Fantasy Heartbreak Workshop

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...

Disclaimer: Any views indicated here are from my own amateurish lay study of the subjects. Please consult an appropriate theologian or appropriate lore source for more accurate information on real-world religious and cultural beliefs and practices. On Twitter Kiel Chenier asked : One thing I struggle to do in #dnd5e is use gods effectively. Gods and pantheons never really interested me. Chalk it up to growing up around abusive zealots. As a consequence I often use fantasy religion as an evil force in my rpg writing, which feels limiting now. How fix? In response Erik Jensesn suggested : Hang out with some people of faith (who you get along with) who don't have those same scars and chat about how their religious practice intersects their daily living. As someone "of faith" who has been largely insulated throughout my early life from abusive zealots, this is something I've struggled with myself over the years, at least in the way that D&D clearic-type-ma...

This is inspired by, if not probably the most direct response to, Catty Big's inquiry regarding a 5th edition review.  It's also heavily rambling, so hold on to your hats. My tastes in D&D and it's ilk are pretty eclectic.  As with music I rarely like all of one thing, but tend to find certain things I really like in most products.  Below are general impressions of several editions and related products.  Keep in mind these are all subjective feelings and not deep analyses.  Your mileage may vary. Caveat:  Sometimes I like to build for lots of damage or one thing or another. But usually I'm not too fussy about balance, as long as I feel my character's abilities haves something interesting to contribute both inside and outside of combat. Swords & Wizardry (0th edition retroclone) Advantages:  Small and pretty straightforward.  Pared down and easy to tinker with. Disadvantages:  Some bits still feel a bit cobbled together an...

Having run and played in a weekly 4th Edition game for about nine months at this point, I feel like I've got a basic sense of the system at this point, at least over the first few levels.  And while play isn't abysmally awful, I have had issues with a few aspects, mainly revolving around the omnipresence and tedium of combat. However, other folks in the local group seem to enjoy the system well enough.  And 4E does have some interesting settings and material I would appreciate the opportunity to mine (Gamma World & Dark Sun in particular). So, with that in mind I've come up with a few, five, patches I'm hoping to try out in the foreseeable future, once the current adventure path wraps up.  These are each intended to deal with specific issues, hopefully revamping them with an "old school" sensibility, but without gutting the system entirely. 1)  Combats take forever.  Characters will almost certainly win against all but the most extreme opponents, bu...

Recording couple ideas I had on combat resources and other considerations for mundane combatants, culled from this thread , for future refernce: In this instance my own sense of verisi-simulat-emersio-reality would be better preserved if these sorts of things (and "sand bagging") got a special label like "tricks" and combatants got a chance to attempt each once per opponent (or per combat if all opponents are observing carefully) without penalty. Alternately (or additionally) some sort of "heroic exertion" system could be used to track how worn out a character becomes after each physically demanding attempt. And of course it's all just personal preference, but to me: Encounter/Dailies say, "You will not succeed at this task if you tried it once"; while increasing difficulty says, "Your chances are pretty slim, but if you think you can pull it off: Shoot the moon!" And Encounter/Dailies also say, "You can only ...

I'm not a big fan of fire and forget powers, but those that wear down a resource over time I can get behind.   So, harking back to the reserves mechanic , a random idea: Using an at will power is same as usual Using an encounter power costs a number of hit points equal to the power level. Using a daily power costs a number of hit points equal to twice the power level. Again, this is is an attempt to not keep hit points from simply representing ablative damage endurance, and return them to being what they've nominally represented all along:  stamina and accumulated luck.  In this case they can also represent mystical sway.

Reading the recent Alexandrian post on saving throws and following -C's comment link to a previous Hack & Slash post , has me thinking about saving throws again. (For further related reading Hack & Slash: On New Old School saves is also of interest.) I have to admit I'm a big fan of the 3E breakdown of saving throws.  I played a year or so under 2E and the abstraction -C finds so useful, I viewed as an incomprehensible mess with little rhyme or reason. The applications of these saves aren't intuitively obvious to everyone.  I remember looking at the save tables in 2E baffled as to why characters got the saves they did.  And even in cases where it was easy to intuitively grasp why a character might have one given save better than another, I was still puzzled as to which save would best cover any given effect if it fell under the aegis of multiple categories. When Fortitude/Reflex/Will came along in 3E it seemed like a breath of fresh air. It may be that ...

Since this is a place to collect and annotate the various projects I have in the works, and maybe give them some focus, now seems like a good time to actually outline what the cellars currently include. But first a little background as to where this stuff will be coming from: Old School D&D - I'd always liked the aesthetic of old school D&D related games,  for most of my life generally chalking it up to nostalgia and a love for low-brow fantasy art. Gamma World 4th Edition - (no, not Gamma World D&D 4th Ed., which is actually Gamma World's 7th Edition) is my favorite iteration of the post-apocalyptic genre, though several of the others have their moments (e.g. 7th Edition's two-background system). 3E - I liked a lot of things about how 3E and it's relatives cleaned up and standardized things.  Also my little freeloading communist* heart finds the open game movement a thing of joy. 4E - D&D 4th Edition may have a few interesting elements he...