Fantasy Fridays: Kull, Conan, and Kane for Daggerheart

Something a touch different today for Fantasy Friday. 

I was chatting with some Daggerheart fans, and they liked the Sonja build I had done. They suggested I should do Conan as well, but I got to thinking about my earlier statement of a connection between Kull, Conan, and Kane, and thought it might be fun to stat them all up in Daggerheart to see how I could represent the pinnacle of the Howardian "fighting men" in this new system. 

Joe Kubert's Connecting Covers Featuring Conan, Kull, and Solomon Kane

Caveat and Full Disclosure. I have read all of the Kull and Conan stories by Howard and most of the Kane ones. I have read some of his letters to others about these characters, but I know there is still an absolute ton I have not read. TL;DR I only marginally qualified to write them up as characters. Yeah I know what I would do with them, but there are people out there, people I am friends with, who are far more knowledgeable than I am about this. I apologize in advance for any mistakes I might make.

Kull of Atlantis

Kull spends most of the tales I read as King of Valusia and an exile of Atlantis. We know he has been a hunter, a gladiator, a soldier, a general, and finally a king. He is philosophical and brooding. He cares for his people even if he sometimes despises their civilized ways and the "masks" (though that turns out to be true later on) they wear. According to Wikipedia, his lifetime was some 100,000 years ago, or near the end of the Old Stone Age. The tales, of course, read more like Bronze Age. 

For this reason I am choosing Guardian for him. The Domains are Valor and Blade, the two competing aspects of his personality.

Level 3
Class & Subclass: Guardian (Stalwart)
Ancestry & Heritage: Wildborne Human
Pronouns: He/Him

Agility: 2
Strength: 2
Finesse: 0
Instinct: 2
Presence: -1
Knowledge: 0

Evasion: 9
Armor: 5 

HP: 9
Minor Damage: 15 Major Damage: 28
Stress: 7

Hope: 2

Weapons: Battleaxe, Strength Melee, +2 2d10+3 Physical

Armor: None

Experience
Fighting Man for Life +2
The Brooding King +2
Enemy of the Serpent Men +2

Class Features
Bare Bones (add STR to Armor), Not Good Enough (reroll 1 & 2 on damage), Bold Presence, Versitle Fighter, Soldier's Bond

Ok. I like this one. This is a soldier's soldier. This would be a fun character to play. Granted, he should be a bit higher level, but I wanted him lower than Conan.

Conan the Cimmerian

Howard's better known creation and maybe the Godfather of all D&D fighters. Now I feel better about doing Conan than Kull. 

Conan is the archetypical barbarian. Yes he has been a soldier, general, thief, sailor, pirate, and eventually King, he is at his heart a barbarian.

Like Red Sonja, he would be a warrior with his Domains Bone and Blade, but he is a little different. I am giving him the sub-class Call of the Brave, because if nothing else Conan knows no fear.

Level 7

Class & Subclass: Warriror (Call of the Brave)
Ancestry & Heritage: Wildborne Human
Pronouns: He/Him

Agility: 2
Strength: 3
Finesse: 0
Instinct: 2
Presence: -1
Knowledge: 1

Evasion: 12
Armor: 4

HP: 10
Minor Damage: 14 Major Damage: 22
Stress: 7

Hope: 2

Weapons: Longsword, Agility Melee, +3 3d10+10 Physical
Broadsword, Agility Melee, +3 3d8+7 Physical

Armor: Chainmail

Experience
I have been everywhere +3
I will LIVE by Crom! +3
I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content +2
Polyglot +2

Class Features
Get Back Up, Not Good Enough, Ferocity, Brace, Scramble, Deadly Focus, Know Thy Enemy, Battle Hardened, Recovery, Rage Up

Again, this is a good character and a fun one to play. I tried to capture Conan's multi-lingual ability here in Experiences. This covers that fact that he knows a lot of languages, but no formal education in them. I spent the extra point to bump up his knowledge to 1 (from 0) to also show that he isn't a dumb barbarian.

I gave him chainmail, which he sometimes wears, but he is just as often in just a loincloth or even the garb of a sailor.  Still, this is a good version of him I think.

Solomon Kane

Next is our dour puritan Solomon Kane.

For Kane, I also picked the Guardian class as I did with Kull. But where Kull is a Stalwart, Kane is dedicated to Vengeance. I mean, look at his single-mindedness in pursuing Le Loup. Kane sees himself as the instrument of God's will and often God's vengeance. He is more similar to Batman in this respect than he is say Conan or Kull.

With Kane, I went in a different direction. While I did what I could to increase Kull's and Conan's HP, I spent more time increasing Kane's Stress. Most of Kane's adversaries are a little more supernatural in nature and seem to be more taxing on his mind and soul than on his body.

To respect his Puritan background, I gave him the heritage of "Orderborne."

Level 6
Class & Subclass: Guardian (Vengeance)
Ancestry & Heritage: Orderborne Human
Pronouns: He/Him

Agility: 2
Strength: 1
Finesse: 1
Instinct: 1
Presence: 0
Knowledge: 0

Evasion: 11
Armor: 4

HP: 9
Minor Damage: 12 Major Damage: 19
Stress: 10

Hope: 2

Weapons: Rapier, Presence Melee, +0 3d8 Physical
Flintlock Pistols, Agility Ranged, +1 3d10+3 Physical

Armor: None

Experience
I am God's Instrument +3
Avenge the Weak and Defenseless +2
Wanderer of Africa +2
Scholar of the Occult +2 (this also covers his connections with N'longa)

Orderborne Dedications
Evil Must be Destroyed.
I am the instrument of God's vengeance.
Chivalry and Honor are not dead, not while I breathe.

Class Features
Bare Bones (add STR to Armor), Get Back Up, I Am Your Shield, Critical Inspiration, Deadly Focus, Rousing Strike, Champion's Edge

I like this version as well. Very solid.

Even among "Fighting Men" (to use the old term), there is a lot of variety and versatility in Daggerheart and I like that. Though each has their connections with the other. You could make a group of all "fighters" and still have plenty of differences between them to keep the game interesting. 

#RPGaDay2025 Day 22 Ally

Fantasy Friday Edition

If the unexpected is where the magic happens, then allies are the ones who help you survive it.

In most fantasy games, we talk a lot about the players, the villains, and the world. But some of the richest, strangest, most meaningful moments don’t come from the final boss or the quest-giver with a shiny reward; they come from the people the characters meet along the way.

The allies. The NPCs. The ones who weren’t supposed to matter, but suddenly do.

I’ve long believed that a good ally is more than just someone who helps in a fight. They’re the soul of a campaign. They give the players a reason to care about the world. A reason to stay. A reason to come back.

Sometimes they start as simple archetypes: the barkeep with a missing eye, the goblin who insists he’s a poet, the witch in the woods who offers help with a price attached. But then something happens. A player makes a connection. They ask a question you weren’t ready for. They offer kindness, or threat, and the relationship takes on a life of its own.

Suddenly, that nameless sage becomes the character’s mentor. The grumpy caravan driver becomes comic relief, and then a trusted friend.

 The rival adventuring party becomes something more complex than competition.

In fantasy stories, allies ground us. They remind the characters that they’re not alone. That the world isn’t just monsters and gold and ancient curses, it’s people. Living, flawed, sometimes irritating, and often surprising people.

And yes, sometimes they betray you. Sometimes they turn out to be working for the villain, or hiding a dangerous secret, or just get in over their heads and die in the second act. That’s part of the deal. But the good ones, the ones who stay, those are the ones your players will talk about years later.

I’ve had NPCs who were meant to be one-hit wonders end up starring in entire campaigns.  I’ve seen players go to absurd lengths to save them, avenge them, or recruit them. The characters and players even look forward to seeing them. Evelyn, the Princess Escalla, is an excellent example of this. They hated her at first, but when she showed up at the right time, they loved her. Not bad for a little half-pixie girl with a huge sword.

