As an independent fiction author I use the Chicago Manual of Style for editing to determine what is correct versus not.

When I was editing my debut novel, Critical Balance, I learned that the word “alright” is more correctly spelled “all right.” I’d been in the habit of using “alright.” Changing it in the manuscript wasn’t a bid deal—I simply did a find & replace. However retraining myself to use the correct form was harder. But I did it.

Then I discovered that Microsoft Word doesn’t flag “alright” as incorrect in spell check. So I have to remember to manually do a find & replace to make sure I didn’t accidentally learn the wrong form, because sometimes I still use it out of habit when I’m typing fast. I thought, There must be a way to fix this. I finally discovered how.

Step 1: Tell Word that “alright” is wrong.

To teach Word that “alright” is incorrect, we must locate and edit the Exclusion File. Don’t worry, it’s super easy, barely an inconvenience.

Open File Explorer in Windows and go to C:\Users\[YourUsername]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\UProof\.

If you don’t see the AppData folder, it’s because it’s hidden. To see hidden files and folders, click the View button at the top of the Explorer window. Mouse down to Show in the menu, and then click Hidden Items. There should now be a checkmark beside Hidden Items in the menu, and you should be able to see the AppData folder and other hidden items. If you’re worried about accidentally deleting something important, you can rehide hidden items once you’re done with this tutorial by following the same steps you just used to show them.

Once you’re in the UProof folder, find ExcludeDictionaryEN0409.lex (for US English; use EN0809.lex for UK, etc.) and open it with Notepad (right click on the file, select Open With in the menu and select Notepad).

Once you have the file open in Notepad. Enter "alright" on its own line at the end. (When I did this the document appeared to be empty/blank, so I just typed “alright” on the first line.

Save the file and restart Word.

Now to verify this worked, open a document in Word and type "alright." Word should now underline the word in red, indicating it’s misspelled.

Step 2: Tell Word the correct form is “all right”

We’ve now got Word flagging “alright” as incorrect, however you’ll notice it probably isn’t suggesting “all right” as a replacement. To get Word to automatically replace “alright” with “all right” when you type it, do the following.

In Word go to File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options. Type "alright" (without quotes) in Replace field and "all right" in the With field. Then click OK. Typing "alright" will now auto-change to "all right".

You can follow these same steps if you find Word incorrectly flagging any other words in the future.

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I have begun writing the sequel to my recently published debut novel, Critical Balance. The new book is called Citizen Zero, and it takes place about a year after the events in Critical Balance. I am now putting together a list of people who are interested in alpha or beta reading for the book. As an alpha or beta reader, you will read an early version (draft) of my book and provide feedback to help me improve the book in later revisions. Thank you for considering alpha or beta reading my novel.

Alpha vs. Beta Reading

The main difference between an alpha reader and a beta reader is an alpha reader will read an earlier, less polished draft, while a beta reader will read a later draft that is a bit closer to what the final book will be like. The best alpha readers are other writers, as well as editors and literary agents. Anyone who enjoys reading books can be a beta reader. If that isn’t you, no worries! You’ll probably make a great beta reader.

Alpha Readers

If you’re a writer, editor, or literary agent, and you’re interested in being an alpha reader, please fill out this form.

Beta Readers

If you love to read books, and you’re interested in being a beta reader, please fill out this form.

A Little About the Book

Citizen Zero is a sequel to Critical Balance, and it takes place about a year later. It is a direct sequel to Critical Balance, so I can’t say much about the plot, as that would spoil the first book. However, I can say that the characters you met in Critical Balance will be returning, including Tia, Minji, and Al. Minji will get more point-of-view chapters in this book, and Al will play a larger role in the story (he might even get some point-of-view chapters of his own).

What is Beta Reading?

A beta reader is someone who reads a book before it is released for publication. They provide the author with a reader’s perspective on the book, so the author can further improve the book for publication.

Who can be a Beta Reader?

Really, anyone who enjoys reading can be a beta reader. I’m most interested in receiving feedback from readers who read science fiction, but I’d ultimately like to get feedback from a wide variety of readers. If you enjoy reading adult fiction, and you’re open to reading a science fiction novel, then you probably qualify.

Just as important as reading the book, though, is providing feedback. A good beta reader is someone who will be able to read the book and provide thoughtful feedback in a timely manner. A good beta reader is available for some follow-up discussion if needed.

What is expected of a Beta Reader?

If you agree to be a beta reader, I expect that you will read the book in a timely manner and provide feedback. I will provide more details later, but in general you should have the time and ability to finish the book and provide feedback within one month of receiving it. I’ll give you guidance on the kind of feedback I’m looking for, which will involve answering some questions about the book.

Also please understand that you are reading a book before it is in its final form. Please do not review the book on any online platforms in this form. If you’d like to review the book, please wait until you’ve read the final, published version of the book. If you like the book, I welcome and encourage you to let people know about it on social media, but please don’t share any details about the plot. I don’t want the spoiled for potential future readers before it’s even been released.

How will I provide feedback?

I will email you a list of questions for you to answer. They will be in the body of the email, and I’ll also attach a Word document with the questions. You can either answer the questions in the body of your reply email, or you can answer them in the Word doc and attach it to your reply email. Easy peasy!

I may want to follow up with you by email or, preferably, by video conference call. We can use Google Meet for the video call, which is web-based and doesn’t require you to install any software.

What Comes Next?

Once you’ve completed either the alpha reader or beta reader form, I will contact you by email with further information if you’re selected to be a reader. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

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Visit my Support page to learn the many ways you can help me out.

Blue Prince is an amazing puzzle game that I’ve been having a lot of fun with lately. One of my favorite rooms in the mansion is the Parlor, which presents a logic puzzle that rewards you gems when you solve it correctly.

The puzzles start fairly easy and simple, but they get harder the more you solve. I started getting frustrated when I would occasionally get the wrong answer on the harder puzzles. Finally, I went to look for guides, thinking maybe I was missing something. There are a lot of guides out there, but I haven’t found one that really helps much with the more difficult puzzles. Many of them don’t even get the actual instructions of the game right. These guides are fine for the easier puzzles, but when the puzzles get more challenging, they leave you out in the cold.

After failing to find a guide that was much help, I eventually figured out how to solve these puzzles on my own. I thought I’d share my method with you today. This isn’t a cheat. I’m not going to list all the answers to all the puzzles. Rather, this is a method you can use to solve the puzzles yourself.

So what’s the difference between the easier and the harder puzzles? Well, some can be easier or harder just based on the nature of the statements on the boxes. But I think the big indicator of how hard a particular puzzle is relates to how many statements each box has. In the beginning each box has one statement. Then, you start getting boxes with two statements. Eventually, all the boxes have three statements. When each box has only one statement, it’s usually pretty easy to solve, but when there are two or three statements per box, it gets more challenging and you need a strategy.

To play the game, read the letter on the desk for instructions, then grab the wind-up key from the desk. There are three boxes, blue, white, and black. You will choose the box you think the gems are in.

First, the instructions are important. Here they are:

1. There will always be at least one box which displays only true statements.

2. There will always be at least one box which displays only false statements.

3. Only one box has a prize within. The other 2 are always empty.

When you get to the multi-statement puzzles, the key here is there will be one box where all the statements are true, and there will be one box where all the statements are false. The third box could have all true statements, all false statements, or a mixture of true and false statements.

So how do we solve this? The easiest way I’ve found to solve it and always get it right requires using pen and paper (I mean, you’re taking notes anyway, right?). Since I’ve started using this method, I haven’t gotten a single puzzle wrong, and I’m at the point where I’m getting boxes with three statements. I’ll explain how I do it, and then give a couple examples. (The examples are spoilers, of course, so if you don’t want to be spoiled on two of the puzzles, just skip the very end of this post.

I write the three boxes on my paper. To keep it simple, I put them in the order they appear in game, left to right. These are three columns that I will use to track the various possibilities until I find the one that works. So my paper will look something like this:

Blue | White | Black

Now, to start the method, I choose one of the boxes and declare it is the true box, which is to say, it is the box with all true statements.

Sometimes you’ll get a mix of boxes with differing numbers of statements. E.g. you might have a couple boxes with two statements, and one with one statement; or you might have a couple boxes with three statements, and one with two statements. In these scenarios, I start with the box with the fewest number of statements.

Another way to choose the first box to assume is the all true box is to look for obvious paradoxes on a box. E.g. if a box has two statements that can’t both be true, then it CANNOT be the all true box. It must be either a box with all false statements, or a box with both true and false statements. Barring one of those, I tend to chose a box that has a statement as to which box has the gems.

If there isn’t an obvious easiest choice for the first box to start with, I start with the blue box, since it’s the first on the left.

I then go through the permutations with the assumption of my all true box, keeping track on my paper.

At this point, I think it’s easiest to continue with a couple examples.

In this case, all the boxes have three statements. I decided to start with the white box because it’s the first box from the left that states a particular box has the gems. It doesn’t really matter which box you start with. I just try to start with the one that looks easiest to me. So I’m going to assume the white box has all true statements. Those statements, and the results of them being true are:

1. A box with only true statements contains the gems. This means either the white box contains the gems (because we’re assuming all its statements are true), or that there are two boxes with all true statements, and the other all true box contains the gems. At this point, my notes look like this:

2.The blue box contains the gems. This tells us three things: first, the blue box contains the gems; second, the blue box has all true statements, because of the results of the white box’s first statements being true; third, the black box has all false statements, because there has to be a box with all false statements, and there’s only one box left. Now my notes look like this:

Now all we have to do is check the rest of the statements on the boxes and look for paradoxes. Let’s continue with the third white box statement.

3.A box with a statement that is also on another box contains the gems. So this statement must be on one of the other boxes if it is a true statement. So we’ll check them one-by-one. The white box’s first statement isn’t on either of the other two boxes, neither is its second statement, and neither is the third statement. So, the white box’s third statement actually HAS to be false. This tells us that the white box can’t be the all true box. It could be the all false box, or it could be a box with both true and false statements. So we don’t even have to look at the black box at this point.

So our first assumption led us to a dead end in that the white box can’t be our assumed all true box. However, we did learn that the white box has at least one false statement, no matter what.

Let’s go to the black box next, as it indicates a specific box has the gems (again, you can do this in any order, I just think it’s fastest to start with a box that gives a specific gem box if all the boxes have the same number of statements). So now I’ll assume the black box is an all true box, and remember, we know the third white box statement is false no matter what. So now my notes look like this:

Now let’s examine the black box statements.

1. A box with a false statement contains the gems. Ok, so at this point, it could be the white box (we know it has a false statement), or possibly the blue box. Let’s continue.

2. The white box contains the gems. Since we’re assuming all the black box statements are true, this tells us two things. First, the white box has the gems, and second, the white box’s second statement that the blue box contains the gems is false.
   
   It actually tells us even more when we look at the blue box’s statements. It tells us all the blue box’s statements are true. Let’s look at those real quick, then we’ll go back to the black box. The blue box’s statements are:

   1. A box with a false statement contains the gems. Right now, we’re thinking the white box contains the gems, and we know the white box contains a false statement, so this statement is true.

   2. The white box contains the gems. That’s what we’re thinking right now based on the black box having all true statements, so this statement is also true.

   3. A box mentioning a specific color contains the gems. The white box has a statement mentioning the blue box (and we’re thinking the white box has the gems), so this is also true.

      Now my notes look like this:

So at this point, the white box HAS to be the all false box, because we know know (based on our assumption that the black box is all true) that both the black and the blue box are all true. So now all we need to do is check out the third black box statement and the rest of the white box statements, and if they can match what we have on our notes, we’ve solved the puzzle.

So the third black box statement is:

3. A box mentioning a specific color contains the gems. We just dealt with this exact statement on the blue box, and we know it’s true based on our assumption the black box is all true.

So far so good. Now let’s look at the white box, which again, should have all false statements. We’ve already determined the second and third white box statement are false, going by our notes, so we just need to look at the first statement. Which is:

1. A box with only true statements contains the gems. We’re assuming the black box is all true, and the black box says the white box contains the gems. So this statement is actually false, because the white box does not have all true statements, indeed all of its statements are false.

   So we’ve solved the puzzle. The white box contains the gems. As you can see by the key in the white box picture, this was the correct answer. If we want to finish our notes for posterity, they look like this (I circle the box that has the gems):

Ok, so you’ve probably got this method down now, but maybe we were just lucky. Let’s try another example with another puzzle and see if we can solve that one in the same way.

Here are our three boxes:

This is actually going to be quicker and easier to solve than the last one, I think. The reason is because all three boxes have a statement that’s a gimme—a statement that is just true or false no matter which box has the gems. This is a perfect example of another part of my strategy. Always read all the statements on all the boxes first looking for any gimmes. This puzzle has three such statements, one on each box. Those statements are:

Blue: “Longest” is the longest word on a box. This is either true or it isn’t, no matter what. So we look at the words on all the boxes, count the letters, and “longest” is NOT actually the longest word. Ironically, the longest word is actually “shortest”, which is on the white box. So right away we know this statement on the blue box is false. So we know the blue box is either an all false box or a box with both true and false statements.

White: “A” is the shortest word on a box. The word “a” has one letter, and you can’t have a word shorter than one letter, so this statement is obviously true. So the white box could be an all true box, or it could be a box with both true and false statements.

Black: There are words on the box with the gems. All the boxes have words on them, so this is obviously true.

So already, my notes look like this:

So at this point, we have one box (blue) with one for-sure false statement, and the other two boxes have at least one for-sure true statement. So we now know the blue box MUST have all false statements, because one box has to have all false statements, and neither of the other two boxes can, because they each have at least one true statement. So now our notes look like this:

Let’s now look at the blue box, since we know both statements are false, and see if we can learn anything from that.

1. The gems are in a box with the longest word. Since we know this is false, we know the gems are NOT in a box with the longest word. We’ve already determined the longest word is “shortest”, and that word is only on the white box. So we now know for sure the gems are NOT in the white box.

2. “Longest” is the longest word on a box. We already know this is false, and there’s no additional information we can glean from this.

   At this point I draw an X through the white box, because I know the gems aren’t in that one.

   But let’s take a look at the statements on the white box, since it’s next in line. those statements are:

   1. The gems are in a box with the shortest word. We’ve already determined the gems are NOT in the white box, and the white box has the shortest word, “a”, on it. So we know this statement has to be false.

   2. “A” is the shortest word on a box. We already determined this is true.

   Right now, my notes look like this:

So now we can make another deduction. We know the blue box has all false statements, and we know the white box has a false and a true statement. So the black box must be the box with all true statements. So now my notes look like this:

Time to check out the black box. We know all its statements are true. They are:

1. There are words on the box with the gems. We already dealt with this one.

2. This box does not contain the gems. This is true, so the gems aren’t in the black box.

And now we can solve the puzzle. We know the gems aren’t in the white box, and we know they’re not in the black box, so they must be in the blue box. Just for posterity and completeness, my notes now look like this:

I hope that this guide is helpful to you. Really my method boils down to two elements:

1. Paying close attention to what the rules of the game state (one box must be all true, one box must be all false).

2. Starting with an assumption, and having a good, easy, clear way to track the results of that assumption.

Then it’s just a matter of working through the ramifications of the initial assumption (that a particular box is all true) and looking for paradoxes.

Remember, there can be only one box that has the gems. If you ever end up in a spot where you think two boxes could have the gems, check your work, because you must’ve made a mistake somewhere. A good way to do that is to take a different path than you did before. So, let’s say you started out assuming the blue box was the all true box, then next time assume the white or black box is the all true box.

If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments. If you’d like more examples, let me know in the comments, and I can provide some more.

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Unfortunately, there is not a universally-agreed-upon format for novel manuscripts. Although there are some industry standards—Courier font, 12 point size, double-spaced, etc.—individual agents’ and acquisition editors’ requirements may, and often do, differ. These format requirements also differ from what you would prefer to see on your screen while writing (and reading) your novel, as well as the format you would like to use when giving it to alpha and beta readers.

So you may find yourself in the situation where you need to reformat your novel. Many writers go about this in a very inefficient way that can lead to a lot of errors, which requires going over the novel with a fine-toothed comb to find any mistakes introduced by the reformatting. If you’re highlighting chunks of text to change the font, font size, line spacing, etc., there is a better way!

What I’m going to show you today is a better way to set up your Word document for a novel manuscript. It may require you to learn a few things, namely some features of Word you may be unaware of or how to use. But I’m going to make it easy for you to learn, and I promise you: Once you learn these few tricks, you’ll never go back to your old way again!

Benefits of this System

How can I be so confident, you ask? Well, let me answer that by pointing out some of the things this setup will allow you to do:

• You will be able to have multiple “format setups”, called Style Sets in Word, for your novel, and you’ll be able to switch between them with a single mouse-click. For example, you can have the Style Set you use to write and edit the novel, a different Style Set for alpha and beta readers, and a different Style Set to send to editors.

• This means you don’t have to write and read your novel with ugly Courier font, even if that’s what your agent or editor wants you to submit.

• When you do change the Style Set of your novel, you can not only do it with a single click, but you can have confidence it worked and created no new errors or formatting issues. There’s no need to go through it looking for mistakes from the reformatting process.

• If you come across an agent who wants a format you’ve never seen before, it won’t be a big deal. You’ll be able to easily set up the new Style Set and switch your novel over with a single click. You can also save that Style Set for later use in case you come across those format requirements again.

• There is no limit to the number of these Style Sets that you can have.

• If you use things like italics, bold, and small caps in your manuscript, you can use these easily and even change them easily. E.g., if an agent wants italics to instead be underlined, you can easily make this change as part of that one-click reformatting operation.

• If you ever change your mind about any element of your manuscript format, you can easily change it and apply it to the entire manuscript and any future documents you write using that Style Set.

Hopefully by now I’ve convinced you of why this article is worth your time. It will save you a LOT of time and headache in the future. So, let’s get into how this wizardry is accomplished.

Getting Ready

Just to be safe, I recommend you make a copy of your current manuscript to set this up. That way you don’t have to worry about any mistakes you make while you’re learning this process screwing up your original manuscript file. This is especially important if you have your manuscript set up to auto-save. To make a copy, open the folder on your computer your manuscript document is in. (An easy way to do this if you have a short-cut of the file on your desktop is to right-click on the shortcut and select “Open folder location” from the pop-up menu.) Right-click on the manuscript file and select “Copy” from the pop-up menu. Now, right-click in the empty space of that folder (or wherever you want the new copy of the file to go) and select “Paste” from the pop-up menu. A copy of the file will now appear. If you copied the file into the same folder as the original, the copy will have the filename of the original with “ – Copy” added at the end (before the file extension, in this case .docx). If you want to rename the copy, right-click on it, and select “Rename” from the pop-up window. Type in the name you want and hit “Enter”.

Alright, now that we have a copy of your manuscript file to work with, go ahead and open it and Word. Now the real fun begins.

In order to use this powerful method, we need to understand Styles and Style Sets in Word. These are two powerful tools that, once you’ve learned them, you’ll probably use in every Word document you create in the future.

A Style contains all the information about how a given piece of text looks. This includes the font, font size, text color, line spacing, paragraph spacing, justification (left, right, center, full), indentation, and any special formats like italics, underline, bold, small caps, etc. You can find the Styles in the Home tab of word, in the section called Styles. This is the Styles Gallery

If you haven’t customized these already, you’ll likely see the following styles: Normal, No Spacing, Heading 1, Heading 2, and so on. Note the up and down arrow buttons at the right-hand side of the Styles Gallery. These scroll you up and down through the list. Even more useful is the button below them, which looks like a down arrow with a line above it.

This pops out the box, so you can see more of the Styles at once. Go ahead and do that, and scroll through the styles. You’ll see there are quite a few, and Word will continue to add more Heading styles as you use them.

Another important thing to understand here is the various Heading styles and the Normal text styles function in an outline format. So, for instance, if you use Heading 1, Heading 2, and Normal text, Heading 2 will nest under Heading 1, and the Normal text (body text) will nest under Heading 2. This will make more sense when we get to using the Navigation Pane.

All right. At this point, I think the clearest way to explain this going forward is just to walk you through an example. So I’ll show you how I set up my last novel. Follow me through the process, and then once you’ve grokked it, you can make changes as necessary to fit how you want to do your own novel or any other document you make.

The first decision to make is which Style Set we want to make first. I’m going to start with how I want my novel formatted for me personally—when I’m writing it and editing it. Setting up the first Style Set takes the most time, but once you have the first one set up, you can set up as many more as you want, and all of those will take significantly less time. Again, there’s no limit to how many Style Sets you can have, and once you’ve set the first one up, making the others is super-easy, so you could have separate Style Sets for when you’re writing and when you’re editing, if you wanted. The sky’s the limit here. You can also get a lot more creative with your chapter titles if you want. I tend to keep mine fairly simple, but the beauty of this system is you can make your version of your manuscript look however you want, and you can easily change it to whatever an agent or editor wants, all without causing any errors or problems.

So here’s what I want with the version of the manuscript I’m writing and reading:

• Adobe Garamond font, 12 pt. size

• Chapter titles are Adobe Garamond, 20 pt. size

• Body text is left justified.

• Chapter titles are center justified.

• The first lines of paragraphs are indented, however the first paragraph of a chapter is not indented. This is a little trickier to set up, but I’ll show you how.

• I want a byline on the title page that is the same font & size as the body text but is center justified.

• Lines are double-spaced.

• Page numbers set up in the header, same font & size as body text.

• Subchapter titles (really just a “#”) are same font & size as body text, but center justified.

• I want to be able to quickly navigate to Chapters & Subchapters.

• I will use italics for a character’s direct thoughts.

• I will use small caps for text messages and other text the POV character is reading directly.

• All the text is black. I’m not using any other colors, although I easily could.

Modifying Styles

We’re going to achieve all these goals by modifying Styles. To modify a Style, simply right-click on the Style you want to modify in the Styles Gallery and select “Modify” from the pop-up menu.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This whole process takes some time to set up. If you need to take a break at any point, it’s important to save your Style Set first. If you need to do that, jump ahead to the section of this tutorial on saving the Style Set at the end.

First Paragraph of a Chapter Style

Let’s start with the Normal Style, which will usually be the first Style in the Styles Gallery. Right-click the Normal style and select “Modify” from the pop-up menu.

Remember when I said I wanted to indent my paragraphs, but I don’t want to indent the first paragraph of a chapter? The easiest way to do that is to use two different Styles. So we’re going to set up the Normal style to be our “first-paragraph-of-a-chapter” style, and we’ll set up our “No Spacing” Style to match what we want for all the other paragraphs in the book. Luckily, we can rename these styles to anything we want to make it easier to remember what’s going on.

So first, in the Name field, I’m going to rename it to “Normal,1st Paragraph”. You have to keep the Normal in there, because Word uses that to know what default Style this Style was based on. This also tells Word where the Style fits within the Navigation hierarchy (this will make more sense later). Even if you take it out, Word will put it back in. But not to worry, the only thing you’ll see as the name of the Style in the Styles Gallery is “1st Paragraph”. You also do NOT want to put a space between the comma and “1st Paragraph”, or you will have a space at the beginning of your Style name in the Styles gallery. You don’t want that, because the Style buttons don’t allow for a lot of text to show in the Style name, and 1st Paragraph is going to be truncated already.

Click the dropdown for “Style for following paragraph” and select No Spacing. This is because we don’t want any extra spaces added into our manuscript. (This is how agents & editors want it, and I’ve gotten into the habit of doing it this way for my own versions too. It just presents a more uniform look.)

Under “Formatting” you can choose the font, font size, color, justification, and line spacing. I chose Adobe Garamond, 12 pt, Automatic color (black), left justified, double-spaced. You can choose whatever font you want here. Your copy of Word may not have Adobe Garamond. Feel free to choose any font you like, as this format is for you, not an agent, editor, alpha reader, or anyone else. Times New Roman is a good font that comes with all copies of Word if you’re not sure what to pick. Make sure the box for “Add to the Styles gallery” is checked. See the image below.

Now, click on the “Format” drop-down button at the bottom left of the Modify Style window. Select “Paragraph” from the drop-down menu. There are very important settings here, and you will want to set these for every Style you modify in your document. First, on the “Indents and Spacing” tab, you want to make sure that in the “Spacing” section both “Before” and “After” are set at 0 pt (this prevents Word from adding extra spaces before or after paragraphs using this style). You also want to make sure to check the box beside “Don’t add spaces between paragraphs of the same style”. You can also make sure the “Left” and “Right” under “Indentation are both zero, and the drop-down box under “Special” says “(none)”. As this is our first-paragraph-of-the-chapter Style, we don’t want any indenting going on.

Now click on the “Line and Page Breaks” tab. Here, we want to make sure all the boxes under “Pagination” are unchecked. We don’t want any widow/orphan control, keeping lines together, etc. Agents & editors don’t want this. Now you could set up your own version to use these, but I actually don’t like what they do to a manuscript. Under “Formatting exceptions” make sure “Don’t hyphenate” is checked. You don’t want Word hyphenating words for you. It’s not very good at it, and agents & editors defintely don’t want to see that.

All the settings are now set. Click “OK” to save everything. I always at this point reopen the Modify Style to recheck everything, or I recheck everything before clicking “OK”, just to make sure I got it all.

Body Text Style

Next, we’ll set up a Style for our body text. This will be all the text in our book other than the first paragraph of each chapter. For this Style we’ll modify the “No Spacing” default style. Right-click on the “No Spacing” Style in the Styles Gallery and select “Modify” from the pop-up menu.

We’re going to set this up almost exactly like the last one. In the initial Modify Style box, we do everything the same, except we’re going to Name it “No Spacing,Body”. Again, No Spacing is the default Style this is based on. Body is the name we’re giving it and is what we’ll see in the Style Gallery. Style Type is “Paragraph”, Style for following paragraph is “No Spacing”. We set our Formatting as before: Adobe Garamond, 12 pt., Automatic (black) color, left justified, double-spaced. (If you chose a different font for your first paragraph text, you’ll want to use that same font.) Make sure “Add to the Styles gallery” is checked and “Automatically update” is unchecked. (See image below)

UPDATE: A Note on Automatically update

When I first wrote this guide, I recommended checking the “Automatically update” box. I’ve since learned that this option doesn’t work the way I thought it did, and that it’s best to leave that box unchecked. What “Automatically update” actually does is this: Anytime you’re working with text in a given style (e.g. our Body Text style) and you edit the formatting of that text, it will apply the change to the entire style, and then that change will propagate in all documents that use that style. So, for example, if you highlighted a word in some body text and bolded it, it would update the Body Text style to be bolded. This is not behavior we want. Once we get these styles set up, we don’t want them to be changed unless we choose to change them. The last thing we want is for changes we make in a given document to be applied to the entire style and all documents that use it.

Click the Format button at the bottom left of the window and select “Paragraph”.

The Indents and Spacing tab of the Paragraph window is where we’ll do something different, because we want to indent the first line of every paragraph in our body text. Alignment should still be “Left” (left justified). However, under Indentation, you still want “Left” and Right” to be 0”. However, under Special select “First line” from the drop down, and in the By box set 0.5”. Again, make sure under Spacing that both Before and After are set to “0 pt), and under “Line spacing” it should be Double.

The Line and Page Breaks tab should be set up the same as last time, and they will be set up this way for every Style in the document. I’m not going to go over these settings every time, but make sure to remember to check/set them for each style. You can refer to the image below for the settings.

Heading 1 Style (Chapter Title)

Now that we have styles set up for our body text, we’ll set up styles for the chapter titles and subchapters. This is the step that will allow us to easily navigate our novel by chapter and subchapter using single mouse clicks. You’ll also be able to rearrange chapters, if needed, by simply clicking and dragging them in the Navigation Pane.

Before we format Heading 1, we need to activate/show the Navigation Pane. To do this, click the View heading in the top menu, go to the Show box, and check the box beside Navigation Pane. The Navigation Pane will now appear in your left margin. You may want to resize the overall Word window at this point if you don’t have it maximized. If you ever want to close the Navigation Pane, you can do so by clicking the X at the top right of the pane, or by unchecking the box you just checked in the View tab. You can also pop the Navigation pane out of your margin by mousing over the top until your mouse pointer becomes the four-arrow icon, then click-dragging it away. You can put it back into the margin by click-dragging it toward the left margin until it snaps into place. Also note that you can do a Find search directly from the Navigation Pane (there’s a Search document field a the top), which is super handy.

Now, click on Home on the top menu. Go to the Styles Gallery, right-click on Heading 1, and select Modify from the pop-up menu.

Name the Style “Heading 1,Chapter”. Make sure “No Spacing” is selected in “Style for following paragraph”. Under formatting, set the font and font size you want for your chapter titles. You can use the same font and size you used for the body text, same font and different size, or a completely different font. Whatever you like. I set mine to Adobe Garamond 20 pt. Click the button for center justification and the button for double line spacing. Make sure “Add to the Styles gallery” is checked and “Automatically update” is unchecked. (See image below)

Now click on the Format button at the bottom left of the box and select “Paragraph” from the pop-up menu. On the Indents and Spacing tab, make sure Alignment is set to “Centered”. Indentations should be 0. Make sure spacing for Before and After are both set to 0 pt. and that Line spacing is set to Double. Also make sure the box for Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style is checked. (See image below)

Now click on the Line and Page Breaks tabs. On this tab, make sure all the boxes are unchecked except “Don’t hyphenate”, just like all the other Styles we’ve done. (See image below) Click “OK”.

Heading 1 is now set up, and you’ll see that it’s now called “Chapter” in the Styles gallery. This is the Style you’ll use for your chapter titles, whether those are just “Chapter 1”, etc., or you have actual chapter titles.

Applying the Styles

If you’re setting up a new document, you’re done at this point. However, if you’re modifying an existing document, you now need to apply the Styles we’ve created to the relevant text in the document. We’ve waited to do this until now because now that we have our Chapter Style set up, this process will be a lot easer to do than it was before. It will also show me one of the many ways having Heading 1 set up as your chapter titles will enable you to use the Navigation Pane to make many tasks fasater and easier.

The first thing we want to do is apply our new Chapter Style to the appropriate text in the novel. Go to the title of the first chapter. Let’s say it’s Chapter 1. Highlight the title of that chapter with your mouse, and then click the Chapter style button in the Style gallery. You will see the text change the the Style as you defined it. In my case, Adobe Garamond 20 pt. center justified. You will also see Chapter 1 (or whatever your chapter title is) appear in the Navigation Page at the side of your document. Continue this process for all the chapters of your book.

Once you have all the chapter titles set to the Chapter (Heading 1) Style, you can use the Navigation Pane. You can click on any of the chapter titles, and you will navigate there, with your curser at the beginning of the chapter. Pretty slick, right? You can also easily rearrange chapters. Lets say you want to put Chapter 2 after Chapter 3. You just click on Chapter 2 in the Navigation Pane, hold the left mouse button down, drag it where you want to put it—in this case after Chapter 3—and then release the mouse button. Easy peasy. Of course, you’d want to rename the chapters at this point.

Next, we will apply the Body Style to the Body text of your book. There’s a very easy way to do this now that we have the Navigation Pane set up. Right-click on Chapter 1 in the Navigation Pane (or whatever your first chapter is called) and select “Select Heading and Content” from the pop-up menu. This highlights all of the text (and the heading) for Chapter 1. Now click the Body Style button in your Style Gallery. This applies that Style to all the selected text. Now, at this point, you do need to highlight the chapter title—Chapter 1—again and reapply the Chapter Style by clicking the Chapter button in the Style gallery, but this is still a lot easier than having to highlight all the text of the chapter, which would involve selecting text across multiple pages.

Next, select the first paragraph of body text in Chapter 1 and apply the 1st Paragraph Style to it by clicking the 1st Paragraph button in the Style Gallery. Remember, we set up this Style so the first paragraph of each chapter isn’t indented.

Repeat this process for every chapter in your novel. Right-click the chapter title in the Navigation Pane, select the heading and its content, apply the Body Style, reapply the Chapter Style to the chapter title, then apply the 1st Paragraph Style to the first paragraph of that chapter. This is, of course, a lot easier to do with a new manuscript, but even with a completed novel, it can be done pretty quickly.

Heading 2 Style (Subchapters)

If you use subchapters in your book, this explains how to set that up. If you don’t use subchapters, you can skip ahead to the next section. If you do use subchapters, being able to navigate them, just like chapters, can be very handy.

At this point, you should have setting up Styles down, so I’ll just give you the specifics and skip all the details that are the same for setting up all Styles.

For subchapters we’ll modify Heading 2 and name it Heading 2,SubChapter. You can set this up however you like, of course. I just gave it the same font and size as my body text and make it exactly like my body text in every other way, except I make it center justified. I just use a single “#” for my subchapters, centered on the page. Remember to go into Format -> Paragraph and remove all spaces before and after paragraphs, just as we’ve done with all the other Styles. See the images below for how to set this up.

Now to apply the style, just go to each subchapter title (or “#” or whatever you use), highlight it, and apply the SubChapter Style. As you do this, you’ll see your subchapters appear in the Navigation Pane, nested below the Chapters. You can navigate to these by clicking on them. You can also expand or collapse them by clicking the right-pointing triangle beside them. You can also expand or collapse all of them by right-clicking on one of the headings in the Navigation Pane and selecting “Expand All” or “Collapse All”. Also note that you can create as many different levels of headings as you want—Heading 3, Heading 4, etc.—and each new heading level will be nested below the one above it. However, for my purposes, I only need chapters and subchapters.

Italics

This is another section you may not need, depending on your manuscript. However, italics are often used in manuscripts for words that need emphasis and for the direct thoughts of the point-of-view character. This is how I use them in my manuscript. It might be tempting to highlight the word(s) you want to italicize and just hit the italics button or Ctrl+I, but trust me: you don’t want to do that. If you go that route, when you go to change Style Sets (coming up), which is one of the big reasons to do all this, you’ll lose your italics. So although that may seem a little easier, it’s better to use the following method.

We’re going to again define a Style for this. The Style we want to use for this is called Subtle Emphasis. You’ll need to scroll down a bit in your Style gallery to find it. Right-click on the Subtle Emphasis Style button in the Style gallery and select Modify from the pop-up menu. Add “,Italics” to the name of the Style so the name is now “Subtle Emphasis,Italics”. Make sure Style is based on is set to “Default Paragraph Font”. Make sure the italics button is clicked/pressed under Formatting. Make sure the box for “Add to the Styles gallery” is checked. At this point you’re done and can click OK. You don’t need to worry about the paragraph format stuff since this is a Character Style instead of a Paragraph Style. See the image below for what the settings should look like.

Small Caps

This is another optional section, depending on your needs. In my latest novel, Critical Balance, I used small caps to denote text in the manuscript—text messages sent between characters, text read on monitors, etc. If you don’t need another type of specially formatted text in your manuscript, you can, of course, skip this section. If you need something different from small caps, you can replace this with the type of text you need.

Just as with all the other Styles we’ve defined, we go to the Style gallery in the Styles section of the Home tab. Right-click on the Style called Emphasis and click Modify on the pop-up menu. Name the Style “Emphasis,SmallCaps (or replace SmallCaps with an appropriate name for what you’re doing). Make sure the box for “Add to the Styles gallery” is checked. See the image below for what the Modify Style box should look like.

Small caps isn’t quite so easy to apply as bold, italics, or underline, which all have handy buttons on this screen. Instead, we need to click the Format button at the bottom left of the Modify Style box and select Font from the pop-up menu. Once you’re in the Font box, check the box beside “Small caps” and click OK. See the image below for what this should look like. You now have a Style called SmallCaps in your Style gallery.

Title

At this point we could be done. However, if you’re going to submit your manuscript to an agent or editor, you’re going to need a title page, and that requires a couple more Styles to keep things easy and simple in the future. You can also use this Style if you want to put the title on the first page of your manuscript instead of using a title page.

The first Style we need for the title page is the actual Title Style, which we’ll use for the title of the manuscript.

Find the Style called Title in the Styles gallery, right-click on it, and select Modify from the pop-up menu. We don’t need to rename this Style, as it’s already called Title. Set this up however you’d like your title to look—font, font size, and font color. Personally, I chose Times New Roman 20 pt, for my font with the color black. I also selected center justification, since I want the title centered. I also selected single spacing because it’s easier to use single spacing for the title page. As always, I recommend setting the “Style based on” to either “No Spacing” or “(no style)” and setting “Style for the following paragraph” to “No Spacing”. Likewise (as with all the other Styles), I recommend going to Format -> Paragraph and making sure there are no spaces added before or after paragraphs, and no spaces added before paragraphs of a different Style. I also recommend unchecking all the boxes in the “Line and Page Breaks” tab except for “Don’t hyphenate”, which should be checked. Click OK when you’re done. See the images below for what this should look like.

By Line

This is another Style for your title page, or the first page of your manuscript if you put your title information there. This is used for your byline. I added this Style because agents/editors usually want the title page single-spaced, and as we know, the rest of the manuscript is double-spaced. It also center-justifies the text.

At this point, this process should be old hat for you, so I’ll just post some images for explanation. Set up is the same as for the Title style, except your font and size choices may differ. I modified the Subtitle Style in the Style gallery, and I named it Subtitle,Byline.

At this point (or before if you didn’t use all the Styles I provided) you are done creating/modifying styles. Of course, if you need additional Styles, go right ahead. You should have the knowledge now to create any kind of Style you want.

Changing the Style Order in the Gallery

There is one final step we need to take before we save our new Style Set. As you’ve been creating these Styles, you’ve probably noticed that they’re kind of haphazardly arranged in the Styles gallery. To make things simpler and easier going forward, we’re going to rearrange our Styles gallery so that all the Styles that we’ve defined and want to use appear at the top, with all of Words other default Styles moved to the bottom of the list. This way you won’t have to scroll though Styles you don’t use to get to the ones you do. I will show you how to order them the way I do, but you can order your Styles however you want, whatever makes the most sense to you.

To get started, go to the Styles box in the Home tab and click the Expand button (see image below).

This brings up something I’ll call the Styles box (I don’t know its official name). Note that you can resize the box by mousing over a border until your mouse pointer becomes a double-arrow and then click-dragging to expand it to the size you want. You can also drag the entire box and place it into a margin pane, if you like. Mouse over the Styles box until your mouse pointer becomes the four-arrow icon that always reminds me of a compass. Click and hold and drag the Styles box toward the left margin until it snaps to it. You can decide whether it’s on the left or right side of the Navigation pane by when you release the left mouse button. If you want to get the Styles box out of your margin, you can close it by clicking the X at the top right of the box, or  you can move it by moving your mouse to the top of the box and click-dragging when your mouse pointer becomes the four-arrow icon.

See the image below.

Now click the Manage Styles button at the bottom of the Styles box. This is the button that looks like a capital A with a green check mark. See the image below.

When the new window opens, click the Recommend tab. You will see all the Styles listed in the order they appear in the Styles gallery. Notice each Style has a number to the left. It is this number that determines the order that they’re listed. You can have multiple Styles with the same number. I’m not sure how Word decides the order Styles with the same number, so I made sure mine all had different numbers, just so I’m sure they’re in the order I want. Also notice that the Styles are listed by their default names; this list unfortunately doesn’t show the custom names you gave them, so you’ll have to remember what’s what, or make a cheat sheet. If you modified the default Styles as I suggested, it will be fairly logical and self-explanatory. Go ahead and order the list how you like. You can move an item on the list by selecting it (by clicking on it) and then clicking the Move Up or Move Down button. You can also select an item and click the Assign Value button to give it any number you want (this is often the easiest way). See the images below to see how I ordered by list, and how they then appear in the Styles gallery. Notice that my Styles are numbered 1-8, with the next default Style after mine being number 11.

Saving the Style Set

Alight, we’ve now defined all the Styles and arranged the order they appear in the Styles gallery. The final step is to save all these Styles as a Style Set. To do this click on the Design menu button at the top of the screen to go to the Design tab. You will see a gallery very similar to the Styles gallery in the Home tab, only instead of showing Styles, this gallery shows Style Sets. It will already be populated with Style Sets that come with Word. To save your new Style Set, click on the expand arrow button at the right of the gallery. See the image below.

When the Style Set gallery expands, you will see an option to “Save as a New Style Set”. Click on that, and a save window opens. Name your new Style Set and click save. (Don’t change the location where the file saves; use the default location Word gives you.) Give the Style Set a descriptive name, so you know what’s what. Keep in mind that the whole point of all this is to have multiple Style Sets for different purposes. I named this Style Set “Novel Manuscript”.

Now that you’ve saved your new Style Set, it will appear in the Style Set gallery. You can mouse over each Style Set button, and the name of the Style Set will pop up after a moment. As you hold the mouse over a given Style Set, the document you have open will actually (temporarily!) change to that Style Set, so you can get a glimpse of what it would look like. To apply a given Style Set to the open document, just click its button. You can switch around between the Style Sets by clicking the various buttons.

Defining Additional Style Sets

Now that you have created your first Style Set, you can create additional Style Sets using the same process. These new Style Sets will usually be a lot quicker to create, because you’ll usually be making only a few adjustments to the Style Set you’ve already created. However, you can always create a completely different Style Set by going through this entire process again.

A Word of Caution!

It is Best Practice to save and name your new Style Set before you make any changes. This will prevent you from accidentally making changes to the Style Set you’ve already made. You would theoretically be ok making the changes to the existing Style Set and then changing, as long as when you saved each modified Style you never clicked the radio button that says, “New documents based on this template”. That would theoretically limit the changes to the current document only and would not alter the actual Style Set. However, as you’ve seen, there are a lot of steps in this process, and it’s easy to make a mistake or miss something. So will save yourself a lot of potential irritation if you follow the procedure below.

Why the Bother?

Before I get into how to do this, let me explain why we’d want to do this. I just created my Novel Manuscript style set, which sets up my manuscript the way I want it and like it. Adobe Garamond 12 pt. font in black, left justified, double-spaced lines in the body. My chapter titles are the same font, but they’re 20 pt. and center justified. I’ve got an Italics Style that I use for direct thoughts and a SmallCaps Style that I use for text messages and such. So that’s all how I want it, how I like to see it. But there are instances where I will want to change this. Consider the following:

1. I want to send my manuscript to alpha or beta readers. They may not have the Adobe Garamond font, because it doesn’t come with word. I’m not going to ask them to download and install the font, and some weirdness may occur if they just load a doc with a font they don’t have. So for my alpha and beta readers I want to use Times New Roman in all the places I use Adobe Garamond. This would normally be a PITA to change in a 100,000+ word novel, but using Style Sets, it’s super-easy, barely an inconvenience.

2. I want to submit my manuscript to an agent. They have very specific submission guidelines (requirements, really). They want Courier 12 pt font, and everything should be in that font and size. So no larger font chapter titles or book title. Also, they don’t want any italics in the document, instead if something would be italicized, they want it to be underlined instead. Normally making all these changes would be a huge PITA, so much so that I would just write the manuscript this way to begin with and suffer through reading and writing in Courier, even thought I hate Courier. But with Style Sets making all these changes is super-easy, barely and inconvenience. And with each additional agent or editor that has these same requirements, it will be even easier, literally a single mouse-click to make all the changes.

3. My grandma wants to read the manuscript, but her vision isn’t as good as it used to be. Reading 12 point font is difficult for her. Also, I think Times New Roman would be easier for my grandma to read, and I don’t want to try to begin to explain to her how to install a new font anyway. So I want to change all the fonts to Times New Roman, I want the smallest text to be 20 pt., and the Chapter headings to be 24 pt. Again, what would normally be a long, painful process will instead be super-easy, barely an inconvenience.

One other very important point I want to make here is this: Not only will using Style Sets make all these (and other) changes much easier and quicker, you also be able to make all the changes with complete confidence that there will be no problems or errors in your manuscript what-soever due to the changes. You do not have this security with any other method you could use. Have you ever had to change the font or spacing in a manuscript before, and it leads to all kinds of formatting problems? Have you maybe been indenting your paragraphs with tabs instead of using a style, and that has led to problems? Those days are over, my friend. You will never again waste hours (or days!) combing through your manuscript fixing such problems.

Hopefully I’ve convinced you that this is all worth it, or I’ve at least intrigued you enough that you’re willing to give it a try. So let’s get into the nitty gritty of the tutorial!

As when we created the first Style Set, we want to begin with a copy of your manuscript, just in case something goes wrong, we don’t mess up the original file. I explained how to do that in the Getting Ready section of this tutorial. Once you have your (copied) document open, apply the Style Set you want to modify to make a new Style Set (most likely the one you just finished creating). I just finished creating my Style Set for my own personal use when writing and reading my novels. I named the Style Set Novel Manuscript. I now want submit a novel to an agent, and the agent has very specific requirements for how she wants the manuscript submitted. I could create a new Style Set called Manuscript Submission, or maybe Agent Submission. However, I know that it’s possible that different agents or editors may have different requirements, so I decide to name this Style Set after the particular agent I’m submitting to. Her name is Ms. Smith, so I’m going to call my new Style Set “Agent Smith Submission”. (See what I did there, Mr. Anderson?)

Alright, so I’ve got my copied manuscript file open in Word. I apply my Novel Manuscript Style Set by going to Design and selecting that Style Set from the gallery. Voila!

Before I do anything else, I’m going to save this Style Set as a new Style Set. I do this by clicking the expand arrow at the right of the Style Set gallery and selecting the “Save as a New Style Set” option at the bottom. I name my new Style Set “Agent Smith Submission” and click Save to save it in the default location.

Now I’m safe to make whatever changes I want to my Agent Smith Submission Style Set without messing up my Novel Manuscript Style Set.

I don’t need to mess with (change) anything in the Style Set that’s already the way Ms. Smith wants; I only need to change things that are different. One change I need to make is to the font. Ms. Smith wants Courier font, not Adobe Garamond. I start with my first Style in the gallery: 1st Paragraph. I right click its button in the Styles gallery and select Modify from the pop-up menu. The only thing I need to change here is the font, which I change from Adobe Garamond to Courier. Everything else is already as Ms. Smith wants it: 12 pt; double-spaced; left justified; no extra spaces around paragraphs; no widow-orphan protection, hyphenation or any of that nonsense. So I’m done and can click OK, although I can click around just to make sure everything is the way Ms. Smith wants.

I’ll do the same thing with the Body Style. Next is the Chapter Style, and this I will want to change the size to 12 pt., because that’s what Ms. Smith wants.

With the Subchapter Style, I only need to change the font again.

When I get to the Italics Style, Ms. Smith doesn’t want Italics; she wants underlines instead. So I right-click the Italics style, unclick the Italics button, and click the Underline button instead. I hit OK, because that’s the only change I need to make.

Ms. Smith’s submission guidelines don’t say anything about small caps, for or against, so I leave that style as-is.

The Title and Byline Styles need to be 12 pt. Courier, so I make those changes.

Once you’ve made all the changes that you need to the Style Set, go to Design, click the expand arrow in the Style Set gallery and select “Save as a New Style Set”. Select the Style Set you saved in the beginning—whatever you named it, in my case Agent Smith Submission—and click Save. Word will ask if you’re sure you want to save over the existing Style Set. Double-check to make sure you’re saving to the correct name, and if everything looks good, click Yes.

You’ve now created a new Style Set. Follow this process as needed to create all the Style Sets you want. Some of the Style Sets I’ve made are the following:

1. Novel Manuscript – for my own personal use when writing novels.

2. Manuscript Submission – a “generic” submission version made to SFWA submission standards.

3. Alpha Reader Manuscript – for formatting my novel to send to alpha readers (also beta readers).

4. Daily Use – for any documents I want to make that aren’t manuscripts.

5. Docs to Share – for any non-manuscript documents I make that I want to share with others (this uses only default Word fonts).

Changing Style Sets

Changing Styles Sets is super-easy. You just click Design at the top of Word to go to the Design tab and then click on the Style Set you want in the Style Set gallery. The Style Sets you’ve created will populate here as long as you save them in the default location. Remember that you can get a preview of what your open document will look like with a given Style Set just by hovering the mouse over that Style Set. The Style Set won’t be actually applied until you click it.

So, as you can see, this process is a bit front-loaded in that it takes some time to make that first Style Set, but each subsequent Style Set is much quicker to make, because you’re only making a few changes to the Style Set you’ve already created. The real power in this system, though, is in the ability to switch between Style Sets so quickly and easily.

As long as you follow Best Practice, you will never have any errors occur from reformatting your manuscript. Some of these Best Practices include:

1. Always use Heading 1 (Chapter) for your chapter titles.

2. Always use Heading 2 (Subchapter) for your subchapter breaks.

3. Always use 1st Paragraph for the first paragraph in a chapter.

4. Always use Body for all other body text in the manuscript.

5. Always use the Italic Style you created when you want italics. Unfortunately, this is a bit more involved than hitting Ctrl+I. You need to type the text out, highlight it with your mouse, and then click the Italic Style in the Style gallery. However, if you do it this way, the italics will remain when you change Style Sets. If you just use Ctrl+I, when you change Style Sets, you will sometimes lose your italics. Word actually has a slightly complex way of doing this. If you have a single, or a few, italicized words in a paragraph, it will keep the italics if you switch Style Sets (or modify the font of the Body Style). However, if a certain percentage or more of the paragraph is italics, then when you change Style Sets (or modify the font of the Body Style), you will lose the italics. E.g., if an entire paragraph is italics, the italics will go way if you modify the Style or change Style Sets. If you instead follow Best Practice and use the Italic Style Set you created to italicize words, sentences, and paragraphs, you will never lose those italics when modifying the Style or changing Style Sets.

6. Point 5 also applies to small caps, underline, bold, etc.

7. Never change the font of a document or section by altering the settings in the Font box in the Home tab. Always instead modify the font by modifying the relevant Style. E.g., if you want to change the font of the Body of your document, modify the 1st Paragraph and Body Styles. This is actually much easier in a novel, because you never have to highlight pages of text. Just modify the Style, and it will apply to the whole document.

Bonus: Searching for Formatted Text

As a final bonus to this tutorial, I’m going to tell you how to search for modified text. This can have all kinds of uses. But, like me, you may want to use it the first few times you change the Style Set of your novel just to prove to yourself it didn’t screw anything up, so you can sleep well at night. E.g., maybe you use italics in your novel, and you need to change them to underline for an agent or editor. You change the Style Set, but you want to be sure there aren’t still some italics in your novel somehow. This is how you can do that quickly and easily.

I’ll show you how to search for italics, but you can use this to search for underline, bold, etc. Start by going to the Home tab, going to the Editing section and clicking the dropdown arrow beside the Find button.

Select Advanced Find from the pop-up menu. The Find and Replace window will open. Click the More button at the bottom of the window to expand the bottom part of the window.

Click the Format button at the bottom left of the window and select Font from the pop-up menu. This opens the Find Font window. This is where you can select the kind of text you want to search for: italics, bold, underline, etc. You can even look for different types of underline (e.g. double underline), subscripts and superscripts. You can search for specific fonts or font sizes. Select what you want to look for, say Italic. Click OK.

This brings you back to the Find and Replace window. You have a couple options here. You can click the Find In button and select Main Document from the pop-up window. This will highlight all the italics in the document (or whatever you’re looking for). Your other option is to click Find Next, and then it will go to the first italicized text, and you can go through them all step by step, one at a time.

Conclusion

I hope that you find this tutorial useful. I spent over 11 hours writing this post and creating the images. That’s a lot of time, believe me, I know. But I did it because I think this will be a game changer for a lot of writers out there.

If this was at all helpful to you, it would be a huge help to me if you would show your appreciation by giving a donation or buying one of my D&D supplements. Thank you for your support. I really appreciate it.

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Due to the scum of the Earth known as scalpers, it has been very difficult for most people to get a PlayStation 5. I spent almost a year trying to get one. I finally got one using the method I’ll show you today. It’s totally legitimate, and it’s the easiest, least stressful way to get a PS5. You don’t need to follow any Twitter accounts or spend hours in queues. I got my PS5 within a week using this method.

As I said, I spent almost a year trying (and failing) to get a PS5. I followed accounts on Twitter that would tell you when an online retailer was selling PS5s. Then I would go to the retailer’s site, and try to get one. I tried to get them from Walmart, Target, Amazon, and Sony itself via PlayStation Direct (I never tried to get one from Game Stop, because they only sell them in over-priced bundles including things I didn’t want or need). This process almost always involved sitting in a waiting room and/or queue on the retailer’s website for hours, waiting for my chance, only for the consoles to sell out within seconds once they were available. It was frustrating to say the least and a huge waste of time.

I eventually got so frustrated I quit trying, and I resolved that I would just wait until I could just walk into a store and buy a PS5. Then I learned of the method I’m going to share with you. I didn’t think it would work, but it was easy, so I said, “What the hell.” Not only did it work, but I got a PS5 within a week of using this method, and it was shipped to me (for free) in 2 days.

The method is actually super simple. You just need to get on PlayStation Direct’s mailing list. Once you’ve done that, you will (eventually) get an email inviting you to an opportunity to buy a PlayStation 5. The only thing that’s at all tricky, and the reason for this blog post, is it takes a little digging to figure out how to get on that mailing list if you’re not already on it.

PlayStation Direct has regular events where they will send out invitations to people on the mailing list. This is a chance to buy a PS5 that is only available to people who got the invite. I got my invite within a week of signing up, and I was able to buy my PS5 the first time. I even got the digital edition, which is usually harder to get.

If you’re already on that mailing list, then you don’t have to do anything except look for that email. However, if you’re like me, and you routinely unsubscribe from promotional email lists, you will need to sign up.

The first step is to make sure you have an account at direct.playstation.com. If you don't have an account, go ahead and register. Once you're registered, sign in on the site.

It’s a good idea to put in your address and payment information ahead of time, so when you get your chance to buy a PS5, you don’t have to waste time doing that.

Put in your address by mousing over the smiley face at the top right of the screen and clicking "Addresses" from the pop-up menu. Then put your shipping/billing address.

On that same page, click the "Profile" tab at the top. Click the "Edit" link on the top right of your profile information. This will take you to another page where you can put in your payment information (Sonyentertainmentnetwork.com). On this new page, click the "Payment Method" link in the left margin navigation. Enter your payment method information.

On this same page, click "Notifications" in the left margin menu.

Click the top box "Receive via Email" And click save.

That puts you on the email list. Now you just need to let Sony know that you’re interested in a PS5. You can register to receive opportunities to buy a PS5 here. In case that link doesn’t work for you, you can also go to this page, and look for the section that says, “Register for an opportunity to buy a PS5 console from PlayStation” (it’s currently at the top of the page). Click the “Register Now” button. Once you’re on the registration page, sign into your PlayStation Network account to register.

Once I did this, I got an invite within a week.

