Monstrous Mondays: Guardians of the Library

Photo by Дмитрий Пропадалин

Still working through a bunch of notes for my "Occult D&D" project. I was thinking about my descriptions of "The Library," home of the Akashic Records in my universe, and how I have not really detailed any librarians at all. I am still not today, but I am going to share the Guardians. These creatures keep an "eye" on the collections, make sure no one damages any books or tomes or disrupt other patrons. 

Guardians of the Library
(Custos Bibliothecae)

FREQUENCY: Very Rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 2
MOVE: 12" (Fly 18")
HIT DICE: 8+8 (always 50 hp) (Greater Guardian: 10+10, always 60 hp)
% IN LAIR: 90%
TREASURE TYPE: Special (see below)
NO. OF ATTACKS: 2
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1–6+3 / 1–6+3 (mace)
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Gust of Wind (breath weapon)
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Immune to fire, sleep, charm, hold; half damage from non-magical weapons
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 30%
INTELLIGENCE: Very
ALIGNMENT: Neutral (orders tend toward Lawful Neutral)
SIZE: L (7' tall)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
    Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
LEVEL/XP VALUE:
 Guardian: VIII / 3,200
 Greater Guardian: IX / 4,500

Guardians of The Library are powerful extraplanar servitors, created by the Unseen Masters to protect the great cosmic Archive known simply as The Library. Their forms appear as animated suits of ancient, rune-marked armor, though the armor is but a shell, within dwells an intelligent elemental force akin to an invisible stalker, but bound by vows of scholarly protection.

They serve as wardens and curators, ensuring the safety of books, scrolls, and ancient grimoires from theft, fire, and willful destruction. Though not inherently violent, Guardians will employ force, escalating as needed, to fulfill their charge. Most patrons of The Library will only see them as silent watchers, pacing slowly down the marble corridors of endless shelves.

On the very rare occasions they speak, their voices are a deep bass and sound hollow, as if the voice is coming from somewhere deep within their suits of armor.

A Guardian attacks with two powerful mace strikes per round, each dealing 1d6+3 damage. Though they carry weapons, these are not enchanted items; they are extensions of their elemental force and vanish if the creature is destroyed.

Once every 3 rounds, a Guardian may exhale a gale-force blast of wind (treat as a Gust of Wind spell cast by a 10th-level Magic-User). Creatures in a 6" cone must save vs. Breath Weapon or be knocked prone and disarmed. The gust will extinguish all non-magical flames instantly and has a 50% chance to snuff out magical fires (e.g., Flaming Sphere, Burning Hands). It is frequently used to subdue would-be thieves or suppress fires before they spread.

Guardians are immune to fire, and suffer only half damage from all non-magical weapons. They are unaffected by sleep, charm, and hold spells, and cannot be turned. They can see invisible, detect heat, and sense intention to harm (as ESP) within 3".

They never pursue to kill unless the lives of other patrons or the integrity of The Library is directly endangered.

Guardians dwell within The Library, an interplanar construct maintained by the Unseen Masters—entities believed to be ancient witches, archmages, or ascended Starchildren. Each Guardian is assigned a section to oversee, and their awareness is attuned to every page, shelf, and ward within that domain.

Once bound to The Library, a Guardian remains in eternal service unless recalled by its Master or utterly destroyed.

Guardians do not eat, sleep, or age. They do not reproduce. Their armor-shells are forged from spiritual metals unknown to mortal smiths. Upon death, they dissipate into rushing air and scattered dust. No treasure is carried save what they guard, which may include scrolls, spellbooks, or occult tomes.

GREATER GUARDIANS

These elite custodians (HD 10+10, AC 0, +4 damage per strike) are found only in restricted or high-risk sectors of The Library, such as the Infernal Stacks, Forbidden Annex, or near tomes written in Supernal. They are also sent to the Prime Material Plane to recover overdue or stolen books, always appearing silently near the offender.

Once per day, a Greater Guardian may Gate in a second Guardian (60% chance, no greater variant), but only if defending The Library itself.

--

The phrase "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" keeps running through my mind here. Who are the Ascended Masters?

#RPGaDay2025 Day 31 Reward

What is reward, really?

Is it gold? XP? Magic items? The thrill of leveling up and unlocking that next power, that new spell, that coveted domain?

Sure. It can be all of that.

But if you’ve been playing for a while, really playing, you know the real rewards aren't measured in coin or mechanics.

The real reward is the story you still remember fifteen years later.

It’s the time your witch stood alone in the haunted chapel, torch flickering, casting Augury with a deck of real tarot cards, trying to divine whether the village elder was possessed, or worse.

It’s the argument your players had, in character, about whether or not to open the sarcophagus sealed with silver nails, or follow that perfectly innocent-looking elf into the dark alley.

It was a battle so tense that you all jumped to your feet when the last die finally landed. 

My oldest’s Sunday D&D sessions will often get quite loud. I’ll turn to my wife and say “oh I wonder what happened this time!” Especially with his recent “It’s Always Sunny in Waterdeep” campaign. I know it will be something crazy.

You don’t tell stories about how many XP you got. You tell stories about the time the halfling bard tricked the lich into believing he was its long-lost apprentice, and somehow, it worked.

You tell stories about that game, the one that went off the rails in the best possible way. The one that ended at 2 a.m. with laughter and a hastily scribbled map and a blood pact to absolutely pick this up again next weekend.

The reward is connection. It’s the friendships forged in dungeons and dark forests. It’s the notes passed between players when they think the DM isn’t watching. It’s the memes, the inside jokes, the long-running gags about cursed dice or that one player who always rolls a natural 1 during stealth checks.

And yeah, sometimes it’s the bragging rights. The tale you tell at the next Gary Con or your local game store. The story you pull out at dinner when someone says, “Wait, you play D&D?”

The reward is knowing you built something together, something weird and magical and fleeting. A tale that never existed before you sat down to roll the dice.