And I think that’s the point.

In the middle of all the darkness and mystery, all the chaos and combat, allies give us something else: hope.

 Even if they’re flawed. Even if they’re weird, and Evelyn was weird. Even if they were just a name on a note card five minutes ago.

They remind us that the world is worth saving. Or at least, worth traveling through one more day.

Questions

When. Confident. Rule.

Hmm. When am I confident in a new rule? When I have made a new rule for a game, I am confident it will "sell" well when my playtesters tell me how cool it was.  

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

Red Sonja for Daggerheart

 I am still enjoying Daggerheart, but I haven't had much of a chance to play lately. Star Wars has been taking a lot of our time. No need for minis when you still have Kenner Star Wars figures!

This past week, we saw the limited release of the new Red Sonja movie, which, by all accounts, is not bad. Better than the 1985 movie (not a high bar, of course). Too bad it did not get a better release. Have to wait for an on-demand or digital release. I am also reading Gail Simone's "Red Sonja: Consumed." I wanted to follow up with some Red Sonja after reading so much of Howard's original work, and I wasn't all that interested in reading the Conan or Kull pastiches. There were a couple of newer Kane books (from different authors) that looked fun. And since anything done is worth doing in excess, I grabbed the latest Humble Bundle of Dynamite's Red Sonja comic run.

Appendix N Note: Although Red Sonja is not listed in Appendix N, Gary was aware of the character from Marvel's 1973-1986 run. That is prime "Golden Age" D&D time. She gets honorable inclusion, I think.

I like Red Sonja. Ok. I like her a lot. She might be one of the reasons so many of my characters have red hair. Ok, her and Batgirl. I loved her run in Marvel comics. I do think we get a slightly more sophisticated character under Dynamite, but all the Sonjas are great in my mind. One of the stories I read last night, "Red Sonja: Altered States," dealt with her spirit reappearing in modern New York. Fun idea really. Got me thinking maybe the "red goddess Scáthach" is really just Sonja herself helping her reincarnations throughout time and space. Anyway, there is something I am planning to have some fun with later on, but for now I think I want to see what she would be like in Daggerheart.

Sonja the Red for Daggerheart

There are a lot of "fighter"-like classes for Daggerheart and lots of things she could be. While there is the "barbarian" idea from Conan, I always felt Sonja was a bit different. In AD&D terms, she would be a fighter. A good fighter, but not a ranger (though that is what she is in Pathfinder: Worldscape) and certainly not a paladin. 

In Daggerheart classes are made up of two Domains. Given her moniker of "She-Devil with a Sword" I feel that one of those domains needs to be "Blade." This gives me two choices, Warrior (Blade and Bone) and Guardian (Blade and Valor). For this, I have to go with Warrior.  After that the rest fell into place rather quickly.

Red Sonja of Hyrkania

Level 5
Class & Subclass: Warrior (Call of the Slayer)
Ancestry & Heritage: Wanderborne Human
Pronouns: She/Her

Agility: 3
Strength: 2
Finesse: 0
Instinct: 1
Presence: -1
Knowledge: 0

Evasion: 12
Armor: 4 

HP: 7
Minor Damage: 14 Major Damage: 22
Stress: 6

Hope: 2

Weapons: Greatsword, Strength Melee, 3d10+8 Physical
Hallowed Axe, Strength Melee, 3d8+6 Magical

Armor: Leather 6/13 +3

Experience
No Man Can Defeat Me +2
I Will Avenge my Clan +2
Gold! Drink! Adventure! +2 (can find adventure, or trouble)
I have been to lots of places +2 (picking up tidbits of knowledge and language)

Class Features
No Mercy, Call of the Slayer, Weapon Specialist, Get Back Up, Untouchable, I See It Coming, Reckless, Fortified Armor, Vitality x2

This was a fast and easy build. 

Her features (the class cards) fit her well, to be honest. Given Daggerheart's narrative structure, fitting these to her backstory is easy. And given her backstory has changed over the years, well, this all still works.

I have seen Red Sonja in New York, in Victorian London, in Pathfinder, and even in Riverdale. Maybe this is Red Sonja in Iriandor. Why she is there, though, is an excellent question. She is never a tourist; there is a reason. I am going to blame the Wizard Thorne.

I am not sure what that reason is just yet.

Links to my other Red Sonja builds

• Old-School Essentials, with Thorne
• Army of Darkness
• Spellcraft & Swordplay
• Mutants and Masterminds 3rd Edition
• Barbarians of Lemuria
• Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea
• Leagues of Adventure (Ubiquity)

I could certainly do more, to be honest.

#RPGaDay2025 Day 21 Unexpected

 The unexpected is where the magic happens.

You can prep the dungeon. You can write out the villain’s monologue. You can stack the random encounter tables and plan your traps with precision. But none of it survives contact with the players.

And that’s the point.

"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face." 

 - Mike Tyson

Fantasy roleplaying lives in that strange middle place between structure and surprise. The tension between what we plan and what actually happens. And over the years, I’ve learned to stop resisting the unexpected and start inviting it.

I’ve had villains turn into allies, thanks to a clever player speech. I’ve had major arcs derailed by a single spell (more than one). I’ve seen players bond with NPCs I hadn’t even named yet (too many times to count), turning a throwaway shopkeeper into a long-running favorite. I’ve had sessions where everything clicked, and others where nothing went according to plan but somehow worked anyway.

That’s what I love about this hobby. The unexpected isn’t a problem. It’s the reward.

But it’s not just in gameplay mechanics or plot twists. It’s also in the tone. The emotional texture. I’ve had horror campaigns become character dramas. Light-hearted one-shots veer into genuine catharsis. Once, in the middle of what should have been a tense combat encounter, a player described their character’s internal conflict so beautifully it stopped the game cold. We just sat with it. That moment, unplanned and unprompted, said more than any scripted scene could.

And sometimes, it’s the characters themselves who surprise you. The warlock who resists the call of their patron. The cleric who starts to doubt. The witch who turns away from power to protect something small and fragile. The hero who decides not to fight, but to forgive.

As a DM, I’ve learned to treat the unexpected like a knock at the door. You don’t always know who’s there, but it’s worth answering.

Because that’s where the best stories begin.

Not where you planned, but where the players took you instead.

Questions

How. Excited. Character.

How excited am I for a character? I am always excited about a new character, all the untapped potential. Everything about a new character.

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

Witches of Appendix N: Robert E. Howard, Part 3: Kull, Kane and "Accidental Feminism"

 Today I conclude this "mini-series" on the pivotal works of Robert E. Howard, one of the most influential authors in Appendix N, shaping the Dungeons & Dragons experience. 

I have already covered Conan in Part 1, and his horror stories in Part 2. Today I am going to talk two of his other characters, King Kull of Atlantis and Solomon Kane.

Kull of Atlantis: Silence Where a Witch (or even Women) Might Be

Kull’s stories are dreamlike, almost mythic, often more about philosophy than plot. Women of any kind are scarce, and witches are entirely absent. When sorcery intrudes, it comes from male figures: Thulsa Doom, the snake-men, necromancers, shadowy priests.

Is Kull even interested in women? Howard never shows him with lovers, nor does he pit him against the temptations or sorceries of an enchantress. Kull broods on law, on identity, on the shifting unreality of his throne, but not on witches, or even women for that matter. Their absence says much: the philosopher-king is concerned with metaphysical threats, not the seductions or mysteries that witches (and sorcerers) often embody in Howard’s other tales. 

Kull's most significant interaction with a woman comes from one of his earliest tales. A girl in his village is being burned at the stake for taking a lover from the wrong tribe. Kull, not seeing the justice in this, uses his own flint dagger to give her a merciful, quick death. For which he is hunted. 

