To the side of this city is a large burial area.
In this shadow elf necropolis, the party will encounter 1d4+3 Spectres and 1d6+4 Wraiths.
The tunnel opens up into another large cave system.
The party will encounter three Shadow Elves. They are on patrol.
Once this Shadow Elf community was vibrant, well. As vibrant as these elves ever get. But a thousand years of exposure to the Vampire Queen's evil and the necrotic forces here (not to mention what strange radiations are coming from the ship above) have reduced their numbers and made the remaining elves slightly better than ghouls. Their alignment is now Chaotic (Evil).
They will attempt to talk to the party, but on the first sign of advantage, they will attack.
In addition to treasure they have food (more of the good mushrooms) and wine.
Note: Dwarves will notice that these passages are steadily going down.
I am coming into today's post with about four+ months of doing nothing but deep diving into all sorts of AI tools. I decided to turn these powerful tools over to what is essentially one of my bread-and-butter topics here; creating new witch characters.
Now before I go on here, I want to state this unequivocally. I have no desire to use AI-generated text in any future blog posts unless it is clearly stated (like this one), and NO desire to put any generated text into my books.
It's not that I have issues with AI or on moral grounds. I just believe that people like to buy my stuff because it is my stuff; written by me. Having used these tools, you all can go out and do this on your own. You don't need me for that.
But today's post is about seeing just what these powerful tools can do.
For today's post, I am using the tools ChatGPT, Google Bard, and MidJourney. I choose these three because they are right now the most powerful at what they do. Let's see if they can replace me.
Today's experiment. Can these tools create a new witch character with a background, art, and, better still, D&D stats?
I asked both Chat GPT and Bard to generate a legendary witch on par with Circe, Medea, Morgan LeFey, and other mytho-historical witches. I also asked the same of Bard. Once I got these, I then copied and pasted text into MidJourney to produce an image of this witch.
Here are the results.
Luna Moonshadow
From ChatGPT:
Born during the Dark Ages in a small village nestled deep in the woods, Luna was known for her mysterious aura and captivating beauty.
From a young age, Luna exhibited a natural talent for magic, drawing power from the moon and the stars. She honed her skills in secret, practicing ancient and forbidden spells that she discovered in ancient tomes hidden in the depths of the forest. As she grew older, her powers grew stronger, and she became known for her ability to control the elements and manipulate time itself.
Luna's reputation as a witch spread far and wide, and many sought her counsel and assistance. She was revered by some as a wise and benevolent witch, using her powers to heal the sick and protect the innocent. However, others feared her power and saw her as a threat to their beliefs and way of life.
In history, Luna Moonshadow played a pivotal role in a conflict known as the "War of the Witches." This was a dark period in history when witches and sorcerers were hunted down and persecuted by the ruling powers. Luna was a staunch advocate for the rights of witches, leading a rebellion against the oppression they faced. Her mastery of magic and strategic prowess led her to become a formidable leader in the battle against the witch hunters.
Despite facing numerous challenges and betrayals, Luna's unwavering determination and bravery inspired others to join her cause. She used her magical abilities to defend her fellow witches and fight for their freedom. Her legend grew as tales of her exploits spread, and she became a symbol of resistance against tyranny.
Ultimately, Luna Moonshadow's efforts led to a turning point in history, as the tide of the war shifted in favor of the witches. Her leadership and sacrifices paved the way for a new era of acceptance and tolerance towards witches and their magical abilities. Luna's legacy endured, and she became a revered figure in history, celebrated as a powerful and influential witch who fought for justice and equality for her fellow witches, leaving a lasting impact on the world of magic.
Not bad. Maybe a bit clichéd. So I asked it to generate "Dungeons & Dragons stats" for her.
Again, ChatGPT:
Character Name: Luna Moonshadow
Race: Elf
Class: Sorcerer
Background: Folk Hero
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Ability Scores:
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 16
Constitution: 12
Intelligence: 14
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 18
Proficiencies:
Saving Throws: Constitution, Charisma
Skills: Arcana, Persuasion, Medicine, Nature
Armor: None
Weapons: Daggers, Quarterstaffs, Darts, Slings
Features and Abilities:
Sorcerer's Spellcasting: Luna can cast spells using Charisma as her spellcasting ability, and she knows a number of spells from the Sorcerer spell list.
Font of Magic: Luna has access to sorcery points, which she can use to fuel her metamagic abilities or to convert into additional spell slots.
Metamagic: Luna can use her sorcery points to manipulate her spells, choosing from options such as Twin Spell, Quickened Spell, or Subtle Spell, among others.
Fey Ancestry: Being an Elf, Luna has advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and she can't be put to sleep by magical means.
Folk Hero Background: Luna is well-respected among her fellow witches and is seen as a hero for her role in the War of the Witches. She has proficiency in Animal Handling and gains a set of artisan's tools.