When you get an invite, you will receive an email from email@email.playstation.com. Make sure to check your spam folder and/or make this a trusted email address in your email program. The invite will give you a day and time when you will be able to buy a PS5. At that time, go to https://direct.playstation.com/en-us/ps5 to buy your PS5, or click the link sent in the email.

I can’t confirm this is true, but I have heard the timing of when you will receive your invite is based on how “active” your PlayStation account is. I assume this means how many products you’ve bought directly from them (games, etc.). So if you’re a brand new player with a new account, or if you haven’t bought many games in the past, you may have to wait a bit longer. At least, that’s what I’ve heard. I did get an invite in a week, but I also played on PS4 a lot and bought a lot of digital games from PlayStation, so keep that in mind.

Not only is this the easiest, least stressful way to get a PS5, you can also get free express (2 day) shipping if you're a PlayStation Plus member. You can also get free shipping if you buy another item, like a second controller, with the console.

The best thing about this method, I think, is it takes no time at all. No more following spammy Twitter accounts. No more spending hours in queues online. No more frustration and disappointment. You just wait for your invite, and then go get your PS5.

Best of luck to you on your hunt for a PS5. If this article was helpful to you, please share it with any friends you have who are also looking for a PS5.

As an aside here, within a month of finally getting my PS5, I discovered I had bought a lemon. I didn’t realize this right away because I was playing PS4 games on the PS5, so none of them were requiring a lot of it. However, then I got Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and the PS5 would overheat and shut down within 15 minutes of playing that game. As the console was still under warranty, I was able to send it to Sony to get fixed for free, however that process has been a huge PITA. It has been over a month since I sent it to Sony, and I still haven’t gotten it back yet. It’s currently being shipped back to me, but Sony has not communicated with me at all as to what was wrong with the console, what they did to fix it, or if they replaced it. I hope you have better luck in that regard than I have.

I guess my advice to you as far as that goes is to play an actual PS5 game ASAP to make sure your console doesn’t have the same problem. That way if it does, you can get it fixed while it’s still under warranty.

Visit my Support page to learn the many ways you can help out.

©2025 Cedar Moon Publishing LLC

This week I’m going to wrap up my series on the evolution of my writing process with my thoughts as I begin planning my third novel. Last week I discussed how I wrote my second novel, and in the other previous articles I compared the writing process of my first two novels. If you’re interested in learning more about how I wrote my second novel, I chronicled my journey in my podcast, Lex Out Loud, and I am continuing to do so with my third novel.

I’ve already covered in this series how my process has changed since starting my first novel. I have moved a bit farther into the discovery writer side of the discovery writer/planner-outliner spectrum. As I conclude this series, I want to highlight what I’ve learned throughout this process.

Now we all have different approaches and processes as writers. My goal here is not to convince you that my way is the best way. Rather, my goal is twofold: to explain my process in the hopes it may give some of you some new ideas to try—some new tools for your toolbox, and to show how my process has changed.

Each book is its own thing, and I think it can be helpful to take a moment when preparing to write a new book to consider whether there are any changes you want to make in your process. Maybe something didn’t work as well as you’d like with the last book, or maybe you just want to try something new. Maybe this book is different in some fundamental way that makes you think a change in process might better suit this particular book.

I began my first novel by making an extensive and detailed outline. At the time, this seemed the best way to go for me, and it definitely had its advantages. By the time I started writing chapter 1, my characters were very well fleshed out, and I knew what their arcs would be through the book. I also knew what the plot was going to be, how the book would end, and I knew what needed to happen in each chapter and every scene. I had a detailed map to follow each step of the way.

At the time, I didn’t see this, but now, over a decade later, I think there were also some inherent disadvantages to my approach. My characters were completely fleshed out before I began writing the first draft, and I knew what their arcs were going to be. I knew what the plot was going to be, how the book would end, and I knew what would happen in every chapter and scene. Yes, all that knowledge turned out to be a double-edged sword.

I think it may have made writing the first draft easier in the beginning of the book, because I knew where I was going and how to get there. But I now realize that it also made the last half of the book a lot harder to write.

At the time, I didn’t know why I was having such a hard time with the last half of the book. I just knew that as I got closer and closer to the end, I had less and less interest in finishing the book. I was bored with it; I was sick of it. I didn’t want to write it anymore. I remember not understanding what was going on with me at the time, because I knew exactly what to write—I just had to write it. So why was finishing so hard? I actually put off writing the final chapters for months because I was so sick of it. Instead, I did multiple revisions of the rest of the book before I wrote the very end. It had nothing to do with not knowing how to end the book. I knew exactly how it was going to end and what to do. I just didn’t want to do it.

I know understand what was happening, and I now see it was a direct result of the process I’d used to write the book. I was sick of the book because from the very beginning, I’d known how it was going to end. By the time I neared the end in the first draft, I’d replayed those scenes over and over in my mind dozens of times.

It was exactly like loving a movie and watching it dozens of times. Eventually, you get sick of this movie you used to love, only because you’ve seen it so many times. There’s no excitement or love for it anymore. There’s no longer a chance of being surprised. There’s no sense of discovery.

I only came to understand this as I finished the first draft of my second novel, the one I just finished last November. As I got near the end of this book, I became more excited about it and engaged with it instead of less. I’d been working on the draft for six months, and I was finally going to get to see the ending! I had a lot of fun with the end of the book, and I never lost steam with it or lost interest in it like I had with the last book. This is when the light bulb went on, and I had my aha! moment.

I realized that the reason the last book became a slog at the end, and the reason this book was a joy at the end were both related to my process. I’d approached this book more as a discovery writer. I didn’t start out with a detailed outline. I didn’t have an outline at all. I started with a main character, a few supporting characters, a setting, and an idea for a situation I wanted to throw my characters into. That was it. Then I started writing, and I figured out how the characters would deal with the situation, and what the consequences would be, as I went.

I made another eye-opening discovery as I was writing my second novel. I realized how similar discovery writing is to running a tabletop roleplaying game. I now think, on some deep level, I’ve always understood this, it just wasn’t completely conscious.

I’ve always felt that being a GM (game master) for a tabletop RPG used a lot of the same skills as being a writer does. And I’ve always believed in a way GMing a game was practicing writing, at least to some degree. But I always thought that practice occurred in creating the non-player characters (NPCs) and setting for the game, coming up with scenarios to put the player characters (PCs) into (the adventures). Creating an NPC for a game is really no different than creating a character for a novel, and building a world for a game is no different than building a world for a novel. Coming up with a scenario or adventure to put the players through is very similar with coming up with a plot for a novel.

What I didn’t realize until very recently was as a GM I was also practicing the act of writing itself, if you approach it more as a discovery writer. As a GM for an RPG, I create a world (setting) for the game to take place in. I populate the world with NPCs (characters not played by the players). Then the players make the characters they will play/inhabit during the game. Then I come up with an adventure or story for them to play through. This adventure is really a scenario. A good GM comes up with a scenario or situation or problem to present to the players’ characters (PCs), and then the GM sits back and waits to see what the players do. The players react to the situation, and then the GM decides the consequences of the PCs’ actions. How do the other characters (NPCs) react to what the PCs have said and done? What impact do the PCs’ choices have on the environment, the world? What comes next?

This is exactly what I found myself doing as I wrote this last novel. I had my characters, I had my setting, and I put them in a situation that they had to react to. The difference here is that in addition to “running the game” as a GM, I was also “playing the game” as multiple players/player characters. So writing a scene became a process of putting my character in a situation, then asking myself how she would react (player move). Then I ask myself what the consequences of her decisions are (GM move). What do the other characters in the scene do and say? And so on, and so on, rinse and repeat. I found that discovery writing a scene was almost exactly like GMing an RPG. I was basically running an RPG for myself—being the GM and playing characters at the same time.

That’s when I had my face-palm moment. Of course discovery writing is where I would hit my stride. It is so similar to GMing, and I’ve been GMing for over thirty years! So although I always had a sense that I was practicing writing as I was GMing, I never realized the extent to which that was true.

Now there were some downsides to my discovery writing approach compared to the approach I took with my first novel. My new process did make getting started on this novel a little more challenging. I didn’t have the detailed knowledge of where I was going and how to get there. It took some time to find my rhythm and get some momentum going. But it didn’t take that long, only a few chapters.

The hardest part of writing this book was getting started, and I can imagine that some people never beat that inertia and never get started. I never felt truly ready to begin (just as, when I’m GMing, I always feel like I could be more prepared). But just as when you’re a GM, eventually it’s game night and you have to run the game, ready or not, so as a writer there comes a time where you just need to start writing the book, ready or not. This is where I came up with my “brute force writing” technique, which was really just a way to force myself to get started.

Once I got going, though, it got easier and easier, and I had more and more fun with it. That difficulty in the very beginning, though, was more than worth it for the benefit of making the second half of the book so much more enjoyable to write. I also had much more fun overall writing the first draft of this book than I did writing the book I outlined and planned first. It also took me about a third of the time to write as the other book did. I set a daily writing goal that I held to, and I wrote six days a week until the first draft was done. With my first novel, I did not write every day. My writing goals were very unrealistic, and I had more days where I didn’t write than days where I did write. I think having a more realistic writing goal played a big part in my ability to write this book so much more quickly, but I think it also had a lot to do with my more discovery-oriented process. I enjoyed the process of writing this book. It was fun and often felt like play. I didn’t enjoy writing my first book nearly as much, and it almost always felt like work.

So what are my plans heading into my third novel? Well, it may not surprise you to hear that I am going to approach this book in a very similar way as I did the last one. I have my setting, I have my main characters, and I have a situation they will have to deal with. Other than that, it is all unknown, and I will toss the dice (figuratively) and find out what happens each day as I write the book.

Is this the right approach, or the best approach for everyone? Maybe not. However, if you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend you do. When I wrote my first novel I was convinced I was a planner/outliner. I never for a moment thought I could discovery write, much rather that it would be a better approach for me. Even as I started writing my second novel, I tried some discovery writing techniques more as an experiment than anything else. I didn’t expect to like it or prefer it to planning a book more. I didn’t expect to be successful with it. I was wrong. Now it seems so obvious, I wonder how I could have been so blind, but as they say, “Hindsight is 20/20.”

So if you’ve never given discovery writing a try, I encourage you to do so. You might surprise yourself. You might be better at it than you thought you would be, and you might find yourself enjoying the writing process a lot more than you ever have before. There’s also the added benefit of reducing the odds of your story seeming contrived and of avoiding the many pitfalls of “plotting”, but that is a topic for another day.

If you’ve enjoyed this discussion, and you’d like to hear more about my writing journey, please check out my podcast, Lex Out Loud.

Visit my Support page to learn the many ways you can help out.

©2025 Cedar Moon Publishing LLC

I recently finished my second novel. My process for writing this novel was quite different from my process for writing my previous novel. Some of the changes in the process were conscious choices on my part, and some of them just came about organically as I wrote the book.

Last week I discussed how I started my second novel, and how my approach differed from the first novel. This week I’ll share how I wrote the rest of the second novel. If you’re interested in learning more about how I wrote this novel, I chronicled my journey in my podcast, Lex Out Loud.

As I mentioned before in this series, I believe the perceived dichotomy between a discovery writer and an outliner is often an artificial one. It certainly is for me. What I mean by that is I doubt there are very many writers who are solely a discovery writer or an outliner. Instead, I think most writers use elements of both strategies. Perhaps part of the issue here is the term “outliner”. A better term would probably be “planner”.

A true discovery writer, as it’s often described, is someone who makes the story up as they go. They begin with a beginning situation, scenario, or inciting incident, and then they see where the characters take them. They don’t know where they’re going until they get there.

I think the problem with the term “outliner” is that many of us have very distinct ideas of what an “outline” is, and that’s not exactly what we’re talking here. Some writers may say, “I don’t make an outline, so I must be a discovery writer.” That’s why I think “planner” is a better term, because when we’re talking about an outliner as a type of writer, we’re not necessarily talking about an outline with Roman numerals, capital letters, and numbers. More often, the outline in this instance will be a series of bullet points or paragraph summaries.

The discovery writer approaches a novel with a beginning setup, but no plan. An outliner writer (or planner) also begins with an initial setup, but they have a plan for where they’re going. Further muddying the waters here is the fact that this plan can have a huge variety not only in its form, but in its level of detail, among different writers and projects.

For instance, my plan for Dawn of Endless Night (which actually did take the form of a literal outline in this case), was very detailed. It described every chapter in the novel and every scene in each chapter. Some writers have an even more specific plan or outline, to the point that when they’re turning their outline/plan into a first draft, they’re really just changing it into complete sentences and paragraphs, but adding little or no new information. Other writers have a plan with far less detail, perhaps just describing some ideas of what the climax and resolution of the story will look like, with maybe some waypoints along the journey from beginning to climax to resolution.

I may be wrong here, but I suspect if we took a poll of all novelists out there, we would find only a small percentage who completely discovery-write with no planning at all, or who completely follow a plan or outline with no improvising at all. So really, when we as writers are talking about whether we’re a discovery writer or planner, we’re really talking about how far we are on one side of that spectrum or the other.

The other thing to keep in mind is that this not only can vary a lot from writer to writer, but it can also vary with a given writer between different novels. I’m a perfect example of this, as my approach for my last two novels differed quite a bit and landed on two different points of the discovery writer-planner spectrum.

So, when I say I approached my second book more as a discovery writer than I had the first book, I don’t mean I didn’t plan it at all. Last week I discussed how there was a lot of planning in the beginning in the forms of worldbuilding, creating my main characters, and thinking about the situation I wanted to build the book around. But the planning didn’t end there.

Now I want to talk about how the rest of the book went, and what a typical writing day for me looked like once I got going. I had a daily writing goal of 1,000 words, which was the target I aimed for and the minimum amount of writing I would accept from myself on a given day. I didn’t stop until I had at least 1,000 words, no matter how long it took. However, this doesn’t mean I necessarily stopped when I reached 1,000 words. Most days I wrote more than that. Instead, I would stop when I started getting unsure of where I was heading next.

I think it makes the most sense to describe my average writing day by beginning with the end of the previous day. Once I’ve passed 1,000 words, I will end either when I start struggling with what comes next; when I start getting tired; when it starts getting late in the day; or when I reach the end of a scene, and I either know the next scene will be a long one, or I’m not sure what to do with the next scene. So at this point, I either have some idea of what comes next, a really good idea of what comes next, or no idea what comes next, whether that’s the end of the current scene I’m in or what will happen in the next scene.

Usually after I break for the day, I will do my workout and physical therapy and then take a shower. I usually listen to a podcast or audio book while I work out, so I’m not really thinking about my book then, at least not consciously. (I suspect my subconscious mind is almost always kicking my book around while I’m in the drafting process.)

Once I get in the shower, though, I almost always find myself thinking about the book. I’m thinking about where I just left it and what comes next. If I ended in the middle of a scene, I’m thinking about how the scene will end. If I ended at the end of a scene, I’m thinking about what the next scene will be. This is planning, my friends. It’s something I suspect all “discovery writers” do, which I why I say I doubt there are many purely discovery writers.

After that I’ll spend time with my wife—having some conversation, making and eating dinner, watching some TV, etc. Toward the end of the night, I’ll usually do some reading in whatever novel I’m reading at the time.

When I go to bed, I spend a half-hour to an hour lying with a hot compress over my eyes before I go to sleep due to medical issues with my eyes. This is where a lot of the planning happens. (By the way, there’s something about having a hot compress on the eyes that really stimulates the creative process, at least for me. It’s a gateway into my mind palace. If you’ve never tried it, I highly recommend it. If I’m really stuck, I’ll do this, even if it’s in the middle of the day.) Again, I’m thinking about where I left off and where I’m going next. If I didn’t get a flash of inspiration in the shower, I usually will at this point.

When I wake up the next morning, the book is almost always on my mind before I open my eyes. If I’m still not sure where I’m going next in the story, I’ll lay in bed for fifteen to thirty minutes thinking about it. It’s rare that I don’t know where I’m going by the time I get out of bed in the morning.

So when I sit down to write that day, I have a plan. I’ve thought about what comes next quite a bit at this point. Depending on how early in the process I decided what came next, I may even have more details about the coming scene, up to and including actual dialogue I’ll use. I never have the entire scene though. That’s just too much to hold in my head all at once. I will tend to flesh out the beginning of the scene more if I have time—perhaps thinking about what I’ll describe, and how I’ll describe it—as opposed to going further into the scene. I should also point out that most days I don’t write an entire scene. It’s usually more like half, two-thirds, or three-quarters of a scene.

Usually, my plan will get me about halfway through the writing I need to do that day. It’s amazing to me how consistent this is. I almost always get to the halfway point when I run out of material I’ve already thought about. At that point, I just keep going. I’m in the scene now, so I just discovery-write the rest until I get to my stopping point. So, it would be fairly accurate to say that most writing days, the first half of what I write is at least somewhat planned, and the second half of what I write is mostly improvised.

As a final sidenote here, I’ll share that I’ve discovered the easiest thing for me to improvise/discovery-write is dialogue. When I have two or more characters having a conversation, I can just keep going until the conversation is over, or I get bored with it. For me that’s really easy, as long as I know my characters. Character A says x. Then I ask myself, “What is character B’s response?” Then character B says y. Then I ask myself, “What is character A’s response?” It just keeps going from there.

I’m curious to hear what your thoughts are. Does this sound familiar to you, or is your process very different? Where do you fall on the discovery writer-planner spectrum? Are you entirely one or the other, or, like me, does your process include elements of both? Does your process differ from project to project, or is it pretty much the same for each book you write? Please share your thoughts in the comments below. It’s very interesting to me, and to most writers, how different writers approach the writing process. You never know when another writer’s approach will give you a new tool to add to your toolbox that you’d never considered before.

Visit my Support page to learn the many ways you can help out.

©2025 Cedar Moon Publishing LLC

I recently finished my second novel. My process for writing this novel was quite different from my process for writing my previous novel. Some of the changes in the process were conscious choices on my part, and some of them just came about organically as I wrote the book. I’ve talked a bit here and there about these changes on my podcast, Lex Out Loud, and I thought this would make an interesting topic for the blog.

Last week I shared how I approached my first novel, an urban fantasy called Dawn of Endless Night. This week I’ll share how I approached my second novel, the first in a series of science fiction novels with a series working title of The Cylinder City Saga. If you’re interested in learning more about how I wrote this novel, I chronicled my journey in my podcast, Lex Out Loud.

As I discussed in the first article in this series, I approached my first novel with the strategies of an outliner. I wanted to try something different with my second novel. Many writers discuss the differences between an outliner and a discovery writer, but I think a lot of us are somewhere in between—we use elements of both strategies. This sometimes gets lost in the discussion, as writers extol the virtues and drawbacks of outlining versus discovery writing.

I very much believe that every writer should try both approaches—only by experimenting with both outlining and discovery writing will you be able to find what works for you and what doesn’t work for you. There’s also the likelihood that you’ll end up using elements of both strategies. You might discovery-write one book and then outline another book, or you might discovery-write some elements of a given book and outline other elements. E.g., Brandon Sanderson has said that he likes to outline his setting and plot, but he discovery-writes his characters.

Since I approached the last book as an outliner, I wanted to experiment with discovery writing as I wrote this book. I spent about a year worldbuilding and doing research for the book before I started writing the first draft. Because of this, I had a very good grasp of my setting, complete with an overview of 200 years of history between the present day and the time period when the story takes place.

As I was getting the setting nailed down, I started to think about who I wanted my main character to be. I knew from the start that I wanted my main character to be a woman. I wanted to show a world where women have true equality, and I also wanted to stretch myself as a writer by writing from the point of view of a female protagonist. My first novel had numerous point-of-view characters, and some of them were women, but the main character was male.

I knew the sex of my protagonist right away, so the first real decision was what her profession would be. I thought about this quite a bit, and I had a few ideas. Ultimately, I decided she would be a robotics technician.

The next thing I thought about was the protagonist’s nationality. The setting for the story is an orbital city that was built by, and is populated by, a cooperative of 37 countries. One of the most important aspects of the setting is its multicultural nature, and I wanted to show this as much as possible in the story. One way I did that was through the characters I created. I decided my main character would be American, just to make things easier for me, but I decided to make her Colombian-American. Colombia isn’t actually one of the 37 countries, but my wife is Colombian-American, and I’m interested in the country and culture. It was also an opportunity to hint that it wasn’t just members of space-faring nations who were living in space.

During the world-building process, I’d decided there was a highly advanced AI that ran many of the functions of the space station. I decided that the AI would be one of the main characters in the story too. A protagonist and another main character were enough to get started. I would add more characters to the story as needed.

I had a setting, and I had some characters. The next thing I needed to do was decide what the story was going to be about. I started brainstorming plot ideas. I came up with a few, but I didn’t come up with anything I was in love with. I never had that eureka moment of, “Yes! This is what the story is about.”

I’d already been considering trying some discovery writing at this point. I had spent a few weeks brainstorming plot ideas and not coming up with anything I was certain I wanted to do. After a year of world-building, and now a couple weeks of plot brainstorming, I felt it was time I started writing the book. I didn’t want to get stuck in a rut and waste a bunch of time. That’s when I came up with my idea for brute-force writing, which I wrote a blog post about. Since I knew my setting really well, and I had a main character, I decided to start writing with my character’s first arrival at the city-sized space station. I started with her arrival, and I followed her from there. I was discovery-writing!

I want to point out that even then I wasn’t completely winging it. I had a list of ideas I’d came up with for situations I could use in the story. I also had a lot of world-building information, including aspects of the setting I thought were cool and interesting that I wanted to work into the story as I could. As I wrote about my main character, Tia’s, arrival at the space station, I would pull in elements from this material as they became relevant. Following her as she acclimated and explored the city kept me going for a few days.

I also explored Tia’s relationship with the station AI, as I wanted that to be an element in the story. One of my ideas about Tia was that she got along well with the AI, and during the course of the book they would become friends. I decided I wanted Tia to have another friend too. I discussed in my post on brute force writing how some of the material I first wrote ultimately got repurposed into a prequel story about Tia’s grandmother. I won’t go into that again here. As part of that process, I had decided that Tia grew up on one of these cylinders. However, she’d grown up on a smaller cylinder in orbit around the Moon, and at the beginning of the story she has just moved to a larger and newer cylinder in orbit around Earth.

The idea I’d had originally about the main character was that she had just arrived at the cylinder from Earth. I liked that idea because as someone from Earth, everything about life onboard the space station would be new to her, which would give me the opportunity to explain things that are different in space compared to Earth to the reader. When I decided to shift material I’d written to a prequel about the cylinder above the moon, with Tia’s grandmother as the main character, the backstory of the character being newly arrived from Earth became the grandmother’s backstory. Instead, Tia was newly arrived from the lunar cylinder. So, although she was new to the cylinder above Earth, she was not new to living in space, so I’d lost that opportunity to explain things to the reader.

I wanted Tia to have another friend who was human, unlike the AI, so I decided to have Tia’s friend be newly arrived from Earth. Tia could be a sort of mentor to her, helping her acclimate to life in space, and that would again allow me to explain things to the reader, as Tia explains them to her friend. I decided Tia’s friend would be from Seoul, and she would also work in robotics. I now had three main characters.

I was able to keep busy for a while writing about Tia’s arrival in the city and writing about her meeting her new friend and coworker from Seoul and helping her settle in and acclimate to life in space in a rotating cylinder.

As I was writing all this, I was still thinking about what I wanted to do with the plot of the story. I was really enjoying the discovery writing process, and my process of brute-force writing was keeping me going, even when I wasn’t sure where I was ultimately going. I decided to further explore the discovery writing approach as much as I could, so instead of focusing on a plot per-se, I instead tried to come up with an interesting situation to put the characters in. I wanted a situation that would serve as a source of conflict in the story and that would challenge my characters and put obstacles in their path to overcome. I came up with an idea I liked, and that’s when the book really started to take off.

Another term that’s sometimes used to refer to an outliner is an architect. I definitely approached my setting as an outliner or architect. I had a lot of material on the setting before I started the first draft. I knew the exact dimensions of the cylinder city where the story took place, and I knew how many cylinder cities there were and where they were. I also knew the history of the cylinder cities and their predecessors—starting with the current day International Space Station. I also knew when and where future cylinders would be built. I knew a lot not just about the city itself, but also the world (or rather, the solar system) it was a part of.

I approached the characters and plot of this book much more as a discovery writer, though. This was a very different approach from my last book. I put my characters into a situation, but I didn’t know how they would react to it or deal with it until I wrote it. I had a very general idea of how the book would probably end, but I didn’t know exactly how it ended until I wrote it.

Today I talked mostly about how I got the book started and wrote the beginning, so next week I’ll talk more about how I wrote the rest of the book and the ending.

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I recently finished my second novel. My process for writing this novel was quite different from my process for writing my previous novel. Some of the changes in the process were conscious choices on my part, and some of them just came about organically as I wrote the book. I’ve talked a bit here and there about these changes on my podcast, Lex Out Loud, and I thought this would make an interesting topic for the blog. In this first part of a multipart series, I talk about the process of writing my first novel.

I finished my first novel, Dawn of Endless Night, ten years ago. It was an urban fantasy and is 131 thousand words long. It was the first novel I ever completed and the first novel I workshopped with a writing group. I started writing the first draft my second novel, a mundane science fiction, in May of 2021, and I completed it in November of 2021. It’s currently 110 thousand words long. I think it’s important to point out that ten years went by between writing these two books, so I think it’s likely that the passage of time had at least something to do with the change in my process for the second book.

There are a few key elements that helped inform my process for the first novel. The first element is how the book was conceived and came to be in the first place. Dawn of Endless Night was an urban fantasy novel loosely based on a tabletop RPG campaign I’d written using the game Vampire: The Masquerade. It’s a long, sad, and probably tiresome story in and of itself, but let’s just suffice to say that I had a lot of free time on my hands one winter. I was housesitting for my sister a couple hours from my home and friends. I had a lot of time on my hands and no one to spend it with except friends online and over the phone. I was going through what was probably the toughest rough patch in my life—my fiancée had left me, and I was still recovering from it. It’s safe to say I was looking for escape in any form I could find it.

So, there I was: heartbroken and wanting to escape from reality with a lot of time on my hands and no one to spend it with. I started working on a new campaign for Vampire using ideas I’d been kicking around in my head for quite some time. I wanted to do something with a lot of depth and complex, developed NPCs (non-player characters) the players could interact with it. I had plenty of time and very few distractions, and I realized this was the ideal time to pour myself into creating this campaign. I was really excited about it, and it was coming along nicely. Then the majority of the players in my RPG group quit for one reason or another. Now I had this partially developed campaign idea with all these fleshed-out characters and no players to play it.

I could have found other players, I’m sure, but I didn’t even try. I was discouraged, and I was more than a little pissed off at my friends for quitting the game when I’d put so much time into it. I stopped running RPGs for quite a few years at that point, because there had been way too many instances of me putting a lot of time and effort into games and players blowing them off. (Later, with age and wisdom, I realized I just had some really shitty “friends” back then.)

But I had all this material I’d come up with, and I’d spent a lot of time and energy on it. I didn’t want it to go to waste. I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I always thought it would be something I did when I was “old” and retired, after I’d had a career doing something else.  I’d taken some creative writing and fiction writing classes in college, and I’d written some short stories and a novella that were well-received my professors and classmates. I decided I would take all this material I’d come up with (setting information on the city of Chicago and characters) and write a novel about it. At this time the Twilight books were very popular, so I thought maybe if the book was good, I could even get it published.

That’s how the novel began, so on the day I decided to write the novel, I already had a lot of setting information from the worldbuilding I’d done, ideas I’d stolen from the world of Vampire: the Masquerade, and the loads of research I’d done into Chicago. I also had a full cast of already fleshed-out and developed characters, complete with planned character arcs for my main characters. I also had pretty solid ideas for the plot of the book.

I’m also willing to admit that my approach to writing the book was very much shaped by what I was reading and who I was listening to at the time. I was reading The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan yet again. I’d also just discovered Brandon Sanderson. This was the time when Robert Jordan passed away and Brandon was chosen to finish The Wheel of Time. I read Brandon’s Mistborn trilogy, and I discovered his excellent podcast, Writing Excuses.

Writers often talk about the spectrum between being an outliner or a discovery writer. Brandon is very much on the outlining side of the spectrum. I imagine Robert Jordan probably was too, because I think you’d pretty much have to be to write something like The Wheel of Time. At the time when I heard writers talk about the different approaches of outlines versus discovery writers on Writing Excuses and in other places, the approach of outlining made the most sense to me, probably at least partially because I had so much material for the novel I wanted to write already—there wasn’t a whole lot left to discover.

I very much approached Dawn of Endless Night as an outliner. I had a very extensive outline that I made before writing the book. It detailed each chapter of the book, and it broke each chapter down into individual scenes. I wrote the outline first, and it was very detailed. Then I wrote the book. When I was writing the first draft, I was following the outline, and the outline was so complete, that the writing process was mainly just turning the outline into paragraphs and sentences. Most of the information was in the outline—everything from what happened in the scene to descriptions of the characters and location in the scene.

Because I had a pretty clear idea of how the whole book was going to go, I didn’t wait to completely finish the outline before I started writing the first draft. I think I had outlined about the first half of the book when I started the first draft. I then completed the second half of the outline while I was writing the first half of the book. By the time I had gotten to halfway through the book, I had finished the outline, so at that point, I knew exactly how the book was going to end. If I made any changes to the story, I made those changes in the outline and then implemented them as I caught up to that point in the story in the first draft.

I do remember making some changes here in there in the book as I wrote the first draft, and I think a lot (or even all) of those changes were due to getting to know the characters better (and developing them more) as I wrote the first draft. So even then, I had a bit of the discovery writer in me, because I was willing to follow the characters where they took me, and I didn’t try to hold to a rigid idea of how the plot had to go. Even so, the book ended up concluding for the most part as I’d planned from the beginning. It was just that some of the stuff along the way changed here and there.

[I think it’s important at this point to say that I think the distinction between an outliner and a discovery writer is a largely artificial one. Although there certainly are writers who are distinctly one or the other, it is a spectrum, not two absolutes. I think many, or even most, writers use a blend of the two approaches. I think the distinction between these two approaches can be a useful one for discussing the writing process, but I also think it can be very limiting and harmful when writers try to define themselves as one to the other and allow that box they’ve put themselves in to limit their creativity and cramp their process. I think at least sometimes when a writer claims to be solely an outliner or a discovery writer, they’re either being disingenuous, or they’re not as self-aware of their process as they think they are. When you really drill into how writers do what they do, you’ll find that most are doing a combination of planning and winging it. I think it’s that combination of different techniques and approaches that’s at the heart of the true artistry of writing.]

I found that a very real outcome of this approach was that I would get very excited as I was adding ideas to my outline, but the process of writing the actual first draft itself often felt like drudgery. I began to lose steam around halfway through the book. I enjoyed the writing process less and less, and it got harder and harder to motivate myself to write. I spent a lot of time editing (which I should not have been doing at that stage in the process) and fiddling with the outline. Those both seemed more fun to me than actually writing the draft. I got really bored with the book in the last quarter, and it took me a long time to actually finish it. I revised the rest of the book at least twice before I wrote the final 10% of the book. It wasn’t because I knew how to end it. I knew exactly what was going to happen. I just had no interest in writing it. The passion was gone.

I now think a lot of this was because the entire had been outlined already. I often compare writing a book to watching a movie. When I wrote the second book, with which I took a much more discovery writing approach, it was like watching a movie for the first time. It was fun, interesting, and exciting all the way to the end. With this first book, it was more like watching a movie I’d already seen. There was no excitement at the end, because I’d already seen it; I already knew how it ended. So, writing the first draft of that book became complete drudgery for me by the end. There wasn’t any fun or discovery in it anymore. I think it’s entirely possible that this was part of the reason it took me ten years to start the next book, even though I had ideas for it before I’d finished Dawn of Endless Night. The end of the process of writing that first draft had left a bad taste in my mouth, and I was not eager to repeat the experience.

Next week I’ll talk about how I approached writing my second book, and I’ll share some insights I’ve gained by writing these two books with different approaches.  

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Today I’ll go over some of the options for the point of view of a story. I’ll explain why you generally want to avoid the “weird” ones—they usually get in the way of the reader understanding and enjoying the story. However, occasionally a less common POV will enhance a reader’s immersion in a story, and if you can pull it off flawlessly, it can take your story to the next level.

Ok, first, let’s define a couple terms.

In this context, point of view can refer to first person, second person or third person. Point of view simply refers to who is telling us the story. Whose head are we in? From whose perspective is the story told?

Most adult commercial fiction is written in third person POV. E.g.:

Lex began writing his next blog post, hoping this time he’d manage not to stick his foot in his mouth.

Signposts for third person are use of the point of view character’s name and pronouns like he, she, they, etc.

First person POV is the next most common in adult commercial fiction. You see a lot of first person POV in YA (young adult) fiction. I think it’s the most common POV in YA, but I could be wrong about that; I haven’t counted. E.g.:

I began writing my next blog post, hoping this time I’d manage not to stick my foot in my mouth.

A Signpost for first-person is we don’t see the POV character’s name (unless the name is used by a character in dialog—the narrator doesn’t use the POV character’s name). Instead we will see pronouns like I, we, us, etc.

Second person is an odd one. Unless you’re writing a choose-your-own-adventure, read-aloud text for an RPG, a travel guide, or something like that, it’s almost never a good choice.

You began writing your next blog post, hoping this time you’d manage not to stick your foot in your mouth.

See how awkward that is? Also notice the main character is no longer Lex, it’s the reader (you), whoever that is. That’s one reason it’s usually a bad idea to use it. You don’t know who the reader is, so how can you make accurate statements about them? E.g., imagine a line in our story that said, “You’ve always liked dogs, but you would never have one in your house.” Now, if that’s true for the reader, maybe it’s fine, but what if it’s not true? It can’t be true for every reader. This POV tends to kick the reader out of the story. That’s the last thing you want.

That’s why I often consider these weird POVs (and tenses) as pretentious, show off POVs. They don’t serve the story; they usually make it worse. They don’t help the reader understand what’s going on; they make it harder to understand.

Ok, so that’s POV. First person, third person, or if you hate your reader, second person. (Again, with second person, there are times it’s appropriate, like the examples I gave above. This is the POV you use in RPG read-aloud text (with present tense). E.g., “You walk into a dark room that smells of moss.”)

Tense refers to when the story is taking place compared to when we’re being told the story. Are we being told a story that already happened (past tense), is happening right now (present tense), or hasn’t happened yet (future tense). You can combine any tense with any POV. The examples I gave above were in past tense, but I’ll give them all again here so you can compare and contrast.

Third person, past tense

Lex began writing his next blog post, hoping this time he’d manage not to stick his foot in his mouth.

Third person, present tense

Lex begins writing his next blog post, hoping this time he manages not to stick his foot in his mouth.

(I’m not even going to mess with future tense. You rarely see it because it’s super awkward, so I don’t want to make things even more confusing than they have to be.)

First person, past tense

I began writing my next blog post, hoping this time I’d manage not to stick my foot in my mouth.

First person, present tense

I begin writing my next blog post, hoping this time I manage not to stick my foot in my mouth.

Second person, past tense

You began writing your next blog post, hoping this time you’d manage not to stick your foot in your mouth.

Second person, present tense

You begin writing your next blog post, hoping this time you manage not to stick your foot in your mouth.

Second person is the one case where I think the present tense is better than the past tense.

Limited vs. Omniscient

Within third person (past or present) there are two main types: limited and omniscient. This again gets at whose head we are in. In limited, which is usually what you’ll see, we are in one specific character’s head at a time. You’ll either have one POV character for the whole book, or you might have more than one. If you have more than one POV character, usually you’ll start a new chapter when you change POVs. Occasionally, you’ll change POVs within a chapter, and when that happens, there will be (or should be) a line break.

You will occasionally see what’s called a “point-of-view violation”. You really shouldn’t see this in a professionally published book, because it’s a mistake, and it’s very confusing to the reader, but sometimes these slip past an editor. This is where the POV will change in the middle of a paragraph, or even worse and more rare, in the middle of a sentence. If you’ve ever noticed this, you probably know what I mean, because it kicks you right out of the story as you try to figure out what’s going on.

Third person omniscient is where you don’t just stay in one person’s head. You jump around. This use to be more common in the past, but you don’t see it much anymore. Probably for good reason, because it can get really confusing unless in the hands of someone who’s especially skilled at it. A lot of times people will confuse a POV violation for omniscient. The easy way to tell the difference is if a story is omniscient, the whole thing will be, or a whole chapter will be. If it’s mostly limited and suddenly seems to be omniscient for a moment, and then jumps back to limited, that’s a POV violation.

Choosing a Point of View & Tense

There are reasons to use first versus third person. They both have pros and cons. I’m not going to go into that today. And, as I said, with some specific exceptions, generally it’s best to avoid second person.

Personally, I prefer third person limited, past tense for both reading and writing.

I can get into a first person, past tense book if it's well written and a good story, but it's not my favorite.

I'm not a huge fan of third person omniscient, but I can get into it when done well.

I really dislike reading the other weird tenses/POVs, like any kind of second person, or first person present, or third person present.

I'm very much of the school of thought that good prose is invisible, at least in commercial fiction, which is what I write. The story and characters (and sometimes setting) should take center stage, not the writing. My job as a novel writer isn’t to impress the reader with my writing. Rather, my job is to tell a story and to get that story across to the reader as clearly, vividly, and effortlessly as possible.

Anything other than third person limited past tense or first person past tense is not what the reader expects or is used to, so by definition is the opposite of invisible prose. It's prose that calls attention to itself and distracts the reader, or even worse, confuses the reader. A writer should only do something like that when he or she has a very good reason, and even then only if he or she can pull it off exceedingly well. In many examples I've read of these weird POVs, this is not the case, and it's a detriment to the story.

All of my novels (so far) have been third person limited. I would consider doing a first person story, if the story demanded it.

If you're writing adult fiction, you should default to third person limited past tense. If you're writing YA, you should default to first person past tense. If you're considering anything else, ask if the story really needs to be told that way. Is it really going to add to the story, or will it take away from the story and frustrate or annoy the reader? Do you really have the skill pull it off well enough to not make it worth it?

Andy Weir’s Use of First Person Present and First Person Past in Project Hail Mary

Now that we have that all out of the way, there’s a very important rule in writing that you may have heard before. In a way, it’s the most important rule of writing. (As a side note, I know this is also a rule in music, and maybe a rule in every art form.) The rule is: If you know what you’re doing, skilled enough to pull it off well, and knowledgeable enough to know when to do it and when not to do it, you can break the rules.

Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to say avoiding these “weird” POVs is a rule, it’s more of a guideline, but the same idea applies.

I recently read Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. This book breaks this guideline (it uses first person present, a “weird” tense), and it also breaks another guideline I haven’t mentioned yet, which is whatever POV and tense you choose, you should stick with that for the entire book. 

(I won't reveal anything about the plot of the book that isn't shared on the inside cover in the hardback.)

The book uses first person present tense and first person past tense. In general, first person present isn’t the best choice, and switching between two tenses (present and past) isn’t ideal either. However, this is an example where breaking the rules (or guidelines) was the right thing to do.

It's immediately obvious why those two tenses were used, and although those aren't my favorite POVs, I think they were the right choice too. It also helps that the book is well-written, of course. You can only do something like this if you can do it well. Otherwise, you’ll crash and burn.

The main character begins the book with amnesia and doesn't remember his name. So third person limited wouldn't have worked, because it would've revealed his name to the reader immediately.

The reason first person present is used for most of it is because there are a lot of flashbacks in the book as the main character's memories start coming back to him. First person present is used when we're with the character in the present time, and first person past is used when we're in a flashback in the character’s past. Not only does this make perfect sense, it also helps to orient the reader, so you always know if you're in the present or in the past in a flashback.

This is a perfect example of a less popular tense being used, not because the writer is trying to show off or be pretentious, but because the story demands it and wouldn't be as well told with a different POV. On top of that, the story is switching between present and past tense, which is something normally to be avoided, but again it makes sense, and it actually makes the book easier for the reader to understand instead of harder.

So again, there are two reasons this works for this book and was the right choice.

1.   The story itself demands it (or at least suggests it) and is better told in these POVs. Even though the first-person present POV is not common, and switching between tenses is normally not done, it makes the story easier to understand for the reader. This is key.

For instance, Andy Weir can (and does) begin a chapter with a flashback. Normally, you’d need a transition in the beginning of the chapter to let the reader know this is a flashback. Those transitions can often be awkward, especially at the beginning of a chapter. But because he changes to past tense in the flashback, he doesn’t need a transition; he doesn’t need to tell us it’s a flashback, because the fact that it’s now past tense has already told us that. And it’s told us elegantly, without needing one single additional word.

2. The author does it well and pulls it off without any mistakes. If he wasn’t consistent, if he made mistakes and the editors didn’t catch it, it would be super confusing. But he is consistent, he makes no mistakes, so it actually makes it easier to understand.

And that’s the real key. This isn’t just done to show off or to seem artsy. It facilitates the reader’s understanding of the story and always keeps the reader grounded, so the reader always knows if they’re in the present of the story, or in the past of the story in a flashback. That’s how you do it right.

Conclusion

If you feel like two different POVs are equally appropriate for the story, then I’d recommend going with the more common one. The fewer possible barriers between the reader and their enjoyment of the story, the better. Remember, not all readers are the same.

So, here’s the bottom line: The primary goal of a writer of commercial fiction is to tell a good story. This requires a certain humility (the goal isn’t to show off). Good prose is invisible. When faced with a decision like which POV to use for a story, think about the reader. How can you best tell the story to the reader? How can you help the reader in every possible way so they aren’t confused? Every time a reader is confused, they loose immersion in your story. Keep your eyes on the reader’s experience, let that be your guiding light, and you won’t go wrong.

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This is my third article in my series on writing groups and critiquing. First we looked at some guidelines for finding or creating a writing group. Next, I gave you 10 tips on giving a good critique. Now let’s look at how to best receive a critique.

When you first submit the work to be critiqued, give any guidelines for critiquing you have. E.g., "I know there are some spelling errors in here, but I'm not concerned with those; I can find those on my own. What I'm really interested in are thoughts on the main character--is she believable and sympathetic--and thoughts about the mood, tone, and plot of the story."

While receiving a critique, you're not allowed to argue. Usually, the best response to any verbal critique is a sincere "thank you". Remember, this person not only took their precious time to read your early, imperfect, unpolished draft, but they also (hopefully) took time thinking about it and thinking about how they'd communicate their thoughts to you. They're also taking their time giving you the actual critique, which isn't easy to do and can feel a little confrontational until you're used to it.

Another possible response you can give, other than to say thank you, is to ask for clarification, if needed. This can be difficult though. It's so easy to start arguing or trying to defend what you did. Remember, when this book is published, you can't sit with the reader and explain and defend things. It has to stand on its own. It’s probably best to stick with thank you when receiving a critique, but if you can be professional about it, it's ok to ask questions for clarification. Again, the goal is to better understand the criticism, or to possibly float possible fixes, not to try to defend your work or change the critic's mind. E.g., "You said this scene with character A really didn't work for you. What if she said X instead of Y? Would that solve the problem for you, or no?"

Do your best not to get emotional. It's completely natural and human to have emotional reactions to critiques: anger, embarrassment, defensiveness, etc. Do your best to step aside from that, to stay dispassionate and objective. Remind yourself that the critic is doing you a huge favor by pointing out weak spots you've missed. Keep your mouth shut and do your best to keep a pleasant expression on your face. Try not to scowl!

This is easier said than done, believe me I know. If you’re like me, it’s something you may always struggle with. Getting critiqued, especially in a group, and especially when there are a lot of problems with your submission, can feel like when all the kids in school ganged up on you on the playground and made fun of you.

My best advice is to just breathe and remind yourself that these people are trying to help you. (If that isn’t true, then you probably need to find a different writing group.)

Take all critiques with a grain of salt. All critiques and critics are not created equal. Some people just aren't very good at it. Not all criticisms are equally valid.

No book can be for everyone. Sometimes your book just isn't for a given critic. They may not have the self-awareness to realize this, so they may tear your book apart when there may not be a problem with the book at all, it just isn't for them. So keep an eye out for this. Sometimes the story just may not be for them and there's nothing wrong with it at all.

A lot of critiquing is subjective—which is to say there's not necessarily a right or wrong answer. Instead, it's a thing of taste or preference, so a given critique may be a thing of personal preference and may not be something you need to worry about or change. E.g., maybe someone hates first person, and your story is written in first person. Or maybe you're dealing with a person where any kind of graphic scene makes them uncomfortable.

People can also have other hang-ups (prejudices, biases, etc.) that affect their experience and may dilute the usefulness of their criticisms. E.g., a given reader may be prejudiced against gay people, so may be negatively inclined toward your gay main character and react in ways they wouldn't have otherwise.

It's tricky. On one hand, you need to keep an open mind to criticisms, because our initial instinct is to be defensive and reject them, so you want to fight that tendency and really ask yourself if the criticism is valid. However, on the other hand, not every criticism is valid, so you also need to ask yourself if the criticism is valid for this story, or if maybe this story just isn't for this person. Maybe this critic and your ideal reader or target audience just have different tastes.

Sometimes you have to reject criticism because you "know what you're doing". You're ultimately the best expert on your book. Maybe the criticism is in error because of things that will happen later that the critic doesn't know about. Or maybe you just disagree. Again, not every book is for every person. Sometimes you have to have faith in yourself and what you're doing, have faith in your vision. But you have to be careful with this, because again it can be tempting to reject all criticism. It's a fine line to walk.

A good indicator of the validity of a given critique is how many people are having a given problem. If you have ten people in your writing group, and only one or two of them are taking issue with something, maybe it's something you can choose to ignore. However, if most, or all, of the members are having the same issue, you owe it to yourself to take a long hard look at it, even if you initially disagree.

At the end of the day, you have the right to reject any and all criticisms. It's your book after all. Just remember why you're doing this in the first place: to get other pairs of eyes on your work. You are so close to it, from working on it so hard for so long, you are going to have blind spots. There's no way to avoid that. There may be something in the setting, for instance, that you think you've established, but you never actually explained. Another reader will catch things like that that you never will.

Finally, thank the person for their feedback. Sincerely thank them for their thoughts and time. Even if the critique wasn't ultimately helpful to you, even if you don’t think you'll make any changes or improvements because of it, they took a lot of time and effort to critique it for you, and you owe them your gratitude. Also, the critique may end up being more valuable to you than you realize once you have time to think on it more and sleep on it.

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©2025 Cedar Moon Publishing LLC

An essential part of preparing your novel for submission is participating in a writing group. This gives you a chance to get other writers’ eyes on your novel, so they can help you improve it. A very important part of being in a writing group is being able to give good critiques of other writers’ work. Here are ten tips for critiquing other writers, so you all can make the most of the experience.

1. The first step in giving a good critique is to come start out with the right mindset. You are there to help this person, to encourage them, but you're also there to help them find flaws they might have missed. However, you want to do this as kindly and gently as possible. You're not there to demoralize them, demean them, or get some kind of sick ego boost from making them feel bad about themselves and what they've worked so hard to achieve. Approach the critique from a place of kindness and a genuine desire to help. Also keep in mind that the manuscript you’re critiquing is also most likely a work-in-progress, not the final draft.

2. Begin your critique with the positive aspects you saw. If there were too many positive things to note, then mention the most important ones or the ones you were most impressed by. Point out what is working for you in the story and anything you particularly liked—specific characters, scenes, lines of dialog, etc. Be generous with your compliments. You're about to tear this person's baby apart, so the more you can butter their bread first, the easier your more critical thoughts will be to take. However—and this is important—be sincere. An insincere compliment is far worse than no compliment at all. You should be able to find something you sincerely liked in the selection.

3. Then go into what didn't work so well for you. Be as specific as possible. "I really liked it" isn't terribly useful. If you can give specific examples of what you liked and why, that will be a lot more useful.

4. Focus on identifying what's not working for you. Try to get at why it's not working for you, or what specifically isn't working. Convey this to the writer, but don't give your opinions on how they could or should fix it. If they ask, that's one thing, but your job is to point out issues, not to rewrite the story for them.

A good critique requires a lot of thought and self-analysis. Saying you don't like a certain character isn't particularly helpful. Saying a character doesn't seem realistic isn't terribly helpful either. Pointing out specifically what the character said or did that caused a disconnect for you is more helpful.

5. Prioritize, or triage, your critiques. Start with the biggest problem you saw (after giving your positive feedback), your most important critique, etc. Then go in descending order of importance until you’re out of time.

6. Focus on "higher level" critiques over "lower level". I.e., focus on things like characterization, plot, theme, mood, etc. Don't get into low level stuff like spelling, punctuation errors, etc., unless there's nothing else to talk about or you've already covered the high-level stuff and still have time.

A vague "something about this didn't seem right" is better than nothing, but it's much more helpful if you can figure out specifically why it didn't work for you and communicate that.

7. Limit the number of negative critiques. If you hated everything about the story, there's no need to point out every single flaw and issue you saw. That isn't going to be helpful. Instead, focus on the major, or biggest, issues you saw and also representative instances of those issues. So, for instance, if the story is filled with passive voice, you don’t need to point out every instance if your verbal critique. (If you're also giving them a written edit in which you mark up a copy of the manuscript, then you can point out all the instances you think are problematic if you want.) Instead, find one or two representative examples of passive voice used in the story that you found especially jarring. The writer can find the rest on their own (or can look to your written edit if you did that and they want help finding them).

8. Try to keep your emotions out of it. Maybe a certain character really pissed you off, or maybe you really hated something about the story. You don't need to dump your emotions on the writer. That’s not helpful. (Also, oftentimes those emotional reactions say a lot more about you than about the writer or the work you’re critiquing.) Be dispassionate and try to be objective. Remember: this is another human being on the receiving end. Say things in a way you'd want them said to you.

The best way to give a critique is to be dispassionate and kind. Don't get angry at how bad the story is, or how much you don't like a character. That isn't helpful. Be objective and unemotional in your speech. Word things in a kind way; think about how you're phrasing things, your body language, etc. Many writers are very self-conscious of their work, especially an early draft, so respect that. You'll be the one in the spotlight soon enough, after all.

9. Focus on "I" statements and avoid "you" statements. (Instead of focusing on what the writer did, or didn't do, focus on your reaction to what you read.) Remember, keep the focus of the critique the work, not the writer. E.g., instead of saying, "You weren't clear in this paragraph", you could say, "I was confused by this paragraph. Did you mean X? Or did you mean Y?" Or, instead of "Your main character isn't at all believable", you could say something like, "When the main character did X, I really didn't buy it. I don’t think someone in that situation, with their background, would do that. I think they would've done Y instead." Notice how not only am I making it about the character (the work) instead of about the writer, I'm also being more specific about what isn't working and why.

10. Appreciate that the writer may be going for a specific tone or voice that isn't your preference. This could cover things like word choice. If the wrong word is used, that's one thing, but if you just don't like the word, or you think there's a better word, then maybe the writer is going for a certain tone or voice. Word choice often comes down to style and personal choice.  

A subset of this is profanity. If you have a problem with profanity, keep it to yourself; don't critique the work based on that. Some people use profanity, so any writer who's doing their job and being honest (assuming they're not writing a book for young children), will probably have profanity in their story. Depending on the main character and their background, there may be a lot of profanity. The question is, does it fit the story and character, not does it fit your own worldview or ideas of how you think people should talk.

Stephen King talks about this a bit in his book, On Writing (which I highly recommend). It's the job of the writer to be honest in representing the world and the people in it. E.g., just because the writer writes a character who abuses dogs, doesn't mean the writer abuses dogs. Nor does it mean the writer condones the abuse of dogs. The writer is honestly representing a world in which there exists people who abuse dogs. Seriously, there seem to be a not small number of people who don't understand this. Hopefully, no one like that would be in your writing group, but you never know.

J. Michael Straczynski has an excellent discussion of critiquing in his book, Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer. He also has a great example of what a good critique might sound like, so I highly recommend you check it out.

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©2025 Cedar Moon Publishing LLC

As writers there’s only so much we can do to perfect our manuscript on our own. Ultimately, we’ll need someone else’s eyes on it to find issues we’ve missed, preferably before sending it off to an agent or publisher. Writing groups, alpha readers, and beta readers are all ways we can get this invaluable feedback.

In this first of a series of articles, I’ll talk about finding or creating the right writing group for you. The next couple articles will be on critiquing—both giving and receiving critiques.

But first, you need a writing group.

“Why do I need a writing group?” you may ask.

You are very close to your work. You've been writing it, reading it, and rereading it for a long time. Because of this, there are things you are going to miss—mistakes you won't see, things that are missing you won't notice, and redundancies that will pass you by.

Yes, you can (and should) take some time off after finishing the first draft before you start editing. This will give you some distance from the work and will help you catch a lot of things you would've missed otherwise. But you still won't catch everything. You're still reading something you wrote. You know what you meant, so you may get meaning from the story beyond what's actually on the page. Only someone with an outside perspective will be able to catch these kinds of mistakes and omissions.

If you're going to try to get your work published, you don't want to send an agent or an editor your first draft. You also don't want to send them a draft that no one but you has ever laid eyes on. You want to send them as polished a manuscript as you can.

Personally, I don't think you should go to a writing group with your first draft either. That's asking way too much of them. You should do at least one revision yourself first, to catch all the obvious mistakes you can find on your own—spelling errors, punctuation errors, capitalization errors, grammar errors, plot holes, characterization problems, etc.

You want to bring as clean a copy as you can to the writing group. The point of the writing group is to catch the things you can't, not to do all your work for you. Also, if the draft you bring to the group is a mess, then most, or all, of the criticisms you'll receive will be addressing those things, which you can probably fix on your own. The readers will be far too distracted by all those obvious mistakes to even start to get at the deeper problems with the piece that you really need them to help you identify.

An important thing to understand here is that not all writing groups are created equal. There are different types for different purposes, so the first step is to decide what kind of writing group is right for you. For example, you could have a writing group for casual writers who get together to encourage one another, or you could have a writing group for serious writers trying to get their work published. Those are two very different groups that would have different approaches.

Some writing groups get together just to write together and don’t critique at all. If you’re wanting a group of people to help you motivate yourself to write in the first place, this kind of group may be a good fit for you.

Some writing groups critique one another's work but only allow positive statements. If you're a casual writer looking for encouragement, this could be a good fit for you. However, if you're serious about your writing and are really looking to improve—especially if you're wanting to be a professional writer—then this kind of group won't be much, or any, help to you. In fact, such a group could be downright harmful to you and your writing.

