Ethyria Game Log June

So we had 2 players absent and other drop ins not dropping in and I had 2 ppl from another group with a DM looking to play and doing characters so we set them up and let them explore the setting a bit. Hopefully next game we have 3 and after that 4.

Im trying to only use Theros and PHB2024 but I'm allowing alternate priest domains if they work. We notices no Augary spell in the current version, and its the basis of a Theros supernatural feat Sigh. Two new players generated partly online but came out fun.

Omiros "Firehair" an adopted satyr who became an acolyte then priest of Heliod

Kiren an adopted centaur farmer turned monk

They could have been from the wild clans to eastern woods but both chose to be adopted by the same human clan of farmers around the main Polis. The family own a farm and are keen to climb socially in the polis. Kiren was adopted when father died defending city in battle as a mercenary. Omiros had a famous ancestor who died tragically and had a play written about them.

The clan had lost all grandparents and parents so the adoptees only had 4 siblings

Aella a 3rd lv Fighter who is family head and she serves in militia, she is patronising but treats the boys ok

Klieio a 2nd lv fighter and second in line, she dislikes the adoptees

Erebos a farmer loves the adoptees and he longs to get away from farm life

Magara who partly works on the farm but is indiferent and a bit mysterious

So the boys were with family who were scheming how to improve their status. Omiros and Kiren decided to go adventuring like other recent new heroes who had got glory and wealth.

They knew of a bridge dedicated to the gods that used to facilitate trade to the wild folk of the east through the mountains. Maybe they might learn more of their true people. There was also a ruined tower on the way one of only of kind in areas while their are hundreds in the wild north. Their brother wanted to come but sisters forbade it.

So off to the towers by the safe coast trail and met friendly soldiers who knew their sisters. Then into hills and saw towers based on ruins in Sicily. Met some satyrs and dryads who were friendly but complained humans kidnapping satyr kids. The humans said same about satyrs and the wild forest folk. 

Declined offer to join them and went on to the tower. While entering the gatehouse the centaur heard wings behind the wall so they tried to hide. The satyr failed and three harpies swooped him,. he blasted one with fire but his bronze chain vest kept him same. The centaur charged in fists and hooves blazing with lightning. Harpies fled to a mountain peak said to be a harpy colony. They moved inwards and the satyr lept over a 20 foot wall then on top of the central tower. Could see a single larger harpy coming back. So he peekind down the stairwell on the ruined tower and heard sniffing and dust moving. So he sprinted down and was breathed on by a hellhound with unholy flame. Fled through front door and the centaur charged in to help. While the hound chasing the satyr the faster monk pummeled the hound with his lightning fist.

Felt close but heroes won. The Satyr insisted on live capture so hogtied and muzzled the dog intending to carry it home. He wanted to tame it but his holy lore informed him it was not an animal. Found a strange amphora with snake designs and a trapdoor to the underworld with graffiti. The new harpy came to menace them and used her fear song. They were not affected but the centaur sprinted down the hill into the forest, pursued by the harpy. The satyr followed snakily. Both got to the forest and managed a safe trip home.

Sold the dog to the arena and saw the two-headed son of Cerbus hound brought in by other player's group. The amphora could daily release a swarm of snakes and they sold it to the sinister temple of the goddess of poison and disease who does have her ok moments. Fans followed them and bought them drinks and kebabs and took them to see a humorous play, followed by drinking. They also gained piety for monster hunting and now could give blessings of the light god.

When they got home sisters came out to nag them but when they saw wealth they were as impressed as they could be. The lads gave 800gp to family coffers worth several years farm income to be used for fences, a barn, labourers and new sheep.

The next day Magera the shifty sister told boys the agora plateau had catacombs with entries in a few temples and possibly other hidden ways. The satyr was sure she knew more than she revealed and both became more interested. Shw had heard gossib of their night out.

Instead they went to harbour to rent a ship to go and loot the cursed labyrinth that other adventures had returned from. Aparently they were not first. A ship of the other party family returned damaged with missing family members. They had heard their hated sibling Aias had got rich their and tried to give it a go. While adventurers ashore being kidnapped by an ogre the ship was driven home by harpies. The other party on the sea goddess ship had already departed to rescue the missing siblings.

So the lads went to look for a ship. There was a pirate ship and and merchant. They even got Aias's grandfather to subsidise the hiring of a ship because he doubted Aias could pull off the mission. They chose pirates who seemed tougher.

The shop set off and fog poured in. The pirate captains mate, a Triton said the fog was natural and the wind died. They rowed close to the phantom island and the pirate captain was keen to explore for treasure and the boys agreed but were wary. The ship got close and the triton mate and three sailors got in the ships boat and went ashore. They could see the hugeskull shaped hill on the icy island and giant doors in the nose and a warf. They got close and were intimidated by the 40 foot high bronze doors. the satyr did see a secret entrance and they got close to open it. Two sailors stayed in the boat while the rest went into a dark tunnel. Using light magic they pressed on and saw three giant doors. The opened one to see frost giant barracks with giant exotic furs and giant sacks on wall pegs.

Saw some large ticks while searching and they saw a dog size tick stalk the triton and defeated it. They fled to the boat covered in giant blood from the tick. The captain said he had planned to rob the party and throw corpses in the sea but he was impressed with the daring and loyalty to his first mate the triton. Even though dark the canny captain navigated them home. Each man in the giant complex had a huge white fur, a polar bear, a winter wolf and even a yeti. The giant bag had some money and trinkets. The pirate also decided to not even charge the adventurers and said he would sail with them again.

The adventurers Aias and Xi on the temple ship had returned with missing siblings including body of Aisas's mean brother. So the two groups should be able to meet up.

Went well and I look forward to more players for a viable campaign.

The skull island is based on a Clark Ashton Smith adventure and Advance Adventures compendium 2. Reading lots of ancient greek history I should have read when I did classics at uni 30 years ago.

I let them take 4th lv feat for frost giants from bigbys giant book - resist cold and retalitory ice blast vs enemies, slows mov to 0, as they were contaminated by giant blood in tick.

Im pretty happy players finding bad places, doing hit and runs and nabbing some loot.

Family stuff has been great. possibly might have some intermarriages later on.
 

