My Wylderynn set has a lot of mushrooms in it. I feel like nothing screams fantasy forest like some oversized fungus. I bought mine off Amazon, but I couldn't find anything really big. I just wanted at least one big tree-sized mushroom. I think that would really sell the fantasy vibe. I figured I'd just make one, if it came out good, great. If it sucked, it would never see the light of day on my table and none would be the wiser. I went to my scrap pile and found a nice-sized piece of foam. I drew a basic shape of a mushroom stalk on the foam and with my Olfa knife, began cutting, and cuttin ..read more

The Life Cycle of the Goblin - From an article written for our club newsletter he Goblin species develops through metamorphosis. Goblins, as a little-known fact, are a Faerie creature not unlike those Sylvan varieties that most are familiar with. Goblins are a Sylvan variety from the underworld, having inhabited the massive fungal forests of the underworld’s caverns. They are today, far removed from those fungal caverns, having escaped the destruction of the Sundering and the servitude of “The Mother of all Monsters”. Today, the Goblins are known as a race of nomadic merchants, peddling their ..read more

An enigmatic figure long known as a traveler, naturalist, healer, apothecary, and cultivator of science. Aptitule travels Heimurrin documenting it's flora, fauna, mineral and ore. Not believed to be an Eternal, it is however, often agreed upon that Aptitule is long lived. Many speculate this mysterious being is a Fey, others suggest some angelic being, a nature spirit, or perhaps even a species not yet discovered. Aptitule is unwilling to clarify. The below is an exerpt from the journals chronicaling her travels through the Empire of Swords and surrounding lands. Flora Wormwood Onion – this o ..read more

This month we’re talking about presumed competence. I’m not talking about the practice of presumed competence that is used in many of the school systems, but it’s not that far off. Here’s a scenario I’ve heard far too often and I think it’s unnecessary: A player who is playing a wizard attempts to cast a spell. The DM responds by saying “you don’t have any spells memorized”. The player protests and then the DM corrects him by saying “but you didn’t say you were going to study your spells during your rest” I’m going to have to call bull shit on this one. I have always run my games based on the ..read more

Welcome back! This month we are adding canopies to our Wylderynn trees. Since the Wylderynn is a fantastic wood, I really wanted to depart from "Realism" and take a more stylized approach. This is why I chose the bonsai trees, I wanted to continue that theme with a variety of unconventional colors. My trees would look out of place in the "Real" world. I left the prongs on the bonsai trees, these held the plastic foliage in place. remember I saved that plastic foliage, that will be great for another project in the future! I need to build bulk in the canopy, there is a need for a scaffolding to ..read more

Back around 2004 or so, I worked with some of the fine folks over at https://www.enworld.org on an ambitious project to convert a slew of 2nd Edition monsters to 3.5. This project was entirely theirs; I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to see the forum post and join in the work as a contributor. It was really fun collaboration project, with the project lead choosing the monsters and providing the original text, and a group of us coming up with ideas on how it would function in the newer edition. This eventually resulted in a full statistics block and a variety of often ..read more

These are based on what they have to offer right out of the gate, and the benefit(s) offered to a new or veteran player. I tried to keep all of these; adventurer’s league legal, the only one that is not is #4 because it is a favorite of many players while still not breaking the game at level 1. No race that offers a fly speed at level 1 was put on the list as they are not adventurers league compliant. With that said, let’s get started down this list starting at #5, we have the Warforged from Eberron Rising from the last war. You have the following: Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution sc ..read more

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but the Player Characters are fairly safe, as long as they have the skills, tools, and possibly even magic to find the elusive answers. Now let us keep in mind, this compulsion to discern as much as possible is not restricted to any one, character class. Or for that matter, any one player style. Gamers are an inquisitive lot in general but there are those with a drive to wring the smallest detail from each and every encounter. No matter what the game system or genre being played, the Player is most often looking to advance the Character with newly found skil ..read more

These items are taken straight out of advanced Dungeons & Dragons, specifically Dragon magazine Annual number 1. I am presenting these suits of armor to you because they illustrate rather nicely that one does not necessarily need to have magical armor for it to be unique. You dungeon Masters out there, give some thought to adding cultural armor and weapons to your game. Give a little bonus, like you would get if you were wearing magical armor, and be very descriptive with what the armor looks like, how it’s made, who makes it? What this does is it adds depth to the cultures in your campai ..read more

Last month we talked about my newest craft project, building a fantastic and ancient wood for my adventurers to explore. You got the ideas, the shopping list and a little background. This month, we're starting with trees. Now let's get into the building. If you remember, we are using fake bonsai trees that I got from Amazon but, I found that you can get these from Wish a bit cheaper, some are downright dirt cheap. If you don't mind the wait, this is really the best way to go to reduce cost. I start with bases, I use dollar store foam board and cardboard. Cut out the shapes you want, I usually ..read more