Speaking of flint daggers. Kull is supposed to be taking place around 100,000 BCE. So really pre-history, but it feels more like 100 BCE in terms of "technology." Granted it is "lost age" the same sort you see working in Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age. Credit where it is due, Howard does do a great job of making it feel like Kull predates Conan by centuries. 

If Kull, and Conan, are covered well by Wasted Lands and other Fantasy RPGs, then Kane is dipping right into horror.

Solomon Kane: A Puritan Without Witches

If Kull’s Atlantean dreamtime excludes witches entirely, Solomon Kane’s early modern setting seems tailor-made for them. The 16th and 17th centuries were rife with witch trials and burnings, and Kane is a zealous Puritan avenger. You’d expect him to clash with witches by the dozen. But he never does.

Instead, Kane’s foes are vampires, demons, revenants, and African sorcerers. Women in his stories are usually victims or innocents caught in evil’s path, never witches themselves. Was this deliberate on Howard’s part? Perhaps he didn’t want women as Kane’s outright antagonists, preferring instead to cast him against inhuman horrors or exotic magics.

One exception worth noting is Nakari from The Moon of Skulls. She is cruel, manipulative, and queenly, with many of the trappings of a witch, save for actual sorcery. She does have a coven of sorts, her "Starmaidens" and she knows some Atlantean rituals.  She rules through charisma and cruelty, not spells. And despite her names she is neither demon nor vampire. Kane’s crusade against her feels witch-hunter-like, yet Howard stops short of giving her magic. Again, we see the absence: Kane fights monsters, not witches.

Kane is adventure fiction, but it dips into horror and horror themes more often than not. 

Kull, Conan, and Kane make up an interesting trinity of Howard protagonists. All are cut from the same cloth and each could be a reincarnation of the previous.

Accidental Feminism?

Now, I do want to say upfront that Howard considered himself a feminist. He had some very progressive views for his time, but also some fairly typical ones. People are complicated. 

If Conan’s world has some witches and Kane’s and Kull’s are completely barren of them, what does that say about Howard? His female characters are sometimes villains (Salome, Tascela, Nakari), but they are also commanding presences, equal to or greater than the men who face them. When Howard leaves witches out, women almost vanish. But that absence makes it striking when he does put women at the forefront, because when he does, they are unforgettable.

Think of Bêlit, the Queen of the Black Coast, who is as fierce and ambitious as Conan himself. Or Valeria of the Red Brotherhood, a woman who makes her own choices and follows her own path. Red Sonya of Rogatino and Dark Agnes de Chastillon are not sorceresses at all, but warrior women who seize the agency the world denies them. These characters aren’t “witches” in the pulpy sense, but they are Howard’s women: strong, willful, larger than life, and often overshadowing the men around them. Red Sonya appears in one tale, yet "Red Sonja" has hundreds, including comics, novels, and a new movie out. Bêlit & Valeria have also appeared in plenty of comics together, often sans Conan, to prove they are interesting enough characters in their own right. Even if I am getting a bit of a Betty & Veronica vibe from them sometimes. Though Red Sonja has teamed up with Betty & Veronica in the past.

Bêlit, Red Sonja, (and Conan) and Valeria by Geof Isherwood

That duality shows up outside the stories too. In a famous letter to Harold Preece, Howard rattled off a litany of great women, from Sappho and Aspasia to Joan of Arc, Emma Goldman, and Edna St. Vincent Millay, defending their genius, passion, and rightful place in history. “Women have always been the inspiration for men,” he wrote, “and… there have been countless women whose names have never been blazoned across the stars, but who have inspired men on to glory.”  

Howard’s pulp tales are not feminist manifestos, but they carry a paradox I’d call his “accidental feminism.” In his fiction, women may be cast as temptresses, pirates, or witches, but they are never weak. And in his private words, he saw women as philosophers, poets, and warriors equal to any man. It may be accidental, but it left us with heroines and enchantresses who still burn as brightly on the page today as they did nearly a century ago.

Conclusion

There are more Robert E. Howard tales. Lots more, and many that could be fundamental to what the D&D experience was going to become. But here is where I part ways with the author. I found his sword & sorcery tales to be captivating, his horror stories fascinating, and his heroes equally as wonderful in their own imperfect ways. There is a reason why we all know of Conan and Kane, and to a lesser degree, Kull. Even his forgotten "step-daughter," Red Sonja.

When it comes to witches, Howard doesn't give me enough, though what he does give is wonderful. Salome and Tascela are fantastic characters who I would have loved to see more of, or more to the point, more like them. Too bad that they died in their respective tales; they would have made great antagonists for Bêlit, Red Sonja, and Valeria.

#RPGaDay2025 Day 20 Enter

 There’s a moment that happens in every good fantasy RPG. It might not look like much on paper. A room description. A line of dialogue. A decision so small it barely draws attention at the time.

But something shifts. The torches are lit. The players lean in.

And the question lingers: Do you enter?

That’s the threshold.

To enter is not just to cross into a new place. It’s to leave something behind. Safety. Certainty. Sometimes even identity. And once you've stepped through, the world is never quite the same.

I think about this a lot when I design adventures. Not just dungeons or lairs, but those moments when the world opens up and becomes other. That heavy door groaning open into darkness. The portal that hums with a color you don’t have a name for. The standing stones that seem to lean in closer when you blink. These are not just places, they’re invitations. Rites of passage. The crossing over from the known to the unknown.

In the monomyth, it’s called the first threshold. In Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, it’s the moment when the hero accepts the call to adventure and moves from the mundane into the mythic. But I’ve always felt witches and warlocks experience this differently. For them, it’s not a line they cross once. It’s a cycle. A spiral. The path winds inward, deeper each time. Every doorway leads to another, and each one costs a little more.

Sometimes it's a literal entrance: the black iron gate of a cursed estate, the crumbling stairs beneath a ruined temple. Other times it’s less obvious. Opening a book you were warned not to touch. Answering a voice in your dreams. Saying “yes” to something without understanding what you’ve agreed to.

These moments aren’t about combat or treasure. They’re about change. The world shifts. The story deepens. And the characters, whether they know it or not, are no longer who they were on the other side of that door.

I try to honor that in my games. I give players the moment. I let them feel the weight of the threshold before they step through. I don’t need to say anything dramatic. Just a pause. A look. The air gets a little colder. The fire flickers once. Something remembers their name.

And then they enter.

Because they always do.

Questions

What. Nostalgic. Rule.

What rule am I most nostalgic for?  I miss the days when the thief class had more options for thief skills, beyond just a d20 roll for "Thievery."  While AD&D 1st Ed was great, I like the flexibility granted by AD&D 2nd Ed where you could distribute points into the skills. 

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

Mail Call Tuesday: Witch Mountain Board Game

 Sometimes I have the impulse control of a toddler. 

I saw this game, Witch Mountain, featured in a post (Gen Con, I think), and I thought, "Damn. I need that." So a quick trip to eBay and I found one, cheap, and still in shrink wrap. Plus it says right on the box, a game with "Witches & Dragons."  Sounds like the RPGs I have been playing for the last 45 years.

A few days later, it was mine. 

I pulled off the shrink and was treated to the game inside. 

The game board is neat. The objective is to get your colored pawns into the center, "Witch Mountain" before the other players, and avoid the witches and dragons flying around. 

Gameplay largely relies on the luck of the dice roll. Though it does have the nicest dice rolling cup I have ever seen in a game. Nice hard plastic lined with cork. The board is sturdy, typical of the 1980s. The play reminds me of "Sorry!" The dice are colored sides with a mix of the player colors and an occasional witch or dragon. 

Given the date of 1983 I can't help but think the "Witches & Dragons" is an attempt to grab some of that fantasy game market.