Ultimately, it's going to be hard to improve much as a writer if your writing group is only giving you compliments and not helping to isolate the problems in your work. Yes, it's good to know what's working and what you're good at, but that will only take you so far by itself. If you really want to make progress, then you're going to have to man/woman up and be able to handle the bad along with the good. Handling rejection and critical feedback is a fundamental part of becoming, and being, a professional writer.

The first step, then, in having success with a writing group is to know what you're looking for, so you can find the kind of group that works for you. Personally, I want to be in a writing group with other writers who are serious about their writing, serious about getting published with a big publisher, and currently working on an early draft of a book they actually want to publish. Any group that doesn’t check all those boxes will not be a very good fit for my needs and will ultimately be a waste of my (and everyone else's) time.

Another aspect you want to consider when finding a writing group is the genre you’re writing in. If you find a writing group of literary fiction writers, and you're writing pulp space opera, it probably won't be a good fit.

It’s also ideal to find a writing group that aligns with your target reader. For example, if you and your writing espouse a progressive, inclusive, and enlightened worldview, then joining a writing group made up of very conservative, prejudiced, and narrow-minded people won’t serve you well.

Genre comes into play here as well. If you're writing sci-fi, and someone in the group hates sci-fi, some of their critiques may not be useful. Now some of their critiques may still will be helpful, as many aspects of storytelling transcend genre, but this person is still going to be less favorably inclined toward your story overall if they hate the genre, which will likely color their opinions.

There are logistics to consider too, especially if you're starting a group yourself. Where and how often will you meet? How many works will you critique per meeting? How many meetings must a new member attend before they can submit work for critique? How will you deal with people who don't do the work (i.e., they don’t do the assigned readings, never critique but ask for critiques, etc.)? What will you do with someone who is disruptive? What if someone is a bad critic? What if someone is bad at accepting criticism? How will you handle conflicts? How will you decide who gets critiqued each week? Etc., etc., etc.

Hopefully you can find a writing group in your area (or even online) that fits your needs and has compatible people with compatible goals in it. That's definitely the easiest solution. However, the more specifically you know what you want, the harder it will be to find an existing group that checks all those boxes.

If you're going to start a writing group, I recommend attending an existing group first, even if it's not a good fit for you. You can just critique for the group and not submit your own work, if that's allowed, and you can give good critiques to the others. (It’s always good to practice our critiquing skills and critiquing outside of your preferred genre can often be educational.) Alternatively, you could just be a fly on the wall and observe, if that's allowed. Attending an existing group will allow you to see how the group is run and how they handle scheduling, sharing manuscripts, etc.

A lot of groups will use something like MeetUp.com or Facebook for coordinating, scheduling, etc. A lot of groups will use something like Google Drive or Dropbox to share manuscripts, so everyone can print out, read, and critique the manuscripts for the next meeting.

I recommend having your meetings on the same day and time each week, and either have the meetings weekly or monthly. That's the easiest for everyone to remember. For example, you could meet every Monday at 7pm, or you could meet the first Monday of every month at 7pm.

If you're submitting a work you plan to publish for review to the group, it's perfectly valid to ask people to sign NDAs if you want to do that.

Good places to look for writing groups in your area or online are on MeetUp.com, any Reddit groups for your city (or for writing for online groups), Facebook groups, etc. You might even have luck looking on the Craigslist for your city.

You can also check bookstores and libraries in your area. They will often have a bulletin board where people can post if they host a writing group or are looking for one. Many bookstores and libraries also host writing groups themselves, and they’ll likely have a listing of those. 

One of the best reasons to be in a writing group, though, is because it’s a lot of fun. It’s great to gather with similarly-minded writers and read one another’s manuscripts. Nothing beats the support and encouragement you can receive from another writer who’s in a similar situation as you, and being able to offer that support and encouragement to others in return is a very rewarding experience. I wish you the best of luck in finding the right writing group for you!

Visit my Support page to learn the many ways you can help out.

©2025 Cedar Moon Publishing LLC

The best way to make real progress as a writer is to set a daily writing goal and stick to it, writing every day. However, finding the right goal for you can be a bit of a process, and chances are you won’t get it exactly right on the first try. Today I’ll talk about how I changed my writing goal to something that works better for me and how it’s made all the difference.

I originally set a daily writing goal of two thousand words. Stephen King recommended starting with a goal of one thousand words per day in his book, On Writing, and then, when ready, working up to two thousand words per day, which is what he does. I was planning to take this advice and do one thousand words per day, but when I started, I was hitting two thousand easy, so I decided to go for that.

It soon became a problem, though. I think what happened was in the beginning, I had a lot of material stored up in my mind, so two thousand words a day was pretty easy. But once I had worked through that material, it became more difficult.

Most days I wrote I did hit two thousand words or more, however, I wasn’t writing every day as consistently as I would like. In the long run, consistently writing every day is much more important than hitting a higher wordcount on a given day.

I think what was happening was that two thousand words is a bit when I'm not sure where I'm going with the story on a specific day. When I don't hit two thousand, I feel like I failed (even if I got close). This then demoralizes me and makes it harder to sit down to write the next day. Also, some days two thousand words seems daunting and makes it harder to get writing. My average words per day was a little over eleven hundred words.

This obviously wasn’t working. I wasn’t consistently hitting my word count goal each day, and, even worse, I wasn’t even writing every day. I was getting frustrated and discouraged, and many days I couldn’t summon any motivation to write. Something had to change. My wife encouraged me to try a smaller goal, and I decided to do just that.  

So I reset my daily goal to one thousand words per day, and I focused on writing every day. Up to this point, I'd been taking the whole weekend off, but I wanted to start writing on Saturdays, so I decided to only take one day off a week.

Part of the "rules" of this new goal is if on a given day I'm going strong, I can go beyond one thousand words if I want, but I still have to write one thousand words the next day. I don’t get to “store up” extra words for a future day. Not only does this ensure I’ll build a habit of always writing at least one thousand words each day, but it will also get me to the finish of the book that much more quickly.

I think this new goal will also help because when I try to do two thousand words per day, I pretty much exhaust my material in the day, so by then next day, I have to come up with another two thousand words worth of material (i.e., what comes next). If instead, I'm doing one thousand words per day, I think a lot of days I'll end with some material still in my mind, so I have less to come up with the next day. Also, having a little material left “in the buffer” gives me something to chew on until I write again the next day. I will often have added more to that material by the time I start writing again. When I completely exhausted my material each day, it was less common that I’d have come up with something new by the next writing session.

Since I've made this change, I've been writing every day much more consistently. I've also been writing more words per week. The week before I made this change, I didn’t write one single day. That’s how bad it got.

Currently, I have an overall average of 1,155 words per day, 25 words per minute.

Since I changed my goal, I’ve written at least one thousand words every single day I wrote. I’ve written six days a week except for one week I had a migraine. (Normally, if I have a day I miss because I’m sick or some other reason, I make that day up on Sunday. However, at this point, I was only a few days away from finishing the novel, so I decided to give myself an extra day off.)

When I was shooting for two thousand words per day, there were a lot of days I didn’t write at all. I just felt I couldn’t do two thousand words, so I ended up doing nothing.

Now, even on days I don’t feel like writing, or I’m not sure what I will write, I think, I can surely bang out one thousand words. That only takes me a half hour or so to do once I get going. It seems more doable, so I go for it instead of giving up before I start.

Not only do I hit the one thousand words, but I usually get significantly more than that.

It’s amazing how much just making this shift in my mind set has made a difference. I’m now consistently writing every day, Monday through Saturday, and getting one thousand words at least per day. That’s how novels are written. One thousand words seems very doable, and doesn’t even take that much time as long as I have a good idea what to write.

One thousand words usually comes out to about half of one of my shorter chapters, or a third or a fourth of a longer chapter. One thousand words is usually either a whole scene, or most of a scene. That’s very doable for me in one day, even if I’m winging it and not sure what to do. Once I get going, I can at least get far enough in a scene to reach one thousand words, even if I don’t get all the way through the scene. Then, by the next day, I know how to end the scene if I didn’t finish it, or I have an idea how the next scene at least starts if I did finish the last day’s scene.

I’m not saying one thousand words is the sweet spot for you. It’s the sweet spot for me right now. But I think there is a sweet spot for you. The trick is figuring out what that is.

I tend to be very competitive with myself. That can be a good thing, motivating me to push myself farther. But it can also be a detriment if I’m setting my goals too high and regularly failing to meet them.

This has shown me beyond a shadow of a doubt that it’s better to shoot for one thousand words and get there every day, than it is to shoot for two thousand words and not make it every day. The difference in how I feel is the most important element. Hitting my goal feels good. It makes me feel like I can do this. It motivates me to keep going. Missing my goal feels terrible. I get angry at myself and disappointed with myself. That does the opposite of motivating me.

So, my advice to you is, if you’ve set a goal, and you’re not hitting that goal every day (or at least nine days out of ten), then lower the goal until you are hitting it every day. If you know what your daily writing average is, then I would recommend setting your writing goal slightly below your average. You will feel so much better about what you’re doing, and I think, like me, you’ll find that you often surpass that goal by a fair margin, which is awesome. But most importantly, you’re never failing to meet the goal, so you’re not beating yourself up; you’re feeling encouraged.

Now eventually, I may try to increase the goal, but I’m going to wait a long while. I will keep it at one thousand for at least the rest of this book. When I do increase the goal, maybe for book two, and only then if I’m consistently already doing that amount every day, then I’ll only increase it to eleven hundred words (10%), because it’s more important to hit the goal every day than to make the goal bigger. There’s nothing stopping me from going beyond the goal, so there’s no rush to increase it.

Consistency is the most important thing. Doing the work every day is the most important thing.

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©2025 Cedar Moon Publishing LLC

Brute force writing is a term I’ve coined for myself while I was beginning writing the first draft of my latest novel. It is a form of discovery writing, and it’s a great way to get started on a novel.

First, let me give you a little background on my experience as a writer to give you some context for this discussion.

The first long-form fiction I ever wrote was a novella called A Moonlit Night that I wrote in college. It was a modern-day fairy tale (fantasy), and it was basically fanfiction. I didn’t take it very seriously; I just had fun with it. If I remember right (this was a very long time ago), the novella began with an assignment in a fiction writing class I was taking in college. I wrote the first chapter of the novella for that class. I was having fun with the story, so I kept going with it on my own. I’d say I mostly discovery wrote the novella. I didn’t outline or plan anything; I just made it up as I went.

I wrote my first novel, Dawn of Endless Night, over ten years ago. It was an urban fantasy about vampires in modern day (at the time) Chicago. That novel was very much planned out from the beginning. I had an extensive outline that described every chapter and every scene in the book. If I remember right (it was a long time ago), I had at least the first half of the book outlined before I started writing the first draft, and I had the entire book outlined by the time I was a few chapters into the first draft. I did occasionally add to or change my outline as I wrote the first draft, but when I was writing the draft, I pretty much always followed the outline.

When I started working seriously on my current novel, a mundane science fiction novel, I began with worldbuilding. I’d been collecting ideas for a science fiction setting since I’d been working on Dawn of Endless Night. Once I decided to write this science fiction novel I’d been thinking about for over a decade, I spent just over a year worldbuilding, although only the last eight months or so of that year was spent seriously worldbuilding. Before that I was mostly just collecting more ideas for the setting.

By May of 2021, I’d done the majority of the worldbuilding I thought I needed to write the book, or at least to start writing it. I also had some very general ideas for some main characters. I had some ideas for conflicts, beginning situations, and possible plots, but none of the plot ideas had really grabbed me. I wasn’t sure what the story would be about yet, but I wanted to start writing. I felt like I’d already spent enough time treading water, waiting for a good idea (or rather, a convergence of good ideas) to come to me. I wanted to just get writing on the first draft.

So I decided I would start writing 2,000 words per day, based on Stephen King’s advice in On Writing, and I would write whatever I could, whatever came to me. I figured I’d be much more likely to find a good story spending time each day writing in the setting than I would be just sitting around thinking about it. An writer in motion tends to stay in motion and all that.

So that’s what I did. My initial goal was 1,000 words per day. I thought I’d start with a lower, achievable goal to build confidence, and then bump it up to 2,000 words per day once I was consistently hitting 1,000 words per day. Well, the first day I banged out 1,000 words no problem (1,061 to be exact), and it seemed easy, so I decided to just go for it and do 2,000 words per day from then on.

Side note: I ultimately decided 2,000 words per day was too high of a goal for me, and I ended up changing my daily goal back to 1,000 words per day. Things have been going great since I did that. I talk all about that in episode 38 of my writing podcast.

That is where brute force writing came into play. I wanted to get writing, but I still wasn’t sure where I wanted to go with the story. All I knew was where and when the story was taking place and who my main character was.

So I just started writing. I had an idea for a scene—my main character first arriving at the cylinder-shaped, city-sized space station where the story would take place, so I began there. I started writing the scene, with no real idea of where I was going with it ultimately, and followed it where it took me. I did pretty well at hitting my goals, writing a bit each day. I still wasn’t sure what the overall story was going to be about, but I definitely had more ideas after I’d gotten started writing than I had before I started.

As far as how I approached this, each day I would think about the ideas I had, and I would choose one of those ideas and start writing it. I approached it at this point like I was just writing short stories. I didn’t worry about a novel or connecting the stories together, making them consistent, or anything like that. I just played with the ideas I had and saw where they took me.

Each morning I would look at the ideas I had and pick one to write about. The one I picked would either be the idea I had the most ideas for (i.e., I have the most to write about), or the idea I was most excited about, or both. Usually, at least on the good writing days, the idea I had the most material for and the idea I had the most excitement for were the same idea. I think that makes sense.

I would then write about that idea. I did the best I could, following the idea where it took me. I’d try to get to at least 2,000 words, but if I was on a roll, I’d keep going beyond 2,000 words.

The first story I started working on was called “Internship”. I think it helps for things to have a title, but I wasn’t going to waste time agonizing over the title at this point. I’ll always be able to come up with a better title for a story that’s finished than one I’m just starting. How can I title a story when I don’t even know what’s going to happen yet? But I find it does help to have a title for when you’re thinking about it, just to have something to call it in your own mind. So these titles tend to be short, uninspired, just the first thing that comes to me. But they do tell me what the story is about and help me keep them straight.

“Internship” is a story about a character arriving at the first cylinder, Luna City, which is built at the Earth-Moon L1 LaGrange point at the top of the Lunar Space Elevator. I knew that I wanted my book to be set on Union City, which is an even larger cylinder atop the Earth Space Elevator, but I thought it would be easier to start with Luna City, since it is a much smaller cylinder with a smaller population. I was also quite taken with the idea of spending some time in the point-of-view of a character arriving at the first cylinder that had ever been built for the first time, seeing that through the eyes of someone who’d spent their whole life on Earth.

So as I said, the main character is arriving at Luna City for the first time, having come from Earth, and I just followed the character from there. This gave me an opportunity to describe the cylinder habitat and life there from the perspective of someone who’s completely new to all of it, which is a perspective the reader will share.

The story follows her as she acclimates to the rotation of the station (after having to deal with microgravity on the trip there). It also follows her as she begins to explore the station and meet the people there. There’s a lot of worldbuilding stuff in here, explaining the cylinder, the day-to-day technology people are using, things like that.

After I had written on this story for a while, I decided this would be a prequel story, to the novel I’m now writing. I did more brute force writing, coming up with more stories. Ultimately I ended up putting a few of those stories together for this prequel story. It kind of makes sense, I think, that in the beginning I was focusing on getting the worldbuilding straight in my mind, so I ended up writing some stuff that ended up being better used as prequel material.

I spent some time writing about this character, Tia Moreno, and her experiences on Luna City. I eventually decided to put this material aside as a possible prequel I could return to later. The character I’d been developing for these stories, Tia Moreno, would remain the main character for the prequel. I liked the character a lot, but I wanted to make some changes to her for the main character of the book I wanted to write. So I decided this character would be the grandmother of the main character in the novel. I really liked the prequel character, but she’s more of a heroic, “right stuff” kind of character. I wanted the main character of the novel to be a more relatable “everyman” character.

By making the main character of the novel the prequel character’s granddaughter, I was able to use some of the stuff I’d come up with for the prequel, as it became family history for the main character in the novel (who is also named Tia Moreno). This ended up working really well. When I was working on the prequel, I came up with a disaster scenario, and Tia (the grandmother) is a key figure in overcoming that disaster, so much so that she becomes a hero of the city.

When her granddaughter is born and named after her, she has the image of this historic figure, who is famous in Luna City, to live up to. This becomes one of the main motivations for the character moving from Luna City to Union City, to get away from the constant recognition and notoriety, to make her own way in the solar system, out from underneath her grandmother’s shadow.

The brute force writing ended up working super well. Not only did it get me out of my inertia of inaction by getting me writing, but as I found my way into the story, I not only came up with material that one day I can flesh out into a prequel story, but I also came up with material that ended up informing my main character. Because of this, my main character began the novel with a level of history and depth to her that I wouldn’t have had anyway. Additionally, the idea of her proving herself without the aid of her grandmother’s reputation became one of the main themes of the book and was one of the primary motivators for the character. The brute force writing material also helped me flesh out my setting more and to begin making it real to myself. Finally, it got me acquainted with a more discovery writing approach, which I’ve found I really enjoy. I had a lot more fun writing this novel than I did the last one, and I never got burned out on it or tired of it like I did the last one.

Today, I’d say my writing process is a blend of discovery writing and outlining or planning, but I think I lean a bit more toward discovery writing, though it is very close to an even blend of the true. I have a feeling brute force writing is a technique I will use often in my writing career, and I think it’s possible I will use it to jump-start a lot of, if not all of, my novels.

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Did you know that you can get ebooks and audiobooks from your local library without ever leaving your home? The Process is easy, straight-forward, and convenient. I’ll walk you through it.

I’ll admit, until I learned about this, I hadn’t used libraries much since I was in college. It just seemed so inconvenient to have to go to the library to get books, and then have to go back to the library to return the books. It just seemed easier and more convenient to buy books from Amazon. I never had to leave the house.

There were only two downsides to this, as I saw it.

1.   I’d have to wait one or two days for the book to arrive, but that’s not that bad, really. As long as I anticipated finishing the book I was currently reading a day or two ahead of time and ordered a new book, a one or two day wait was seldom an inconvenience.

2.   I’d have to pay for the book. Getting a book from the library is free, of course (as long as you return the book on time, but more and more libraries are eliminating late fees). However, this wasn’t a downside as long as I really liked the book. If I really like a book, I’ll often want to read it again at some point, so I like to own it.

My wife is the one who let me know that not only do libraries have audiobooks and ebooks, but you can check them out and return them online. It doesn’t get more convenient than that.

Especially now that we are dealing with a pandemic, it’s really nice to be able to check out and read (or listen to) books and then return them, all without ever leaving your home. Another benefit to this is even if your library still has late fees, you’ll never have to deal with them because ebooks and audio books you check out this way are automatically “returned” when they’re due.

So, how does this work?

First, you will need a library card. This step may involve you having to physically go to your library. However, you may be able to get a library card online, so definitely check your library’s website. Once you have your library card, you’re good to go.

Most (all?) libraries have an app which allows you to check out ebooks & audiobooks remotely. You’ll want to install this app on your smartphone.

The app I recommend for this is Libby by Overdrive. Chances are good this app will work with your library, and it’s very easy to use. It’s available on the Google Play store and Apple app store for free. Be sure to visit this page to see Libby’s features and learn how to use the app.

Using the Libby app, you can do all the things you’d want to do when it comes to audiobooks and ebooks.

You can search for audiobooks and ebooks, and if your library has them, check them out.

Once you check out an audiobook, you can listen to it on the Libby app, and it’s a great app for this. You can navigate to specific chapters, etc.

Once you check out an ebook, you can have it delivered directly to your Kindle ereader or download it to any other device.

If your library has the ebook or audiobook you want, but all the copies are checked out, you can put a hold on it. The app will let you know when the book is available to check out.

Once the book is available, you can check it out right away, or if you’re not ready for it, you can tell the app to give it to the next person and request the chance to check it out again. You can set the number of days you want to wait for the next chance to check the book out.

The app tells you how many copies of the book the library has available. If you have a hold on a book, it also tells you how many people are ahead of you in line, and it gives you an estimate of how long you will have to wait until the book is available to you.

Once you have a book checked out, the app will let you know when the time to return the book is approaching. You then have the option to renew the book. Once it’s time for the book to be returned, this happens automatically, so you never have to worry about late fees.

A nice feature with Kindle is that if you don’t finish a book, return it, and then check it out again later, your Kindle will remember your progress in the book and any notes or highlights you made. I assume other ereaders do this too, but I don’t know for sure, as I only use Kindle.

Another nice feature of the app that I highly recommend you use is the ability to return a book early. Once you’re done with a book, please return it early. At least with my library, there are always people waiting to read whatever book I’m reading, so it’s nice to return it early once you’re finished. That way the next person in line can get the book that much sooner. I’ve often found that I get books earlier than Libby estimates when I put a book on hold. I think this is why. I assume Libby bases the estimate on the assumption that each person will keep the book the full two weeks.

If you search for a book, and your library doesn’t have the book, you can often request that the library get the book. They may get the book for you through inter-library loan, or they may even purchase the book. Once they get the book, it will be delivered to you through the app. The availability of this will depend on your library. I know this feature has been limited with my library because of the pandemic.

You can also use the app to search for and check out physical books, but you will have to physically go pick those books up and return them.

There are no fees to use the app, get a library card, check out books, ebooks, or audiobooks.

This has changed my life when it comes to reading books. I get a lot of books, both ebooks and audiobooks, from the library now. It’s so convenient. Also, since I’m not buying the books, I feel free to “take a chance” on more books that I’m not sure I’ll like or wouldn’t read otherwise.

If I really like a book, I can still go buy a copy to read again later and to support the author. I just recently did this with To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini. I got the book from my library, read it, and loved it. I definitely want to buy this book again, so I went and bought the illustrated hardcover.

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So I created this list of the Sage Advice segments. Each gives the topic and a link to that episode on Wizards’ site. I also include the timestamp of the Sage Advice segment in the episode and a direct download link for the mp3.

These segments are fantastic for DMs, because Jeremy Crawford shares a lot of the reasoning and philosophy behind the rules of D&D. I hope you find them as useful and inspiring as I have.

Sage Advice Segments

This list was last updated October 18, 2020.

11/17/16 - Armor Class Calculations (6:51) download

12/01/16 - The Lucky Feat (2:58) download

01/19/17 - Spell Targeting (5:18) download

02/02/17 - Temporary Hit Points (4:10) download

02/09/17 - Reactions (4:45) download

04/05/17 - Druid Wild Shape (5:40) download

04/27/17 - Stealth & Invisibility (8:58) download

05/04/17 - Multiclassing (9:35) download

06/29/17 - Rules & Rulings (9:52) download

07/06/17 - Magic Items (10:41) download

08/03/17 - Grappling (7:45) download

09/21/17 - DM Etiquette (6:12) video

10/26/17 - Polymorph (19:35) download

10/31/17 - Anti-Magic (11:00) download

11/16/17 - Conditions (10:07) download

12/14/17 - Illusions (12:37) download

12/20/17 - Playtesting (6:18) download

01/25/18 - Building Encounters (9:05) download

07/25/18 - Traveling to Other Worlds & Planes (15:40) download

08/02/18 - Sage Advice (11:19) download

01/17/19 - Sage Advice (14:53) download

01/31/19 - Bonus Action Timing (14:51) download

04/18/19 - Customizing Monsters (15:34) download

11/07/19 - Spell Components (16:32) download

11/21/19 - Weapons, Improvised Weapons & Natural Weapons (21:30) download

02/27/20 - Alcohol (13:54) download

03/19/20 - PHB Rules (18:34) download

04/09/20 - PHB Rules 2 (19:49) download

10/08/20 - Sidekicks (7:54) download

10/15/20 - Customized Origins (11:38) download

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©2025 Cedar Moon Publishing LLC

I’ve been kicking this around for a few weeks now, and I thought some of you might be interested in seeing my working list of classes and races for my next campaign.

I want to reiterate that I am not trying to convince anyone to use this list. This is merely a proof-of-concept. The point of this is the idea that you do NOT have to use everything in the PHB, just because it’s in the PHB. In fact, I would argue you should not use anything in the PHB (or from other sources) that does not perfectly fit your concept. I think oftentimes as DMs, when considering which PC options to allow and which not, we approach it from the perspective of asking, “Can I make this race/class/etc. work in my campaign?”. I think the better question to ask is, “What does using this option ADD to my campaign? What possible cost could there be (downsides)? Is the benefit worth the cost?”. I hope you see how at the same time this a very subtle difference but can make a big difference to how your campaign is realized at the table.

My choices below are made for a few reasons. Classes and races I’m having available as PCs options all check one (or preferable more) of the following boxes:

1. It fits the setting/world, not only in general, but the specific setting of the campaign, i.e. the city of Elandria and the surrounding region.

2. It fits the specific campaign I want to run. Some options, like the barbarian and druid, would exist in the world but aren’t good fits for this particular campaign.

3. The option won’t lead to characters who don’t fit the campaign or would be an annoyance at the table, e.g. leading to evil or anti-social characters like the assassin rogue.

4. The option is solid mechanically and is at least on par with other options the player could choose.

You’ll notice that I decided to add the thief rogue, even though on the show I said I wasn’t going to allow it. I looked over the class again, and I think it works as long as the player is going for a dungeon explorer kind of concept or a concept of a thief-catcher (a rogue who uses her abilities to bring thieves, assassins, etc. to justice).

If you’re curious why a specific option isn’t allowed, or why a specific option is allowed, please feel free to ask in the comments below. The thought process behind making these decisions is what’s important to you, a DM other than myself, not the actual decision itself, since presumably you will make completely different choices, for different reasons, in your own campaign.

Hopefully, this curation of PC options will lead to a campaign and setting with a unique and particular feel and flavor, as opposed to be a catchall kitchen-sink kind of thing like the Forgotten Realms and a lot of D&D campaigns. Obviously this isn’t for everyone. This is for a DM wanting to create a specific feel.

Classes & Subclasses

The following classes & subclasses are what the players will have to choose from. XG means the option comes from Xanathar’s Guide.

• Bard: College of Lore

• Fighter: Champion, Battle Master, Eldritch Knight, Arcane Archer (XG - elves only)

• Ranger: Hunter, Horizon Walker (XG), Monster Slayer (XG)

• Rogue: Thief (thief-catcher), Inquisitive (XG), Scout (XG)

• Sorceror: Draconic, Wild Magic, Storm Sorcery (XG)

• Warlock: Archfey

• Wizard: 8 schools of magic, Bladesinging (XG - elves only), War Magic (XG)

Races

• Dwarf: Hill, Mountain

• Elf: High, Wood, Night (surface)

• Human

• Half-elf

• Possibly:

  • Genasi: Air, Earth, Fire, Water

  • Firbolg

Introduction

The first step in making your own delicious sourdough bread is creating your sourdough starter. Your sourdough starter will ultimately be the ingredient in your sourdough bread that makes the bread rise and contributes to its unique flavor. Your sourdough bread will ultimately be only as good as your sourdough starter, so it’s very important that you learn to do this right and take good care of your starter.

Before we get into the ins and outs of creating and maintaining your starter, though, I think it’s important to calibrate your expectations at the beginning. Making sourdough bread takes time. This is a game of delayed gratifications, and it requires patience. If you try to rush the process, any element of it, you will almost always see poorer results than if you allowed the process to go at its own pace.

Creating your starter and getting it to the point where it’s ready to make bread can take anywhere from a week to a few weeks or more. Be patient! Your investment of time and patience here in the beginning will pay dividends for years to come, even for the rest of your life if you take good care of your starter. If you do this right, you’ll only need to do it once. I know it may seem a drag to have to wait a week or more to start making bread, but it will be worth it! If you try to rush things in the beginning, chances are good it’ll actually end up taking more time in the long run.

After I’ve shown you how to make and maintain your starter, I’ll give you some guidance on how to know when your starter is ready to make bread.

The other thing you should know about making sourdough bread is that your starter is something you have to maintain. Think of it like a pet or houseplant that you have to feed and water every day. Now, if you’re going to only be making bread once a week or less, you won’t have to feed your starter every day. I’ll get into that more when we talk about maintaining your starter. However, if you’re going to be making bread more than once a week, you’ll want to feed your starter every day.

The good news is that feeding your starter is easy, and only takes 5-10 minutes to do, so it’s not a big commitment. I often feed mine while I’m waiting for my coffee to brew in the morning. I get the coffee going, and then I feed my starter. By the time I finish feeding my starter, my coffee is ready.

Before we get into the details of how to make and maintain a starter, it’s important to understand what your sourdough starter is. People often speak of their sourdough starter like it’s a living thing, even going so far as giving it a name. Now, if you want to name your starter, go ahead, but it’s important to realize that your starter is not a living thing, like a cat or a dog; it’s a community of living things. A sourdough starter is really a culture of various specious of yeast and lactic acid bacteria (or LAB for short). So it’s much more accurate to think of your starter as a city with a diverse population than a single living thing. We create the perfect environment for the organisms we want to grow by making a medium of flour and water and keeping it at the right temperature. The flour and water provides the food and nutrients the yeast and bacteria need and also serves as their home.

So, really, it would be more accurate to name your starter something like New York than it would be to name it Brad. Now, you might think I’m splitting hairs here, and if you just want to make decent bread and that’s it, sure the distinction may not matter a whole lot. But if you want to make really good bead, if you want to master making the kind of bread that you love, then it will be very helpful to you to understand and remember what’s going on.

For instance, people often worry about “killing” their starter. If you think of your starter as a single living thing, this can seem like a huge concern. “What if I forget to feed it for a few days? Did I kill it?” However, when you understand that your starter is home to millions of organisms (maybe billions, I don’t know), then you understand that it’s less likely that you killed all of them, and as long as some survive, your starter is still alive. I’ve heard so many stories of people throwing out their starters and starting over because they think they killed them, and in most of those instances, they didn’t kill their starter at all. They could have kept the old starter, resumed normal feeding, and it would’ve “bounced back” to good as new long before they could get a new starter up and going and ready to make bread.

It’s highly unlikely you will kill all the yeast and bacteria in your starter by forgetting to feed it for a few days (or even longer). You can’t kill them by putting them in the fridge or the freezer. The only way you can really kill them is by letting them get too hot. A temperature of 140° F will kill the yeast in your starter. Even at temperatures less than that, you might run into some problems, but basically, if you can survive it, they probably can too. The yeast and bacteria in your starter are happiest around room temperature. You can find more information on what will and won’t kill your starter here.

While we’re on the topic of temperature, there’s a very important thing to understand about the yeast and bacteria in your starter. They have a pretty wide range of temperatures they can handle. They can handle anything from being in the freezer for a few days up to the temperatures we discussed above. So as long as you keep your starter in that range, the yeast and bacteria will live.

However, within that temperature range, the metabolic rate of the yeast and bacteria are directly proportionate to the temperature. Very generally speaking, the warmer the temperature, the faster the yeast and bacteria metabolize; the cooler the temperature, the more slowly they metabolize. What the yeast and bacteria are actually doing in your starter and your bread is fermentation—that’s how they turn the food in their environment into energy. The byproducts of this fermentation are, among other things, carbon dioxide. It is this carbon dioxide that makes your starter and your bread rise. The yeast and bacteria in your starter are eating the starches and sugars in the flower. The faster they do this, the more quickly your starter or bread will rise.

Understanding this basic concept is very important. With that understanding, you can see how if you keep your starter in your refrigerator, the yeast and bacteria will metabolize more slowly, which means it will take them longer to eat the food (flour) you gave them, which means you won’t have to feed them as often. However, this also means that a cold starter isn’t going to work well for making bread, because it will rise very very slowly until the yeast and bacteria get warmed up.

All that said, it’s best to keep your starter at room temperature, whatever that is in your kitchen. The one exception to this is if you will be baking once per week or less often, in which case you can keep the starter in the fridge, and remove it to room temperature a day or two before you plan to bake. I’ll go into this more later.

So keep this relationship between temperature and metabolic rate (how fast the organisms are eating, growing, reproducing, etc.) in mind. In the summer, when it’s warmer, your starter and bread will rise more quickly than in the winter when it’s cooler. If you’re using a recipe, the proofing times may vary based on the temperature of your kitchen, starter and other ingredients compared to that of the person who wrote the recipe. If your kitchen and ingredients are colder, it will take longer; if they’re warmer, the bread or starter will ferment/rise more quickly. This is a really important concept to understand and internalize. A good understanding of this will be extremely useful in guiding you in the future.

Alright, now that we have a basic understanding of what a sourdough starter is—a culture of wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria in a medium of flour and water—let’s talk about the ingredients and equipment you’ll need.

Ingredients

To make and maintain a sourdough starter, you only need two ingredients: flour and water. Let’s talk a little more about these very important ingredients.

Water

You will want to use either filtered or RO (reverse osmosis) water for your starter and bread. You can use water filtered with something like a Brita pitcher or any kind of activated carbon filter. If you use bottled water, read the label and make sure it’s either filtered with activated carbon or reverse osmosis (most of the bottled waters out there are really just tap water). The reason you don’t want to just use tap water is that in the US, at least, tap water is “purified” using chlorine, and chlorine is not good for the yeast or bacteria in your starter and bread. Now you can use tap water if you remove the chlorine. The easiest way to do this is to leave the water out in an open container at room temperature overnight. The chlorine will evaporate. You can also boil the water to remove the chlorine, but if you do that, make sure you let the water cool back down to room temperature before you use it for your starter or bread.

Flour

The flour you use is pretty important, as it is the food for the yeast and bacteria in your starter. Ideally, you will use the same flour in your starter that you will use to bake bread. This means that the best flour to use is bread flour (sometimes called strong white flour). You want flour that is unbleached and unbromated. If you’re in the eastern part of the US, King Arthur bread flour is a great choice; if you’re in the western part of the US, Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour is a great choice. Any good, unbleached, unbromated bread flour will be great, preferably sourced as locally as possible while staying within your budget.

A lot of people will recommend using organic flour, or even say you have to use organic flour. You don’t. I don’t use organic flour, and I’ve baked dozens of delicious loaves of bread. Now, using organic flour isn’t going to hurt anything, so if you want to go that route, then go for it. However, organic flour tends to be a lot more expensive, so definitely don’t feel like you need it. A great compromise is to use non-organic flour for your starter and organic flour for your bread. But hey, don’t take my word for it. Make two identical loaves of bread, use the same brand of flour, and in one use organic and in the other use non-organic flour. See if you can taste a difference, and if you can, decide whether that difference is worth the extra cost to you. If you do this experiment, please let me know your conclusions in the comments below! I’d love to hear how it goes.

Please note that you can use all purpose for your starter if that’s all you have. Bread flour will just work better, and you’re going to need bread flour to bake bread anyway, so you might as well get some.

If you have stone ground whole wheat flour available, you can get your starter going even more strongly and quickly in the beginning by using a 50/50 blend of stone ground whole wheat flour and bread flour for the first few days. The whole grain flour will provide some enzymes and nutrients that will help the yeast and bacteria do their job even better, but it’s not required. However, if you want to get your starter going as quickly as possible, it does help.

If you’d like to know what I use personally, I use King Arthur Bread Flour to feed my starter, and I use Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour in my bread. The reason is simply that I can get the King Arthur Flour more cheaply, but I like the taste of the bread made with Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour better. I’ve made bread with both, and the difference is very subtle, but enough for me to make paying an extra dollar or two for a bag of the Bob’s Red Mill flour worth it for the actual bread, but the King Arthur’s flour is fine for feeding the starter. If I don’t have Bob’s Red Mill flour, I will still make bread with the King Arthur flour—it makes fine bread, I just like the Bob’s Red Mill slightly better. The Bob’s Red Mill flour is also slightly more nutritious which is another reason I use it.

When I first started my starter, I used 100% Bob’s Red Mill Stone Ground Wheat Flour for the first few days, then I went to a 50/50 mix of the whole wheat flour and bread flour for the first week or so. Since then, I use 10% whole wheat flour and 90% bread flour when I feed my starter. I feel that this is enough of the whole grain flour to give the yeast and bacteria the nutrients and enzymes they need, while not enough to affect the flavor or rising potential of the starter too much (whole grain flour leads to less rise and a denser starter or bread). By all means, experiment and do what works best for you. This is just what I’ve found works best for me. There’s nothing wrong with just using bread flour to feed your starter.

A Note on Rye Flour

You will probably see people online recommending you use whole grain rye flour in your starter, either as a percentage of the flour, or even all of it. I don’t recommend this for the beginner for a couple reasons.

First, rye doesn’t have gluten, which is what enable bread to rise, so using rye in your starter is going to result in a denser bread that doesn’t rise as much. Now there are definitely benefits to using rye (it seems to have even more nutrients & enzymes than whole wheat flour), but for the beginner, I think you’re better off learning the craft with wheat flour. You can experiment with rye once you’re making bread with a good rise.

Second, rye will lead to your starter and bread fermenting and rising more quickly, which again will not serve you well as a beginner.

Recipe & procedure

The recipe for a sourdough starter is very simple: 1 part water and 1 part flour by weight. I’ll give you the weights I use, but keep in mind that you can make any amount of starter you want, just keep the weight of the flour and the weight of the water equal (1:1 ratio). This is the amount I’ve found that is enough starter for my purposes while minimizing the waste as much as possible.

Ingredients

• 50g filtered water

• 50g unbleached, unbromated bread flour or stone ground whole wheat flour

Alternatively, if you have stone ground whole wheat flour, you can use that instead of the bread flour, or, if you want to save your wheat flour, you can use half whole wheat and half bread flour (25g of each if you’re using my recipe).

A Note on Bad Smells

You may smell some unpleasant smells in the first few days of getting your starter going. The reason for this is simple. We are creating a perfect environment for the yeast & LAB to grow, with lots of food. Well, that’s a perfect environment for lots of other microorganisms too. In the early days of your starter, you may have things growing in there you ultimately don’t want. These can lead to some pretty foul smells. Don’t worry! This is a natural part of the process.

The lactic acid bacteria will be the first to get established in your starter (they metabolize and reproduce more quickly than the yeast). Once the LAB are established, their byproducts will lower the pH of the starter, making it more acidic. Once the pH gets low enough, all those other critters that are in there that we don’t want will die off. This is one of the reasons you don’t want to try to make bread with your starter in the first few days. The foul smell will fade over the next few days and will eventually go away. You don’t have to start over! Keep with the process and be patient.

A Note on Lids

The one thing you don’t want to see in your starter is mold. If you see mold, you will have to throw your starter out and start over. This is a good reason to keep it covered with a lid.

Remember when I said your starter doesn’t need to “breathe”? It’s true. A lot of people think starters need to breathe, that they need oxygen, and that you shouldn’t cover them, or should not tightly cover them. This is wrong. Fermentation is an anaerobic reaction, which means oxygen is not required. The reason you don’t want to tightly seal your starter is because once it’s active, the starter will rise and expand and the yeast and LAB metabolize the flour, releasing CO2 (carbon dioxide), which is caught by the stretchy gluten network in the dough, making it inflate like a balloon. This is the exact same process that will rise your bread. If your container is too small for this expansion and is sealed too tightly, the starter will break the container. This will ruin your container and make a mess. This is why don’t seal it.

Procedure – Day 1

1. Turn on your scale and make sure it’s set to grams (g).

7. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of your container to make it neat and easy to see how much your starter rises.

9. Take a smell of your starter. It’s a good habit to smell it every day, to get used to the aromas. You can often gauge the health of your starter by its smell. Right now, it will just smell like flour & water, but it will develop its own aroma as the yeast and LAB get established.

10. Put a lid on the container. Don’t screw the lid on all the way, so air can escape. Your starter doesn’t need to “breathe”. You want the lid to keep out contaminants (like mold and unwanted bacteria). There are plenty of yeast & LAB in the flour; you don’t need them from the air.

11. Place your container somewhere out of direct sunlight, at room temperature, where you won’t forget it.

Note: Remember that temperature affects the speed at which the yeast and bacteria will metabolize and reproduce, so if your kitchen is cool, this process may take longer. I started my starter in the winter, and my kitchen was cold enough it really took a while to get going. An easy fix for this if you want to speed things up is to put your starter in the oven with the oven light on. This should keep it at a good temperature. You can put a thermometer in there to be sure. Just don’t put the starter too close to the light bulb (it might get too hot), and don’t forget it’s in there if you’re going to use the oven!

Conversely, if it’s summer and your kitchen is very warm, things may go even more quickly, and you might want to check your starter every 12 hours instead of once a day.

Procedure – Day 2

Today you will just observe your starter. No need to feed it. Take a look at it. You may see some small air bubbles along the sides or on the top. If you don’t, that’s OK. It may take a few days for the yeast and bacteria to get going. Take the lid off and have a sniff. Does it smell any different than today? It’s a great idea to keep a log of your observations for future reference. If you smell funky smells, don’t worry and refer to the note about smells above.

Procedure – Day 3

Today we’re going to feed the starter. Before doing so, observe the starter. Do you see any air bubbles yet? Does it smell any different than it did yesterday?

This procedure is the same as Day 1, only we’re adding the ingredients to the jar that already has starter in it.

1. Turn on your scale and make sure it’s set to grams (g).

2. Place your starter container on the scale. Press the “tare” or “zero” button on your scale so it reads 0g with the container on it.

3. Pour filtered water into the container until it reads 50g. If you go over a few grams, it’s not a big deal, just remember the number and add the same amount of flour.

4. Press the “tare” or “zero” button on your scale, so the scale reads 0g with the container on it.

5. Spoon flour into the container until it reads 50g.

6. Remove the container from the scale and stir the flour and water together with the starter.

7. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of your container to make it neat and easy to see how much your starter rises.

8. Place a rubber band or piece of tape on the container at the top of your starter. This will let you see how much the starter rises.

9. Take a smell of your starter. It will probably smell a lot like it did on Day 1 at this point, since we just added a bunch of flour and water, and the starter from Day 1 that’s in there probably isn’t super active yet.

10. Put a lid on the container. Don’t screw the lid on all the way, so air can escape.

11. Place your container somewhere out of direct sunlight, at room temperature, where you won’t forget it.

Procedure – Day 4 & Beyond

From here on out, you will follow this same procedure every time you feed your starter.

1. Turn on your scale and make sure it’s set to grams (g).

2. Place a clean, empty container on the scale. Press the “tare” or “zero” button on your scale so it reads 0g with the container on it.

3. Pour filtered water into the container until it reads 50g. If you go over a few grams, it’s not a big deal, just remember the number and add the same amount of flour.

4. Press the “tare” or “zero” button on your scale, so the scale reads 0g with the container on it.

5. Spoon flour into the container until it reads 50g.

8. Remove the container from the scale and stir the flour, water and starter together.

9. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of your container to make it neat and easy to see how much your starter rises.

11. Put a lid on the container. Don’t screw the lid on all the way, so air can escape.

12. Place your container somewhere out of direct sunlight, at room temperature, where you won’t forget it.

That’s it! You will do this same procedure every time you feed your starter. This will give you a starter with a total weight of 150 grams (50g water, 50g flour, 50g starter). I find that a 150g starter is a good size for me. It’s enough that I can make a loaf of bread, and even some pancakes or waffles if I want, and still have some left over. There are lots of recipes out there you can make from sourdough starter—pancakes, waffles, cookies, crackers, flatbread, all kinds of things!

You can easily change the size of your starter to whatever works for you. The important thing is the ration of ingredients, which is 1:1:1. That means 1 part flour, 1 part water, 1 part starter. So if you want a smaller starter, you could do 40g water, 40g flour, 40g starter; if you want a larger starter, you could do 60g water, 60g flour, 60g starter. As long as you keep the weights/ratios the same, it doesn’t matter what size you make.

Yes, you will be throwing out a little starter every time you feed it, unless you make something with it. That’s just part of the game. On the upside, I’ve found that sourdough starter is an amazing trash deodorizer! My kitchen trash tends to smell like sourdough starter instead of the other nasty things it could smell like. This is a pretty nice benefit that I’m surprised I’ve never heard anyone else mention.

How to Know When Your Starter Is Ready

It will take awhile before your starter is ready to make bread. How long will depend on a number of factors like the temperature of your kitchen, etc. Just be patient; it will happen! You will know your starter is ready to bake with when it has a pleasant sourdough smell and rises to at least double or triple its size within 12 hours of feeding (at room temperature). Once the starter has doubled or tripled in size (or more!) it should have lots of air bubbles in it.

To give you a frame of reference, I took pictures of my starter 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 5 hours and 7 hours after feeding. You can see that my starter has tripled in size after 7 hours. This was at a room temperature of 71-74 degrees Fahrenheit. You can also see how there are more and more air bubbles as time passes. If your starter is at least doubling in size and full of air bubbles after 12 hours, it’s probably ready to bake with. Once your starter is really going strong, it will triple or even quadruple in size in less than 12 hours, as mine does. Remember that the speed at which the yeast and bacteria metabolize is directly related to the temperature, so the warmer your kitchen, the more quickly this will happen, the cooler your kitchen, the more slowly it will happen.

Conclusion

Alright, I think I’ve covered all the bases here. You will probably have questions along the way. If you do, please ask them in the comment section below, and I’ll do my best to answer them. If you run into any problems, let me know, and I can address those too.

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Introduction

This is the first in a series of articles on how to make your own delicious sourdough bread.

People have been baking sourdough bread for a long time. Because of this, there are a lot of ways to do it. Almost every person who makes sourdough does it a little differently. Just keep in mind that for pretty much every step in the process, there are many variations of techniques. I will show you what works for me, but this isn’t necessarily the only way, or the best way, to do it. Please feel free to experiment and try different things. To me, a big part of the fun of sourdough is experimenting, trying different things, seeing what works, what doesn’t, what matters and what doesn’t. I do recommend you take notes on what you’re doing though, so you can keep track of what you did and what the results were.

If I can give you one word of advice at this beginning stage, based on my own experience, it would be this: choose a recipe and make it quite a few times, until you’re getting consistent results. Once you are consistently getting delicious (and similar if not the same) loaves of bread from your recipe, then feel free to experiment. A best practice when experimenting is to only change one variable (one part of the recipe) at a time. This way, you can see (taste!) the difference that one change makes. If I decide to change my recipe by adding more salt and more water, for example, and I later notice a difference in the finished bread, I may not be sure if that difference is due to the extra salt or the extra water. If, on the other hand, I make the recipe the exact same way I always do, but I only change the amount of salt, any difference in the finished bread I notice is most likely due to the added salt, as long as I did everything else the same.

This is where keeping good notes can really help. Things will often change when you’re making your bread, and that’s OK! You might end up proofing it for more or less time than you planned, or you may up doing more or fewer stretch and folds than you planned. This happens. Just keep track of any deviations from the recipe or the norm in your notes, and that will help you immensely later on when you’re evaluating your fresh bread.

The Process

There are basically two aspects to baking sourdough bread: creating and maintaining a sourdough culture (or starter) and baking bread. You can probably get started on your sourdough starter right away. Chances are good you already have everything you need. You may need a few odds and ends to actually make the bread, but you can be getting those while you’re getting your starter going.

Equipment Needed

This is the equipment you’ll need to follow my method. You don’t necessarily need everything on this list; there are alternative methods for different tools. I will include links to the products I use wherever possible to save you some time if you need some of these supplies. I’ll start with the things you’ll need to get your sourdough starter going, and then go into what you’ll need to make bread. As it will likely take a week or more to get your starter going and ready to make bread, you can get those supplies first, and then you’ll have some time to get the rest.

For Your Starter

Containers for Your Starter

You’ll want a container of some kind to be a home for your starter. Ideally you’ll have at least two, to make it easier to transfer to a clean container. It doesn’t really matter what it is, although it should be made of glass, ceramic, food-safe plastic, or some other non-reactive material. Glass or clear plastic is nice because you can easily see how far the starter has risen. The size you’ll want will depend on how large of a starter you want to maintain, which will depend on how much bread you want to make. I make bread anywhere from once a week to multiple times a week, but I only make one loaf at a time. I use 32 oz. mason jars to keep my starter in. 24 oz. mason jars are actually the perfect size for my purposes, but they’re hard to find in my location and tend to cost more, so the 32 oz. jars work just fine. Ideally your container will have a lid, but if it doesn’t, you can always cover it with plastic wrap. You want a container that has enough room for the starter to triple or even quadruple in size without overflowing the container. If you use mason jars, the wide-mouth versions are a a little easier to scrape starter out of.

Digital Scale

You’ll need a scale that can weigh in grams and can weigh up to 1 kg or more. Ideally, it’s nice to have a separate scale that can weigh down to tenths of a gram (for weighing the salt), but it’s not required. I use this scale.

Rubber Spatula

You’ll need something to mix the starter with. This rubber spatula is what I use, and it works great. It’s stiff enough to mix the starter, and it’s all one piece, so I don’t have to worry about the end coming off in the starter. Most anything will work, though, although if you’re using a glass or other fragile container, I wouldn’t use something that’s metal to mix with.

For Your Bread

Bench Scraper

This is a metal blade that you’ll use to scrape flour on your counter to clean up/collect the flour. You’ll also use it to manipulate and cut the dough. It’s also great for dealing with all the bread crumbs that come from cutting your finished bread. Indispensable tool. Here’s the bench scraper I use.

Dough Scraper

These are usually silicon or some other food-safe plastic. You’ll use this to mix the dough in your bowl and to get the dough out of your bowl. Another indispensable tool. Here’s the dough scraper I use.

Cast Iron Double Dutch Oven

A lot of sourdough makers online recommend Le Creuset dutch ovens, but they’re quite expensive and frankly don’t work as well as the double Dutch oven I use (which is a fraction of the price). The one I use isn’t enameled, so you don’t have to worry about enamel flaking off into your bread (if you read reviews for the Le Creuset dutch ovens, you’ll learn this is very common, which is quite surprising for such an over-priced Dutch oven). If you’ve never used cast iron before, it’s actually very easy to clean and take care of. You just have to do it right. Here is a great article on how to care for cast iron. (I use canola oil to season my cast iron. It works great and is very affordable.)

Note: You can make sourdough without using a double dutch oven. This involves creating steam in your oven by pouring boiling hot water into a pan in the bottom of your oven. This is more dangerous, more difficult, and will result in you needing to replace your oven seal on a regular basis. I don’t recommend this method, but it will work if that’s what you have to do. You can find plenty of blogs or YouTube videos on how to use this method.

Spray Bottle for Water

This isn’t a must-have, but it’s very handy.

Parchment Paper

You will will use this to protect your bread from the hot cast iron and to easily transfer your dough to the hot cast iron. If you use cast iron that isn’t enameled like I do, I recommend using two pieces of parchment paper to prevent the bottom of your bread from getting overcooked.

2 Mixing Bowls

I use a 1.5 qt and a 3 qt mixing bowl. If the 3 qt. bowl has a lid, that’s awesome, otherwise you can use plastic wrap or a towel. A light bowl is better than a heavy bowl, since you’ll be weighing ingredients into these. Stainless steel or food-safe plastic work great. Glass or porcelain are too heavy. You might max out your scale, but even if you don’t, your measurements won’t be as accurate because the container weighs so much compared to the ingredients you’re weighing. These are the bowls I use.

An Apron

This isn’t a must, but if you do this a lot, you will get flour and dough on you, and it can be difficult to get out in the wash.

Cooling Rack

Cutting Board

Bread Knife

A good, sharp bread knife goes a long way. I use this one.

Scoring Knife/Razor Blade/Bread Lame

This is used to score the bread, which will help control your oven spring and give your bread an artistic flair. You can just use a razor blade attached to a popsicle stick, or you can buy something nicer. This is what I use.

Conclusion

Alright, now that you have the supplies you need, we can talk about how to make and maintain your sourdough starter. The sourdough starter (which is really a culture of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria) is the “seed” that you will use to “grow” all your delicious loaves of bread. You can also use your sourdough starter to make pretty much anything bread-like, including cookies, crackers, pancakes, pastries, muffins, cakes, etc.

We’ll get into all the ins and outs of making and maintaining your starter in the next article in this series.

If you have any comments or questions, please post them in the comments below. I’ll do my best to answer any questions, either in the comments or in a future article.

More Information

Here are some articles on sourdough starters if you’d like to learn more.

Sourdough Science

Get to Know Your Sourdough Yeast

The Science of Sourdough Starters

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©2025 Cedar Moon Publishing LLC

Here are some magic items for 5th edition that I’ve created for my campaigns. I hope you enjoy them!

Fabulous

Fabulous is a +1 longsword with an amethyst set into the pommel. As a bonus action the wielder can cause the blade to glow with a lavender light. This provides dim illumination out to 10 feet from the wielder, which the wielder can activate or deactivate with a bonus action. The sword is elven-made and is half the normal weight.

Guild Cloak

Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)

In the Primordia campaign setting, most adventurers are members of The Honorable Guild of Adventurers, Explorers and Scholars. Members of the Guild often receive magical guild cloaks. 

This exquisitely-made cloak is of elven craftsmanship and is in the style of your choice. It is made in the colors of your adventuring team (which you can decide upon as a group, usually using 3 colors—primary, secondary, accent) and may also display your team's coat of arms if you wish. It may also have embellishments like embroidery and various linings and hems. The cloak is designed so it does not get in one's way while doing activities as diverse as riding to fighting. Not only does the cloak protect you and keep you warm, it is an instantly-recognizable status symbol indicating you are an Adventurer of the Guild. Some people love Adventurers, some hate them, some fear them, but all respect them. 

Protection. You gain a +1 bonus to AC and saving throws while you wear this cloak.

Temperate. You suffer no harm in temperatures as cold as -20 degrees Fahrenheit or as warm as 120 degrees Fahrenheit as long as you wear this cloak.

Mark of an Adventurer. This cloak identifies you as an Adventurer of good standing within the Honorable Guild of Adventurers, Explorers & Scholars. As such it may give you advantage (or disadvantage!) in certain social situations based on the person's opinion of Adventurers. 

Oil of Girding

Potion, uncommon

When you gird your loins with this magic olive oil, you gain a +1 bonus to AC. This effect lasts for 1 hour.

Potion of Regurgitation

Potion, uncommon

This potion induces vomiting, giving an advantage on saving throws versus an ingested poison. The contents may be collected and reused if you have the...stomach..for it.

Probation Bracelet

Wondrous Item, very rare (requires attunement)

In the world of Primordia, the Guild of Adventurers will sometimes allow criminals to apply for membership as an opportunity for redemption. In these situations, the Guild needs a way to monitor these people to ensure they don’t perform anymore crimes. The probation bracelet was created to serve this purpose.

