wood elves. The elves soundly reject the idea, but the half-elf isn’t taking no for an answer.

The queen has come down with a sickness that the priests and druids have not seen before, though have heard of it through legend. The problem is the rare herbs needed to supposedly treat it are believed to grow in the area that trolls have taken over in recent years.

Usually it’s no big deal when the clouds of smoke from a nearby volcano drift over the forest, but today they started raining droplets of lava all over the city!

An elvish botanist recently returned from a trip to a dwarf city, planting new flowers with petals that resemble gems. Things don’t go well when animals try and eat them.

Someone has been setting up pit traps covered with leaves around the city, and the guards have not been able to find out who. It was all more a minor convenience than anything, except this latest pit had spikes at the bottom, killing the elf who fell in.

Unbeknownst to the elves, a new species of butterfly has invaded the forest and is releasing a toxin that is causing the entire city to descend into madness. Just last night several hunters attacked their own druids who had shapeshifted, killing them even after they shapeshifted back.

A young tailor who stayed up late during a full moon saw another elf turn into a werewolf. When he brought this to the guard’s attention, he was informed the elf was a druid and probably caught a glimpse mid-transformation.

A dark aura has risen over the nearby lake, turning the ground swampy. A scouting party ran into some lizardfolk, including a shaman performing a ritual to transform the forest into swamp. Oddly, the lizardfolk were friendly to the elves when they met.

Tension has arisen in the city between those who would disclose the location of their somewhat hidden city to increase trade and exports and those who want to become even more hidden at the expense of affording some luxuries.

A treant has traveled from a faraway forest to make this one their new home. The only problem is they want to plant themselves in the city square and now refuses to unroot themselves.

An avatar of the deity of nature appeared in the city yesterday before burning down the home of an elvish family with holy fire before disappearing with no explanation. The family survived, but lost everything they had.

After meeting a half-orc during his youth, an elvish blacksmith has recently been making battleaxes to practice with. This is looked down up and viewed as a waste of city resources as the blacksmith should be making swords for the city guard. He still secretly continues to produce them, and has a small following of elves who are also curious.

One of the few forest gnomes who is welcomed and lives in the city has recently befriended a few too many snakes, and has woken up to his home being covered with the scaly beasts. He doesn’t want to see them hurt, but the elves are threatening to evict him and kill the snakes if he can’t get them to leave himself.

Unlike his stoic parents, the prince of the city enjoys wine and partying a little too much, and has caused some damages to homes during his latest outing. Of course, he is not responsible for the damages, which is causing those who have sustained damage to demand recourse from the royal family.

For the past month, the city has slowly been moving through the forest- or rather the forest has been moving around the city almost like a river flowing around rocks. At the current rate, the trees will have shifted completely away from the city in less than a few weeks, leaving the city exposed!

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jaednd · 2 years

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Places you should add to your little town/city in your fantasy world!!

Post offices. Wild, I know. But give me the unhinged kind. Pingeons and little postal dragons all over the place. You enter. The most disgusting smell fucking assaults your nostrils. You know what it is. Letter in hand, you go up to the counter. The postal worker is just a slightly bigger pigeon. You shed a tear.

PLAYGROUNDS!! Create the most dangerous kinds of playgrounds, the ones suburban moms would TRIP if they ever saw one. Monkey bars that are way too tall, swings that go full circle... The metal slide stays the same, it's already painful enough.

PARKS!! MAKE IT ALIVE!! Show people going on walks, reading beneath trees. C'mon most of them are already hundred years old (And are going to die after that CR 15 creature wrecks the town) anyways!! Show couples and picnics, show a family enjoying the sunday, give me someone picking flowers for their loved ones.

A bakery! Do you know how much these places are underrated? And do you know how much plot potential they have? Every good story starts with food poisoning or granny's recipe! Give me a place your players/readers are going to treat like home and, for once, it's not a tavern or a guild.

Government buildings! Give me a town hall that has a kilometric line in front of it. Give me a registry that is as old as this town. Give me police stations! Give me courtrooms! Make one of your players get arrested and now all of the party has to go through burocracy like a bunch of normal people!

(Who am I kidding? You don't need to make them get arrested. They are going to do that for you.)

Touristic attractions! Give me a full-on statue of the country's leader! Give me museums! Give me streets, ruins and whatnot that attract thousands of tourists everyday! Give me an annoying city guide that tries to get the party's attention everytime!

Magazine stands! Magazines don't exist? Newspaper stands! From the Queen's Journal to the most questionable new piece of Fox's Tailtracker, you have it all! Make your players doubt what's actually happening, sprinkle a little fake news... Or is it fake at all?

