DM's Guild Archives - Tribality

DM’s Guild Spotlight: Make-Up Mayhem

Brandes Stoddard — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 18:27:28 +0000

I’m highlighting a new DM’s Guild release today: “Make-Up Mayhem” by Sharang Biswas, with illustrations by Mary Georgescu. This supplement offers six cosmetics-themed magic items and one cosmetics-themed monster for 5e, priced at $1.99. Sharang is a friend of mine and I received this review copy for free, but I don’t feel that those things have significantly colored my commentary here. First off, I appreciate the pitch of this product. “Cosmetic” is a word that we often use in game […]

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Tribality Publishing – Level Up Your Background

Brandes Stoddard — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 14:38:50 +0000

Your Background Is More Than Who You Were We have a new publication on the DM’s Guild, as of last Friday. This is Tribality Publishing’s third DM’s Guild product. Level Up Your Background is written by Brandes Stoddard, with editing by Stephen Cheney and layout by Dave Jumaquio. For some characters, their background represents their lives when they aren’t in the dungeon or out saving the world. It includes aspects of ambitions, their place in society, and their recognized authority. […]

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The Great Dale: Unapproachable East Campaign Guide Review

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 12:00:11 +0000

The Unapproachable East has always been one of my favorite regions of the Forgotten Realms, dating back to the excellent Spellbound boxed set of 2e and Unapproachable East of 3.x. This PDF, by Joe Raso and a team of contributing writers, offers a 5e update focused on the Great Dale. Rashemen, Thay, and Aglarond matter here, but this isn’t mainly about those. I received a free review copy. Overview There’s a lot of different content in this book. It’s the […]

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Morgrave Miscellany Breakdown, Part Two

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 15:43:19 +0000

Last week, I started in on a breakdown and review of Morgrave Miscellany by Keith Baker and Ruty Rutenberg, covering the first handful of subclasses. Today I’m picking up where I left off, at the beginning of the Monk section. Barbarian – Fighter | Monk – Wizard Monk As usual, the flavor text explaining how each subclass fits into Eberron is straight-up great – I don’t know how else to put it. I particularly like the warforged monk Living […]

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Morgrave Miscellany Breakdown, Part One

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 13:47:08 +0000

Last year I worked my way through the Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron, which brought Eberron into 5e. Keith Baker, Ruty Rutenberg, and a team of other contributors now offer a collection of subclasses and… you know what, even summarizing the rest of the content is daunting (that’s a good thing). It’s a ton of different ways to enrich characterization of people, places, and things. The book’s conceit is that it is a discussion of classes available at Morgrave University in […]

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Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron Breakdown

Brandes Stoddard — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 02:07:51 +0000

Following the UA breakdown of the races of Eberron, I’m now continuing into a review/breakdown of the full document. I received my review copy for free through Tribality. As I suggested before, I am a staunch fan of Eberron, so to the extent that this is a review, I’m already positively inclined toward it. Eberron 5e Given that I’ve covered the races, dragonmarks and magic items are the only other major mechanics to explore. For the most part, it’s flavor […]

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DDAL: Fire, Ash, and Ruin Review

Brandes Stoddard — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 12:00:00 +0000

A few months ago, James Haeck released the Fire, Ash, and Ruin on the DM’s Guild. It’s an Adventurer’s League module for 11th-16th level characters. Before I even dig into the text, two things: one, I worked with James repeatedly while he was the editor for EN5IDER (which won’t influence this review, but… disclosure); and two, I’m a fan of any support for third-tier play. I know very little about the constraints of the Adventurer’s League, though, so I’ll mostly […]

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Encounters in the Savage Jungles Review

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 13:00:31 +0000

Encounters in the Savage Jungles is a hefty (80-page) PDF, released on the DM’s Guild as a supplement to Tomb of Annihilation (or any other jungle content) for $6.95. It’s a collection of 38 encounters (23 full-length, 15 quick hits, some bonus maps toward the end), which is a lot more than I’m going to cover in depth. Instead, I’m covering the first 8 encounters with a paragraph or two. This book explicitly requires both ToA and Volo’s Guide to […]

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5e Content Strategy: 2017 Update

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 17 Aug 2017 10:00:00 +0000

Just over a year ago, I wrote about the 5e content strategy, discussing the confluence of the DM’s Guild, the OGL, and the incredibly slow rate of official 5e releases. In this article, I’m exploring what we’ve seen from WotC in the past year, including announced but not yet released products, with particular focus on the newly-announced Guild Adept program. What I have to say on that topic comes out of my experience as a freelance writer, with a fair […]

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Fifth Edition’s Content Strategy

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 11:35:15 +0000

In various communities around the internet, I’ve seen a lot of people complain about WotC’s glacially slow publication schedule for 5e, often suggesting that they do not understand why WotC is making these choices. I don’t have any insider knowledge, but I pay attention to what people like Mike Mearls, Monte Cook, and Ryan Dancey have said, and I’ve watched the successes and failures of other content models. If it helps my credibility, I did successfully predict the DM’s Guild […]

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