June Spot Reviews

My Ethyria/theros game has 2 new players starting so thats been nice. One quibbling about character gen rules from online sources vs book and I'm having to re-state rules and that im only using 2024PHB and Theros book which something always put me off dnd5 but its part of running modern rules. In part I chose 5th ed to get another game running as this city not into many other games and ppl have wildly untrue ideas about old editions from heresay. I keep telling ppl its 10x faster to play and simpler but it is what it is.

Im happy with my 2 current games as a dm, and playing with new ppl has made my playing a character game improve lots. If I ran an out-of-the-box game setting Id use my homebrew with Gunderholfen or Midderlands. Ive had ppl ask me to run RQ but not enough to do it.

Two books I'm working on and a pro job tryout are dominating my time at the moment. Megadungeon I'm running for ethyria/theros, about half done, and I will work on it today for the game tomorrow.

Have a bunch of new purchases...

Cthulhu By Gaslight - Investigators' Guide 😀😀😀💥
Only a quick glance, but many online are wondering if it is full of redundant content and if you only need the Keepers version. I think the 7th ed core books, the investigator's book, is mostly useless. It has one rule for military background in the keepers' book (and overpriced automatic weapons). The situation in the gaslight edition has improved. It's mostly historic info, and I like the idea Investigators' book has real-world info, so the  Keepers' book has more mythos. The rules and character generation in Gaslight Investigators are less than other recent setting books. So on this basis, I like it more than the standard investigator's book. I'd think I'd rather more period photos than some art, but most of the interior art is ok. Pallette seems a bit subdued, and some scenes could have more grime. The more painterly art is very good. I got it on sale on Amazon, it's the main reason I got it. My interest in Chaosium and Cthulhu is diminishing overall, but about 4 or 5 books I'm interested in. The fandom of Cthulhu and RQ is the main reason. If ppl asked id explain more. 

The Bats of Saint Abbans 😀😀😀😀
This is an adventure and detailed location for Midderlands but easily adaptable to other medieval games, maybe even Pendragon. It would be a good one-off or campaign starter. It details a cathedral, monk life, npc's, a monastic time keeping system, new monsters and more. The box set would be best version but it could all be in a book. I got books and PDFs and 3 book bundle. There is also two bookmarks with info to help manage adventure, cyan maps (not in print bundle), an ecclesiastical time chart and fantastic encounter tables that add to the adventure. A PDF of maps, where it is in Midderlands and npc portraits. Now Ive seen it I wish I got the box set. The adventure is not about combat but dealing with npc, taking lots of athletic and spiritual risks and the supernatural weirdness of the cathedral. it would be a good centre for a campaign or starting point. Its a weird, magical place. Basically, you must deal with crazy bats in the cathedral and find what they like and clues to save them rather than kill them. If you like doing voices, it is a goldmine of characters and creatures. I did say you could run for Pendrago,n but Id shave off some of the weirder things. Id like to run it.

Possibly, I'd start players as locals needing work or in debt to the church for healing. Maybe fight some disease vomiting sewer goblins might disease the party, so they need healing. Its a fun read with lots of humour and weirdness and history inspiration behind it. 
 

Adventure Anthology 1+2😀😀💥💥
These are short adventures for Basic fantasy RPG. Not as good as their Black Apple adventure, I reviewed April (one of the best adventures I've read). They are short small dungeons for a session and might actually be good for Solo play as most don't have any complex plots. Some could be inserted in other adventures. Also good for beginner players or DM. Im getting a few of the Basic fantasy RPG things here and there but quality varies. They are all affordable, so even if broke a new adventure is affordable. Vol2 has a nice pumpkin festival adventure I could use. A slaver base in Vol1 u used.

Fords Faeries 😀😀😀😀

I had pdf but the book is good to read on the bus and at the table. Super inspirational for weird faeries and monsters, many with emotional effects for roleplaying opportunities, good for my game and Pendragon. While reading this, it inspired lots of blog posts from me, so basically, why I buy books like this (also, I struggle to read fiction novels at all now). Great, weird faerie-inspired stuff to make your games stranger. I will use this lots when I run my Auldwood game.

Pestilence at Halith Vorn 😀😀😀😀

I love Gundolfen. But id say everything in the setting is amazing. I normally hate puzzles in dungeons but I like the ones in these books. The books have been getting better and better, layout and writing-wise. This details a pestilence threatening a town and a huge multi-level and multi-planar adventure. Lots of grotesque, weird stuff of the top tier. I like the factions you can use and while they might mean some areas are a cakewalk there is still plenty to explore and do. Wonderful dark and nasty stuff.

Letters From The Dark 😀😀😀💥
A series of small shadowdark booklets. Nice self-contained well laid out of books with various topics. I don't really want to collect or buy shadowdark, but I play it. These are above average quality and value for shadowdark. For other retro clones its a bit thinner without class info but certainly easy to adapt and interesting stuff.

There are some pdfs I'm still reading so will cover next month.

Alignment Keywords

Been reading Adam Eterno comic reprints from UK A 16th c alchemist aprentice who stole immortality and cursed. Only gold can hurt him (it turns up lots). In 70s he was hit by a gold-plated limo and now he floats the time streams turning up to beat up bad ppl. Early on he was trying to die but eventually he decides to go with it and just enjoy beating up bad ppl through time and space. Like a wizened old man brawler who talks in a ye olde manner. Like dr who crossed with iggy pop and highlander but surly, bitter and fatalistic. From brit boy comic weekly mags: Thunder, Lion, Valiant for 6 years now in 2 new books.

---------------

So D&D5 has keywords based on attributes to describe your character.

But alignment needs this even more especially for the DM.
You could use these to avoid mentioning alignment in games.
They also help define alignment but you could use instead of alignment if you don't like it.
You could use to imply alignment and not be obvious.