Equipment:
Quarterstaff
Component pouch
Explorer's pack
Common clothes
A pouch containing 15 gold pieces
Spells Known:
Cantrips: Eldritch Blast, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Ray of Frost
1st Level Spells: Shield, Sleep, Charm Person, Thunderwave
2nd Level Spells: Invisibility, Misty Step, Scorching Ray
3rd Level Spells: Fireball, Counterspell, Fly
Luna Moonshadow is a powerful sorcerer with a keen understanding of magic and a reputation as a folk hero. Her abilities as a sorcerer and her determination to fight for the rights of witches make her a formidable and respected character in any Dungeons & Dragons campaign.
Well...not exactly right, but not bad for an AI. It defaulted to some strange version of D&D 5e. I ran the same thing in Google's Bard:
Race: Human
Class: Warlock
Background: Sage
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Strength: 8 (+0)
Dexterity: 14 (+2)
Constitution: 12 (+1)
Intelligence: 16 (+3)
Wisdom: 14 (+2)
Charisma: 18 (+4)
Hit Points: 12 (1d8 + 2)
Armor Class: 12 (studded leather)
Speed: 30 ft.
Skills: Arcana +6, Deception +8, History +6, Insight +6, Investigation +6, Nature +6, Perception +6, Persuasion +8, Prestidigitation +6, Stealth +4
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 16
Languages: Common, Elvish
Equipment: a dagger, a component pouch, a book of spells, a set of common clothes, and a traveler's clothes
Spellcasting: Morrigan is a 1st-level warlock. She knows the following warlock spells:
Cantrips (0-level): light, mage hand, prestidigitation
1st level (4 slots): hex, magic missile, shield
Luna's Other Abilities:
Shapechanger. Luna can use her action to polymorph into a crow or raven, or back into her true form. She can remain in her alternate form for up to 1 hour. Any equipment she is wearing or carrying melds into her new form. She reverts to her true form if she dies, falls unconscious, or chooses to do so (no action required).
Witch Sight. Luna can see innately into the Ethereal Plane. She can see invisible creatures on the Ethereal Plane, and she can see into the Border Ethereal as if it were lightly obscured.
Fey Presence. Luna has advantage on Charisma (Deception, Intimidation, Performance, Persuasion) checks against humanoids. She can use her action to frighten humanoids that can see her within 30 feet of her. Each frightened humanoid must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC 14) or be frightened of Morrigan for 1 minute. A frightened creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Not too dissimilar, but I like it a bit better. Again, D&D 5e and Bard told me it grabbed all this data from the 5e d20 SRD. So that was a nice touch, really.
My next test was can it do the same thing if I specified AD&D 1st Edition. The results were pretty interesting and surprising.
Certainly! Here's a character sheet for Luna Moonshadow in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition:
Name: Luna Moonshadow
Class: Witch
Race: Elf
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Level: 10
Ability Scores:
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 16
Constitution: 12
Intelligence: 14
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 18
Saving Throws:
Paralyzation/Poison/Death Magic: 10
Rod/Staff/Wand: 12
Petrification/Polymorph: 11
Breath Weapon: 13
Spell: 14
Hit Points: 55
Armor Class: 6 (Leather Armor)
Weapons:
Quarterstaff: 1d6
Dagger: 1d4
Equipment:
Quarterstaff
Dagger
Component pouch
Backpack
10 torches
Bedroll
Rations (1 week)
Waterskin
Healing potions (2)
Spellbook
Spells:
1st Level: Charm Person, Detect Magic, Light, Sleep, Magic Missile
2nd Level: Invisibility, Levitate, Web, Mirror Image, Scorching Ray
3rd Level: Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Fly, Counterspell, Dispel Magic
Special Abilities:
Familiar: Luna has a familiar in the form of a black raven named Shadow, who aids her in her spellcasting and grants her additional abilities.
Witchcraft: Luna has access to various witchcraft abilities, such as brewing potions, divination, and the ability to curse or bless others.
Luna Moonshadow is a skilled and experienced witch who has honed her craft through years of study and practice. Her expertise in spellcasting, combined with her wit and resourcefulness, make her a formidable ally in any AD&D 1st Edition campaign. Her reputation as a folk hero and her dedication to fighting for the rights of witches further add depth and intrigue to her character.
OK! It's not a perfect write-up by any means, BUT it is surprisingly close.
I then dumped all of this into MidJourney and had it render out a witch for me based on the descriptions. That is the art you see here.
What To Do With This?
I am sure of one thing here. I am not out of a job just yet. Luna is a lot of fun, but there is not much to her. Well, not yet anyway.
Since I generated every aspect of her via AI tools, I am releasing her into the public domain. Not that I have to, she already was there by means of how she was made, but this particular combination of all of this text and imagery is unique. So I am releasing that.
What does this mean? It means you are all free to take her and use her as you like.
Put her into your games. Make her an NPC. Hell put her in a book and publish it and make a lot of money. You don't even need to tell me about it, but I would like to hear about it, though. If you kill her out of spite in your games because you don't like AI, well, I'd rather not hear about it, but you do you.
I'll tweak her myself later using my own witch rules. Based on both versions, I would make her half-elf and, given some of the other material generated, make her Patron the Morrigan. I do love that "War of the Witches" bit above too. I'll have to work that in.