...Toy stores. OK HEAR ME OUT. Make magic toys; miniature skyships that actually fly, metal toy dragons that expel fire, little wands that make little light spells, wooden creatures that can move and make noises... Make children happy! And your players too because they will waste their money on these stuff.

Instrument store!! Make your bards happy with special instruments or just weird ones! Give me a battle in one of those that is just filled with funny noises and the worst battle soundtrack ever!!

Not exactly a place but... Cleaning carts!!! Show me people cleaning the streets, picking up the trash, cutting trees!! Make the town look clean!! Give me an old man that is really proud of his work!!!

(or ways to make your players feel even worse when the villain destroys the town later on :) )

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jaednd · 2 years

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be nice to goblins or taste my blade

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jaednd · 2 years

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kobolds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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jaednd · 2 years

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Dumb NPC ideas to use when your players decide to explore that town you didn't prepare anything for

A scholar that is clearly lost, however you're not sure how he is someone important at all. It even looks like he's glad that he didn't manage to arrive at the event on time.

An old lady (of a race that has a long lifespan), that knows a little way to much about the party's adventure... She doesn't spends much time talking about it though, do you want to buy her pots?

A kid. Just a kid. Make them annoying.

A knight that is very proud about their job and duty, but they just want their shift to end so they can go home to their wife.

A merchant that has a cart in the middle of the fair, however everytime the party goes to another shop or stand he pops up from behind the counter. Turns out the town doesn't receive many merchants so he has to supply all of their needs. He's stressed.

A teen dragon that discovered how to transform into a human, problem is they definitely look 30 but they still are just a teenager, and a moody one.

A shop owner that fucking hates commerce. She's in it because of her family, so she tries to sell the goodies pratically for free and she really wants you to take all of her items. The catch? It's a feather shop. Not magic feathers, not pens, just normal feathers. Probably from a bird that died that morning.

A janitor from a library or big shop that is just too aware of everything. Like, they point out the players class or race without barely batting an eye. They comment on how they "had never seen a chaotic good one in real life". And indirectly disses the players choices they made 2 sessions ago? (Basically a character for the dm to rant a little while not completely breaking the 4th wall)

A woman in her mid-40s (or the equivalent) that is just really excited to meet the party? Her dream was to be an adventurer when she was little so she is definitely asking some weird questions.

A blacksmith that makes weapons purely for the aesthetic. He really doesn't care if it's functional or not, he's just doing cause it looks cool.

A bard that got kicked out of their band or caravan. At first you don't know why but after their 3rd performance of a one-person musical you get it. He wants to stick with the party though. Good luck.

A doggie!! It's cute!! And fluffy!! And it talks!! And it talks? A DOG THAT TALKS!!!!

The most ripped person the party has ever met, they have tons of skulls of big animals on their shoulder. They polish them. They hang them on a wall and start to take notes. They are an archeologist.

A magician that is really not magic at all, he's just so good at card tricks that the town thinks he's a sorcerer. He's freaking out.

A girl that is immune to all kinds of poison, however that is making a little bit hard for her to pursue her cooking career. Apparently poison ivy is not a good seasoning for most people.

An artist that is just really calm and friendly but everyone's afraid of them. The party has no idea why.

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jaednd · 2 years

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Lol my game last week introduced a Wood elf society obsessed with dairy products

recent development in our campaign elf lore: wood elves are big fans of Human Culture (BUTTER) (also cheese) (and other milk by-products)

they often emigrate from the forests to experience the human lifestyle (eating butter)

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jaednd · 2 years

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DARK SOULS III >> Rings

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jaednd · 2 years

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You’ve noted your distaste for the alignment system before, and I was wondering what you thought about using Magic the Gathering color identity in place of it. I’ve started using that in my own game and it feels much better

Inspiration Station: Magic the Gathering

TLDR: I really like the color alignment system as it can communicate a lot about a character's moral outlook and general vibe a lot clearer than regular alignment can. I like it so much infract that my drafts blog uses MTG color combinations as a sorting system so I can find things that go together easier. That said, its an extra level of game knowledge for new players to understand/have to do be taught. Alignment is supposed to give new players an idea how their character might act, and it's a lot easler for someone who's never roleplayed before to wrap their minds around acts that are "lawful" or "good" than for them to try to guide their character in a particularly "Blue" direction.

While I'm going to go on a bit of a ramble about this, I'm going to start with an explination of what "Color Identity" is for all the members of my audience that haven't lost years of their lives and chunks of their disposable income to a particular trading card game.