I make alignment a bigger feature than most D&D games and clones and you can make oaths of fanaticism that have resulted in player vs player TPK campaign ending moments.

d20	LAW	CHAOS	GOOD	EVIL
1	Adamant	Contrarian	Altruistic	Abusive
2	Consistant	Erratic	Benevolent	Bitter
3	Constant	Fickle	Benign	Brutal
4	Conventional	Flexible	Caring	Callous
5	Discaplined	Flippant	Charitable	Cruel
6	Dutiful	Impetuous	Compasionate	Fiendish
7	Fatalistic	Impulsive	Considerate	Greedy
8	Formal	Indecisive	Fair	Harsh
9	Honourable	Mercurial	Friendly	Hateful
10	Legalistic	Rebellious	Generous	Heartless
11	Methodical	Rowdy	Hospitable	Mean
12	Officious	Undiscaplined	Humanitarian	Nasty
13	Ordered	Unfixed	Kind	Perverse
14	Precise	Unpredictable	Loving	Ruthless
15	Predictable	Unruly	Magnanimous	Sadistic
16	Proper	Vacillating	Merciful	Selfish
17	Rigid	Variable	Nice	Spiteful
18	Serious	Volatile	Openhanded	Tyranical
19	Systemic	Wild	Philanthropic	Uncaring
20	Uncompramising	Willful	Protective	Viscious

Updates & Chagrinspire

Im expanding and detailing my several hundred room Labyrinth for Ethyria Currently for Patreon which is doing well. The deeper I go the more cross referencing the slower it gets but I'm about half way through the surface level. Im still weaving plot and subplots throughout. Ive been reading current essays criticising minoar reconstructions which have increased since I formally studied it.

Anuranomicon first draft happening and art being prepped. Both drafts on Patreon this month.

I did a trial job for a company and made a very nice doc. Its in some ways easier to work with other peoples projects. Some art catalogues too so lots of InDesign time. Still working on getting my new work station operational and someone offered to put win10 instead of 11 which killed lots of my software. 

Ill have a bunch of reviews shortly too.
Im probably most awaiting Gods of the forbidden north.
Im finding new book in gunderholfen setting is the best I've read. Im not a puzzle guy but this is weird dungeon problem solving at its best.

Running D&D5/2024 has sharpened my players skill. Im using more of my abilities and most of my spells and reminding group to use opportunity attacks. Playing with a few older more tactical gamers has been good. I think lots of ppl I played dnd5 with would prefer a simpler system. Building characters feels a bit like building card games.   

I had my worst expectation of dnd5 happen. Tried to limit to phb and theros books (will consider bigby and extra cleric domains). Lots of "can I have this fan mod unrelated to setting or species or god unrelated to setting". Checking abilities and spells seems to be biggest combat slowing thing in game. So far players quite disciplined in combat vs my games as a player. Ive learned lots from them.

Trying to play online to learn - I'm a bit of a luddite and avoided video chats online. I feel like I need to spend an hour grooming.

Chagrinspire
The Party spends winter in the gatehouse and not travelling much as the ice and yetis who live on the upper thin air heights of the mighty tower into the heavens. They visited gnome town and the underground gnome civilisation and returned to their home base via rail.

While home, a purple star fell and the party rushed off to visit. A crystal structure of the star people had fallen and the party saw it was made of the crystal that fuelled their time machine. One note Ive been awaiting to use Gus L crystal adventures in my setting as most of what he does is pretty compatible with my settings. They very quickly became fearful of the crystal dust they had seen turn orcs into crystal zombies. They met infested scavengers and a horrible thing. They are wearing alchemist-made masks of cloth, charcoal and urine but have been slightly contaminated. They got about halfway and have picked up lots of clues about the star people and their conflicts. As its a published adventure, I won't go into it too much. Besides tomb robbers of the crystal frontier, check out these freebies from Gus. So a brief game log.

https://alldeadgenerations.blogspot.com/2022/09/gus-l-free-adventure-archive.html

Not much on this blog at the moment as I'm working on 2 books and stuff for clients.

Some new chagrinspire stuff coming too.

Minotaurs, the horned headed herd humanoids

 

Minotaurs
Abhuman beast folk 

Young Minotaur
AC+4 HD 4d12 (26hp) Att Axe d8+2 or Javelin d6+2 or unarmed d4+2 Mov 12 Morale 9
Veteran Minotaur

AC+5 HD 8d12 (52hp) Att x2 Axe d10+3 or Javelin d8+3 or unarmed d6+3 Mov 15 Morale 10

Avatar Champion Minotaur
AC+8 HD 16d12 (104hp) Att x3 Axe d12+4 or Javelin d10+4 or unarmed 84+4 Mov 24 Morale 11

❤The unarmed attack can be used to punch, gore with horns, grapple or hoof kick and get a bonus attack every battle (2 for veteran and 3 for an avatar)
❤ Can move at full movement rate and attack in a round
❤ Can leap +3m easily, climb and swim 
❤ Uncanny navigation making mazes even the maze spell easier to solve
❤ Alignments can vary, but many have waged war with humans since early times and have grudges
❤ Can eat plant or animal matter, including food humans find inedible, some are carnivores by choice, and a few are human eaters specifically. Vegetarian ones are still dangerous and aggressive near their families

1in4 Gain +2 hit and double damage with one charge attack per round (move 6m+)
1in4 Doubles damage dice on a hit with natural 19 or 20 roll
1in4 Track as a bloodhound, smell of blood stands out 
1in6 Bronze plate armour +2 AC

1in6 Cleave skill, any remaining damage after downing a foe can attack another enemy in 3m with a hit roll (maximum one attack 2HD)

1in6 Large round shield +2 AC +4 vs missiles if doesn't move
1in8 Berserker +2 hit and damage once lost half HP, fight until -10hp, fight to the death
1in8 Hellfire Breath as burning hands 3x per day d3+HD damage in 90-degree 3m cone
1in8 Immune to petrification magic
1in10 Eating human flesh and an hour's rest healed 2d6 damage
1in10 Thrown missile weapon returns to hand at end of the round
1in10 Random mutations minor per 2HD and major per 4HD
1in12 Stinking cloud effect from rotting flesh to all in 3m radius
1in12 Swarm of vermin living in flesh
1in20 Cast a maze spell once per battle
1in20 Regenerate a d6hp per round except acid or fire damage
1in20 Command cattle once per round

d12 Minotaur Adventures
1 An underground catacomb complex where locals bury the dead has a minotaur moved in. The sanctity protects graves from the undead, but the minotaur is searching for the sacred sigils at each corner of the graveyard 
2 A mountain cave is known to be the home of a minotaur that steals goats from locals every few years. Shepherds say it must guard a fabulous treasure in hopes that adventurers hunt it

3 A weirdo wants to open a minotaur dairy and has offended a minotaur tribe, go make peace. The weirdo offers a reward if he faces no consequences

