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OSRIC 3.0 Player Guide released
https://attronarch.com/news-osric-3-0-player-guide-released?pk%5C_campaign=rss-feed

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Looking back at my past campaigns, the ones I've had the most fun running (and which were arguably the most successful) were the ones where the PCs could take a fairly sandboxy approach to exploring a wilderness region. I'd like to develop a new campaign like this again one day, but what I could use for such a campaign is an interesting premise. I am ruling the following premises out:

• Adventurers plundering old ruins for profit: Too trite.
• Adenturer-archeologists uncovering the deep history of the region for academic bragging rights: A lot of fun, but I have done this before.
• Making the region "safe" for colonization and settlement: While the whole concept of "colonizing the frontier" provides plenty of interesting background drama for a campaign that I don't mind exploring, it is too ethically dubious to make the PCs take the side of the colonizers by default.

So, what other premises can you come up with that provide a justification for player characters to hang around a frontier region and explore it?

In my quest for ever-easier RPG introductions, I present:

• Choose-Your-Own-Trial is a CYOA[^1] where you're in jail, then on-trial. It introduces the system and gives you a tiny character sheet.
• Induction at the Temple of Beasts is a mini lore-dump in a short story (set after the trial).
• Another CYOA follows, where you hunt an albino basilisk who's definitely not Moby Dick.
• The 'Halfshots' are tiny modules which take about two hours to run.

Everything was made to be printed (so you can score through HP boxes with a pencil) but reading should be fine.

[^1]: A 'Choose-Your-Own-Adventure' book was a short book disguised as a long one, popular in the twentieth century. You make a choice at each paragraph to have the hero fight or flee or whatever by selecting the next paragraph you jump to.

I'm about to play a gnome illusion wizard and I'm researching (high INT!) creative uses for illusions.

A classic is an illusory wall to hide behind as enemies run past or cannot aim to you. Or make the pit seem to be somewhere else so they fall in as they charge you. Or fake allies for distraction.

We're playing Pathfinder 2e as 1st level characters. So technically that means the wizard has Figment (Ghost Sound), Illusory Object, and Prestidigitation at his disposal.

There are probably some cool illusion stories in this community?

Do you have a preferred play style?

Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc., and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more, so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

Inspired by Stranger Things and written by Mike Wheeler himself, this adventure drops your players into a monster hunt like no other. Summoned by Sir Tristan, ruler of a remote mountain realm, your party is tasked with tracking down a fearsome creature known as the Thessalhydra, which has attacked his castle and terrorized the land.

In Part 1, your players will explore a mysterious forest, encounter travelers, priests, and farmers, until they uncover the entrance to the troglodyte caverns. There, they can fight or negotiate their way deeper until they reach the ever-shifting Cursed Labyrinth. Should they solve the riddles of the mysterious Lost Knight, they will be greeted with a portal...to the Upside Down.

Without further ado:

• Google Docs Notes for Stranger Things (Part 1): DM Notes
• Link to: Stranger Things Adventure
• Link to: Stranger Things The Hunt for the Thessalhydra Playlist
• Link to: The AAA Collection

Included in The AAA Collection is:

• Downloadable copy of DM Notes, including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
• Special PDF for all encounters. This includes the enemy stat blocks organized neatly, along with an initiative tracker and spots to mark HP
• Custom Maps of Troglodyte Cavern

Over 7 dozen other Fully Prepped One-Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns: Click Here

As always, if you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc., please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early, feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,
Advent

I haven't played dnd since the 3-3.5 transition and I just found a new group to play with. I have a few ideas for characters and was hoping for some advice on one of them. The dm says that the group is story/rp driven and not to min-max. I'm supposed to use 2024 content if it's been reprinted but can use 5th edition content that hasn't been updated to 2024.

The character is a kobold genie warlock. He was born into a cult and was physically small and weak so he was mostly relegated to menial tasks and overlooked. He is charismatic and crafty so he survived in the cult by playing into the perception that he was unimportant and harmless. Because he was so nonthreatening he was trusted and the leader chose him to do things like cleaning the inner sanctuary. While cleaning the master's quarters he met a djinni that the master had bound to a vessel and enslaved for a long time. The djinni saw him as an opportunity. He befriended my character, telling him stories of life outside of the cult and teaching him new skills and magic. Over time my character came to trust the dijinni and the dijinni offered him a deal. If my character would help the dijinni escape then the dijinni would give my character what he most desired, the power to decide his own destiny. My character helped the dijinni escape and in return the dijinni altered his appearance and bound him to the dijinni as a warlock.

I would prioritize the character's abilities as charisma-wisdom-dex-intelligence-con-strength. For his background I was thinking acolyte and taking druid spells for the magic initiate feat. I would do the pact of the book for the first level invocation. This gives me a lot of cantrips and a few free first level spells and I would eldritch blast probably one other offensive cantrip but I would try to focus on utility spells. I would take goodberry for the free first level druid spell because I think that it fits well with the minimalist survival concept from the backstory.

I'm trying to leave things open to try to give the DM as much opportunity as possible to work what she wants to into the game. It's probably a dragon cult since the character is a kobold but it doesn't have to be. The size of the cult could be whatever it needs to be, it could be stand-alone or part of a larger organization. Why did the dijinni bind the character instead of just giving him power? Does he want the character to do something specific? Does he just like him? What's the djinni's plans? Does he want revenge on the cult? Does he want to build his own cult?

To those unfamiliar, Sam attempted to create a real-time play-by-post wargame set on Mothership’s best module, but he accidentally created an enormous text-only LARP instead.

I think this blog post is among the better ones if you never heard of this before.