Traveller Envy

In my ongoing obsession with adding some board game experience to my Fantasy RPG and Horror RPG experiences, I have been thinking about how to add this. Obviously the pawns are all rival witch covens who need to get to the top of Witch Mountain. The witches flying around are the current occupiers of the mountains and the dragons do their bidding.

Come to think of it. It seems odd to me that I have not codified a more permanent "Witch Mountain" in my games. One of the milestone events in my love of witches was the 1975 Disney film "Escape to Witch Mountain" and it's sequel "Return from Witch Mountain." Although I was disappointed that there were no real witches in it, despite many of the trappings, I still loved the movies. The 2009 "Race to Witch Mountain" was also good. I will admit that I have always given any witch character I play TK and telepathy/empathy of some sort as my nod to Tia, played by Kim Richards, in the first two movies. 

I do have a set of mountains outside of my West Haven setting called "The Broken Mountains," which is my homage to the Brocken mountain in Germany. Given it's, and Pendel Hill's,  importance to witch lore ([1] and [2]), I really should have something.

I do have the Montblanc Family, and they come from near a "white mountain."  Maybe they are the witches in control of the Hexenberg. I have always said they were a very old, and very rich, witch family. Having control of a few dragons is not really a stretch for me to consider. 

So I hope to come up with some more ideas for der Hexenberg. Or even an adventure featuring the Witch Mountain. I have been wanting to write more adventures.

Links

• Witch Mountain at BGG

#RPGaDay2025 Day 19 Destiny

Some characters are made. Others are called.

In fantasy RPGs, we often talk about adventure as something that happens to the characters. A job they take. A dungeon they stumble into. A series of increasingly bad decisions with increasingly sharp consequences.

But sometimes… the story’s already waiting for them.

That’s destiny.

It’s the feeling that a character wasn’t just born to swing a sword or cast a spell, they were born to change the world. Or maybe to save it. Or break it.

And whether you believe in fate or not, it makes for a hell of a story.

The classic model, of course, is the Hero’s Journey, Joseph Campbell’s monomyth. The call to adventure. Refusal. Supernatural aid. Descent. Return. Transformation. It’s clean. It’s powerful. It’s the scaffolding behind everything from The Lord of the Rings to Star Wars to the better arcs in your home campaign.

But witches rarely walk the Hero’s Path.

They dance on it.

Their model isn’t a straight line; it’s a spiral.

A path that doubles back. That deepens. That re-enters old places with new eyes. It’s the Witch’s Spiral Dance, a sacred return. A reweaving of self. Not a quest for glory, but a journey inward and downward, until the truth is uncovered in the dark.

And that, too, is destiny.

In my games, I love to ask:

• Does this character believe they have a destiny?
• If not, what happens when they’re told they do?
• What happens if they refuse it?
• And what happens if they chase it too far?

Not every character needs a prophesied fate. Some are just trying to survive. But destiny has a strange way of catching up. That cursed sword didn’t find them by accident. That sigil birthmark? That wasn’t just cosmetic.

Even when you're winging it as a player, the story has a gravity. It pulls. It whispers. It tempts you with the idea that maybe… this moment was meant to happen.

And when you step into it? When the character finally sees themselves in the myth?

That’s magic.

That’s the moment when dice and drama and destiny line up. When a witch completes her spiral. When a hero returns home, changed. When the dungeon wasn’t just a hole in the ground, it was the crucible of the soul.

So sure, roll with the chaos. Make it up as you go.

But when the time comes? When the stars are right, and the door opens?

Step into destiny.

Questions

Why. Excited. Accessory.

Why am I excited about BLANK Accessory? For me it is an online visual character generator. Why, but I can create characters to use in my games without needing to hire an artist every time. I'll save that for things I want to publish. 

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

#RPGaDay2025 Day 18 Sign

 Not every message arrives in words. Some come as signs.

• A crow circling widdershins.
• A mirror that cracks without reason.
• A cold wind blowing from the east when the sky is clear.

In the occult, both in fiction and in real-world traditions, signs are how the unseen speaks. They’re not always obvious. They’re not always dramatic. But they always mean something.

Witches know this. Warlocks, too. They don’t just read books. They read the world. The patterns in the bark, the way the candle flickers, the strange arrangement of bones at the edge of a clearing. The world is a living grimoire, and every sign is a page waiting to be read.

I’ve always loved using signs in my games. They’re more than just flavor, they’re agency. A clue, a key, a message scratched into the world itself. Sometimes it’s overt: a vision, an augury, a rune glowing faintly on a stone altar. But more often, it’s subtle. A dream that changes after entering a cursed forest. A candle that won’t stay lit inside a ruined chapel. A tarot deck that keeps drawing The Tower, no matter how many times it’s shuffled.

The best signs don’t give answers. They ask questions. They don’t tell the players what to do, they ask if they’re paying attention.

And if you want to turn up the pressure, signs can act like story clocks. Foreshadowing. Countdown markers. A narrative fuse quietly burning in the background.

The third raven means the pact is broken.

 The red comet marks the return of something old.

 And when the stars are right… well, you know how that one goes.

From a DM’s point of view, signs are one of my favorite storytelling tools. They create atmosphere. They build tension. They reward curiosity. And they make the world feel alive, alive and watching.

From a player’s point of view, they’re invitations. To dig deeper. To question everything. To realize that maybe the dungeon isn’t the real threat, it’s what’s waking up beneath it.

So the next time something strange happens in your game, an unexplained sound, an uncanny shadow, a symbol that appears where it shouldn’t, don’t explain it right away. Let it linger. Let it breathe. Let it be a sign.

And watch what your players do with it.

 Because half the fun of prophecy is wondering if it’s true.

 The other half? Watching your players spin themselves in circles trying to figure it out.

Questions

When. Contemplative. Character.

Related to signs above, when should a Character be contemplative? Obviously, when trying to figure out whatever mystery I have thrown at them, and not in the middle of combat.  Their thought process can e a great role-playing device.

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

#RPGaDay2025 Day 17 Renew

Renewal is at the heart of magic.

Not just in spells like Cure Light Wounds, Regenerate, or Remove Curse, but in the very bones of the occult.

The seasons turn. The moon waxes and wanes. The old year dies, the new one is born. Witches know this. They live by it. Their magic doesn’t just destroy or create it recycles. It breaks things down to make something new.

In my Occult D&D projects, I’ve leaned hard into this idea. It is a central theme of witchcraft; life-death-rebirth; renewal.

 Witches don’t get stronger just by leveling up. They grow through ritual, reflection, and reinvention.

 They bury regrets in the earth. They burn away what no longer serves. They drink from wells beneath the world and wake up changed.

That’s what I love about the occult themes in D&D: it’s not just about power; it’s about transformation. It’s about becoming someone new without erasing who you were.

• The witch who renounces her patron, but keeps the lessons.
• The warlock who breaks the pact, but keeps the scars.
• The circle that ends, so another can begin.

I’ve even designed spells and mechanics around this. Lunar rites that renew magical strength. Coven rituals that restore spent energy. Familiars that molt and reincarnate. Spells that don’t just heal, they cleanse.

And I don’t mean that in a purely mechanical sense. I mean characters who carry emotional weight and find a way to set it down. In the context of a long campaign, this is gold.

Give your witch time to grieve. Let your warlock find peace. Make room for the reset.

Because renewal isn’t just a soft option. It’s powerful. It’s hard. It requires choice, sacrifice, and awareness. But when it happens?

It feels like magic again.

Questions

Who. Optimistic. Person.

Who is someone (a person) who makes me optimistic?  I would have to say the recent batch of D&D influencers. To name one Ginny Di. They love this hobby and wear their love on their sleeve for all to see. The hobby won't be pushed forward by the old guard like me, but from the newer players.

