domain Archives - Tribality

Unearthed Arcana: Order Domain Breakdown

Brandes Stoddard — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 03:36:43 +0000

As you may already know, Mearls has been livestreaming his rapid-fire game design efforts lately, in Happy Fun Hour. I’ve only seen a few of them myself, but his commentary on their design thinking as he works is great. Sometimes it confirms what I expected, but there are surprises too. (Did you know that a lot of the barbarian’s design decisions are about rogue multiclassing concerns?) I hope we’ll see more of his Happy Fun Hour work brought to completion […]

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Modular Base Construction in D&D 5e

Colin McLaughlin — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 13:00:08 +0000

If domain management daunts you, take a look at some RTS-inspired guidelines for module base construction for use in D&D 5e.

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Domain Rulership, Part Thirteen

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 13:00:57 +0000

There I was, confidently announcing the end of the Domain Rulership series, when one of my readers reminded me that not only were there products I had agreed to examine in this series, but I had a copy sitting around gathering e-dust. Then I said, “But my second child is about to be born, so it probably won’t be soon.” But, funny story, if you’re not specifically inducing labor, it might be today or a week from today, so I’m […]

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Unearthed Arcana: Divine Domains Breakdown

Brandes Stoddard — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 04:13:18 +0000

One of these days, I’ll start managing two-article weeks again, and my columns will return to their normal schedule. This is the week of America’s favorite secular food holiday, and I’ll be mostly or entirely offline Wednesday evening through Saturday morning, so this week is not the one. Today, though, Rogers and Hammerstein have Unearthed new Arcana for us: three new domains for clerics. Where barbarians and bards were two of the classes narrowest in options, the cleric stands tied […]

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Domain Rulership, Part Eleven

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 12:00:23 +0000

Last time in this series, I wrote about some additional ACKS content and Sine Nomine’s An Echo, Resounding, with full-throated praise for both. Today I’m covering a domain rulership system entirely separate from D&D: Green Ronin’s Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, by Robert Schwalb. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past twenty years, this title tells you that it presents rules for roleplaying in the setting of George R. R. Martin’s series of novels, based […]

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Domain Rulership, Part Nine

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 12:44:00 +0000

You know, there have been a lot more domain-management systems published for D&D, D&D derivatives, and D&D clones than I would have guessed. Today I’m tackling the Adventurer Conqueror King System (hereafter ACKS), which will take up enough column-inches to stand alone. I’ve been reading about ACKS for years now without actually reading it, though I came very close to buying a copy a few years ago at the Escapist Expo in Durham a few years back. My deep gratitude […]

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Domain Rulership, Part Eight

Brandes Stoddard — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 13:00:08 +0000

Last time in the Domain Rulership series, I talked about some of the relatively rules-light approaches to domain and stronghold play, in the form of 13th Age and Dungeon World. Now I’m turning back toward more involved systems: Fields of Blood by Eden Studios, given to me by a generous reader; and Kingmaker/Ultimate Campaign by Paizo, given to me by… a more different generous reader. The point is, my readers are the best. They are discerning and witty and almost […]

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Domain Rulership, Part Seven

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 12:30:44 +0000

Previously in this series, I looked at one of the high-water marks for fine detail in domain rulership systems. This week, I’m going to some systems at the opposite extreme: 13th Age and Dungeon World. Not counting, of course, systems that simply have no rules for domain rulership or strongholds. Absence is different from minimalism – and I’m about to split that hair damned fine. Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six | Part Seven 13th Age If you’re unfamiliar […]

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Domain Rulership, Part Six

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 26 May 2016 12:12:00 +0000

Two weeks ago, I talked about the Stronghold Builder’s Guidebook, the “main” 3.x-based book for stronghold construction and domains. I also mentioned a third-party product, A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe, by Expeditious Retreat Press. In the comments, alert reader Charles Geringer brought up Power of Faerûn. Because irony is the only cosmic balance to entropy, I have a copy of that very incunabulum on the shelf behind me. This is me, in my customary writing chair, looking as dashing as […]

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Domain Rulership, Part Five

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 12 May 2016 12:54:02 +0000

Last time in the Domain Management series, we discussed my personal high-water mark for domain-level rules, known in the tongues of gods and men as the Birthright Campaign Setting. We continue therefore to Third Edition. The Dungeon Master’s Guide has nothing on this topic, signaling the total difference in the game’s assumptions about what characters do with their money at mid-to-high levels. The Stronghold Builder’s Guidebook fills in with domain rules, and I’ll get to that in a bit. Part […]

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