4 Children tell tales of underground tunnels that are home to a devil and sing creepy rhymes. They hear its hooves and bellowing on cobblestones. An ancient minotaur maze is under the people's homes

5 Minotaurs claim all local cattle are their kin and tribe members. They want easy, free cows or a fight and free cows

6 An Amazonian lady minotaur has been preaching for human women to throw off the yoke of patriarchy. She is also teaching them knife and staff combat with a warrior ethos. A vocal minority want her gone and will spend money or lie to get rid of her and need some violent thugs

7 A minotaur cult seeks to make one of their herd an avatar champion to embody the spirit and powers of the tribal spirit. Many are ancestors but others are elemental or demonic

8 Lawful minotaurs require food and rest after a bloody battle against a chaos cult. They will be shocked by humanity's corruption and lack of devotion to killing chaos. Some feel the wrath of law is required to purge the wicked

9 A young minotaur is being chased by angry locals who think it is a monster

10 A slavemaster has minotaur gladiators for sale, great for dungeons, funerary blood fight rites or anything really. The minotaurs fear they will be made eunuchs soon  

11 A noble built a nice hedgemaze for his estate taking years but a bloody great minotaur moved in and has been shitting everywhere

12 A demon avatar minotaur leads a band of putrid mutated minotaurs on a rampage in the name of chaos and may come this way

d12 Minotaur Tribes (battle cattle folk)
1 Blood Suns, dark russet bulls with caked bloody handprints and white ochre designs, famous for berserkers who eat raw human flesh

2 Medow Lords are B&W and more peaceful, more interested in grazing in fields and growing crops than hunting and killing. They trade produce to other minotaurs and giants

3 Night Herd Lords who are black and hunt in the dark with red eyes, they worship the gods and spirits of darkness

4 Highlanders have red shaggy hair and are more willing to graze on grass and trade. They like to live in turf cottages in villages or occupy old ruins on the moors

5 Putrid Plague Kings who worship gods of slime, decay and undeath and use rotting minotaur corpses for undead. Many have parasites and bloated guts, some even leaking intestines, their hair falls off, and their skin is stinking and green

6 Duncow Herd Lords are brown minotaurs who have clans in wild wastes and woodlands, and they have a druidic priesthood. Some tribes sacrifice humans tp appease ancestors but others cohabit with wild forest folk and tribes of humans  

7 The Grey Ones, minotaurs with ash grey-blue fur, servants of the underworld who guard caves and wells to the deeps. Many paint soot around their eyes and bodies to look more skeletal. The priests made undead minotaur guardians

8 Great Buffalo are huge woolly brown and black buffalo minotaurs who enjoy wastelands. They often use ancient ruins and are peaceful unless their families are threatened by strangers. They rapidly unite under a war chief to destroy threats on their wasteland

9 Marsh Buffalo Tribe dwell in marshes and wetlands and are used for farm labour in some lands by the marsh folk. They prefer to be left alone but are aggressive to strangers near family or community

10 Sea bulls, white bulls, experts at sailing and piracy. Very calm about it all and bear enemies no malice. They sing-along drinking songs when celebrating a victorious sea voyage

11 Auroch tribe, gigantic black furred and long-horned, who hate hated humans since ancient times and the whole tribe will hunt and kill humans on their lands or path

12 Long Horn Hell Raisers with light brown spots, prefer wasteland life and meat and strong drink if they can get it. They notoriously kill centaurs and satyrs

d12 Magic Library Pests

My Patreon will be showing updates for the Labyrinth bit by bit. It will end up as a megadungeon. I still need to do a sub-level with a maze. All will be added to the Ethyria book eventually.

Magic libraries are a hazard and even have a secret portal to hell's libraries. Magic books attract trouble like strange life. Some students work in the library as vermin hunters, and a few go on to be adventurers. Desperate adventurers might get some coins or research for some pests destroyed.

d12 Basic Library Pests
1 Book Mites - eat the glue in books, damaging them and bite readers
2 Book Worms - eat paper and vellum and make silk nests, become book moths when adult
3 Skull spiders - eat bookworms and book beetles and leave webs everywhere, can live a long time. Librarians use their venom in traps and poison books
4 Shelf Rats - rodents that nest in shelves and eat books and other book vermin. They like to steal shiny things, lamps, candles, spectacles and other interesting things and hide them in their nest. Some say rat colonies actually write new works 
5 Book Borer Beetles - eat books and are attracted to other book pests, which they also eat
6 Wise Worm - larger sapient worms live for centuries on books, and they read as they eat. Thankfully, they may help librarians and shoot sleep gas in defence. They are sleepy but wise and learned. Some are wizards
7 Baby Mimic in the form of a popular book, will snatch a hand and flee
8 Stirge Owl - often sneaky loners attack weak book nerds and just leave victims unconscious
9 Paper Grubs - chew on books, and if you eat them alive, you may glean some weird random facts from books they eat. Some wizards consider them delicacies
10 Shelf Toads - eat bugs and worms and can spit d3 acid if surprised. They squeeze into shelves to hide between hunts and are poisonous if eaten 
11 Book Centipedes - are giant centipedes that hide in books, they hollow out and attack if surprised
12 Eyeballs - floating eyeball spies operated by wizards checking if books are in

d12 Advanced Library Pests
1 Gremlins - are mischievous and also favour rats over cats so unwelcome in libraries. A colony can ruin an operating library
2 Book Troll - 1-3 foot tall, small, hairy trolls like to help librarians and keep away pests like rats or cats or musicians. Some come to conflict over catalogue systems with librarians and can bee labelled pests
3 Book Brownie - a small benevolent protector of books who chases away imps
4 Walking Worms - steal books by eating them. A colony can form a humanoid mass that will fool people until close or in good lighting. They often serve evil cults
5 Vapour Rats - like magic books and can bypass barriers and traps. Nests of them spread damp and mould but they fear fire
6 Crawling Hand - scuttling around causing trouble with a malicious spirit, 1in6 have an eyeball which is used by more powerful library beings
7 Poltergeists - move books and might even throw them or knock over shelves, often spirits of former teenage students and troubled youths
8 Whispering Spirits - spirits that whisper strange things into the ears of people looking for books or reading. Some say vile things or forgotten secrets
9 Spectral Lenders - lost or never returned a book or stole from the library now a spirit trapped here. Most are harmless but might scare people. 1in6 dorm a ectoplasmic material like form and will fight if provoked and carry a weapon if they did when alive. They vary in strength depending on their level in life
10 Book Imps - plant forbidden lore in libraries and offer terrible advice while invisible to prey on students. They also offer free wizard school with unbeatable deals with no tuition fees. If a student is willing to sign a soul contract, the imp will open a secret portal to the library of hell
11 Hellcat - a large black cat that offers the same services as an imp but will offer to serve a powerful master for a year in hope of turning them to becoming a great evil.The cats may even walk like a person and wear clothes and use weapons after a time in service. They can become invisible in the darkness and have strange powers. Other supernatural cats might be found depending on the library, some hunt ghosts or are spies for good  
12 Librarian Spirits - protect books and shush noise makers, become hideous banshees when angered

