Out Now on the DMs Guild
Wintry Blast |
This is the second of the six custom-made magic items for my new adventure, Wintry Blast. While the Ring of the Fiery Covenant was inspired by combining two Magic cards together, this sword was the result of a single card. In that single, simulated pack of Ice Age that I used as the basis for this entire adventure, I pulled the card Rally. Rally is an interesting card in that it ONLY appears in Ice Age. So many other cards get reprinted in a later set (some dozens of times), but not this one.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I like to consider the whole card when I'm trying to convert it into a D&D element. While the mechanics and flavor text of Rally are purely defensive in nature, the word rally inspires something offensive. I didn't find a use for this card in my adventure until I got to the point of needing loot for the dragon's hoard (in case the cover of Wintry Blast doesn't give it away, there's a dragon involved). I was acutely aware that I had yet to plant any magical weapons in my adventure. What better time to take care of a few birds with a single stone? The inspiration for this sword's mechanics came partly from bardic inspiration and partly from the battle master's maneuvers. I've played both a bard and a battle master and I know how rewarding it is to assist your party with a little extra nudge. I also know that the thrill of a critical hit or landing a devastating spell can inspire (or rally) the players at the table. Just when people may be souring on an encounter going poorly, the dice fall their way and shift the momentum. That's what this sword represents. The art for this sword was created by the amazing Dean Spencer. Check out his work at DriveThru RPG or on his Patreon page. You can also find him on Twitter @DeanSpencerArt.
0 Comments
My new adventure, Wintry Blast, was inspired by opening up a single, simulated pack of Ice Age, a Magic: the Gathering set that came out way back in 1995. Each one of those 15 cards is represented in the adventure in one way or another. Two of those cards, Circle of Protection: Red and Fire Covenant merged together to create one of the six custom-built magic items included in this adventure: the Ring of the Fiery Covenant.
When using Magic cards as inspiration, I like to look at the whole card: the mechanics, the name, the art, the flavor text. I also like to utilize existing D&D 5e mechanics and abilities as much as possible. When I saw the Circle of Protection in my pack I instantly knew there would be an item granting fire resistance in my adventure. Since circles are round and rings are round, a ring of resistance was the obvious choice. Rings of resistance, however, are a bit boring in my opinion. I wanted to jazz up this basic magic item with something extra. That's where Fire Covenant comes in. This card, in Magic terms, essentially allows you to pay life to deal damage to creatures. The cleric/wizard spell, Life Transference came to mind. This 5e spell lets you heal someone by sacrificing damage, but the broad strokes are similar; it's a cost-benefit proposition. After a bit of noodling, this is the final product I came up with. Ring of the Fiery Covenant Ring, rare (requires attunement) You have resistance to fire damage while wearing this ring. Additionally, once per day when you score a hit with any weapon or spell, you may choose to take 10 points of fire damage (reduced to 5 due to the resistance) to deal an extra 10 fire damage. At level 5, you can choose to take 20 points of fire damage (reduced to 10 due to the resistance) to deal an extra 20 fire damage. That's it, a little peek behind the curtain of how Wintry Blast came to be. I look forward to sharing more of the process and particulars in future posts. Thanks for reading! Recently, I've been struggling with gridded combat. It's not that I don't know how to do it, or that I don't understand how to count 5-foot squares, it's that I'm over it. With COVID-19 having us all on lock down, I'm missing two of my three regular D&D games. Those two games are the ones that met in person and used theater of the mind combat. The other game, the one that is still going, meets on Roll20 and naturally uses gridded combat as that is one of the main features of that platform.