I can see a lot with her now that I have been doing this. AI may have been the ground she grew in, but the seed was mine, and how I take it from here on out will be mine as well.
Or yours.
I'll put this at the end again for the good serial position effect.
I will not use any AI generative text in any published book. Also, I will not use any AI generative text in any blog post unless I clearly mark it.
You see the "AI" label below? That is how you will know, BUT I will also clearly indicate it.
Monster Mash is now out in both PDF and Print on Demand, and I am very, very happy with it.
Work is going on for Monster Mash II: A Green and Pleasant Land now. Classes are built, just need some edits. I also bought a bunch of art from Dean Spencer so his art will fill the book for a single artistic vision.
But one thing people have asked me is, "Can I use Monster Mash" with the OSE-Advanced Rules?
While my intent was always to stick with OSE-Classic, there is nothing stopping you from using OSE-Advanced rules. In fact, here are my guidelines.
For this, I am going to use the races and classes from OSE-Advanced. If there is another race or class (say from one of Carcass Crawlers or other sources) you can use the closest analog.
Races
OSE, for the moment still uses the out-moded "Races." I fully expect that will change but until I am using it as a "rules term" only.
Note: ANY Game Master can over-rule these level limits as they see fit.
In every case these different races retain any abilities from 1st level on.
Awakened Golem
Requirements: 13 or greater in STR and CON, 10 or greater in WIS
Ability Modifiers: +1 to STR and CON, -2 to CHA
Acrobat: NA
Assassin: 10th (must have a DEX score greater than 13
Barbarian: 14th
Bard: NA
Cleric: NA
Druid: NA (and I would add they are so far removed to nature they can never be druids)
Fighter: 14th
Illusionist: NA
Knight: NA
Magic-User: NA* (special cases could arise)
Paladin: NA
Ranger: NA
Thief: 14th
Gothic Witch: NA
Profane Necromancer: 10th (similar special cases)
Catflok
Requirements: 12 or greater in DEX
Ability Modifiers: +1 to STR and CON, -2 to CHA
Acrobat: 10th
Assassin: 10th
Barbarian: 9th
Bard: 7th
Cleric: 8th
Druid: 9th
Fighter: 10th
Illusionist: 7th
Knight: NA
Magic-User: 7th
Paladin: NA
Ranger: 8th
Thief: 10th
Gothic Witch: 9th
Profane Necromancer: 7th
Ghost
Requirements: None
Ability Modifiers: STR, DEX, and CON are effectively 0
Ghosts can be anything but are limited to 10th level.
Hagling
Requirements: 12 or greater in WIS
Ability Modifiers: +1 to WIS
Acrobat: NA
Assassin: NA
Barbarian: 8th
Bard: NA
Cleric: 10th
Druid: 10th
Fighter: 10th
Illusionist: 10th
Knight: NA
Magic-User: 11th
Paladin: NA
Ranger: NA
Thief: 10th
Gothic Witch: 13th
Profane Necromancer: 13th
Hobgoblin
Requirements: None
Ability Modifiers: +1 to CON
Acrobat: NA
Assassin: 8th
Barbarian: 10th
Bard: NA
Cleric: 5th
Druid: 6th
Fighter: 10th
Illusionist: NA
Knight: NA
Magic-User: NA
Paladin: NA
Ranger: 5th
Thief: 10th
Gothic Witch: 4th
Profane Necromancer: 4th
Lycanthrope, Wererat
Requirements: 11 or greater on DEX and CON
Ability Modifiers: +1 to DEX
Acrobat: 8th
Assassin: 8th
Barbarian: 5th
Bard: 5th
Cleric: 4th
Druid: 4th
Fighter: 6th
Illusionist: NA
Knight: NA
Magic-User: NA
Paladin: NA
Ranger: NA
Thief: 8th
Gothic Witch: NA
Profane Necromancer: NA
Lycanthrope, Werewolf
Requirements: 11 or greater on STR and CON
Ability Modifiers: +1 to STR
Acrobat: NA
Assassin: 8th
Barbarian: 10th
Bard: 5th
Cleric: 4th
Druid: 4th
Fighter: 10th
Illusionist: NA
Knight: NA
Magic-User: NA
Paladin: NA
Ranger: NA
Thief: 8th
Gothic Witch: NA
Profane Necromancer: NA
Revenant
Requirements: None
Ability Modifiers: +1 to STR, DEX, and CON
Revenants can be anything but are limited to 9th level.
Shade
Requirements: 12 or greater on CHA
Ability Modifiers: None
Shades can be anything but are limited to 10th level.
Shadow Elf
Requirements: 15 or greater on DEX
Ability Modifiers: +1 to DEX
Acrobat: 10th
Assassin: 10th
Barbarian: NA
Bard: 10th
Cleric: 5th
Druid: 5th
Fighter: 10th
Illusionist: 9th
Knight: 10th
Magic-User: 8th
Paladin: NA
Ranger: NA
Thief: 10th
Gothic Witch: 10th
Profane Necromancer: 10th
Vampire
Requirements: 13 or greater on STR and CHA
Ability Modifiers: +1 to STR
Vampires can be anything, but combined with a class they are limited to 12th level.