d12 Library Patrons
1 Student looking for a book

2 Cleaner dusting, sweeping and mopping

3 Students doing vice d4 1=flirting 2=drugs 3=buying essays 4=talking to imp

4 Guards looking for thieves or troublemakers

5 Apprentices d4 doing research for master's

6 Cultists seeking forbidden lore

7 Librarian with a trolley reshelving books

8 Librarians on patrol looking for troublemakers

9 Scholars arguing or playing chess

10 Old scholar and assistant

11 Young wizard

12 Old wizard and d4 apprentices

d12 Library Most Wanted
1 Serial book thief or possibly a small gang

2 Religious arsonists caught trying to start a fire

3 Two cults are seeking something and fighting for it

4 A cult has infiltrated the library and has a secret room

5 Crime guild using the library for meetings 

6 An old scholar is stealing from speciality stacks and needs to be found

7 A thing from the sewer came in and has eaten people, and something from the special collection

8 Librarians in the library have gone missing in the catacombs

9 Someone is bringing in library vermin deliberately

10 A pervert in the library is exposing themselves and claims they are having sex with ghosts. Please stop them

11 A mummy wizard has been coming from the sewers by night to read, and is a bit scary

12 A portal to the library of hell is hidden, awaiting new students. An Imp will be its guardian and must be found

emo vs d&d5

For some reason, the new D&D books turned out to be good value, cheaper than the 2014 books. And then all local postal service retailers here had some amazing stock dumping sales of old stuff at better than second-hand prices so I thought I would recap my thoughts on this stuff. I hadn't grabbed lots of adventures before, but I've been nabbing them. It's good timing as I'm learning to DM 5th ed and manage risk. Also, going back and looking at my older books, now I finally get mechanics well enough to minmax and do weird stuff.   

My normal homebrew is sorta streamlined 1985 1st ed & cyclopaedia inspired. I found it faster than 4th ed and have been playing it since about 2012. Most of my content was for this. Philosophically, it differs more with old-school design but I do like some modern features and took some weird sidequests.

Weirdly, I find lots of ppl spent less time fighting (I still seem to fit in lots of fights in my D&D5 games).

I don't believe any dnd game or retroclone or new indie story game is the one and only authentic way to game. I will be reviewing these books as having useful content to plunder from for homebrewers, like ideas, maps etc and as modern D&D.

Lots of 5th ed gear is mostly good for mechanics of 5th ed. The new Psion class online being playtested now is even more like my own. I'm fine, my dnd book has happy monsters and twinks in preposterous outfits for murdering goblins.  

I played D&D5 from about 2020 but I did not exactly take in rules that well and taken me until the 2024 version I felt the book was usefully organised enough I would play. 

My order I'm presenting these is based on when I got them mostly. 

Possibly I'm a bit generous but they all have mostly nice art and are nice books. I don't think I'm the target audience but my students loved it/ I did have them see BX was faster for club quick games. After the book comments I dunk on the whole game a bit.

Mythic Odysseys of Theros
D&D 😀😀😀😀 Homebrew😀😀😀😀

I got this as I was running my Babylon d&d games and was working on bronze age stuff. To be clear I disliked lots of Wizards art (some overly new age for me) and zero interest in psuedo gambling card games. Id had a low opinion of official anything D&D since early 2nd edition (necromancy book was final thing I saw made me quit for RQ3. So something in this book sparked my interest. An attempt to make a pseudo greek fantasy made it interesting. You could still plunder myth as much as you like bit not worry about mythology experts being dicks to your game greeksplaining everything. I liked the Dyson mapped temples and the detail of religion. D&D 5 needs a cleric domain splatbook and the detail of Theros. I'm finally running this game now. I don't always like the alt mythology or monsters but it also does better than most of D&D. Harpies and Chimera and even some of the mods on monsters are good. I look forward to this being my default D&D5 for a while.

Waterdeep Dungeon of the Mad Mage 
D&D 😀😀💥💥 Homebrew😀💥💥💥
So I saw what I thought was a book, cheap and got the map compilation instead. So I got the book. Its a worse product to even read without separate prints of maps. It's a megadungeon Ive reviewed before. It's kinda not a great megadungeon or like the old box set of undermountain. On the plus you could just take levels out and relocate them without much effort. A funhouse dungeon of a mad wizard it isn't as fun as it should be. No new lore or monsters to get excited by either. I prefer these minimal maps to the full colour video game looking ones, which had put me off.

Out of the Abyss
D&D 😀😀😀💥 Homebrew😀💥💥💥
A sale item and another kinda railroad with some sandbox areas. It has lots of demon lords and interesting locations to steal and some lore to expand play. Prison breakouts can be a pain but it can also be a break from meeting in a tavern. I thought it a better read with better ideas than Mad Mage,

Wild Beyond the Witchlight
D&D 😀😀😀😀 Homebrew😀😀😀💥
I got this out of interest for the idea of a faerie book that you could play without violence. I see people avoiding conflict often in modern games because fights are so slow and tedious or they feel obligated. If you want that fine and you can try and murder hobo through this. It reminds me a but of Dungeonland/Magic Missor modules of Gygax but probably more charming and fun. I like the rabbitfolk and how Bullywugs went from vain CE thugs to dandy nobility and good goblins as faerie folk. If you wanted to run a less violent game and let people stockpile pets it could be fun. I could also steal encounters from it. Maybe you could run something less combat oriented and simpler might be good.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh
D&D 😀😀😀😀 Homebrew😀😀😀💥
I waited for a goodman games original adventures version of this and I think they had dome so well Wizards tried to do it as a cockblock (I have no proof just my fantasy speculation LOL). Some stuff on boat battles might help (Theros too). People wanted something like the battlecar rules in the Avernus adventure. I also liked it was more Greyhawk and the starting setups. Has good ship maps, weather, monsters and other stuff usable in other games. Ships have stats but not lots of guidance to use them or any special player abilities to help.  

