You know the joke about level 20 shop keeps to keep murder hobos in line? What about like an actual reason for a level 20 something shopkeeper? Like a retired adventurer selling off the contents of their many bags of holding. Great place to get magic gear, plenty of potential adventure hooks, and a retired adventurer would have a great many connections.

Shopkeep: Agiviv Stoneeye, The Alchemist under the Hill

The title? It’s my little joke, I always said I’d be in my grave before I gave up on the great work, so after I retired I found myself a cozy little barrow in which to continue my studies. Still brings a smile to my stiff old jaw each time I think about it.

Setup: The Sad truth is that age catches up to everyone, even heroes, and those that live the adventurers life tend to age faster than most. If it isn't the life sapping curses or the devouring jaws of beasts that get you, it's the slow accumulation of innumerable breaks, stabs, burns, and mishaps that accumulate in a body along with years of hard wear and stress.

Such was the case for Agiviv and his companions, a once celebrated band of heroes who saved the world in their own small way before settling into happy obscurity. After their mission was done each wanted different things, some family, some to return to the duties they left behind, but for Agiviv the whole point of adventuring was to secure the means by which he could continue his studies, and by the gods did he ever find it.

While each of his retiring friends took a hero's share of their accumulated wealth Agiviv (who served as the group's quartermaster) ensured he was left holding the bags: the bags of holding containing years of accumulated treasure, crafting ingredients, and dungeon junk. Settling in one of the first dungeons cleared by his companions, close enough to a town to make a supply run but not so close that he’d be bothered with neighbors,  the old Orc now works away happily on all the projects he never got around to during his life on the road.

 Hooks: 

Joke as you would about alchemists and their search for gold, Agiviv was always the most business minded of his companions, and has spent the intervening years setting up storefronts in several major population centers across the kingdom. Each one is minded by one of his apprentices, who discuss the needs of customers as they enter and browse through catalogs before popping into the back room to secure the stock. These “back rooms” are in fact portals to Agiviv’s workshop, where the apprentices can clear any important transaction with their boss or shift down to one of the many storerooms to retreive the stock. When the party visit their local “Stoneye’s Alchemics” only to have its attendant disappear for a protracted period of time, their curiosity may lead them to intrude upon the workshop and begin to poke around where they don’t belong.  Depending on whether they decide to do a smash and grab or actually investigate the disappearance, they may later encounter a very angry Agaviv or one thankful to them for saving an apprentice that’d fallen victim to a long unnoticed mimic.

Given his talents lay in the crafting of potions and other alchemical wonders,  Agaviv is more than happy to part with various bits of armor, enchanted weapons, and miscellaneous doodads too impractical to be of any use in his research. One of these items happens to be a very dangerous book that Agaviv accidentally mislabeled saving it from his “Very cursed do not sell” Pile. Sold to the party as a genuinely useful and benign object, the group’s spellcaster may only learn of it’s true nature after it has become attuned.

Though the dungeon Agiviv claims as his home was cleared out years ago, one wing of it has become infested with pests, which the shopkeeper may send the party to clear out as a bit of a nostalgic lark. What he doesn’t suspect is that these creatures actually crept out of a portal to the underdark, and their reckless burrowing has created a fissure that the party will inevitably fall down and will be forced to climb their way back to the material plane. After braving an unusually long road of trials, Agiviv will be shocked to realize he’s going to have to move or risk his entire operation falling into the world beneath. 

Art

Hail to the King (continued)

[Part 2 of 2]

haven’t seen this posted here yet

the ‘dragons’ part of dnd got me interested originally, but it was the fan creations like taz and critical role that really drew me in and kept me around

what a god awful decision

“Do I Know Someone Who Can Help Us With ____?” (2d6)

2. No; the person you thought could help refuses and adds another complication to the situation. (Example complications: they demand payment for a past debt, they are with someone you wanted to avoid, or they call the authorities regarding your illegal activities.) 3. The person you know who could help has gone missing, you’d have to find them first. 4. Yes, but they demand a steeper price than you would expect. Furthermore, if you refuse they will be offended. 5. Yes, but things are awkward between you. The price they ask will be generous, but only after an uncomfortable conversation. 6. Yes, but the help they can offer is sub-par, or only half of what you need. 7. Yes, but they need you to do a small favor for them right now before they help you. 8. Yes, but you’ll owe them one. Could be a future favor they call on, or a cut of whatever money you’re after, or something else. 9. Yes; they’ll give you a good price but it’s not free. 10. Yes, but they don’t seem too happy about it - you’ll have to look for help somewhere else next time. 11. Yes, there’s someone who owes you one and you can cash in that favor. 12. Yes, and that person also gives you an unrelated piece of helpful information.