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

#RPGaDay2025 Day 16 Overcome

We talk a lot about what characters fight in fantasy RPGs; goblins, dragons, liches, whatever’s on the random encounter table that day.

But what really matters? What sticks?

 It’s what they overcome.

And I don’t just mean hit point totals.

Sometimes it’s the curse that’s been lingering for three levels. The guilt over a party member’s death. The temptation of a dark deal that still echoes in their dreams. The fear that they’re not the hero the prophecy promised.

Those are the real battles. The quiet ones. The personal ones.

I love when players come to the table thinking, “We’re going to win the day,” and leave thinking, “My character just grew.” They faced something hard, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and came out the other side a little different.

That’s overcoming.

It might be finishing off the necromancer who burned your village. It might be choosing not to take revenge. It might be sacrificing power for the sake of someone else. It might be finally, finally, telling the truth.

In fantasy RPGs, we often start with heroes already equipped to face the world: magic, swords, destiny. But the best stories show us that even heroes have things they struggle with, and that overcoming those things can be even more epic than slaying the monster.

The witch who overcomes isolation. The warlock who breaks their pact. The paladin who overcomes doubt. The thief who finds something worth protecting.

As DMs and writers, it’s easy to focus on obstacles that hurt the body. But don’t forget the ones that hurt the heart. They’re harder to stat, but so much more rewarding to resolve.

So next time you’re writing an arc, or running a game, or building a character, ask yourself: What have they overcome? And what still lies ahead?

Because the adventure isn’t just about who they fight.

It’s about who they become.

Questions

Where. Proud. Genre. First all matching roll, all 3s.

Where was I particularly proud of a genre? Easy. Victorian era RPGs. As a genre I see very little infighting between groups of games, and nearly everyone gets along and lover to share ideas with each other.

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

#RPGaDay2025 Day 15 Deceive

Fantasy Friday Edition

Deception is everywhere in fantasy.

Illusions, glamours, false faces. Changeling children. Cursed bargains. Secret kings. The villain who was never in the dungeon, the hero who was never truly on your side.

It’s one of the oldest elements of the genre, right up there with swords and spells. And in fantasy RPGs, deception is more than a skill check; it’s a tool of worldbuilding, character development, and tension.

A good deception makes players second-guess everything.

•  The map they followed.
•  The patron they trusted.
•  The sword they pulled from the stone.

And that’s where the fun begins.

Deception in a fantasy game can be as simple as a bandit pretending to be a merchant, or as complex as an entire kingdom under a curse where no one remembers the truth. One of my favorite tools? Having a monster pose as an innocent. A cursed noble. A helpful spirit. A fellow adventurer.

Because when the truth finally comes out? That’s the moment everyone remembers.

Now, not every game needs trickery. Sometimes you want a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl, no lies, just orcs. But even then, somewhere in the back of your mind, you know:

• The statue’s watching.
• The innkeeper’s too friendly.
• The mayor is hiding something.

And then there's magic.

Magic and deception go hand in hand in fantasy. Illusionists specialize in lies made visible. Witches glamour themselves or trick the eye with shadow. Fey creatures make promises that twist into traps.

Cursed items whisper to the wielder until they think the voice is their own. 

But deception isn’t just for NPCs and villains. Sometimes the players lie. To NPCs, to each other, to themselves. Maybe the warlock claims their power comes from “an ancient ancestor,” not a hungry patron. Maybe the cleric keeps a secret god. Maybe the rogue isn’t just good at lying, they need to lie.

Because the truth is too dangerous to speak aloud.

In a good fantasy RPG, deception isn't just trickery, it’s drama. It’s tension. It’s story.

And sometimes the best twists aren’t the ones you plan, they’re the ones the players create through the lies their characters tell.

So here’s to deceit.

The double agent. The doppelgänger. The mask that slips. The lie that changes the world when it’s finally revealed.

After all, what’s fantasy without a bit of misdirection?

Questions

What. Envious. Adventure.

What adventure am I envious of? I would have to say the original Greyhawk Campaign of TAGDQ adventures. I would love to play through them again using AD&D 1st Edition, or maybe Castles & Crusades. That would be a lot of fun. 

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

#RPGaDay2025 Day 14 Mystery

 In games, a mystery is often a question that needs solving. Who stole the artifact? What’s making the villagers sick? Why won’t the dead stay dead?

But in the occult, mystery is something deeper, a little more profound.

Not a puzzle to be solved, but a truth too big to grasp all at once.

The word “occult” itself means hidden. Not evil, not dangerous, just concealed. Veiled. Enfolded in symbols and silence. Not because it can’t be known, but because it must be experienced to be understood.

That’s how I treat mystery in my games, not as a locked box waiting for the right roll, but as a revelation that unfolds slowly, ritually, even dangerously.

The best mysteries aren’t just plot hooks. They are tones. They are atmosphere. They’re what makes the players lean in when you lower your voice.

They start small:

• A name whispered in a dream.
• A mirror that stops reflecting.
• A string of deaths that all share the same wound, but nothing else.

They grow:

• The name shows up in an old ledger.
• The mirror reappears in another town.
• The wound pattern matches something from a war that ended centuries ago.

Until suddenly, the players realize: this isn’t a mystery they’re solving. This is a mystery they’re becoming part of.

That’s when you know it’s working.

Because the greatest mysteries don’t just exist to be explained.

 They exist to transform.

The occult traditions get this. The Mystery Schools weren’t lecture halls. They were initiatory experiences. To understand the mystery, you had to live it. You had to enter the cave, drink the wine, draw the circle, speak the name.

That’s the energy I try to bring to my witch stories and adventures.

The mystery is the magic.

 Not the “what,” but the why.

 Not the “how do we fix this,” but the “what happens if we don’t.”

And the best part?

Even I don’t always know the answer!

Because a real mystery… changes everyone who touches it.

This is an idea I’ll come back to again in this challenge, but specifically Day 26. 

Questions

Who. Enthusiastic. Art.

Who's art am I enthusiastic about? I would have to say my good friend Djinn. She always does a great job with my characters and I look forward to seeing what she does with them.

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

#RPGaDay2025 Day 13 Darkness

Witchcraft Wednesday Edition

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”

- H.P. Lovecraft

Darkness is the first unknown.

Before the gods named the stars. Before light was separated from shadow. Before the world had shape or time or form, there was darkness.

Every myth begins there.

In Greek myth, the cosmos was born from Chaos, and from Chaos came Nyx, Night itself. In Norse myth, the void was Ginnungagap, yawning and unknowable. In Kabbalistic lore, creation emerged from the Ain Soph, an infinite darkness with no boundary. Even Genesis opens with a spirit hovering over the waters, formless, in the dark.

Witches know this.

They don’t fear the dark. They come from it.

In the worlds I create and the characters I write, darkness is never just the absence of light, it’s the primordial potential. A place of power, transformation, and unknowable truth.

Yes, it’s where monsters live. Yes, it’s where danger lurks. But it’s also where secrets are kept. Where mysteries are born. Where souls are shaped.

Lovecraft leaned hard into the fear side of things, his darkness is cosmic, uncaring, and overwhelming. I get that. The fear of the unknown is real, valid, and a great tool at the game table. You don’t have to describe the thing in the dark. Sometimes it’s scarier when you don’t.

But I’m just as interested in the power of darkness. The depth. The origin-point.

Witches in my games don’t shine a lantern to dispel the dark; they listen to it. They ask it questions. They trace the shape of what’s moving just beyond the edge of sight.

And when my players step into darkness, literal or metaphorical, they know it’s not just a place of danger. It’s a threshold. It’s where the story shifts.

You can’t cast a shadow without light. But you can’t understand light without the dark. You need both.

So as we stand at the edge of the next room, the next decision, the next truth too big to see all at once, I remind my players:

Go ahead. Step into the dark.