PHB 2014
D&D 😀😀😀😀 Homebrew😀💥💥💥

DMG 2014
D&D 😀😀💥💥 Homebrew😀😀💥💥

I eventually got these as I was playing and I was often starved for any RPG gear in local shops and I was getting better value by post. So I nabbed these from shops. I think as a version of game with interesting stuff it was good. I had issues with half species and problems in player culture and the stereotype of being lost between two worlds stuff which made some of my students cry. Ive found in this edition most games I had were all furry characters. More recently, more have at least looked human (halfling, assamir) and one player likes reptilians (good taste really). I dislike the index pages I cant read even with glasses now I'm 55. I need good light to see nowadays. Im liking big fonts in old books more now than when I was  kid. I used to want everything dense like Mutant Epoch RPG but now I think 92 era box sets and other books big print is ok. Even with both books being obsolete the PHB can be used to fill in gaps for subclasses and old content not in current version. DMG is wildly different. I liked it was full of tables and rule mods and evil subclasses for villains. In a few years from now, this DMG might be the more useful book. Its an OK DMG but a bit thin and not really required reading.

MM 2014
D&D 😀😀😀💥 Homebrew😀😀💥💥

Its ok. I was a bit surprised by the changes having not really seen 3rd or 4th ed much. I appreciate the 2025 one but its only marginally better. It has fixed some things but made new problems. I found newer version easier to find stuff in. I like the Sphynxes and Lamia more in 2014 book. Mostly more HP monsters mean slower fights. Lower AC monsters can make missing so unlikely that rolling is tedious. Overall, both versions are fine for their time I will keep both versions for a while. In my old-school game I use D&D5 monsters for extra hard versions of things but with old-school saving throws and conditions like death. 

Xanathars Guide To Anything
D&D 😀😀😀😀 Homebrew😀😀💥💥

As a teen when I thought beholders were so cool I would have loved this. Early character subclasses, forge domain, grave domain, druid shapeshift details, race feats, stuff that shoulda been in DMG or PH and is in 2024, tools, balancing encounters (I ignore this), encounters,  traps, downtime, magic items, spells and a name section I'm using in other games. As a early splatbook its revisions were welcome and it had something for everyone despite being a bit thin vs some other similar books.

Volo's Guide to Monsters

D&D 😀😀😀😀 Homebrew😀😀😀💥

Lots of lore on monsters that lean into what I thought would have been cool at 15. Over specific monster lore and monsters being interrelated or made by specific demons, I think diminishes the wonder. I don't love the maps but the lair concepts are good and you as a DM get a mini game of building monsters and a lair for a cinematic battle. Gnolls to me are one type of beast folk and they could all be the same stats. I think D&D gnolls are cool but a bit overdeveloped. We need a book of fey like the giant and dragon books with goblins and faerie. Hags are cool. I do think a lower rank one like a chaos had from BX with 4HD and some powers for local witch things. I blinked and kobolds had become draconic minions. I like a variety of kobolds but D&D has made own distinctive thing. Lots of cook kobold art. Mindflayers are cool I guess and detail is good but to me too much about a weird outer alien being kinda doesn't help. Some monsters should be enigmatic. Yuan-Ti are fine but making them players in later books with advantage vs all magic was a problem. I like lots of variety of strength with types. All these monsters have a lair map and let the DM minigame a monster boss its interesting. My lack of fan devotion probably minimises how cool they are. I like races but Goliath a bit too biblical for me. Loved Kenku except the annoying roleplaying rule making them seem non sentient. I loved these lizard folk. The extensive bestiary is great. Some welcome returns of classics. A giant with 2 sheilds is a bit edgelord for me, but I like various monster types for low and high level play. Lizard folk 2025 you were done wrong. Lots of big headed little people in older books I disliked for some weird reason. Stats for human foes is great and easy to mod species. I still find it weird the game doesn't worry about human levels for NPCs only with wizards do they cast as a specific level. Having given up on this these sort of blocks are needed. I can imagine a new splatbook with more specialists for humanoids and player species. Its another solid splatbook of ideas. i enjoy statblocks more than the lore but liked random stuff. A good rainy day DM prep n play book.

Mordenkainen's Book of Foes
D&D 😀😀😀💥 Homebrew😀😀😀💥
Another mega splat book with monster and race stuff! Lore dumps  on bloodwar and tiefling mods. Elves section which I liked the gods but would rather a faerie world sourcebook. Eladrin were awesome and I use as Dryads in Theros.  Dwarves which are now dwarfy. Dueregr seem to have better variety. Gith lore I find the vaguer the better. Then into monsters which it has lots of. The bronze constructs are nice. Demons and devils are good but some from other books and art. Nagpa are awesome and frost salamanders. Lots of horrific monsters id have to work at finding right uses for. Some give my 80s horror film vibes. However shortly after this came out a "new" book Monsters of The Multiverse came out 

Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of The Multiverse
D&D 😀😀😀💥 Homebrew😀😀💥💥
A recap of races/species with more detail and revised in samoe cases already ecept Yuan Ti and Satyrs still get improved magic saves. The rest is all bestiary compiling stuff from previous books to accompany the Monster Manual and often re uses art. The splatbook thing with many many choices and spells and books to carry and revisions are making the game harder to play at this stage but choices are cool. Bloody whole page on dolphins. Its reasonably fat and as a monster book has most of previous two books monsters. This all happened quickly.

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
D&D 😀😀😀😀 Homebrew😀😀💥💥
Sorta compiling player options splatbook and some DM stuff grab bag. Artificers are cool and hope to play one this year. New subclasses, and lots of psionics as a major type of stuff now. Patrons and tables are nice, make your own background stuff and get closer to the current edition. Loytsa spells with stat blocks for summoning. Magic items, DM tools, sidekicks, parley, environment tables, which are the best thing in the book, puzzles and other oddments. Im quite fond of it, but it's possibly another wild grab bag of stuff we dreamed up this season. I think they could have made it more clear which books made older books obsolete. Im glad I just realised two dragon adventures now in one book before getting older version.