I’m playing in a high level campaign for the first time and I got to try for Divine Intervention for the first time last session and it FRICKIN WORKED!!! We’re level 15 and I rolled a 12 and lost my absolute freakin mind.

And then later I rolled a nat 20 persuasion check in an interrogation type deal (real good for my +0 CHA lol)

The last mini from faraway sea I finished up, and I gotta say, I just fell in love with that little rogue red panda. Painting the face was such a blast and it feels good to know that I don’t have to deal with skin tones when painting when it comes to those haha

A little introductory post to my D&D character Dizzy! An amnesiac Half-Orc Shadow Sorcerer who’s only goal in life is to live to the fullest.

She has a pact of sorts with this entity though, this being who holds her memories and provides her power… but I’m sure it’s fiiiiiine!

Idk I just love her a lot and wanna start posting her more.

Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? Idk

Pf2e Boss Monster Design

The tight math of Pf2e allows for encounters to be built swiftly and without worry, and the same goes for homebrew monster creation. One problem with the system, however, is the boss monster. Creatures with high level stats against a group of players can feel like a slog if the players are unable to reduce the creature's AC or saves enough for damage/cc to go through. It normally takes a lot of items and tactics for a normal group to take a creature down that's 4 levels higher than the party's level (or a +4 monster), and even creature's 3 levels higher (or +3) can still feel like a slog depending on their stat block. If you're designing a boss fight, consider this one trick I've learned over the past 2 years of GMing with the system:

Lie to your players.

For different systems this could mean a lot of things, DND 5e famously is known for its GMs secretly increasing the hp of a given monster behind the screens. But for Pf2e it's less a blatant lie and more of a performance. Rather than throwing a +4 or +5 monster, you could instead throw a +1 to +3 monster and accompany them with either other creatures or traps that you present to your players as that monsters abilities. Let's make an example.

Is your monster a fire breathing mutant bear that is killing other wildlife in the area?

(Art by Deftspex)

Easy. Let's make it an Elite Black Bear (making it L3), then add a Fire Mephit (L1) to the initiative, making the combat a Severe encounter for 4 level 1 players. What does this do, and how can we make this convey what we want?

Mechanically, the Black Bear acts as the base monster that the players can target and kill and the Fire Mephit acts on its own initiative, but what you do is tell your players that it's the bear doing what the Fire Mephit is doing. The bear is the one moving and its base health is the health your party is trying to take down to 0, but the "Fire Mephit" acts on its turn as if attached to the bear. It still takes damage if hit by an aoe, but must otherwise be specifically targeted by an attack rather than the Bear itself (you should give your players some sort of heads up or a description of something that can be targeted in order to remove the ability from initiative, like pointing out that breaking its jaws would remove them on a successful recall knowledge).

What this does is a multitude of things, your solo boss monster technically has more action economy without breaking the math, your players have more tactical choices to make between getting rid of the Bear's fire related abilities, and it should make your players shit their pants from seeing a fire breathing bear.

I have a lot of other tips and tricks for boss monster design for pf2e, due to my notorious one shots being considered "Dark Souls" by many approving players. I'd like to one day turn my knowledge into a published book alongside templates, some homebrew monster designs, and some variant rules, but due to legal concerns will need to wait until I have a lawyer to assist me in understanding what I'm getting into.

Games I've Seen in my Dreams

So I don't really have any reoccurring dreams necessarily, but lately I've noticed that I have a couple reoccurring events within different dreams. One of those is that I will often find myself in front of a bunch of bootleg game cartridges with custom labels (usually implied to contain romhacks or homebrew stuff), and then I get really excited to buy all of them and take them home to see what is on them (this would probably be my actual reaction in real life). I usually then wake up disappointed that it wasn't real. This has been a thing in my dreams for years now. The earliest time I remember it happening was in either late middle school or early highschool. I thought it would be fun to try and recreate some of the ones I've seen and give a brief description of them. The first cartridge I included above is from the first time I remember dreaming of this kind of thing, and all the other ones are from very recent dreams. I might do this again sometime if the dreams keep happening and I keep remembering them. Maybe I'll even put some effort into photoshopping them next time lol.

Mausritter

I don't think I've talked about Mausritter yet, and I am sorry for that because you all need to know about Mausritter.

Mausritter is a an old school adventure ttrpg about little mice. It's 24 pages and a quick read, but it's a meaty game with full rules for combat, overland exploration, hiring help, spellcasting, managing inventories, etc. And it's also got a fairly sprawling line of adventure supplements.