In Magic the Gathering (MtG from hereon out), there are five "elements" of magic that encompas the bredth of existance, all with their own emotional and thematic cores and endless interpretations of what they and their combinations represent.

Anything from creatures to magic to places to civilizations can be found in some combination of these one to five colors, which in turn have relationships with eachother ( harmonizing with their neighbors while conflicting and complimenting with the ones across from them). This makes it a great shorthand from a design perspective, as it links together ideology, iconography, and gameplay into a palate that you can use to paint your characters and settings. There are quite a few "Using the color-pie in d&d" videos on youtube which I encourage you to check out, as they can do a much better job explaining the basics than I could do here.

Advice on how you can use this framework in your own games below the cut:

1: MTG colors as character alignment

If you take a step back and consider the colors not as basic pokemon elements ( wood, water, fire, life, death) but as embodiments of different outlooks and philosophies, the color pie system suddenly becomes a radically efficient tool for summarizing how a character or culture carries out its beliefs, with the understanding that individuals within that culture will mix in new elements or lean away from others depending on their personal predilections. A character who relies on luck and wits (Blue-Red) may be tempted towards story beats that indulge either of their color synergies, but chafe against systems that would deny a part of themselves ( Such as the rule of a Black-White Authoritarian noble or the simplicity of Green-White peasant life).

2: MTG colors as writing tools

The fun in understanding how characters in your story fit into the color wheel isn't only in assigning them a static position, its in testing to see how they evolve and grow when exposed to external stimuli. Will the Blue/Black spymaster veer towards duty to their state (white) or personal power (red), will the righteous Red/White paladin give up their honor for vengeance ( becoming only red) or achieve some level of enlightenment ( white) after suffering through a crisis of faith.

Through the colorpie, and understanding your characters, you can make narrative arcs easy, or at least pencil some interesting questions as you develop the rest of the story.

3: MTG colors as setting design

The different colors have historically been tied to different types of terrain, and while I tend not to do a 1:1 conversion for all of my settings, its very easy to see how thematic throughlines can be made between setting and environment ( yes, necromancers probably would hang out in places full of shadows and rot, but those that embody Black's aspects of ambition and manipulation probably live in settlements infused with some form of social or infestructure decay, or perhaps a dark history concealed just beneath the surface)

To that end, I like to think of small to medium settlements as possessing a dual color identity made up partially of their land and culture, while larger settlements and nations tend to be two or three colors as they are a composite of diverse groups and interests. By looking at these combinations, finding contrasts between them and synergies with outside elements, you can easily begin to set up political and social dynamics: A White/Red/Green kingdom may have contrasting demographics between a warrior nobility ( WR), a traditionalist peasantry ( WG), and nomads who live on the frontier (RG). The kingdom could be threatened by an invading lich (UB) or by an alliance of nomads and peasants who resent the warrior nobility for their conquest generations ago (BRG)

4: MTG colors as game design

Bo yourself a favor and every time you're struggling to make a dungeon, try to figure out what color identity it has. Instantly you've given yourself a massive dose of inspiration for monsters, traps, hazards, and iconography for you to mine simply by visiting the gatherer and scrolling through the visual spoiler. Generally you can do this by thinking about where it was built and by who, with further richness added by thinking about what sort of creatures from the locality have crept in during the meantime and how their color identities harmonize and contrast with the dungeons own.

Likewise, if you're trying to think of abilities/gear to give a player or npc, think about how the different colors play:

White wants to bolster their allies before clashing head on

Blue wants to be tricky until they get in position to outplay their opponent

Black wants to fight dirty until they can really twist the knife

Red wants to go recklessly and blow their opponent away before they can retaliate

Green wants to level the playing field before getting really strong and stomping their foes into the floor

These playstyles ( and their combinations) can guide you in everything from what loot to give your party to the way monsters behave during an encounter: A (GR) barbarian would probably never want to pick up a (u) wizard's staff, but they might be tempted by a (UR) flaming arcane blade that let them expand their usual toolkit by going ethereal. A pack of hungry (BG) ghouls would lurk in the shadows of their crypt until they could ambush their prey, retreating to let their fetid bites weaken the party before sweeping back in with more numbers.

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jaednd · 2 years

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Motherfucker I'll be back from the dead soon

What better animal to play necromancer than one who came back from extinction in the wild and fought its way back to existence? This cute black footed ferret magician is available as a print, 25 each, signed and ships for free in the US. PM me if interested.

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jaednd · 2 years

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