#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.  

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/