And maybe, if you’re like me, the reward is watching your players squirm when the signs and portents line up just right, and they realize they’ve been dancing on the edge of something much older and darker than they imagined. 

Or when they finally connect all the dots and realize that they, and they alone, are the ones to save the whole freaking world.  When Willow & Tara held hands and jumped into the maw of Leviathan. When my son’s paladin used the Sun Sword from Ravenloft to split the Chaos Stone Lolth was using to cover the world in Darkness. And so many more that have meaning to me and my players.

So yes. Reward is treasure, sometimes.

But more often?

It’s the echoes of shared imagination, still lingering long after the dice are packed away.

It’s the memory of that witch, that warlock, that paladin who fell but didn’t break.

It’s the experience of creating together.

And that?

That’s priceless.

Questions

What. Nostalgic. Character. What Character am I nostalgic for? I have to admit I LOVED playing Johan, my AD&D 1st Paladin. I have played a version of him in every edition of D&D and many other fantasy games. I have even tried a couple of versions of him in Baldur's Gate 3 and other video games. But nothing really compares to that goldenrod sheet and those old sky-blue dice from my Expert set.

--

And that’s a wrap on another #RPGaDAY! Huge thanks to David F. Chapman (Autocratik) and Casting Shadows Blog for keeping this tradition going year after year. It’s been a great excuse to reflect, reconnect, and rediscover why I love this hobby so much. Whether you joined in with every prompt or just caught a few along the way, I hope you found something that inspired you.

See you next year! 

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

#RPGaDay2025 Day 30 Experience

 Wow. Experience. What a loaded word.

Are we talking about experience points? Game experience? Play experience? Player experience? Or what it means to build experience over time, as a gamer, a DM, a creator?

All of it, really, I guess.

I have been posting my Witches of Appendix N to tap into the experiences of the creators and first players of the D&D game, while also incorporating my own experiences and influences. 

But today I want to focus on the experience of exploring different games, and what we carry with us when we return to the familiar.

Recently, D&D influencer Ginny Di did a great video talking about what she loved about Daggerheart, and what she planned to steal for her own games. And while she didn’t name names, we all know she meant D&D. And you know what? She’s absolutely right.

The best games we play change how we think. They expand the toolkit. They remind us there are other ways to do party dynamics, relationships, mechanical choices, and storytelling rhythms. And even if we come back to the same rules we’ve always loved, we bring something new with us.

For me, this has been a theme lately. I’ve spent a lot of time working on my Witches of Appendix N project, not just reading the stories that inspired the first generation of D&D creators, but trying to feel what they felt. What was it like to play this weird little fantasy game in 1974? What shaped it? What inspired it?

But I’m not Gary Gygax. I’m not Dave Arneson. I’m not sitting in a basement in Lake Geneva trying to rework Chainmail into a fantasy skirmish. My Appendix N isn’t just swords and dragons and pulp novels. It’s Dark Shadows reruns on PBS. It’s D-grade horror movies from the ’70s. It’s weird occult books I wasn’t supposed to be reading. It’s Led Zeppelin and  Iron Maiden album covers (I am listening to “Number of the Beast” as I write this)  and pages from Fangoria, Starlog, and Heavy Metal taped into a spiral notebook.

Those are my experiences. And they show up in every spell I write, every monster I stat out, every setting I dream up. No matter how “old-school” I go, it’s always filtered through who I am, what I’ve seen, and what I love.

And I think that’s true for every one of us.

We all bring our own experience to the table, our own flavor, our own influences, our own emotional palette. That’s what makes the hobby so weird and beautiful and impossible to define.

So yes, learn new systems. Try new styles. Borrow shamelessly. Steal structure from Daggerheart, emotional mechanics from Monsterhearts or Blue Rose, pacing from Call of Cthulhu, drama from Star Wars, or epic deeds from Wasted Lands. Fold it all back into your game.

Because your game, your world, should reflect your experience.

And if you do it right?

It becomes an experience someone else will never forget.

Questions

 What. Confident. Lesson.  What lesson am I the most confident in? I would ahve to say the math lessons I built in my games with my kids. It was great fun.

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

Fantasy Fridays Review: Forgotten Realms City of Splendors

I have not been very good at keeping up with my Fantasy Fridays. Nor have I been good at keeping up with my exploration into the Forgotten Realms. I think that is why so often they end up on the same post. I had good intentions of doing this one yesterday, but sadly my day got away from me.

So here we are, standing outside the gates of the City of Splendors. I read a lot of material about this place, but today is the day I visit the city proper. Reminds me when I first moved to Chicago to be honest. Big city, lots of new and exciting places.  Let's go.

For this review, I will mostly consider my boxed set I scored at an auction a few years back when I was building up my Forgotten Realms collection. I will also bring in the DriveThruRPG pdfs as needed.

Before I get to that though I do want to read, briefly, the "Welcome to Waterdeep" article from Dragon Magazine #128 from December 1987.

The copy I had was falling apart so I took the "Welcome to Waterdeep" article and put it into this boxed set. It fits...rather perfectly. The boxed set was published in 1994, so this article is the perfect introduction.  While there was FR1 Waterdeep and the North and FR8 Cities of Mystery, this article is the "real" introduction in my mind. The traveler's brochure. It is not long, it doesn't need to be, it just describes some areas outside of the city proper. Wonderful lead in.

City of Splendors

1994. Steven Schend with Ed Greenwood. Three books, one booklet, lots of maps. There is so much going on here it is best just to get into it. I count over 300 pages. I am shocked the PDF at DriveThruRPG was under $7.

Book I City of Splendors Campaign Guide

At 128 pages it is the largest book. We learn right away that Waterdeep is Ed's favorite city in all of the Realms. No surprise I think. 

We dive right into the division of the city into the various "wards" Sea Ward, North Ward and so on, and of course the tantalizing City of the Dead, the walled cemetery.

