Monty Haul Zero Issue now available!

For those of you were on the fence about whether or not to back my recent Kickstarter campaign, you can now take a look at what I was driving at: Monty Haul #0 is now digitally available.

Monty Haul #0 is a Proof-of-Concept issue, full of assorted optional rules, backgrounds for characters, and more! Featuring a new take on familiars, two new cleric domains, a simple and not-so-deadly critical hit system, the Divine Archeologist archetype for rogues, and several new backgrounds including an expanded trio of options for the noble: dilettante, disgraced noble, and knight errant! Also included is a Noble Family House generator to quickly design interesting families to plague your nobles.

It's a cornucopia of usable options, written in a light and conversational style and grounded in the gaming days of yore. If by "yore" we're talking about the early 1980's. Monty Haul is suitable for discerning DMs and players of the fifth edition of the world's most popular fantasy rpg.

You can get it here, on DriveThruRPG's website.

Monty Haul Design Notes: Alchemy, Herbalism, and Poison

One of David Teniers; many paintings of medieval alchemists

I'm going to put a quick PDF doc here (because I like how it's formatted, and blogger will just make it look ugly, see) about what my thinking process was that led me to write new rules for alchemy in 5th edition. I wrote it originally for this blog, and so it's in my conversational style. I did this for a few reasons:

1. for those of you who don't know me, here's a pretty good snapshot of how I write, and also, how I approach game design.

2. Alchemists and Apothecaries are going to be one of the feature pieces in Monty Haul #1, and here's a bit of a preview.

3. The pdf is easier to distribute as a formatted object and it lets you download it now and read it later. Well, I do that; I don't know if anyone else does. But that's how I think, so, there you have it.

Here's the PDF link from my Google Drive: Design Note on Alchemy
Feel free to snag it and check it out at your leisure; it's a quick read. And if you are so moved to back my 'zine, Monty Haul, that would be great, too! It's already funded and right now I am flogging for stretch goals.

Running a Kickstarter is Hard Work

I now know what a helicopter parent feels like. I've been hovering over my computer, hitting the refresh wheel so much it's now just perpetually spinning like the top from Inception.

But there's a reason for the hovering: people expect updates, and things move pretty fast. It's not really scary, but it's certainly daunting. Oh, and there are questions to answer, as well. But it's all for a good cause, because...Monty Haul is a go!

Kickstarter is Live!

And despite a rookie mistake at the beginning (which not a lot of people saw since it was the middle of the night), we have pledges, too! If you'd like in on the action, you've got two weeks, starting today: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/markfinn/monty-haul-fifth-edition-zine-with-an-old-school-vibe

The Kickstarter is Nigh!

I love using "nigh" in a sentence, don't you?

Hey, just in case you missed the first notification, here's another one for you: the Kickstarter for Monty Haul, an old-fashioned RPG 'zine for 5e, starts on Wednesday, but YOU can get notified when it drops so as to not miss out. All you gotta do is follow the link below and throw your email into the gaping maw of the Kickstarter beast.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/markfinn/monty-haul-fifth-edition-zine-with-an-old-school-vibe

I will post major updates here, but if you want to stay tied into what's up with the KS, please back the project (even if it's just for a buck) and you can follow along with the updates I will be (hopefully) posting regularly in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks, oh my gentle readers. I'll see you on the other side.

RPG a Day 2019 Post-Mortem

To quote Bill Murray from the movie Stripes, "Well, that was interesting."

I'd never done something like this before. And I didn't know what to expect, but I was surprised by a few things. The entry that generated the most conversation was Evolution (y'all have thoughts about other editions of D&D. I see that now.) The least amount of participation was, of course, Suspense. Again, I'd like to apologize to any Texas Aggies who may have read the entry and thought I was stealing their joke. I meant no offense.

Everything else in between was about the same, but I did see an uptick in the days where I gave out some delicious home brew for my game. Those posts were quietly and fervently consumed with very little drag.

My biggest regrets were the 11's, the ones where I dipped back into RPGaDay's Past to build a blog entry because I didn't have anything for the prompt. Now, having said that, I told you that to tell you this: I'm a pretty clever guy, and I dug deep for some of these entries, which is why the blog jumped around like it did. If I couldn't come up with something based on your prompt, it was probably a little too broad. No disrespect to David Chapman, who has been spearheading this for six years. Lots of questions, lots of prompts (186, to be exact). I get it. I am just saying I would not mind more specific cues going forward.

I'll most likely do this again next year. But having now read a month of my meanderings, I have a few questions for the handful of you who made it through the month unscathed. What would you like to see, going forward, on this blog? More posts about me blathering about the good old days? More war stories? (I have a number of entries I could write about my time at Chessex). More campaign notes and homebrew stuff? I got a lot of that, too. Is there something else I could be talking about that I am not?

