dmg Archives - Tribality

Five Magic Items to Inspire Player Creativity

Rachel Phimphivong — Fri, 13 Mar 2020 22:15:41 +0000

Magic items are a huge part of any Dungeons & Dragons game. Players love getting them. DMs love giving them. They are a more tangible reward from a party’s adventuring than a sack of gold coins ever could be. Items such as a +1 longsword or Staff of Power provide a clear mechanical benefit, but what about magic items with less obvious uses? Those can be the best, most memorable kind. It’s a challenge for the players to think outside […]

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Asymmetrical D&D: Ravenloft-ish

Colin McLaughlin — Sun, 20 Jan 2019 14:00:58 +0000

A work-in-progress look at one potential solution to run an asymmetrical D&D 5e game with local and remote players who are on vastly different time zones.

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Thanksgiving Treats for 5e

Colin McLaughlin — Thu, 22 Nov 2018 19:25:00 +0000

Happy American Thanksgiving! Holidays are a magical experience. Fights break out with your racist family members. You cry over childhood trauma. Your family sits awkwardly with your aunt’s eighth husband and act like he’ll stick this time, while already forgetting his name. You also eat delicious food and feel horrible about yourself later. This is truly the American holiday experience. Luckily, adventurers are more active than the majority of us, their evil family members are probably liches instead of racist, […]

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Five Magic Items with Spooky ATOMBments

Colin McLaughlin — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 15:12:22 +0000

A look at five magic items for use with D&D 5e that require something more than a standard attunement slot. Also, it's October so they are spooky!

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5e Magic Item Patterns for Alternate Crafting: The A’s

Colin McLaughlin — Thu, 27 Sep 2018 15:44:49 +0000

Alright, here we go. We’re back, and we’re finishing up all the rest of the SRD A’s for magic items. It’s a long list, covering a lot of very cool items. As before, I include my notes as to my design ideas behind them, and how to vary the patterns up for your own game use. As always, the hope is these patterns can be a direct port into any game world, but I have been around long enough to […]

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5e Magic Item Patterns for Alternate Crafting: The Strange and Legendary

Colin McLaughlin — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 15:10:55 +0000

As it turns out, I was a liar last week when I said I would finish the A’s this week. Not because I just didn’t finish the A’s, either. Instead, I realize legendary, game-altering, strange items are still waiting for coverage. The pattern system should be flexible enough to tackle the items without much effort, while conveying a strong sense of purpose behind each of them. As luck would have it, the next three items alphabetically cover exactly the gap […]

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5e Magic Item Patterns for Alternate Crafting: Part Two

Colin McLaughlin — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 15:46:27 +0000

I don’t know if you know this, but there are a lot of magic items in D&D 5e. We’re talking into the hundreds. I was thinking I’d knock out a couple a week, but I obviously underestimated the amount of magic items in the SRF. I’m fully aware sixty some-odd articles on a single topic is probably too much for anyone to reasonably want to consume. No matter how interesting I think the content is, ain’t nobody got time for […]

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The Bones of Kovach – Alternate Crafting for 5e

Colin McLaughlin — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 14:03:30 +0000

An alternative non-character level based crafting system for D&D 5e, as well as a look at crafting in the world of the Far Realm and the Zodiac.

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Seven Magical Ranged Weapons That Aren’t Bows

Colin McLaughlin — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 13:00:41 +0000

If you are like me, you love ranged weapons - but are tired of bows. If so, check out these seven magical ranged weapons for D&D 5e that aren't bows.

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Relationship Maps and Social Progress

Colin McLaughlin — Wed, 23 May 2018 13:00:32 +0000

In the comments of this excellent article by Blake Ryan, I speak a little bit about some of the session zero stuff I use in the online game I run. As it turns out, the reason I haven’t yet written an article on this is because I thought I already did write an article on it. However, it doesn’t seem to be the case. I wrote one for the transmissions of Technoir, but apparently never did one for the thing […]

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