At the time of this writing the population of the city is just over 122,000, so about the size of Topeka, KS. We get some basic geography and some history, but told with the Ed Greenwood charm that makes the reading not seem like a history text. I mean it is, but it is still very engaging. This includes much of the same surroundings as covered in the Dragon article.

The history is split up into the various ages of Waterdeep and then getting into a more detailed timeline. As dry as timelines can be, I do love reading them. I mean I see things like "the Trollwar" and want to go off on a tagent to discover more.  For the record, and mostly for my own record keeping, the current year of this set is DR 1368.

Next up is a chapter on the city wards. This followed by a chapter on Places of Interest & Danger. Honestly there is so much here I could run adventures in Waterdeep for years. The sewer map alone is just begging to be used.

An aside. This came out in 1994, by this time I was working on my first Ph.D. and not buying a lot of AD&D books save for Ravenloft. BUT I was still reading Thieves' World book where I could. Seeing this labyrinth of sewers puts the "Maze" of Sanctuary to shame. Well...it certainly gives it a run for the money. 

There is some minor details on Undermountain. I am not going to get sidetracked by that right now, save that Undermountain only adds to the playability of Waterdeep. I must make an effort to learn more.

Chapter five covers the Lords of Waterdeep. Some of these even I know by name, and others are familiar enough. 

No city book would be complete without a section on Law & Order. (Damn. Now I want to do a "Law & Order: Waterdeep" campaign!)

Sorry. I had to do that.  🎵 Dun Dun.🎵

One of my favorites is next. The Magic of Waterdeep. So all new spells and magic items. 

Appendix One covers trade and travel. One that is very important for our "It's Always Sunny in Waterdeep" game, travel from Waterdeep to Baldur's Gate via the High Road is 32 days. 

Appendix Two covers Skullport a city beneath the waves. 

Appendix Tree covers the Blue Alley.

Appendix Four is a conversion of old and new map keys from previous books, and Appendix Five is a very robust index.

Book II City of Splendors Who's Who in Waterdeep

Let's be honest. Ed LOVES his NPCs. There are so many characters here that I should never, ever run out. So what do I get? A 96 page book of MORE characters!

Ok, it is not all characters, there are also roles (that people fill) and the expectations of society. 

Chapter 1 covers Waterdeep Society. I actually take to this one rather easily. There is my social psych background and I have written similar characters for Victorian era games about London. This one is rather brief though.

Chapter 2 has our nobles of the city. So we are leaving "Law & Order" and headed into "Bridgerton" territory. I guess Xenk can be "the Sexy Duke" here too! I wonder who our Lady Whistledown is? My guess is Laeral Silverhand in her Irusyl Eraneth guise. 

That is only a third of the book and I am already overwhelmed with ideas.

Chapter 3 covers the money and guilds. Back in 94 this would have been the chapter for me. But right now  can't get past the Waterdeep/Bridgerton crossover I am now currently planning. Though I don't want to undersell this chapter. The Forgotten Realms was built on the idea of Adventuring Guilds. It is a world that supports the AD&D rules and vice versa. We get more details on Adventuring Guilds in Chapter 5. 

Likewise, in the 1980s, I would dive headfirst into Chapter 4, Religion. I do wish this one was a bit longer. I was looking forward to details on the Temple of Selûne and the abandoned Temple of Shar.

Chapter 5 covers the independent operators in Waterdeep. This includes some details on select Adventuring Guilds. This is a chapter of loose groups and some personalities, but really, this feels more like "Realms" to me. If nothing else, it is a great source of names. The same applies to all the NPCs listed after the groups. Waterdeep also has its own Aleena. Who knew? Well, not me until a few minutes ago. 

Chapter 6 covers the enemies of the City. This gives us a glimpse of Xanathar from the cover of Book I.

Appendix One here is a tale about adventure. Appendix Two is about The Thirsty Throat. 

Book III City of Splendors Adventurer's Guide to the City

Slight editorial aside. I love this cover. It might be one of my favorite Elmore covers ever.

Chapter 1 covers a local's guide to Waterdeep. What I love about this book is it is done from the point of view of locals from Waterdeep. This includes what the common folk know about the various rulers and locales. It covers much of the same territory as the first book, but from a different point of view, so the material does not feel like it is repeated. 

Chapter 2 gives us details on Waterdeep's festival life. This includes a brief coverage (too brief) of Watedeep's nightlife and the various festivals through out the year. 

Chapter 3 covers what it is like to be a Waterdhavian adventurer and what benefits there are to that. We get into some game mechanics here with new Proficiencies. 

Chapter 4 discusses the Waterdeep campaign. This is some good information for new DMs and New-to-Waterdeep DMs. Chapter 5 continues this idea with NPCs of the Adventuring Quarter. Great as NPCs to help/hinder characters. Certainly PCs are far more likely to rub elbows with Branta Myntion than they are Elminster. 

Chapter 6 has some adventure seeds. Though they are going to have to battle for room in my mind since "Law & Order: Waterdeep" and my "Brigerton/Waterdeep" crossover are both being very loud right now. Though seeing how our "It's Always Sunny In Waterdeep" went, I think my Brigerton/Waterdeep crossover will end more like "Laeral Silverhand's Fight Club."

Book IV City of Splendors Secrets of the City

This 16 page booklet really could have been folded into Book III to be honest. It covers similar territory. It is just a more fleshed out set of adventure seeds. But I suppose it works like an adventure pack.

The boxed set also came with more AD&D 2nd Ed Monstrous Compendium sheets. I copied them here at home to stick in my binder and kept the originals in the box.

There a lot of maps too. 

My favorite is the last one, the map of Waterdeep and all the streets. I'd hand this one up, but I know the lights in my office will bleach it out like it did to my map of Chicago and is doing to my map of Victorian London. 

I have always loved city and urban adventures. There is just so much to do. Hell I am not even sure when the last time characters leveled up in "It's Always Sunny..." but everyone is having a great time. 