Curse of Strahd
D&D 😀😀😀💥 Homebrew😀😀💥💥
I grabbed this and didn't get too deep. Ive been in a campaign for a year in it now. I can see amateur acting style gamers would enjoy this and you can minimise violence. And you can have Strahd kick your arse. I hate him. I did play the original one and broke it with random luck and I'm a horrible player (reforming now). I had the 1st box set and a few books for it then went full BRP and TSR Marvel for 10 years. Actually, I quit reading Marvel comics same period. I wont go on about it here much. Its a classic Hammer Horror action drama.

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft
D&D 😀😀😀😀 Homebrew😀😀😀💥
This one is a nice guide to d&d horror and subgenres. A bit of character stuff. They have changed a few things but I'm fine. Lots of mini settings for short campaigns or extended Ravenloft adventures.  A few monsters but lots of great advice, tropes and ideas and not as many mechanics as other books.

Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
D&D 😀😀😀💥 Homebrew😀😀😀💥

Lots of dragons, dragon lairs and lore with table minigames for the DM  to make dragons of all types. The lairs are really good. Lots you can drop in a campaign with maps. Some character rules, gem psionic dragons and lots of monsters. It's pretty fun. 

From here on I got at recent market sales and price probably helped their rankings here. Post costs are also a factor here, but mostly 20-50% off and good post rates. I have read most of these less deeply than older ones; I have read possibly twice or more.

Icewind Dale

D&D 😀😀😀😀 Homebrew😀😀😀💥
It's a big, impressive d&d frozen wilderness sandbox with a plot and lots to do and see. I played it and saw about 2/3 content. It has lots of nice frozen villages and monsters and I've seriously considered jacking content from it into Forbidden North or Black City. We enjoyed playing it and reading it after made my party look like impatient. We aggressively targeted the dark dwarves, then the snowmaiden goddess, and then called quits. Lots of good scenes and ideas to use. It's probably my favourite adventure all round. It's fat with lots of extra monsters in the back. 

Eberron Rising from the Last War
D&D 😀😀😀😀 Homebrew😀😀😀💥

It's a setting I shunned for years, and now I come to see echoes in my own projects. I might mash it with Trey Causey's Weird Adventures and my own recent work. I like lots of the effort. Now grimecore is so big maybe they will revise it soon with current filth and grot. Probably for many games, this would have some problems stealing ideas from. If you do run a post-industrial fantasy, this has lots of stuff. I like the news clippings throughout the book. Lots of automatons and war forged, and artificers too. Other weird species are also on show. I'm certainly more interested in playing this setting.

Candlekeep Mysteries

D&D 😀😀😀💥 Homebrew😀😀💥💥

It's full of mysteries about books and mostly short scenarios, maybe longer with lots of talking. While I'm not ready for non evil lamia from what Ive read its quite fun and I will use some of these. Maybe I will run a wizard school game with this. more fun and fast than I expected and could be reused with work elsewhere. Good for urban investigation games even though Im for magic nerfing investigations. 

Tomb of Anihilation

D&D 😀😀😀💥 Homebrew😀😀😀💥

The Isle of Dread, Tomb of Horrors and Dwellers in the Forbidden City had a baby and this is it. Using the interest in Tomb of Horror and a return of a popular villain, I guess, seemed like good marketing. A colonialist lost world fantasy of lost jungle cities and curses. Lots of good episodes, maps, encounters and backgrounds. Im less into the plot of the Death curse. I like the hexcrawl elements and the nice city maps, but I'd happily fill in more detail. I like the Yuan-Ti dungeon but less interested in the trap-filled funhouse section and not sure If my players would do it. I think Id just run Tomb of Horrors with lots of pregens as a beer and pretzels game. Mant elements like sets of keys and puzzle parts are awesome. Id probably give them checklists when they found items part of a set. Even though colour maps I like these more than many earlier products. I got this in part for resemblance to the Forbidden City adventure of the 80s not for its tomb of horrors. For what it is I quite like it. Stuff in here I'd consider transplanting to the Isle of Dread if I do run a sea exploration game. It does have some dips into pulp exotica, colonialist and orientalism, like having Anthropology and Archaeology background. I can see they tried to do better than past.

Glory of the Giants
D&D 😀😀😀😀 Homebrew😀😀😀😀

After Theros this book is my favourite in many ways. Lots of lore. locations, maps and monsters ready to drop into a setting, and I will be using lots as part of my Theros game at higher levels. Ready for a sandbox adventure anytime. Lots of tables for DM to generate giants and fancy rune magic and rune items. The implied giant technology is sometimes quite amazing and almost godlike. Lots of big, solid lore dumps and ideas. It's a bit thin with no map, and was the highest-priced book in the series I have got yet. I really like the faerie lore overlapping. The formarians and Fensirs and trolls. D&D needs more troll lore. I'm a stinge sometimes and do consider it a factor, still probably why I got so late. Pleasantly more engaging than I imagined. I prefer this to the Dragon book.

Descent to Avernus
D&D 😀😀😀💥 Homebrew😀😀💥💥

Lots of cool hell stuff and a map, but half the book is Baldur's Gate yet again. Its detailed enough to use as a sourcebook on that city, but I feel the hell stuff is more interesting and the map. I've worked on and off on a hell setting for years, and the map is inspiring. And how distance is more like faerie time flow. The giant hellish Mad Max vehicles seem like lots of fun. I do feel you'd come back a bit tainted by the setting. I'm not into current cosmology and who rules what plane and Id probably change stuff and have Tiamat meddling more.

----------------------------

That's it - I've considered the combined dragon adventure book but I'm open to recommendations. Any you liked?

I still think mostly d&d5 is a bunch of clever gimmick mechanics and fanboy service, making it overly complex and combat-focused. More and more I see games and podcasts play with very little combat, and often its the most boring. Sometimes you see a great gotcha moment when a character pulls a combo. In my experience as a player, we do everything to avoid fights. D&D shorts on YouTube prove the game is prone to minmaxing abuse, and it's a main feature of the game.

Reasons I didn't want to DM older version of d&d5:

Unreadable index and layouts for me made it hard to find stuff.
I find 2024 is easier to find stuff even without glasses.
I learned white spaces shapes were how I found stuff in old early 80s books. 