Classes
Monster Mash also includes two "human" Classes, the Gothic Witch and the Profane Necromancer. The Gothic witch follows the same format of my other witch classes. The Profane Necromancer is essentially a Necromancer with various evil Cleric abilities added in.
Here are some suggestions.
Gothic Witch
Drow: 10th
Duergar: 7th
Dwarf: NA* (Dwarf witches are known as Xothia and use other witch rules.)
Elf: NA* (Elf witches are known as Kuruni and use other witch rules.)
Gnome: NA* (Gnome witches are known as Good Walkers and use other witch rules.)
Half-Elf: 14th (Half-elves can choose a variety of witches.)
Halfling: NA* (Halfling witches are known as Herb Women and use other witch rules.)
Half-Orc: 10th* (Half-orc witches are also known as Bogglebos.)
Human: 14th
Svirfneblin: NA (Svirfneblin would likely be a type of Xothia.)
Profane Necromancer
Drow: 9th
Duergar: 7th
Dwarf: NA
Elf: 8th
Gnome: NA
Half-Elf: 9th
Halfling: NA
Half-Orc: NA
Human: 13th
Svirfneblin: NA
A note about the Profane Necromancer.
There are so many Necromancer classes for Basic-era rule and OSR rulesets. Even OSE has its own Necromancer. Mine is an homage to the Death Master of the late Len Lakofka. But use whichever one you like the best, and feel free to use some or all of my spells with it.
Again, individual GMs can make adjustments as they see fit.
Why this particular book now? There are a few of the classes that I am considering back-porting over to B/X era D&D that my kids have expressed an interest in playing. I may or may not post those. They are not OGC and I have no plans to even "file the serial numbers off" to try an post them. Sometime I do things just for me or for fun.
Xanathar's Guide to Everything
2017, Hardcover. 192 pages. Full-color covers and interior art.
I called this book the "Unearthed Arcana" of D&D 5 and that is more or less on point. Much of the material here appeared in the pages of the online version of Unearthed Arcana.
The book has a wide variety of tools for Players and the DM and all are listed as being optional. This was published in 2017 so there is no hint here of anything that might be "5.5" or "5r" related.
The book is divided into an introduction, three chapters and two appendices.
Introduction
This covers what the book is about, and its origins from the online Unearthed Arcana. Wizards of the Coast has worked to get the layout of their D&D 5th ed books to be one of clean efficiency. Maybe not as much as say Necrotic Gnome has with OSE, but still really nice. For example their Table of Contents fits on a single page.
We get a (tiny) bit of background on who Xanathar is. Not being a huge FR fan I did not know but figured it had to be the same beholder from the 1st Edition AD&D Waterdeep and the North.
There is a page on "The Core Rules" which is really nice to have. There are ten rules that cover most situations. These are all from the PHB and DMG, but nice to have them repeated here.
Chapter 1: Character Options
We start with a listing of the 31 new subclasses for the twelve base character classes. Now before someone start screaming "rules bloat" these are not subclasses in the way that AD&D 1st Ed meant them. These are archetypes of the main twelve classes. So for example the Cleric has the Life and War domains (among others) in the PHB now gains the Forge and Grave domains here. Each subclass is tailored to the main class. So with Clerics they are "Domains" for Bards they are "Colleges" and Warlocks have "Pacts." So they are more like the AD&D 2nd Edition Kits. Both in good and bad ways. There is not much power creep yet.
This chapter covers about 65 or so pages, so a third of the book. Each main class gets some details that worked for any subclass of that class (Bards get more instruments, clerics have more details on their temples for example). There are a lot of classes in this book. I am not going to get into every subclass here. But I would like to point out a few.
The Bard College of Swords is the spiritual descendent of the AD&D 2nd Bard kit known as the Blade; aka the moment I knew 2nd Ed Power Creep was happening. The Blade Kit sucked. The fiction for it sucked and the NPC they used as their iconic Blade REALLY sucked. The College of Swords Bards are also called Blades. Their AD&D 2nd ed origins are very plain, BUT there is none of the power creep and thankfully the edgy NPC "Dark" is also gone.
Grave Domain Clerics are the other side of the coin of the Life Domain Clerics. Where the Life Cleric (PHB) tries to preserve life, the Grave Domain Clerics make sure the dead stay at rest. They are the "good" option of the Death Domain Clerics (DMG). Cleric Domains have their origin in 2nd Ed and were expanded greatly in 3rd Ed.
Fighters now have an Arcane Archer subclass (known as a Martial Archetype here). This is the 5e update of the 3rd Edition Prestige Class. Monks (Monastic Traditions) get a Way of the Drunken Master and a Way of the Kensei. Paladins get new Oaths. Rangers get new Archetypes including the Gloom Stalker, a Ranger adept at working in dark places but my favorite is the Monster Slayer. Rogues get the Mastermind and Scout Archetypes.