The Guild does not share all the ins and outs of the bracelet with those that must wear it. All the wearer knows is that it is a bracelet made of a silvery metal that looks like a miniaturized version of the Portals of Elandria. They seem to be made of one piece and have a hidden catch that opens them (a wearer knows this from when they were fitted with the bracelet). The wearer knows the bracelet has magical properties, and the wearer is told by their Sponsor in the Guild that among other things the bracelet allows the Guild to track and find the wearer as needed. The wearer is also given the impression that the Guild is somehow able to record the wearer’s actions, and that the bracelet allows the Guild to review these actions later.

The wearer is also told that these bracelets are dual-purpose—they indicate that the wearer is a potential initiate of the Guild who is "on probation", but once the potential proves herself, the bracelet becomes a badge of honor displaying the fact that the wearer has earned a place in the Guild and has been absolved of their past crimes. There are some high-ranking members of the Guild with these bracelets, and once such a member proves herself, the metal changes to a rose-gold in color. The bracelets can only be removed by the Sponsor who fitted them to the wearer, and the wearer can also use them to contact the Sponsor magically (this works exactly like the sending spell). 

For the GM: The bracelet requires attunement by both the potential wearing it and the potential’s Sponsor. The attuned Sponsor can observe the wearer at any time with an action as per the scrying spell as long as the wearer is on the same plane of existence as the Sponsor. The Sponsor can also cast hold person on the wearer as a bonus action (this can be done from a distance as the Sponsor is observing the wearer using the scrying feature). The Sponsor can also teleport to the wearer’s location with no chance for error, and the Sponsor can use teleportation circle to teleport to the wearer as well (the bracelet has a glyph sequence known only to the attuned Sponsor). The bracelet can have other powers available to the Sponsor as well, at the DM’s discretion.

Ring of Returning

Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement)

This 10-inch-diameter ring appears to be made of clear crystal. The ring is large enough that up to 9 people can hold onto it at once with one hand. This ring is used by the Guild to teleport potentials to a location and return them to the origin point after a designated time period (usually 24, 48, or 72 hours).

It has two levels of attunement—master-attunement and student-attunement. The ring is master-attuned to its creator when first created. One who is master-attuned to the ring can pass the attunement on to another being if they both hold the ring and the master-attuned being speaks the appropriate command phrase, which takes 1 minute. 

A being who has master-attunement with the ring can student-attune up to 8 other beings to the ring. To do this the master and students must all hold the ring while the master speaks the appropriate command phrase, which takes 1 minute. 

To use the ring, the master and up to 8 student-attuned beings must hold the ring in one hand. If the master does not want to use the default return time period of 24 hours, she declares the return time period using the appropriate pass phrase, which takes 1 action. To send the students on their way, the master casts the teleport or teleportation circle spell. There is no chance of mishap or of the spell being off target as long as the master is sending the students to a permanent circle or a location she is very familiar with, has seen casually, or has viewed once. Upon the completion of the spell, the students and ring teleport to the destination.

10 minutes before the return time elapses, the ring begins emitting soft chimes every minute. Accompanying these chimes are mystical symbols that glow within the ring, showing a countdown to those who can read arcane runes or who succeed at a DC 10 Intelligence (Arcana) check. At the last minute, the chimes sound and runes appear at ten second intervals, until the last 5 seconds, at which time they sound and appear every second. When the return time arrives (and the countdown reaches zero), the ring and all attuned beings holding it return to the origin point where the teleport or teleportation circle spell was cast. There is no chance of mishap or of the spell being off target when the ring and students return. Any unattuned being holding the ring when it teleports is left behind.

Avriana’s Crystal Sword of Power

Weapon, legendary (requires attunement by a sorcerer or wizard of non-evil alignment)

This is a magical longsword made of clear crystal. It can never break or lose its edge. It is half the normal weight. When its abilities are activated, it shines with inner light like the sun.

This magic sword grants a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it. While holding it, you gain a +2 bonus to Armor Class, saving throws, and spell attack rolls.

The sword can shed bright light in a 30-foot radius around the wielder and dim light for an additional 30 feet. This doesn’t require an action. It also automatically sheds this light anytime its charges are used, or the wielder casts a spell or cantrip. This light can be suppressed if the user wishes and doing so doesn’t require an action.

Gleaming. This sword never gets dirty.

Unbreakable. This sword is indestructible. The only ways it can be destroyed is with a Retributive Strike or through the expenditure of all its charges and rolling a 1 on the d20.

Sentience. The sword is intelligent and communicates with its wielder empathically. It has an Intelligence of an Intelligence of 16, a Wisdom of 14 and a Charisma of 14. It has hearing and has darkvision with a range of 120 feet.

The sword is good aligned and won’t tolerate a wielder who is evil or regularly commits evil acts. The sword’s purpose is to serve its creator. If that is no longer possible, then the sword serves a wielder it finds worthy. An unworthy wielder finds it impossible to attune to the sword (if the wielder was previously attuned to the sword, the attunement is broken the moment the sword deems them unworthy). If such a person tries to wield the sword anyway, they suffer the damage of a retributive strike that targets only the wielder (with no chance to send them to another plane), and then the sword teleports away to a location chosen by the DM.

The sword has 20 charges that can be used to power the features below. The sword regains 2d8 + 4 expended charges daily at dawn. If you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the sword retains its +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls but loses all other properties. On a 20, the sword regains 1d8 + 2 charges.

Power Strike

When you hit with a melee attack using the sword, you can expend 1 charge to deal an extra 1d6 force damage to the target. 

Spells

While holding this sword, you can use an action to expend 1 or more of its charges to cast one of the following spells from it, using your spell save DC and spell attack bonus: cone of cold (5 charges), fireball (5th level version, 5 charges), globe of invulnerability (6 charges), hold monster (5 charges), levitate (2 charges), lightning bolt (5th level version, 5 charges), daylight (3 charges), magic missile (1 charge), ray of enfeeblement (1 charge), or wall of force (5 charges).

Retributive Strike

You can use an action to break the sword over you knee or against a solid surface, performing a retributive strike. The sword is destroyed and releases its remaining magic in an explosion that expands to fill a 30-foot-radius sphere centered on it. 

You have a 50 percent chance to instantly travel to a random plane of existence, avoiding the explosion. If you fail to avoid the effect, you take force damage equal to 16 x the number of charges in the sword. Every other creature in the area must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes an amount of damage based on how far away it is from the point of origin, as shown below. On a successful save, a creature takes half as much damage. 

10 ft. away or closer = 8 x the number of charges in the sword
11 to 20 ft. away = 6 x the number of charges in the sword
21 to 30 ft. away = 4 x the number of charges in the sword

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I was fleshing out the gods of my homebrew D&D setting, Primordia, in preparation for my Hinterlands of Elandria campaign. I quickly realized that the domains provided for D&D weren’t enough to cover the Primordian gods, so I decided to come up with a few domains of my own to fill the gaps.

One of the things I love about the design of a lot of the subclasses in 5e is that they allow you to build a character with a multiclass feel without having to multiclass. Many of these domains follow that tradition.

One of my players, Craig, is using the Travel domain for his cleric character, Quincy. However, the rest of these domains haven’t been playtested, so use them at your own risk.

As is always the case with homebrew content I post on this blog, if you do use any of this material in your game, I would love to hear from you. How did these domains work for you? How did you and the players like them? Did you make any changes?

Without further ado, here are a few more cleric domains you can use in your D&D game. I hope you enjoy them.

Charm Domain

The charm domain is ideal for gods whose clerics are known for being good with people. In Primordia clerics of Imora, goddess of good luck, fortune and games of chance have this domain. Clerics of the goddess Inara, goddess of love, beauty, romance, sex, desire, fertility, pleasure and healing also have the charm domain.

The charm domain is great for a player who wants to play a more socially proficient cleric. The domain spells include charm spells as well as some illusions. These illusions are used by clerics of Imora to help stack the odds in their favor, and they are often used by clerics of Inara to enhance their appearance and emotional effect on people. The charm domain can give a cleric a cleric-bard multiclass feel.

Domain Spells

1st - Charm person, disguise self

3rd - Enthrall, suggestion

5th - Dispel magic, hypnotic pattern

7th - Greater invisibility, hallucinatory terrain

9th - Modify memory, seeming

Bonus Proficiency

When you choose this domain at 1st level, you gain proficiency in Persuasion. You also gain the friends cantrip if you don’t already know it.

Channel Divinity: Charm Humanoids

Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to charm humanoids.

As an action, you present your holy symbol and invoke the name of your deity. Each humanoid creature that can see you within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is charmed by you for 1 minute or until it takes damage. While it is charmed by you, it is friendly to you and other creatures you designate.

Resist All Others

Starting at 6th level, when you or a creature within 30 feet of you is subjected to a charm effect, you can use your reaction to grant advantage to the creature on its saving throw against that charm effect.

Divine Strike

At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 damage of the same type dealt by the weapon to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.

Master of Minions

At 17th level, you gain the ability to command humanoids. While creatures are charmed by your Charm Humanoids feature, you can take a bonus action on your turn to verbally command what each of those creatures will do on its next turn.

 Hunt Domain

The hunt domains is the perfect domain for nature deities whose portfolios include hunting. In Primordia, clerics of the goddess Dianara, goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness and foraging have the hunt domain. The domain spells include a number of ranger spells, giving this domain a unique flavor.

The hunt domain is great for a player who wants to play a cleric who is also an archer. It’s also great for a player who wants to play a more “naturey” cleric. Clerics of the hunt domain ultimately perform best in light armor, which also gives them a different feel from most other clerics, who tend to use medium or heavy armor. The hunt domain can give a cleric character a cleric-ranger multiclass feel.

Domain Spells

1st - Hunter’s mark, longstrider

3rd - Locate animals or plants, pass without trace

5th - Water breathing, water walk

7th - Freedom of movement, locate creature

9th - Commune with nature, tree stride

Bonus Proficiency

When you choose this domain at 1st level, you gain proficiency with longbows. You also gain proficiency in Survival. If you’re already proficient in Survival, you gain proficiency in Nature instead.

Hunter Priest

From 1st level, you god delivers bolts of inspiration to you while you are engaged in the hunt. When you use the Attack action, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Channel Divinity: Guided Strike

Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to strike with supernatural accuracy. When you make an attack roll, you can use your Channel Divinity to gain a +10 bonus to the roll. You make this choice after you see the roll, but before the DM says whether the attack hits or misses.  

Soul of the Hunter

Starting at 6th level, your mastery of the hunt grants you a number of special abilities:

• You gain a +1 bonus to AC while you are wearing light or no armor.

• You gain advantage on saving throws against poison and resistance to poison damage.

• When you hit a beast with an attack, you deal additional force damage to it equal to your cleric level.

Divine Strike

At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 damage of the same type dealt by the weapon to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.

Saint of the Hunt

At 17th level, your affinity for nature becomes more powerful due to your deity’s blessing. You gain immunity to poison damage and the poisoned condition. While you’re wearing light or no armor, you have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from non-magical attacks.

Perform Domain

The perform domain is perfect for gods with the arts in their portfolios. In Primordia clerics of Baros, god of music, the arts, storytelling, poetry and performance have the perform domain.

The perform domain includes some illusions in its domain spells which can be used to enhance the cleric’s performances and help to sway the cleric’s audience.

The perform domain is great for a player who wants their cleric to have more illusion abilities and be able to perform and influence people. This domain gives the cleric a cleric-bard multiclass feel.

Domain Spells

1st - Disguise self, faerie fire

3rd - Calm emotions, enthrall

5th - Major image, tongues

7th - Fabricate, greater invisibility

9th - Mislead, seeming

Bonus Proficiency

You gain proficiency in a musical instrument of your choice. You also gain proficiency in the Performance skill; if you’re already proficient in Performance, you gain proficiency in another musical instrument instead.

Channel Divinity: Invoke Duplicity

Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to create an illusory duplicate of yourself.

As an action, you create a perfect illusion of yourself that lasts for 1 minute, or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell). The illusion appears in an unoccupied space that you can see within 30 feet of you. As a bonus action on your turn, you can move the illusion up to 30 feet to a space you can see, but it must remain within 120 feet of you.

For the duration, you can cast spells as though you were in the illusion’s space, but you must use your own senses. Additionally, when both you and your illusion are within 5 feet of a creature that can see the illusion, you have advantage on attack rolls against that creature, given how distracting the illusion is to the target.

Channel Divinity: Cloak of Shadows

Starting at 6th level, you can use your Channel Divinity to vanish.

As an action, you become invisible until the end of your next turn. You become visible if you attack or cast a spell.

Potent Spellcasting

Starting at 8th level, you add your Wisdom modifier to the damage you deal with any cleric cantrip.

Improved Duplicity

At 17th level, you can create up to four duplicates of yourself, instead of one, when you use Invoke Duplicity. As a bonus action on your turn, you can move any number of them up to 30 feet, to a maximum range of 120 feet.

Travel Domain

The travel domain is perfect for gods whose portfolios include things like traveling, exploration and trade. In Primordia clerics of the goddess Marganna, goddess of travel, trade, diplomacy, commerce, language and communication have the travel domain.

The travel domain includes spells that will be helpful on journeys and in dealing with foreign peoples. It will be very useful to clerics who want to travel and explore and be able to socialize with anyone, anywhere.

The travel domain is great for a player who wants to play a cleric who’s an explorer, diplomat or trader. It enhances a cleric’s social abilities and gives them some magic normally limited to characters like wizards and sorcerers.

Domain Spells

1st - Comprehend languages, longstrider

3rd - Darkvision, pass without trace

5th - Sending, tongues

7th - Dimension door, freedom of movement

9th - Teleportation circle, passwall

Bonus Proficiency

You gain proficiency in Survival. You also know an additional language.

Channel Divinity: Knowledge of the Ages

Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to tap into a divine well of knowledge. As an action, you choose one skill or tool. For 10 minutes, you have proficiency with the chosen skill or tool.

Channel Divinity: Read Thoughts

At 6th level, you can use your Channel Divinity to read a creature’s thoughts. You can then use your access to the creature’s mind to command it.

As an action, choose one creature that you can see within 60 feet of you. That creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. If the creature succeeds on the saving throw, you can’t use this feature on it again until you finish a long rest.

If the creature fails its save, you can read its surface thoughts (those foremost in its mind, reflecting its current emotions and what it is actively thinking about) when it is within 60 feet of you. This effect last for 1 minute.

During that time, you can use your action to end this effect and cast the suggestion spell on the creature without expending a spell slot. The target automatically fails its saving throw against the spell.

Divine Strike

At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 damage of the same type dealt by the weapon to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.

 Supreme Healing

Starting at 17th level, when you would normally roll one or more dice to restore hit points with a spell, you instead use the highest number possible for each die. For example, instead of restoring 2d6 hit points to a creature, you restore 12.

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I thought I’d share some backgrounds I created for my current D&D campaign, Hinterlands of Elandria. (If you’re interested in checking out my campaign, I have the actual play of our game sessions as part of my Game Master’s Journey podcast.) These backgrounds can be used in pretty much any D&D setting. Presented below are the Alchemist’s Apprentice, Cartographer, Farmer, and Independant Merchant.

You’ll notice I’m not including Ideals, Bonds and Flaws in these backgrounds. There are two main reasons for this. The first reason is that I don’t find Ideals, Bonds and Flaws to be terribly useful or relevant in my games. The second reason is that when the players do get into them, they usually like creating their own, or riffing off an example, and we already have plenty of example for Ideals, Bonds and Flaws in the official books. Those of you who’ve listened to Game Master’s Journey or read this blog much know that I like to be very strategic with my game designing. I prefer to focus my time and energy on designing features that give me the most “bang for my buck”—features that will be used and enjoyed by the players. I don’t like spending time designing or fleshing out things we won’t actually use at the table.

If you use these backgrounds for your own game, feel free to come up with your Ideals, Bonds and Flaws for them, or, better yet, let the players do so when they choose these backgrounds. If you do come up with some Ideals, Bonds and Flaws, feel free to share them with the rest of us in the comments below.

Alchemist’s Apprentice

You have apprenticed under an alchemist in the city of Elandria. You have learned the basics of herbalism and alchemy, and you know how to make antitoxin and potions of healing. Although you’ve left your apprenticeship to pursue the life of an adventurer, you left on good terms and you are always welcome at your master’s laboratory and shop.

Skill Proficiencies: Arcana, Nature

Tool Proficiencies: Alchemist’s supplies, herbalism kit

Equipment: Herbalism kit, a set of common clothes, 3 vials and a pouch containing 10 gp.

Feature: Alchemist Mentor

You and the alchemist you apprenticed under are on good terms. You may use your mentor’s alchemy lab and alchemist’s supplies free of charge during off hours, although you may need to pay for reagents and supplies you consume. Your mentor is also a source of information on alchemy and herbalism, although there are limits to their knowledge. If you remain on good terms, you may inherit the lab when the alchemist retires or get a good price to buy them out.

Cartographer

You have trained as a cartographer and have learned to make accurate maps. You look forward to not only living the adventurous life of an adventurer and explorer, but also being able to pass on what you see through accurate maps for the people of Elandria.

Skill Proficiencies: Perception, Stealth

Tool Proficiencies: Cartographer’s tools, navigator’s tools

Equipment: Cartographer’s Tools, 3 sheets of parchment, ink pen, 1 bottle of ink, a set of common clothes and a pouch with 5 gp.

Feature: Mind for Terrain

You can map things you’ve seen up to 24 hours after you’ve seen them with no penalty to the roll to remember details accurately. You have advantage on Cartographer’s Supplies rolls to map something you are currently observing.

Farmer

You were raised as a farmer. Your family may be one of the lucky few to farm lands within the outer wall of Elandria, or you may farm some of the subterranean fields. Although your origins are humble, you understand the importance of the peasant class to society as a whole in a way few nobles or merchants do.

Skill Proficiencies: Animal Handling, Nature

Tool Proficiencies: Vehicles (land) and one of your choice from among brewer’s supplies, carpenter’s tools, cook’s utensils, leatherworker’s tools, smith’s tools or woodcarver’s tools

Equipment: A set of artisan tools this background gave you proficiency in, a set of common clothes, a pouch with 10 gp

Feature: Farmer’s Hospitality

You are known in the farming community of Elandria. You have advantage on social rolls with other farmers of Elandria. Given time, you can find a farmer willing to let you and up to five of your companions to bed down in a hay loft, under a hay stack or even in a spare room. The family will also provide meals for you and up to five companions, as long as you all help out with chores during your stay. You will only be able to stay for a few days, however, before needing to find another farm. This feature also allows you to gain similar favors from farmer families in other lands, giving you advantage on any social roll to request temporary room and board.

Merchant (Independent)

You are a merchant and trader, however unlike the Guild Merchant, you are unaffiliated with a guild. This means that you either trade in goods that aren’t represented by a trading guild, or you’ve managed to avoid the notice of the guild so far, likely because you are too “small time” for them to notice or bother with. Before the Retreat, you likely traveled far and wide by ship and/or caravan, but in recent years your trading has been limited to Elandria and the handful of cities it has Portals to.

Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Persuasion

Tool Proficiencies: Vehicles (land) or an additional language

Languages: One of your choice

Equipment: A mule and a cart, set of traveler’s clothes, a letter of introduction from your guild (if you’re part of one), and a pouch containing 15 gp.

Feature: Merchant Connections

Trade is your bread and butter, and as such, you have a good knowledge of the merchants of Elandria and its trading partners. You know where various goods and services can be procured, and you know which merchants are known for reasonable prices, quality merchandise, etc. At the DM’s discretion, you also may get better deals with a handful of merchants you’ve established trading relationships with, trading your own good for theirs at cost.

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All dragons in Primordia use the innate spellcasting variant (see the text box on page 86 of the Monster Manual). This is the second in a series of write-ups on dragons in Primordia. Part 1 detailed Red Dragons of Primordia.

A Note on Alignment & Personality

Green dragons in Primordia have just as much free will as any other sentient creature. Information on personality and alignment given here and in the MM should be considered to describe the tendencies of behavior for an average green dragon (if there even is such a thing). DMs should use this information as a starting point for developing a given dragon’s personality but shouldn’t feel bound by it. Each individual dragon’s experiences and choices has as much influence on its personality and alignment as these tendencies. The information given represents a dragon’s instinctual behavior, so even a dragon that is normally quite different may exhibit these tendencies when under stress.

Green Dragons of Primordia

Green dragons have always been among my favorites of the chromatic dragons. They’re an excellent nemesis for any adventure that takes place in or near a forest. Green dragons are the most treacherous and cunning of the dragons, so they can be a lot of fun for a DM to roleplay. A green dragon isn’t just a thuggish, powerful adversary. A green dragon will always have a scheme and an end game, and it will never share its true goals with the PCs. This is a chance for the GM to use an intelligent adversary that always seems to be a step ahead of the characters.

Green dragons are also cunning in that they like to choose their battles. They’ll often observe a future foe in secret, learning its strengths, weaknesses, tactics and strategies. A green dragon that initiates a conflict with the PCs will be prepared. It will have observed them (either physically, magically, or through minions), and it will be prepared for their tactics and tricks. This is a great chance for the DM to throw an “unfair” encounter at the players—an adversary who has the advantage and knows how to use it. Players are used to being the ones with the advantage in most situations, so an intelligent and prepared green dragon can not only be a welcome change of pace, it can also be a reminder that there are forces in the world much more powerful and informed than the player characters.

Green dragons are also very charismatic and excel at manipulation. A green dragon could be an excellent possible patron of quest-giver for the PCs. The two parties can work together as long as their interests are aligned, but as soon as they’re not, the green dragon will make its move for ultimate advantage. This can be a very fun reversal to roleplay.

Green dragons love having minions, and you can check the MM for some ideas of common minions, but don’t let yourself be limited by this. Any creature that is in the dragon’s environment and can be strong-armed, bribed, manipulated or coerced could be a minion. There are limitless possibilities here. Maybe an NPC the PCs know and respect secretly works for a green dragon. Perhaps the green dragon in the area has acquired someone important as a thrall, and the PCs must rescue this person. PCs themselves could also become the servants of a green dragon if they’re not careful.

The following spell lists are suggestions. An individual green dragon’s spells could and should vary. However, these lists represent the kind of spells green dragons like to employ and can be used whole cloth by a DM in a hurry.

Green dragons love spells like detect thoughts, invisibility, greater invisibility, etherealness, and true seeing because these spells are great tools for gathering information and spying on potential foes. Green dragons love information and the power it gives them over others. Geas and mass suggestion are great spells for bending minions to a green dragon’s will.

Green dragons often learn and enjoy the polymorph spell. The ability to take a humanoid shape can be very useful in attracting and securing minions and thralls. For this reason, green dragonborn are a possibility in the world, and are the most common chromatic-descended dragonborn encountered.

Adventure Idea

A powerful green dragon resides deep in a nearby forest. Attractive and influential people in nearby settlements have begun disappearing without a trace. Some were last seen talking to a stranger no one recognizes. If the PCs investigate, the stranger turns out to be the green dragon polymorphed into human form. The missing people have been taken by the dragon as thralls to serve it in its lair.

The PCs can find the dragon’s lair and try to secure the release of the prisoners. This could be done through negotiation or perhaps through stealth or force, depending on which way the players and the DM want to take it. It should not be easy, however. If the PCs try negotiating, the dragon will want something dear and valuable in return, something the PCs won’t want to give up. If the PCs try stealth or force, neither will be easy and the deck will be stacked against them.

The DM should come up with a scheme that the green dragon is working toward. Perhaps another dragon is encroaching on its territory. If the PCs can drive off the other dragon, they may be able to convince the green to free some of its thralls. Perhaps the green dragon has political motivations and wants political power in the human arena via its polymorphed form.

A green dragon makes an excellent Machiavellian nemesis for an extended campaign. The PCs can encounter it at low level, and maybe even work for it for a time, before they realize the truth of its goals. As they progress through the campaign they can slowly learn that the dragon is at the center of a web of intrigue and may ultimately decide it’s worth the risk to try to end the dragon’s influence on the area.

Green Dragon Magic

Young Green Dragon

Casts 2 spells at level 2, once per long rest each.
Spell save DC 13, spell attack bonus +5

• Detect Thoughts

• Invisibility

Adult Green Dragon

Casts 3 spells at level 5, once per long rest each.
Spell save DC 16, spell attack bonus +8

• Detect Thoughts

• Geas

• Greater Invisibility

Ancient Green Dragon

Casts 4 spells at level 7, once per long rest each.
Spell save DC 19, spell attack bonus +11

• Mass Suggestion

• Etherealness

• Polymorph

• True Seeing

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This is the third part of a series of articles on flexible encounters—my alternative to random encounters.

Part 1 explained the advantages and disadvantages of random encounters and offered flexible encounters as an alternative with all the advantages but none of the disadvantages of random encounters.

Part 2 explained how I build flexible encounters and how I use them in play.

Today I’ll give you some tips and tricks to use with flexible encounters, and I’ll also give some ideas of how you can reuse your flexible encounters later in the campaign or in future campaigns.

Adding Variety to Your Encounters

One thing to keep in mind anytime you’re designing a number of encounters at once is that you want to avoid the encounters all seeming the same. When you’re designing flexible encounters for your campaign, try to come up with a variety of encounters. There are a number of ways to do this.

Come up with encounters that span a variety of difficulties—easy, medium, hard etc.

Design encounters with a variety of adversaries. Instead of having all your encounters involve evil monsters, have some encounters with neutral or good monsters as well. Keep in mind that an opponent doesn’t need to be evil to be an adversary to the PCs—they just need to have goals that go against the PCs’ goals. Encounters with non-evil monsters are often far more compelling because they’re not black and white. There also may be more opportunity to non-violent solutions to the problem.

You can also design some encounters that involve a group of weaker monsters and other encounters with a single powerful monster.

Find a variety of different monster abilities and mechanics to use in your encounters, like flying monsters, monsters with poison, monsters who grapple and/or paralyze, monsters with spells, etc.

When it comes to using your flexible encounters during play, think about pacing when you choose which encounter to use. How much time do you have left in the session? Are you and the players in the mood for a quick scuffle or a drawn-out fight? Keep in mind that encounters with multiple monsters usually take longer than ones with a single monster. As a general rule, the more participants in an encounter, the longer it will take. I used the word participants because the time an encounter takes also depends on the number of players at your table, as well as the number of friendly NPCs in the party.

Also keep in mind that not all flexible encounters have to be fights. PCs can encounter friendly or indifferent NPCs who just happen to be in the same area as the PCs. They can also encounter monsters who can be bribed, manipulated or reasoned with. Just as it’s a good idea to include some non-combat encounters in a random encounter table, we should do the same thing when we’re building our deck of flexible encounters.

Sometimes the environment itself can present an encounter. A sudden storm, flash flood, mudslide or avalanche are all examples of natural events that can be encounters in their own right. Other environmental encounters can be things like quicksand, traps and snares. For even more excitement and uniqueness, combine one of these natural events with a combat encounter.

The environment can also make an encounter more difficult or easier. Wind and rain can hamper the PCs’ senses, making it easier for them to be surprised. Treacherous terrain can make movement during an encounter more difficult and dangerous.

Reusing Flexible Encounters

One thing I especially like about flexible encounters is that they are much easier to reuse than story encounters. By design, flexible encounters are meant to be used in a variety of situations and places, so it’s extremely to reuse one.

Maybe you design a flexible encounter that you just never get around to using. You can just keep that encounter in your deck of flexible encounters (see Part 2 for more information) for as long as it makes sense to do so. If you never get around to using the encounter, you can always save it for future adventures and campaigns you run.

You can also reuse a flexible encounter that you’ve already used and that you and the players really enjoyed. If you’re going to reuse an encounter in this way, I recommend that you change it up in some way so it’s not just the exact same thing again. This will make it more interesting, and it will be less obvious to the players that this is the same encounter recycled.

There are a number of ways you can change an encounter up when you want to reuse it.

You can change the number and/or types of creatures in the encounter.

You can change the equipment, magic items and treasure that the creatures have with them.

You can change the creatures’ tactics. You can change whether or not they will surrender and what it will take to make them surrender.

You can also change the information the creatures have if the PCs question them.

You can change the way you describe the creatures. Perhaps you make these the same types of creature that were encountered before, they just look different. Or you could reskin the creatures as something else. This is where you use the stat-block of one creature, but describe it as a different creature. This is really easy to do.

You can change the environment that the encounter happens in. You can change the time of day (day or night) or the context in which the encounter happens (while traveling or while in camp).

Using Flexible Encounters & Story Encounters Together

In my games I usually think of two types of encounters—story encounters and flexible encounters. Story encounters tie into the plot or story of the game; they’re involved with a quest the PCs are pursuing. Story encounters may also be tied to a location, like in a dungeon adventure. Story encounters are the encounters you can plan for—you usually know when or where they’re going to happen, if not both. Flexible encounters, then, are sprinkled in among the story encounters. They can serve a number of purposes, which I discussed in Part 1.

The real key is to use story encounters and flexible encounters in a given session to make the game flow. There may be sessions where you don’t use any flexible encounters, and there may be sessions where you use nothing but flexible encounters. Of course, there can also be sessions where there are no encounters at all.

Pacing is very important in an RPG game. One of the many things that separates an excellent GM from a mediocre one is mastery of pacing. We want to keep the game going, so the players stay interested and engaged. Downtime should usually be avoided at all costs, unless you’re taking a break, and breaks should be taken at appropriate times with a consideration toward pacing. Downtime can come in many forms—looking up or discussing rules, bathroom breaks, setting up miniatures, rolling initiative, etc. (For a way to minimize the impact initiative has on the pacing of your game, check out this article.)

This is where flexible encounters shine, because they can be used to dial in the pacing of a given session. If you have a good variety of flexible encounters prepared, as we discussed above, then you likely have a good array of tools to use to manage the pacing in your game. You have some encounters that will be fairly quick and straightforward to run, like an encounter with a single adversary or an encounter with a small group of weak adversaries. You’ll also have encounters that will take longer to run, like an encounter with a powerful and complex monster or an encounter with a larger group of opponents.

You may not have as much flexibility with the story encounters you run in the session. Maybe you’re running a dungeon crawl, and the story encounters encountered depend completely on where the players decide to go, and are completely out of your hand. Or perhaps you’re running a more event-based adventure, and the story encounters are determined by the passage of time, and again are something you don’t have a lot of control over. But you do have control over whether or not to use flexible encounters, and if so, which encounters to use. So, maybe you have a couple long-drag-out fight story encounters that the PCs will encounter in succession. You could break these up with shorter flexible encounter in-between. Or maybe the PCs are encountering a bunch of simple and easy combat encounters in the dungeon, so you can spring a flexible encounter that is more complex and will take more time.

The best part is you can make these adjustments on-the-fly during play, depending on what is needed for the pacing of the game, how much time you have left on the clock, what the players seem to be in the mood for, etc. Maybe the players are dealing with a series of high-stakes roleplaying encounters, and you feel the game’s getting a little bogged down. A quick, exciting, flexible combat encounter could be the perfect thing in this situation.

In the end, I think the limits of flexible encounters and their usefulness in our games are really just the limits of our own imaginations as GMs. Remember when I said that when I’m preparing a game, I’m preparing to improvise? Flexible encounters help me to do just that. I have a deck of encounters ready to go. These encounters have been fleshed out enough that I have quite a bit to work with, and I can launch right into one. But they’re open enough that I can use them in a variety of situations and for a variety of purposes. It’s this flexibility that makes flexible encounters such a useful tool.

I hope you give them a try, and if you do, please let me know how they work out for you in your game.  

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©2025 Cedar Moon Publishing LLC

All dragons in Primordia use the innate spellcasting variant (see the text box on page 86 of the Monster Manual). This is the first of a series of write-ups on dragons in Primordia.

A Note on Alignment & Personality

Red dragons in Primordia have just as much free will as any other sentient creature. Information on personality and alignment given here and in the MM should be considered to describe the tendencies of behavior for an average red dragon (if there even is such a thing). DMs should use this information as a starting point for developing a given dragon’s personality but shouldn’t feel bound by it. Each individual dragon’s experiences and choices has as much influence on its personality and alignment as these tendencies. The information given represents a dragon’s instinctual behavior, so even a dragon that is normally quite different may exhibit these tendencies when under stress.

Red Dragons of Primordia

Red dragons work great as a fearsome looming menace for a campaign. They tend to lose their tempers and go on rampages, laying waste to villages and towns, so it’s easy to use a red dragon attack as a momentous event in your campaign.

The red dragon also makes a great recurring villain because they are very powerful and have many minions, so defeating one isn’t easy. They’re also arrogant, vain and evil, so they can also make for an interesting employer, patron or quest-giver.

Red dragon lairs tend to be in places like volcanos and are often located in or near the location of a stable rift to the plane of fire. The combination of environment, minions and creatures drawn through the fire rifts make a red dragon’s lair an exciting location for an epic boss fight.

The following spell lists are suggestions. Spells known vary from dragon to dragon.

Red dragons love powerful and destructive spells. They value spells that are useful against structures (like earthquake) and spells that can damage armies and groups of enemies (like call lightning).

Nothing pisses a red dragon off more than an opponent using magic to avoid his jaws, so antimagic field is a favorite among those reds powerful enough to cast it.

Red dragons will also commonly know at least one or two spells to deal with opponents who are immune or resistant to fire.

Red dragons tend to be too proud to use defensive magic, although older reds often learn to appreciate the protections of spells like regenerate. Spells that are simultaneously offensive and defensive in nature (like haste) are especially prized.

Reds also often employ magic for communication with their minions (sending) and gathering information (scrying).

Red dragons seldom learn shape-changing magic. In their arrogance they consider their own form superior to others in power and majesty. Most are too proud to assume a lesser form. Red dragons live for the fear that their true forms inspire in lesser beings.

Red dragons should never be defeated easily. A party facing a red on the wing should probably hope to survive it and at most drive it off. A red will always flee before it allows itself to be slain or captured by lesser beings. A red in its lair is a truly fearsome foe. Only the supremely prepared, powerful and lucky have a chance.

A red dragon is a villain the PCs should encounter numerous times before the final showdown. Make them work for it.

Red dragons consider dragons to be superior to other creatures and consider themselves to be superior to other dragons. The golds approach them in strength, but reds see golds’ good tendencies as weakness, thereby making them inferior. Red dragons consider the Primordian dragons to be worthy opponents, although of course still inferior to themselves.

Adventure Idea

A red dragon attack makes an excellent beginning to an adventure or campaign. A red dragon is rampaging through the area. It destroys a village or town beloved by the PCs. Alternatively, it attacks and is driven off by the PCs (if it’s a higher level adventure). It will be back. Set up the dragon as a long-term nemesis and even sometimes-ally. Eventually the PCs will outlive their usefulness, though, and the dragon will betray them. Another way to begin the adventure is to foreshadow the dragon’s presence in the beginning by having the PCs encounter its minions. Taking on the dragon in its lair will be a climactic high-level boss fight. If the PCs survive and prevail, they will have an awesome treasure. Although other dragons (especially other reds) may arrive to claim it once news of the red’s demise spreads.

Red Dragon Magic

Young Red Dragon

Casts 4 spells at level 3, once per long rest each.
Spell save DC 16, spell attack bonus +8

• Call Lightning

• Haste

• Lightning Bolt

• Sending

Adult Red Dragon

Casts 5 spells at level 5, once per long rest each.
Spell save DC 19, spell attack bonus +11

• Scrying

• Sending

• Call Lightning

• Haste

• Lightning Bolt

Ancient Red Dragon

Casts 6 spells at level 8, once per day each.
Spell save DC 21, spell attack bonus +13

• Antimagic Field

• Earthquake

• Call Lightning

• Scrying

• Haste

• Regenerate

Part 2 of this series discusses Green Dragons.

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©2025 Cedar Moon Publishing LLC

This is the second part of my series of articles on flexible encounters. I use flexible encounters instead of random encounters in most of my D&D games. They can be used in any game that uses random encounters or something similar.

Last week I talked about the pros and cons of random encounters. Now that we’re all on the same page as far as what random encounters offer for our games, and what their shortcomings are, I can talk more about my system of flexible encounters.

Flexible encounters have similarities to random encounters—they are encounters that I can use pretty much anytime, anywhere within a particular region. They serve the same purposes as random encounters in the game—they provide encounters that don’t necessarily relate to the story or quest the PCs are pursuing (although they can). Instead, these encounters can help to establish the setting, establish danger and foreshadow future story encounters, villains and antagonists. They can also be a change of pace.

Like random encounters, flexible encounters can be used anytime you need an encounter, but don’t have a story encounter to run. Maybe you need an encounter to bring some excitement (combat) to the session. Maybe you need an encounter to fill up some game time. Like random encounters, flexible encounters can serve all these purposes and more.

The main difference between a flexible encounter and a random encounter is that flexible encounters are prepared ahead of time. Usually random encounters are generated randomly by rolling dice during a game session and run on-the-fly.

Flexible encounters have a lot of benefits compared with random encounters. Most of these benefits are due to the fact that you prepare them ahead of time. This allows you to create encounters with antagonists with more in-depth and thought-out tactics and strategies, because you had time to think about them before the game session. You can have encounters where the treasure is already prepared. This allows the antagonists in the encounter to realistically use any magic items from the treasure in the encounter. You can also consider a lot of other things ahead of time that you would have to come up with on-the-fly during play with a more traditional random encounter—things like the win conditions for the NPCs, if or when they'll surrender, what information they have that the PCs could extract from them in an interrogation, etc. You can also come up with evocative descriptions of the monsters and/or NPCs ahead of time.

Improvisation is a big part of being a GM, and no matter how much and how well you prepare, you will always have to improvise in a game session. A lot of the prep I do for a session is preparing to improvise.

I find that running a flexible encounter is much easier than running a random encounter because of the preparation I put into it. I don’t have to quickly come up with NPC tactics, strategies, names, personalities, etc. while running the encounter, because I’ve done much, if not all, of these things ahead of time. This leaves me more mental bandwidth to improvise other things in the encounter. I have more energy to devote to improvising the setting and terrain of the encounter and how that might affect the action. I have more time to improvise how the monsters react to what the PCs do, how they adapt their tactics in response to the PCs’ actions. I have more bandwidth to consider what comes next after the encounter and what any repercussions of the encounter are.

The goal with flexible encounters isn’t to remove improvisation from the game. Rather, the goal is to prepare the things we can prepare ahead of time, so we can save our improvisational strength for reacting to what the player characters do and adjusting to fluidity of an evolving encounter. This makes running the encounter easier because it's less you have to do on-the-fly. It will also make the encounter better, since you give it thought ahead of time, and you’re less likely to get into issues with plot holes or things that don’t make sense when the players start examining them.

For the most part, you can use flexible encounters anytime, anywhere. They can serve so many purposes in the game.

They can be great for pacing. Maybe you have an hour to kill at the end of a session, and you're not sure what to do. Use a flexible encounter. Or maybe things are kind of dragging, and you want a combat to shake things up and get the players into the session more. Use a flexible encounter.

They can be great to use instead of (or in addition to) random encounters on a journey through the wilderness or while exploring a dungeon. This accomplishes everything a random encounter does (establishing danger of the world and traveling through the wilderness, foreshadowing foes the PCs may later face and showing what creatures are in the area, giving the PCs a chance to learn needed information, giving the players a chance to blow off steam, feel powerful, etc.), but with a better-thought-out encounter.

Maybe you want an encounter that isn’t a story encounter just to remind the players that not everything revolves around their characters, to remind them that sometimes things just happen for no apparent reason. Also, if every encounter ties into your main story or plot somehow, it can feel very contrived to the players. In real life, not everything is relevant to what you’re trying to accomplish at the moment, so having some non-relevant encounters can really add a sense of realism to your game and world. Use a flexible encounter.

They can be a great way to use monsters you want to use that don't fit in the main storyline. As long as those monsters are in the area, or there's a reason they could be, you're good to go. There are often times you may use an NPC or monster in a flexible encounter, and then later you find a way to tie it into the main plot or a subplot of your game. This can often be done retroactively. This is awesome-sauce.

If you don’t end up using a flexible encounter, you can always use it later, sometimes even much later, although you may need to add more monsters or enhance it in some other way for PCs higher level than you designed it for. If you finish the campaign and never use a given flexible encounter, you can always use it in the next adventure or campaign you run.

In short, flexible encounters overcome many, if not all, of the shortcomings of random encounters, while still serving all the functions random encounters serve in the game. Now that I’ve hopefully illustrated the benefits of random encounters, let’s get into how to create and use them.

One of my favorite tools I use as a GM is a pack of index cards. I find an index card is the perfect size to hold the relevant details of an encounter. (I use 3x5 inch cards, but you can use 4x6 inch if you need more room.) The index card also limits me, so I don't put too much information in. Index cards also make it easy to use the encounters in multiple campaigns, if I’m running more than one campaign at the same time.

Pro-tip: I also put monsters and NPCs on an index card whenever I have the time. For example, if I'm going to use a ghoul, I'll print out the ghoul's stat block from the Monster Manual, and then glue that to an index card. Now, anytime I use a ghoul, I have that monster card ready. This is especially helpful when you're using multiple monsters in a single encounter. Instead of having to constantly flip around pages in your monster manual (or worse, flip between multiple books), you can have all the monsters laid out before you.

I create a flexible encounter in much the same way I’d create any encounter. The key difference with a flexible encounter is that it isn’t tied to a specific time or place. In contrast, a story encounter is tied to a specific time and/or place. So a certain story encounter might happen when the PCs enter a certain building in the city, or a story encounter might happen when the PCs track down a certain NPC. A flexible encounter, like a random encounter, is an encounter I can just slot in anytime.

As an example, let’s consider a group of PCs who are travelling through a forest. As part of the preparation for this adventure, instead of coming up with random encounters and a random encounter table, I’ll come up with some flexible encounters. This follows much the same process as designing a random encounter table would. I’ll think about what kinds of monsters and NPCs could be encountered in that area. I’ll brainstorm as many ideas as I can of encounters that could happen in the region, and then I will select my favorites to develop into flexible encounters.

So maybe our forest has goblinoids in it, so one encounter could be with a group of goblin hunters riding wolves. Perhaps another encounter could be with some bugbears. Maybe there is a sizable fey presence in this forest, so I add an encounter with sprites and another one with a mischievous fairy dragon.

If I’m just worried about the coming session, which is usually the case, then I try to come up with a few more encounters than I think I’ll need. So, for the next session, maybe I think I’ll be able to run three flexible encounters, so I’ll come up with at least five. This way, during the session, I have some choice as to which encounter to use at a given time, and I always have more than I need. So, if we end up needing four encounters instead of three, I’m still prepared. Keep in mind that any encounter I don’t use in this session can always be used in future sessions.

Once I have my list of flexible encounters for the session, I flesh each encounter out on an index card. I’m not going to include things from the stat block of the monster here, I have my monster card for that (see the pro-tip above). Instead, I put any other information I may need about the encounter on the card. I’ll put on what kind of monsters there are and how many. The number of monsters can either be a set number, or it could be range represented by a dice roll, e.g. 2d6 goblins riding wolves.

I’ll usually add a description to the card, or at least a few key words I want to use in the description. I’ll write down any tactics the monsters may use, and any other information I think I’ll need for the encounter, like whether or not they’ll surrender, any useful information they might have, etc. I also write down any treasure they are carrying.

Sometimes I will have encounters for in camp and others for while traveling. Other times, I will have one encounter, but have some notes on the card on how to run it if the PCs are in camp versus while travelling. I might also include notes on how to run the encounter at night versus in the day.

I create a card like this for each flexible encounter. The idea with the encounter card is to have only the information I need. I express this in as few words as possible (difficult for me). I want there to be all the information I need on the card, but I want to keep it very concise so I can scan it very quickly at the table.

Once I’ve made a card for each flexible encounter, I effectively have a "deck" of encounter cards. As I need an encounter during play, I can flip through the deck and find an encounter that fits the current location and situation well, and is what I'm looking for at that moment. I can literally have this deck in my back pocket for whenever I need it. As I plan for future sessions, I can add new encounters to the deck. After I use an encounter, I can remove it from the deck, or I can keep it in if I want to use it again. However, if I did use an encounter again, I would change something about it so it's not the same exact encounter (number of enemies, treasure/magic items/equipment they have, tactics, etc.).

If you look at most random encounter tables, they have a lot more options on them than you’ll ever use in a session, and often they have more than you’ll use in the whole adventure or campaign. So, really, all that stuff you don’t use is wasted effort. So, instead of having a bunch of not-at-all-fleshed-out encounters, I have a few encounters (just a couple more than I think I will need for the next session) that are fairly-well-fleshed-out. However, just like random encounters, these flexible encounters can be used at any point during the session that I want to run an encounter. So, our band of goblins riding wolves can be encountered anywhere in the forest, at any time. In contrast to a story encounter, where this group would be encountered in a certain place, or at a certain time, this group can be encountered anywhere, anytime I want to use the encounter.

Finally, because I’m choosing an encounter from the ones I’ve developed, I’m picking an encounter that fits and is what I need in the moment. So, if the PCs are in camp, and it’s the middle of the night, I pick an encounter that fits that well. If the PCs have been having an easy time of it for a while, and I want to give them a challenge, I can pick a harder encounter. This is all preferable to rolling the dice and using a random encounter that doesn’t fit so well for whatever reason.

Next week I’ll give you some more tips about using flexible encounters. I’ll also discuss ways that you can reuse your flexible encounters in future sessions.

If you have any questions or comments, please comment below.

This series is continued in Part 3.

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©2025 Cedar Moon Publishing LLC

I’ve always been a fan of dark elves. Here are two new backgrounds I created for the dark elves of Primordia. They could be used in any setting that has dark elves. They could even be used for characters other than dark elves with a little tweaking.

Masseuse

You are one of the prized dark elves who is a master of the art of massage. Few creatures get as tense as a dark elf, and such tension melts away under your deft touch. You receive respect beyond what your normal station would allow from your clients and members of the powerful elite may come to your table.

Skill Proficiencies:  Insight, Persuasion
Tool Proficiencies:  Herbalism Kit (for making oils & perfumes), Massage Kit
Equipment:  A massage kit, a set of common clothes, two flasks of massage oil, one vial of perfume, the favor of an admirer (promise of a future physical encounter, lock of hair, or trinket), and a belt pouch with 15 gp.

Feature: Town Gossip

If something is afoot in the city, there’s a good chance you know about it if it involves any of your clients. People often talk when they’re relaxed, and you learn a lot of pieces of information and gossip from people on your table. Be careful with the information, though, because clients often tell you things they don’t tell anyone else. If one of their secrets gets out, they may know just who to come to for retribution—you!

Suggested Characteristics

Massage is a respected profession among the dark elves. You may be a commoner, or even a slave, but you rub elbows (literally) with the most powerful people in the city. You have opportunities for powerful allies and enemies.

d8    Personality Trait

1. I know how to relax, and I tend to stay calm in social situations.

2.  I’m comfortable with strangers whether they’re of higher, lower or the same social standing as me.

3.  I take my health very seriously. I may have dietary restrictions and exercise regimens that others may find strange, but I believe they enable me to perform at my best.

4. I have trained myself to see obstacles as opportunities.

5. I enjoy listening to people talk about their problems. I usually don’t give advice (and never unless asked), but when I do, it’s good.

6. I’m so used to being calm and centered, I find it distressing to be around people who are angry, afraid or agitated.

7. Though I would never reveal it to my clients, I secretly enjoy causing pain when pleasure makes it most unexpected.

8. I hoard the secrets I learn from people on my table, waiting for the opportunity to use them to my advantage.

d6    Ideal

1. Betrayal. I use the information I gain from clients to benefit myself and my House. Nothing is sweeter than betraying someone’s trust. (Evil)

2. Chaos. I use my unique relationships with my clients to sow dissent and discord by spreading (and even making up) gossip. (Chaotic)

3. Survival. I do whatever I have to to survive and get ahead. I don’t enjoy it, but I do what has to be done. (Neutral)

4. Obliteration. I love destroying people—whether physically or psychologically. (Evil)

5. Seduction. I love the romance that can develop with my clients. I secretly keep a mental tally of my conquests. The more inappropriate the dalliance, the better. (Chaotic)

6. Pride. I pride myself on my craft. I want to be recognized as the best. (Any)

d6    Bond

1. I owe the person who trained me a great debt. She often calls in favors.

2. I am not who people think I am. If my real identity is discovered, I will meet a grisly end.

3. A priestess raised me up to my current position. I am her creature. She often uses me in her intrigues.

4. My fate is tied to another. I must help him keep his secrets, or mine will be revealed.

5. I am in love (lust) with one of my clients, and I will do anything for her.

6. I own a parlor, and my fate is tied to its success or failure.

d6    Flaw

1. I can’t keep a secret. As soon as I get some juicy gossip, I have to tell someone, preferably the person who would be the most interested in the information.

2. I resent the people on my table. I wish I had the means to be pampered as they are.

3. The intimacy of massage often leads me to forget the station of the person on my table. I have often been punished for inappropriately addressing a better.

4. I always have a crush on one of my clients. The object of my affections changes on an almost weekly basis.

5. I get very nervous when working on people of higher station.

6. I once poisoned one of my clients, a noble female. If my crime is ever discovered, I face a fate worse than death.

Torturer

You are a master of the art of torture. Your House uses you to extract information, whether from enemies of the House or even members of the House. Your services are also often used to punish wrongdoers and make an example of them.

Skill Proficiencies:  Intimidation, Medicine
Tool Proficiencies:  Torturer’s Tools, Smith’s Tools
Equipment:  A set of common clothes, torturer’s tools, and a pouch containing 15 gp.

Feature: Keeper of Secrets

You’ve tortured the high and the low of dark elf society. You’ve tortured members of your own House and other Houses. You’ve learned many secrets from those you’ve tortured. You may have shared them all with your House, or you may have kept some back for yourself. Regardless, the information you know is dangerous—both to other dark elves and to yourself.

Suggested Characteristics

Torture is a respected skill among the dark elves. Although wizards and priestesses can often get the information the House needs using magic, your House values you for the impact your torture sessions have on the victim and the observers (torture sessions are often public).

d8    Personality Trait

1. My greatest pleasure is breaking someone’s will.

2. I always try to dominate others in social situations.

3. I have a menacing manner of speaking that began as an affectation but has now become a part of who I am.

4. I always observe other people very closely, trying to determine their motives and secrets.

5. I prefer to deal with people one-on-one and am uncomfortable in crowds.

6. I love to play with people’s emotions, just to see what they’ll do.

7. I only feel alive when I am in pain or inflicting pain on someone else.

8. I assume everyone is lying to me until I can prove otherwise.

d6    Ideal

1. Truth. I take great pleasure in extracting the truth from people and presenting it to my superiors. That is my true purpose in life. (Neutral).

2. Conquest. I live to destroy my victims physically and psychologically. Every life I shatter is a feather in my cap. (Evil)

3. Equality. Everyone is equal in the hands of a torturer. Rank, sex, station and family mean nothing. Agony is the great equalizer. (Chaotic)

4. Revenge. Everyone who crosses me ends up on my table eventually. They regret their mistakes a long time before I let them die. (Evil)

5. Discovery. You never know what secrets people hold until you break them. I am a collector of secrets. Some I share with my superiors. Others I keep for myself. (Chaotic)

6. Craft. I pride myself in my abilities, and I am constantly striving to hone my art. (Any)

d6    Bond

1. I am fanatically loyal to my House. I know that disloyalty is the surest way to end up on a torturer’s table, and I will never allow that to happen to me.

2. I am in debt to a noble who spared my life and gave me my current position. I will do anything she asks.

3. I have a secret that, if discovered, would lead to me being the tortured instead of the torturer.

4. I seek to destroy any torturer regarded as more skilled than me.

5. I am a true believer and follower of Lloth. I strive to please her with everything I do.

6. Our kind is destined to rule the world. I do my part to weed out the weak among us.

d6    Flaw

1. I am secretly insecure and believe I am less than others in some way.

2. I have tortured the highest and lowest in our society. They are all the same to me. I often forget myself and don’t show my betters the proper respect.

3. I am truly sadistic. Inflicting pain is my true love. I sometimes get carried away, mutilating my victims beyond the capability of answering questions too soon.

4. I believe everyone is inferior to me.

5. In my heart I despise Lloth. I enjoy torturing her priestesses more than any other. I will do anything to get a priestess on my table, whether or not I’m authorized to do so.

6. My greatest fear is being tortured myself.

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This is the first part of a multi-part series of articles on my flexible encounters system. I use this system in D&D, but it can be used in pretty much any RPG that uses random encounters.

Most game masters I’ve talked to have an opinion—often a strong opinion—when it comes to using random encounters in their games. Some love them, some hate them. Hopefully we can all agree that there are advantages and disadvantages to using random encounters.

Some advantages of random encounters are that they don’t involve any preparation time outside of the game, they can bring some variety into a session and they can bring some unpredictability to the game. If you’re running a dungeon crawl, or something similar, they can also be a tool to discourage PCs from resting too often, which would make the dungeon or adventure too easy.

One of the main disadvantages of random encounters is that they’re, well, random. This can lead to encounters that are far too hard or far too easy for the PCs. It can lead to encounters that don’t seem to fit the adventure or environment. It can lead to encounters that just don’t make sense. This is especially vexing because one of the purposes many of us using random encounters is to add some realism to the game—not everything you encounter has to do with the quest you’re pursuing. However, if the encounter doesn’t make sense for some reason, that defeats the purpose of adding realism. Another disadvantage of random encounters is that because we tend to run them on-the-fly, they lack can the depth that an encounter we’ve prepared ahead of time has.

For many of us, whether or not we like random encounters boils down to two things—how much importance we place on the various advantages and disadvantages of random encounters, and our strategies to maximize the advantages we value while minimizing the disadvantages we want to avoid.

As for me, I don’t often use random encounters. Instead I use what I call flexible encounters, which serve the same purpose and have the same benefits as random encounters in the game, while avoiding their disadvantages.

To make sure we’re all on the same page here, let me define what I mean by a random encounter.

A random encounter is an encounter that I generate randomly during play, often by rolling on an encounter table. I may have certain points in the session where I know I’ll use a random encounter—like when the PCs camp for the night—or I may determine if and when random encounters happen randomly. This is usually done by determining the chance of an encounter happening and then rolling dice to see if one occurs.

So really, there are two aspects of randomness in a random encounter—whether an encounter happens, and if an encounter does happen, the nature of that encounter. Now, whether I decide a random encounter happens, or I roll to see if one happens, I consider the encounter a random encounter if I determine the nature of the encounter randomly.

The nature of the encounter is simply what monsters or NPCs are the adversaries in the encounter and how many of them there are. Usually the nature of an encounter is determined by rolling on a random encounter table. A random encounter table will usually have a variety of monsters and NPCs that could be encountered in the area, with varying levels of probability. You roll on the table to see which group of monsters or NPCs is encountered. The table may tell you how many of each type of monster/NPC there is, or it may have you determine that randomly with dice as well. (For the sake of brevity, from here on I will refer to monsters in encounters, but please remember that an encounter can consist of monsters and/or NPCs in any combination.)