The huge variety of player options makes it harder for the DM to cope.

NPC playable species as monsters no longer let the DM say I need a 5th lv cleric npc and run with it. Most modern MM statblocks don't even give a level for npc's unless related to spell casting level. So this removes lots of options for DM to just say F4 or W6 or T4 and know their abilities on the fly. The DM was using the same language as the players and even with the stuff added 85 to D&D like specialisation, non-weapon skills and the brown class splatbooks with lots of interesting combat options. It was easier to counter player abilities in older D&D while in modern books you can overwhelm DM easily.

Maybe the English or FB are not the best, but their utility is in part derived from success and user base. In Adelaide, I've played more D&D5 - in Sydney I always had more choices and editions to play. I found it faster to start a new D&D5 game here. There is a big age group divide. I've played with lots of ppl in 20s I've known for 5 years now but plenty of younger ppl will run a million miles from older games and having been in old gaming clubs I can see why. Ive seen sketch show gags about older gamers barging into young ppls games and destroy them and I had this happen early 80s. Plenty of older gamers didn't. Some treated younger gamers as younger siblings to torment. 

D&D5 has increasingly moved away from mythology. Monsters are detached from origins and nature. Orcs as a player species I'm fine with. I like D&D has outgrown race ideas and women don't have worse attributes with mansplaining why in the text or all female characters have sharm/seduction powers, which we were suspicious of by 85. Lami are supernatural baby killers with vampiric or evil spell powers. Old D&D their appearance varied from a mash-up of lion or deer or snake. In latest MM they are more set in stone and not really presented as very evil. In one of the Candlekeep Mysteries, there are non-evil wolf-were who turn out to be ok but they want to resurrect a lamia who is a neutral jerk but not evil. Im glad to see lots of alignment shift of sentient species but alignment seems to me to be more significant in supernatural monsters, especially planar ones. Im fine with such creatures having less free will than mortals. Sphynxes now just cuddly, benevolent guys who look like they could be in My Little Pony or a line of plush dolls. They are completely separated from greek myth as maneaters. Or Egyptian myth as serving specific gods like Cyrosphynx goat headed servants of Amon, The hawkheaded ones guarded sites of Sekemnet or Horus. Andro sphynx is European from 1700s as a male version of greek gynosphynx for use in architecture. Im fine with the silly horny sphynx lore to die its not part of any old myths. I like eutruscan versions of monsters that all look more demonic vs horny neoclassical or prerapaelite painters.

Imagine class design for a less combat-oriented d&d game like witchlight setting. Id be fine if a combat-lite lite simpler version of the game with lots of fabulous twinks, furries and cute versions of monsters existed with crystals and new-age vibe art. I'd also be happy with a full combat-focused grimcore horror game. Variety is good. One set of rules is bad. Its a poor system for investigation so nerfing all divination just makes it worse. Maybe the metalkids are a big part of gaming too and should be able to have sick edgelord game full of gore and criminal misadventures.

Ive played Shadowdark too and quite like it. It seems cobbled from ideas from G+. I think lots of ppl could write something similar in a few hours. Its well resolved. My DM is a bit too kind to kill anyone. It's bringing back resource-based horror exploration and risk which are good. I think my players enjoy a game featuring more domain and faction play with adventures to fund their ambitions in statehood or business. We also played RQ for 20 years and no d&d which a few people can see in my writing. When I want grittier games I usually go for BRP/RQ/Cthulhu. If I wanted more loosely superheroes, I used TSR Marvel. D&D has swung more to superheroes. A 1st level character has so many abilities and resources and background stuff its hard to play humble nobodies like older editions. To be fair power creep in modern RQ positions everyone as almost a Rune Lord, while RQ2 you had no starting points on your skills and were useless teenagers who adventured to get money to get an apprenticeship to slowly learn some skills. It worked well with an adventure per year and some other events and Pendragon year turn play worked quite well. 

Shadowdark on the bright side, would be easy to design for. I find it very pricey here. I could get both old-school essentials, core books and adventures for the same price of one book. It seems built to be pricey and I fully respect their business skills.

It feels like D&D now takes you from an extraordinary freak to a demigod in a few months. I like starting people as wretched urchins or the bottom of society. If you want to be a prince, it will make the whole party suffer from being near you and the problems that come with it.

I think the idea of a distinct and authentic way to play D&D genre play is not a real thing. 

I overall prefer 5th to 2nd 3rd, and 4th. I do feel writing for it as would involve more drama for mechanics. Id possibly feel obligated to spend thousands on full colour art.

Some things I'd like to see for D&D5.

A new setting for 5th ed rather than just a multiverse of old stuff with whirlwind tours, everything. At best, this is a taste test fest; at worst, it feels like marketing of IP.

Less world/universe-shaking stakes. Maybe get to know locals and become a member of the community.. Ravenloft and Frost Maiden do this a bit but something with one town and built for players to bond with, not just another fetchquest.

I'd rather see old-school ppl re-create old adventures than the Wizards guys. Saltmarsh was one of the better ones, and you more clearly don't just massacre lizard fold and discover you should make peace. It's much clearer in the new one. Mostly, I prefer works like Tomb of Annihilation being inspired by the past rather than ported from an old product (it does have other issues).

A re-creation of the Desert of Desolation series and faux Egyptian mythos and cleric stuff and character options in one book, and don't use ideas from Khemetism or other modern cults - Hollow Earth Egypt book was ok. Faux Egypt has been in D&D for a long time.

A more gritty, spooky, dark age setting that's adult without anything from Game of Thrones and devoid of new age ideas of magic. Something more tasteless, spikey, possibly like a whole hell campaign with no worrying about the mortal plane, you could slap on any setting for 12- 20th Lv. 

A simpler, less combat dnd for ppl who prefer to talk and don't want to play tactical card games of conditional abilities. Witchlight book style stuff might be nice like this. As long as you get pets and maybe giant glowing crystals and unicorns. Or maybe a combat-stripped investigation variant with more social interaction mechanics (which might be in some of those books) or something that leans into LARP RPG games like Edwardian faerie folk or something.
 
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Ill be back to writing a more in-depth piece for Gods of the Forbidden North vol 1 & 2 and northern theme games in general. i could possibly mash it up with Frostmaiden and my Stone Age Sorcery setting and even that giants book. Will be a long way off though.