Month: Dec 2022

HeroForge: Rakkan and Rekkam

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There’s been new content added to HeroForge in the form of mounts and companion animals so I’ve had a bit of a play and then added in one of the new faces from last week. I’m not sure how or even if I’ll use this so I’m throwing the concept out there for anyone to grab and use.

Introducing Rakkan and Rekkam – a dragonborn monk and his raptor mount and companion. Rekkam favours the use of a bo staff and tends to have a veneer of amiability over the hardened discipline that his meditation and training have developed. Rekkam hails from a snowy mountaintop monastery near to where he was born – and unsurprisingly his lineage descends from one of the ancient white dragons that lair in the highest reaches. A follower of the Way of the Ascendant Dragon, Rekkam embraces his heritage and devotes himself to working in his local communities as a mediator and defender.

Rakkan is a trained raptor raised as part of a cadre of beasts by the monastery. While capable of fighting and hunting alongside his partner, Rakkan is mostly used for longer journeys where Rekkam acts as a courier. There is a deep affection between the two and more than one bandit has needed a change of underwear when Rakkan has crept up on them and growled in their ear.

As to how to use these characters? Well I’ve left lots of space for you to flesh them out. In my mind’s eye, Rekkam moves with purpose but sits or stands very still when others are talking or if he is observing them. He’s probably about 5th or 6th level – competent enough to deal with most common challenges and be a noted defender of the local community. He is most likely to be encountered as a courier – perhaps as a target for the party to intercept, or encountered while defending himself against bandits. Perhaps he is encountered as a scout, or a mystic contemplating the view in a mountain pass. Perhaps he rides to the aid of a group if they are being overrun.

As a couple, Rekkam is serious but kind – while Rakkan is curious and willful. You could probably get some humour from describing their interactions which may feel more like partners in misadventure rather than rider and mount…

D&D Shaping Life?

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I learn all sorts of things from the random conversations we have in the polycule. One thing that puts a smile on my face is hearing how stories, events, or characters from the D&D games end up having an impact in other people’s lives. One example is Odif – the kobold child adopted by the DDC after drunken shenanigans (and that was a whole series of subplots and adventures unexplored at the time – but who knows how things will loop back?)

I had a couple of crocheted wool dolls made up of Odif – one for Lady M and one for boy s – as presents and Lady M has been known to show her Odif on video calls. This particularly happens if one of her colleagues has a young child appear onscreen. Well, now those children have started asking after Odif and how he’s doing – and as this is usually relayed by their parents to Lady M during work calls, a wider group of people now know about and have encountered Odif.

So this year, Odif received Christmas well wishes from people at Lady M’s workplace.

Jumping to another example: Mx J has been playing Thorin in the DDC as a well-meaning, laid back and generally affable barbarian “himbo” over the last couple of years. The main story thread we just completed saw him step up into a leadership role for his people and reunite them to take back their lands and foil a plot to plunge a sizeable chunk of the surrounding countryside into a never-ending winter. Mx J has also been streaming and cosplaying for a number of years as Miss Time Bunny. They have been widely called Bunny for quite some time – especially in their local area.

In one of the places that Mx J frequents there are also people who watch the streams and are friendly with both Bunny and Lady B – and, you guessed it, they started getting Christmas well wishes under the name Thorin this year.

I find it rather heartwarming – that these characters and their world are living in people’s thoughts and memories, inspiring laughter and smiles and new stories to come. I have the kernels now of the next act in the adventures of the DDC so I can’t wait to see what really lands with people and inspires them – and how else our small entertainments may take on lives outside the confines of the Twitch Stream.

Oh – one last thing that came up in conversation – I don’t see them as its not my Twitch channel, but Lady B gets all manner of notifications and keeps an eye on things while we game – and I was delighted to hear that every now and then familiar names from the past appear as viewers, checking in on how we’re all doing and the latest silly shenanigans of the DDC. I hope they’ve had a good Christmas too – and hope to see them again soon.

The boy s

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We’ve had a lovely quiet Christmas break mostly piled round the flat with boy s and the cub – a gentle gathering of most of the polycule. I’ve been quietly carrying on with doing largely D&D-related posts in the meantime and pushing out concepts that may end up being in one or more games in the months to come.