So, the definitive aspect of a random encounter, in my mind, is that I don’t know the nature of the encounter beforehand. Which is to say, I don’t know what kind of monsters will be involved. And herein lies the root of the disadvantages of random encounters—the GM doesn’t know the nature of the encounter ahead of time.

It is this lack of knowledge and preparation that can lead to breaks of verisimilitude at the table. Let’s look at some of the possible disadvantages of not knowing the nature of an encounter before you roll it in play.

First, I don’t have any time to think about the tactics and strategies of the monsters. I have to do it all on-the-fly during play at the table. Will the monsters fight to the death, or will they surrender? If they will surrender, at what point will they surrender? What has to happen for them to consider surrendering? Does one have to be killed? Do half or more of them have to be killed? Do half or more of them have to be reduced to half hit points? Am I going to use Wisdom saves for morale checks? What kind of tactics will they use? Will they all “focus fire” on a single PC (and if so, which one?), or will they spread the damage around? Which attacks, special abilities and spells will they use? Which spells do they have prepared (assuming you won’t just use the example in the Monster Manual)? Will they try to parlay, or respond to attempts at parlay by the PCs, or will they fight regardless? If they do parlay, will they be truthful? What do they want? What is their motivation for attacking the PCs? What is the “win condition” for them? If they’re captured, will they give up any information, and if so, what information do they have? What kind of magic items and treasure do they have?

As you can see, that’s a lot for the GM to consider in a few moments at the table, and that’s just an example of such considerations. It’s not an exhaustive list.

Second, if there is to be any parlay and roleplaying, I have to come up with personalities (and probably names) for all the monsters on the fly. If the PCs encounter a group of goblins, maybe I can come up with a generic goblin personality on the fly, but can I come up with a few personalities that are all “goblin” and yet distinct and different from one another? Can I come up with gobliny names that don’t just turn the game into a farce (unless that’s what I’m going for, of course)?

As I hope you can see, this is a lot to think about. I’m not saying it can’t be done—it can, but it’s not easy. Also keep in mind there are a lot of other things the GM needs to think about as well—running the combat, reacting to what the players do, including vivid descriptions, tying in the environment and terrain, adjudicating rules, etc. One of the main purposes of good game preparation is to reduce this workload at the table as much as possible, so the GM has more headspace to devote to roleplaying monsters, considering tactics and consequences, reacting to the PCs’ actions and also just having a good time.

Another problem can come about when it comes to encounter treasure. Oftentimes when we roll and run a random encounter during play, we’ll wait to roll treasure until after the encounter is over. After all, the PCs might not win, or the NPCs might flee, so why waste time coming up with treasure the PCs might not get? Also, rolling treasure takes time, and we probably already burned some time rolling the encounter. We might also have burned some time determining initiative (for a solution to that, see my previous blog post on initiative). We don’t want too much downtime at the table because it can kill the momentum and drain the drama from a scene.

The problem with waiting to roll treasure until after the encounter is that we may roll items that would’ve been used in the encounter. If the goblins have a magic short sword and some healing potions, then they would use those in the fight against the PCs. If the PCs find these items in the goblins’ possession later, and the goblins didn’t use them in the fight, it breaks verisimilitude.

Another disadvantage of a random encounter is that it may not make sense. Even if you’re rolling on a table designed for the region the PCs are in, you may get a result that for some reason doesn’t make sense. So you either have to figure out a way to make it make sense, or you have to come up with a different encounter. Both of these solutions take time, and downtime at the table is something we want to minimize as much as possible. Even if you don’t arrive at an encounter that doesn’t make sense with the location or what’s going on, the encounter may still feel totally unconnected to the rest of the adventure.

Yet another disadvantage of random encounters is that GMs can make mistakes with random encounters that they wouldn't make (or wouldn't make as often) with encounters they've prepared ahead of time. Fifth edition D&D has been simplified a lot compared to earlier editions, but there are still some complex opponents that can be very difficult to run on-the-fly, "get right" and do justice to if you've never used that monster before.

The GM might make a mistake like forgetting about a monster’s special abilities. This often happens with more complex monsters, who have an array of abilities and spells at their disposal. These can be tough to run on-the-fly in a random encounter, unless the GM is going to take a 5 minute break to study the monsters first. This is even more exacerbated in encounters with multiple types of complex monsters. The GM could also miss or forget other aspects of an adversary like resistances, immunities, special forms of movement, etc.

In addition to actual "mistakes" a GM might make, a GM will sometimes just be unhappy with how she ran a random encounter for various reasons. Maybe she didn’t have good names for the monsters ready to go and had to come up with something she’s not satisfied with. Maybe the tactics she came up with on-the-fly don’t make sense or hold up to scrutiny by the players when they start asking questions, making the monsters seem less intelligent than they are.

The GM might not have been able to use any kind of foreshadowing of the encounter beforehand because she didn't know it was happening before she rolled it. Coming across giants is one thing, but coming across giants after you saw their tracks the day before is much more engaging. This can be mitigated in a random encounter by setting up the encounter first. So you roll the encounter, and then foreshadow it before you actually run the encounter. But this defeats the immediacy of a random encounter, and at that point, why not just use a flexible encounter instead?

My system of flexible encounters addresses all these disadvantages. Just as importantly, though, it preserves the advantages of using random encounters. If we consider random encounters versus prepared encounters, flexible encounters offer us the best of both worlds.

Next week I’ll tell you all about how flexible encounters work and how I use them in my games.

Flexible Encounters Part 2

Flexible Encounters Part 3

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Many tabletop roleplaying games use some sort of initiative system as part of their mechanics. I’ve played a lot of games with a lot of different initiative systems, but the vast majority of them are very similar—the player makes some kind of roll, maybe adds some modifiers, and winds up with an initiative number. The character with the highest number then goes first.

If your tabletop RPG of choice involves an initiative system that’s anything like this, then you might have run into situations resembling the following scenario:

The PCs have snuck into a green dragon’s lair. The dragon has detected them, but instead of immediately attacking, it opens a dialog with the PCs. It wants to make a deal. Its deal seems perfectly reasonable (at least to the dragon), and the players discuss it. Some of them want to take the deal, seeing that it will benefit them greatly. Others want to refuse the deal because they don’t trust the dragon; they want to kill the dragon as they’d originally come here to do.

As the player characters argue, one character, the barbarian, gets impatient. “Screw this,” the barbarian’s player says, “I attack the dragon!”.

“Roll initiative,” you say, inwardly cackling with glee.

The players begin rolling their dice, totaling bonuses, and shouting out their initiative numbers. You handle the process as quickly as you can, but it still takes a few minutes. During those few minutes, the players’ excitement changes to impatience, which changes to boredom.

By the time you have the initiatives for all the PCs, NPCs and monsters sorted, you realize you’ve lost all the momentum, all the tension, all the drama that you’d built up in the scene.

You proceed with the combat, but deep down, you’re dissatisfied. Things were going so well, you think, until I called for that damned initiative roll. During the time it took you to deal with the initiative roll, all the immediacy of the scene was lost. There has to be a better way, you tell yourself.

There is a better way, fellow GM, and I will share it with you today.

Now this problem with initiative is nothing new. It’s existed since the earliest days of D&D, and it’s existed in countless other RPGs as well. Various games have tried to address this problem by experimenting with various initiative systems, trying to find something that’s fast in play, but also has the desired level of nuance.

I have found an excellent solution to this problem, and it’s a fantastic solution for a few reasons:

1. This system will work with any game that uses an initiative system that’s similar to that used by D&D and many other games. The intricacies of the given initiative system don’t matter—if it involves the characters comparing some score or number and ordering from greatest to least (or vice versa), this system will work.

2. This system doesn’t involve any new mechanics or additional rolls. It won’t add any time to your game at the table. Most likely, it will save you time in the long run.

3. It’s easy to use.

4. It makes initiative much more enjoyable for everyone at the table, and will likely lead to you using initiative more often in your games.

5. If you use the system as I describe, you may spend a few more minutes during prep for your game, but you will save much more time at the table than you spent in prep.

The nutshell idea of this system is instead of rolling initiative at the beginning of an encounter, we will roll initiative at the beginning of each game session and at the END of each encounter. That’s basically it, but I’ll show you how I use this system, step-by-step, so you can get the most out of it. I’m currently using this system for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, but again, you can use this with any game that has an initiative system that’s at all similar.

I’ll also share with you how I use index cards to track initiative in my games. It works seamlessly with my initiative system. You don’t have to use the index cards, but I highly recommend you try it. They work amazingly well in my games.

1. Get a pack of index cards. I use 3”x5” cards, but you could also use 4”x6” cards. It doesn’t really matter. Use whatever you have. The important thing is that all the cards you use are the same size, so you can put them together in a deck. If you don’t have index cards, you can instead write the initiative order on a piece of paper, a wet-erase or dry-erase board, or something similar.

2. Create an index card for each player character. The main purpose of this card is to keep track of the turn order (initiative), however you can put any other information on the card you want. I often include the PC’s passive perception and armor class on this card.

3. You’ll also want an index card for each NPC that is traveling with the party (assuming those NPCs take part in combat; if they don’t, then they probably don’t need a card). I would put similar information on these cards, like passive perception, armor class and any other information about the NPC you might need easy access to during an encounter.

4. You also want an index card for each monster/NPC for each encounter you’re planning for the game session. If you’re using groups of monsters, you can either have a card for each individual monster, or a single card for each group of monsters, depending if the monsters will act in groups, or if each monster will have its own initiative. For example, if the PCs are fighting a group of 6 goblins and 3 bugbears, you might roll initiative once for the entire group of goblins and again for the entire group of bugbears to save time.  

5. Roll initiative for each monster (or group of monsters) you plan to use in the encounter. Write the initiative number on that monster’s (or group’s) card in pencil. Do this for every monster/NPC for every encounter for the session. Alternatively, if you don’t have a lot of prep time, you can just do this for this first encounter of the session. You can then make the cards for the second encounter sometime after the first encounter when you have a spare moment to do so.

6. Put all the initiative cards for the monsters and NPCs for the first encounter in initiative order in a deck, with the highest initiative (i.e. monster/NPC that will go first) on top.

7. At the beginning of the session, have the players roll initiative for their characters. Write each PC’s initiative number on their card in pencil, and put the card in the deck in initiative order. This can be a great thing to do as each player arrives to the game, so once everyone is present, you’re ready to go.

8. You’re now ready to start the game. You have a deck of cards for the first encounter that has all the PCs, monsters and friendly and unfriendly NPCs in it, in initiative order.

9. Now, when the encounter happens, you’re ready to go. You don’t have to stop the action to roll initiative and set up the turn order, because you’ve already done all that. The top card in the deck goes first. When that character finishes their turn, you put that card on the bottom of the deck and go to the next one. This keeps going until the encounter is over. If someone is added to the combat, you can just add their card to the deck in the appropriate initiative position.

10. When the encounter is completed, have the players roll initiative again. Erase or scratch out the old initiative number from their card and write the new number. Put the cards in initiative order.

11. As you have time, you can go ahead and roll initiative for monsters and NPCs for the next encounter, write them on cards, and add those to the initiative deck.

There is often some downtime at the end of an encounter while PCs heal one another, dole out loot, identify magic items, etc., so you can often get the initiative for the next encounter ready while all that is happening, and you don’t create any downtime at the table at all.

You may not always know what the first (or next) encounter will be, but you can still get the PCs and any party NPCs ready. As soon as you know what the encounter will be, you can start getting the adversaries’ initiative cards ready.

You can use these cards over and over. I use the PC initiative cards every week. This is why I put the initiative in pencil, so it’s easy to erase and reuse the card. If you’re using the cards a long time, you may want to put the character’s passive perception, armor class and other information in pencil as well, as these stats will change over time during a campaign.

You can reuse the monster initiative cards as well. I normally just put the monster’s type on the top of the card in pencil (e.g. Goblin) and write its initiative number in pencil. To reuse the card for a different monster, I just erase the monster type and write the new one. I scribble out or erase the old initiative number.

As a variant to this system, you can fold the cards in half and hang them over your GM screen. Then the players can see the cards as well, and that may help them remember the turn order and be ready when their turn comes. If you do it this way, think about what information you want on the part of the card the players can see versus the part of the card you can see (i.e. I would just put the character’s name on the player-facing side of the card, and put things like passive Perception, Armor Class, and initiative number on the GM-facing side of the card).

I’ve been using this system for awhile now, and I and my players really like it. We’ve found some real benefits to this system.

1. You can get initiative order set up behind-the-scenes (behind the screen) while the players are chatting, roleplaying amongst themselves, etc. You're spending time ordering initiative both outside of the game and while the players are entertaining themselves, as opposed to taking up the players' time to do it. This greatly reduces downtime at the table. Nothing kills the momentum and drama of a game like downtime when the players are twiddling their thumbs, checking their phones, etc.

2. When you want to begin an encounter or combat, you can go right into it. You don't have to pause the action to roll initiative, establish turn order, etc. This can often be a HUGE pause at the beginning of the encounter that completely diffuses any momentum or tension you've established

3. When you do this right, you don't waste ANY table time dealing with initiative. To see how much more game time this means for your group, next time you run a game, track how much time you spend dealing with initiative in the session. You'll likely be shocked by how much time you're wasting with it.

The only real downside to this system that I've encountered is that you may forget to do it until you get used to it. However, if you do forget, you can always just do initiative as you’ve always done, so you're not really losing anything. Also, I've found that the players can be a huge help to you by reminding you to ask for initiative at the beginning of the session and after each encounter. With everyone at the table trying to remember, someone usually will.

Eventually, this will become a habit for your group, and you won't have a problem remembering to do it anymore. It will just be the way you do initiative.

This system will not only speed up combat in your game, but it will speed up any encounter or scene in which you use initiative. I will often use initiative in non-combat situations, like a social interaction. Sometimes everyone’s talking at once, everyone has something they want to do, and initiative can be a great tool in these situations. It’s a great way to make sure everyone gets a chance to do the thing they want to do. This can be especially useful if you have quieter, more reserved players and more extroverted and boisterous players in your group (and let’s face it, that probably describes a LOT of groups out there). If you’re not careful, the louder, more extroverted players can get all the spotlight in your game, while the quieter, more introverted, shy or polite players never get a chance to do what they want to do, because they never get a word in. In these situations, initiative is a great tool to keep track and make sure everyone gets equal opportunities to do what they want to do.

In the past, when I did initiative “the old way”, I would often avoid using initiative in situations that would have benefitted from it solely because I knew it would slow the game down and I’d lose my momentum. Now I don’t have to worry about that, and I find myself using initiative more and more in play, especially for non-combat situations.

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Recently a listener of my RPG podcast posted a question to our community. This spawned a discussion of the CR of the neothelid, a monster presented in Volo’s Guide to Monsters.

This article shows the process I went through in an attempt to “reverse engineer” the monster and come up with the challenge rating (CR) of 13 given in the book.

Quite a bit of criticism has been leveled at 5th edition’s CR system. Some of this criticism may be valid, however oftentimes these complaints reveal more ignorance on the part of the person complaining than faults of the system. One of the assumptions many/most people who level these complaints seem to make is that the guidelines for determining a monster’s CR given in the Dungeon Master’s Guide represent the entirety of the parameters considered by Wizards of the Coast when determining the CR of a monster. I think this assumption is likely false. First, I’m not sure that Wizards would show us all the secrets of “how the sausage is made”, and second, I think there is a good deal of “art” in the determination of a monster’s CR. Which is to say that it is more than just a math equation and there are numerous judgment calls that are made. The more complex a monster is, and, likely, the higher its CR, the more of these judgment calls come into play.

I learned a valuable lesson when I did a series of episodes on encounter building on my podcast (episodes 136, 137, 138, and 139). When I attempt to reverse-engineer a monster, and I get a CR that is different from what’s in the book, instead of assuming Wizards "got it wrong" or that the CR system "doesn't make sense", I first check my math. If my math is right, I then try various permutations of the calculations in an attempt to arrive at the same CR given in the book.

This may seem an odd thing to do, but I have almost always been able to find a way to reach the same CR Wizards did, or at the very least to come close. As I said, I think there’s some art to this, so coming up with a CR 1 or even 2 off from what's in the book isn't a big deal, in my opinion. Surely the folks at Wizards are privy to some guidelines and design philosophies (or just the benefit of experience) that aren't detailed in the DMG.

My assumption is that if the CR I come up with for a monster is different from what's given in the book, it's likely either due to a mistake on my part, or it's due to some judgment call or design element I'm not aware of. To assume, instead, that it's due to a flaw in the system, or that the designers don’t know what they're doing is pretentious and arrogant.

This exercise of reverse engineering a monster trying to get to the CR listed in the book has taught me quite a bit about how Wizards designs monsters and determine CRs, and how different abilities stack up in their eyes. I'm personally distrustful of monsters designed by someone who claims the CRs in the game don't make any sense or don't have any inherent logic or system to them. I doubt such a person has gained the insight needed, or has the humility required, to truly learn the design of the system and gain the level of proficiency needed to create a properly balanced monster.

To illustrate this process, I will use the neothelid from Volo’s Guide to Monsters. I gave a full review of Volo’s Guide on this episode of Game Master’s Journey.

Abbreviations Used in this Article:

AC     Armor Class

CR     Challenge Rating

DCR   Defensive Challenge Rating

DPR   Damage per Round

EAC   Effective Armor Class

HP     Hit Points

OCR   Offensive Challenge Rating

The Defensive CR (DCR) of this monster is pretty straightforward. The neothelid has 325 hp, which gives us an initial DCR of 17. It has an AC of 16. However it's effective AC (EAC) would be 20: +2 EAC for having three good saving throws, and +2 EAC for having magic resistance.

(It doesn't matter in this example, but in another monster, I think you could argue not giving it the +2 EAC for the saving throws, because one of those save bonuses is only +1, because the save proficiency is canceling out its intelligence penalty. Good saving throws only affect EAC if there are three or more. But it doesn't matter in this case as the DCR will be the same either way.)

The expected AC for a DCR of 17 is 19, so having an EAC of 20 doesn't have any impact on the DCR, because it only impacts the DCR if it is 2 or more higher than the expected AC. So our final DCR is 17.

The offensive CR (OCR) is where it gets a little tricky. Unfortunately, there are two slightly different ways you could calculate the damage output, and I think both are equally "right" as far as that goes. It comes down to how a DM would run the monster in combat, so this is an instance where the "art" of the design comes in.

This monster has three ways of doing damage. First, a tentacle attack, which is super straightforward. It does 33 damage (21 bludgeoning and 13 psychic).

It also has a breath weapon attack. The guidelines state to assume the breath weapon hits two targets, and that they fail their saves, so the damage of the breath weapon is 35 acid damage multiplied by two targets for a total of 70 damage.

When we have a monster like this that has multiple attack forms, it's suggested to figure damage for three rounds of combat, and then average that damage. We should definitely do this with the neothelid.

This begs the question, how many times should we apply the breath weapon damage in the three rounds of combat? This isn't spelled out in the DMG, but if we look at the breath weapon recharge, we see it recharges on a 5 or 6 on a 1d6. This gives us odds of 1:3, which means we can assume the monster can use its breath weapon once per 3 rounds of combat.

The third way this monster can do damage is via its swallow ability. We can find this ability in the monster traits chart (which references a behir, btw). We're told to assume the monster swallows one creature and does two rounds of acid damage to it. The acid damage from the swallow is 35.

There are a few points to make here. The creature doesn't have multiattack, so it can only make one tentacle attack as an action. Using its breath weapon is an action, so on the turn it uses its breath weapon, it can't make a tentacle attack. Finally, a swallowed creature takes the acid damage at the start of the neothelid's turn, so the neothelid doesn't do this damage on the turn it swallows a creature, it does it on the neothelid's next turn.

So this is where some art comes into play, because there are basically two ways this could go.

The first, and most likely (and I think is the one the designers used) is this:

Round 1: Neothelid uses breath weapon. 70 damage (35 damage x 2 targets)

Round 2: Neothelid uses tentacle attack and swallows a creature. 33 damage

Round 3: Neothelid uses tentacle attack and deals damage to the creature swallowed in round 2. 68 damage (33 tentacle damage, 35 damage to swallowed creature)

Average damage per round = 70 + 33 + 68 = 171 / 3 rounds = 57 DPR

The second way this could go is this:

Round 1: Neothelid uses tentacle attack and swallows a creature. 33 damage

Round 2: Neothelid uses breath weapon and deals damage to creature swallowed in round 1. 105 damage (70 damage from breath weapon, 35 damage to swallowed creature)

Round 3: Neothelid uses tentacle attack and deals damage to creature swallowed in round 1. 68 damage

Average DPR = 33 + 105 + 68 = 206 / 3 rounds = 69 DPR

I think the first scenario is the most likely, and probably the way I would run this monster in combat. But we'll keep the second in mind to see how it impacts the CR.

So we have a damage output of 57 DPR, which gives us a beginning OCR of 9. I too looked at the attack bonus here. The expected attack bonus for OCR 9 is +7, however our neothelid has an attack bonus of +13. We increase the OCR by 1 for every 2 points the attack bonus is higher than expected. This would add 3 to our OCR, giving us an OCR of 12.

(Note: if we used the second damage output (69) calculation, we would've started with an OCR of 11 and would've ended up with an OCR of 14 due to the attack bonus.)

We then average the DCR of 17 and the OCR of 12, giving us a final CR of 15.

(Note: if we used the second damage output (69) we'd end up with a CR of 16 (average of DCR 17, OCR 14.)

So this is only two off of the CR 13 given in the book, but I take a look at what I did, and I see I made an error.

The attack bonus only applies to the tentacle attack. The tentacle attack is only providing 66 of our 171 total damage in those three rounds. The majority of the damage is actually coming from the breath weapon and the acid damage to the swallowed creature. Both of those rely on saving throws. The DMG tells us that if the monster relies more on effects with saving throws than on attacks to do its damage, we should use its save DC to figure the OCR instead of its attack bonus.

So let's return to our OCR calculation. We have a damage output (DPR) of 57, which gives us an OCR of 9. The save DC for OCR 9 is 16. The save DC for the neothelid's breath weapon and swallow damage is 18. So we add 1 to the OCR, because you add 1 for every 2 points the save DC is higher than what's listed for that OCR. That gives us an OCR of 10.

We now average the DCR of 17 and the OCR of 10, and we get 13.5. Now, I would think we'd round up to 14 here, but you can see that if we just round down instead, we get the CR of 13 that's in the book.

(Note: if we used the second damage output (69), we'd end up with an OCR of 11 and a final CR of 14.)

So did Wizards make a "mistake" in rounding the 13.5 down to a CR 13? I don't think so. I think this is another instance where the art of design (or perhaps a design guideline we're not privy to) came into play. I can only guess what that might be, however considering this creature doesn't have multiattack, doesn't have any resistances or immunities, and also considering that if the swallowed creature can do 30 damage to it, it's regurgitated out, I think a CR of 13 is more appropriate than 14 for this creature.

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We've probably all seen claims by grognards, and even younger DMs, that 5th edition isn't as deadly as D&D was "back in the day". I think this is a statement that may seem true at first glance, but really begins to break down when you analyze it. If you're a DM, and you think this edition is too easy, or not deadly enough, make sure that you're aware of the following rules and permutations. It may be that it's the way you're running the game that's making it too easy, not the design of the game itself. 

I also explore this topic on episode 145 of the Game Master's Journey podcast. 

Bringing PCs Back From Death is Too Easy

One argument I often see for 5th edition being too easy is the claim that it's too easy for players to bring a PC back from the dead. Resurrection magic has always been a part of the game, so if we're looking for an aspect that's changed in 5th edition to make this "easier", I think the likeliest candidate is the spell revivify.

At first blush, it does seem like the spell revivify makes bringing PCs back from the dead easier than it has been in the past, and it does, with some limitations. Revivify is a 3rd level spell. This is a lower level "raise dead" spell than we've seen in previous editions. In the past, the lowest level spell that could bring back a dead PC was the raise dead spell, which was/is a 5th level spell. 

A cleric receives access to 3rd level spells at 5th level. It's true, then, that PCs have access to the ability to come back from the dead at an earlier level than they did in previous editions of the game. However, revivify has some important limitations.

1. Only a cleric will have access to revivify at 5th level. The only other class that has revivify on their spell list is the paladin. However, since the paladin is only a half caster, a paladin won't be able to cast revivify until 9th level. So only a group with a cleric in the party will have access to this spell at 5th level.

2. Revivify must be cast within 1 minute of death. This means a couple things. First, the cleric must have the spell prepared, which means a cleric player must take up one of their prepared spells every day in order to be able to use it. Second, the cleric must either cast the spell during the combat or immediately after the combat. Casting revivify during combat could be problematic to say the least, as the revived PC will only have 1 hit point until healed. The likelihood of the revived PC being sent back to 0 hp again before the end of the combat is pretty high. This is also a round that the cleric PC can't do much else of use, like healing someone, making an attack, or casting a spell. However, waiting until the end of combat has its own risks. If the combat takes longer than 10 rounds (1 minute--which isn't likely, but could happen), then it may be too late for revivify, which must be cast within 10 rounds of the PC's death. This also means the cleric must survive the combat, and might even need to be conscious. Bringing a downed cleric back to consciousness will take a round, and the clock is ticking with revivify.

3. Revivify is expensive and uses a hard-to-acquire component. Each casting of revivify consumes diamonds worth at least 300 gp. If you're keeping within the parameters recommended in the DMG when it comes to the encounters you throw at your party and the treasure rewarded by those encounters, 300 gp will be a substantial cost for a party of 5th level PCs. It's enough of a cost that they may debate the investment for just one set of 300 gp diamonds, and it's fairly unlikely they'll have more than one, or many more than one. Finding such valuable gems would only be possible in a large city, and even there it would not be guaranteed. The PCs might need to journey to multiple cities before they find enough, or they might have to wait for a jeweler to procure them. Once the diamonds are found, they may cost more than 300 gp.

When we consider the other spells in the game that can bring fallen PCs back to life, there doesn't seem to be much difference from earlier editions. Raise dead is a 5th level spell, which means a full caster won't have access until 9th level. Bards, clerics and paladins all get access to raise dead, but the paladin won't be able to cast it until 17th level. Raise dead can be cast within 10 days of a character's death, so a PC doesn't have to prepare it every day. It does take an hour to cast, though, so using it in combat won't be an option. Like all the resurrection-type spells, raise dead has a costly and rare component, in this case a diamond worth at least 500 gp. This may be even more difficult that the revivify component because it has to be a single diamond worth at least 500 gp (instead of a collection), which won't be easy to find.

I make the same arguments here that I did for revivify above. 500 gp isn't (or should not be) a trivial cost for PCs of 9th level, and a 500 gp diamond isn't (or shouldn't be) easy to find. Finding multiple 500 gp diamonds would be even more difficult. 

Raise dead also has the limitation that the character raised has a -4 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws (including death saving throws) and ability checks (this is pretty much every time you're rolling a d20 in the game). This penalty is reduced by 1 each time the character takes a long rest. This basically means that the PCs will want to take 4 days of downtime after raising a character from the dead. If this isn't possible, things can go badly for the PCs. For example, using raise dead in the middle of a dungeon could easily result in the same PC dying again in the next encounter, as a -4 to death saving throws is pretty significant. 

Druids get access to a similar, but worse, spell at 9th level, reincarnate. This spell has the added drawback that the PC comes back as a random race. It also costs 1,000 gp to cast (in the form of rare oils and unguents that should be at least as difficult to find as high-priced diamonds) instead of 500. 

Resurrection is a 7th level spell that bards and clerics will get access to at 17th level. Like raise dead, resurrection has a casting time of 1 hour and gives the -4 penalty to attack rolls, ability checks and saving throws. Resurrection burns up a diamond worth at least 1,000 gp. 

I don't think bringing PCs back from the dead is too easy in a 5th edition game where the DM isn't taking it easy on the players. If the DM is taking it easy on the players, then the criticism of "too easy" should be leveled at the DM, not the game. Here are some ways that DMs make bringing PCs back from the dead too easy:

1. Giving out too much treasure, diminishing the limiting factor of the expensive components

2. Using encounters that are too high of a challenge (CR) and then softballing them (resulting in too much treasure), diminishing the limiting factor of the expensive components

3. Making the expensive components too easy to get, making it too easy to stockpile these components, or even ignoring the cost of the components entirely

4. Giving the PCs enough downtime after bringing a dead PC back that the penalties from resurrection and raise dead become meaningless

5. Letting PCs run around carrying gems worth thousands of gold pieces without ever getting robbed, having to leave equipment behind, etc.

If you want death to be a real penalty in your game, and you don't want the use of resurrection-type magics to be too easy, all you need to do is run the game as presented in the PHB and DMG. 

Killing PCs is Too Hard

I've found 5e quite deadly, more so than 2nd & 3rd, which are the other editions I have the most experience with. Getting a PC to 0 hp might be a bit of an issue at higher levels, but once there, death is difficult to avoid.

I think one reason some DMs may feel the game is too easy is that they haven't completely internalized all the mechanics that come into play when a character is at 0 hp and making death saving throws. They also may be softballing encounters, being too nice to the players, and not playing intelligent adversaries intelligently. 

The following rules come into play when a PC is at 0 hp (or anytime a PC is unconscious, see the unconscious condition in Appendix A of the PHB):

1. Any damage taken at 0 hp results in a failed death save. This includes damage from area effect spells (e.g. fireball), environmental damage, falling damage, etc. Any decent high level encounter should have enemies using AoE abilities or environmental damage, if not both, so that's at least one automatic death save failure per round for downed PCs, if not more, in many encounters.

2. Unconscious characters automatically fail dexterity and strength saving throws, so they will be taking full damage from those AoE spells, like fireball.

3. A smart NPC will finish off downed PCs if they know the party has healing ability. Any attack against an unconscious character has advantage. Any damage taken by an unconscious character results in an automatic death save failure. Any attack within made against an unconscious character by an adversary within 5 feet of that character that hits is an automatic critical hit. Critical hits result in two automatic death save failures. NOTE: Assuming that an unconscious PC is prone, any attacks made against that PC from an opponent more than 5 feet away has disadvantage, which would cancel out the advantage of attacks made against unconscious characters, making these regular attacks (see the prone condition)

4. If a PC at 0 hp takes damage equal to his hit point total, he dies instantly. This is less likely at higher levels, but could happen with a critical hit, which any hit from an adversary within 5' will be. Instant death by critical hit can happen very easily at lower levels.

5. A roll of a natural 1 on a death saving throw results in two death save failures. There is a 5% chance of this happening every time a player rolls a death save.

6. Three death saving throw failures equals death.

For these reasons, even at high levels, an encounter with intelligent NPCs or monsters that the DM isn't softballing will be very deadly to any PCs that get to 0 hp. Oftentimes, PCs at 0 hp could be killed before they even got a chance to roll their first death saving throw, unless the next PC in the initiative order is able to heal them.

If an intelligent NPC or monster knows the PCs have healing magic, they will most likely finish off PCs that are dropped if they're truly trying to win or survive. Most times it will only take a single action or attack to do so, and a wizard who throws a fireball when there are multiple PCs at 0 hp can really wreck a party's day.

NOTE: In most cases, the difference between an unconscious and a dead character shouldn't be obvious during a combat without taking an action to do a medicine check. In fairness, NPCs that use this tactic should make an additional attack against all downed PCs, regardless of whether the PC is dead or at 0 hp, because the NPC won't have any way to know and isn't going to waste an action to find out. Of course, this rule should apply to PCs as well, and players who assume they know if a downed PC is unconscious or dead (or how many death save failures and successes they have) are metagaming. 

If you're someone who believes 5th edition is too easy, ask yourself if you're really running adversaries as cunning opponents who want to survive and win just as much as the PCs do.

For DMs (or players) who believe NPCs wouldn't really use these tactics, I propose the following experiment: Start using the death saving throw rules for all your monsters and NPCs, just as you do for PCs (this is an option suggested in the PHB). After a few encounters of this, once the PCs realize that any downed NPC could be brought back into the fight by a healer (instead of just being dead at 0 hp), see if and how their tactics change when they're fighting NPCs or monsters that they know (or even just suspect) have access to healing, whether in the form of spells, magic items, or potions. I'd be willing to bet you see them begin to attack downed NPCs, no matter what their alignment is.  

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You can also listen to this review in podcast format. I discussed the innovations and first impressions in episode 123 of Game Master's Journey, and I give the rest of my review in episode 126.

If you're going to pick up a copy of Storm King's Thunder, please use this link to buy it on Amazon and help support Starwalker Studios in the process.

Innovations & GM Tricks of the Trade

Right away I noticed some innovations in this adventure that I haven’t seen before. I’m really impressed with what Wizards is doing here, and I think there are some great things a DM can learn from this and apply to any adventure or session. Each campaign Wizards publishes has new innovations. I really like what they’ve done in this one.

Dramatis Personae

A list of the major NPCs in the adventure with descriptions and where you can find them in the text.

Full Spread Art

More of this please!

Milestone Advancement

This has become the standard for Wizards-published adventures, and it’s even more simplified and streamlined in this adventure than it was in CoS.

Adventure Flowchart

Yes.

Deadly Encounters

p. 16. Wizards spells out that these encounters are intentionally deadly. I find myself wondering if they always have been, all the way back to Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and they’re just now sharing that with us to alleviate confusion.

Guidelines for what to do when a TPK happens. CoS had some guidelines for character death. I think all adventures should have these two things.

Treasure!

I love what they do with the treasure in this adventure.

Random Coin amounts

Instead of rolling for the amount of coins in a treasure, you can choose an amount within the specified range. Eg. if PCs have more loot than they know what to do with, use the minimum; if they are light on treasure, use the average, or even the maximum amount.

Random Magic Items

One thing this adventure does that I really like is it doesn’t spell out all the magic items for you. Instead, it will say something like “roll twice on Magic Item Table B in the DMG”. Of course, the DM could choose an item from the table instead, and sometimes it even suggests letting the PCs choose an item from that table.

Not only is this a great way to handle magic items in a published adventure, but it also shows DMs how they can handle random treasures in their own adventures and just in general.

Of course, if an item is important for the campaign, then it is specified, so not all the treasures in the adventure are random.

Items in a Giant’s Bag

This is a great table to use anytime PCs encounter a giant. P 18

Special NPCs

This adventure uses a cool innovation where the PCs play special NPCs in a settlement. The intent is to make the settlement matter more to the PCs, since they’re playing NPCs. I’ll have to see if that actually works or not (I have my doubts), but regardless, it could be a fun diversion.

I could see lots of uses for this. You could use this to show the players scenes their characters aren’t involved in, if for some reason you want the players to have that information. They get to play out the scene using NPCs.

Part of the players’ task is to keep their NPCs alive. After the battle, each special NPC that survives gives the PCs a quest. These quests have rewards when completed, usually one or more magic items and/or a substantial amount of gold (usually in the form of expensive gems).

This is a great way to reward magic items! It’s also a way to give more specialized or personalized items, because these items are given by an NPC, not randomly found in a hoard somewhere.

It’s also a great motivator for PCs to explore side quests and sides plots. In a given session they can choose to either follow the main story, or they can choose to investigate a side-plot or perform a side-quest for an NPC. If they go after the side-quest or -plot, then they will likely get a useful reward, either a significant amount of money or a useful magic item. These are great times to let PCs choose items from the specific chart instead of rolling. This is also a great time for you as DM to award an item you’ve created for a specific character (even better if the quest was a solo quest for that character).

Side quests are a great way to pull in PC backgrounds, relationships with NPCs, etc. I just love the idea of giving a substantial reward for players following through on these.

It also, in a way, gives the players a way to manage the difficulty of the campaign. If they’re worried about their next encounter, maybe unsure if they’re up to it, then they can follow some side quests and either earn gold they can use to buy better equipment, or earn magic items to aid them on their main quest.

UPDATE: Since originally writing this review, I have actually run the first encounter of the adventure (I did the encounter in Triboar). Unfortunately, I found using the player-run NPCs to be a dismal failure. In hindsight, I should have seen this ahead of time, but having each player run a PC and an NPC effectively doubles the number of turns at the table. It took what would have already been a long encounter (with two giants and multiple orogs and orcs) and turned it into a way-too-long gruelling slog. The NPCs didn't really add anything at all except the time each round took. I didn't notice any increase in player engagement due to running these NPCs whatsoever. About halfway through the encounter, I think we were all ready to just forget the NPCs existed.

That said, I think the idea of using player-run NPCs could be successful, but you would need to find a much better way to use it than what is done in this adventure. I'd also recommend either not using such NPCs in combat, or at least not using them in combat at the same time the players are running their PCs in combat. This really makes me wonder if Wizards play-tested this adventure at all, because I can't imagine this idea surviving an actual play-test.

Linked Adventures

Gives guidelines to tying this in with LMoP, HotDQ, PotA, OotA. I’d really like to see this continue in future adventures. Also I’d love to see an adventure that begins at level 11-15, and is intended to be what comes next after finishing one of the other campaigns, and takes you to level 20.

New Giant Options

New special abilities for cloud, fire, frost, hill, stone and storm giants. These are pretty cool.

I also like how they modify monsters from the MM to make them more unique, interesting, and/or deadly. Eg. one of the dragons is a spellcasting variant dragon with some additional special abilities. We also see legendary versions of some standard monsters, which is also really cool.

Both of these show you how you can take a monster and beef it up for a boss encounter or even to be you BBEG.

Monster Roster

One of the lairs in the adventure has a chart that lists all the NPCs and monsters in the lair. It shows which room each is in, how many there are, and has a notes section.

This is a fantastic way for the DM to keep track of a facility with a set and finite number of specific monsters. I plan to use something like this in my own adventures from now on. It lets you see the enemy forces in a glance, and is a much easier way to keep track of how much impact the PCs’ incursions have really made.

Structure

This adventure has a rather interesting structure. Chapter 1 is a short intro adventure, called A Great Upheaval, that can be used to get PCs from level 1-5. Or you could use another adventure. Some thoughts are given for using other adventures published by Wizards instead of A Great Upheaval. By far the most successful of these are the guidelines for using Lost Mine of Phandelver. Less useful are the pointers given for transitioning from HotDQ, PotA, or OotA.

Personally, although I appreciate the thought behind this, I feel like it was a waste of effort and valuable space in the supplement. You can’t finish one of these other modules, and then go into SKT. Instead, the writers assume you’ve started one of the other modules, didn’t get very far, and you and your players want to do SKT instead. In this instance, you’re given some tips on transitioning from one to the other. The advice given is decent, but how many groups is this really going to be relevant for?

On the other hand, the advice on transitioning between LMoP and SKT works much better, as you can run that complete adventure and then go into SKT.

Once the PCs are level 5—whether you run A Great Upheaval, LMoP, another adventure, or start the PCs at 5, you then have 3 choices for starting points—Bryn Shander, Goldenfields or Triboar. This is kind of nice because you can pick the location (or adventure) you like better to start. Each basically involves a giant attack that the PCs hopefully get involved in. However, the downside is chances are good you’ll only use one of the three locations (although it’s possible the PCs could go to the others in their wanderings, and then you could run those encounters if you wanted).

This leads us to one of the strengths AND weaknesses of this products. Opinions will likely vary on whether it’s a strength or weakness. You have three decent sized sections on these areas and the encounters within them, but it’s very likely you’ll only use one of the three. This kind of thing crops up a few times in the campaign, leading to the very real possibility that there will be whole sections and chapters of the book you never use.

From the perspective of a DM running this campaign, I’m honestly not sure where I stand on this. I think I’d have to run the campaign, and only after I’d finished it would I feel qualified to give an opinion on whether I felt I’d used enough of the material, or whether too much of it was wasted on me.

I’m a little unsure why the adventure is structured this way. The DM chooses which of the three locations to use. The players or PCs aren’t given the choice. (Although you could maybe rework the adventure so they get to choose between the three. That could be interesting, but to make it work, I think you’d need to come up with better hooks, and you’d definitely need more hooks, because as written the hooks that lead to the three different settlements are virtually the same. I’ll discuss the hooks more later.) So I suppose the benefit is as DM you have three choices of where to do this part of the campaign, so you can pick the one you like the best. However, that means you’ll only use 1/3 of this chapter, and I feel like the pages of the other 2/3 could have been better spent on something you’ll definitely use. Now, it is possible that the PCs could travel to one or both the other locations during the course of the campaign, and if they do, you can run those encounters then.

After you deal with the encounters at the location you’ve chosen, and the PCs have advanced to level 6, you come to the next chapter (chapter 3) in the module, The Savage Frontier. In this chapter you’re given a list of locations in the area in alphabetical order, as well as random encounter tables. Many of these locations and also many of the random encounters point the PCs to important locations that will take them into the next chapter of the adventure.

This chapter is one of my favorite parts of the adventure. I love overland adventures and wilderness exploration. Many of the adventures I ran in the 2e days were exploration or travel-type adventures. This chapter has a lot of locations detailed to a greater or lesser degree. There are LOTS of great adventure seeds in here! Some of the locations include actual encounters.

This may (or may not) make this part of the adventure seem more sandboxy, as the PCs can wander around the area as they wish. However, this results in that same double-edged sword—namely that there’s a good chance you won’t use a good portion of this chapter. Also, the adventure is still ultimately linear as all roads eventually lead to the next chapter.

However, at least for this part of the campaign I think you will be able to capture that sandbox feel. The PCs do have objectives, but thankfully this adventure doesn’t have any kind of ticking clock (and DMs are encouraged to make players aware of this), so the PCs can take as much time as they want to explore the area. Between the described locations and encounters and the random encounters, a DM will have plenty to pull from his sleeves no matter where the PCs go. I think players will really enjoy the freedom of this part of the adventure, however they may find it less enjoyable once they return to the railroad later in the campaign.

This chapter is a goldmine for GMs not interested in necessarily running this campaign, but looking for encounter and location ideas. Most if not all of these locations and encounters could easily be transplanted to your setting of choice. For instance, a location called the Grandfather Tree, which I’m a big fan of, will definitely be in Primordia. This is a giant oak tree, surrounded by regular sized oak trees and protected by dryads and centaurs. The tree has a magical nature, and this encounter is a great example of how you can add some magic to anything in your world, complete with some in-game mechanical affects (eg. those defending the tree gain the equivalent of a bless spell).

There are also numerous NPCs in this chapter that can be mined by a GM for her own adventures.

Finally, if you’re running in the Realms, this chapter gives you a bunch more information and details on locations in the North.

Once the PCs reach chapter 4 they’re 7th level and journey to a ruin with an NPC they meet. This is a part of the adventure I really don’t like as this NPC basically leads the PCs by the nose where they need to go. It feels very contrived. It’s also an odd choice, I think, in an adventure that is giving up so many pages for redundant encounters to try to create a feel of a sandbox. Feels like the writers are stepping on their own feet here.

However, one thing that I really do like in this chapter are the guidelines given on running the NPC that guides the PCs for a while. Specifically we’re given guidelines on how to use the NPC in combat so he doesn’t outshine the PCs or make things too easy. We’ve all heard people talk about the dreaded “DM PC,” and the term almost always has negative connotations. This is when the DM has an NPC that adventures with the party, but this NPC is really just a PC that the DM plays. The DM can get into problems if the DM PC is overpowered, always has the answer, tries to influence where the players go and what they do, and things like that. Unfortunately, though, this can lead to DMs being afraid to use NPCs that travel with the PCs at all, or at the very least being unsure of how to do so. Wizards gives us an example here of how we can take a fairly powerful monster or NPC and have them fight alongside the player characters without stealing the show.

Once the PCs complete chapter 4, they’re level 8. They now have a choice of 5 different giant lords they can go after, and each of these adventures is covered in chapters 5-9. Each of the giant lords is a different type of giant, so here the players have a real choice of where they want to go next, and they can have some control over what kind of adversary they want to face.

It’s suggested the GM can allow the PCs to seek out as many of these lords as they want, gaining a level for every 2 they defeat, so you may get use out of more than one of these chapters if your players bite on that. But I don’t think most groups will use them all, and I think a lot of groups will only use one.

Ultimately, though, it doesn’t matter which giant lord the players choose, as they get the needed McGuffin from whichever one they choose. This leads them to chapter 10 and level 9. They can then proceed directly to chapter 12, or they can get there via chapter 11.

Reactions

I have mixed reactions to the structure of the adventure, and I anticipate there will be a pretty wide spread of GM feeling on this. On the one hand, I think chances are good that there will be a good portion of this book that you don’t use. Like me, you may end up wishing all those wasted pages had been spent on more NPC development, more detailing of locations in the North, more new monsters and magic items, etc.

On the other hand, though, this structure may make this campaign a little more useful if you’re going to mine it for encounters, locations, etc. You could even do this if you run the campaign, because you likely won’t use all the encounters, or even all of the chapters. So you could use those in future adventures and campaigns.

I discussed in episode 123 the various innovations in this adventure I really like. You can check that out for more info, but they include how treasure is determined and handed out, the special NPCs, dramatis personae, adventure flowchart, monster roster and new giant options. I think this adventure is the most useful of the 5e adventures Wizards has put out so far for DMs who ultimately don’t run the actual adventure. There’s a lot that can be taken from this book as for as ideas on how to structure adventures and campaigns, interesting ways to use NPCs and monsters, as well as the actual encounters, locations, NPCs, etc.

I like how chapter 3, The Savage Frontier, allows PCs to explore the area and gives you some cool set encounters and random encounters to use. It also gives you a lot of information on locations in the realms. Now this will ultimately get super-annoying for DMs running in the realms as they find their Realms information strewn between numerous books, many of them adventure books—so far LMoP, SCAG, HotDQ, RoT, PotA, OotA, and now SKT. It would be really nice to have it all in a campaign setting book as opposed to bits and pieces in all these books.

I also like how most of the chapters in this book could be run as stand-alone adventures, or worked into a completely different campaign. I really like this approach, and I hope this is the beginning of a new trend by Wizards—making their published campaigns as useful as possible to GMs NOT running the campaigns.

The Story and Adventure

Unfortunately, this adventure suffers from the same problem that plagues the other 5e adventures by Wizards—namely hooks. By hook I mean your character’s motivation for participating in the adventure. We strive for as much realism and verisimilitude as we can in RPGs, and part of that is giving the players a good reason that their characters should undertake the adventure the DM has planned. With a good hook, players should feel that it makes sense for their character to pursue the story. The players should follow the adventure organically, without feeling that they’re doing something just because that’s what the DM wants them to do.

The hooks that are given for the PCs’ involvement in the story of SKT are not very satisfying. Ultimately, your players will have to decide to just “play along” because these hooks won’t really hold up for a lot of characters. The hooks provided aren’t convincing and aren’t going to make them feel like their character has a true motivation for going on the adventure.

The hooks to pull PCs into the intro adventure, A Great Upheaval, are pretty standard fare. One involves the PCs hearing there is a reward offered for someone able to deal with a goblin threat (goblins again?). Another involves the PCs hearing they can make money working as guards (at least it’s for a hunt, and not a caravan). The other involves PCs traveling to the town to mediate a dispute (what 1st level party is going to bite on this one?). The final hook is the PCs hear the inn has great food (I’m not kidding) and the innkeeper is good at finding adventuring opportunities. All of these are pretty weak, and if I was a player faced with any of these, I definitely wouldn’t be very excited or expecting anything cool to happen in pursuit of these hooks.

The hook that guides the PCs from the intro adventure, A Great Upheaval, to the next part of the campaign boils down to an NPC asking the PCs to travel to one of the three locations to tell a family member of the death of someone lost in the giant attack that kicked off A Great Upheaval. Now this may be a fine hook for some players or groups, but for many groups it’s going to fall flat. Players will wonder why their characters would travel to a distant town to tell a family they don’t know that a relative, whom the PCs also don’t know, has died. There’s no reward offered for doing this. Even if there were, it either wouldn’t be enough to really motivate a profit-minded character to accept the quest, or if it were enough, it wouldn’t make any sense why this humble NPC would be able to scrape together so much money (a problem we see in a lot of published adventures—overly rich NPCs—but that’s a topic for another day). Instead the adventure assumes that for some reason the PCs will agree to do this out of the goodness of their hearts. Even if the party is filled with nothing but goody-two-shoe PCs (and how often does that happen?) I think it’s very likely they’d have better ideas of more effective ways to spend their time serving the greater good than taking a voyage to inform someone of a family member’s death. What’s much more likely is that the players will agree to do it just to keep the story going, but they’re not going to be satisfied. Or, the players may refuse the quest and expect you as DM to give them a better hook, so I suggest you have one in your back pocket in case you need it.

Honestly, the only adventure yet I’ve seen with a halfway decent (or at least effective hook) was CoS, which was basically, you’re trapped in Ravenloft now. If you want to go home, you have to do the adventure. Pretty heavy handed, but at least it makes sense why your character is on the adventure.

UPDATE: Michael Schmidt wrote this blog post with some great alternative hooks for Storm King's Thunder. These are far superior to the ones in the book, so definitely check them out if you're going to run this campaign.

This adventure also exhibits the problem seen in so many FR adventures, which is namely that feeling that your player characters are just tagging along—that it’s the NPCs that are really moving the story, not the PCs. The story is really about the NPCs, not the PCs. This is really unfortunate.

The Bottom Line

Ultimately, I have to grade this book from two different points of view—the first that of a GM who wants to run this campaign, and the second that of a GM that wants to mine this for ideas, encounters, locations, and just examples of how to put these things together.

I think the first GM may be a little disappointed. There are some real missed opportunities in this adventure. Despite chapters devoted to alternate encounters, the adventure is still very linear. Some DMs will use more of the book than others, depending on the choices the PCs make. If a group is very driven to complete the main thrust of the adventure, there may be fairly substantial portions of the books that aren’t touched. The biggest missed opportunity in my mind, though, is that there just aren’t good enough reasons for the PCs to even be on the adventure, other than just out of the goodness of their hearts. After Curse of Strahd, this feels like a couple steps back. I think you could get an awesome campaign out of it, but you’re really going to have to spend some time smoothing the rough edges—especially making sure the PCs have real motivations to participate.

Now the second GM, the GM who wants to mine this for ideas and material, that GM may be quite happy with this book. You’ve got a lot of encounters to go through, and some of them are quite fun. There are also random encounters, and some of them are quite imaginative as well. You’re also given some fleshed out NPCs that you could use in your own stories. There aren’t any new spells, character options, or anything like that, but there are some new magic items. Also the idea of letting players play important NPCs and giants is pretty cool, so you can see how that’s done and run with it in your own stories. You’re also given a few locations you can use as well.

Finally, if you are a FR GM, especially if you’re new to the Realms, you’ll get some more information on locations in the North. Hell, if you’ve collected all the adventures so far and the SCAG, you have a decent sourcebook for the North altogether (although you have to drag something like 6 books around for a chapter or so in each of information you want).

So if you’re looking for encounters, locations, NPCs, and just ideas and examples, I think you’ll be very satisfied.

I really like how much value you can get from this book without running the adventure. I really hope that this is something Wizards continues and expands on in the future. Personally, I’d like to see future campaigns be the same page count, but be shorter campaigns and fill those extra pages with more NPCs, locations, backgrounds, random encounters and tables, magic items, spells, etc. I also like how they gave some examples on how to expand the adventure, for instance by creating your own giant lords for the PCs to face. I’d like to see more of this in the future too—give us ideas and examples of how we can take the campaign in different directions, or follow along with the players when they take it in a new direction. One of the problems with these adventures for 5e, in my opinion, is that they’re so long. The longer an adventure, the less likely a given group will finish it. I’d rather have a shorter adventure, with a higher chance of completing it, and more supplemental material provided.

SPOILER WARNING: This post contains spoilers for the Curse of Strahd campaign. Please show your DM a little respect and don’t read this if you’re a player in the campaign.

Curse of Strahd recommends that you use the milestone system for awarding xp and leveling the PCs. I strongly encourage you to follow that advice. Insisting on using encounter-based xp awards is just going to create a mountain of unnecessary work for yourself. Trust me, you've got plenty of work in store for you if you want to make this campaign as awesome as it can be. You really don't need any more.

Furthermore, Curse of Strahd uses a variant of the milestone system where each milestone equals a gain in level for the PCs. There are no major or minor milestones (although you could come up with them, but again, avoid creating more work for yourself). Each time the PCs achieve one of these milestones, they all gain a level.

Because of this, I recommend keeping all the PCs the same level and not worrying if a given player misses a session or two. If, however, you have a player who is chronically absent, then you could judge if that PC participated enough to gain a level when each milestone is reached.

We are given the following guidelines for our milestones in the book (page 6):

Finding Artifacts. Recovering each of the artifacts of the campaign is a milestone (the Sunsword, Tome of Strahd and Holy Symbol of Ravenkind). The locations of these artifacts are either determined by the DM or using the Tarokka deck. I didn’t want PCs to gain two levels at once, so if one of the artifacts is in a particular location, I don’t also give them a milestone for achieving the main goal in that location or defeating the main bad guy.

Defeating Villains. Defeating the featured antagonist(s) in an area. The example given are the hags in Old Bonegrinder.

Accomplishing Story Goals. Accomplish something significant. Examples given are lighting the beacon at Arynvostholt, thwarting the druid ritual on Yester Hill, and forging an alliance with Ezmerelda.

Below are the milestones I’m planning to use for my Curse of Strahd campaign. Keep in mind that I started the PCs at 3rd level, and they gained 4th level after completing Death House (the book suggests starting PCs at 1st level and they gain level 3 at the end of Death House). If you're running more "by the book" you may want to add in another milestone if you also want your PCs to have the potential to be 14th (or even 15th) level when they face Strahd.

The milestones suggested as examples in the book itself are bolded below. This, I believe, is where Wizards’ statement that the adventure goes to level 10 comes from. If, as suggested in the adventure, the PCs are level 3 when they finish Death House, and they gain a level for each of these milestones, they would be level 10 after completing all seven of the example milestones. However, it is clear in the book that these are just some examples and are not a list of all the milestones. This is why I say the adventure really goes well beyond level 10.

Here are the milestones I came up with. I’ll explain more why I chose the ones I did after the list.

