Aquatic Allies: Karkinoi (aka What Makes a Race?)
There are a number of excellent blogs and podcasts about creating campaign worlds, from our own Shawn Ellsworth’s World Building series, to James Introcaso’s World Builder blog, and the Dungeon Master’s Block Creation and Inspiration episodes. Not long after joining Tribality I ...
Christmas Themed Adventures – 2015 Update
When I went looking for a Yule/Holiday/Christmas one-shot adventure, I was surprised to see there wasn’t a ton of content out there. Here is the list of what I was able to find, updated with some new items for 2015. ...
Adventure Time for D&D 5e – Part 2: Classes
Back in 2014, I ran a 4th edition D&D game set in Adventure Time‘s Land of Ooo. I used a fantastic Adventure Time homebrew mod of D&D 4e, by Bloodghost, to run the game. Last week I wrote about new ...
Adventure Time for D&D 5e – Part 1: Species
Back in 2014, I ran a 4th edition D&D game set in the world of Adventure Time. I used a fantastic Adventure Time homebrew mod of D&D 4e, by Bloodghost, to run the game. After writing about post-apocalyptic fantasy settings ...
Novel Inspiration: Kaminoans for 5th edition
The kaminoan species in the Star Wars universe played an integral role in the fall of the Galactic Republic and rise of the Empire. The victims of a near-genocidal flood after their planet’s most-recent Ice Age, the kaminoans turned to highly ...
New 5e Feats – Advanced Healer, Martial Arts Training, Survivalist
One of my favorite parts about 5th edition is the incorporation of soft-multiclassing feats which allow players to create a variety of themes without watering down their core class. One of my least favorite things is how Medicine is a ...
Werewolf Prestige Class for D&D 5e
Prestige classes were introduced in third edition as a further means of individualizing a character. A recent Unearthered Arcana article introduced playtest material for us to create Prestige Classes for D&D 5th Edition. I’m working with one of my players who ...
Tribal Knowledge: Sculpting a Boss Fight
I’m taking a week off from the history of the Ranger class to talk about encounter design, an under-appreciated art within the broader work of game-running. Tabletop games, like video games, have long had a concept of a “boss fight,” ...
Horrors of the Aboleth: Protoaboleth
I love the aboleth. As a villain for aquatic campaigns there are few better, but when building up to an epic invasion or major climax there are few creatures easily accessible to the DM. Below is the protoaboleth, a Challenge ...
In Defense of Skill Challenges
This article was referenced recently on the Talking TableTop podcast and originally appeared on www.gameschangelives.com. I’ve overhauled the original 4th ed version for 5th edition to showcase the many ways skills, tool kits, spells, and even backgrounds can be used ...