This week on the Campaign Trail, I thought I’d look at casting spells underwater. The core rules don’t worry about casting spells underwater too much and the main debate on this topic usually focuses on if can you cast a ...

One of the exciting things about writing an aquatic setting is that there are whole creature types that don’t have a single aquatic or swimming creature in the Monster Manual, VGTM, or MTOF. Fiends, for instance. There have been aquatic ...

“Noisy Person Cards”, aka: NPC, is a “Cards Against Humanity”/”Apples to Apples” style game that offers a fun and funny game for everyone, while allowing improv actors, gamers, and just about any parent who reads to their child a place to ...

With the announcement of the 5e OGL/SRD and some potential changes in my work life, I’ll be taking a short hiatus from The Game Room and From the Depths. Look for announcements on new projects, PDFs, and more coming soon! ...

A dear friend of mine asked me to run a 5e adventure for his kids over the holiday. It will be their first official D&D game, though since their dad is a video game designer they are more than familiar with ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Sendrians are a sea lion-like sentient species from the Star Wars Expanded Universe (SWEU). An aquatic parallel to the centaur, the sendrians have a humanoid torso connected to a sea lion’s lower body. Effectively a marine mammal species, the most interesting aspect of ...

Whether an ancient race or the rare child of an inflicted parent, natural lycanthropes (as opposed to infected lycanthropes) can add a level of intrigue, fear, and drama to your campaign. Systems like Werewolf: The Apocalypse, settings like Kobold Press’ ...