1.   Defeat Death House (Appendix B)

2.  Recover the Tome of Strahd (Chapter 4)

3.  Recover the Sunsword (Chapter 12)

4.  Recover the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind (Chapter 4)

5.  Defeat the Hags in Old Bonegrinder (Chapter 6)

6.  Light the beacon of Argynvostholt (Chapter 7)

7.  Thwart the druid ritual on Yester Hill, or defeat the tree blight (Chapter 14)

8.  Forge an alliance with Ezmerelda d’Avenir (Appendix D)

9.   Defeat Baba Lysaga (Chapter 10)

10.               Return the bones to St. Andral’s Church (Chapter 5)

11.               Explore the Amber Temple & encounter the lich (Chapter 13)

12.           Potential for PC-directed milestone. Perhaps finding the third magic gem

13.               Defeat Strahd (Chapter 4)

There are some big events that I did not assign milestones to. For instance, you could easily argue that returning the Wizard of Wines winery back to operation would be a milestone. You could also argue that encountering the Abbot of St. Markovia could be a milestone.

Ultimately, there are too many potential milestones if you use all the suggestions given in the book. With my milestones above, the PCs could be 14th level when they face Strahd if they do everything. I designed it this way because I want maximum possible level the PCs can be when they face Strahd to be level 15. I don’t think the encounter would be challenging enough if the PCs were higher than 15th level.

I also want to allow for the possibility of another milestone based on something the PCs pursue or some event that unfolds that isn’t part of the “script” of the written adventure. So having the PCs max out at level 14 is perfect. If they engage with the campaign enough to find or create a new milestone, they can be level 15 when they face Strahd for the final showdown. Of course, if they don’t complete everything in the campaign, they could be much lower than 14th level; they could even be the level 10 claimed by the adventure itself. Wizards seems to think a level 10 party has a chance against Strahd, so I’m ok with that too.

I didn’t make restoring the Wizards of Wines winery a milestone in my campaign for a couple reasons. First, the PCs found the Sunsword in the winery, and I didn’t want them to gain two levels at once. Also, restoring the winery to full capacity involves defeating the druids on Yester Hill and defeating Baba Lysaga, both of which are milestones of their own. Also, technically, the PCs would need to recover the third missing gem, the location of which is not given by the adventure. So if they pursue that, I would need to come up with its location, and that could easily be another milestone.

I also tried to set up milestones so there was a milestone associated with each of the major chapters of the adventure (some chapters don’t have much going on, so don’t warrant a milestone).

I see my list of milestones as a guide for the campaign. It allows me to chart the progression of the PCs and make sure it’s in line with what the campaign is designed for. In the heat of play, I try to keep the progression well-paced. So a given milestone/level gain may be delayed a session or come a session early, just to try to keep the progression pace steady. I aim for an average of two to three sessions per level. I want to avoid PCs gaining a level two sessions in a row, and I want to avoid PCs going more than three sessions without gaining a level.

At the end of the day, though, I want the milestones and the level gains to make sense. The PCs should level when they accomplish something important. So I try to balance that with the pace of progression. It’s usually possible to do so. If nothing else, you can always speed up or slow down a session so it ends up where you need it to.

If you enjoyed this article, check out my article with tips on running Death House without killing all your players. You can also check out my full review of Curse of Strahd on my RPG podcast, Game Master's Journey.

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WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Death House, which is the introductory adventure for Curse of Strahd. If you may play in this adventure, you want to avoid these spoilers. However, if you’re going to be DMing this adventure, read on.

Check out my extensive review of Curse of Strahd on the Game Master's Journey podcast. 

You can also check out my list of milestones for Curse of Strahd.

Ironically, Wizards of the Coast seems to make adventures that aren’t properly balanced and will result in a TPK for the unwary DM (Lost Mine of Phandelver anyone?). On a recent episode of Game Master’s Journey I discussed how D&D’s encounter xp system doesn’t add up. Perhaps Wizards needs to start checking their math....

If you’re planning to run this adventure, there are a few possible problem areas you’ll want to be aware of. I will list these by the encounter number in the adventure, along with suggestions on how to fix the encounters. If you want to TPK your party, then by all means run the adventure as written. However, if you’re planning to use this to kick off Curse of Strahd, you may want the PCs to actually survive this introductory adventure.

You can download the free pdf of the adventure.

20. Two Ghosts:  If the PCs play their cards right, this should not result in a combat. However, if the PCs end up fighting the two ghosts, this is an extremely deadly encounter. ONE of these ghosts would be a deadly encounter (they’re each CR 3).

29. Four Ghouls:  This encounter is super-deadly, even for a group of 6 PCs. These ghouls fight until destroyed. If you run the encounter as written, there’s a good chance the PCs will be surprised, which will make it even more difficult. My recommendation is to reduce the number of ghouls, and don’t allow for the opportunity of the PCs being surprised. Here is the adjustment for various group sizes.

3 PCs: 1 Ghoul (Easy)
4 PCs: 2 Ghouls (Hard)
5 PCs: 2 Ghouls (Medium)
6 PCs: 3 Ghouls (Hard)

31. Five Shadows:  This encounter is Deadly as written unless you have 6 PCs. These shadows chase PCs who try to flee. If you feel touching the statue or taking the crystal orb is a crime worthy of a TPK, then feel free to leave the encounter as is. Otherwise, I’d make the following adjustments to the number of shadows.

3 PCs: 2 Shadows (Medium)
4 PCs: 3 Shadows (Medium)
5 PCs: 3 Shadows (Medium)
6 PCs: 5 Shadows (Medium)

34. Two Ghasts:  This is another deadly encounter if you have fewer than 6 PCs. If you think the PCs should earn a TPK for taking something from the footlockers, feel free to leave it as is. Otherwise, make the following adjustments.

3 PCs: 1 Ghast (Hard)
4 PCs: 1 Ghast (Medium)
5 PCs: 1 Ghast (Easy)
6 PCs: 2 Ghasts (Hard)

38. Shambling Mound:  The shambling mound is a CR 5 creature. This is a deadly encounter, no matter the size of your party. If the PCs make the sacrifice (which I’d say is an evil act requiring a Powers Check), then they won’t have to face the shambling mound. However, if the PCs have some scruples and balk at sacrificing a life, they will be rewarded by facing a monster they can’t beat. Even if the PCs instantly realize they should run away, they will still have to evade the shambling mound long enough to get out of the basement level.

Once they've gotten back up to the house, the PCs still have to deal with poisonous smoke, blade barrier-filled doors and possibly swarms of rats. I can’t imagine how this could end in anything other than a TPK. I also can’t imagine why a DM would want to punish the PCs for doing the right thing. Unless you're running a one-shot, a TPK punishes everyone at the table, including the DM. 

My fix for this is to make it clear to the players that they should run from the shambling mound. Come right out and tell them if they don’t figure it out for themselves. I would also not have the shambling mound pursue them beyond area 38. The poisonous smoke, whirling blades and swarms of rats will be more than enough to challenge your PCs on their way out of the house. 

UPDATE

I am running Curse of Strahd with my own group. I have actual play videos of the campaign, which you can find here on YouTube. I began the campaign with Death House, however I started the PCs at level 3, and they gained level 4 upon completing Death House. I ran Death House as written, and with a party of four level 3 PCs, it went great. There was enough suspense, tension and danger to make it exciting, and we had some close calls, but no TPK.

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©2025 Cedar Moon Publishing LLC

Since I started playing 5e I’ve been wanting to find a way to bring something similar to Numenera’s GM Intrusion mechanic into the game. I finally came up with a system I’m happy with, and I've begun play testing it.

My new house rule for D&D, which I’m calling a Plot Twist, will use the Inspiration mechanic. I am making the following alterations to Inspiration.

• You may have more than one Inspiration. The maximum number of points of Inspiration you can have is equal to your proficiency bonus. So a first level character can have up to two Inspiration points.

• Inspiration use can be declared after a roll is made, but before the results are announced. This effectively lets you roll another d20.

• You can spend as many Inspiration points on a roll as you can afford. E.g. you’re attacking an ogre. You roll a 6. You spend one Inspiration to roll another d20, and you roll an 8. You spend another Inspiration to roll another d20, you roll an 18. You hit!

• You can spend your Inspiration to aid another player’s roll. You must give an in-story explanation of how this works.

• I’m considering allowing Inspiration to be use to reroll any roll in the game, just like in Numenera. I’d love feeback on this idea. This would mean you could reroll damage, or force me to reroll a roll.

In addition to allowing a reroll (or giving you another d20, however you want to look at it), Inspiration also has the following uses:

• Declare you have a piece of mundane (non-magical) equipment that isn’t on your character sheet.

• Declare a story element, up to DM approval.

• Turn a Death Save failure into a success.

• Cancel Disadvantage on a roll.

The Plot Twist works very similar to the GM Intrusion in Numenera. The DM proposes a complication to the story that will impact your character. You can accept or refuse the Plot Twist. If you accept, you will gain 2 Inspiration points. You keep one and give one to another player and give a reason. The Plot Twist then becomes true and happens. If you reject the Plot Twist, you must spend one Inspiration point to do so. This is one instance where another player can’t spend Inspiration for you.

I actually like this better than how GM Intrusions work in Numenera because this system is completely unrelated to experience points and advancement. Unlike in Numenera, the DM doesn't have to fulfill a quota of Plot Twists. She can do them when they're appropriate and she's inspired, but she doesn't have to feel like she has to do a certain number (or any) in a given session.

If you have any thoughts or opinions on this, I‘d love to hear them. 

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©2025 Cedar Moon Publishing LLC

There is a website out there called RPGPodcasts.com. You may have heard of it. You may have even submitted your show to their site. They aggregate RPG podcasts on their site. Once you submit your show, new episodes will show up on their site automatically.

What you may not have realized, as there is no mention of this when you submit your podcast to their site, is that they also have their own podcast feed on iTunes. If you submitted your show to their site, then there’s a very good chance that they are reposting your episodes in their own iTunes feed.

I submitted my own show, Game Master’s Journey, to the site, thinking it might get me some more exposure. I had no idea they would repost my episodes into their own “podcast”. The only way I even found out about it was that whenever I would search for Game Master’s Journey in iTunes, their podcast would also show up. Here is their show on iTunes. Out of curiosity, I checked it out, recognizing it from the website. I was surprised to see my newest episode in their feed.

This bothered me because I don’t want my show in their feed. I want people subscribing to my feed to get my show, not someone else’s. Not to mention the fact I never gave permission for them to redistribute my show. This is a breach of copyright law, plain and simple.

I set out to get my show removed. This was not easy to do. The only contact information on their site is an email address. I emailed this address back in August, and after two emails got a response. I was told my podcast would be removed from their site and iTunes feed. I checked over the next few weeks, and it did seem to be removed. However, now it’s back, as you can see in the image below.

Their site has no terms of service, and nowhere does it disclose that our shows will be posted in their own iTunes feed. You can see what little they do say here.  

If you produce an RPG podcast, and you’ve submitted your show to their site, I urge you to check their feed on iTunes next time you release an episode. Even if you didn’t submit your show, you might want to check. I also urge you to email RPGpodcasts.com and request they remove your show from the iTunes feed. You can also report this breach of copyright to iTunes.

UPDATE: If you do check their iTunes feed for your show, you'll want to check a day or so after you release a new episode. They only have about 20 episodes in their feed at any given time, so if you check a few days after your latest episode comes out, you may not see it there because it was replaced with newer content.

If you’re wondering why this is a big deal, there are a few reasons. Obviously you want your listeners subscribed to your feed and coming to your website, not subscribed to an aggregate feed on iTunes. If you track your downloads like I do, then any downloads from the RPGPodcasts feed won’t be counted. Also, having your episodes showing up in multiple feeds in iTunes can potentially cause problems for you in regards to the rating and ranking of your show in iTunes, as iTunes has no way of knowing which feed is the real home of your episode. Finally, whoever is behind all this has ignored my requests to remove my show, so they can’t claim ignorance. If enough of us complain about this to RPGPodcasts.com and complain to iTunes, maybe something will be done about this. 

UPDATE: I have just received a response from David. He says that he complied with my earlier request (which he did), but has since handed over operation of the site to "other parties" who pushed a backup of the database to the live site. He says his login still works and he's removing my show now.

This doesn't change the fact that what they're doing is unethical and illegal. I had to waste a lot of time and jump through some hoops to even find who to contact about this. Though he says he's not involved with the site anymore, David's is the only contact info on the site. It also doesn't change the fact that they're still posting other shows in their iTunes feed without permission. I contacted four other shows back in August when I first became aware of this, and not one of them knew their episodes were being reposted in the RPGPodcasts feed.

UPDATE: I just received an email from iTunes saying that they're removing RPGPodcasts from their podcast directory. I'm glad now that I took the time to report them. 

Visit my Support page to learn the many ways you can help out.

©2025 Cedar Moon Publishing LLC

I looked high and low to try to find out how to see reviews from other countries, as I know it's possible to do. Although I found people willing to take my money to share the reviews with me, I couldn't find how to do it myself. 

Recently a listener clued me in to how I can see the reviews in other countries. It's so simple (and obvious) that I had a forehead-slap moment when he told me. 

1. Go to your podcast in iTunes. Right click on your album art and select "Open Link". This will take you to the iTunes page for your podcast on the web. 

2.  Look at the URL. You will see a two letter code for your country after itunes.apple.com/ (US is US). The URL for one of my shows is:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/game-masters-journey-gm-wisdom/id963947734?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D8

3. Replace your two-letter country code with the code for the country you're interested in. Hit Enter. You can find all the country codes here (you can also probably guess them, I did for the countries I was interested in).

Now, you still can't see everything at once, but if you have stats and pay attention to them at all, then you already know which countries you're interested in. For example I'm primarily interested in Canada, Australia and Great Britain as that's where most of my non-US listeners are.

This is super easy to do, and it's only something you'll need/want to do once in a blue moon anyway.

A couple caveats here, unfortunately. You will only see up to three or so reviews (scroll to the bottom of the screen), and you can only see your total number of reviews and average rating for that country on the website. If you have a lot of reviews from that country, you won't be able to see all of them, and you won't be able to see the breakdown of how many gave you 5 stars, how many gave you 4, etc. like you can in iTunes. 

This month's topic comes to us courtesy of yours truly, Lex Starwalker:

Many of us probably remember the AD&D days when the DM could roll a black dragon on the random encounter table and end a low-level party’s career. The 3rd and 4th editions of the game led some newer players to believe that every encounter should be defeatable and appropriate to their level and capabilities. However, 5th edition has moved away from this structure. 

We see this mirrored in other games as well. At one end of the spectrum is the style and belief that the PCs should be able to overcome any challenge that comes their way, that challenges should be “appropriate”. On the other end of the spectrum is the syle and belief that the world should be realistic, that every fight shouldn’t be able to be won, and that one of the requisite skills of the game is knowing when to fight and when to run.

Where do you, as a GM, fall on this spectrum, and why? Should the PCs always be able to win?

Alright, here’s my answer to the question, “Should the PCs always be able to win?”  No.  There you go. Have a great weekend!

Of course I have a bit more to say on this topic.

The reason behind my answer is that I view RPGs as roleplaying games. A game that cannot be lost is not a game at all. Also, when I run an RPG, I am after a specific kind of experience, not only for my players, but also for myself. 

First, there should be a real risk of failure in order to make the game fun and to make success truly rewarding. Nothing is worse for me as a player than to realize the GM has the kid gloves on, and no decision I make really matters because the GM won’t let anyone die. Playing in a game like that is like playing a video game with god mode on. Sure, it can be fun at first, but it quickly becomes tiresome. I have found that the thrill of success is directly proportionate to the perceived risk of failure. The more difficult the victory is to achieve, the rewarding it is when accomplished. 

I also think it’s important to have a real chance of failure in order to realistically portray the setting environment with integrity. Even in our world today, which has been largely paved over and made as idiot-proof as possible, you take a real risk every time you walk out your front door. In an RPG world where the players are portraying heroes living dangerous lives, the risk should be even more present. 

Nothing is more repugnant to me than an RPG setting that resembles an MMO with “level appropriate zones”. If my character goes into that dark cave, there may very well be something that can eat me alive without blinking. I don’t expect everything I encounter to be level appropriate, and it had better now be. One of the first things PCs should learn is when to fight and when to run a way, to size up an enemy before engaging. If every encounter is level appropriate, then there’s no real need for intelligence and reconnaissance—just kick the door down and get to business.

I remember when I was a child I would often root for the villain in television shows and movies. Why? I rooted for the villain because I hated how the heroes always won, they never suffered any real setbacks, and there was never any danger of a main character dying. Even as a child I knew this was unrealistic. I wanted to see Skeletor kill He-Man; I wanted to see Lex Luthor defeat Superman once and for all. 

I don’t think I was alone in these feelings. Today we see the rise of very popular shows like Game of Thrones where no character is safe, where victory is far from assured. I love shows like that. I love it when a main character dies and I really care about it. That’s powerful storytelling.

Another reason I think that the players shouldn’t always win is because not all player ideas are good ideas. I see a trend among GMs to run with the players’ ideas and have them work, even if that’s not what the GM originally planned. This is a great strategy as long as the ideas are good. However, I have seen some really hare-brained ideas in my days as GM, and I’m really glad I knew when to say no. 

The only thing worse than a player coming up with a hare-brained idea is that same player becoming upset with the GM when the hare-brained idea doesn’t pan out. It’s hard to respect a GM who will let anything fly. It’s hard to respect a GM who doesn’t think critically about the choices the PCs are making. Just as in real life, in an RPG choices should have consequences, and the best games are the ones in which those consequences correctly align with the wisdom of the choices. 

I don’t think all challenges should be appropriate to the PCs. I don’t think all challenges should be “fair”. Some of the best roleplaying moments I’ve had in games have been when I’ve presented a challenge to the PCs that was completely unfair and practically impossible. I like to make my players think, and charging into every encounter with swords drawn is a great way to get to roll a new character in my games. 

The Game Masters’ Roundtable of Doom is a gathering of RPG bloggers. Each month we discuss a topic relevant to running tabletop RPGs. If you’d like to submit a topic for the bloggers to discuss, or you’d like to submit your blog for admittance to our ranks, send an email to Lex Starwalker.

Other articles exploring this topic:

Easy, Average, Expert, Master, Nightmare, Hellfire, OMGWTF by Marc Plourde
Realism and Challenge by Scott Robinson
Game Masters' Roundtable of Doom #6 by Burn Everything Gaming
The Sliding Scale of Difficulty by Peter Smits
See chameleon, lying there in the sun by John Clayton
Run Away! or Always Win by John Marvin
Epic...Fail? by Tom Harrison

The Game Masters’ Roundtable of Doom is a meeting of the minds of tabletop RPG bloggers and GMs. We endeavor to transcend a particular system or game and discuss topics that are relevant to GMs and players of all roleplaying games.

If you’d like to submit a topic for our future discussions, or if you’re a blogger who’d like to participate in the Game Master’s Roundtable of Doom, send an email to Lex Starwalker.

This month's topic comes to us courtesy of Marc Plourde.

There are many different skills that come together to make up a GM—the ability to think on the fly, knowledge of the rules, plotting, etc. What skill do you think is your weakest? What have you done to try and improve that skill? What advice do you have to offer others trying to improve that skill set?

That’s a really good question. What I find most interesting about it is that my answer today is much different than the answer I would’ve given just a few weeks ago.

If you would have asked me this question anytime until very recently, I would’ve said that my weakest skill as a GM is improvisation. Luckily, improvisation is a skill you get to practice every time you sit down at the table to GM. Even the most railroaded adventure ever known will require some improv on your part as GM. The players will do something unexpected, and you will have to roll with it.

Perhaps it’s for that very reason that I no longer feel that thinking on my feet is my weakest skill as a GM (maybe it also helps that I always GM literally on my feet—standing up).

Now my weakest skill is definitely description. I’ve discussed this quite a bit on both GM Intrusions and Game Master’s Journey. Today, I’ll tackle this topic in two parts: why description is so difficult and what we can do to improve this skill.

Description is Difficult

Description is difficult. Not only is it difficult for me, personally, but I think it’s difficult for a lot of GMs. It’s not difficult in the “Ugh, I can’t do it!” sense. Rather description is difficult in the sense that it takes quite a bit of time and conscious effort to do it and do it well. Description doesn’t just happen; you’re not going to give awesome descriptions without thinking about it. You have to really try. I actually don’t think description itself is hard to do, but maybe I’m wrong about that. I think almost anyone can come up with a good description if they just put their mind to it, close their eyes, visualize the thing, and think about how they’d describe it to someone.

Method 1

Part of the issue here is that description takes time. I like to try to help myself succeed by thinking of important descriptions I’ll need in a session while I’m preparing for the game. The pie-in-the-sky is to have evocative descriptions written out for every scene and character the PCs are likely to encounter. I could read that description if I wanted, or I could paraphrase it, but if I’ve taken the effort to write it out, it’s internalized, and chances are good that I won’t have to read or paraphrase it—I’ll be able to give the description extemporaneously. The written description merely serves as a memory aid if I forget a detail, and as a reminder to actually give the description when the time comes. The obvious issue with this technique is it takes quite a bit of time. However, the more I do it, the easier it is and the less time it takes.

Method 2

The next-best-thing is to instead write out a list of key words instead of a full description. These words serve as reminders of the important aspects of the description I want to convey. My descriptions won’t be as well-worded, I won’t win any awards for their presentation, but this method takes significantly less time. I see this as a more advanced method to the one above, one I will eventually shift into when I’m better at descriptions. For now it’s my “Plan B” for when I don’t have time to do the full descriptions, or I forget to do them until the last minute.

Method 3

Of course, the other option is to come up with the description during play on-the-fly (improv rears its head after all!). This is a master-level technique though. Even the best writers spend time crafting their descriptions. It takes some thought to avoid the pedestrian clichés. However, I think it’s theoretically possible that if I practiced method 1, became good at that, then went to method 2, became good at that, then I might have a shot at mastering method 3. I’ll get back to you on that.

Description also takes time during play. It takes game time for you to properly describe things. Hopefully you have players who are starving for more description, and they will happily give you all the time you need to paint your beautiful word pictures. However, not all players are so patient, and impatient players can really take the wind out of your sails when you’re doing this hard work to give good descriptions. I’ve crafted this amazing scene, spent a good deal of time imagining how it looks and how I’ll describe it. I get a sentence into my laboriously-wrought description, and the players interrupt me to roll initiative. Bummer. It doesn’t take many of these instances to really make you wonder, “Why bother at all?” This is another reason description is difficult.

Finally, description is, at least a little bit, actually difficult. It takes mental energy to craft vivid multi-sensual images and then express those images in words, whether you’re doing it ahead of time or during the session. As GMs, we wear a lot of hats, and our brains are doing a lot during a game session. Giving deep descriptions can add a lot to that mental load, especially if you’re not used to it. One thing I’ve learned from watching my game sessions on YouTube is that I tend to give fewer and less detailed descriptions as the game session wears on. That is to say my descriptions are much better in the beginning of the session than at the end.

Another aspect of description that is difficult is pacing. You want to be careful, because you can kill your pacing with a description that’s too long. A perfect example is descriptions in combat. Pacing is already an issue in combat because combats already happen in what I like to call “Neo-time” (Matrix anyone?). We are taking minutes, even dozens of minutes to narrate things that happen in a matter of seconds. This is just a necessary evil of tabletop RPGs. The last thing you want to do is drag things out even more with lengthy descriptions.

What is a GM to Do?

What are some ways we can get better at description?

Practice

This is pretty obvious, but if you want to get better, you’ve got to practice. Practice writing descriptions out of game; practice giving descriptions in game. Use the methods I discussed above, starting with method 1, and then going on to method 2 when you’re ready. Practice out of game by thinking how you would describe things you see in your everyday life. This is a great, productive way to kill some time. If you’re waiting in line, think how you’d describe someone you see or the scene overall.

Mind the Pacing

Keep pacing in mind as you do descriptions in game. Long descriptions can be good for setting a scene. They can also be good for allowing tension to build.

When pacing is a concern however, make your descriptions short but dense. This is a great way to spend your prep time. Try to convey as much as you can in as few words as possible. Make each word count. Write these short sentences down, or just the key words.

For some great examples of how to do this well, go read (or reread) The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. He is the master of this technique. Take note of his descriptions (and his writing in general). He doesn’t blather on and on (like I do). He says a lot with few words. This is the motherland of description.

Get Some Inspiration

Another great place to see how good description is done is to watch a good TV show or movie with the audio track for the seeing impaired turned on. Thanks Will Johnson for this brilliant idea. Will recommends doing this with Daredevil on Netflix, especially the final scene of the second episode.

Get help from your players

Ask your players for feedback. How do they think you’re doing? They may surprise you and say that your descriptions are great. Even if they do though, don’t let yourself feel like you’re off the hook. Maybe they just don’t know any better. Maybe if you really wow them with your descriptions next time, they’ll realize you’ve just been phoning it in.

Ask your players to ask you for more descriptions when you slack. It’s very easy to forget to do them, especially in a combat or when you’re really tired. Encourage your players to ask you for more details.

Let the players do some of the work for you whenever possible. If the thing that needs described has to do with their character, have the player describe it. For example, ask your players to describe their companions and followers, the magic items and equipment they find and use, etc. Not only does this take some of the load off your shoulders, but it allows the players to have more ownership of the story and their characters. If you’re giving the fighter a magic sword, why not let the player decide what it looks like? You can also give the players opportunities to describe NPCs, taverns, etc. This gives them more of a feeling of ownership of the setting.

Finally, ask your players to be descriptive as well. Description isn’t just the job of the GM, it’s the job of everyone at the table. Ask the players to really think about how they describe their character and what their character does. This will make the game more enjoyable for everyone, and you’ll find that you inspire one another to reach greater heights with your descriptions.

Finally, don’t be afraid to take breaks. The anathema of good description is brain drain. Feel free to call for a break when you need one, whether you need the time to come up with some descriptions or just to let your mind rest for a few minutes.

If you record your games like I do, I highly recommend watching the sessions. You’ll be able to more easily see where your descriptions are lacking or altogether absent.

I don’t think I’ll ever be completely satisfied with my descriptions while running a game, and that’s ok. My goal is to constantly improve. If you have any other ideas on how to improve this aspect of our GMing craft, let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear what strategies people use.

I discuss this topic a bit in the Game Master's Journey episode on GM Laziness.

Game on!

Other articles exploring this topic:

Crossing the Divide by Marc Plourde
Encoding Improvisation by Scott Robinson
GMing Weakness by Peter Smits
Successfully Offing Your Favorite Characters by Jim Walls
Wait! Something Important! by John Marvin
Your GM Big Picture Fu is Weak by Evan Franke
Preparation is Not a Dirty Word by John Clayton

Other topics in this series:

Roundtable #4 - How Lethal Are Your Campaigns?
Roundtable #3 - My Evolution as a GM and Gamer
Roundtable #2 - The GM Intrusion
Roundtable #1 - How to Get Better Roleplay from Your Players

Inspiration is one of the more awesome innovations of fifth edition. If you’re not using it as DM, you’re missing out.

You can hear more about this topic in the companion episode of the Game Master's Journey podcast.

How inspiration can enhance your game

You can use inspiration as a “carrot” to reward behavior and gameplay you want to see more of.

You can use inspiration as a buffer against unfriendly dice and unwanted character death. This works especially well if you use the variant rule that allows inspiration to be spent after the die roll but after the results are announced. This also works well if you use the variant allowing inspiration to be used multiple times on a roll.

Inspiration can be a great way to hedge against a TPK (total party kill). This is helpful if an encounter starts to go south due to no fault of the players—maybe you gave them an encounter that is too difficult, or maybe the players are just having a really unlucky night with the dice. In a situation like this, look for reasons to give PCs inspiration.

Don’t give out more than one inspiration per two PCs, and don’t give a PC more than two inspiration in a given game session. Allow players to learn from their mistakes. Let them suffer the consequences of bad decisions or foolish actions.

Inspiration increases player agency and gives players more of a feeling of control over what happens to their characters.

Additional guidelines for awarding inspiration

Award inspiration for outstanding background write-ups and character development at character creation. This allows a PC to begin play with inspiration, which can be very helpful to “squishy” first-level characters. This encourages players to put more thought into their character before the game starts, leading to a living, breathing character instead of just a collection of numbers on a piece of paper.

Award inspiration for in-character creations like journal entries, letters and sketches. These not only add depth to the characters, but add a lot to the immersion of the players. Make sure to judge such creations on effort and impact as opposed to talent. Not everyone is an artist. If a creation adds to the enjoyment of the players and GM, then it’s worthy of an award.

Award inspiration for anything a player or a PC does that goes above and beyond. Try to be consistent in the kinds of things you award inspiration for. However, also gradually expect more from your players as the campaign goes on. Just as a higher level character needs more xp to advance a level, you should expect more from higher level characters to earn inspiration.

Inspiration variants and optional rules

These are various ways to make inspiration more powerful and useful. Be careful using more than one of these. Some of them synergize well, but some combinations could get out of hand.

Consider using the optional rule that a PC can choose to use inspiration after the die is rolled but before the result is announced. In this variant, the PC rolls a d20. If she chooses to use inspiration, she then rolls a second d20 and takes the higher roll. This makes it easier to use inspiration without fear of “wasting” it and allows PCs to have it and use it when it really matters. This improves inspiration’s ability to buffer against bad die rolls and character death. This does make inspiration more powerful, but more importantly, it makes it more relevant.

Allow inspiration to stack with advantage. By default inspiration gives advantage, which makes it useless in when the PC already has advantage. Allowing inspiration to be used with advantage makes inspiration useful in more situations. This works best with the optional rule allowing inspiration use to be declared after the roll but before results are determined. The PC rolls with advantage as normal (rolls 2d20). If the player then chooses to use advantage, she rolls a third d20 and takes the highest of the three rolls. This makes inspiration more powerful. It’s especially useful to give an epic feel to the game or in campaigns that are very lethal and/or difficult.

Allow inspiration to be used multiple times on a roll. This requires the optional rule that inspiration can be used after the roll but before results are announced by the GM. If the player uses inspiration, but still rolls poorly, another player can give the first player his inspiration die, allowing the first player to roll another d20. This can be done as many times as the party has inspiration dice. This allows a PC to succeed at a very important roll by using all the party’s inspiration at once. This builds a sense of teamwork and camaraderie, as inspiration even more becomes a party resource as opposed to an individual PC resource. This won’t break the game because although the PC will very likely succeed at the important role, the party now has much fewer (or no) inspiration dice left to spend.

Spending inspiration allows you to automatically succeed at a death save. Or, a more powerful version, spending inspiration allows you to stabilize at 0 hit points. This is a great way to further buffer against PC death. This works great for a GM who wants a lower mortality rate and also rolls in the open (or doesn’t want to fudge rolls).

Use of inspiration during a short rest allows you to recover spell slots. You recover a number of spell levels equal to the maximum level spell you can cast divided by three. You can divide this among slots as you wish.

Example: Nikki’s character has access to sixth-level spells. She can spend her inspiration during a short rest to recover either one 2nd-level spell slot or two 1st-level spell slots.

This allows spell casters to use their spells a little more freely. Be aware that this slightly cheapens the wizard’s Arcane Recovery ability. The wizard’s ability is still better at most levels, but it becomes less unique.

Use of inspiration during a short rest allows you to recover some hit points. You can roll a number of hit dice equal to your tier.

Tier 1 is levels 1-4

Tier 2 is levels 5-10

Tier 3 is levels 11-16

Tier 4 is levels 17-20

Example: Jim’s character is a fifth level rogue with a constitution modifier of +1. He can spend his inspiration during a short rest to regain 2d8+2 hit points.

This might be a good option in a campaign with a lot of combats and few chances for long rests. This works well with the optional rule allowing multiple inspirations per PC.

Allow PCs to accumulate more than one inspiration during a session. Any inspiration in excess of one are lost at the end of the session. This makes inspiration (and any of the variants you use) much more powerful. You will want to limit the total number of inspiration the PC can accumulate. I suggest a limit equal to the PC’s tier.

Tier 1 (levels 1-4), 1 inspiration

Tier 2 (levels 5-10), 2 inspiration

Tier 3 (levels 11-16), 3 inspiration

Tier 4 (levels 17-20), 4 inspiration

Hero Points

Hero points can have many of the same advantages as inspiration, but they work differently. Hero points are overall less powerful than inspiration. If you decide to use hero points and inspiration, decide if you will allow both to be used on the same roll.

Hero point variants

Here are a couple ways to make hero points more powerful. This is especially useful if you’re using hero points as a replacement for inspiration.

Allow the hero point bonus die to scale as the Bardic Inspiration die does.

Levels 1-4, d6

Levels 5-9, d8

Levels 10-14, d10

Levels 15-20, d12

Allow more than one hero point to be spent on one roll.

Articles in This Series

01 - The Town of Bonespir
02 - The Windmill in the Woods
03 - Law & Order in Charmonde
04 - Heroes of Bonespir
05 - The Machine of the Emols
06 - The Town of Delirium
07 - Exploring the Obsidian Monolith

Companion Episodes of Game Master's Journey

OM 01 - Preparing for an Adventure
OM 02 - Laying the Foundation for your Campaign
OM 03 - Location, Location, Location
OM 04 - Prepping and Running a Numenera Session
OM 05 - The Town of Bonespir
OM 06 - The Windmill in the Woods
OM 07 - Connecting Adventures Together
OM 08 - The Village of the Culovas
OM 09 - The Machine of the Emols
OM 10 - The Conclusion of the Campaign

Actual Play (Audio)

Session 01 Part 1 - The Town of Bonespir
Session 01 Part 2 - The Windmill in the Woods
Session 01 Part 3 - Inside the Windmill
Session 02 Part 1 - The Swarm from Hell
Session 02 Part 2 - Numenera Hunters
Session 03 Part 1 - The Order of Tianma
Session 03 Part 2 - Bugbusters
Session 04 Part 1 - The Man They Called Zain
Session 04 Part 2 - Madame Saydle's Wondrous Soup

Approaching the Obsidian Monolith

Massive electromagnetic storms, gravity anomalies and temporal anomalies surround the Obsidian Monolith, making approaching it difficult and terrifying. Gravity may shift, becoming more or less, or may disappear altogether. PCs could be struck by lightning as a GM Intrusion. The PCs may shift back and forth between different time periods. In my game the PCs shifted from the present to a time when the Monolith was surrounded by ocean (luckily they were flying).

Once the PCs get close to the Monolith, they discover it is surrounded by Plasmars (The Ninth World Bestiary page 98). These may or may not be hostile depending on GM preference and how the PCs react to them. The plasmars feed on the energy of the storms around the Obsidian Monolith.

Entering the Obsidian Monolith

The entrance to the Monolith is at the very top. The Monolith floats 500 feet in the air and is 2000 feet tall, so flight will be required. To open the hatch, a PC must use telepathy with the interface to solve a puzzle. The solution involves representing the Seven Sky Gods constellation (what we know as the pleiades) in the hologram that floats above the interface when it's activated. While the telepath maintains the arrangement of the "stars" in the hologram, a second PC must use telekinesis to float a conductive object (like a dagger) into the symbol of the correct star that corresponds with the home system of the Obsidian Monolith's creators. If someone instead positions the conducting object by hand, she must immediately make a difficulty 10 might defense roll. On a success she takes 10 ambient might damage (ignores armor) and 10 ambient intellect damage. On a failure, she also goes one step down the damage track and gains a weakness in intellect and a random harmful mutation. 

Once the above is completed, the portal opens. 

Exploring the Obsidian Monolith

The Obsidian Monolith is a strange place. The different chambers have variable gravity, so down is in different directions depending what room you're in. Some chambers have lower gravity than Earth, and some have higher gravity. Some of the chambers are filled with water. All the halls have 8 walls (including floor and ceiling) instead of 4. The chambers are eight sided. Some of the chambers seem far too large to be contained within the Monolith, yet somehow they are. 

When the PCs enter, they hear a voice speaking in a strange language. The voice continues talking as they explore. After some time, an intellect roll will reveal that the voice is speaking numerous different languages, all of which are unintelligible to the PCs. 

The control surfaces look very similar to the ones encountered in the Windmill, and they use the same fractal language. PCs who learned the language will be able to use that knowledge here. Many of the interfaces require telepathy to use, which involves manipulating holographic fractal shapes that float in the air above the interface.

There are no dangers in the Monolith--no monsters, no security systems. However there are many technological wonders that the PCs can explore. The Monolith also serves as a museum of Eilodon culture, art, history and technology. 

Eventually the voice that has been speaking while the PCs explore speaks in the Truth. This happens when the GM deems appropriate, after the PCs have had a chance to explore to their hearts' content. The voice has been trying to communicate with the PCs using all the known languages of the ancient galactic society. Once it has tried all the languages it knows, it monitors the PCs' conversations and learns their language (the Truth). The voice is that of the artificial intelligence of the Monolith itself. 

The AI is not insane. I don't believe a machine intelligence could go insane, and even if it is possible, it's a horrible cliche. However, the AI is lonely as it has been millennia since it has had someone to talk to. The AI is happy to converse with the PCs and answer questions.

The PCs can learn from the AI that the Obsidian Monolith is a vessel of sorts, able to travel through time and space. It was built by a race called the Eilodon, who are very similar to Earth octopi. They are from a star in the pleiades constellation. The monolith was put on Earth in a time when Earth was part of a galactic civilization. A great civilization arose in each of the star systems of the pleiades constellation, and each one placed a monolith on Earth. The arrangement of the monoliths was such so that on a specific day of a specific year, each monolith pointed to its parent star in the night sky.

The Amber Monolith and Obelisk of the Water God are not actually a "true monoliths". The true monoliths in those positions left long ago, and later Earth civilizations built the Amber Monolith  and the Obelisk of the Water God as copies to take the place of the ancient and familiar landmarks.

The Obsidian Monolith has a powerful control of spacetime, and might be a little too dangerous to fall into the hands of the Order of Truth. The AI wishes to return to the Eilodon homeworld, but requires the PCs to use a manual override so it can leave its position on Earth.

As a bargaining chip, the AI tells the PCs that an armada of alien ships is enroute to Earth's system. These are the ships of a species from beyond our galaxy that were ancient enemies of the great galactic civilization Earth was part of. Back in the day, it was believed they'd been defeated and destroyed, but obviously not. It's safe to assume their goal is the utter destruction of Earth.

Earth, of course, is not undefended. There is a field of nanites strewn through the entire system. They are capable of destroying any invading force, but they have gone inactive after millennia of disuse. The Obsidian Monolith can reactivate the nano-field, and will do so if the characters free it. The characters might theorize that the Order knew of this somehow, and that's why they wanted inside the Monolith, or they just wanted power. Who knows?

If the PCs free the AI, they then have a lot of options. They could go on about their lives, or they could accompany the monolith to the Eilodon homeworld.

I originally planned to end the campaign on the Eilodon homeworld, which is an oceanic planet. Unfortunately, the Eilodon are gone, leaving behind only the ruins of their great underwater cities and technology. It's unclear if they went extinct or left for elsewhere, and the Obsidian Monolith has no idea. The Monolith would want to search for its creators, and the PCs would have the option of going with it (it would like the company after millions of years alone) and exploring the galaxy.

This can be the end of the campaign, or the beginning of a whole new chapter.

Articles in This Series

01 - The Town of Bonespir
02 - The Windmill in the Woods
03 - Law & Order in Charmonde
04 - Heroes of Bonespir
05 - The Machine of the Emols
06 - The Town of Delirium
07 - Exploring the Obsidian Monolith

Companion Episodes of Game Master's Journey

OM 01 - Preparing for an Adventure
OM 02 - Laying the Foundation for your Campaign
OM 03 - Location, Location, Location
OM 04 - Prepping and Running a Numenera Session
OM 05 - The Town of Bonespir
OM 06 - The Windmill in the Woods
OM 07 - Connecting Adventures Together
OM 08 - The Village of the Culovas
OM 09 - The Machine of the Emols
OM 10 - The Conclusion of the Campaign

Actual Play (Audio)

Session 01 Part 1 - The Town of Bonespir
Session 01 Part 2 - The Windmill in the Woods
Session 01 Part 3 - Inside the Windmill
Session 02 Part 1 - The Swarm from Hell
Session 02 Part 2 - Numenera Hunters
Session 03 Part 1 - The Order of Tianma
Session 03 Part 2 - Bugbusters
Session 04 Part 1 - The Man They Called Zain
Session 04 Part 2 - Madame Saydle's Wondrous Soup

Actual Play (Video)

The YouTube playlist includes the first session and sessions 8-12.

Delirium

Delirium is a town on the Plains of Kataru. It is built between the legs of a great crystal Arch. The plains are rolling flatlands that are fertile and temperate. However the Plains of Kataru are known for the terrible storms that rage in the area, especially in the spring. Delirium is a safe haven from these storms, though, as it is protected from inclement weather by the large crystal Arch that rises over the town. Within a mile of the Arch the weather is always calm, with just enough mild rains to grow crops, and temperate. Whenever inclement weather is nearby, the Arch emits a soft hum, the worse the weather, the louder the hum. With severe weather, everything in the town seems to vibrate with the sound.

Delirium is located between the Ausren Woods and White Lake and has no resident Aeon Priests. The people of Delirium speak their own language, although the town elders can speak the Truth. Delirium is a small farming community that grows wheat, beans, and all kinds of vegetables. The folk of Delirium also raise griffalo and gallene and hunt enyi on the plains. The town is largely self-sufficient but does occasionally trade with rare caravans from the Steadfast that travel across the Black Riage on their way to Augur-Kala.

Only the elders know how to enter the Arch. This is accomplished by pressing one’s lips to the Arch’s surface while humming a note a minor third above the pitch of the Arch’s hum. Once inside the Arch, a lift takes one to the top, where there is a series of windows that look out into the past and future at different intervals. E.g. one window looks out a day in the past, while another looks out a day in the future, and another a year in the past and so on. The elders use the information they glean by gazing out the windows to pose as “seers” blessed by the Tree Goddess. One of the elders is posted at the windows at all times. Because of this, most visitors to the town are anticipated.

In addition to the Arch, a palisade surrounds the town and an astronomy pole is at its center. Sunlight passes through the Arch, so it does not interfere with the functioning of the astronomy pole. The pole casts a shadow on the palisade wall, the position of which is used to determine important days like solstices, equinoxes, harvesting and planting days, etc.

A Dream Sallow (The Ninth World Bestiary page 37) lives near the town in an arboretum of dead trees. The people of Delirium worship the Great Tree as a god. Their ancestors made a deal with the Dream Sallow long ago. The Tree agreed to no longer lure townsfolk beneath it boughs to die, and in return, every citizen “goes to the Tree” at age 60 to die and feed it. The elders long ago presented this to the people of Delirium as a religion, complete with a mythology to support it. They go to the Tree willingly to die and enjoy an eternal afterlife (there is actually some truth to this as their consciousness is preserved in a virtual reality created by the Dream Sallow). The sick and dying are also taken to the Tree. Occasionally sacrifices are made to the Tree as well, although this is rare because the most common reasons for sacrifice (healthy births, bountiful crops, good weather) are unnecessary due to the Arch which protects the town.

The buildings of Delirium are round huts made of a wooden skeleton filled in with a cement like material made of mud and prairie grasses.

The people of the town wear robe-like garments. The women wear their hair up in elaborate arrangements held in place with objects of wood, metal, bone or synth. The elders of the town shave their heads except for an “arch” of hair going from their sideburns over the crown of their heads. The seers also wear ear spools of wood or bone, which increase in size with age and station. The other men of the town shave their heads completely. All the men wear beards, the length of the beards naturally increasing with age. The people of Delirium tend to have dark hair and brown, blue, hazel or green eyes. Their skin has a wide range of complexions, but none of them are pale.

Dying is referred to as “returning to the Dream.” The people of the town “go to the Goddess” when they turn 60. Parting phrases used in the town include, “May the Arch shade you,” and, “Dream again, but not today.” Another common phrase heard in the town is, “All things return to the Goddess.”

The Game Masters’ Roundtable of Doom is a meeting of the minds of tabletop RPG bloggers and GMs. We endeavor to transcend a particular system or game and discuss topics that are relevant to GMs and players of all roleplaying games.

If you’d like to submit a topic for our future discussions, or if you’re a blogger who’d like to participate in the Game Master’s Roundtable of Doom, send an email to Lex Starwalker.

This month's topic comes to us courtesy of Lex Starwalker, who poses the following question:

There is a wide spectrum of lethality in RPGs, and there are GMs who fall on every possible point within it. These range from GMs who run campaigns where PCs can never die to the other extreme—GMs who delight in killing PCs. Where do you fall on this spectrum? How lethal are your games and why? How do you handle PC death if and when it happens?

This is an interesting area of GMing where my thoughts on the topic have changed quite a few times over the years, but the way I actually handle it in play has remained consistent.

I have a little secret (ssh, don’t tell my players!): I almost never kill PCs. Most of the times that I have killed player characters have been when the player is no longer part of the group. When I was a younger GM and a player stopped playing with us, I used to delight in killing off their characters in spectacular ways. I no longer do that.

Usually, when a PC’s death is imminent I find another solution.

My Perspective

Before I delve into this topic, I should put my position into perspective.

First, I prefer to run campaigns. Just as I prefer novels to short stories, I enjoy building up the characters and stories of my RPGs in long arcs that span many sessions. Often my campaigns are open-ended, with no end in sight, which is to say we play the campaign for as long as we’re all still into it.

I like as much verisimilitude as I can muster in my games without it infringing on fun or the heroic aspect of the genre. I don’t try to make my games simulations of reality, but at the same time I try to avoid things that fly in the face of reason.

While I do my best to be impartial, at the end of the day I’m an advocate for the players, I’m not playing “against” them.

Purposes of PC Death

When thinking about PC death in an RPG, the first question to ask is, “What purpose does character death serve?” PC death can serve a number of purposes in you campaign.

First, a PC death can do a lot to enhance the feeling of realism in your campaign, and it can help a great deal if you’re wanting to have real suspense, tension, and a feeling of danger in your game. We’re all familiar with stories where the main characters never die. Although these can be enjoyable, it does pull the fangs out of any tense scene, as we know the character might die. Now, this tension can be achieved other ways—maybe the character will suffer greatly, lose a loved one, etc.—but none of these possibilities are as frightening as losing a beloved character forever. This tendency is our fiction is so omnipresent in the fiction of our culture that it’s become the default. A show like Game of Thrones is noted as extraordinary because any main character can die (and many have).

A PC’s death can also establish that there is real danger in your campaign. Again, the default assumption in a story is that all the main characters will live to see the end of the story (or at least most of them will). Killing a PC early can let your players know in a very visceral way that they’re not playing that kind of game. It raises the stakes and lets the players know you mean business.

A PC death can also establish that there are consequences to the PCs’ actions. This can be especially helpful when you have players in your group you’ve never gamed with before. As I like a feel of realism in my games, I like to reward player decisions. I reward good decisions with favorable consequences and bad decisions with unfavorable consequences. In this way you can teach the PCs about your world and about what you expect from them as a GM. Nothing leads the players to put on their serious gamer hats like a PC fatality.

PC deaths can also establish that you, as the GM, are an impartial judge. This may or may not be important to you. There’s a great article by Adam Lee in which he discusses running a game in what he refers to as a cinematic mode or a “DM as nature” mode.

In the old days of gaming (when I came into the hobby), the DM as nature was the default assumption. The DM was an impartial judge of the game, and character death was not only possible, but often likely.

The other mode Adam describes, the cinematic mode, is one that’s become more popular today. This is the style of play in which most any hare-brained ideas the PCs come up with work, as long as they add to the fun of the story. I really recommend checking out Adam’s article, as he has some great ideas about how and when to transition from one mode to another depending on the dynamics of what’s going on at the table.

Although I appreciate the value of fun at the table, and I see fun as the number one objective of any RPG, I also value realism and cause and effect. If a PC proposes something that breaks the laws of physics, it’s not going to fly in my game (unless he’s got a magical or other way to make it work). I don’t enjoy running a game so far on the cinematic side of the spe-ctrum that players don’t have to think about their actions and choices. Without a real chance of failure, success is meaningless.

Downsides of PC Death

All of that said, there are quite a few downsides to the death of a PC, not the least of which is that it’s often not much fun for the player, especially if the player is attached to the character. Because the number one goal of the game is to have fun, this is a pretty big downside. I encourage my players to make well-developed characters, and enjoy building on the characters from there. The death of that character can often invalidate all that effort, turning it into wasted time.

Another downside is that PC death is often not very heroic or epic. This may be more or less of a problem depending on your game and campaign, but as the PCs are the main characters of the story, the death of one should at least be meaningful and not just a “red shirt” death.

Another issue with the death of a PC is the question of what to do with the player at the table? Unless player has a premade replacement PC ready to go, you either have to pause the game to allow the player to make a new character, have him make the character while the rest of you play, or end the session. You also then have to work the new character into the story. Depending where you’re at in your campaign, this can be a huge pain in the ass.

Another big problem is that you not only lose the history of that character that you and the player have worked so hard to build, but you also lose any plans you as GM had for that character. This is honestly the single biggest reason I’ve often “saved” PCs in the past—I have cool shit planned!

So, as you can see, there are a lot of drawbacks to losing a PC, and many of those affect the GM as much or more as the player. For this reason, PC death in my campaigns is never arbitrary. I never have “red shirt” deaths of player characters in my games. Not only is it not very heroic, if I have anything planned for that character in the future, I’m throwing out those ideas for no good reason.

Alternatives to PC death

I’ve listed a number of benefits to your game that can come from the death of a PC, and I’ve also listed quite a few downsides. Luckily, there are ways to achieve most of the same ends as a PC death without actually killing a PC (thereby avoiding the headaches).

One way you can establish the lethality of your campaign and your willingness to enforce consequences is to kill off important NPCs that the PCs have become attached to. This is especially effective if the NPC death is a direct result of PC action or inaction. You don’t want to over-use this technique, but it can be extremely effective. The more developed the NPC is, and the more the players like that character, the better. The death of a beloved NPC can have a very similar emotional impact on the players as the death of one of their own characters. Sometimes killing an NPC can be even more effective in establishing lethality of a campaign than killing a PC would be. If you are willing to kill off an NPC that you and the players love and that you’ve put a lot of time into, many players will reason that you’d be equally willing to kill off one of their own characters, maybe even more so. If you’re willing to off “your” character, surely theirs aren’t safe. This can really raise the “pucker factor”, which is what you’re going for.

Another technique that can work very well is instead of killing the PC, give the character a major setback. This could be loss of equipment and magic items, a permanent injury or maiming, some kind of stat penalty, etc. This could be something that can eventually be overcome, or it may be permanent. This keeps the character in the story, and avoids many of the downsides of PC death, while at the same time dishing out consequences. This is especially effective for bad PC decisions, as the character can learn from it. Overcoming the disability (if that’s even possible) can also become a story hook that helps drive your campaign and increases player buy-in.

How to Avoid Character Death

Due to the nature of RPGs, everything isn’t always in the hands of the GM. We can’t control the choices players make, and we can’t control the dice. Because of this, PC death can often loom on the horizon, even when you don’t want it to. Luckily, there are numerous ways to avoid it.  

First, you can always fudge the rolls. This was my chosen method in my early days of GMing, but I almost never do it now. In fact, in my current D&D campaign, I make all my rolls openly, so fudging them isn’t an option. I think this is the worst way to avoid character death, and it should only be used as a last resort, if at all.

First, it’s basically cheating. Yes, the GM is boss, but if you’re rolling dice at all, then you’re telling the players that you’re allowing randomness to affect your side of the screen just as it affects theirs. If you fudge rolls, you’re effectively cheating and breaking that trust. Yes, the dice aren’t are the boss, and you shouldn’t let them ruin your game. But you should always think twice before you fudge a roll as GM, and if you do do it, the players should never know. If you fudge a roll once to save a player’s character, she’ll expect you to do it the next time. If you’re in a situation where you’re going to fudge a roll if it doesn’t come up the way you want, don’t roll to begin with. Some of the easiest and most common ways to fudge is to ignore a critical hit, decrease the amount of damage an attack rolls, or have an NPC fail a save or defensive roll.

Another way to avoid PC death that should be used very sparingly, if at all, is divine intervention. This can be appropriate, however, depending on your campaign. Divine intervention is actually hardwired into the cleric of D&D 5e, which is nice. If the PCs are working directly to further a deity’s goals, or are very devout to that deity (and high level), then divine intervention can be a possibility. Even then you must be careful, however. This is what’s referred to as deus ex machina, and it can ruin your story if you don’t know what you’re doing.

A variation on the divine intervention is allowing the PC to die, but then they’re sent back by their deity or another force. This should come with some kind of price or condition. Most likely the deity has something he wants the character to accomplish, and the character may then die after that is done. This can also work in a situation where the whole party dies if their quest is important to a deity. A fun spin on this is to have an evil or opposing deity offer to return the PCs to life, but they must then work to that deity’s ends.

Another method that’s often overused is an NPC comes in and saves the day. This can work if you’ve set it up and foreshadowed ahead of time, but it has similar drawbacks to fudging rolls and divine intervention—namely that the players can come to expect it. When this happens, it has the opposite effect of all the positive aspects of PC death. It ruins realisms, spoils any suspense or sense of danger, and kicks the players out of your story. However, used once or twice in a campaign, and done well, this can be an effective way to turn the tide in the PCs favor.

One of my favorites is instead of killing the PC or PCs, have them be captured instead. This works great when you have a TPK (total party kill) on your hands, and can open up a whole new type of game play. Now the PCs are imprisoned in their foe’s lair and must either escape or cut a deal. This is super easy to do in the new D&D, as any killing blow in melee can instead render a foe unconscious. If the PCs can do it, so can the NPCs.

Another possibility is instead of killing the PC, have the attack knock them out and lead to some kind of permanent damage. Perhaps the PC loses a limb or an eye or forever has a limp. There should be some kind of permanent mechanical drawback. You could also come up with some other major setback that’s appropriate to your story.

Exceptions

Even if you’re going to do your best to avoid PC death in your campaign, you should allow for the possibility. When death is looming, don’t step in and save the day. Leave it up to the PCs. There have been many times I thought one or more PCs would die, and I was tempted to step in but didn’t, and the PCs managed to salvage the situation somehow. Those are extremely dramatic and satisfying sessions, and they’re ones the players will remember for a long time. They’re even more satisfying for you as GM because you know they did on their own without help from you.

Personally, when I’m running a game, anytime a PC does something foolish or reckless, the gloves come off, unless I’m a fan of what the player is doing. Sometimes reckless behavior adds to the story, and that’s great. However, the rest of the time reckless behavior and bad choices result in the “safeties” of my game coming off.

Conclusion

As I said in the beginning of this article, I have very rarely killed PCs in the past. Usually the reason has been that the character’s death would not have improved the story. I had plans for that character, plans I wanted to see unfold. Also, you have to gauge how you think the player will react. It’s one thing if they player will shrug and pull out another character she has ready and is looking forward to playing. It’s a very different scenario if the player will be heartbroken over the loss of a favorite character.