I knew this boxed set was going to be great and it lives up to the hype in my head about it. I know I have more books about Waterdeep to work through, especially with 3rd edition coming up later (likely next years really) and 4th and 5th as well. 

I can see why this is Ed Greenwood's favorite city in the Realms. 

I don't recall what I paid for this, but I do know it wasn't a lot. In fact, my memory of it now, I got it pretty cheap. Whatever I paid it was worth every penny. 

Sinéad, Nida, and Company

And what of my erstwhile adventurers in the Forgotten Realms? Well Sinéad and Nida are sticking around Waterdeep for a bit, though my plan was to have them begin going East.  I do know that my characters, Rhiannon and Jaromir, were anxious to return to Rashemen*.  Like I mentioned above, there is no great change to their stats just yet.  Since I am using Sinéad as my way to experience the Realms, I would have to say that, like me, she is fascinated with the city. Her "pagan" background has totally unprepared her for any large city, let alone the largest one on the Sword Coast. 

This is the same with Rhiannon and Jaromir. *Because I have not figured out which witch class to use for her nor how I want to replace the barbarian class for him, they have been largely absent. I said they have gone home, but looking over my notes I see they are still staying in the cheap inn with everyone else. I am going to have to do some work on these two. Maybe a side quest. I could follow the Minsc example and make Jaromir a Ranger. I have to admit that while he began as somewhat generic barbarian, I have been playing him more like a member of the Fianna. I think I'll take a side trek to figure out their AD&D 2nd Edition classes prior to their return home to Rashemen. Rhiannon then should very obviously be a Rashemi witch. 

The question is now, will Sinéad and Nida go with them? That was always my idea. But who knows now. I'll have to see how the games go. I do know that Nida is going to pick up some spellcasting levels. I thought witch, but maybe it will be magic-user/wizard. 

DriveThruRPG PDF

The PDF from DriveThruRPG is a single file of 377 pages. The images are a touch fuzzy but the text is sharp and clear. All the maps are here, but they are in letter-sized chunks. The Monstrous Compendium pages are here too, and can be printed for obsessive/compulsive completists like myself. 

Like I said above, at under $7 this is an absolute steal. 

Final Thoughts

Between the PDF and the used but in fantastic shape boxed set I have, I feel like I robbed someone. There is no way I have paid more than $20 for all of this (boxed set and PDF), and the value is an order of magnitude beyond all of that. 

I loved the AD&D 1st Edition Campaign setting Boxed set, and this is akin to that. Rock solid, enough for decades of play, and I am not likely to run out of ideas for it anytime soon.

Honestly, just so much great stuff here, I am overwhelmed. 

#RPGaDay2025 Day 29 Connect

Nothing in this game works without a connection.

You can run the most finely crafted dungeon, write the most terrifying villain, drip suspense like wax onto the map, but if there’s no connection at the table, it falls flat.

No tension. No stakes. No spark.

Because in the end, this is a shared experience. Between players and the DM. Between the characters and the world. And, maybe most importantly, between the characters themselves.

We talk a lot about storytelling in RPGs. Plot arcs. Mystery reveals. The slow burn of occult horror. But the game isn’t just what happens. It is who it happens to, and why that matters.

Suspense only works if the players care.

Horror only works if the players believe in it.

Mystery only works if the players want to know more.

Danger only matters if they don’t want to lose what they’ve found.

Daggerheart is good at this. So is Blue Rose. They help foster connections that matter. Even the FFG/Edge Star Wars I have been dipping into has this. It’s not really new, of course, we did this a lot with DC Heroes and Marvel Super Heroes.

That’s why I care so much about connection in my games. The bonds between players and characters are the emotional engine behind everything else. When those bonds are strong, everything hits harder. The betrayal cuts deeper. The rescue means more. The shared victory feels earned.  It makes the stakes feel higher and the victories feel better.

Sometimes this connection happens naturally. A few good players click, and suddenly you’ve got a party dynamic that could fuel an entire campaign. Other times, you have to work for it. Give them moments to talk. Space to share. Conflicts that force them to choose each other over the easier road.

And it’s not just about the characters. It’s about the people at the table.

As a DM, I try to read the room. I listen. I adjust. I check in. Because every suspenseful pause, every creepy whisper, every climactic reveal, only works if the players trust me enough to lean in. That connection is the unspoken contract we all agree to when we sit down and roll dice together.

Even when I’m building strange, mythic, symbolic games, when the world feels uncanny and the magic is layered with secrets, what holds it all together is the bond.

Between the witch and her familiar. The rogue and her rival. The paladin and his doubts. The players, sitting together in a shared dream.

Connection makes it real. Connection makes it matter.

And without it?

You’re just telling stories in the dark, hoping someone’s still listening.

Questions

 What. Grateful. Rule. I might have answered this one or some variation of it. What rule am I grateful for Rule #0 that says the GM can change what they need to. 

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

#RPGaDay2025 Day 28 Suspense

I love combat. I love magic duels, chaotic tavern brawls, dragons roaring from the sky while the players scramble for cover. There’s a thrill in the crash of dice, the rush of tactics, the immediacy of it all. 

But you know what sticks with players longer than the fight?

The silence before it.

Suspense is the slow blade. It’s not about surprise, it’s about anticipation. That creeping sense that something is wrong, but no one’s named it yet. It’s the moment when the music fades. When the torch flickers once and then goes out. When the NPC who always answers the door… doesn’t.

As a DM, building suspense is one of the most powerful tools I have. And unlike combat, there’s no initiative roll for it. It lives in pacing, description, rhythm. It lives in what I choose not to say.

I’ll lower my voice a bit. I’ll describe something small. Too small. I’ll pause more often. I’ll ask, “Are you sure you want to do that?” even if I’m not planning anything. Yet.

Suspense is a collaboration between the DM and the players. I give them the shadow, they give it teeth. The more room I leave, the more their imaginations fill in the gaps. And usually, what they come up with is far worse than what I had planned. As I mentioned already, often it is best to let the players’ own imaginations fill in the gaps. 