The Sorcerers are next. Their subclasses are known as Arcane Origins, or essentially how you became a sorcerer. In addition to these are some tables on various supernatural marks (think witch mark) and other weirdness due to your bloodline. The one I wanted to convert is the Divine Soul. You have a bit of divinity in your blood. I would convert these as a B/X Magic-user and allow them to have some free cleric spells based on their divine blood. Cure Light Wounds and Bless for Lawful for example. Their Charisma would need to be high, like 14 and that would be their Prime Requisite ability too. While they get the spell for free, they can only still cast it once per day. At the 14th level, they gain their Otherworldly Wings. There is also the Shadow Magic Sorcerer. This feel like it is from the Shadowfell Player's book from 4e.
Warlocks also get new marks and new invocations. There is a Celestial Pact for people that want to play "good" warlocks. Before anyone dismisses this idea remember that Aleister Crowley had a pact with an angel he called Aiwass and believed was his personal guardian angel to who he made invocations to every day.
Wizards have Arcane Traditions that more or less equated to "Schools of Magic."
The next section of this chapter covers a variety of character background ideas such as origins and life events with lots of random tables. Like an Old-School collection of random tables. ALL of them are also perfectly adaptable for use in ANY version of D&D. They remind me a lot of the tables from the 1st Ed AD&D Unearthed Arcana.
There are some new racial feats, but unlike 3e or even 4e, 5e is not feat centric. You can even have a character that never takes a feat at all. These are largely mechanical rule manifestations of possible background ideas. Have weird eyes? Ok, you have weird eyes, jot it down on your sheet. Do these weird eyes do something special? Well, you might need to take a feat for that then.
Honestly, I did not see anything in this chapter that I could not easily convert to an earlier edition of and D&D.
Chapter 2: Dungeon Master's Tools
This chapter covers a wide variety of topics but mostly expands on material already in the DMG. Topics like Falling, Sleep, Tying Knots, Adamantine Weapons, and Tool Proficiencies are all discussed. Lots of tools.
Spellcasting gets a bit of special treatment here. The area of effects on a grid is detailed. d6s are used as visual aids to show how to set up on a grid.
Some more detail on building monster encounters is also discussed, including single and multiple different types of monsters. There is an eye towards balance, but there is no requirement to do so. The only real advice is "avoid monsters that can drop a character in a single hit." I have seen more than a few TPKs in D&D 5e.
Again we are treated to what I can only describe as pages of old-school-style random encounter tables.
There is also a section on Traps that while not quite as gleeful as a Grimtooth product, will still make that Chaotic Evil DM smile. How much? One trap has a save DC of 20 and does 24d10 damage.
There is a discussion on downtime and the reason why my youngest bought this book, magic item creation rules. More magic items are also detailed.
Chapter 3: Spells
This last full chapter covers new spells. About 30 pages worth. The spell economy of 5e is different. There are no Cure Light Wounds, Cure Moderate Wounds, and Cure Serious Wounds spells for example. There is only Cure Wounds and it is a low-level spell for Bards, Clerics, Druids, Paladins, and Rangers. IF you want a more powerful version you cast it at a higher spell level. So instead of a 1st level spell, it is treated as a 5th level spell for example. This means less print space is needed for spells.
Appendix A: Shared Campaign
This covers working on interlinked campaigns and working details out. Not everything you need to know is here, some more could have been written, but it is a great start.
So. I picked up this book for the various subclasses, but found a wealth here for many of my other D&D games.
I would say that most of this book is easily adaptable to any version of D&D you choose to try it with. The exception might be 4e. There are some seriously interlinked mechanics there.
Xanathar's did quite well for a splat book and was even listed as one of Publisher's Weekly best-selling books for December of 2017.
Despite his name and picture on the cover there is not a lot of material on Xanathar himself outside of the sidebars. Wizards would later do a much better job with Tasha in her book.
The art is amazing as to be expected. The layout is a step up from the Core Rules and shows what the design team has learned in the last few years.
You can see bits and pieces of D&D's DNA from all editions here, though this is largely true for 5th edition in general.
Faerie Lords
I have been working on a number of Faerie Lords for the Basic Bestiaries and the High Witch book. These lords provide a number of interesting background NPCs and are also the various Powers that both Faerie Tradition Witches and Fey Pact Warlocks can honor/serve. I have already detailed a few here, Titania, Queen of Faerie, Nicnevin, Faerie Queen of Witches, the Queen of Lies, and the Prince of Beasts.
My focus lately has been building the court of Nicnevin (also known as Nic an Neachneohain). Hers is not a court of deep intrigues like Mab's or Titania's, but a powerful court all the same. Since those Courts are typically (if somewhat incorrectly) described as the Dark and Light courts (more properly Winter and Summer) I need a few independent "Shadow" Courts. Nicnevin is the Queen of the Autumn Court. Not a major court to be sure, but still powerful.