Any comments or direction would be great. I've got some of you, and I'd like to keep you around, so here's your chance. Tell me what you want, please.

Here's the full list of topics on each day, all in one place for your clickity-click-convenience.

First
Unique
Engage
Share 
Space
Ancient
Familiar
Obscure
Critical
Focus
Examine
Friendship
Mystery
Guide
Door
Dream
One
Plenty
Scary
Noble
Vast
Lost
Surprise
Triumph
Calamity
Idea
Suspense
Love 
Evolve
Connection
Last

RPGaDay 2019: 23 Surprise

Oh, what the hell.  It's Friday.

I wasn't going to do this just yet, but hey...SURPRISE! It's an archetype from my own home-grown campaign setting for you to peruse and swipe if you like. My world has a lot of complicated old gods, and this particular thief archetype is an exploitation of that very fact. Click the link below to get it.

Thief Archetype: The Divine Archaeologist

This is a spell-casting thief, with an emphasis on utility spells, such as hiding, running, and transporting heavy objects. That's why the Divine Archaeologist also gets a second fourth level spell, and a fifth first level spell at Level 20, unlike the Arcane Trickster.

There is also an "Indiana Jones" component to the Divine Archaeologist; the clever fellow who has read up on the temples of the blood god and knows that every treasure room has a pressure plate right...there...or, maybe it was there...? I wanted the skills to reflect someone who learned a lot about ancient history, but little else. The notebook seemed like a good way to reflect that, with the added incentive of it being potentially stolen the night before a major temple raid.

My intention is to talk more about my campaign and the stuff I've done to 5th edition to accommodate my brilliant ideas and grandiose vision.

And Just for Grins, here's all of the other tidbits of homebrew and campaign stuff I've shared since the beginning of this 31 day challenge, in case you missed anything.

5e Background: Bureaucrat

5e Background: Exterminator

5e Background: Pilgrim

Familiars--Homebrew

Alternate Critical Hit System for 5e

Dilettante

Disgraced Noble

Knight Errant

Noble House Random Generator

RPGaDay 2019: 20 Noble

One of my favorite Erol Otus characters.

As much as I love the Backgrounds system in D&D 5e, a few of the options are hit and miss for me. The most egregious misfire to me is the Noble. I can see why they wanted to include it in the Player’s Handbook but I think that as it is written, it tries to do too much in the limited framework it has and as a result, it doesn’t do enough.  In a section with soldiers, local heroes, and urchins, the extra lifting and gymnastics required to make the noble work without setting one player high above the others is a little outside the scope of new DMs.

My solution to this was to split the noble background up into three distinct categories.

The Dilettante -Someone who comes from wealth but isn’t interested in being wealthy, or at least, do not want to live their life according to their family's expectations. This is for role-players who want lots of family interaction as the filial obligations of their upbringing can potentially clash with their adventuring career. I was specifically looking for a way to create a D&D version of Bertram Wilberforce Wooster and this pretty much covers it. 

The Disgraced Noble- I think this is the closest in function to what the PHB was trying to do with this background. The difference is mainly that this background really leans into it. It’s good for plotting and hooking players into the story, as there are plenty of options, secrets, and interesting bits to tease out. It should be noted that the Disgraced portion of the background can come from any  source; as simple as “you joined the bard college against the wishes of your family” to something like Athos, from The Three Musketeers. 

This background also works well for setting the kinds of political situations that were the bread and butter on Game of Thrones. Tyrian Lannister is a disgraced noble in the eyes of his father because he drinks and whores and plays the part of the imp. Jaime Lannister is a disgraced noble because he killed the king he swore to protect. 

Bill may very well kill me for using this.

The Knight Errant— for all of you paladins and cavaliers out there, here’s a background that is right up your alley, supporting action and combat, with plenty of things to do, and as silly (Lancelot in Monty Python and the Holy Grail) or as serious (Robin Hood) as you want to make it.

Breaking them up along these lines makes the player choices more nuanced and also better supports most, if not all, character classes. The Warlock Dilettante, for example, might have stumbled into his patronage during one of his fantastic benders. The Warlock Disgraced Noble clearly brought shame upon his house by invoking dark magicks, and the Warlock Knight Errant is a monster-hunting tyrant-killing man of the people. All of them come from this noble class, but they actualize it in very different ways.

Anyway, that’s my fix for the Noble. I’d love to hear any feedback you may have on these backgrounds. Share your thoughts, people.