Released a few years ago with a free core book, Mausritter then received a big kickstarter, and then a ton of fan supplements, and then an official big box kit reminiscent of AD&D. These adventure supplements are fun and creative, and like the core game they're super quick to read and prep without losing mechanical fidelity.

Core gameplay in Mausritter uses a d20, attribute saves, HP, encumbrance, etc, like modern D&D, but it's boiled down A LOT. Stats are STR, DEX, and WIL (with WIL also representing your force of personality when talking to people,) and HP and damage numbers tend to be low.

However, in play Mausritter doesn't feel like a minimalist system. It's easy to lose the fun of a big, meaty rpg when boiling it down, but instead Mausritter adds mechanics.

For example, your character's inventory is a board with little slots on it. You can place item cards into those slots, or you can place spell cards into them, or if you get hit with a status effect the GM will hand you a status effect card that fills up one of your inventory slots. This all feels super duper tactile, so if you're the type of player that likes to fidget while you play, you can literally fidget with your character's inventory.

Another interesting tweak in Mausritter is that your attacks always hit. They don't always deal full damage, and armor soaks, so being tanky is still possible---but you never spend an action in combat to swing a weapon, miss, and then end your turn having done nothing.

Setting-wise, Mausritter isn't exactly Redwall and Mouse Guard, but it's in the same vibe. Animals can think and communicate, even if they don't always speak the same language. Mice have tiny kingdoms and outposts. Snakes and cats are powerful mages or warlords. It's all cute and well-thought-out and cleverly illustrated, but not without danger and combat.

GMing Mausritter is super easy, and there's roll tables, adventure hooks, and even an adventure tucked in the back of the core book. And if you prefer to run prewritten content, there's lots of adventure supplements on itchio and in the box set.

All told, Mausritter is one of my favorite ttrpgs. It's cleverly made, charming, and when you GM it you get to do lots and lots of different animal voices. Which is an underrated selling point, imo.

the original 32!

plus some close ups, since the image is long and small.

this is also the top screen of a 3ds theme i made! if you have a homebrewed 3ds and want to use the theme, you can find it here.

Villain:  Lord Idric Lenzalla , Threadpuller

Oh what a Tangled Web he weaves

Setup: A penniless footman moves to town after inheriting his grandmother’s cottage, disgraced and socially ruined after being caught nicking the silverware. Looking for things to sell among the clutter of his new domicile he ends up stumbling across his grandmother’s loom and in the process of repairing and cleaning it he feels drawn to see if it still works. He works through the night and awakens in the morning to find that not only has he produced a tapestry summing up the events of his life, the most recent edge of it shows him being hired to work among the local lord’s staff and Lo and behold the tapestry has come true, granting the footman second chance at life. Or he would have, if he hadn’t been rejected after propositioning a maid servant and he began to think what else he might be able to change with the miraculous loom, at which point the contraption breaks just as Idric is weaving in his encounter with the maidservant and no matter what part he tries the loom will not be fixed, forcing him to live with his mistake half mended.

That is until a week or two later when he finds a dead cat in his yard, a bone protruding from its body that looks like it would be a perfect fit for the loom’s mechanisms. Thus we begin Idric’s decent into darkness, as he seeks to undo each new hiccup in his life, and each time requiring a greater and more grisly sacrifice. Salvaging dead animals turns to poisoning his neighbor’s pets and butchering their livestock, which leads to graverobbing as Idric vies for a promotion in his lord’s house to head valet.  It’s not until he’s sitting down with a fellow servant, an concomitant bumbler and tattle that always made more work for him, that Idric got a sense that the man’s restlessly bouncing thigh would make a great replacement for one of the loom’s treadles that had just given out, and that he should invite the sot over for tea some time and show him his grandmother’s pride and joy. 

The hand of Lolth is at work in Idric’s life, having sighted in the young man a seed of ambition and cruelty that she hopes to nurture into true monstrosity. Each time he uses the loom to enact his fantasies, going so far as to unweave events of his life to ensure other events later down the line, Idric lets more of the lie-weaver’s influence in, as represented by more and more spider imagry entering the tapestry over time.

Hooks:

The party is drawn to town by a request from Halthorn, the local lord, as the rumors of rampant deaths have spread along the trade road, and now the whole settlement is in need of some heroes to help solve the matter. When the party get to town however they discover they are in the company of one lord Lenzalla, who doesn’t remember inviting any sellswords to his court but will gladly sup with them before sending them on their way.  In the fortnight since Halthorn dispatched the message Idric’s ambition and jealousy grew great enough to weave himself in his employer’s place, taking both his pretty wife and his estate for his own. Hearing tell of the party’s adventures over dinner however will give lord Lenzalla an idea: there’s an old ruin in the forest nearby, what if he weaved a fabulous treasure there and sent the party to find it, only after signing an agreement to split it fairly of course. Such an alteration will require several days of effort and the lives of three of his subjects, but he’s been stockpiling them in his dungeon for just such an occasion.