Shadow Elves
There are more than one "Shadow Courts." Last year I did a big series on Shadow Elves and various other shadow fey. I was trying to come up with a good idea for Shadow Elves in my world and I looked to the Shadow Elves of Mystara and the Shadow Fey from Kobold Press and even into the ideas of the Shadowfell from D&D 4th Edition. This lead me to do an adaptation of Kobold Press' The Dusk Queen. But she is PI so I won't be using her in my books, save for maybe as a special guest in my home games.
While reading more about the Shadowfell, the mortal world, and the Feywild for D&D 4 and 5 I came up with an idea of my own.
Just as the Mortal World (the Prime Material) intersects with the Shadow World (Shadowfell) and the World of Faerie (Feywild) they also intersect with each other.
So less this:
And more this:
Excuse my lack of artistic ability here.
All three worlds intersect. The intersection point of the Mortal and the Faerie is already detailed in many D&D books as the Feywild. The intersection of the Mortal and Shadow is the Shadowfell. The Shadowfey is the intersection of the Realms of Shadow and the Faerie Realms independent of the mortal world. This is the area I am working on. This is the home of the Umbral Elves.
Last Bits
Among other things I also needed a Faerie Lord, or at the very least a high level Faerie/Elf to be the father of a particular character. I needed to have that character spend 13 years "stuck" in the faerie realms while she was getting instruction by her "faerie godmother" (Nicnevin). And finally, I needed to develop a group of Elven Cavaliers for various reasons. This particular group of Cavaliers is linked to witches and witchcraft. Essentially they are the Elven Cavaliers from Dragon Magazine #114 tied more closely to the witch class that appears in the same issue.
I also wanted a character that recalled the B/X Elf class that used sword and spell with equal proficiencies.
Putting all of this together a new Faerie Lord emerges.
Scáthaithe, The Umbral Lord
Faerie Lord
Str: 16 (+2) Dex: 18 (+3) Con: 20 (+4) Int: 20 (+4) Wis: 16 (+2) Cha: 24 (+5)
The Faerie Court of Autumn is ruled very loosely by Nicnevin the Faerie Queen of Witches. Her sometimes consort and Cowan is a being known in court as the Knight of Swords. He is also known as Scáthaithe ("skaw-he"), the Umbral Lord. He is the melancholy lord of the Shadow Elves.
Scáthaithe appears as a tall (7') tall elf-lord. His skin is pale with an almost bluish tint to it. His hair is long and black and often tied back. His eyes are bright green and his pupils are slitted like that of a cat's. He wears the armor of a knight and carries a long darkened sword he calls "Moonblade." He is often astride a black warhorse with large black wings. The barding of this warhorse makes it at first appear to be some dark unicorn but is more akin to the pegasus.
When not in the court of the Witch Queen he will be found with his six sons, the Umbral Knights, patrolling the lands of the Shadowfey. His sons act as 8-10 HD versions of their father. Their role is to patrol the Shadowfey and keep intruders out. This includes mortals and creatures of the outer planes. Elementals can be found here if they have the leave of the local lords or ladies.
Scáthaithe will attack intruders to the Shadowfey with both sword and spell. He will use a long-range spell, such as magic missile to start with and then switch to his sword which he can attack three times per round. He can cast spells as a 12th level magic-user.
The Umbral Lord has a keep deep in the Shadowfey, Scáthchoimeád where he resides with his sons. He had a Lady, his sons' mother, but that was long ago and he never speaks of her. Presently he has taken up with a young human witch. It is also rumored that he is the son of a great lord of the Summer Court and a great lady of the Winter Court, possibly even Oberon and Mab.
Scáthaithe as a Witch/Warlock Patron: By agreement with his Queen Nicnevin, Scáthaithe does not take on witches as part of the Faerie Tradition. Though he can be invoked by these witches through Nicnevin. He does however work as a Patron for warlocks. He can be used as a Fey Pact Patron and is particularly well suited as a Pact of the Blade warlock. His warlock can manifest a dark sword similar to his one Moonblade. He is also favored by half-elf warlocks who see themselves as being a member of two different worlds and also being of neither; like a shadow.
The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: H is for Hollow Earth
Actually of all the conspiracy theories I have presented here, the Hollow Earth is one of my favorites.
It is just so crazy and so much fun.
In truth, many of these ideas come from my father-in-law who had a rather impressive collection of books and underground films about this stuff. I like to pretend he didn't believe them all and like me, he just got a lot of enjoyment out of them. Well, this is true, but ask me again when we get to Tesla.
So the Hollow Earth.
This one is a topic I have talked about a bit here in the past.
From the fantastic Ubiquity powered game from Exile Game Studio,
To the Hollow World of Msytara,
Tales of Journey to the Center of the Earth and Pellucidar filled my childhood. So as far as conspiracy theories go, this one was a welcomed one, but one that never left the realms of fiction for me.
Great tales when you are a kid, bad science when you are older.
It was not until my father-in-law introduced me to this strange book he got about the Hollow Earth by Raymond Bernard.