 It’s where all things begin.

Questions

How. Envious. Character.

How was I envious of my characters? I don't know. Their ability to pick up languages in the game was always great. I speak English, learned German in High School, took some Japanese in college, and learned some Irish Gaelic and Spanish since then. Each one has been a struggle. But I keep at it.

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

#RPGaDay2025 Day 12 Path

One of the great metaphors in fantasy gaming is the path.

Every character is on one, whether they know it or not. Sometimes it’s clear from the start: a paladin on the road to righteousness, a rogue fleeing their past, a wizard chasing forgotten lore. Other times, the path isn’t chosen, it’s revealed, one strange step at a time.

For players, the path is often literal. You travel from town to dungeon, from forest to ruin, from the known to the unknown. There are forks in the road, trails in the wilderness, portals that beckon, and thresholds you can’t uncross. It’s all part of the adventure.

But behind that? There’s always something deeper.

The Path is also about identity.

 The journey a character takes from what they were to what they might become. And for the best characters and the best players, it’s not a straight line.

In the real world, we often imagine that our paths are chosen. Career paths. Life paths. But more often than not, they’re shaped by the things we stumble into, the things we say “yes” to, and the things we survive. The same is true in fantasy.

Witches and warlocks, the characters I write about the most often, don’t always choose their path. Sometimes they hear the call in dreams. Sometimes they’re marked by birth. Sometimes they’re just the only ones brave (or foolish) enough to follow a trail that ends in blood and moonlight. But once they’re on it, there’s no going back. The world has changed them. Or maybe the change was already there, and the path is just catching up.

In game terms, the path can be mechanical: levels, powers, subclasses, destinies. But in story terms? It’s mythic.

• The path of atonement.
• The path of vengeance.
• The path of knowledge, or power, or healing, or truth.
• The path that says this is who I am now.

Sometimes you wander off it. Sometimes you make a new one. Sometimes you find out it was never yours to begin with. 

But one thing’s always true: Once the path calls you, you walk it.

Even if you don’t know where it leads.

Questions

When. Enthusiastic. Lesson.

Oh, I have a good lesson I learned and I learned it with enthusiasm.

I have played exactly 1 ninja my entire gaming life.  His name was (horrible I know) Oko-nishi.  My lame attempts at a Japanese-sounding name.  In my defense at what I knew was bad I made him a half-orc.  It must have been around this time I made him using the AD&D 1st Ed Oriental Adventure rules.  

My then DM, Grenda,  and I had worked up a D&D combat simulator (we called it BARD), and we plugged him in with 9 other characters.  He was attacked by a Black Dragon (or Red, I can't recall) and killed. The dragon kept attacking him and only him.  We had not worked out all the errors. In the end, he had been reduced to something like -70 hp.  My DM offered to let him be ok or keep him dead. 

We enjoyed watching it so much and getting the mental image of this stupid dragon jumping up and down on my dead ninja that I felt it was a waste to say it never happened.

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

#RPGaDay2025 Day 11 Flavor

Monstrous Monday Edition

Every DM has their seasoning.

Some go for high fantasy heroics. Some love swashbuckling pulp. Some dive deep into political intrigue or dungeon-crawling strategy.

 Me?

I like my monsters with a touch of horror.

Okay, more than a touch.

Call it the jalapeño principle: whatever the dish is, a little heat makes it better. And for me, that heat is horror.

Doesn’t matter what system I’m running, D&D, Pathfinder, Wasted Lands, even a more story-driven game like Daggerheart or Blue Rose, my monsters always bring a certain Flavor. And that Flavor usually tastes like grave dust, candle smoke, and old houses.

It goes back to my origin story, Dark Shadows, Hammer Horror, witch trial folklore, and that first glimpse into the Monster Manual. I didn’t just want monsters that challenged the players mechanically. I wanted monsters that unsettled them. That made them ask, What is this thing really? And worse, why does it know my name?

Even the familiar creatures, such as your trolls, kobolds, and giant spiders, get filtered through that lens. A vampire in my game isn’t just a bloodsucker. She’s a former lover, an ancient queen, or a fragment of a forgotten god, wearing a corpse like a wedding dress. Kobolds are not just a type of humanoid; they are the lost souls of miners who died underground. Trolls? They are the last remnants of an ancient species that fought the gods and lost. 

And the truly unique monsters? The ones I design from scratch?

 They’re stitched together from nightmares, folklore, and the weird corners of mythology that don’t get cleaned up for public consumption.

I like monsters that linger. Not just in combat, but in the imagination. The kind that leave players looking over their shoulder even after the dice stop rolling.

Tone matters. Flavor matters.

It’s the difference between “you fight a ghost” and “you wake up with frost on your fingertips, and realize something is weeping under the floorboards.”

That’s the Flavor I chase.

A little uncanny. A little dread. Enough shadow to make the torchlight meaningful. 

So yeah. You can run your monsters however you like. Heroic. Mythic. Comedic, even.

But me?

I’m going to keep tossing in the horror jalapeños.

 And trust me, my players wouldn’t have it any other way.

Questions

Why. Confident. Rule.

What rule are you the most confident in and why?

Yesterday I talked about the rule I was envious of. To turn it around today I'll talk about a rule I did come up with that I am most happy about. In Ghosts of Albion there are magical philosophies and these change how you learn and use magic. We playtested the hell out of these and I love how to work in the game. I'd love to do something similar for my witch classes.

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

#RPGaDay2025 Day 10 Origin

Yesterday, I talked about inspiration, the strange, eerie, or mythic things that spark our imagination and send us off chasing stories in the dark.

But before there was inspiration, there was origin.

Mine?

It starts in a quiet classroom in 1979.  Washington Elementary School, Jacksonville, Illinois. “Silent reading” time. Most kids had The Phantom Tollbooth or Ramona the Pest.

I had the Monster Manual.

Or, more accurately, I had my friend’s copy of the Monster Manual, because I didn’t have one of my own yet. Not easy to come by in a tiny, near-bible-belt town. But once I saw it? Once I opened it and saw the hydra, the efreet, the demons, devils, and displacer beasts? The vampires!

I was gone.

Hooked. Claimed. Branded.

The Monster Manual wasn’t just a game book, it was a grimoire.

A bestiary of monsters that felt as real as anything I’d read in the Greek myths I was already devouring.

That was my origin point. That was the moment I became the über-geek you all know today. (And yes, I use the umlauts. That’s my street cred.)

I borrowed that book.

 And read.

 And read.

 And read.

I’m pretty sure I had the whole thing memorized before I even played my first game. The mechanics were confusing, the art was a little weird, but the imagination? Unmatched. That’s the moment that formed me.

And ever since then, every game book I pick up gets judged against what I call the Monster Manual Scale.

How close does this book come to giving me that feeling? That rush of wonder, danger, mystery, and possibility?

Some have come close. A few have hit the mark.

C.J. Carella’s WitchCraft gave me that same feeling. So did Wasted Lands, in a different, deeper way.

That’s my origin.

 But here’s the thing: everyone who comes to this hobby has one.

And your origin shapes everything:

• The kind of stories you like to tell.
• The kinds of characters you play.
• The mechanics you care about (or happily ignore).
• The tone you aim for at your table.
• The feel of fantasy that feels right to you.

Maybe your origin is Tolkien. Maybe it’s anime. Maybe it’s heavy metal album covers and 1980s horror movies. Oh, I guess I am still talking about me here. Maybe it was a family member who taught you to roll dice, or a weird little book you found at a garage sale that opened a door in your brain you’ve never quite shut again. Maybe you got here via Critical Role.

Whatever it was, your origin matters.

 It doesn’t just explain how you game.

 It explains why.

So think back. What was it? What was your Monster Manual? And have you passed it on yet?

Questions

Why. Envious. Rule. Ok...