But here’s the trick: suspense isn’t just for horror games. It’s not just ghosts and witches and the slow creak of a basement door. Suspense works anywhere there’s uncertainty. Fantasy thrives on it.

• The crypt that hasn’t been opened in centuries.
• The noble court, where one wrong word will get you exiled or executed.
• The ancient artifact that hums when no one is looking.
• The character’s dream that ends with a name they’ve never heard… and the next day, an NPC says it.

Suspense turns every room into a question. Every choice into a forked path. Every moment into a heartbeat you feel at the table.

In my Occult D&D projects, I lean hard into this. I want the players to hesitate. To ask, “Wait… is that normal?” I want the moment before they open the book, before they cast the spell, before they step through the arch. Because once they do? That’s when the reveal comes. That’s when the real danger starts. But the suspense is what makes that moment matter.

There has not been enough danger in finding an old spell book in current games. It’s a spellbook. In Occult D&D, it's an ancient grimoire that belongs to an ancient witch queen, then passed down to a corrupt warlock who talked to spiders and learned their secrets. Is that human skin it is bound in? Why does it feel a little too warm to the touch? Did the book flinch when it was touched?

You can run a game without suspense. Plenty of people do. But once you start using it, once you learn how to play the table like an instrument, quiet, careful, patient, you’ll find your players remember those moments just as clearly as the big battles.

Maybe more.

Questions

 How. Enthusiastic. Person.  Ok...How enthusiastic am I to game in person? Hey, it's what I live for! 

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

#RPGaDay2025 Day 27 Tactic

Witchcraft Wednesday Edition

Dungeons & Dragons, at its roots, is a game of tactics.

It grew out of wargaming. Miniatures on a battlefield. Movement rates. Ranges. Terrain. Planning your strike before the other side rolls initiative. That foundation still lingers, even in the wildest fantasy campaigns. Position matters. Choices matter. You can feel the wargame bones in every hit die and saving throw.

But today I want to talk about a different tactic.

 And a very different kind of fight.

My current opponent doesn’t breathe fire or lurk in dungeons. It’s not a dragon, or a lich, or even one of those slippery players who always find a loophole in your spell descriptions.

It’s my Occult D&D project.

This thing has grown far beyond what I thought it would be. What started as an experiment, "What if I treated witches as seriously as clerics and magic-users, and they had been part of D&D from the start?" has turned into a full-blown system of spells, subclasses, traditions, monsters, mechanics, cosmology, and philosophy.

And the tactic I’ve used to wrestle it all into something cohesive?

 Research. Years of it. I looked back at my first notes on this back in mid-July (they are sitting here now), and they are dated 2013. Not my first notes ever, just the first notes I began collecting for an AD&D book. I have notes still dating back to the 1980s. All carefully kept (much to my wife’s chagrin sometimes) in three-ring binders. I might be obsessive, but it works for me. 

I’ve read historical witch trial records. I’ve gone deep into Margaret Murray, Jung, and Campbell. I’ve pulled from Golden Dawn rituals, folk magic, Wicca, Kabbalah, medieval grimoires, Victorian spiritualism, and pop culture from Dark Shadows to The VVitch. I’ve cross-referenced monster entries, spell levels, class XP charts, and Dragon Magazine articles like I was studying for an occult-themed Ph.D. dissertation.

And every time I thought I was close to done?  Another thread appeared. Another tactic had to be employed. Another heretic idea needed a place on the page.

This project hasn’t just been about building something.  It’s been about learning how to listen, to myth, to symbol, to rhythm, to the structure of D&D itself. And then figuring out where my work fits, and where it pushes back.

There’s tactical thinking in this, even if it doesn’t look like a battlefield. 

•  What does each Tradition offer? 
•  How do I balance the occult with the arcane and divine?
•  Where does narrative shape the mechanics, and where do the mechanics open new story paths?

And yes, I am using the word “story” here. Why? Because that's what the player is going to do with this. I am fairly sure that the audience here is the ones that will look at the traditions, subclasses, and classes I have and say, “yes, these are different from each other.” They are the ones I want to reach. 

It's not always straightforward. Sometimes it’s sitting at my desk, staring at a spell description for 20 minutes, trying to decide if it should be second or third level. Sometimes it’s rewriting a single monster power because it breaks one of the unwritten rules of AD&D logic, or it is too close to something already done, OR even because I need it to be closer to something already done.

But that’s the work. That’s the tactic. Slow, careful, deliberate construction.

I love a good battle map. I love clever flanking. I love using the environment to turn the tide.

But sometimes the most satisfying tactic isn’t found in the order of initiative.

It’s in building something that others can use.

And knowing that somewhere, someday, a new player’s character might light a candle, draw a circle, and say, “I cast an occult spell.”

Questions

 Where. Confident. Accessory. Hmmm...Where am I confident I can get the latest accessory? Easy, my FLGS, Games Plus.

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

Mail (and Yard Sale) Call Tuesday, 80s Style!

 Double hitter today. Went out on a hunt for some old-school D&D and came home to some mail.

Dragged my wife and youngest out to a yard sale way north of Chicago because I saw online they had a ton of D&D books. A box of adventures, hardcovers, a box of Dragons, and a bunch of old Ral Partha minis. We got there in plenty of time, but the boxes were stanched up by, well... I never got a satisfactory answer. My wife and kid suspected (with some good reason) that the people running the sale held it back for someone. I kept getting a different answer from the workers (it was a managed sale) and the person buying them all didn't seem like a gamer because they really couldn't answer and questions.

Oh well. I did get a chance to look into the boxes, and I had about 95% of it all anyway.

I DID manage to score boxed sets of Top Secret and Indiana Jones. This gives me more evidence that person buying didn't know what they had. These were right next to the books and were ignored. That's fine, I didn't have these, so score for me! I also got the Doctor Who Technical Manual to replace my old one that was lost. 

The boxes are in worn shape, but the contents are good. Missing dice, save for the saddest looking d10 I have ever seen.