It ties then UFO literature and research to the Hollow Earth. A lot of it is crazy pseudo-scientific nonsense, premises stretched thin and beyond credulity, and shoddy correlations that are not even remotely connected. So it is easy to see why people who are not trained in science are taken in.
Yet, unlike the Flat Earthers (who are as you recall morons) the Hollow Earthers seem almost quaint in a naïve, harmless old uncle in his dotage. "Of course, the Earth is Hollow, now let's get you back to bed."
For NIGHT SHIFT
On Monday I mentioned two "alien" species that came from under the Earth. Could their origin be the Hollow Earth? It certainly sounds fun to think about, but I think I much prefer an "underdark" sort of Hollow Earth with large pockets of emptiness where these communities of Derro and Ophidians can live and where they do battle with the Reptilians in their underground bases.
Maybe not full-on Agartha or Pellucidar, but more akin to Jules Verne. There are Pulp roots to NIGHT SHIFT if one cares to look. The Hollow Earth also had pulp roots. It is therefore not inconceivable that a group of adventurers from NIGHT SHIFT could find themselves on their own Journey to the Center of the Earth.
The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).
Full Disclosure: There is no way I can give this a complete review because I don't know enough about the source material. I mean I know it, but not enough to for the level of play this learning game would require of me.
I have mentioned before that I have known about DragonRaid since at least the mid-80s. I was both amused and fascinated by it then. When I learned more about it I was a little more impressed.
The Game
DragonRaid got a lot of grief in the gaming communities I was a part of. I had some Christian gamer friends that thought it was a cheap attempt to capitalize on their faith and some even did not want to mix their D&D and belief. As an Atheist, then and now, I thought it was interesting. As someone who was interested in psychology then and someone with degrees in it now I also thought it was an interesting way to learn something, in this case, Bible verses. I always wanted to see the game for myself.
One thing I have to keep in mind that this "game" is not really an RPG, but a teaching tool in the form of a role-playing game.
The game's author and designer was Dick Wulf, MSW, LCSW, who is, as his degrees indicate, a licensed Social Worker and holds a Master's Degree in Social Work. He had done a lot of work in psychotherapy and ministry. He also played D&D and Traveller. So it seems he actually likes and knows RPGs better than the guys who gave us Fantasy Wargaming!
Plus I have to admit the ads in Dragon Magazine always looked really interesting. I mean seriously, that is an evil-looking dragon and should be stopped and those look like the brave warriors to do it. Even if they need some more armor*. (*that is actually a point in the game! more later)
A while back my oldest son and I saw this game at my FLGS and I told him all about it. He is also an Atheist (as everyone in my family is) and he wanted to get it so we could play the other, evil, side. He wanted to do something with the dragons in the game (he loves dragons) and I of course wanted to bring witches into it (cause that is my raison d'être). Plus this copy still had the cassette tape in it. I mean that is just beyond cool really. So yeah I grabbed it with every intention of having a bit of a laugh with it.
I might be a witch-obsessed Athiest, but I am also an educator and not really an asshole.
The truth of the matter is spending this past week with the game I just can't take a piss on it. The author is just too earnest in his presentation of this game. There is love here, and scholarship, and frankly good pedagogy behind the design. I don't normally mix my professional education background with my game design work. Yes, they can and they do mix. But when I am writing a book on the Pagan witches for Old-School Essentials I am not trying to write a historical treatise on the pagan religions of Western Europe during the time of the Roman Empire. I'll try to keep my facts in line, but I can't serve two masters. I have to write what is best for a game.
DragonRaid also doesn't serve two masters. It serves one and makes that work for both pedagogical reasons (to help young people understand Christianity and their Bible better) and game design reasons (to have a fun roleplaying experience).
For this DragonRaid succeeds in a lot of ways. For this, I simply can't do anything else but admire this game and its design. So no playing dragons here, or me coming up with a witch class to fight the characters. I might do that at home, but I am not going to be a jerk about it.
Besides look at everything, you get in this box! I mean seriously, this is some value.
I even got the cassette tape! I don't have anything to play it on though.
This company is all in on this game and I have to admit I totally admire them for it.
Final Thoughts
As I discussed back in the Character Creation challenge, a lot of the very random rolls you make can really help define who your character is. That is great, but it also confines your character in certain ways. There are ways to increase abilities you want over ones you don't want, but this game like many others, has you play to your strengths. Sure in the early 80s people were fine to have a character only defined by the numbers on the sheet; today? Not so much.
I will admit that I never felt "talked down to" as a gamer while reading this. Yes, it is designed for someone with far less experience than myself or my readers, but all the same, the advice in the game always came across as helpful and never condescending.
Also, I never felt "called out" as an Atheist here. Sure by the game's standards I am one of the DragonSlaves and even though I consider my life to be good, great even, it is not truly so. Ok. Whatever. I am also not as attractive as an elf, strong as an orc, or interesting like a tiefling. Though my lack of experience with Bible verses and my complete lack of desire to ever memorize any will limit my involvement with this game. Likely to just this review.
