Category: homebrew

  • 5 Memorable Magical Trinkets (And Two Regrettable Items)

    5 Memorable Magical Trinkets (And Two Regrettable Items)

    Some magic items are memorable because they were the object of a lengthy quest. Some magic items are memorable because they were used in a pivotal moment. And some are memorable because they are dumb…

  • Monster: Ethereal Life-Draining Spirits

    Monster: Ethereal Life-Draining Spirits

    Picture a black, malevolent spirit with flowing tendrils and stretched-out limbs like a starfish the size of a monkey. Picture it latched on to someone’s back, slowly draining their life force away, feeding the energy to the mother creature to breed more of such spirits. And picture them invisible.

  • Better Nature Themed Monsters: More Than Entangle

    Better Nature Themed Monsters: More Than Entangle

    Friends, we all like a sinister vine that softly creeps up behind someone and snakes around their ankle. I take no issue with this. What I take issue with is that plant monsters have nothing better than entangle…

  • House Rules

    House Rules

    A game should be alive. It should breathe. Like a recipe, it offers a baseline which can be adjusted to suit one’s taste. And thus was born the house rules. Here are the house rules frequently used at my table.

  • Combat System for Text-Based D&D

    Combat System for Text-Based D&D

    I am currently running a text-based solo adventure for a friend, and the delay between messages is often several days. If not weeks. This causes a dilemma. Combat in D&D is notoriously time-consuming…

  • Low Level Nature Dungeon

    Low Level Nature Dungeon

    From one perspective, every time characters journey through the wilderness, they are in a natural dungeon. The walls are made of rivers, cliff edges, and tree lines, and the traps are predators that lie in wait for easy prey. But for most of us, when we want a dungeon we…

  • The First Rule of Being a Goblin is that a Dead Person Does Not Need a Sword

    The First Rule of Being a Goblin is that a Dead Person Does Not Need a Sword

    Several years ago I asked a group of friends if they wanted to play a short campaign as goblin characters. It turned out to be one of the dumbest, most severely railroaded games I have ever run, but parts of it were also quite enjoyable…

  • Two-Headed Snake Stat Block

    Two-Headed Snake Stat Block

    Here is the two-headed snake that I did not get to use because my players were clever enough to skip the mini boss and head straight into the serpents’ nest…

  • Campaign: Rise of the Serpentines

    Campaign: Rise of the Serpentines

    Many years ago the people of the Smoldering Isles were conquered and subjugated by a truly evil people of serpentine form. Here are their stat blocks and an epic adventure outline in which they seek to rule again.