The boy started catching up on posts yesterday and wanted to have one all about him – a “gushing” post as he put it. I, of course, then put up a new Map post yesterday because I wouldn’t want him to think that these things are just produced on demand whenever the brat asks for one.

However, he has been fighting colds, bugs, and plagues brought home from school by the cub more or less non-stop since September. He is also starting to show signs of brightness and recovery from a serious depression dip that has nigh-on crippled his capacity to engage with the outside world.

Even if that were all that he had achieved, he’d be worthy of praise and support – and yet on top of that he has continued to raise an amazing son who has a fierce intellect and curiosity and who very much sets the terms of his engagement with the world around him.

The cub has had his whole world turned upside down over the last couple of years and yet has formed both a strong network of new friends, and leapt forward in academic achievements despite not believing he had the capacity to do so.

And he fiercely and unconditionally loves his father

How can I not love and appreciate someone who has managed all that? The boy s doesn’t see how amazing he is, despite having a wide band of people around him who care and enjoy his presence. He is passionate about his interests, and cares deeply about causes and people alike. Even in the depths of depression, his humour is pointed and evokes belly laughs – the the things he gets upset about come from his own sense of wanting to do better for others.

As he reads this, I know there will be a little giggle as I tell him he’s a dreadful brat. He will protest that he is, in fact, a wonderful brat and if I’m there he’ll try and flutter his eyelids at me and paste a gormless grimacing smile on his face – and if that isn’t just the most lovable thing I challenge you to pick out something printable instead.

I’ll just leave here, that he is a good boy.

Map: Sewer Test

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I’m experimenting with some of the new features being rolled out in Roll20 – namely interactive doors and windows, and how to use dynamic lighting settings to restrict movement. The latter is nothing new but I’ve not really been using it. In large part that’s because it’s been fiddly and has had big impacts on people using older kit, but I’m still playing around with it.

The other excuse for this map was to experiment with exporting maps assembled from resources inside Roll20 so that I could then stitch them together with other assets to meld elements together

Today’s map falls into that category, having been assembled from a series of floor tiles before I grouped them together and took a screenshot that I then imported into Paint and cropped to save as a jpeg.

Its a simple enough layout, suitable for an encounter. In this instance I inserted a couple of unlockable grates, put in some light sources, and populated it with two iron defenders for an encounter that a group of third level characters would find easy on their way to some further destination while also allowing some world building from the abandoned desks, crates, and fallen rubble in the sewer space.

Well, it appears to be working, and it only took a little bit of swearing under my breath and some casting around to find where the laptop had defaulted to saving the image so I could import it here. Enjoy!

A New Challenger Appears?

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One of the fun things from playing around in HeroForge and drawing maps while doing some plotting, is that sometimes a character coalesces and you know you want to tell their story. I’m still not entirely sure what the story is for this character, but they’re definitely shady, have more than a hint of the infernal to them, are deliciously non-binary, and with any luck can become a decent foil for characters.

I’m not sure which group or story they’ll appear in – quite possibly in the Librarian adventures – or how I’ll use them – but please welcome Caiaphane, and feel free to grab their portrait and token for your own VTT or illustrative purposes. They are possibly a tiefling or a cambion pretending to be one, and they seem to be brandishing a molotov cocktail alongside their trident dagger. Suggestions for their plans or motivations in an Eberron background are welcome…

Merry Christmas!

Tim Maidment2 Comments

I hope your day has been peaceful, your people kind, your sustenance plentiful, and that you are now sinking into a celebratory relaxation

Lady M and I have spent the day with boy s and Lady W and the cub, and caught up with my parents and brothers by way of a Google Meet so we’ve been blessed with laughter, silliness, and no particular urgency along the way.

Plans have been laid to visit my parents some time in the next couple of months, and I need to track the Charleesi down to pass presents to her as well.

Lady M and I have a quiet day planned tomorrow, with a few gifts between us as we mostly focused on giving things to other people and opened things from the rest of the family.

I do have one piece of loot from Lady M that I’ve opened today:

She’s had this hidden away for the best part of a year following a Kickstarter and I love it. The open framed dice have a rough iron feel that along with the skulls suggests a dice set suitable for a villain in one of my games. The case itself has a good heft and solidity too that has a good tactile feel.