The quality of the materials is top-notch. I am not sure which "printing" I have, but no dates are past 1984 on my books and it still has the cassette tape. I did notice when doing some research that my box did not have a copy of the purple cover "The Moon Bridge Raid" nor did it have the stickers. Maybe because I didn't buy it directly from the publisher? Looks like that the Moon Bridge Raid is in later editions/printings and these also included a CD. So I am really rocking it old-school!Note: A little digging online tells me there was a newer printing with 1998 and 1999 dates on the books. Likely this is the printing that had the CD.
Digging deeper EdenAgain seems to be a planet that humans crash-landed on. Looking at the art one assumes it was only white people on the ship. They had a copy of the Bible on their spaceship. So is this one a post-apocalypse game? Could characters from my Star Trek: BlackStar or Star Trek: Mercy games find their way to EdenAgain? I mean that is not to different than the Star Trek Discovery Season 2 episode "New Eden." Except the people of New Eden, aka Terralysium, combined all of Earth's faiths including Christianity, Hindu, Judaism, Bahá'í, and Wicca into one. Not very much in line with what DragonRaid would have wanted. Discovery Season 2 was fairly heavy with religious symbolism.
One thing implicit in the game is that all other creatures except for humans do not have souls and can't be saved. I did not get a clear read on animals and talking ones in particular though I know the rules are in there somewhere. So ALL creatures would be considered evil; in fact the manifestation of sins. That giant destroying a village? Evil. Kill it! That dragon eating all the maidens in the country? Evil. Kill it! That orc sitting on a rock picking his nose? Evil. Kill it! Sleeping baby troll? Evil. Kill it! Get the idea? There are no shades of grey here. A human OnceBorn in charge of a child slavery ring is not to be killed. The goblin that did nothing else but let you know about it so it can be stopped has to be killed. That goblin isn't a real living creature but sin-made flesh. Which is kind of cool if you think about it, but also a little too conservative for my tastes. Combat is physical and is lethal. Combat can also be spiritual.
One facet of this game that can't be ignored is the production value. While the art has not aged as well it is still objectively good. The layout is clean and easy to read. The material is grouped together well. The redundant text isn't really redundant at all since this is designed to teach. The box is sturdy as hell, and mine is still in fantastic shape. No idea about the cassette tape, but everything else in the box is top-notch. A spiral rules guide for the game table is something that makes so much sense other companies should have been doing it (I know...cost).
While character creation can be a chore, the core rules are pretty simple. Percentile rolls vs some cross-referenced charts based on abilities. Roll high. With players using the d10s, sorry, StarLots and the bad guys using the ShadowStones (d8) advantage always goes to the LightRaiders.
In the end, I am glad I purchased this game even if it took me forever to do anything with it. I am never likely to play it or run it, and while there are some great ideas here I am also not likely to mine it for any. I have to give the late Dick Wulf major credit. He had a vision and a love for this game and it shows on every page.
Links
Here are some collected links if you want to learn more about this game.
That's another Blogging A to Z for April for the history books. It was nice to get back into this really. I enjoy the challenge of not just blogging every day (I kinda do that now anyway) but having a prompt for the blogging.
Let's See how I did.
According to my stats my visits were up 20% over other months, except for October (which are usually up 50% to 75%). I gained followers across social media, with the most coming from Twitter.
That's all well and good really, but for me one of the important things was I found several new blogs to follow from here on out and many more I'll visit on the Blogging A to Z Road Trip.
My goal was to get some monsters done. I published 26 days with 24 complete monsters, 3 variations, and 1 subtype. I also 2 categories of monsters, Qliphoth with 10 monsters and Vampires with 44 types.
For the visual types, here is a Pinterest board with links to each one.
Follow Timothy's board "April 2021 A to Z of Monsters" on Pinterest.
I started the challenge with over 330 monsters in my projects folder with 156 of those 100% complete. I started with two ideas for monster books; one for normal monsters and another for demons and devils (and more).
Today I have split this all off into three books (maybe four) of normal monsters, undead, and fiends. The fourth book is so early I am hesitant to even announce it.
I also have new cover art for all my books, even the proposed fourth book.
By the numbers, Basic Bestiary I has (so far) 240 monsters with 220 at complete status. Basic Bestiary II: The Undead has 178 monsters with 80 complete. Basic Bestiary III: The Fiends has 87 entries, with 19 complete and an additional 616 proper names of demons, devils and other fiends that I need to sort through. Basic Bestiary IV currently has a working list of 100 monsters, none are complete.
So roughly 320 100% complete monsters, more than doubling my pre-April count of 156.
That was my true goal here. I did not think I would walk out of this with a complete book in hand. There is still a lot of editing to do and my target per book is still 300+ monsters. The demons and devils book will be more; I might snarkily have 666 monsters. So far I am within reach of that.
Will I do this next year? At first, I was thinking no, but in truth, I did forget how much fun it was to visit all sorts of blogs outside my normal reading. Plus in terms of my goals, this was a success. Maybe I'll do this for my Book IV.
Right now I have a lot of monsters to clean up and get ready for BBI.
http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2021/05/atozchallenge-reflections-2021.html |