As a bonus--call it a "thank you," if you will, for all of the great responses and shares I've gotten from all of  you, I've included my Noble House Random Generator. It will build you a family history with just a few die rolls. You can grab free PDFs of the "Expanded Noble" backgrounds below:

Dilettante

Disgraced Noble

Knight Errant

Noble House Random Generator

Try these out and let me know what you think.

RPGaDay 2019: 9 Critical

It’s impossible for me to associate anything other than grievous bodily damage to the word “critical.” In the cutthroat 1980s, there was no shortage of bloodletting. Critical hit tables proliferated and they were all designed to reward people with an instant, gory kill (or death, depending on which way the dice were rolling).

I never used them in my games, not because I didn't want to, but because no one ever wanted to play the one character class who could offset critical hit tables; the cleric. That was just NOT our group. The few times one player's character got close to death was always an area of great trauma, so I didn't feel like piling on.

Now? Nuke 'em from space. It's the only way to be sure. 

Clerics are strong, so strong, and they throw divine energy around like a toddler flings Cheerio's. Despite all of the ancillary fun stuff that clerics can do, they still have a primary purpose and that is to keep the party alive and intact. 

On the other hand...you can sometimes come off as churlish if you take delight in injuring and scarring player characters. I do think there is a middle ground, though; a place where you can make the critical hit more serious and something that has to be dealt with, but not so catastrophic (well, mostly) that there's no bouncing back. 

Here's a set of Critical Hit rules for your perusal. They are free to use if you are so inclined. Feel free to comment if you like. I wanted something that took no more than 3d6 to implement, and would be easy for a player to keep up with. I think this works well. If you try it, I'd love to hear some feedback.

Alternate Critical Hit System for 5e

RPGaDay 2019: 7 Familiar

One of the best reasons to be a wizard, back in the days when you had to fend off triceratops on your way to the hobby shop in the mall (I know, I’m speaking in tongues right now), was that you got a familiar at first level (or second, if your DM was being a stickler for those material components). The familiar was a staple of high fantasy and fairy tales, true, but in AD&D, it meant up to four additional hit points—and at first level, that was a HUGE deal. It also meant you got some extra sensory bonuses and, if you were really lucky, you might get a magical familiar that would certainly be a benefit in those early levels as you struggled to stay at the back of the party and not get killed.

5th edition familiars are, by comparison, a little lacking in pizzazz.  Sure, it’s cheaper to cast the spell, and you get more animals to choose from, but they are not special in that way that they are all either celestials, fey, or fiends, as you choose. They still look like a harmless li'l bat, but trust me, they are evil!

You don’t get to add hit points, and you aren’t penalized when the familiar dies. In fact, you can dump it into a hyperpocket whenever you want. It’s potentially useful, but given the expanded list of familiar chdices (including bat, cat, crab, frog, hawk, lizard, octopus, owl, poisonous snake, fish, rat, raven, sea horse, spider, or weasel—but NOT the quasit, brownie, or imp) and the fact that they are all interchangeable, well, who cares about a familiar in fifth edition?

My solution is to bring a little first edition into the spell. Below is the link to my write-up for Familiars. It’s free for you to use. Click here to get it.

Familiars--Homebrew 

If you’d like some more inspiration on how to handle familiars, I would highly recommend the Vlad Taltos series of books by Steven Brust. His titular character has a small flying lizard (a Jhereg) named Loiosh and their relationship is amazing and should give you plenty of examples for how to run a wizard with a familiar.

Also, there’s a great novel by Roger Zelazny called A Night in the Lonesome October. I can’t recommend it strongly enough. A great book about what the help gets up to when the masters are away.

RPGaDay 2019: 4 Share

 I think one of the best things about the modern gaming renaissance is the Maker culture that has infiltrated the game; mind you, it was always there, but there’s something to be said for how around the bend we’ve come so that anyone can write an adventure (or new spells, or whatever) and put them online and people can have them, or buy them for a nominal amount of money. That’s very cool, and quite generous.

In the spirit of the month, I’m going to share with you three of my backgrounds I have written up for my City-State urban campaign. These cleave very closely to the spirit of the backgrounds already published, but have different emphases. The Bureaucrat is an occupation that works well in an urban campaign, and poses challenges for the player who suddenly finds themselves in the wilderness. The Exterminator is an overlooked profession that would be really useful to have in your emerging city. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it and it translates well to dungeons.  The Pilgrim is a more focused version of the Outlander, and is a broad background to base a lot of character classes upon.

You can snag the pdfs below. I hope you dig them. Any and all feedback and comments are welcome.

5e Background: Bureaucrat

5e Background: Exterminator

5e Background: Pilgrim