What rule am I envious of and why? I really have been enjoying the Hope & Fear mechanic of Daggerheart and wish it had been something I had come up with myself. It is a fun narrative device for both the players and game master, who often doesn't get a narrative point device like this. 

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

#RPGaDay2025 Day 9 Inspire

We all have our first spark.

Maybe it was a cousin who ran a chaotic homebrew game over Thanksgiving break.

 Maybe it was reading The Hobbit, watching Legend, or seeing Conan stride across a barren world full of swords, serpents, and sorcery.

For me? My inspiration came from fog-shrouded cemeteries, books on mythology, and finding a copy of the Monster Manual during silent reading time.

Dark Shadows.

Hammer Horror.

Witch trial folklore and tales from Medieval Europe.

Those were my touchstones. That’s the marrow in the bones of the witch books I write, the characters I create, and the adventures I run. I wasn’t drawn to mighty warriors and golden thrones; I was drawn to the outsider. The whisperer. The one who knows too much and says too little.

These are the things that inspire me.

I wanted characters who were feared for what they might be, not for what they’d done.  I wanted villages that held secrets under every root and hearthstone. I wanted magic that felt old, like it was carved into the world before the gods ever got around to naming it.

That’s the kind of inspiration that sticks. That coils around your imagination and never lets go. It shapes your choices as a writer, a referee, a player, even when you don’t realize it.

And inspiration doesn’t have to be high fantasy or heroic.

 Sometimes it’s a whisper.

 A shape in the mist.

 A name scratched into the cellar wall.

And once you find it, once you feel it, you build from there.

Because here’s the real truth:

You never know what part of your world, your blog, your spell list, or your strange little NPC is going to light a fire in someone else.

Inspiration moves in a circle.

We draw from the stories that came before, and then we send our own sparks out into the dark.

And if we’re lucky?

Someone else picks them up.

Questions

When. Grateful. Accessory.

When was I grateful for an accessory? Or something. 

Honestly, i think it might have been when I got my first PDA, a Handspring Visor. These were Palm Pilot clones created by some of the guys who had founded Palm when it was U.S. Robotics. Having something I could keep in my pocket and jot down notes whenever I wanted and then collect them all later on was amazing. 

I have gone through many of these things over the years. Upgrading to smartphones and more, but that little blue Visor holds a special place in my heart. 

I pretty much wrote my first Netbook of Witches and Warlocks, as well as Ghosts of Albion, on that thing. 

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

Fantasy Fridays Review: Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Revised

We are in the AD&D 2nd ed era for sure now, and today I am planning on finally tackling the boxed set that launched a 1000 campaigns or more. The AD&D 2nd Edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Revised.  I purchased mine relatively recently to be honest. Well. More recent than 1993. This is the second Forgotten Realms Campaign setting boxed set. The first, of course, was the famous "Gray box" for AD&D 1st Edition.  It was an instant classic, but I think many of my readers will agree that it was AD&D 2nd Edition where the Realms really grew in popularity. Even me, stuck in my lonely little corner of Ravenloft knew how important the Realms was. Forget that, all you had to do was be online in the early 90s when the Internet was still a wild and untamed place to know of the Realms' popularity. 

I will be honest. Of all the Realms products out there, this one feels like the hardest to review properly. But I will carry on. 

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Revised

1993. by Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb, and Don Bingle. Art Clyde Caldwell (book covers), Fred Fields (box cover), Interior art by  George Barr, Dennis Beauvais, Tim Conrad, James Crabtree, Eric Hotz, Robin Raab, Uttam, and Valerie Valusek.

NOTE: For this review I am considering both my original* boxed set and the PDFs** from DriveThruRPG.

Ok, there is a note on my note. First, I got my boxed set in a game auction. So I know for a fact there is extra material in my box. I have a second set of maps that look different from the other set. I am not entirely sure which set belongs. This is the problem when buying collections, going to auctions, and inheriting other collections. There is a lot more in this box. SO, I bought the PDFs for this review. I figure I might as well (I didn't have them) AND the PDF version has a different cover. Now I had that boxed set for a bit, but it was beat to all hell. I didn't know which one came first. So I kept the best looking box and best books. Likely, that is why I have extra stuff. 

I learned that the "gold" cover box that had the same art as the 1st Edition set was the first, and the one I have was the second printing/version. Either way, the interior contents are the same.

Except mine that is. Mine is special. ;)

Ok, all that aside, let's jump into this bit of D&D history. The box set has three soft-cover books that I'll take in turn.

A Grand Tour of the Realms

This 128-page softcover book is the player-facing book for this set.

I think the biggest surprise for me was that this is where (at least for me) the Relams absorbed the campaign settings of Kara-Tur (previously part of Greyhawk at least in practice), Maztica, and Zakhara. Now of all these Zakhara was the most interesting to me and I flirted with buying the campaign setting a few times in the early 90s. But I was still an undergrad and there was always another Ravenloft book. Each setting gets a little overview here.

Likewise, the various peoples of the Realms are mentioned. Humans predominate, but dragons, dwaves, elves, goblins, gnomes, and more also get a mention here. The standard D&D species/races are here. Indeed, here is where many learned of these races for the first time in conjunction with AD&D 2nd edition rules. 

Up next, the standard classes are covered here. It's 2nd edition now, so Bards are not relegated to the back of the book. I would argue that is was 2nd Ed Realms where Bards got their proper due. 

Our next large section is all about Faerûn. This is the continent that people think of as synonymous with "the Forgotten Realms." The larger sections of the continent are covered briefly here. This is helpful for me since I never really know what people mean when they say "The North" for example. The map following this is even better. The large poster maps are great, but unwieldly to be honest. 

Some print is given over to the months and years, which I love. In the two Realms campaigns going on here in my house (my "Into the Forgotten Realms" and my oldest kid's "It's Always Sunny in Waterdeep") I have gotten fairly used to thinking of times in Dale Reckoning.  The current year for this set is 1368 DR.

Languages are next. It is really fun to see the Dethek writing here after seeing it the Baldur's Gate 3 video game. 

Up next are more detailed descriptions of various locales. The Dales and the Elven Courts, Cormyr, Sembia, The Moonsea, The Vast, The Dragon Coast, The Western Heartlands (including the Sword Coast), Waterdeep, and beyond (Evermeet, Moonshaes, etc.). Each gets a few pages to discuss important sites and people. There are adventure seeds galore.

There is a lot here, but not a lot of details on any one thing. This is actually good in my mind. It gives me room to work (I know... remarkably naïve on my part), but it did give some ideas for the next adventure I am going to run. 

The back cover has a list of the Forgotten Realms Adventure Backlist with prices up to that point. Still impressive by 1993, to be honest. I know I am missing a lot of these, but my Forgotten Realms buying is limited (on purpose) to what I can find via my local game auctions or Half-Price Books or other used sources.

Running the Realms

This is our DM's book. It's 64 pages and features one of my favorite Clyde Caldwell pieces ever. I have a signed print in my game room. An aside. There is something about the size of the TSR-era 64 page books. Hits my nostalgia for the BX books.

Here we get a good and proper introduction to the Realms. The voices of Jeff Grubb and Ed Greenwood ring out loud here in their respective introductions. And we learn this is the 3rd Age of the Realms. 

We start the book proper with a Campaigns for New Players. I am neither a new player nor unfamiliar with the Realms, but I found this to be a good read with some great advice. Some of this reads very similar to the 1st Edition Gray box. This falls under the "if it's not broke, don't fix it" rule. 

Wild Magic and Dead Magic zones are discussed. I am not sure how much I would have used these back then, but I am going to make an effort to use them more now. 

There is a great timeline from -2637 DR to 1368 DR. I am still in 1357 DR in my games.

After this, some News of Realms covering recent local events follows. It reads like a set of newspaper articles. 