So why am I over it? I think the grid distracts too much from the creativity of the game. I feel the game turns into a war-strategy game, not a role playing game. What's more, the DM is stuck having to track those tokens, measure movement, size area-of-effect spells, and the like. I've been on both sides of this Roll20 headache, as a player and as a DM. The tools are great, but they can just as easily detract from that game as add to it. Now I'm no Luddite. I use an iPad at the table when DMing. I've embraced (slowly) the merits of D&D Beyond, and I've learned a whole host of techy things in writing Wintry Blast. This isn't a bash on Roll20, I love Roll20. If it wasn't for Roll20 I'd have no current D&D game at all. I also wouldn't be able to stay in touch with far flung friends over dice and drinks. This post is a bash on gridded combat, regardless whether it is online or at a physical table. Zipperon Disney has a great video on his YouTube channel all about the merits of theater of the mind. In that video he talks about a lot of interesting concepts, among them, the use of conjunctions. If it's been a minute since elementary school, we're talking about the words AND, OR, and BUT. Zipperon challenges us to use these conjunctions in adjudicating player actions. One example from the video, "You can run up to the bugbear chief, BUT you'll take an opportunity attack from the goblin on the way by." This is a perfect example of allowing your players agency, while at the same time imposing consequences. When I run theater of the mind combat I'm very abstract with distances and positioning. If a player wants to do something, I usually let them, but I'll impose a catch just like the opportunity attack example above. I find this approach improves pacing, limits meta-gaming, and results in more organic game-play. If you need a good example of theater of the mind combat, read any of the Drizzt novels by R.A. Salvatore. In those books, the author expertly navigates the complexities of combat with fluidity and tempo. He never gets bogged down in the mechanics of combat, it's all story. Our games can strive to capture that. Zipperon goes on to say in that video, "...rather than think of themselves as a referee in a war game, DMs should think as themselves as a director in an action movie." Exactly. Take 9 minutes, go watch that video. If you are a DM, I have no doubt that you'll get plenty of inspiration from it. If you are a player, you can incorporate some of these principles the next time your roll for initiative. Think like an action star, not like a chess piece. Looking for more great resources? Checkout the Toolkit page where I've listed my favorite resources. Zipperon Disney's YouTube channel is among them! Be sure to check him out on Twitter too, @zipperondisney. D&D is known for the three pillars of play: combat, exploration, social interaction (not necessarily in that order). Combat is by far the most well-covered pillar. We have countless pages of rules for combat in the Player's Handbook and the Dungeon Master's Guide. What's more, most of the standard character sheet is basically a rules document for navigating combat. Social interaction, in my view, is the second most well-covered pillar. We have a variety of skill checks, spells, and abilities to help us navigate interactions with guards, bartenders, nobility, and hostages.
Exploration, on the other hand, is a bit lacking. I find that both Survival and Nature checks rarely get used in games I participate in. If they do, they aren't nearly as consequential as a pivotal Athletics or Stealth check. This is where Challenge Accepted by Crit Academy shines! This supplement fills in the gaps in exploration by introducing Skill Challenges. Skill Challenges were a big part of 4e. They were despised by many, championed by few. The folks are Crit Academy fall into the champion column as they took the spirit of that 4e mechanic and improved upon it tremendously. To be fair, there are a few "social" challenges in the book, but most fall into the exploration column. I find the challenges within very inspiring. When I sit down to plan a gaming session, I often flip through Challenge Accepted to look for ideas. Depending on your style, you can run the challenges as presented, or tweak them to better fit your table. These challenges are not simple traps or obstacles that are overcome with one or two rolls. No, these challenges represent entire scenes that will prove fulfilling and memorable to your gaming group. I recently ran a home-brew campaign for my wife and a few of her friends. I used Challenge Accepted to essentially fill an entire 2-hour gaming session. Not long into the night, the characters encountered a terrible storm (I modified the "Blizzard" challenge to fit this scenario). The party eventually found refuge in what appeared to be an abandoned cave. As they rested, one of the characters noticed that the cave entrance disappeared. A "Magically Sealed Door" had trapped the characters inside. Suspense was high as they tried to undo the magic. Things were looking good, until a series of bad rolls resulted in a magical explosion that drew the attention of a Minotaur from deeper in the cave system. Once the Minotaur was defeated, the party had to find an alternative way out of the caves since the "Magically Sealed Door" was still in place. This is where the "Lost in the Forest" challenge became "Lost in the Tunnels." The party eventually made it out of those tunnels to find that the initial storm had passed. There was very little combat that night, but it was one of the most exciting, high tension sessions we've had. That's the beauty of Challenge Accepted. Typically, characters getting lost in a cave system would be a boring slog of random encounters and frustration. Instead, stakes were high and everyone at the table was invested in every roll and outcome. I was so impressed with the "Magically Sealed Door" challenge that I included a modified version of it in chapter 7 of Wintry Blast. Instead of a door, I moved the magically charged runes to the cover of a book containing important lore for the characters to discover. That's what's great about this hobby. We can build off of each other's ideas. Tweak, modify, reskin and roll. If nothing else, pick up this supplement (it's very reasonably priced) for the "Interrogation" challenge. What party doesn't at one point of another take a poor goblinoid hostage? Those scenes can often turn tropey or worse if not handled with expertise and care. The mechanics for navigating such a scene as presented in Challenge Accepted are well worth the cover price. Looking for more great resources? Checkout the Toolkit page where I've listed my favorite resources. Challenge Accepted is among them! Be sure to checkout the Crit Academy guys online at critacademy.com or on Twitter @critacademy. |
AuthorD&D 5e enthusiast. Creator on DMsguild. Supporter of creators, content and good times. Follow me on Twitter @rjquestgiver Archives
July 2021
Categories |