cross-posted from: https://mastodon.social/users/Imperor/statuses/111595314982620499

I'm re-reading The Hobbit at the moment. Gandalf might not be a conjurer of cheap tricks, because he's only packing the expensive, high-caliber stuff.

@rpgmemes
@imperor@lemmy.world

#tolkien #meme #hobbit #gandalf #wizard #fantasy #badlydrawn #dnd

Hello everyone!

After finishing up The Everfog - Field of Spears I got to work on the next single quest module named Mother of Loam

In this one you and your table are going to try and help the town of Brockenbrook reclaim their sleep and venture into the haunted Brockenbrack swamps.

The art prompt and additional illustrations in the PDF were generously supplied by ZebraFeatherAH over on Mastodon. Do give them a look and say hi, if you like their work.

The quick adventure / quest comes as a full PDF and audio transcript.

Hope you enjoy!

Hello everyone!

A few weeks ago I had an idea for a bit of a creative challenge and collaboration to create single quest modules for ttrpgs. I approached some lovely artists over on Mastodon and some agreed to give this a go. Since I mainly play DND, it's d20 compatible, but can be adopted into (probably) anything.

The idea is simple: An artist creates or gives me a piece they've made already without any context or further information. I take what I can see and write a single quest module inspired by the artwork.

The Everfog - Field of Spears is the very first one and it's slightly spooky, halloween-y. Another one (with a similar atmosphere) will be released in the next two weeks.

https://impheim.com/2023/10/the-everfog-field-of-spears-a-single-quest-ttrpg-module/

Here's the first paragraph from the (free) 4-page PDF:

A mysterious and ancient sickly green pyramid sits at the center of the crater atop the mountain Kaal. The crater is eternally covered in a thick and impenetrable fog that seeps over its edges into the surrounding lowlands. Those that are caught in the fog never return and their bodies are never found. The people living near the phenomenon call it “The Everfog”, as it never seems to dissipate. The people are weary and keep away from the fog, crater and pyramid, saying they are cursed or worse.

You can find the full PDF in the blogpost this post links to, as well as a complete audio transcript of the PDF on the blog or over on YouTube.

Please also consider checking out the artist and giving them some support: https://mastodon.social/@trizadella

This is free for you to use in your (non-commercial) campaign. All we ask is that, if you like it - or want more of it, go and give everyone involved some love and help share it around!

Good day everyone, hope you're doing well!

I've made a new video and blog post on the topic of how to deal with sessions where people can't make it.

My solution is fairly simple but effective: The Woven Dream, a state of dreaming where party members experience shared dreams. Besides allowing the group to play instead of skipping a session, it also allows you to really dig into the background of any (or all) of the present characters.

It's not something that'll work every time, but it has served me really well, and I wanted to share the idea with you.

I've also taken the feedback from this and other communities around here and my stuff isn't just videos anymore, but blog posts as well and the blog posts have a full audio narration of the blog post for those that prefer podcasts or to account for accessibility.

Hope it gives you some inspiration!

Blog post with full audio transcript: https://impheim.com/2023/09/skip-or-play-a-solution-to-sessions-with-missing-players/

YT Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol-8-P3YSBY

Good day everyone, hope you're doing well!

I've made a new video and blog post on the topic of how to deal with sessions where people can't make it.

My solution is fairly simple but effective: The Woven Dream, a state of dreaming where party members experience shared dreams. Besides allowing the group to play instead of skipping a session, it also allows you to really dig into the background of any (or all) of the present characters.

It's not something that'll work every time, but it's served me really well, and I wanted to share the idea with you.

I've also taken the feedback from this and other communities around here and my stuff isn't just videos anymore, but blog posts as well and the blog posts have a full audio narration of the blog post for those that prefer podcasts or to account for accessibility.

Hope it gives you some inspiration!

Blog post: https://impheim.com/2023/09/skip-or-play-a-solution-to-sessions-with-missing-players/

YT Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol-8-P3YSBY

Hey everyone!

As a DM, I struggle a lot with juggling all the various things the party should get and receive. One of my greater shortcomings has been dealing with magic items.

So to help myself deal with that, I've been working on a little system to approach magic items differently. The basic idea is that instead of only letting players loot, be rewarded with or buy magic items, the dungeon master could go and enchant the equipment that the characters already have.

This could mean taking a magic item that exists and applying those effects to what they have through various means or creating effects that are fully tailored to not just the character but also the player.

The enchantments could come from external sources or even the pure power of the character who carries it.

Here's the blog post going into some depth on it all and including some examples: https://impheim.com/2023/09/magic-items-in-ttrpgs-embrace-enchantments/

And here's the little video I made on the topic: https://youtu.be/GSnCd2Mbr9U

Let me know what you think and if you have any questions!

Based on a true story:

The Knucklebiter Gnat must be defeated before attempting to go to sleep. If the character fails to destroy it, it will harass them all night and instead of getting the benefits of a long rest, they will gain one point of exhaustion.

It's a fun little thing, I think. Everytime the characters find it (investigation/perception vs. its Stealth) they get to make 1 attack against it. If it is not killed, the character may try again.

Add more Gnats until the characters give up and simply don't care.

Next day hit them with the exhaustion. From now on, you can force your party to have to fight Knucklebiter Gnats now and again because it'll be horribly annoying not to and, as people in real life, they'll get increasingly irritated and extreme in their measures to try and hunt those little monsters down.

Ideal for swamp, temperate and desert climates.

Bonus for storytelling: After a night with one of those around, narrate every failed skill check or attack with "You cannot concentrate due to the horribly itchy bites left by the Knucklebiter Gnat. Being this distracted, you fail to spot the trap."

I shared one of my battle-maps in some places just now (first time for that, really) and got the request to maybe share the full uncompressed version.

My battle-maps tend to be on the larger side and can easily go beyond 15-20mb at times.

I have two issues, mainly where I could use some pointers and input:

1. I don't want to lose all my rights (not even implicitly due to some vague TOS or EULA shenanigans) where I upload to and I am not willing to use any Google or Microsoft related services (nor any of the other large IT related companies, really - hence why I use the fediverse).
2. I'd like to be sure I'm not just clogging someones server up with huge files like lemmy for example. Feels wrong to upload such huge files to a free service.

Got any advice? Should I use something like a (free) Patreon maybe?

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone!

First time I'm sharing one of my maps. Figured, I'd give it a shot, since I am very pleased with the outcome on this one and I made all ships from scratch in Dungeondraft using Forgotten Adventure Assets.

You get the grid version (very light grid).

Hope it's good for someone and useful as such!