On the mail front, this was waiting for me when I got home.

The Folio Black Label #3 White Witch and Black Stone from Art of the Genre.

And it looks like I got the last copy! Sorry all. But honestly, how could I have said no? It features Duchess and Candella as NPCs and the main antagonist is "the White Witch."  I mean, come on? 

While print is sold out, the PDF is still available. 

I'll get a proper review of this up soon. Now I just need to figure out where I am going to slot this into my War of the Witch Queens.

#RPGaDay2025 Day 26 Nemesis

 One of my favorite characters in Superman has always been Lex Luthor.

Why? Because Lex never thinks he’s evil. In his mind, he’s the only one doing the right thing. Humanity can’t trust an alien god with their future, no matter how many kittens he rescues from trees. Lex isn’t mustache-twirling evil, he’s rational. Cold. Calculating. Absolutely convinced that he is the smartest man in the room and that everyone else is either too blind, too stupid, or too naïve to see the danger.

That, to me, is the perfect nemesis.

In my games, I’ve had plenty of recurring villains, necromancers, devils, cultists with too many teeth, but only a few that have earned that capital-N “Nemesis” title.

Magnus is one. He’s my classic evil necromancer, complete with black robes, pale skin, and an ego that can barely fit into the dungeon. But I’ll be honest, sometimes he feels like a cartoon villain. Fun to bring out for a good dramatic monologue, but not quite the existential threat I want.

Yoln was a better one. He was the nemesis in my AD&D 1st ed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer games. His evil had a face, a voice, a reason. Players hated him, but they also understood him. That’s good villainy.

Dracula? Always a favorite. But he’s more of a force of nature than a true nemesis. The devil you invite in by accident.  The Refrigerator? Fun, but he is a misanthropic one-trick pony.

But lately… I’ve been circling something deeper. A presence that’s shown up in many of my games, even when I didn’t know it yet.

At first, it was just a phrase, The Whispering God. A vague mythos thread to tie things together. But somewhere between running a Buffy session and catching a train in downtown Chicago, I realized something. Magnus has heard those whispers. So has Yoln. And maybe, just maybe, they were never the real threat.

They were echoes. Shadows.

The true nemesis is something I’ve started calling The One Who Remains.

He’s not a person, not really. “He” is just a convenient pronoun. “It” would be more accurate. “They,” maybe. Or “We,” if I’m being honest.

Here’s what I know:

• He was once a human, or something like it.
• He helped end the Age of Old Ones, maybe in the Wasted Lands’ Dreaming Age, maybe earlier.
• He did something, some ritual or betrayal, that shattered his being across time and space.

Now he is trying to pull himself back together.

Like gravity pulling dust into stars, his scattered thoughts, identities, and echoes are coalescing. Slowly at first. Then faster. Always faster. And when he is whole again?

It will be too late to stop him.

Some worlds feel his influence only faintly, a name in a forgotten grimoire, a face glimpsed in a nightmare. Others bear him like a scar. In some, he is barely more than a drive or a hunger. In others, he takes on form: a warlock, a high priest, a masked prophet. In some campaigns, he’s just a whisper. In others, he’s a storm.

And in my multiverse?

He’s everywhere.

He’s the shadow behind the coven. The Patron no one names. The face in the mirror when the moonlight is hitting it wrong,  or maybe just right.

He is the Nemesis not of a single hero, or of the world, but of all the cosmos. Of memory. Of meaning.

He is the end that waits, and the beginning that never should have been.

And the worst part?

He’s almost here.

I can’t wait for you to meet him.

Questions

What. Envious. Genre.  What Genre am I envious of? Well none really. Though I do like hearing people talk about their superhero games. I can't ever keep one going for long.

 

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

Monstrous Mondays: Starchild (Occult D&D)

 For years, I have been getting these little blank journals. My kids used to like to get them and give them to me for birthdays, Father's Day, and Christmas. Anyway, I typically keep them next to my desk, my bedside stand, and my end tables where I read or watch TV. I have dozens of them filled up, and maybe twice that number that are partially filled. 

This past summer, I have been working on collecting these into something. Not 100% sure what that something is, but I have been scribbling it all down under the header of "Occult D&D."  

Here is a "monster" I have been playing around with for a little bit. The first version of this was from a notebook I had all the way back to my earliest AD&D 1st Edition days. Revised heavily in the 1990s, and picked back up this past July.

Starchild - Photo by Alesia  Kozik

STARCHILD

(Custodes Sidereus, Ascended Master, Starborn)

Astral Celestial (Unique/Extraplanar)

FREQUENCY: Very Rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: -2
MOVE: 15"/48" (Fly)
HIT DICE: 14–16
% IN LAIR: 15%
TREASURE TYPE: see below (Astral Cache only)
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 (touch) or by spell
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 2–12 (psychic touch) or by spell
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Spell use, see below
SPECIAL DEFENSES: +3 or better weapon to hit; immune to charm, sleep, fear, illusion
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 65%
INTELLIGENCE: Supra-Genius (20–22)
ALIGNMENT: Variable (see below)
SIZE: L (10'–12' tall)
PSIONIC ABILITY: 200
Attack/Defense Modes: All / All
LEVEL/XP VALUE: IX / 19,500 + 20/hp

Starchildren appear as radiant humanoid beings of flawless beauty and serenity. Their physical forms are idealized, genderless or androgynous, glowing with starlight or surrounded by cascading auroras. In some traditions, they appear as translucent, elven-like sages robed in constellations; to others, they are shining spheres of cosmic intelligence, barely contained in mortal shape.

Starchildren rarely engage in physical combat, preferring pacifism, diplomacy, or departure. However, they will defend others from destruction, particularly mortals of magical inclination. They attack once per round with radiant energy (3d6 damage), or may cast spells as a 20th-level magic-user, 20th-level witch, or illusionist, depending on which magical tradition is strongest in the region.