There is a section on the Secret Power Groups. The Harpers, the Cult of the Dragon, and the like. I have learned to use these sparingly. The Cult of the Dragon can be huge and my players would want to hunt it down and take them out for good. And the Harpers can swoop in and steal all the glory. Now other groups like the Red Wizards and Zhentarim are still great to use. Likewise, there is a roster of Select NPCs. The usual suspects are here. Again, this is a season to use sparingly. BUT it is nice to have these here. It is also nice to have a picture and pronunciation guide for some of these names. Because seriously Ed? What the hell?

There is a section on Gods that is good, but will see expanded in the next few years. Gods are ever changing bunch in the realms. The names stay roughly the same, but powers and portfolios can vary. It is always fun to read these starting with Ed's Down to Earth Divinity from Dragon Magazine. 

There is some "player" information here, but I feel the idea here is that DM will parse that out as they feel necessary. 

The back cover has Forgotten Realms novels published to date.

The Fogotten Realms novels are like cheeseburgers. Some are great and really fill you up. Others are the fast food variety; great when that is what you want and often cheap and easy to get. Others are sliders. They seemed like a good idea at the time, but when you are done you are questioning your choices. Now I have not read a lot of these to be fair, and really I should not judge; I read all the Ravenloft novels.

Shadowdale

This 96-page softcover book is part location guide, part base of operations, and part adventure. 

Reading through this now I am reminded of how important the Dalelands used to be in the Forgotten Realms. It was *the* place to adventure back then. Back then I wasn't sure if it was from the novels or that's where Elminster had set up shop. I think now it must have been largely due to this book. I could be wrong, it's hard to judge cultural phenomena (and that is what is was in online D&D discourse) 30+ years later.

But, I am not here to judge this on past or perceived merits of the past. I am looking at the text in front of me. 

This book is broken up into sections detailing the history of Shadowdale and the lands including the farm lands around it (aside: growing up in the Midwest I don't think enough people understand how important farms were/are and how much land they can take up. Thankfully most of the AD&D guys are of the same background as I am.)

We also delve into the Village of Shadowdale, places of interest, and the temples. These include, respectively, Elminster's Tower (which should be a tourist location by now) and the Temple of Mystra.

About half this book is given over to the adventure "Beneath the Twisted Tower." Which was briefly profiled in places of interest. It is an adventure for parties of 1st to 3rd level and set after the Time of Troubles. The tone shifts here and I wonder if this was the contribution of Don Bingle.  To continue my BX D&D association, this would be the Caves of Chaos to Shadowdale's Keep on the Borderlands.

This book has the most "new" information to me. There is a huge underground cave system here with a lot of potential. The best part is that it gives new players a solid taste of what is in the realms. It's like a charcuterie board of Realms favorites, served in easy-to-eat sizes. The areas of Wild and Dead magics are also clearly marked, so that is fun. I gotta remember to use those more when the time is right.

Another Aside: I need to look into how and why Wild and Dead magic began here. Was it a side-effect of the Time of Troubles or did it happen before? I thought it was a side effect, but maybe I am wrong.

The adventure looks fun, but reading it is not playing it. If my party gets to the Dales I might give it a try. The one thing I don't lack is low-level adventures in the Realms. 

The book ends with a comprehensive Index of all three books. It is easy then to see what entries get coverage in which books, sometimes multiple coverage. 

Other Materials

I mentioned before that my boxed set seems to have materials from other sets and I have not identified which is which. 

There are the four large poster maps of Faerûn (I have two different sets), and the clear hex maps to place over them. This was a great idea. While I loved the maps from the D&D Basic and Expert sets, they always looked like they were drawn to fit the hexes. These are maps and the hexes come later. 

There are full color card-stock inserts of various symbols, sigils, and signs from the Realms which is great to show players what they are looking at.

And much to my pleasure AD&D 2nd Ed Monstrous Compendium inserts. My Forgotten Realms MC binder is getting quite full now.

DriveThruRPG PDFs

The PDF/Zip file from DriveThruRPG has all three books plus the Monstrous Compendium pages in one large, 312 pages, file.

The text is sharp and the tables of contents are hyperlinked. The index in not. The images are bit dark, but not so much so that they are hard to make out. I should note that some of the images are also dark in my boxed set, so that could just be how they came out in the color to black-and-white conversions.

I did print out the Monstrous Compendium pages so I could keep the originals in the box set intact and for better alphabetical sorting.

The zip file contains JPGs of all the inserts, including the acetate hex map overlays (why??), front and back of all the cards (which is good, now I don't have to cut up the ones in my boxes), the maps, and the poster that came with it. Wait a minute! My boxed set doesn't have the poster!!

Conclusion

This set is not exactly what I imagined it would be. Well, let me clarify that. This set is not what 1993 me thought it would be. It is actually better.

This box is bigger than the 1st Edition Realms boxed set. Plus the white background and 1990s trade dress make it a lot easier to read than the 1st Edition one. 

Many of the differences in terms of rules come from the shift from AD&D 1 to AD&D 2. For example Barbarians and Cavaliers are gone, Bards, Specialty Wizards and Priests are in. Speaking of which, it was in the Realms where the Priests of specific gods really shone and took full advantage of the new AD&D 2nd rules. When I get to the Faith's & Avatar series I am going to focus on this. Likewise we see in-world application of the Specialty Wizards in the Red Wizards of Thay. Yes, the Known World of Mystara also did this in the 1980s with the Schools of Magic in Glantri, but that was adding on to the rules; this was the existing rules being made manifest in the world. 

Honestly. This is one of the reasons why I associate AD&D 2nd Edition and Realms so closely with each other. The world informed the rules, the rules shaped the world.

Updates on Sinéad in the Realms

In my Realms game I have been using my character Sinéad to help view the Realms as someone learning about the world the same way I was.  One of the other reasons from the delay in getting to this product is that Sinéad and Co. have not yet caught up!

Primed 3D print and Character sheets of Sinéad

Well, for starters, Sinéad is a proper single-class Bard now. It was really 2nd Edition I had in mind for her since Bards were now a regular class. Also, I imagined she was some sort of wild-magic user, which is something I'll also explore.

Her partner in crime, Nida (who is important for some Ravenloft stuff later on) is still with her. These were my two main characters in this and my thoughts were always of 2nd Edition for them. Over the years, Sinéad has gone from a witch to a wild magic user.

What about the others?

Ok, so there some things I need to consider.

First off is Jaromir. He is a barbarian and those don't exist anymore in 2nd Ed. Well, unless I pull out the Complete Fighters Book.  Rhiannon (and I realize I am breaking my own rules here, this is my THIRD Rhiannon.) is a Dragon #114 witch.  While I could convert her to use the Witch kit in Complete Wizards Book. I might hold her off till I cover Spellbound. In fact that is a good idea.  Ok. Rhiannon and Jaromir have returned home to Rashemen. 

Argyle was a Dwarf from Mystara who got trapped here in Faerûn. He is a dwarf with no clan, family or a home. So...maybe he finds some dwarves to live with. I don't know. I am going to assume he is retired now.  I know that Druid and Ranger couple Asabalom and Maryah, eventually come to call a wetlands area their home where they protect it. I was hoping to get some more gaming in with them as NPCs so I could figure out what they were all about. I have an adventure they appear in later on to help the PCs, I just wanted to figure out how they got there. Lastly there was the young elf turned werewolf Arnell Hallowleaf. I know where he is going, but I'm not sure how he'll get there.

So for now, my main NPCs for my "Into the Forgotten Realms" are Sinéad and Nida, that is if the Players can get to the Dalelands for me to use them again. 

To say there is an entire world to explore here is cliché, but it is also the truth. My collection of Realms products is small, comparatively speaking, but it is still larger than I can ever hope to use in my lifetime.