There are many alternatives to killing a PC, and many of them can deepen your story in a way that the PC’s death wouldn’t. The important thing is to handle the situation in a way that doesn’t leave the player with the feeling that you stepped in and “saved” his character. Believe it or not, this actually destroys player agency. Players need to know that they will enjoy the consequences of their decisions and actions, good or bad. Our job as the GM is to find the consequence that works best for our story and takes the campaign to a new and exciting place.

Other Articles Exploring This Topic

To be or not to be...a Killer GM by Evan Franke
PCs and the killing there of by Peter Smits
Lethality and the RPG as a Relativistic Game by Scott Robinson
The Mortality of the Situation by Marc Plourde
TPK Anyone? by John Marvin
Fatality! by John Clayton
Lethality by Arnold K.

Articles in This Series

01 - The Town of Bonespir
02 - The Windmill in the Woods
03 - Law & Order in Charmonde
04 - Heroes of Bonespir
05 - The Machine of the Emols
06 - The Town of Delirium
07 - Exploring the Obsidian Monolith

Companion Episodes of Game Master's Journey

OM 01 - Preparing for an Adventure
OM 02 - Laying the Foundation for your Campaign
OM 03 - Location, Location, Location
OM 04 - Prepping and Running a Numenera Session
OM 05 - The Town of Bonespir
OM 06 - The Windmill in the Woods
OM 07 - Connecting Adventures Together
OM 08 - The Village of the Culovas
OM 09 - The Machine of the Emols
OM 10 - The Conclusion of the Campaign

Actual Play (Audio)

Session 01 Part 1 - The Town of Bonespir
Session 01 Part 2 - The Windmill in the Woods
Session 01 Part 3 - Inside the Windmill
Session 02 Part 1 - The Swarm from Hell
Session 02 Part 2 - Numenera Hunters
Session 03 Part 1 - The Order of Tianma
Session 03 Part 2 - Bugbusters
Session 04 Part 1 - The Man They Called Zain
Session 04 Part 2 - Madame Saydle's Wondrous Soup

Opening Scene

It is a hot summer day in Bonespir, with the type of humidity you can almost reach out and touch with your hands. A visible misty haze hangs in the air, somehow resisting being burned away by the blazing sun.

It has been two weeks since the festival and the unfortunate incident with the monstrous tick-like creature. Life has returned to normal, or what passes for it in this strange little town where people reek of garlic, onions and other unnamed, yet potent, spices.

You’ve found a bit of shade beneath one of the towering, fossilized ribs of some unknown ancient beast, for the only thing worse than the hot heavy air outside is the stifling heat indoors. You fan your sweaty face and neck in a vain attempt at relief, wishing nature would send a real breeze through the town. You try not to notice the smell of your companions, like you, sweating in the heat. Perhaps you’d all benefit from a bath—a cold bath, or at least a swim in the Fellwood. You hear Kairdric talking to a gallen he’s trying to break to saddle at the nearby Loggers’ Rest stable.

You find your gaze drawn to the Westwood in the distance, wondering if in the shade beneath the trees the heat might be more tolerable.

A patch of thick smoke rising above the treetops catches your eye, a black smudge on the horizon. Could it be a forest fire, or something even worse? Whatever it is, it’s too close to Bonespir for comfort—perhaps a day’s walk away.

A few Bonespirans, like you seeking respite in the shade beneath the bones, have noticed the smoke as well. They murmur among themselves, their faces betraying alarm.

If the PCs don’t immediately go to investigate the smoke, they are summoned to see the mayor. She informs them that a merchant entered town the other day claiming that the smoke is from the Black Smoker of the Emols. He also told her of their bounty on culova heads. The mayor is concerned about this for numerous reasons. She asks them to investigate the strange machine in the Westwood for her. She tasks them with getting the Emols to agree to honor Bonespir’s claims and their new peace with the culovas.

Canal Description

The warm, stagnant water of the Heartsblood Canal doesn’t provide much relief from the heat as you slip in and grab hold of a numenera tug. The tug pulls you at a good pace down the canal. The strange metal sides and bottoms of the canal give the water a silvery look. Mosquitoes and other insects swarm around, but they keep their distance from you thanks to Madame Saydle’s Wondrous Soup.

Westwood Description

The trees of the Westwood tower above you. As you’d hope, it is somewhat cooler within their shade, but the air is still and thick. A breeze would do wonders. The air is filled with the smell of pine, drit and wildflowers, and the buzzing and whirring of insects creates a constant background that rises and falls and changes in timbre, but never ceases. The great redwoods tower overhead, many of their trunks more than large enough to be turned into a culova dwelling without harming the tree. Among them grow smaller trees, though anywhere else one would remark on their size, but the redwoods dwarf them. Thanks to the thick canopy overhead and the seasonal burnings by the culovas, the forest floor is free of undergrowth. The ground is carpeted with pine needles and rust and earth-colored leaves that fell last autumn and are slowly becoming one with the earth. The small amounts of dappled sunlight that penetrate the canopy make the forest seem a constant twilight of greenish-yellow light.

Westwood Encounters

It will take at least one day of travel from the logging camp through or along the Westwood to get to the machine. The GM can have the PCs encounter some danger if she wishes, or have the travel go without incident. If the GM wishes to add an encounter, choose something from either the Woods or Jungle or Plains or Desert table on page 18 of the Ninth World Bestiary (depending on if the PCs are going through the Westwood or along its outer edge). Possibilities include pallones or murden.

The Black Smoker

The machine is decorated with culova heads.

The PCs could handle this situation in a number of ways. They could attack the Emols and try to disable or destroy the Black Smoker. They could try to talk with the Emols and convince them not to log in the area and to stop hunting culovas and paying bounties for their heads. They could try to be sneaky and disable or destroy the machine without conflict. Or they may come up with something different entirely.

Battle

If the PCs decide to fight (or if a parlay turns into a fight), they will have a difficult battle ahead of them. Captain Horrek will defend the machine to his death, and he won’t make any deals. He follows orders, and until he gets new orders from Charina Emol, he does as he was instructed—he defends the machine and makes sure it keeps logging. As long as he’s alive, the soldiers fight to the death as well.

Horrek and the soldiers will do their best to disable or kill the PCs if it comes to a fight. If the PCs flee, Horrek will send a few soldiers in pursuit if he thinks they have a good chance of catching the PCs. He will not leave the Black Smoker with less than six soldiers guarding it.

If a fight breaks out, the foreman, mechanics and technicians will not seek out combat. However, they will defend themselves if attacked. If the GM wishes, the foreman and/or mechanics may attack the PCs if they try to damage the machine (they’ve worked really hard to keep the thing running after all), but they won’t do so if it seems likely they’ll be killed or seriously hurt.

The two nanos will attack the PCs using their numenera devices and esoteries if battle ensues. As long as the captain is alive, they will fight to the death.

If the captain is killed, the PCs may be able to get the rest of the soldiers to surrender (this would require a social roll of some kind versus the soldiers’ level, perhaps intimidation, diplomacy, etc.). If the soldiers surrender (or the captain and all soldiers are killed) then the others will no longer fight and will surrender (including the nanos).

Parlay

Nathaniel Durr is a reasonable man and could be convinced to allow the PCs to sabotage the machine. Charina Emol knows that the thing is always breaking down, and he’s hopeful he could avoid suspicion. However this isn’t a possibility as long as Captain Horrek is in the picture. Durr fears Horrek and knows that he has undying loyalty to Charina Emol.

It is a similar situation for the nanos. As long as Horrek and the soldiers are around, they will fight. However, if Horrek is removed from the situation, they no longer care. They’re just in it for the money, and as long as they can be convinced that Charina Emol won’t learn that they stopped fighting, they won’t stand in the PCs’ way.

The mechanics and technicians just do what they’re told by Captain Horrek and the foreman.

The soldiers will be a little bit more difficult to deal with. Even if Horrek is eliminated, they may be loyal to the Emols and/or they may fear the consequences if they let the PCs destroy or damage the machine. The GM should roleplay the soldiers as she sees fit. If they’re frightened enough of the PCs (especially if most of them have been killed), they may agree to their terms. A lot depends on how convincing the PCs are and what kind of deal they want to make.

Loot: 4d10 shins, 2d6 cyphers

Cyphers to include (rest are random):

Transference Beam – Sir Arthour’s Guide page 94

Power Siphon – Sir Arthour’s Guide page 80

NPCs

Foreman - Nathaniel Durr. Decides where the machine will go. Top dog. Level 3. Foreman will fight only if PCs get to the machine. Uses a crowbar.

4 Mechanics/Operators. Level 2.

4 Technicians. Level 2. Mechanics and technicians will fight only in defense of their own lives. They will use whatever is at hand for a weapon (clubs, tools, knives).

Officer - Captain Horrek. Leads the soldiers. Level 5. Armor 3, Health 25, Defense 6. Armed with sword, bow, chainmail. The officer and soldiers will fight to the death. The others won’t.

2 Nanos. Nanos have battle cyphers and one has an artifact. They will fight.

Neko Wyre. (Numenera page 271) Level 3. Health 15, resist mental 4, long range attacks, other cyphers, one has an artifact. Pyroclastic staff (3) (Sir Arthour’s Guide page 129).

Other nano has Spine Armor (8) (Sir Arthour’s Guide page 135). Her stats are as the Nano on page 271 of Numenera, only +3 to Armor.

12 Soldiers. (Numenera page 272) Level 3. Health 12, Armor 2, Damage 4, Perception 4. Armed with spears, swords, chainmail and bows (modified town guard from Numenera).

Upcoming Adventures

Voyage to Charmonde

On Top of Mount Zanlis

Inside the Ausren Woods

Delirium and the Dream Sallow

Constance and the Rescue of Sir Arthour

The Obsidian Monolith

In fifth edition you have the option of either rolling for your hit points when you level or taking the average. 

I always advise players to take the average, but many times they don't, and they often regret rolling. 

If you're going to gamble, it's always good to know the odds. The larger your hit die, the better your chance of getting a decent roll. I'll share the numbers with you, and you can make your own decision. 

With every hit die, your chance of rolling less than the average score is 50%.

With a d6 hit die, if you take the average you get 4 hit points. If you roll, you only have a 33% chance to roll better than a 4.

With a d8 hit die, if you take the average you get 5 hit points. If you roll, you only have a 38% chance of rolling higher than 5.

With a d10 hit die, if you take the average you get 6 hit points. If you roll, you only have a 40% chance of rolling higher than a 6.

With a d12 hit die, if you take the average you get 7 hit points. If you roll, you only have a 42% chance of rolling higher than 7. 

Just for fun, if you could have a d20 hit die, the average would be 11 hit points. If you rolled, you'd only have a 45% chance of rolling higher than 11.

Check out the source article by Eric Diaz.

Learn more about the Star Trek: Federation pitch. 

Star Trek: Axanar

Star Trek: Horizon

Articles in This Series

01 - The Town of Bonespir
02 - The Windmill in the Woods
03 - Law & Order in Charmonde
04 - Heroes of Bonespir
05 - The Machine of the Emols
06 - The Town of Delirium
07 - Exploring the Obsidian Monolith

Companion Episodes of Game Master's Journey

OM 01 - Preparing for an Adventure
OM 02 - Laying the Foundation for your Campaign
OM 03 - Location, Location, Location
OM 04 - Prepping and Running a Numenera Session
OM 05 - The Town of Bonespir
OM 06 - The Windmill in the Woods
OM 07 - Connecting Adventures Together
OM 08 - The Village of the Culovas
OM 09 - The Machine of the Emols
OM 10 - The Conclusion of the Campaign

Actual Play (Audio)

Session 01 Part 1 - The Town of Bonespir
Session 01 Part 2 - The Windmill in the Woods
Session 01 Part 3 - Inside the Windmill
Session 02 Part 1 - The Swarm from Hell
Session 02 Part 2 - Numenera Hunters
Session 03 Part 1 - The Order of Tianma
Session 03 Part 2 - Bugbusters
Session 04 Part 1 - The Man They Called Zain
Session 04 Part 2 - Madame Saydle's Wondrous Soup

Introduction

This adventure picks up right where The Windmill in the Woods left off. The PCs have returned to the town of Bonespir after dealing with the Windmill one way or another. This adventure assumes the PCs have been successful. If they’ve failed or given up, the GM will have to use her best judgment as to how to proceed. Perhaps she can use various town NPCs to convince (and or shame) the PCs to try again. If the Windmill was too difficult for them, consider having Father Ahn render some assistance in the form of some cyphers that will help the PCs get past the hurdles that kept them from succeeding.

The townspeople are planning to throw a feast in honor of the PCs the next day. The beginning of this adventure presents various NPCs in the town that the PCs might interact with. Any of these NPCs can spill the beans about the coming feast.

The GM is encouraged to run the first part of the adventure as a sandbox. Allow the PCs to explore the town, get to know its people and enjoy their hard-earned fame. Let them relish being the heroes of the town as long as they wish. If the PCs are getting into it (or you think they will), feel free to expand upon the feast itself, perhaps adding events and turning it into a full-blown festival.

If, however, the PCs seem bored with the town, unwilling to engage NPCs, or just want to get on with the adventure, feel free to fast-forward to the moment in the feast when they’re approached by Brast Vel.

Background

A young woman named Aneej Vel has learned the culova language from Father Ahn. She believes the town would benefit from a closer relationship with the culovas, but most in the town are content to stay as far from the strange creatures as possible. Constantly frustrated by the narrow-mindedness of the townspeople, Aneej decides to go to the nearby culova village alone and open a dialogue with their leader.

Aneej left in secret while the PCs were in the windmill (a couple days before the PCs’ return), and she hasn’t come back. Her father, Brask, has guessed where she’s gone and is worried about her. He approaches the PCs during the festivities and enlists their aid. See The Festival for more information.

Heroes of the Town

Everyone in the town knows the PCs saved all their lives, and they’re very grateful. The PCs will enjoy the following benefits indefinitely (as long as they don’t do anything to tarnish their reputations):

Madame Saydle provides them free rooms, meals and drinks at The Loggers’ Rest. She’s not afraid to cut off a PC who’s become too drunk, however and serve only water or tea.

All local merchants will sell basic goods to the PCs at half price.

All local merchants will buy basic goods in good condition from the PCs at ¾ price (as opposed to the usual ½)

Various parents in the town are likely eyeing the PCs as possible spouses for a son or daughter who’s come of age. If the PCs remain in town and seem like they will settle down there, they have offers of arranged marriage from these parents.

The Festival

The festival consists of three days of feasting and contests. The GM is encouraged to go into the festival in as little or as much detail as works for her particular group. Some of the contests include foot races, swim races (in the canal), Wondrous Soup eating contests, various drinking games, scavenger hunts, wrestling matches, archery contests, etc.

Allow the PCs as much time as they like to enjoy the celebration and their new status as heroes of the town. As long as the players are having fun, keep rolling with it and feel free to ad-lib generously. This is a great time for PCs to get to know some of the NPCs in the town.

If any of the PCs have romantic inclinations, it will not be difficult for them to find willing partners, whether for a short encounter or a more long-term relationship. The people of Bonespir are practical when it comes to sex, and they don’t consider what happens behind closed doors between two consenting adults to be anyone’s business. People of all sexual preferences can be found in the town.

Once the GM feels the PCs have had enough of roleplaying the festival, she can move to the encounter with Brask Vel.

Mosha Ahn

If the PCs succeed in their mission without destroying the tower, Father Ahn is impressed. Any PC who is not already a member of the Order of Truth is offered membership by Father Ahn. He will send the PC’s paperwork to Qi. From this point forward he will identify one numenera item they find per week for no charge. Father Ahn is also now available for a PC to gain as a full-fledged Contact for 3 XP (a long-term benefit).

If the PCs destroy the tower, then Father Ahn does not induct them into the Order at this time. They’re a little too reckless for him to risk his reputation by vouching for them. He will also not offer to identify numenera items for them. However he will still be available to gain as a Contact with 3 XP, but any PC who wishes to do so must first roleplay getting a bit more in his good graces and/or perform another task for him.

A perceptive PC who succeeds at a difficulty 1 perception task notices that Father Ahn seems upset about something. If asked about it, he explains that he’s heard news of the Order’s continued campaign against the Gaians. If engaged in conversation, he explains he lost his post in Charmonde for speaking out against the crusades and organizing protests. He mentions the irony of this, as he’d just discovered a possible way to greatly aid the city, but now for all he cares the bastards can rot.

If the PCs are particularly sympathetic (or are able to convincingly pretend that they are), and/or at least one of them has expressed a desire to gain standing in the Order, he is willing to share his idea. [This is a possible hook into the Astraphin Monolith adventure.]

Brask Vel’s Missing Daughter

Brask approaches the PCs during the festival, at a time when they’re the center of attention and he is sure to be overheard by many (perhaps just after the PCs have given a speech or responded to a toast in their honor by Madame Mayor Anica).

He speaks in a loud, booming voice that carries over the crowd easily. He extols the PCs’ virtues and calls them brave heroes. He then asks their help, explaining that his daughter, Aneej, left town two days ago to seek an audience with the culovas. She hasn’t returned, and he’s worried about her. With such a captive audience, it will be hard (if not possible) for the PCs to refuse him and retain their town hero status. Once the PCs agree, Brask is willing to discuss the details more privately. He gives the PCs a description of his daughter and mentions that she wears a necklace that is a wooden carving of a bird on a leather cord.

If the PCs do refuse and can’t be convinced by Brask, the other people of the town, Father Ahn, Madame Saydle, or even the Mayor (they’ll try), the people of Bonespir lose their enthusiasm for the festival, and it ends prematurely as life returns to normal. The PCs likely get the cold shoulder from most of them, although townspeople they’ve gotten to know merely seem disappointed. Then Aneej returns on her own a day or two later, injured and a sweaty filthy mess. Her leg crudely splinted by herself, dragging herself along as she can’t even crawl. She’s dehydrated and suffering from heat exhaustion. The PCs will find their reputation in the town reversed as everyone glares at them, silently blaming them for the poor girls’ condition.

In this case the Bloodfeast Tick incident happens that night. The PCs may get a small amount of redemption in the eyes of some of the townsfolk if they help defeat the tick, but many will at best think it a case of “too little too late”. At the very least Brask will blame the PCs for what happened to Aneej, and more and more people will come to agree with him as he shares his sorrows over many a mug of ale. The PCs will find the town increasingly inhospitable to them, and their fringe benefits as heroes of the town will be nothing but a memory (even Madame Saydle will start demanding payment for their rooms and meals).

The Search for Aneej

The culova village is a 4 hour hike from the logging camp. If the PCs are confident in their ability to operate the tugs, they’re free to use some to speed their way. Otherwise Brask and some other lumberjacks will volunteer to shuttle them to the camp as soon as they’re ready to go.

The PCs will be able to stock up on supplies (within reason) free of charge.

There is not a trail per se leading form the logging camp to the culova village, however even though Aneej is accomplished in the forest, she made no effort to hide her tracks, so following her trail is only a difficulty 3 task.

The PCs find Aneej after a two hour hike, about halfway from the camp to the culova village. She is at the bottom of a ravine, in an area of rocks and underbrush, sitting with her back against a tree. One of her legs is obviously broken, her shin bone jutting out of her skin. She lost one of the waterskins in the fall (it ruptured) and the other is long gone. She’s dehydrated and overheated and in shock, but is aware of the PCs and able to speak with them. 

Aneej Vel

Aneej is about twenty years of age and has red hair and blue eyes. She is tall, thin and pale with an athletic build.  She is smart, strong-willed and opinionated. She is direct and looks you in the eye when she talks to you. Though she’s serious-minded, she has a good sense of humor if you can bring it out. She speaks culovan and has survival and hunting skills. She is currently dressed in forest green pants, black boots and a dark brown tank top. She is covered in sweat and dirt, with twigs and leaves in her disarrayed hair.

She adamantly wants to continue to the culova village, but is obviously unable to walk. She asks the PCs to help set and splint her leg so she can continue (she can talk them through the process if none of them know how). If the PCs refuse, she asks that they give her first aid, and then proceed to the culovas themselves. She insists she’ll be fine on her own until the PCs get back, if they’ll just leave her with some water and rations.

If the PCs insist on taking her back to town, she begs them to go to the culovas afterward and do their best to form an alliance between them and the people of Bonespir. She knows if the PCs take her back, her father won’t let her out of his sight until she’s completely healed.

Depending what the PCs decide to do, this can go a few ways. The GM will have to use her judgment how to proceed, keeping in mind the amount of importance Aneej places on her self-appointed mission. Here are some possibilities:

The PCs insist on taking Aneej back to town. If so, Aneej relentlessly begs them to go to the culovas in her stead and will not take no for an answer. Ultimately there’s nothing she can do to force the PCs to do as she wishes, but the GM should use all her roleplaying might to convince the PCs (through Aneej) how important her mission is to the town. She will try every tactic she can think of to get them to agree.

If this is the way things go, the Bloodfeast Tick incident will happen once she’s returned to town and falls asleep.

The PCs agree to take her to the culovas. This may happen if a skilled PC can set and splint her leg (although she will have to be carried or dragged on a litter). This will be an agonizing journey for her, and should be worried for her safety as the possibility of the injury becoming worse or infected is very real. This could also happen if one of the PCs has the Works Miracles focus and is able to heal Aneej. In which case she will ask them to come with her, as she’s come to realize why it’s such a bad idea to travel in the wilderness by yourself.

In this case they arrive at the culovas village she makes her case eloquently to the culovas in the presence of the PCs. The culova chief says she must discuss it with the elders and invite the visitors to stay the night to receive their answer in the morning.

The Bloodfeast Tick incident will likely happen in the culova village, when Aneej goes to sleep.

The PCs will be able to earn further points with the culovas by helping defend their village from the tick. After the battle, they can wrap up Aneej’s negotiations in her memory.

The PCs could leave Aneej in the woods and continue on to the village themselves. If the PCs are leaning this way, the GM should be sure they understand how dangerous the West Wood is, especially at night, for a lone human who can’t even stand on her own. This is a pretty despicable option to take, and the GM should make sure the PCs know it.

 In this case the Bloodfeast Tick incident will happen the first time Aneej sleeps after the PCs rejoin her.

The Culova Village

The PCs are entertained by culova singers—three females who sing a melancholy song (about tragic, lost love) and dance a strange dance that only a culova could manage.

Culova Culture

The culovas have a tribal culture. They are led by a chief and the elders of the village. The chief is chosen by the elders.

Culovan huts are built into the trees, either into hollowed trunks of the redwood trees or in the branches of smaller trees. The huts are constructed of various materials, including wood, leaves and spider silk. Human visitors are given freshly made hammocks of spider silk to sleep in.

Culovas brew a drink called coovska. This drink is made by the males of the village, who sit around a large earthenware vat chewing insects and certain sweet and sour fruits. The males spit into the vat. This is what is then fermented and made into coovska. Coovska is around 40% ABV.

 Culovas applaud by clicking their mandibles together.

The culova language is composed of shrieks, hisses, clicks, and gestures with their front four legs, two arms and hands, and mandibles. These complex gestures are impossible for humans to make, so the version of culovan that humans learn is akin to how culovan toddlers speak. This has a lot to do with the culovan perception that humans are dim-witted, simple-minded and childlike, as they tend to sound little better than idiots when they speak culovan. Culovas also see humans as weak and fragile because they have no exoskeletons.

Humans tend to see culovas as monstrous, horrific and savage.

Culova females eat their mates after fertilization occurs. There are no old culova males. Culovas choose their sex when entering puberty. Most become female. Males fertilize as many females as they can before getting caught and eaten. Age is a sign of status among males, representing how many females they’ve evaded. Females gain status based on how many males they’ve eaten. The female must eat the male immediately after fertilization in order for her to provide the needed nutrients to the eggs she will lay. If she doesn’t eat the male, her eggs won’t hatch. The males have a much stronger sense of smell than the females and can smell if an egg is fertilized or not (the females don’t believe the males’ claim to be able to do this). Males love to eat unfertilized eggs, considering them quite tasty. If the male escapes the female’s immediate and overpowering, yet brief, hunger, he is in no further danger from her.

Culovas love their families and friends. Romantic love is a concept culovas understand and experience, but during mating instinctual urges are impossible to resist. Because of this, mating is seen as both tragic (because if successful it results in the death of the male and the possible heartbreak of the female) and beautiful (because it leads to new life) in the culture. Because of this most females try to be distant and detached with their mates, and the males try to win the females’ affection and love. Even though the males know that the female’s feelings will not affect the outcome, deep down they hope they will.

Because of this romantic love is idealized and romanticized, and culovas love stories of couples who somehow overcome the mating paradox and the female somehow avoids eating the male (and yet somehow still lays viable eggs), even though no one knows of anyone this has actually happened to.

If the male avoids the female, it almost always spells the end of their relationship, as the female will resent him and blame him for the death of her children (culova females are as heartbroken by their eggs not hatching as a human female is of a still-birth).

Because of the true love myth in culovan culture, culova females guard their eggs, even when the male escapes, in the hopes they will hatch anyway. Male culovas know better than to try to tell a female her eggs won’t hatch.

Culovas have very sensitive hearing, hearing frequencies both above and below the human range.

Culovas highly prize skill in weaving and knitting, which they use brightly dyed spider silk for. The artisans of the village produce beautiful goods of woven cloth that are brightly colored and intricately patterned. The culovas pride themselves on the quality of their cloth goods and the speed with which they can make them. The artisans of the village are very interested in trading their works to the humans, as they consider their creations far superior than anything humans can make (and other than textiles produced with numenera devices in some of the large cities, they’re correct).

Culovas are very active, needing little rest. They only rest a few hours each day, not exactly like mammal sleep, but similar (they’re still aware of their surroundings in this state, but remain completely motionless—culovas don’t blink and their eyes never close). They enjoy contests of physical speed, strength, balance and agility.

Culovas don’t have any metalworking knowledge or skill, so metal goods wood be an obvious choice for a good humans could trade to them.

Culova NPCs

Iyl

Ississ - Speaks the Truth

Chief Bruska

Culovan Chief. She wears an ornate headdress and train of woven spider silk which is the badge of her office. She is intelligent and wise. She is a cautious culova who is always seeking the best for her people. She is open to a closer relationship with the Bonespirans, seeing the obvious advantages to both peoples.

Jaris

Quaid

Busk

The Bloodfeast Tick

Learn more about the bloodfeast tick on this episode of GM Intrusions. Also see page 26 of the The Ninth World Bestiary.

Optional Encounters

If the GM would like to impress upon the players the danger of the West Wood, she may choose among the following example optional encounters.

Ravage Bear family

The PCs stumple upon a pair of ravage bears and their three cubs. The two adults attack immediately. The cubs will flee if approached and will only attack if cornered. They are as ravage bears but level 2.

For less challenge, only one ravage bear, and flight is possible (it’s less aggressive since not defending cubs).

See the Numenera corebook page 254.

Vape Pack

The PCs are attacked by a pack of 1d6 vapes. This should be an easy encounter.

For more challenge have a group of 4 vapes attack as one (Level 3, 4 damage).

For even more challenge have 6 vapes act as a swarm (Level 4, 4 damage inflicted).

See The Ninth World Bestiary page 131.

As someone who primarily GMs RPGs, it’s always illuminating the first time I get to actually play a game. You would think that a game I enjoy running I’d enjoy playing, and vice versa, but that hasn’t always been the case in my experience.

For instance, I really enjoy running Numenera, but I’ve found I don’t like playing Numenera  as much. As a GM I enjoy the simplicity of the system because it’s so easy to run and prep for. However, as a player, I’ve found that same simplicity leads to me eventually getting a little bored with the game. Part of that may be that as someone who GMs almost exclusively, I’m used to having a host of things to juggle mentally. So when I play an RPG, I like there to be a little complexity there mechanically to stimulate my mind. I also am a tactile person and prefer games where I don’t roll just one die (and the same die) all the time.

Because of this, I was curious how I would feel about fifth edition D&D once I’d had a chance to play it. As a GM I love the game, and it has quickly supplanted Numenera as my favorite system to run. It’s still simple enough to have fast game play and easy adjudication, but there’s a little bit more there mechanically, so I can have something to sink my teeth into. I also like, as a GM, that there’s much more potential for campaign longevity in a game with twenty levels compared to one with six.

I finally got a chance to play the new D&D for the first time, and not only was it my first time on the players’ side of the screen, it was also my first experience with D&D’s organized play—the Adventurers League.

I think I’ll talk more about my limited experience with organized play in a future episode of my Game Master’s Journey podcast, but for now I’ll just say I haven’t had a lot of experience with it. I tried some organized play with Pathfinder (Pathfinder Society), and it was a dismal experience. It was more like playing Chainmail than D&D. All tactics and positioning, lots of munchkinism, min-maxing and powergaming, and almost no roleplaying.

I had both my first experience with D&D as a player, and my first experience with the Adventurers League last night, and I had a great time! I really tested the game hard core, as I played a fighter (the most boring class in previous editions; I usually play wizards). I’ve always wanted to try an archer character, and fifth edition seems like the first edition where you can be successful with that. I chose the Battle Master archetype, and I had loads of fun.

Not only was my character very effective (and I was playing a 3rd level character in a 5th level party), but there was more to it than making attack and damage rolls. I had multiple resources to manage and special abilities to choose from.  

I had my Action Surges to manage, which allow me to take another action. At 3rd level I only have one Action Surge, but it returns when I take a short (1 hour) rest.

I also have an ability called Second Wind that lets me roll a hit die to recover hit points during combat (or any time) as a bonus action (the 5e version of a free action). I can do that once, and that also recharges after a short rest.

Then I have my Battle Master ability—Superiority Dice and Maneuvers. After I hit with a weapon attack, I can spend one of my Superiorty Dice to add an additional d8 to the damage and apply one of three effects (my Maneuvers).

I can push the opponent back 15 feet if he fails  a strength saving throw, which is just awesome visually considering I’m usually doing this with a longbow.

Or I can make the opponent frightened of me if he fails a wisdom save. This gives him disadvantage on all attack rolls and checks until the end of my next turn as long as I’m in sight, and he can’t move any closer to me (great to keep people off an archer!).

Finally, I can distract the opponent, which gives him disadvantage on his next attack (no save).

Of course, I didn’t get to see those special effects much because we were focusing fire, and my 2d8+3 damage usually finished them off (although I did get to fling a few corpses around with my arrows, which was fun). I have four of these dice to spend, and they come back after a short rest as well.

Even though I was basically just shooting my bow a lot, it was a lot of fun because I had options for various de-buffs or positioning I could apply, which was a lot of fun. Now that my character is 5th level and I have two attacks, the action surge will be sick as I will get four attacks when I use it, and I could apply one of my superiority dice to each one. Hell yeah! I'm also looking forward to higher levels because I get more Maneuvers and more Superiority Dice, and the Superiority Dice upgrade to d10s and eventually d12s.

If the fighter is this much fun to play in fifth edition, I’m sure classes like the rogue, wizard, cleric and bard are just as fun, if not more so. Everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun. Our party consisted of myself, a beserker barbarian, a war cleric, a wizard (I didn't catch his school), a wizard-bard, and an assassin rogue. 

I also enjoyed the adventure and the flow of the game. There was a lot more RP and a lot less metagaming and munchkinism than I saw in my Pathfinder Society experiences.

Next week I’m going back and giving a life cleric a try. I’m even playing a dwarf (first time for me), but dwarves are awesome in 5e, and I have great idea for a Guild Artisan who’s trade and skill is brewing. Fun times! Not only is my dwarf life cleric a master brewer, vintner and distiller, but he’s a master chef as well. I imagine he’ll be well loved by the party for all the fine food and drink and healing he’ll provide.

Of all the games I’ve played, this is the most fun I’ve ever had on the players’ side of the table. A game that I love to play as much as I love to GM is a win-win for me, and I’m sure I’ll be enjoying D&D for a long time. I only wish I had more time to play!

Articles in This Series

01 - The Town of Bonespir
02 - The Windmill in the Woods
03 - Law & Order in Charmonde
04 - Heroes of Bonespir
05 - The Machine of the Emols
06 - The Town of Delirium
07 - Exploring the Obsidian Monolith

Companion Episodes of Game Master's Journey

OM 01 - Preparing for an Adventure
OM 02 - Laying the Foundation for your Campaign
OM 03 - Location, Location, Location
OM 04 - Prepping and Running a Numenera Session
OM 05 - The Town of Bonespir
OM 06 - The Windmill in the Woods
OM 07 - Connecting Adventures Together
OM 08 - The Village of the Culovas
OM 09 - The Machine of the Emols
OM 10 - The Conclusion of the Campaign

Actual Play (Audio)

Session 01 Part 1 - The Town of Bonespir
Session 01 Part 2 - The Windmill in the Woods
Session 01 Part 3 - Inside the Windmill
Session 02 Part 1 - The Swarm from Hell
Session 02 Part 2 - Numenera Hunters
Session 03 Part 1 - The Order of Tianma
Session 03 Part 2 - Bugbusters
Session 04 Part 1 - The Man They Called Zain
Session 04 Part 2 - Madame Saydle's Wondrous Soup

Law & Order in Charmonde

The peace is kept in Charmonde by a few different military/policing forces.

The Queen’s Guard

Armalu’s guard is an elite fighting force. They are tasked with patrolling and defending the Empiternal House. They also protect the queen when she leaves the palace (something that hasn’t happened in living memory). The most elite among them serve as the Queen’s bodyguard and are nearby at all times. New recruits are usually promoted up from the highest ranks of the City Guard.

The City Guard

The City Guard of Charmonde keeps the peace in the city proper. They patrol the streets 28 hours a day, and there are guard posts located throughout the city, usually near major intersections. Charmonde is a city of law and order. Every street has an alarm bell on each block that can be rung by any citizen (they are high enough up to prevent access by children). Ringing a false alarm is a very serious offense in Charmonde and is harshly punished. The City Guard can respond to an alarm in all locations in the city within 5-10 minutes.

Due to the lack of a city wall, the City Guard has many more members than most cities the size of Charmonde would have. In addition to patrolling the city, the Guard also are garrisoned in each of the four fortresses around the city. Each member rotates between patrolling the city and manning one of the four fortresses. In this way all are familiar with the defenses of the fortresses and with the city itself. It also prevents rivalries forming between the “city defenders” and “fortress defenders” (which used to happen in the past before this system was implemented).

The Navarene Army

Being the capital of Navarene, there is always a large amount of the Navarene Army stationed there. They are garrisoned at the four fortresses, and while they’re there, they do drills along with the City Guard stationed there. Many members of the Guard were once in the Army. The two groups get along well with an air of friendly competition between them. Members of the Army also assist in patrolling the city, and it’s arranged in such a way that each Army member has done this at least once early in her career. In this way if Charmonde is ever besieged, members of the Army stationed there know the city well enough to help defend it if needed. Members of the Army are never promoted directly to the Queen’s Guard; they must first serve in the City Guard. There have been a few times in the past when an especially esteemed officer in the Army served in the City Guard only a short time as a formality before advancing to the Queen’s guard, but this is the exception, not the rule.

Crime and Punishment

Queen Armalu is known as being both shrewd and ruthless, and the system of law within Charmonde reflects this. A citizen is considered innocent until proven guilty by Court and Council. The Court consists of government officials who have been appointed to their position by the Queen herself. The Council is an elected body, with members theoretically coming from all walks of life. The Court and Council are intended to check and balance one another, but in reality the Court has more power. There are no lawyers in Charmonde; the accused is expected to offer his own defense. Facts are valued over oratory or legal trickery. However, in cases where the accused is not up to the task (mentally incompetent, etc.), a friend, family member, or official who is involved in the situation may represent him.

In important cases of national or city security, the Court of Charmonde does have access to numenera devices that can ascertain the guilt or innocence of the accused, as well as extract information. These are only used when absolutely necessary, however, because these machines are not completely understood, and each use could be their last. Also they tend to permanently damage the subject, especially if she resists the treatment. The most stubborn subjects can be killed by the machines, but not before the needed information is obtained.

There are a variety of punishments intended to fit the crime. These range from fines to community service, imprisonment, maiming, slavery, and death. As opposed to a list of crimes and punishments, punishments are decided more on a case-by-case basis. Precedent is kept in mind, but does not entirely limit the punishments that can be meted out. Queen Armalu can, of course, give royal pardons, but this happens very rarely.

Articles in This Series

01 - The Town of Bonespir
02 - The Windmill in the Woods
03 - Law & Order in Charmonde
04 - Heroes of Bonespir
05 - The Machine of the Emols
06 - The Town of Delirium
07 - Exploring the Obsidian Monolith

Companion Episodes of Game Master's Journey

OM 01 - Preparing for an Adventure
OM 02 - Laying the Foundation for your Campaign
OM 03 - Location, Location, Location
OM 04 - Prepping and Running a Numenera Session
OM 05 - The Town of Bonespir
OM 06 - The Windmill in the Woods
OM 07 - Connecting Adventures Together
OM 08 - The Village of the Culovas
OM 09 - The Machine of the Emols
OM 10 - The Conclusion of the Campaign

Actual Play (Audio)

Session 01 Part 1 - The Town of Bonespir
Session 01 Part 2 - The Windmill in the Woods
Session 01 Part 3 - Inside the Windmill
Session 02 Part 1 - The Swarm from Hell
Session 02 Part 2 - Numenera Hunters
Session 03 Part 1 - The Order of Tianma
Session 03 Part 2 - Bugbusters
Session 04 Part 1 - The Man They Called Zain
Session 04 Part 2 - Madame Saydle's Wondrous Soup

Actual Play (Video)

The YouTube playlist includes the first session and sessions 8-12.

NPCs About Town

Father Ahn

Since arriving in Bonespir the PCs have gotten to know Mosha Ahn, the sole Aeon Priest in the town. [Level 5, use Aeon Priest stats on page 269 of the Numenera corebook]

Mosha is a grizzled man of indeterminate age (he could be anywhere from 50-70 years old). He is partially bald and the hair he has is thinning and gray. He is unshaven with short, gray stubble. Mosha is of average height and build and has gray eyes. He commonly wears a belted robe of umber and brown. He has a black metallic device embedded in the back of his neck that gives him farseeing/clairvoyant abilities. When he uses these abilities his eyes turn white.

His personality is rock solid; he is slow to anger and not one to joke around. He takes his work and that of the Order very seriously. He has a very idealistic view of right and wrong, and his public disapproval of some of the Order’s more political moves (such as the recent Crusades against the Gaians) has prevented him from rising as high in the ranks of the Order as he should have.

Father Ahn spent a great deal of time studying the culovas when he first arrived at the town some years ago. After much effort and time, he was able to learn their language and can teach it to any PC who wants to learn it (if a PC chooses to learn the language at the end of Enraged Slicer Beetles, it’s assumed Mosha has been tutoring her all along). He met with the leader of the culova tribe in the nearby region of the Westwood and made an agreement with her. In exchange for the culovas not attacking the loggers of Bonespir, the people of Bonespir agreed to only log in specific areas of the Westwood that the culovas designated. This peace has been maintained for a little over a year, and both sides seem happy with it, although relations between the two peoples has not progressed beyond the initial agreement.

Madame Saydle

Madame Saydle is very grateful and impressed with the PCs. She tells them they are always welcome to stay at her inn for free, and enjoy free food and drink.

Madame Mayor Anica Oviil

Mayor Oviil (whom most people call Anica) is a middle-aged woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. She usually wears her hair up in a style that is elegant and practical. Of average height, she is an imposing presence due to the intelligence in her eyes and the steadiness of her gaze. She is an excellent judge of character and does not allow herself to hold preconceptions of a person based on rumor or appearances. Her ability to see into the heart of someone and see potential they may not know themselves that they have is legendary in the town. She is selfless with her time and her energy, spending her every waking moment in service to the town. She came to the town some ten years ago. Rumor has it her husband was killed soon before that, but no one knows for sure or even where the rumor came from, because she won’t talk about it. Though she’s had countless suitors, Anica is far too busy to spend time on romance.

Anica is intelligent and fair-minded, and if it were up to her, she’d pursue closer relations (even alliance) with the culovas, but the people of the town are an insular, superstitious lot, and she knows it. It wasn’t that long ago they all believed the culovas were spirits or treefolk. Though she admires Aneej’s spunk, it’s unfortunately too soon for the overtures to the culovas that the girl requests.

Hedia

Hedia is a young lady with long brown hair and brown eyes. She’s likely to develop a crush on an attractive or assertive male PC. She wears one of Crayl Sult’s glowing air plants in her hair.

Crayl Sult

Crayl Sult is a merchant who grows strange glowing air plants that only he knows where to find.

Brask Vel

Brask has light brown hair, blue eyes and looks to be in his 40s. He is of medium height with broad shoulders and a short beard. His is a widower and a lumberjack. He is blunt and honest and more cunning than he often lets on. He approaches the PCs during the Festival to request their help. See The Festival for more information.

Aneej Vel

Aneej is about twenty years of age and has red hair and blue eyes. She is tall, thin and pale with an athletic build.  She is smart, strong-willed and opinionated. She is direct and looks you in the eye when she talks to you. Though she’s serious-minded, she has a good sense of humor if you can bring it out. She speaks culovan and has survival and hunting skills. Aneej is not currently in town as she’s left to seek an audience with the culovas. See The Festival for more information.

Nara de Vin

Nara is Bonespir’s teacher. She is a big fan of Father Ahn, and there could be a conflict between her and Madame Saydle for the Priest’s affections.

Aldus Drud

Aldus is Bonespir’s doctor. He has some numenera devices to help him and is always on the look-out for more.

Kairdric

Kairdric is the stablemaster for The Logger’s Rest (which also serves as a stable for anyone else in the town who needs one). He also breeds and sells gallen.

Elrid Smith

Elrid is Bonespir’s blacksmith. Big, burly guy with black hair and beard. His arms are covered in wiry hair and burn scars. Fearless.

Brell Ultann

Brell owns and operates the general store. 

Merid

Merid is a logger who hates the culovas (because secretly they frighten him). He doesn’t trust the PCs or their motives, and will make trouble for them every time he can.

Beginning the Adventure

The adventure begins in the spring. Father Ahn summons the PCs to meet with him and tells them he has a very important mission for them.

He noticed a couple weeks ago that the plants in and around Bonespir (flowers, vegetables, fruits, etc.) weren’t budding. He investigated and found that the plants weren’t being pollinated. Though the usual pollinators were still about (bees and hummers mainly), for some reason they weren’t interacting with the flowers on the plants as they normally do. Realizing this could spell disaster and famine for the town and surrounding area if the problem wasn’t found and dealt with, Mosha began using his farseeing ability to try to find the source of the problem. At the same time he began speaking with the farmers, herders and loggers of the area.

He thinks he now has a lead worth investigating. Four hours travel from the edge of the Westwood, is a large structure built by the ancients that people of the area call the Windmill (mainly because it looks vaguely like a windmill). The structure has always emitted a strange buzzing sound that could be heard up to a half mile away and felt up to a mile away. This sound has gotten slightly louder in recent weeks, and what’s more, some of the loggers and others who venture into the Westwood say that the animals and insects near the Windmill have started acting strangely, becoming much more aggressive than normal and even attacking people.

Father Ahn hypothesizes that the strange behaviors of the creatures around the Windmill and the problem with the pollinators are connected, and he suspects the Windmill may somehow be at the root of the matter. He wants the PCs to go explore the Windmill, figure out what’s going on and rectify the situation any way they can. He has no idea what the Windmill does and is more than a little curious about it. If asked for more information by the PCs, he says he hopes they can find a way to return it to “normal”, but if they can’t, they may have to destroy it. He hopes it doesn’t come to that, not only because it would be a loss of opportunity for further study, but also because one never knows what might happen when one tries to destroy an ancient numenera device.

Getting to the Windmill will involve an hour long float down the Heartsblood Canal (it’s assumed the PCs tag along with the loggers in the morning), and then a four hour hike into the Westwood. There is a trail leading from the logging camp to the Windmill, so finding it won’t be a problem.

Allow the PCs time to gather supplies in town. They leave first thing the following morning, so they can have all the time to roleplay the night before if they want it. Otherwise, they wake up the next morning, have a bowl of Madame Saydle’s Wondrous Soup (free of charge, as she is in a romantic relationship with Mosha and knows what the PCs are up to), and set off with the loggers.

Storytell the trip down the canal to the logging camp, and then the hike into the Westwood. When the PCs enter the forest, they are approached by a swarm of mosquitoes. If they’ve eaten Madame Saytil’s Wondrous Soup, the insects buzz around them for a minute and then leave. Otherwise they will be slapping at mosquitoes until they enter the Windmill.

An hour out from the Windmill, the PCs begin feeling the vibration in their bones, and a half hour out the hear the low throbbing hum of the Windmill (like the hum of high tension power lines, but lower in pitch and more powerful in intensity).

The action begins with Enraged Slicer Beetles, which takes place in the wooded area surrounding the Windmill.

The Windmill in the Woods

The Windmill isn’t a windmill at all but is a structure built by one of the previous eight worlds millions of years ago. It uses neutrinos (or some other high energy particle) to generate energy. This energy is beamed to a satellite (or perhaps a network of satellites) in high orbit of Earth. Excess energy is collected and stored in huge batteries hundreds of feet below ground level (well beyond the reach of the Scan esotery).

Somehow the wireless connection between the Windmill and the satellite(s) has been recently severed. The batteries deep underground have been charged beyond capacity. They are now emitting harmful radiation and electromagnetic fields that are the source of the strange happenings in the area.

In order to solve this problem, the connection between the Windmill and the satellite(s) must be reestablished. Another possibility would be destroying the windmill, but that would be exceedingly difficult and dangerous to do. Also, if this method is employed, it will take some time for the excess energy to bleed from the batteries (probably a matter of months). This will not solve the problem soon enough for this year’s crops and other plants to be pollinated. Widespread famine would be only one of a multitude of unpleasant consequences. If, however, the connection is reestablished, the excess energy is beamed to the satellite(s) in space, rectifying the situation in a matter of hours.

The land around you is heavily wooded with deciduous trees of various species. Other than the narrow path you’re following, the ground is choked with underbrush. The path leads you up a steep slope. You can see the top of the Windmill ahead through the trees.

You climb to the top of the rise, and the path ends there. You look out below you and can finally see the Windmill in its entirety. The ground slopes down, choked with underbrush, ultimately leading to a large bowl set in the earth. The bowl is constructed of some seamless golden metal that is highly reflective. The light of the sun gleams off of it, dazzling your eyes. As you shade your eyes from the reflected sunlight, you see that the Windmill rises from the center of the bowl.

The Windmill does look slightly like its namesake. It is constructed of a shiny silvery metal. It stands approximately 1500 feet tall. The bottom half of the structure is large and solid, roughly pyramidal in shape. The top half of the structure is a thin spire, seeming too thin to hold itself up.

Attached to the spire are two sets of blades. Each set of blades has four blades. One set of blades is attached at the base of the spire, halfway up the Windmill, the other set of blades is at the very top of the spire. Unlike a true windmill, however, which has blades in a vertical plane perpendicular to the ground, these blades are in a horizontal plane parallel to the ground.

The blades are long and thin and appear to be made of the same silvery metal as the rest of the structure. The top set of blades are spinning clockwise, while the bottom set of blades are spinning counterclockwise. You don’t know what’s making the blades spin, but it’s not wind, as there is no wind at all.

The vibrating hum you’ve been hearing for some time now is obviously coming from the Windmill. At this distance, you can feel the hairs on your body and head slowly lifting up with static charge.

[For the GM]

There is an interior to the bottom half of the structure that can be explored. The structure is entered via an entranceway 20 feet tall and wide. There are no doors or any other apparent way to seal the entrance.

When the PCs begin to make their way down the slope toward the bowl, they are attacked by advanced adult Slicer Beetles that have been hiding in wait amidst the trees (1 beetle per PC).

The underbrush on the slope makes any movement beyond immediate distance require a roll (speed or might). It takes two rounds of Immediate movement to get to the edge of the bowl, only one round if the PCs manage to move a Short or Long distance.

        Short: difficulty 2

        Long:  difficulty 3

The bowl is so smooth it’s slippery, and moving along it any faster than a walk is not easy. Any PC who tries to move more than an Immediate distance in a round while on the bowl must succeed at a difficulty 4 Speed task or fall prone. It will take 5 rounds to reach the Windmill if moving an Immediate distance per round. If the PCs can move a short distance, it will only take 1 round.

Enraged Slicer Beetles

1 Adult Slicer Beetle per PC

See page 117 of The Ninth World Bestiary for stats.

Spice: Underbrush makes any movement beyond immediate distance require a roll (speed or might).

        Short: difficulty 2

        Long:  difficulty 3

If PCs do well, bring in more normal adult beetles as a GM Intrusion.

When things look grim, culovas come to save the day. Culovas use spiked clubs and javelins, attack from ambush, and use terrain, stealth and traps to their advantage.

After the encounter, any PC can spend 2 xp as a short term benefit to say they have learned the Culova language from Father Ahn.

If none of the PCs can communicate with them, the culovas take their leave. Otherwise the PCs can speak with them. The culovas can tell them that the slicer beetles have been acting much more aggressively for the past couple weeks. They have noticed strange behavior form the other insects and animals in the area in that time as well. They have also noticed the lack of pollinating. They have no knowledge about the interior of the Windmill (which they call The Tower), but they can corroborate the increase in noise emissions for the past 2 weeks. The Tower has been here long beyond the collected memory of their tribe.

The culovas are neither friendly nor unfriendly to the PCs. They don’t trust humans. They have heard rumors of humans in other parts of the Westwood killing their kind by the scores. However, so far their truce with the people of Bonespir has been a good deal for them.

The PCs can improve the attitude of the culovas with them if they wish. This is a difficulty 5 task, and must be roleplayed.

Entering the Windmill

Entering the Windmill is easy once the Slicer Beetles are dealt with, as the main entrance has no doors.

The interior of the Windmill is a single central vertical shaft lined with conduits and pipes with small branching chambers and halls extending from it. There are stairways going from level to level at various places. The central shaft is relatively open, allowing someone to look up the entire 750 foot height of the lower part of the structure.

For the most part the interior is unlit and PCs will need their own light sources. The first level is partially lit from the open doors, and occasionally there is a little ambient light from still operational control panels. In a few areas emergency lights in the form of red track lighting along the walls at floor and ceiling level flicker feebly, but in many places the lights are no longer functioning (although they could possibly be brought online by crafty PCs, as could the main lighting arrays).

Most of the chambers in the structure have ceilings at least 20 feet high. The doorways are also this large, suggesting that the builders of this facility may have been quite large indeed. However, the control panels and interfaces are at a height that makes them comfortable for human use. There are no chairs or furniture in the facility, all stations are appropriate height for an average human to use while standing.

There are no doors in the structure (except the ones at the entrance), only doorways. The doorways normally have “doors” that consist of an impassable energy field. See the Satellite Control Room section for more.

Stifling Heat

It is stifling and hot inside the Windmill. Each PC takes 1 Might damage each hour spent in the structure. This problem can be solved by reactivating the Windmill’s ventilation and climate control system (see Control Panels and Interfaces below).

Mutation

Within an hour of entering the structure, the dangerous radiation and electromagnetic fields results in each character gaining a random cosmetic mutation (roll on table on Numenera corebook page 128). This mutation fades an hour after leaving the Windmill.

Electricity

The entire structure is constructed of exotic metals, ceramics and synth. Dangerous electricity arcs across the rooms and corridors, seemingly at random. This can happen any time as a GM Intrusion, as well as when rolled for on the Exploration Progress table.

Dangerous Electrical Discharge. Speed defense difficulty 4 or take 6 ambient electrical damage (ignores armor). Those hit must also make a Might defense roll difficulty 4 or lose their next action. PCs take 6 ambient electrical damage each round they remain in the area. Getting out of the area is simply a short move (assuming the PC has an action). Dragging an immobilized comrade out is a difficulty 3 might task. The discharge lasts a maximum of 2 rounds.

Control Panels and Interfaces

Control panels are touch screens made of reflective metal or clear synth or glass (or something like it). When a PC’s fingers get close to the surface, electricity arcs to his fingertips from the screen, making the connection. A repelling magnetic-like force keeps the PC from actually being able to touch the screen.

Instead of letters, numbers, or pictures, the interfaces show complex three-dimensional fractal shapes the PCs have never seen before. After a time using the interfaces, the PC can start to understand the shapes. It is a difficulty 5 Intellect task to start to figure out the shapes.

Each action a PC takes with the interface results in the PC taking 1 Intellect damage (i.e. each roll the PC makes with the interface results in 1 Intellect damage). Once a PC has succeeded at the task to begin to understand the interface, she can attempt other tasks.

Most tasks involving the facility (e.g. turning on lights, activating and adjusting climate control, etc.) are a difficulty 6 Intellect task to perform (keep in mind that each task results in 1 Intellect damage, regardless of whether it succeeds or fails).

Reestablishing the connection with the satellite(s) is a difficulty 7 Intellect task and can only be done from the Satellite Control room.

The fractal language can be learned as a short term benefit for 2 xp. The PC will only be able to read it; she won’t be able to speak it or understand it if she hears it spoken. Theoretically she could write the language (at a rudimentary level) if she found some way to produce the complex 3D fractal characters (perhaps using hologram technology), but this is impossible with a 2D writing method like pen and paper. The PC also won’t be able to understand everything she reads because it is an alien language with no frame of reference. Knowing the fractal language lowers the difficulties of interacting with the technology of the Windmill by 1 unless stated otherwise.

Exploration Progress

Rather than mapping out the entire structure or turning the story into a “dungeon crawl”, describe the general nature of the Windmill’s interior and roll on the Exploration Progress table for each half hour of exploration. For each consecutive half hour of wandering, add 10 to the roll. This determines what the PCs encounter and how long it takes them to find the Satellite Control room.

Alternatively, the GM can choose the creatures and features she wants the PCs to encounter and decide how long the entire process takes.

Regardless, the GM should ensure that the PCs have at least one encounter with the Gazer swarms. If a Creature result is rolled on the Exploration Progress table, the first creature is automatically a Gazer swarm. If the PCs manage to get to the Satellite Interface Control room without encountering a Gazer swarm, they encounter one there.

Again, the GM should feel free to either roll for encounters or hand pick the ones she wants to use. These tables are intended as a Guide for the GM, not to constrain her. If the GM does use the table, it’s recommended that she make the rolls ahead of time, so she can prepare for the encounters and decide how she wants to present them.

If the GM would like a “final showdown” encounter, perhaps in the Satellite Control room or just before it, the Disassembler would serve this purpose well.

The assumption is that the PCs only end up exploring part of the facility in their search for a way to repair the Windmill. If the PCs state they want to explore every chamber, have them encounter each result from each of the following three tables at least once (with the exception of the gazer swarms, which they should encounter at least twice).

