Thursday, February 15, 2018

Wildspace Magic - First Draft

Spells for Spelljammer adapted to 5e

 Spelljammer is... unusual. There are very few settings that take the usual high-magic fantasy  formula and put it into space, as space is typically seen as the purview of science fiction. As there was no precedent for High-Fantasy-In-Space (and other circumstances), the creators of Spelljammer were able to mold it as they saw fit.

This led to some... interesting components for the setting, but it is one that fascinates me to no end (which probably annoys my wife to no end).

While 5e has been almost entirely focused on the Forgotten Realms setting, with a short foray into Barovia, WotC has been hinting more and more that there might be expansions into new settings in the not-so-distant future. I fear that Spelljammer might be in the more distant future than some other settings (despite hints dropped into the adventures), so I figured that I would not be stepping on WotC's toes if I adapted Spelljammer spells to 5e.


This is the first draft of these spells, and I would really appreciate some feedback on wording, balance, and anything else that you think might be improved.




This is my first time embedding a PDF in my blog, so hopefully this looks alright.

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Two big ideas to add to D&D 5e

I have been thinking about 5e for some time, and it has occurred to me that there are some things that could be implemented to benefit the D&D community and WotC alike.

Idea the first: Add a Legendary Player's Bundle to DnD Beyond

This one is pretty simple, and I'm kinda surprised that it has not already been implemented:  Make a trimmed down version of the Legendary Bundle (which is every piece of official content available on DnD Beyond at once, for 15% off, plus 15% off any future purchases) that only has player content. While the normal bundle comes with EVERYTHING, the player's version would only have content that is useful to players, making it much more appealing to players who don't DM.

Being generous, including all class options, race options, backgrounds, feats, and spells, the total value of player options comes to $100.90 (By my calculations, at time of writing this).

At 15% off, that would come to $85.77, which is much more reasonable than the $360.70 for the full Legendary Bundle, less than a quarter of the price! Since there are a lot more players than DMs, this would likely appeal to a wider audience than the Legendary Bundle ever could.

 The only things (that I can think of) that this would take to implement, are a few interface changes on the website, adding tags to all of the player content to mark them as a part of this bundle, and figuring out prices of future books with the player content discounted (or implement a system to do this automatically).

This idea originally also included all beasts that a druid could wildshape into and adventure specific familiars, but these seemed like something that could be cut for the sake of lowering the price a bit more (~$30).

Idea the second: Introduce setting guides to the DM's Guild

This idea would definitely take more effort to implement, but it would likely be extremely profitable for WotC.

Release a pair of PDFs (with print on demand options) every so often on DM's Guild (and probably DnD Beyond as well): 

This plan comes in three parts:

Part one is "The Player's Guide to [Setting]", with everything that someone from that setting would know: Major locations, people, creatures, culture, etc., maybe using condensed and/or edited versions of older setting guides, throw in some race and class options and everyone is happy. (and of course setting specific rules, such as for Spelljammer ships and travel)

The second part is "The Dungeon Master's Guide to [Setting]", which contains everything that the above player's guide has, plus further detail on everything. Where the pg has a note about some strange creature that the PCs might have heard of, this one has details about its behavior, habitat, diet, and of course, it's stat block (or at least what Monster Manual monster to use for it). It would also include quest ideas and potential dangers.

Beyond expanding upon details of the world, this book has a guide on how to run a game in that setting, how to capture the feel of it and express that to the players. How to run a pulp adventure in Eberron, get that post-apocalyptic feel in Dark Sun, portray the philosophies of the factions in Planescape, or the high-seas-in-space hi-jinks of Spelljammer.

Finally, the third and most important part: Open DM's Guild to submitted content for that setting.
Once the third part is done, all WotC has to do is sit back and watch the D&D community create multitudes of content for that setting. Adventures, more detailed location descriptions, more monsters, and a multitude of player options. A guide for creating content in the setting, and probably several Guild Adept adventures/supplements would be advisable, but not as required.

I feel that this idea is the less likely of the two, for several reasons:
1. It would take a lot more effort and possibly forming a whole new team just to tackle it (unless they want to at least partially hand certain settings over to Guild Adepts, like entrusting Eberron to Ruty Rutenberg and Satine Phoenix).
2. It could distract from whatever storyline the current adventure is focusing on, reducing sales of that adventure book and Adventurer's League adventures.
3. This idea has the possibility of getting rushed, just to get the content out there without sufficient playtesting or progressing the story of these worlds to keep them fresh for those who played them in past editions. This is a small thing, and might not bother people who just want their favorite setting adapted to 5e, but it could also cause those who are new to the setting to not be as interested.


Conclusion

Perhaps these are things that WotC has already considered, perhaps they even have them planned for some point in the future. I think they have a lot of potential, the first as a way to generate more (likely lasting) support from non-DMs in DnD Beyond, and the second as a way to open up the worlds of D&D to the community, and let their unlimited creativity add to the amazing possibilities that D&D allows us.

That and I want to see all the amazing spelljammer ships that the community can come up with.


I am curious to hear what people think of my ideas, so please leave a comment!



Thursday, February 8, 2018

Weapons Not in the PHB That Monsters Use

Some time ago, I posted a small supplement to the DM's Guild called Monster Weapons!

It is an adaptation of all the weapons used by monsters and NPCs that aren't in the PHB, so that players can use them. It's good for games where you or your players want a few more options for their weapons, or so you don't have to panic if a player decides to pick up whatever wacky weapons their defeated foe may have been using.

Click here to check it out!

It is pay-what-you-want, which basically means it is free! (Unless you want to send a few bucks my way, I won't complain.)


Some of my favorites:
  • Sword Cane
  • Scythe
  • Garrote
  • Clawed Gauntlet
  • Harpoon
  • Sharktoothed and Spiked Weapons

Please check it out and feel free to leave a comment or send me some feedback.

If they ever post some new monsters with different non-PHB weapons, expect an update! (I'm looking at you, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes!)