They also possess the following innate abilities, usable at will unless noted otherwise:

• Teleport without Error
• Plane Shift
• True Seeing
• Detect Magic
• Telepathy (universal languages)
• Contact Other Plane (always succeeds, never drives them mad)
• Banishment (3/day)
• Akashic Memory (see below)

Once per week, a Starchild may grant a mortal access to the Akashic Record as per the Access the Library ritual spell. This is usually done only for profound magical seekers or as part of a sacred pact.

Starchildren possess all psionic defense and attack modes and may use any of the "sciences" or "devotions" as needed in a particular situation. 

No two sources agree on what the Starchildren are. Some witches say they are the ascended forms of the first witches, elevated beyond mortal limits. Others insist they are celestial beings from the stars, what modern occultists call Star People or Elder Teachers. Still others view them as sentient emanations of the Cosmic Consciousness, a universal mind from which all magic flows.

They do not reproduce, nor do they maintain societies in the conventional sense. However, Starchildren have appeared to witches in times of great need, offering insight, visions, or magical gifts.

Starchildren are known to walk the Astral Plane, the Ethereal Realm, and other dimensions unknown to mortals. They are believed to be custodians of the Akashic Record, a vast, extradimensional archive of all knowledge, magic, thought, and possibility.

Starchildren do not eat, breathe, or sleep. Their presence warps reality subtly, nearby spellcasting becomes easier, plants grow slightly better, and dreams become filled with symbols and visions. Prolonged contact with a Starchild can result in magical mutations or spiritual awakening, depending on the soul of the one exposed.

A slain Starchild does not leave a corpse, but transforms into stardust and ascends, its essence dissolving into the Astral Light.

Though they do not hoard material goods, a Starchild’s sanctum may contain:

• A spellbook containing 1d6 unique or forgotten spells.
• Crystalline artifacts imbued with planar energy.
• An Astral Map that allows access to unknown planes.

Starchildren as Patrons. If the Starchildren were once patrons of witches, as many believe, they are no longer. Though all traditions have something in their teachings that many conclude is a product of the Starchildren. 

Each Witch Tradition interprets them differently:

• The Aquarian Tradition see them as the progenitor of their tradition and the form they ultimately aspire to transcend to.
  
  
• The Atlantean Tradition believes they are the architects of the great crystal cities beneath the waves.
  
  
• The Classic and Pagan Traditions see the Starchlidren as the messengers of the old gods of their faiths. They would be called angels in other philosophies. 
  
  
• The Daughters of Baba Yaga whisper that Baba Yaga herself is the most terrible and wise of the Starchildren.
  
  
• The Followers of Aradia believe the Starchildren first taught Aradia the language of the stars.
  
  
• The High Secret Order seeks audience with them for the secrets of deep occult power.
  
  
• The Scaled Sisterhood refer to them as Cosmic Serpents, and some suspect the great Dragon/Serpent Anantanatha is one.

Names of the Starchildren

These are the Starchildren known to occult scholars.

Unceph the Dual-Flame: The one who whispers across mirrored selves. Keeper of the Seventh Gate of Thought. They are male and female, both eternally. 

Lioriel of the Infinite Choir: Angel of harmonics and secret words. Her voice is a thousand singing stars.

Xavhalon the Prism-Eyed: All colors bend through their gaze; they dream in radiant geometry.

Astraema of the Crystal Veil: Watcher of fates yet unformed, veiled in moonlight and deep water.

Seraphex, Keeper of the Burning Glyph: Bearer of the first word etched in flame. Those who read it are forever changed.

Urilathe the Memory Unbound: He who walks the halls of unchosen pasts. Wields the Book of What Might Have Been.

Omniala the Pale Aurora: She dances on the threshold of death and dreaming, trailing silver fire.

Zyntharion of the Thirteenth Ray: Patron of heretics and innovators. The ray no one remembers seeing.

The Archon Selador: Who guards the spiral path inward. All questions asked three times.

Velek-Tha of the Outer Spiral: The serpent-form of stellar wisdom. They uncoil thought from the void.

Galithriel, She of the Star-Seeded Womb: Mother of the Starborn. Cradles the souls of those who dream beyond the veil.

Nocturiel the Dream-Encoded: Sleeper beneath the silver sphere. His sigils bloom in moonlit minds.

--

One might be excused for thinking that this all originated from weird post-70s New Age thinking. And yes, that is true, but it was equal parts that, equal parts of Chariots of the Gods?, and equal parts of television shows like The Phoenix. The catalyst, though, had to be Juice Newton's cover of "Angel Of The Morning."  My thought was, if there is an Angel of the Morning, are the others? Of course there are. 

I make no claim that Lioriel looks like Juice Newton circa 1980. But I also do not not claim it.

#RPGaDay2025 Day 25 Challenge

Monstrous Monday Edition

Over the decades, we've had "Dungeon Level," Monster Mark, Threat Levels, Challenge Ratings, Encounter Difficulty, and a dozen other shorthand systems meant to answer one very old question:

 "Can my party handle this thing?"

And here's the short version of my answer:

 Maybe. But also... maybe not.

That’s the paradox of Challenge in D&D and most fantasy RPGs. It sounds like math, but it plays like myth. There’s a desire, especially in newer editions, to systematize danger. To give you charts, budgets, and formulas that make the world behave. The 3rd Edition tried really hard to codify it. 5e softened the math, but still aims for the same goal: fairness. Balance.

But here's the thing. Balance is an illusion.

Challenge doesn't live in the numbers. It lives in the tension between what the players think they can do and what the world dares them to try.

In old-school games, especially AD&D 1st Edition, there was no guarantee that the next room wasn’t going to have something that would eat you in one round. The game trusted the Referee to warn, not to weigh. The sign of blood on the doorframe, the sulfur stink in the air, the scratch marks on the wall. That was the challenge rating.

And as a monster-maker and adventure writer, I love that freedom. It lets me drop a coven of night hags in the woods outside of a Level 3 village, not because it “fits,” but because it means something. The challenge is a story, not a stat block.