I shall now have to find a suitable way to display it

Christmas Eve

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And suddenly we’re nearly there – ready to feast and spend time with people. Bonus points are awarded if they’re people we love and cherish too. Today has been spent in the traditional activities of visiting people to drop off presents and have a natter – in this case Lady B – and gathering up people for transport so they’re in the right place for celebrations in the morning.

As is also traditional, there’s a few gifts that also need properly wrapping up ready for handover to the Claus, and so that’s why I am currently “banished” to the living room to play on the XBox and blog while Lady M is busy in the other room with Christmas movies and wrapping paper.

I’m looking forward to not running around too much tomorrow as my ribs are hurting quite a bit after all the bustle. I currently have a hot water bottle against my back to ease that side, and am sitting carefully upright and shallow breathing to manage the front. I will no doubt get jumped on by a child tomorrow, so I must remember to take extra painkillers with me when we go round to the boy s – which is where we’re cooking and spending most of tomorrow.

So, I hope you all have a wonderful day that goes to plan, fills you with joy, and brings you some peace amid the bustle and celebration.

HeroForge – Faye Hagsworn

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An influential background character who hasn’t had much visibilty so far is Kerne’s younger sister, Faye – who went to study in the Feywild after their family was split up. There’s been a loose connection between the sisters by way of an enchanted journal, which each has a copy of, and that they can read and reply to each other by writing in it.

It was fairly late in the first year – as the group closed in on a group of Hags who had kidnapped an alchemist – that the DDC realised that Faye was apprenticed to the same Hags, and had been learning their crafts. When they defeated the coven, there was no sign of Faye – and it looked like she had fled with some of their research and materials after chaining up the nearby portal to the Feywild with iron. Removing the chains allowed Faye’s warlock patron – the Winter’s Knight – to emerge into the swamp. He too wanted to know where Faye was – but on learning that Kerne didn’t know anything permitted the group to leave.

Later investigations determined that a block on the group’s memories about their first adventure had been put there through the actions of Faye so that they would not remember Faye’s involvement in an ambush that took place by Morgrave University, and for a while there was a chill in relations between the siblings.

During their most recent adventure, the sisters began sharing knowledge again. Faye confirmed that she was on the run from the Winter’s Knight as the research she had taken pertained to making a drug that the Hags had been creating and planning to spread that made people more susceptible to magics cast by the fae. She was keeping that knowledge hidden to frustrate those plans while the DDC acted against Knight. Cooperating, the siblings were able to create a potion to cure lycanthropy, with Faye passing on the Hag recipe and Kerne interpreting the instructions and ingredients to what was available locally.

What is known is that Faye is Dragonborn, and a warlock sworn to the Winter’s Knight or some other high ranking Fey. She may or may not have taken on Hag-like characteristics as part of her training with the Broken Eye Coven – and quite what her plans and allegiances are remain somewhat nebulous.

As ever, feel free to appropriate character design and concept for your own uses

Breaking For Christmas

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I’ve used the last of my leave to grab a few days either side of Christmas and Boxing Day, starting this evening. As Lady M is working we’re not going anywhere but I’ll be able to potter around and catch up with people – and most importantly to rest.

The discomfort from my ribs is quite substantial at the moment; and even with my generally ferocious recovery rates, I’m having to pace myself. A trip to tesco this evening has been very draining, in no small part because it’s reminded me that there’s a world of difference between the shallow breathing I can do at home versus the deeper breathing required to walk and talk and carry anything.

Rib fractures: they’re not just for Christmas.

I guess the fates found another way to keep me sleep-deprived now the vitamin supplements have been working. Oh well. At least I’ll be able to lie in or cat nap for a bit.

New Sourcebook? Oh Go On

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The world of Eberron, in which our D&D games are set is the brainchild of Keith Baker, and he’s been involved through the various reboots in different editions of the game but has had limited opportunity to expand published materials.

By way of various shenanigans a route to publish through the DMs Guild was arranged, and a companion book to Rising From The Ashes has been produced in the form of Exploring Eberron.

New Sourcebook, Much Reading

After merely hours of dipping in, I can recommend this to anyone running games in Eberron as it adds depth to the materials presented in the core 5th Edition book. Needless to say, this has arrived just in time as I plot the next section of the game. It has already spawned ideas for future stories with the group.

More importantly, it has clarified things I’ve not quite got my head around before now.

So at least I have something new to peruse while propped up chasing sleep. I’m counting it as a reward to myself for how much the group is enjoying the game.