No matter what Idric says, there’s still a killer on the loose and the party’s stay on his estate and in town will give them a chance to question the locals about the killings and the mysterious missing lord Halthron. As it turns out, editing him out of everyone’s recollection didn’t stop them from  noticing all the murders he performed in order to work his enchantment, or the old lord from actually existing, as he now dwells  in a cluttered cottage (once belonging to an old weaver woman) as a memory addled hermit.

When Idric weaves, he sometimes feels as if he has multiple arms working in concert, as the spider queen works through him to create a false reality which adheres to his ambition’s design. The tapestry that serves as an anchor for this distortion now coils over itself, still affixed to the loom as it dominates an attic room the new lord Lenzalla has quardened off for his work. Should the Tapestry ever be damaged, Idric’s enchantments will begin to unravel, and should it ever be destroyed he will suffer a gruesome fate, transformed into a fateless creature all spiderlimbs and dead possibilities, which must be hunted before it can attempt to build a new loom from the corpses of innumerable victims.

The Raven Queen ( or other local god of Fate) will have quite a lot to say about Lolth playing around with such reckless causality, and will doubtless play a key role in snipping this loose thread through the use of omens and a few decisive interventions.

Question about Frank! What is his fighting style? I know you mentioned he does hand on hand, but does he do any specific form of martial arts?? Or is it just kind of the basic, punching, kicking, ect. Also, does he have some form of magic, or is he basically like Howdy? (I'm just imagining they all play like.. actual table top DnD and Frank is getting irritated because his rolls are garbage-)

i'm not nearly well versed enough in martial arts to name styles or blend them - though i feel a "i need to know everything i can about this" fixation creeping up... so i might be able to provide a better answer later!

but for now lets just say he's adapted his own stylized form, blended from his childhood training, what he learns on the streets, and what he picks up on his travels / figures out himself. i imagine it would be an efficient, ruthless, and elegant personal style of combat

Frank has no magic! if he rolled for it he'd somehow get a 0! he and Howdy are the only magicless maidens of the group

1d6 Assassination Targets

1. A member of the landed gentry, being targeted by (1d4):    1. A fellow lord looking to expand their own holdings.    2. A former secret lover whom they have scorned.    3. A group of peasants whom they are subjugating.    4. A higher ranking member of the nobility whose policies they have opposed.

2. A powerful mage, being targeted by (1d4):    1. A vengeful ex-apprentice who resents their tutor.    2. A member of the nobility who fears the mage’s power.    3. A rival mage who wishes to eliminate competition.    4. A religious leader who believes the mage derives their power from an unholy source.

3. A beloved local folk hero, being targeted by (1d4):    1. A tyrannical ruler, who could simply arrest the hero but fears retaliation from the people.    2. A vengeful ex-lover, taking their grudge much too far.    3. An unsavory faction who the hero has kept from gaining much power in town.    4. An entity with whom the hero made a deal in their younger days, come to collect on a long forgotten debt.

4. A prince or princess, being targeted by (1d4):    1. Their younger sibling, who will inherit the throne if they die.    2. Their parent, who has been prophesied to be killed by their own firstborn.    3. An advisor who believes the prince/princess is catching on to their ulterior motives.    4. A faction that wants to blame the death on an enemy nation in order to stir unrest.

5. A religious leader, being targeted by (1d4):    1. A corrupt lower-ranking member of their order, seeking power for themself.    2. A cult, trying to make space to infiltrate the religious order.    3. A higher-ranking member of their order who believes they are corrupt and unworthy of their position.    4. A political leader whose actions they denounced as sinful or heretical.

6. The king/queen or highest ruler of the land, being targeted by (1d4):    1. Their eldest child, who thinks they have grown too soft and wants their turn to rule with an iron fist.    2. Their spouse, who fears they have been blinded by power and become too cruel.    3. A noble in their court who has felt targeted by their policies.    4. An anarchist faction who want to use the assassination to jump-start a revolution.

The Carnival fliers that are magically spawned for the Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft setting of.. The Carnival. I suppose when there are no other carnivals for competition you don't really need an actual name.

I tried to model this after old circus fliers, but make it look more medieval

That’s another of the models of animal adventures: faraway sea for dnd. This extension is so great, it allows you to play animals as races and all the minis are soooooo gorgeous it’s not even fair 😭