When I design new monsters for my campaigns, or for my witch projects, I rarely ask “Is this balanced?” I ask “Is this meaningful? Is this memorable? Will this scare the players just enough to make them think before they roll initiative?”

Because the best challenges are the ones that change the characters. Not just in XP or loot, but in story. The foe that scars them. The one that got away. The one that cost them something. The monster that becomes a legend around the table.

So sure, build your encounter tables and run the numbers if you like. But don’t forget what the real challenge is:

Getting out alive, with your story intact.

Questions

When. Excited. Adventure.

When am I excited for an adventure? Any time I get to play with my kids and family. 

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

#RPGaDay2025 Day 24 Reveal

Every game has that moment.

The moment when something slips out of the shadows. A secret comes to light. A mask comes off. The moment a reveal hits the table and changes how everyone sees the world, or themselves.

As a DM and a designer, I live for those moments.

They don’t have to be big. Not every reveal is a secret villain or a hidden bloodline. Sometimes it’s just a player realizing they’ve been wrong about their character’s path. Or that the “harmless” NPC has been manipulating things since session two. Or that the relic they’ve been carrying isn’t what they thought it was, and never was.

One of my favorite reveals was during my series of 5e Gen Con games my family played in. There was this elf-girl who kept ending up on the PCs tail. She would be in the same dungeon, or be in the slaver’s camp, or just following. She was Evelyn, the Princess Escalla, and she was leading the rebellion of elven slaves in the drow city of Erelhei-Cinlu.

But every reveal has weight.

In my worlds, especially the occult ones, revelations aren’t always helpful. They don’t always come with a neat explanation or a reward. Sometimes the truth is confusing. Frightening. Half-seen. And that’s the point. Not every mystery needs to be solved cleanly. Some truths don’t bring clarity, they bring consequence.

Another one was Yoln as The Hand of Leviathan. My players (and ther characters) thought the hand was a weapon. It was a person or a former person. 

Speaking of which. 

Lately, I've been threading something into my games. A presence. A name. A whisper behind other plots. He’s not always visible. In fact, he rarely is. But he’s there, like a recurring nightmare that no one talks about. A cosmic echo that appears in different guises across different campaigns and settings.

The players don’t always notice it at first. But eventually, someone will ask:

 “Wait… haven’t we heard that name before?”

 “Didn’t someone else dream about that same phrase?”

 “Why does this ruin in the Realms have the same symbol we saw in a galaxy far, far away?”

And that’s when I smile. Because the reveal isn’t just a plot point. It’s a pattern. Something reaching across time and space and genre, pulling pieces of itself together.

I’ve started calling him The One Who Remains.

He’s not just a villain. He’s not even entirely real in the way most beings are.

 He’s the echo of something that broke too long ago to remember.

 A shadow stitched from regret and silence.

 A thought that keeps trying to remember itself.

In some campaigns, he’s just a whisper. In others, he’s the secret patron behind a warlock’s power. In still others, he’s already won, and no one realizes it yet.

He’s been revealed slowly, in fragments.  And he’ll get more detail in just a couple of days. Day 26 is coming.

Sometimes the best reveals aren’t about answers. They’re about realizing the question has been with you the whole time.

Questions

How. Proud. Person. 

Easy. I was proud of my kids in their first Gen Con game and then really got into the spirit of it right away. The GM later told me he didn't normally like having kids so young, but they did great.

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

#RPGaDay2025 Day 23 Recent

 One of the joys of this hobby is how often we revisit the past.

Old characters. Old settings. Forgotten rulesets we swore we remembered better than we do. And yes, there’s a kind of magic in cracking open that AD&D 2nd Edition Forgotten Realms box and realizing that even though you’ve been gaming for decades, somehow… this still feels new.

But lately? I’ve been reminded that the recent moments are just as powerful.

In the last few months, I’ve been lucky enough to dive into a few very different games, and each one has changed the way I think about the stories we tell at the table.

Daggerheart caught me off guard in the best way. I went in expecting a rules-light, character-driven story game, and it is that, but what really stood out was how it handles party dynamics. There's a gentler kind of tension here. Not the clash of classes or alignment charts, but emotional connection, hope, and the quiet drama of shared vulnerability. It’s not just how the characters fight together, but how they heal together. And for someone who’s spent a lot of time in dungeons and haunted ruins, that shift was… refreshing.

Then came a run in Edge’s Star Wars RPG, and that was a whole different ride. Fast, cinematic, gloriously messy. But what it reminded me most of was this: balance isn’t the point. Fun is. Characters aren't finely tuned chess pieces. They’re scoundrels, force users, misfits, and rebels flying by the seat of their robes. The game never once worried if something was "too strong" or "underpowered." It just asked, “Did that feel cool?” And honestly? That’s a design philosophy I want to carry with me.

And finally, there’s my return to the Forgotten Realms, but this time, through the lens of AD&D 2nd Edition. It’s funny. I’ve spent years reading Realmslore, pulling from its gods and guilds, its elven legacies and deep roads beneath the mountains. But actually playing in that space, using the materials from the late '80s and early '90s? That feels different. It’s like stepping into a place I’ve only ever read about. Not as a scholar or a fan, but as a traveler.

Nostalgia is great. It’s powerful. But it’s not a substitute for presence.

And that’s the thing I keep coming back to: the most important past isn’t what we played twenty years ago, it’s what we did at the table last week.

That last game. That weird plot twist. That character choice no one expected. That moment of laughter, tension, heartbreak, or triumph that came out of nowhere.

So yeah, I love looking back. I’ll always treasure the books, the maps, the stories that got me here.

But what really matters?

What’s happening in the next session?

Nostalgia is great and fun, but sometimes the most important past is what we did in our most recent game.

Questions

What. Confident. Genre. 

What genre do I feel the most confident in? Easy Horror. I love running horror games. 

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

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.  

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