Fantasy Heartbreak Workshop

Working on Creatures & Catacombs today and finally realizing this is definitely not going to end up the minimalist dream I'd originally intended.  While trying to give at least a little description to the various PC races, the idea of language came up, and I started wondering if I should include Thieve's Cant.  This further got me wondering what the heck a "cant" even is. Wikipedia turned up the definition: A cant, cryptolect, argot, anti-language or secret language is the jargon or language of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead people outside the group. Each term differs slightly in meaning, and their use is inconsistent. This was frankly fascinating.  It inspires the idea of sub-languages spoken by various in-groups concealing the secret or semi-secret in broad daylight.  Not sure I'll manage to include this gracefully when running my own sessions, but I'd like to put the idea in there so it's available if I need it.  The real tempt...

Another response to a  Quora question . Choose one or roll 1d20: 1) Dragons are the bower birds of the monster world. They need to make their lairs as shiny and full of cool stuff as possible to attract a mate. 2) The riddle: In marble walls as white as milk, Lined with a skin as soft as silk; Within a fountain crystal clear, A golden apple doth appear. No doors there are to this stronghold, Yet thieves break in and steal the gold. Actually alludes to dragon eggs, the embryos of which require gold during certain developmental stages. 3) There was once a more common form of vegetation called Glintweed, whose leaves had an iridescent sheen when viewed in direct sunlight. For various reasons this plant functioned as ideal nesting material for dragons. Unfortunately, as humanoids began to mine large quantities of precious metal ores, dragons started running into a variant of the dragonfly / oil problem : To the instinctual side of a dragon’s brain, lustrous highe...

A Quora user asked the question: In DND, can a Tiefling be born from two human parents? My answer to any question along these lines is almost always going to be: Yes! (setting norms permitting) To find out why mummy and daddy are human and you're not, pick or roll 1d20: Thauma-genetic manipulation at the fertility clinic. Surrogate birth. Cuckoo demon left an extra bun in their oven while no one was looking. Your twin sibling looks perfectly human though. Parents made a pact with the Infernal powers, dedicating their next child to the Grand & Decadent Cause. (ANGSTY TEEN TIEFLING: Jeez! Lay off mom and dad! I don't wanna do your stupid dark destiny plans!) One of your parents used to be an infernal pact warlock before you were born. They turned from that path a long time ago, repented, and tried to make amends for the things they did during those times. But a part of the pact they'd overlooked ensured their first born would be a Tiefling. So here you are...

I've come to realize that most of the RPG related ideas I come up with end up shuffled away to some forgotten corner of Quora, never to be seen again.  So, to collect them all in one place for easier reference, a few of those I liked better are getting transferred here. If you found an ancient Dwarven cookbook in a long forgotten ruins in Dungeons and Dragons, what recipes might you find? Recipes and cooking advice found in dwarven cookbooks tends to fall into one or more of the following categories: References to rare monsters (ones not listed in the MM, or listed by an untranslated dwarven name), but only described in detail as to how to gut and cook them. Might mention poison glands or horns or such, but not always directly helpful in identifying how to combat the thing. References to some highly prized ingredient (like Silphium) which was key for so many things, ultra healthy and made everything better, but which can no longer be identified. May not exist anymore or i...