Fantasy Heartbreak Workshop

On Reddit recently, user wittmitin described a plane of existence : It is the realm of the Shapeshifters and is made of an ever-shifting forest of mist and reflection. It is very easy to get lost inside. And requested details which would make the place an interesting experience. This seemed like a fun opportunity to brainstorm, and below is what I came up with.

This was originally in response to the question: What are some villainous factions for a D&D campaign? Below you'll find just a bunch of well meaning folks who believe they're on the right side of history. The Trans-Planar Liberation Front (a.k.a. “The Egg Breakers”) Slogan: Crack the shell and let all fly free! The Trans-Planar Liberation Front has one goal: Break down the barriers which separate the prime material plane from all the others and set all those who live here free to wander among the planes as they will. They view the mortal realms as a prison, or at best a creche where overprotective parents have kept their children cooped up too long. This isn’t how souls of sapient creatures were meant to live! Surely everyone longs for the wild lands beyond this existence. If this was a personal goal of the members, things might be fine. But the TPLF view all mortals inhabiting the material plane as prisoners, even if they don’t realize it yet. So members s...

Someone on Quora had asked  How would you stat a wendigo in D&D 5e? And I kept thinking there were already stats for a Wendigo, or something like it. But digging through, the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition official sources, I couldn't readily find them. So, with minimal research and a little brainstorming, came up the ideas below. Wikipedia  says of wendigos: The wendigo is described as a monster with some characteristics of a human or as a spirit who has possessed a human being and made them become monstrous. Its influence is said to invoke acts of murder, insatiable greed, cannibalism and the cultural taboos against such behaviors. ... Basil H. Johnston, an Ojibwe teacher and scholar from Ontario, gives a description of a wendigo: The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tightly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash-gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets,...

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...

Awhile back now, Ann (of DIY & Dragons ) and I were chatting about Traveller RPG character creation, specifically the fact that players can roll a result that ends in character death during creation. Traditionally, at that point one starts the character creation process over again. But what if, we speculated, you did not start with a new living character?  What if rolling death merely changed the focus of the game? A series of adventures with undead astronauts in a dark secondary universe took place? We were both intrigued by the idea, but (to me at least) it seemed like the sort of thing that could take a lot of work and an entire setting to flesh out. And, at the time, due to other commitments, didn't find much time to pursue it further. But every now and then I'd jot down a couple notes about the sort of elements one might find in such a basement-universe setting. The results gradually became influenced probably less by Traveller and more other favorite space o...

(continued from Part 1 ) . . . but that was Tolkien's world. There does seem a strong trend in the current era of trying to humanize the Other. In a lot of senses I think this is a good impulse. I suspect that viewing other living creatures (and people in particular) as having more than just a material value, makes one take a greater interest in creating and maintaining beneficial institutions. Empathizing with those not like oneself and feeling some bond of fellowship is both important in society and provides interesting narrative opportunities. In the real world I feel we need to love and respect other humans, even treat animals well. But I always feel a little cautious about ascribing such human traits to non-humans.  In the real world I think many folks make a distinction: Human: Intelligent. Capable of culture, self-reflection, empathy and caring. Is inherently worthy of some measure of respect. Animal: Less intelligent. Culture? Self-reflection? Empathy? Maybe wo...

Emmy Allen's posting about Orcs, Violence and Evil , got me thinking about this issue again. So the following is probably less a response, and more a bunch of rambling thoughts inspired by it. Also, though I've read Lord of the Rings again recently, her Tolkien lore rating (and your own, dear reader) may be higher than mine, so with a grain of salt: Big "E" Evil as Emmy's post characterizes it is a rare thing innate to certain alien non-person entities: a monomania or existential necessity for specific innately destructive or corrupting concepts, similar to other beings of alien mindset or more akin to elemental forces. I find this idea interesting, and have enjoyed stories where this was the case in the past. But reading the post gave me an urge to do a more in-depth compare and contrast of the idea against how evil and personhood appear in the Lord of the Rings trilogy itself. Few of the powerful supernatural beings in LotR quite start out as monomaniacal ...

Apparently St. Patrick was involved in the writing of Swords & Wizardry, since there seems to be a paucity of snakes in the product.  As Andy Vann pointed out this is sort of a problem when casting the Sticks to Snakes spell. As a remedy to this oversight, please examine the inscriptions on the Stele of Yig .

No. Enc.: 1d2 Alignment: Neutral Movement: 60' (20') Armor Class: 5 Hit Dice: 6 Attacks: 1 (puncture) Damage: 2d6 Save: F6 Morale: 4 Hoard Class: (special) XP: 820 These large, 30' long worms adhere to the ceiling, and have natural camoflage to blend in to rock surfaces.  Their "head" consists of a large (500gp) diamond where a mouth would normally be, surrounded by a ring of a dozen or so piercingly intelligent eyes.  They will normally not be seen unless someone intentionally looks at the ceiling. Their presence in dungeon environments, derives from the extreme boredom of their natural place in life (rending rock to make food with their oversized diamond).  They are there for the entertainment.  Watching.  Just watching, with a wry and piercing gaze. Although they have no natural mode of speach, any method devised to speak with them reveals rapier-like wit and caustic sense of humor.  Although a gimlet-eyed worm will be perfectly happy to...

The Lords of the Shash are monarchs and vassals of a bygone age, at once fae and undead.  They come from a hundred different cultures and the legends about them both abound and conflict.  They symbolize hubris, bravery against impossible odds, fatalism, war against fate, conflict with the natural order, failing of the natural order, the folly of excess, the vanity of worldly glory, the corrupting influence of faery, and a dozen other themes.  Some tellings have them once being human or of other ancient race, other stories claim the Shash merely ape the human form as do other fae. Sometimes they appear of noble bearing, but there is always some element of corruption or death about them.  This could be a wound that will not stop bleeding, a face pocked by active plague symptoms, maggots falling from clothing, arms and head bound as with burial cloth, colorless gray skin and raiment, listlessness and fatigue when encountering sites related to death and burial, partial...