PCs may also end up exploring the entire facility if they haven’t found the tools and are unable to complete the repairs. If this happens, give them a hint, and suggest they may find something that could help if they keep exploring.

Exploration Progress Table

01-40  More of the Same. PCs explore more of the structure, but find nothing of interest.

41-70  Strange Feature. Roll on the Strange Features table.

71-90  Creature. Roll on the Creatures table.

91-105  Inactive Device. Might be a built-in control panel or an abandoned machine of some kind. PCs can scavenge 3d6 shins, 1d6 cyphers and an oddity.

106-125  Dangerous Electrical Discharge. Speed defense difficulty 4 or take 6 ambient electrical damage (ignores armor). Those hit must also make a Might defense roll difficulty 4 or lose their next action. PCs take 6 ambient electrical damage each round they remain in the area. Getting out of the area is simply a short move (assuming the PC has an action). Dragging an immobilized comrade out is a difficulty 3 might task. The discharge lasts a maximum of 2 rounds.

126-145  Dangerous Radiation. All characters take 4 ambient radiation damage (ignores armor) and must make a difficulty 4 Might defense roll or gain a harmful mutation (roll on page 45 of Numenera Character Options book or page 124 of the Numenera corebook). This mutation begins to disappear one hour after leaving the Windmill. If this result has already occurred, then result is either More of the Same, Strange Feature, or Creature (GM’s choice, or determined randomly).

146+  Satellite Control

Strange Features Table

01-10  Corpse of mysterious creature, recently dead. If this result has already occurred, use next higher result.

11-20  Scattered clear synth tablets with unintelligible writing and diagrams of machine components. If this result has already occurred, use next higher result.

21-30  Pile of cylinders filled with poisonous chemicals. If this result has already occurred, use next higher result.

31-40  Broken transmitter. Scavenge 2d6 shins, 1d6 cyphers and 1 oddity. If this result has already occurred, use next higher result.

41-50  Still functioning mysterious machine with lights and whirring motors. If this result has already occurred, use next higher result.

51-70  Metal box filled with miscellaneous tools. Each tool is useless unless identified (numenera training applies) difficulty 5. Each identified tool can be used as an asset when accessing the Windmill’s systems (standard two asset limit applies). If this result has already occurred, use next higher result. Suggested tools: diagnostic program activator, polarizer-depolarizer

71-80  Random oddity.

81-90  Glass wall that glows with flickering lights.

91-100  Lift device, takes PCs up a few levels. Add +10 to future Exploration Progress rolls. If this result has already occurred, the PCs find the metal box with miscellaneous tools if they haven’t already found it. Otherwise roll on the Creatures table or give the PCs a random oddity (GM’s choice, or determine randomly).

Creatures Table

01-30  Gazer Swarms. If this encounter has occurred twice, use next higher result.

31-50  Chance Moth Nest. If this encounter has already occurred, use next higher result.

51-70  Steel Spiders. If this encounter has already occurred, use next higher result.

71-90  Yellow Swarm. If this encounter has already occurred, use next higher result.

91-100  Disassembler. If this encounter has already occurred, use Gazer Swarms or More of the Same or Strange Feature (GM’s choice, or determine randomly).

Gazer Swarms

1 swarm of 3 per PC

This encounter should happen at least once because the gazers defend the interior of the facility. Whether they were installed here by the makers or came later is unknown.

Spice: The gazer swarms dart among the conduits, pipes, etc. Each turn only 1d6 of the swarms can be attacked by the PCs.

GMI: Another gazer swarm arrives.

Steel Spiders

1 steel spider per PC

Spice: If things go badly for the spiders, they retreat and hide in their webs. Getting to each spider will involve encountering 1d6 webs that must be perceived and dealt with (see entry in corebook).

GMI: When the first spider is killed, a new spider enters the fray and rallies its companions. 

Yellow Swarm

Spice: This encounter occurs while the PCs are crossing a “chasm” on a narrow walkway.

Crossing the walkway: Speed difficulty 1

Making an attack or other action while on the walkway: Speed diff 2

Each time struck while on the walkway: Speed difficulty 3

If a PC fails any of these rolls, she falls 100 feet and takes 10 ambient damage.

GMI: The PC slips (perhaps on a puddle of blood or sweat on the walkway) and must immediately make a difficulty 3 Speed roll or fall off the walkway.

Chance Moth Nest

1 swarm of 10 moths per PC, together in a nest.

The moths will not attack unless they or their next is messed with. This encounter is given to give flavor to the Windmill, however PCs might use Scan or a similar ability, detect the cypher in the nest, and decide it’s worth angering the moths to get at it.

Spice: This encounter occurs in a large open chamber (to make the most of the moths’ gravity abilities). Have fun with the random effects of the moths, and feel free to choose effects that seem appropriate from the chart as opposed to rolling for them (or reroll any results that seem mediocre).

GMI: The cypher in the nest somehow activates. This could be a great GMI if the effect of the cypher would be interesting and/or if the GM wants to give the PCs some consequence for disturbing a colony’s home for the sake of greed.

Disassembler

Spice: If the disassembler is reduced to 10 health or less, it uses rockets to boost itself up among the girders at the ceiling of the chamber, about 50 feet up. It begins disassembling girders and dropping them on the PCs. Once per round each PC must make a Speed Defense roll difficulty 5 or take 5 damage. The PCs must either flee, use ranged attacks, or get up to the disassembler somehow, or draw it back down somehow (there is no way to climb up).

The disassembler is intended as a “final battle” for the PCs. If it hasn’t been encountered via the Exploration Progress table, consider having the disassembler in the Satellite Control room or in one of the rooms the PCs cross before it.

As a level 5 creature, the disassembler should give a group of Tier 1 PCs a good fight. However, if the GM would like the disassembler to be even more of a challenge, she can give it the NPC boost package found on page 349 of the corebook.

The disassembler protects the Windmill. It knows the facility is malfunctioning and wants it fixed. It can be reasoned with if the PCs can convince it they’re there to help repair the facility. The disassembler can explain the failed uplink and the batteries overloading deep underground. It can also lead the PCs to the Satellite Control room and will follow them there to supervise.

If at any time the PCs do something to arouse the suspicion of the disassembler (perhaps by accidentally causing a malfunction or complication while accessing the Windmill’s systems in the Satellite Control room, they will have to reroll to regain the disassembler’s trust. If they fail, it will attack immediately.

Repairing the Satellite Connection

Once the PCs have defeated the disassembler and found the Satellite Control room they can attempt to repair the connection to the satellite(s). Stairs lead up the the control room (all stairways are above human size and big enough for the disassembler to use via its rocket). If the PCs haven’t encountered the diassembler, the GM can place it in the room just before the Satellite Control room or in the Satellite Control room itself. The Control room has glass panels with fractal touch screen interfaces on all four walls of the room. In the middle of the room is a large semicircular control center, designed to be used from both within and without the semicircle of stations. The stations are designed to be used by a standing creature of human height.

If the PCs have already figured out how to use the control interfaces, they can skip that step. Otherwise it is a difficulty 5 Intellect task to start to figure out the shapes.

Each action a PC takes with the interface results in the PC taking 1 Intellect damage (i.e. each roll the PC makes with the interface results in 1 Intellect damage). Once a PC has succeeded at the task to begin to understand the interface, she can attempt other tasks.

Most tasks involving the facility (e.g. turning on lights, activating and adjusting climate control, etc.) are a difficulty 6 Intellect task to perform (keep in mind that each task results in 1 Intellect damage, regardless of whether it succeeds or fails).

Reestablishing the connection with the satellite(s) is a difficulty 7 Intellect task and can only be done from the Satellite Control room.

Remember that if the PCs found and identified the numenera tools from the metal box (numenera training applies to identification, difficulty 5), each identified tool can be used as an asset when accessing the Windmill’s systems (standard two asset limit applies).

As the PCs successfully use the interface, a holographic schematic of the facility appears in the air above the semi-circular control center. As the PCs proceed with their administrations with the system, the hologram illustrates the satellite far above and shows the failed link as a red dotted line connecting it to the Windmill. The diagram will also show the batteries far below the windmill. When the PCs repair the uplink, the red dotted line turns green.

NOTE: Be careful with your language when describing the connection to the satellite. The word satellite is used in this book for simplicity of communication with you, the GM. However, when speaking to the PCs, try to use terms such as “unknown object high above”. The PCs will likely come up with numerous ideas of what this object may be—a satellite, a space station, a starship, etc.—try not to confirm or deny any of these guesses with the language you use. Keep it a mystery.

Once the connection is repaired, things return to normal within a few hours (probably by the time the PCs get back to Bonespir).

The PCs can also activate the doors from the Control Room. The doors are actually cyan energy fields that can be lowered by inputting the correct code into a panel on the wall beside the door on the left side (the panels are not visible when deactivated). The doors and panels can be activated in the Satellite Control room; they are currently powered down. Each door must be opened with a separate code. This is a difficulty 4 task for someone who has learned the fractal language. Otherwise it is difficulty 5. PCs using the panels take Intellect damage as described in the Control Panels and Interfaces section. The force fields are effectively level 10.

Activating the doors also creates a field in the entrance that prevents access to the Windmill without entering the code.

The PCs can also access the lift from the Satellite Control room. They can use the lift to reach the bottom level of the windmill (the lift entrance is in the Satellite Control room). The lift is hidden on all levels except the Control room.

If the PCs try to find a way to access the satellite above, they can succeed with a roll of difficulty 7 roll. If they do so, the holographic schematic zooms out to show the location of the Windmill in this region of the Ninth World. The image shows many other Windmills, and all are connected to a central location with dotted lines (some green, some red, some white). It appears that many (perhaps all) of these windmills are either no longer functioning or no longer exist. As the PCs continue to try to find a way to get to the satellite, the display zooms in on this central location, revealing a diagram of an obelisk that will instantly remind any who are aware of it of the Amber Monolith. With another difficulty 7 roll the PCs can determine that there are various spatial, gravitational, and maybe even temporal anomalies in the vicinity of the monolith. Another difficulty 7 roll reveals a few pieces of information:

The monolith appears to be some kind of control hub for the Windmills.

The monolith somehow gives access to the satellite above, although it’s unclear how.

The general location of the monolith.

NOTE: The PCs will likely guess this is the Obsidian Monolith if they know the title of this campaign and/or have seen the cover art. Neither confirm or deny this as GM.

It is not necessary for the PCs to uncover this information. It’s included for especially curious and investigative PCs. If found, it provides an early hook and foreshadowing to the Obsidian Monolith, however there are other hooks later in the campaign. If this information is discovered, the GM will have to be on her toes in order to prevent the PCs from going after the monolith early. This can be avoided by providing them with the next hooks in the campaign before they get bored and start looking for something to do. Keep them busy!

If the PCs decide to try to destroy the Windmill, it will not be easy. The materials that make up the Windmill’s structure are all level 10, so it will be at least one difficulty 10 task (if not more than one) to destroy it. There could also be consequences to destroying the Windmill, depending on the methods used, precautions taken and what the GM feels is appropriate. These complications could include the following:

A catastrophic explosion

Intense radiation flooding the immediate area

Discharges of electricity that hurt the PCs

Aftermath

Once the PCs leave the Windmill, it is a simple matter of a 4 hour hike to the logging camp. The PCs encounter no dangerous creatures, although the GM could throw in an encounter with slicer beetles (normal or advanced) if she wishes. They notice that the hum of the Windmill is much diminished, although they can still hear it for the first half hour of their hike, and they can still feel it for the first hour.

If the PCs aren’t protected by Madame Saydle’s Wondrous Soup, then this may be a fairly miserable trek, as they’re swarmed by mosquitoes. The GM can convey this through storytelling, or she can have each unprotected PC take 1 ambient Might damage for the entire hike from the numerous bites. She could also impose a -1 difficulty penalty to any tasks requiring concentration, as the constant stinging and itching is extremely distracting.

Once they’re an hour’s hike from the Windmill and even the sensation of the hum has faded, their mutations begin to fade. Any cosmetic mutations gained slowly fade over the next hour. More extreme mutations fade more slowly, but are completely gone when the PC wakes from her next full night’s sleep.

Any cosmetic mutations the PCs received within the Windmill slowly fade within an hour of leaving it. Any other mutations gained in the facility fade at a slower rate, but are completely gone by the time the PCs wake up from their next 10 hour recovery.

If the PCs arrive at the logging camp before dusk, they can hitch a ride back to town with the loggers. Otherwise they will have to wait until the next day, unless they want to make the long trek or swim themselves (it will take 4 hours to walk back).

The loggers are happy to see that the PCs have survived. If the PCs tell them they have repaired the Windmill, the loggers are overjoyed and confident this will solve the problem with the pollinators (they trust Father Ahn’s intelligence and wisdom).

If the PCs head back to town with the loggers, they can ride on rafts that the loggers make by lashing together trees they’ve felled that day, allowing them to stay dry on the trip. Each raft is pushed by the numenera tug devices.

When the PCs arrive in Bonespir, everyone they meet wants to shake their hand or give them a hug. Father Ahn has noticed the pollinators resuming their normal behavior and told Madame Saydle who has further disseminated the news throughout the town. Each person they pass thanks them heartily for their help. The townspeople were facing a very real threat of starvation, and they know it.

Optional Encounters

Depending on how the story is progressing, the GM may want to include some optional encounters between when the PCs exit the Windmill and when they return to the logging camp. Judge the mood of the players. If they’re enjoying the story and you think they’d benefit from and enjoy the encounters then feel free to use them. If they’re sick of the Windmill and eager to do something else, feel free to allow them to reach the logging camp without incident.

Adult Slicer Beetle

The GM can use this encounter if she’d like the PCs to have a chance for combat before reaching the logging camp. This encounter is with another slicer beetle. This encounter serves a couple purposes. First, it allows the PCs to get another crack at a creature that was probably their first real defeat. There is only one beetle, but defeating it may be a cathartic experience for the players. Second, it further impresses upon the players that the Westwood is a dangerous place. This will be a useful impression for them to have in the following adventures in the Westwood. The PCs should be able to defeat one adult slicer beetle, though it should be a good fight.

This encounter should take place near the Windmill within a half hour of the PCs leaving it.

Iyl and the Other Culovas

The GM can include this encounter if she’d like to give the PCs another chance to establish friendly relations with the culovas (especially if one or more of the PCs learned the culovan language). If the PCs are specifically looking for signs of the culovas, definitely include this encounter.

Depending on the situation, the GM can either have the PCs encounter the culovas on the trail back to the logging camp, or they can discover culova tracks on the trail that lead them a little ways off of it. Either way they find Iyl and three other culovas gathered around a recently killed slicer beetle. If a PC speaks the language, Iyl will ask him if they were successful in the Tower. If the answer is yes, she will be grateful and will tell the PC she will tell her chief what they’ve done. She suggests that perhaps her people are wrong about the humans, and they’re not so bad after all.

Experience Point Awards

If the PCs manage to improve relations between the culovas and the people of Burnspir, award them each 1 XP.

If the PCs figure out how to repair the connection between the Windmill and the satellite(s), award each PC 3 XP. If, however, the PCs solve the problem by destroying the Windmill, they only get 1 XP each (if they reestablish the connection and then for some reason destroy the Windmill, they only earn 3 XP each—they don’t get an additional XP for destroying the Windmill).

The PCs receive 1 XP each if they befriend the disassembler.

The PCs receive 1 XP each if they discover the connection between the Windmill and the Obsidian Monolith.

These awards are in addition to any XP earned from recovering artifacts.

The next adventure begins the next day when the townspeople throw a feast in honor of the PCs. Please see that adventure for some encounters with various NPCs about town (Mosha Ahn, Madame Saydle, etc.).

Articles in This Series

01 - The Town of Bonespir
02 - The Windmill in the Woods
03 - Law & Order in Charmonde
04 - Heroes of Bonespir
05 - The Machine of the Emols
06 - The Town of Delirium
07 - Exploring the Obsidian Monolith

Companion Episodes of Game Master's Journey

OM 01 - Preparing for an Adventure
OM 02 - Laying the Foundation for your Campaign
OM 03 - Location, Location, Location
OM 04 - Prepping and Running a Numenera Session
OM 05 - The Town of Bonespir
OM 06 - The Windmill in the Woods
OM 07 - Connecting Adventures Together
OM 08 - The Village of the Culovas
OM 09 - The Machine of the Emols
OM 10 - The Conclusion of the Campaign

Actual Play (Audio)

Session 01 Part 1 - The Town of Bonespir
Session 01 Part 2 - The Windmill in the Woods
Session 01 Part 3 - Inside the Windmill
Session 02 Part 1 - The Swarm from Hell
Session 02 Part 2 - Numenera Hunters
Session 03 Part 1 - The Order of Tianma
Session 03 Part 2 - Bugbusters
Session 04 Part 1 - The Man They Called Zain
Session 04 Part 2 - Madame Saydle's Wondrous Soup

Actual Play (Video)

The YouTube playlist includes the first session and sessions 8-12.

Navarene

South – rich farmland

Hierarchy: Queen-small number of aristocratic families-wealthy land owners-simple farmers & herders

• North – forts protecting border with the Beyond.
• Westwood – redwoods, culovas claim the majority of the Westwood.
• Eastern edge many mills that supply lumber – major export, redwood especially prized.
• Could do a story of a small logging town with an uneasy truce with the nearby culovas.
• Emols – noble family with a huge logging machine. Charina Emol is the head of the family. She is paying a 10 shin bounty for culova heads.
• Perhaps the Emols are a major competitor with my logging town. The people of the town have made peace with the culovas. The culovas ask for help against the Emols and those who hunt them.

Beginning Concepts

The town is built among the fossilized bones of some huge unknown creature from a previous age.

The people are simple, honest folk.

There is one Aeon Priest in the town.

Characters

This adventure works well with beginning characters. More advanced characters might require the GM to make a few modifications (suggestions are provided in each chapter). The GM should give each character 2 experience so each has the option to learn the culova language at the end of Encounter One (alternatively, the GM could have characters start with 0 experience and ensure they each earn enough experience through GM Intrusions in Encounter One to each have 2 experience at the end of the encounter). Obviously, the PCs could spend experience for re-rolls during Encounter one, and there’s no way for the GM to predict for or control this. However, hopefully at least one character will have 2 experience at the end of the encounter. If it looks like this will not be the case, the GM can always use a GM Intrusion to supply a character with more experience.

The campaign starts in the small logging town of Bonespir near the eastern border of the Westwood in Navarene. The campaign will involve the PCs interacting a great deal with the Order of Truth and performing missions and research for them. PCs may begin play as new members of the order or as hopeful initiates to the order. The adventure works best if each player makes a character that either wants to or is willing to work with the Order of Truth. It’s best if the PCs know one another ahead of time; the connection information in the characters descriptors should be enough to join them together. Characters should either be from Bonespir originally or should have a plausible reason for having been there for some time.

For more about The Order of Truth, see pages 222-223 of the Numenera corebook.

The Order of Truth Member Benefits

Whenever the character could take a new skill, she can instead choose one esotery that a first tier nano can use. Please see “Member Benefits” on page 223 of the Numenera corebook for more information.

Recommended GM Preparation

Read the background information presented here and referenced from the corebook.

Come up with your characterizations for the various NPCs the PCs will meet.

Use the tables to determine the encounters the PCs will have, or hand pick the encounters you want to use and prepare for them.

Estimate how many cyphers, artifacts and oddities the PCs will find (based on the encounters generated above) and prepare these ahead of time, whether rolling for them randomly, choosing ones that make sense to you, or creating your own. Come up with descriptions of these items ahead of time.

Background

References for more information (Numenera corebook)

The Steadfast – page 136

Navarene – page 137

The Westwood – page 137-138

Charmonde – page 138-139

The Amber Monolith – page 144

The Obelisk of the Water God – page 144-145

The Order of Truth – page 222-223

Bonespir

Bonespir is a small logging town located near the terminus of the Fellwood River, a tributary of the Tithe River which forms the northern border of Navarene. It’s an interesting bit of trivia that, according to those knowledgeable in such things, the waters of the Tithe should flow into the Fellwood, but instead the waters of the Fellwood flow into the Tithe. This quirk of nature is used to great profit by the people of Bonespir as they use the Fellwood to transport their lumber to the Tithe. A canal stretches from the terminus of the Fellwood into the eastern edge of the Westwood. This canal (called Heartsblood Canal, or just the Heartsblood, by the people of Bonespir) was built ages ago and is lined with some unknown metal that never corrodes.

Loggers travel to the Westwood every morning. They wear float-jackets and bob along the Heartsblood, propelled by numenera devices. These same devices are then used to propel the rafts of lashed together logs the loggers bring back every night. These same devices allow the lumber of Bonespir to be propelled up the Tithe all the way to Charmonde. Lumber is also send downriver along the Tithe to Harmuth where it is either used in Harmuth’s paper industry or is traded all over the Steadfast.

Unlike other logging communities along the eastern edge of the Westwood, the loggers of Bonespir have not had their efforts foiled by raids of the native culovas recently because an uneasy peace has been established between the culovas and the people of Bonespir. This is due mainly to the efforts of Father Ahn, an Aeon Priest who lives in the town.

The most distinguishing characteristic to first-time visitor of Bonespir is the gargantuan petrified bones that arc up into the sky. Indeed, the entire town is nestled within a buried ribcage of some long-extinct colossal creature. Many of the structures in the town are positioned to take advantage of the shade these huge natural edifices provide.

The people of Bonespir are honest, down-to-earth folk. Although they often seem a bit stand-offish to outsiders, they are friendly and neighborly to those they’re familiar with. Their attitude is understandable once one sees how they’re often derided by visitors to the town, and the people of Bonespir have an unfortunate (if accurate) reputation beyond the borders of their town. Simply put, they stink.

The distinctive odor one often smells in the vicinity of a native of Bonespir (and indeed it seems to permeate the town) is a pungent garlicy/oniony smell. This scent is not genetic, but is rather the result of Madame Saydle’s “Wondrous Soup”, which almost all the townsfolk consume on a daily basis. The soup is made from a variety of secret ingredients—roots, herbs and spices—that can only be found in this area of Navarene. The recipe is a closely guarded secret known only to Madame Saydle herself. The soup tastes as strongly as it smells, and is an “acquired taste”, but the Bonespirians say that once you get used to the taste it’s quite delicious. Not only does the soup taste good, the odor its imbibers emit keeps away all sorts of blood-sucking pests common in the Westwood and surrounding areas—various species of mosquitoes, fleas, ticks and chiggers. This benefit is invaluable to the loggers and farmers of Bonespir and makes their work far less miserable than it would be otherwise.

Another oddity in the town is a merchant, Crayl Sult, who sells a strange plant he presumably finds somewhere in the Westwood (although no one knows where). This plant glows with a strong light as long as it’s alive, light equivalent to that of a glowglobe. What’s more, the plants are easily cared for, not needing soil at all, but extracting their needed water and nutrients from the air as long as it’s humid enough (although Crayl recommends floating the plants in water for an hour or so once every week to maximize their lifespan and health). Crayl doesn’t sell the plants for cheap, but those who can afford them say they’re well worth the price (20 shins each).

The houses and other buildings of Bonespir are all made of wood. They range from simple log cabins to large manors with ornately carved posts and walls. Madame Saydle’s inn, The Logger’s Rest, which is the social hub of the town, is just such a manor, and a visitor can spend endless hours admiring the seemingly endless carvings artfully covering the many wooden surfaces.

The people of Bonespir are largely self-sufficient and produce all their own food (including a surplus that they trade along with their other exports). The town is surrounded by small farms, and almost all residents of the town itself have herb and vegetable gardens. There are herders as well as farmers who live near the town, and they provide meat, milk and cheese. The main exports of the town are lumber and crafted wooden items such as furniture, wagons, etc., as well as all sorts of wooden carvings.

The people of Bonespir burn their dead on funeral pyres. 

The Obsidian Monolith campaign for Numenera part 2

If you’d like to submit a topic for our future discussions, or if you’re a blogger who’d like to participate in the Game Master’s Roundtable of Doom, send an email to Lex Starwalker.

This month's topic comes to us courtesy of Scott Robinson, who asks, "How has your gaming and/or GMing changed over time?"

I started running games when I was in high school, and I’ve been running RPGs for over 20 years now. My gaming and GMing hasn’t changed as much as one might think, but there are some differences.

I used to not consider the PCs at all when I planned adventures. I just did what I wanted. Now I like to consider the players and their characters and try to find a sweet spot that combines something I’m excited and inspired to run with something the players will enjoy and fits their characters.

I used to worry a lot more about the rules. I still learn the rules, and I have a much better grasp of the rules of any system I run than I did back then. I think that’s mainly because of experience. There are far more similarities than differences  among the many RPGs I’ve played, so it’s much easier to be cognizant about the few unique things in a particular system.

However, I don’t worry about the rules anymore, which is to say I’m not overly concerned if I screw up. When I am first learning a system I will pause the game to look up a rule if needed (especially if the players are learning as well), but once I have a handle on the game, I usually will just make a ruling on the fly. I think the rules are very important long-term to preserve balance and fairness among the players and the setting, but in a case-by-case basis (short term), pacing is much more important. The way I handle it now is I will make a ruling during a session, and then look up the actual rule between sessions.

Another difference is that these days I almost always run games by the book, whereas in my early days I made house rules all over the place. I think it’s interesting that when I was inexperienced I thought myself qualified to make a lot of house rules, but as I’ve become more experienced I do this less and less. I think a lot of this has to do with the inherent arrogance of being a teenager. When you’re young, you tend to always assume you know everything and know more than others around you, but as you get older, (hopefully) you learn that people (especially professionals) often know what they’re doing.

I find it extremely frustrating as a player to play under a GM who doesn’t grasp the rules and/or decides to “improve” them. This often results in an imbalance between the player character options, or a skewing of the balance between the player characters and the rest of the game world. These house rules have very rarely been an improvement of the game in my experience.

I used to plan my games way out into the future. I’ve of course since learned not to do that for two reasons. First, you never know what the players will do, and if you try to guess you’ll probably be wrong. The farther out you plan, the less likely you will ever end up where you think you will. The second reason is I’ve found that the more I plan ahead, the less receptive I am to the players doing something I didn’t foresee because it will “screw up” this cool thing I have planned down the road. Nowadays when I do plan something relatively far out in time, I make it very general, so I can get there in numerous ways. However, I’ve learned that if I have a really cool idea, I should use it now and not in the future. I’ll always have more ideas.

One way that I think I was a better GM in the early days is that I used to do better descriptions more often, especially in combat. This is just a result of GM laziness, which becomes more and more of a problem the longer you GM. I plan to discuss GM laziness more in future episodes of my Game Master’s Journey podcast, as this is a very important topic to address.

When I first started I was very much a power gamer and GM. I often gave the PCs abilities above and beyond what a starting character had. I often advanced the characters very quickly (a level per session—sometimes more—in D&D terms). Part of this was being young and a lack of patience. I wanted to “get to the end”. Part of it was a lack of self-confidence. I wanted to give the players what I thought they wanted so they’d keep coming back.

I’ve since learned to appreciate character growth and arc. If your character starts as a demigod, there’s not much distance to travel beyond that. Also, the more powerful a character gets, the more complicated the mechanics get (this is true of every system I’m played), and the slower and more bogged-down the game gets.

I used to always go for the epic “save the world” stories. Those still have their place (Tyranny of Dragons is this kind of story, and I’m loving the campaign), but they’re also horribly over-done in fantasy.

I’ve become more and more interested in telling stories that ask questions. I love making the players face moral dilemmas; I like making them make hard choices, and then showing them the consequences of those choices.

I like to break down preconceptions and black-and-white thinking. I like turning assumptions the players make on their heads. What if the PCs met a lawful good orc, or a neutral good green dragon, or a chaotic evil celestial? My campaign world I’m building right now is based on just such an idea. I’m presenting the gods of the world not as divine, infallible beings, but as just really powerful entities that are very much flawed (just like the PCs) and may actually not be very good at their jobs.

I run more published adventures these days. Until very recently, I almost never ran published adventures. Mainly due to time constraints, I’ve been running more of them. There’s definitely a large continuum when it comes to the quality of published adventures, but when you find a good one, it can result in an amazing experience. I like being able to take what I’m given and expand on it. It allows me to come out with something much more fleshed-out than I could on my own.

A big change in the way I approach tabletop RPGs as a gamer is in my perspective of GMing versus playing. When I first started out playing RPGs, I became a game master because I couldn’t find a game. It was a thing of necessity. I always wanted to play, and I would any time I had the opportunity, but I ended up usually running the game because I couldn’t find a GM.

Now, 23 years later, I find that I prefer being the GM to being a player. There are a few reasons for that. First, I really enjoy the prep as a GM. As a player you get to play the game once a week or whenever your group gets together. As a GM you’re almost always playing the game, because you’re always turning ideas around in the back of your mind (or at least, I am). As a player you get to create a character once (maybe more if you die), as a GM you create countless characters. I love world building, creating stories, and creating characters for my games. The second reason is that as a GM you are always engaged; you’re always doing something at the table (even on breaks a lot of times). When I play an RPG, I can find it difficult to stay engaged during combat or scenes my character isn’t involved in. After all these years as GM, I’m used to always having something to do.

Overall I’ve greatly improved as a GM over the years. In the early days it was something I just did; I didn’t think about it too much or analyze how I did it. Now I’m very interested in becoming the best GM I can be. I watch other GMs run games and try to learn from them. I watch myself run games on YouTube, and analyze what I see. What do I like about what I’m doing? What don’t I like? How can I improve?

I’ve run a wide variety of games when it comes to how rules light or heavy they are. I’ve run relatively rules heavy games like Pathfinder (although nothing as rules intensive as Rollmaster), and I’ve run relatively rules light games like Numenera. I’ve learned that I prefer something in the middle. I think Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition hits the sweet spot for me—it has enough mechanical meat to dig into, but not so much that it gets in the way of a good story. This has been an interesting transition as well, as I started out with games in the middle (AD&D 2nd edition), went to more rules heavy games (D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder), and then went more rules light (Numenera). Now I find myself liking it more in the middle (D&D 5e).

The one area that I think I’ve gotten a bit worse as a GM is in my descriptions and is due to GM laziness. It can be hard when you’ve GMed as long as I have, to remember to describe things, especially things you’ve described a hundred times before. I think combating and defeating GM laziness (and jadedness) is my next big hurdle to becoming a better GM.

Blogs Participating in this Discussion

Inspiration Strikes by Marc Plourde

Strange Encounters by Scott Robinson

Files and Records by John Clayton

Dread Unicorn Games Blog by John Marvin

I Live 4 Crits by Jim Walls

Adventures, Planar in Nature by Peter Smits

Note:  I have done my best to keep this discussion spoiler free. However, the links in the Resources for the DM section will take you to spoilers.

I have really been enjoying the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons. To learn some reasons why I love D&D fifth edition so much, you can check out this blog post and this blog post, as well as this episode of Game Master’s Journey.

I’ve been running the published campaign for D&D, Tyranny of Dragons. This consists of two books published by Kobold Press. The first book, Hoard of the Dragon Queen, takes characters from level 1 to 8, and the second book, The Rise of Tiamat, takes characters from level 9 to 16.

I am enjoying running the campaign immensely. As I’ve discussed in my podcasts, for the vast majority of my over two decades of game mastering I’ve run my own adventures and campaigns. However, in the past few years, due to time constraints and the fact that I’m almost always running at least two or three campaigns at a time, I’ve started running published adventures more. The published adventures I’ve run (and can remember) include:

• parts of The Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil for D&D 3.5

• parts of the Kingmaker, Carrion Crown, and Shattered Star adventure paths for Pathfinder

• The Curious Case of Tom Mallard for The Strange

• numerous adventures for Numenera, including The Devil’s Spine (Noble Pursuits, The Insidious Choir, and The Mechanized Tomb), The Hidden Price, Seedship, Into the Violet Vale, The Beale of Boregal, and Beyond All Worlds.

I’m telling you all this to put my next statements into proper context.

I’m having more fun running Hoard of the Dragon Queen than I’ve had running any published adventure in any system. I’ve read both the books in the Tyranny of Dragons campaign in their entirety, and the campaign is hands-down the best campaign I’ve run or read. I am running the game for two groups, one online and one in person, and so far I’ve gotten through the first two adventures of the first book. I’ve read the second book cover-to-cover twice, and I’ve read the first book three times, going on five (I usually read each chapter/episode at least two more times while preparing that adventure).

The reason I’m writing this article is because I almost didn’t buy this amazing campaign. The reason I almost didn’t buy it is because I always research a product before I buy it, and there are a lot of very negative reviews of these books online. Luckily for me, I kept digging and did find some positive reviews that put the negative reviews into the proper context, and I found some amazing resources for the campaign, which I will share with you in this article. I’ll give you the gist of what I got from the majority of the negative reviews, and I’ll tell you why I decided to get the books anyway, and why I’m glad I did.

Poor Editing

There is no doubt about it; there are quite a few editing issues in the first book (I haven’t noticed them as much in the second book, but I’m not running that one yet). These editing issues range from simple typos (which can still be confusing if you’re not paying attention), to more serious issues like certain maps lacking keys or numbers on the map. There are also some confusing mechanics errors (e.g. referencing mechanics that don’t exist). Some of these errors are more forgivable than others. However, of all the criticisms of the products, the editing problems are the ones I actually think are legitimate.

From a consumer buying a product point-of-view, the typos and map errors are pretty deplorable. This product needed at least one more pass by the editors (or a few) before it was published. This is the first product I’ve bought by Kobold Press, and I will definitely think long and hard before buying another (and read all the reviews I can find first). There may have been some extenuating circumstances, however the bottom line is they released a product with an inexcusable number of errors. If this is an example of the quality of editing for all their products, I wouldn’t be interested in buying Kobold Press products in the future.

Some of the other errors are more excusable, for example referencing mechanics that don’t exist (like readiness). The reason for this is that Kobold Press was developing Tyranny of Dragons simultaneously to the development of fifth edition. They did the best they could (presumably), but mechanics were being changed throughout the development of Tyranny of Dragons, and this is what is behind some of the confusing mechanics errors. However, this isn’t really an excuse because another pass by the editors should have caught and corrected these problems. Perhaps the release date for Hoard of the Dragon Queen was too soon, and a decision should have been made to delay it, as opposed to releasing such a poorly edited product.

Now, from a DM running a D&D game perspective, it’s a different story. First, the campaign is awesome! The story is truly epic in scope. I love the way the campaign begins by throwing the PCs in a veritable meat-grinder. It really sets the tone for the adventure and foreshadows the deadliness of this campaign very well. The campaign also does a great job of presenting something for everyone. The three pillars of play are all represented very well; there are plenty of opportunities for combat, exploration and social interaction. I love that so many of the combat encounters can be solved or avoided by social interaction and good roleplay. In fact, there are quite a few encounters in which the risk of failure is increased dramatically if the PCs use combat to get past them. I really like that. This campaign will teach the players to avoid combat whenever possible and always be on the lookout for another option, if only in the interest of survival.

Yes, the editorial problems are annoying, and we should (and do!) expect better from a published adventure, especially one backed by Wizards of the Coast. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the campaign is amazing. It does add a little bit to your preparation workload as a DM, but honestly, if you’re doing your due diligence in preparing for the adventures, it’s not that much extra work. There are also some great resources out there to help you out.

There is effectively an errata for Hoard of the Dragon Queen. Author and designer Steve Winters has been kind enough to answer questions about the many editorial issues in the book. You can find the corrections all compiled here. As a DM you can just print this out. It’s organized by chapter in the book, so as you prepare each chapter, you can look up the errata for that chapter. I made the physical changes in my book with a pencil. It’s really not a big deal. Steve also does a great job of explaining why some of the errors are there, and it’s a bit more forgivable when you know the circumstances.

Those who have the most difficulty with the editorial issues will be those DMs who want to try to run this adventure “out of the box”, i.e. with little or no prep. If you try to do that with this campaign, it will probably be a train wreck, but that’s not just because of the editorial problems. Tyranny of Dragons is a complex campaign (especially The Rise of Tiamat) and is not intended for new DMs. The more experienced you are as a DM, the more you will get out of this campaign. Like all things in life, the more you put into the campaign (read prep), the more you will get out of it. I don’t think you can (or should try to) run any adventure of more breadth and complexity than a beginner box adventure with no prep and do it justice. Even a beginner box adventure will greatly benefit from a little prep on your part as DM, and your players will thank you for it. Even if there were not one editorial issue in the entirety of the Tyranny of Dragons books, you wouldn’t be able to run this campaign out of the box. It is too complex and nuanced for that.

We’ve now covered the legitimate beefs about the campaign. The rest of the criticisms are not legitimate in my opinion, and I’m not going to waste too much of my time with them. However, I do want to address them, because you will encounter them.

Too much work for the DM

This touches upon one of my pet peeves—lazy game masters—so I will try to remain impassionate here. There are a variety of complaints that fall under this category.

There is not enough hand-holding for the DM. People complain that the books don’t explain every little thing about how to do every encounter (I’d be willing to bet at least some of these people would complain the adventures are too “railroady” if they actually did explain everything). Again, this is not an adventure for inexperienced GMs. If you need your hand held, if you need every little thing explained to you, then this is not the adventure for you.

Some complain that the books don’t give detailed information on places like Waterdeep and Baldur’s Gate. Are you serious? There are literally entire books devoted to these topics. There’s also this thing called the internet where you can find all the information on these places you want (again with a little bit of effort on your part). Sure, I suppose Kobold Press could have reprinted this information, but it would have drastically increased the page count and price. I’m really glad they didn’t.

A good DM takes any published adventure and makes it his own. Running a published adventure doesn’t mean you no longer have to do prep as a DM. It means that you spend that time prepping different things. Instead of having to come up with the plot and encounters, you can spend your time doing things like fleshing out NPCs and locations.

Another common criticism is that the stats for the monsters aren’t included in the books. These people truly mystify me. Each of the books has a free companion PDF. You can download the PDF for Hoard of the Dragon Queen here and The Rise of Tiamat PDF here. These include all the monsters, spells, and magic items that aren’t in the free basic rules PDFs. Again, this is much better than having even more pages to flip through in the actual books, and keeps the cost down. I don’t think that some people realize that the more pages there are in a book, the more it costs. Providing information that would be redundant for anyone who has the Monster Manual in a free PDF, instead of having it in the adventure and increasing page count and price, is doing the consumer a huge favor.

This brings up another thing that’s really cool about Tyranny of Dragons—you can run it with just the free basic rules PDFs, which you can get here. The basic rules and the PDFs for Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat have everything you need; you don’t need the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, or Monster Manual.

Another common complain comes from people who just hate the Forgotten Realms. This is just silly, as this campaign can be placed in any campaign setting you want. It will take very little effort to do so.

Resources for the DM

These resources are for the DM’s eyes only! If you’re a player, please don’t follow these links as they will spoil the adventures for you and your group. Show the DM some respect. She deserves it. These very helpful resources will help you to make the most of this campaign and give your players and experience they’ll never forget.

One of the challenging parts of the campaign is the very beginning. You have to set it up correctly for it to work, and you need to know what you’re doing to present it properly so the PCs get the appropriate feeling of danger, while still having at least a chance of surviving. You can find some great advice on setting up the first adventure here.

I found a great series of blog posts where Mike Shea gives excellent advice for running Hoard of the Dragon Queen. He’s taking the first book episode by episode, and as of the time I’m writing this, he’s covered up through episode 6. These guides are invaluable in preparing for the adventures, and I highly recommend them.

Episode 1: Greenest in Flames

Episode 2: Raiders’ Camp

Episode 3: Dragon Hatchery

Episode 4: On the Road part 1

Episode 4: On the Road part 2

Episode 5: Construction Ahead

Episode 6: Castle Naerytar

Finally, another great resource is watching another DM run the game. I am streaming my session on Twitch. We play every Thursday from 6:30 to 10:30 pm EST. You can find my Twitch channel here. I’m also putting the videos up on YouTube. You can find those videos here.

The Dicestormers are also running Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and I highly recommend their actual play videos. You can find those here.

Wizards of the Coast is releasing an actual play videos of The Rise of Tiamat. You can find those here. Unfortunately they’re skipping quite a bit of the campaign. However, the Dungeon Master, Rodney Thompson, is an excellent DM, and I learn a lot from him.

Finally, Dave from Table Top Gaming is running Hoard of the Dragon Queen. You can catch up on the campaign on YouTube, and you can find him on Twitch here.

Conclusion

I love this campaign for a lot of reasons. It involves a lot of different types of adventures and game play. It has dragons! It’s a truly epic and exciting campaign where the player characters get to take part in major world-changing events. The antagonists are really well done, and you can go the extra mile as a DM and make them even more awesome. I love the deadliness of the campaign. It’s very likely some or all of the PCs will die, probably even multiple times. I’m not a DM who enjoys killing PCs, however I like my games to be dangerous. I don’t want anything to be taken for granted, and if the PCs enter battle, I want the players to be truly afraid for their characters’ lives. I also like that the books give you advice on what to do if and when PCs do die.

This is not a campaign for a new DM. This is not a campaign for a lazy DM. This is not a campaign for a DM who needs to be held by the hand. This is a campaign for an intelligent, experienced DM who understands that any campaign, published or homebrewed, is only as good as what you put into it. The more you put into the prep of this campaign, the more you and all your players will be rewarded at the table. This is a great campaign for a DM who wants to present a truly epic and exciting campaign. If you have players who love dragons, this is the campaign for you! If you have players who love playing noble and good character (especially paladins and clerics), this is the campaign for you. This is a campaign where any and all classes can really shine (even druids!).

Finally, another thing I love about this campaign is that it gets out of the DM's way. Everything you need is here, but there’s also a lot of room for you to add in your own ideas. Whether it’s new NPCs, new encounters, new locations, or anything else you want to add, there are plenty of opportunities for you to truly make the campaign your own.

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I believe I may have found a solution I like for the Cypher Conundrum. In a nutshell, what I call the Cypher Conundrum is a convergence of two things in Numenera and The Strange.

First, if a GM generates cyphers randomly on-the-fly, he's going to end up with some results that don't make sense. Some might say, "That's ok, Numenera's supposed to be weird, and The Strange is, well, strange," but I think that. There's a difference between something that doesn't fit and is weird and strange and something that doesn't fit and is just dumb or ill-conceived.

Second, players in the Cypher System are supposed to find (and use) cyphers all the time. If you run many of the published adventures, you'll usually find that PCs are finding cyphers faster than they can use them, for a variety of reasons. This often leads to cyphers being left behind, which can be a drag for the GM if he's creating and detailing cyphers ahead of time.

(For more on the Cypher Conundrum, check out the linked GM Intrusions episode 41.)

As a way to address the first aspect, I've started really thinking about context when I come up with cyphers. Where are these cyphers coming from? What materials are available?

I don't worry so much about what the cyphers do, as with hyper-advanced tech, who knows what's possible? But I do worry about materials. If the PCs are scavenging the remains of an Accelerator, for example, they're unlikely to find cyphers made of cloth. (An Accelerator is a mechanical, self-aware automaton).

In the case of the Accelerator, most materials would work--metals, crystal, glass, synth and ceramic are all materials one could conceivably find within an Accelerator. So in this instance, I just roll on the table. If I get a result that doesn't work, I either reroll, or perhaps just change the material.

If the source of the cyphers is more limiting, then I look through the tables for ones that will fit. For example, a recent encounter involved a biological organism that yielded cyphers. I looked for any cyphers that made sense, and I also took some cloth cyphers and made them leather (hide) instead. Easy peasy.

There are other times you'll want to do this as well. For instance, in Numenera adventure, The Hidden Price, the PCs find a cache of cyphers that are all made of glass and crystal. It's relatively easy to find cyphers that fit the bill and take others and just change their material to glass or crystal. Not only does this make more sense and not break suspension of disbelief, but you're also in effect creating new cyphers (or at least new forms of cyphers) that are unique.

I almost always come up with cyphers ahead of time (which I highly recommend). Now that I'm putting more thought into where they come from, it makes it a more active process than just rolling randomly, and I find I more often have an idea of a cypher or oddity to throw in that's of my own creation, or of a slight variation on one that already exists that especially fits.

The other part of the Cypher Conundrum, you'll remember, is that so many cyphers you come up with are "wasted". Either the PCs never find them, they throw them away, they explode in a mishap, or something else happens that results in your lovingly-created cypher never seeing any action. However, it's so easy to reskin things in this game, that I just keep those cyphers in a master list and use them again sometime down the road--either with another group, or a long enough time later and with enough cosmetic changes that the PCs won't recognize the recycled cypher as something they've seen before.

I do believe the Cypher Conundrum exists, though some choose to ignore it, and others don't care about it that much, and that's fine. However, I've found that working through, for myself, how to solve the Conundrum has deepened my game and my world. Even if my players never notice (I think they will), it doesn't really matter because it makes my Ninth World more concrete and real to ME, which in turn allows me to present it much more convincingly to my players.

Lately I've started handling cyphers a little differently in my Numenera games. Instead of making specific cyphers for specific places or encounters, I instead make a master cypher list for each campaign I run. I fill the list with a bunch of cyphers, and I just come up with what it is, what it does, and the level. Then, when PCs find cyphers, I choose ones from my list and come up with what form they take at that time. I check the cypher off of my hard copy of the list when I give it out, and then I delete it from the digital copy once they use it. That way, if they discard a cypher, I can give the same cypher out again at some later date (or even in a different campaign) with a different level and form that it takes.

The Game Masters’ Roundtable of Doom is a meeting of the minds of tabletop RPG bloggers and GMs. Every GM has his or her favorite system, but in these articles we endeavor to transcend a particular system or game and discuss topics that are relevant to GMs and players of all roleplaying games.

If you are a blogger, and you’d like to participate in the Game Master’s Roundtable of Doom, send an email to Lex Starwalker and supply the URL of your blog.

Here is this month’s topic:

What is a favorite mechanic or idea you've encountered in an RPG that you think would work well in other games? Please explain the mechanic/idea, tell us a bit about the game it comes from, and give some ideas of how it could be used in other games. You can discuss more than one mechanic or idea if you like.

My favorite mechanic that I like to consider applying to any RPG I run is a mechanic we’ve seen version of in a lot of games lately. My favorite iteration I’ve seen of this mechanic so far is in the Cypher System (e.g. Numenera), and in that system it’s called a GM Intrusion. FATE has something similar in the Compel, and the new Star Wars games (Edge of the Empire, Age of the Alliance, etc.) have the Destiny system.

Although we’re seeing this mechanic more and more (and as far as the examples I’ve listed, FATE thought of it first), I like the way it’s handled in the Cypher System the best. In this system experience is a currency that you can spend in play for benefits above and beyond leveling your character. One of the main ways you can spend xp during play is to reroll any die roll in the game.

An experience point is worth a lot more in a game like Numenera than it is in a game like D&D. It only takes 16 xp to gain a tier in Numenera, which is roughly equivalent to a level in D&D. I’m telling you this to give you a general idea of what 1 xp is worth.

When the GM wants to introduce a complication or twist into the story, he can use a GM Intrusion. The mechanics are simple. The GM tells a player that he wishes to introduce a GM Intrusion. The GM may or may not give the player some idea of what that Intrusion will entail, depending on the GM and the situation.

The player can then accept or reject the Intrusion. If the player accepts the Intrusion, the GM gives the player 2 xp. The player keeps 1 xp and gives the other xp to one of the other players. The player can award the xp for any reason, but she must state a reason (perhaps the other player did some good roleplaying, said something funny, or saved her character’s ass in the last encounter). The GM Intrusion then happens. If the player rejects the Intrusion, she pays the GM 1 xp, and the Intrusion doesn’t happen.

An Intrusion can be literally anything the GM wants, and he can do a GMI at any time. This is why I prefer it to the FATE Compel or Star Wars Destiny, which both have limitations on how, when, or how often they can be invoked. A GM Intrusion could be something as simple as dropping a weapon or accidently stepping on a pressure plate that sets off a trap. A GM Intrusion doesn’t necessarily have to be bad, although they often are, at least in the short term. The Intrusion should add something to the story, by making things more interesting, introducing a complication, raising the stakes, or even bringing some humor into the story.

The GM Intrusion is a beautiful mechanic for a lot of reasons. For one, it allows the GM to introduce an element to the story at the most dramatically appropriate moment, without having to rely on dice rolls (or fudging dice rolls) to make it happen. It allows the possibility of such classic story elements as the heroes getting captured. This is easy to do with a GM Intrusion (or a series of them), but can be exceedingly difficult to do in a system without this mechanic, mainly because the PCs are very capable and don’t want to get captured.

The best thing about this mechanic is it allows the GM to do all these things without having to butt heads with the players. Instead of having to cheat with the dice or remove player agency to get a story element in place, through the GM Intrusion the GM asks for the players’ permission and cooperation in introducing the element. This works especially well in the Cypher System specifically because the PCs get xp that they can then use for rerolls to mitigate some of the effects of the Intrusion.

I have been running Numenera for over a year with a variety of groups, and I’ve found that it’s surprisingly rare for players to reject my GM Intrusions. In fact, I can count the number of GMIs that have been rejected on one hand. This isn’t because my Intrusions are tame, in fact they’re often quite dangerous, but the players see the Intrusion as not only a way to earn xp, but also as a way to bring more fun in the game. I’ve found that the mechanic actually fosters trust and cooperation between the GM and players. So not only can the GM pull the tricks he wants to pull, but he can do it with the cooperation and blessing of the players.

GM Intrusions don’t always have to be bad. I had an instance in Numenera where I was facing a TPK (total party kill). It wasn’t because the PCs had done anything wrong, rather the published adventure I was running had included an encounter with a creature that was far beyond the means of the characters. I’m all for letting PCs suffer the consequences of their decisions (and hopefully learn from them), but I did not want a TPK due to a design flaw in the adventure I was running. If I’d been running another game, I might have had to “cheat” and fudge some rolls, but instead I used a series of GM Intrusions to remove the PCs from the sphere of influence of the creature. Now, it wasn’t a completely painless experience, but the GM Intrusions turned what would’ve been a TPK into a very close call that ended up with the PCs battered and scared shitless, but still very much alive.

The GM Intrusion gives the GM a lot of freedom to tell the story he wants to tell, and it builds a sense of teamwork around the table between the GM and the players. It helps convey that we’re all building the story together.

I’ve recently been running and playing the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons, and I’ve been considering how to use the GM Intrusion in that game (I suppose it would be a DM Intrusion). Since the GM Intrusion in Numenera effectively gives the PC 1/16th the amount of xp she needs to level, I first considered going that route with D&D. Unfortunately, this is a very inelegant solution. For one, the xp amounts you need to gain levels is not constant in D&D; the amount rewarded would have to be a function of a character’s level and would not be a constant like it is in Numenera. Also you end up with some very ugly numbers (not even whole numbers).

However, I think you can use the GM Intrusion by combining it with the Inspiration mechanic. Inspiration lets you make a roll with Advantage, which means you roll 2d20 and take the higher result, which is functionally the same as a reroll in Numenera (if you use the optional rule of letting the PC use her Inspiration after the die is rolled but before the result is announced). The only issue is that PCs are only allowed 1 Inspiration.

My proposal is to allow PCs to have more than 1 Inspiration. If a PC accepts a GM Intrusion, she gets 1 Inspiration to keep and 1 to give away (just as in the Cypher System). If she wants to refuse the Intrusion, she must pay the GM 1 Inspiration. I would also recommend allowing the PCs to use Inspiration multiple times on a particular roll, effectively getting a reroll each time they spend Inspiration. Inspiration can also be spent to give another PC Advantage (basically a reroll) on a roll, just as in the Cypher System.

I would recommend putting a cap on Inspiration. In the Cypher System, GMs are encouraged to make PCs spend xp if they ever accumulate more than 10, so I think 10 Inspiration is a good point to start with for a cap. You can try it out and adjust from there.

I think the GM Intrusion is a great mechanic to introduce into other games, and it’s usually not that hard to do so. I’m pretty happy with my idea for D&D, but I haven’t play-tested it yet.

Another possibility would be for the GM Intrusion award to be a die that a PC can add to a roll, just as the Bless spell and Bardic Inspiration work. This die could scale with character level, so a low level character would get a d4 to add to a roll, then at later levels the die could become a d6, d8, d10, d12 and eventually d20. However I think the Inspiration method is a more elegant solution, and it also more closely parallels the benefits that the system provides in the Cypher System.

We have to be careful when trying to apply mechanics from one game to another. We want to consider how the mechanic will fit in the overall system of each game and whether or not it’s a good fit in the new game. Another mechanic I like in the Cypher System is that the players make all the rolls, but this is a mechanic that just doesn’t work well in all systems.

The GM Intrusion is a good example of the type of mechanic you can translate to other systems fairly successfully. This is because the interaction of the mechanic with the overall system is relatively simple and doesn’t require a lot of changes (e.g. in comparison to having the players make all the rolls). The trick is to find the easiest way to introduce it, that will smallest number and degree of changes to either the mechanic itself or the system you’re incorporating it into. Finally, you want a solution that’s elegant and easy to understand and remember. That’s why I went with implementing the GM Intrusion mechanic into the Inspiration mechanic in D&D. Tying the GMI into the xp of the game would’ve been much more complicated, and anytime your solution has you grabbing for a calculator, you probably want to find a simpler solution.

Participating Blogs

Living for Crits by Jim Walls

Inspiration Strikes by Marc Plourde

Dread Unicorn Games by John Marvin

Files and Records by John Clayton

Strange Encounters by Scott Robinson

Last week I wrote about five of the things I love most about Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition. The article was very well received, so here are five more things I love about the newest iteration of the game.

Feats Downplayed & Upgraded

One of the issues I started having with D&D 3.x and Pathfinder was what is commonly called feat-bloat. At first, with D&D 3.0, I thought feats were an awesome innovation. Here was a way you could customize your character like you never could before. The closest thing I’d seen to feats in D&D before 3.0 was kits in second edition.

I liked that feats gave ways to customize your character, so every human fighter wasn’t exactly the same. I liked that there were so many options, and that many of them were class independent. However, as the game got longer in the tooth and changed to 3.5, the preponderance of “splat books” led to things getting a bit out of hand.

The situation was exacerbated even further in Pathfinder. The problem was that there were so many feats that character creation could often be a long and arduous process, especially to the new player. The fact that so many of the “good” feats were part of involved feat trees often meant that feats ended up feeling more limiting than liberating. If you wanted to get a certain feat, you often had to get a plethora of prerequisite feats over many levels of advancement.

When combined with prestige classes, feats added a level of min-maxing to D&D that I have never seen before. People began discussing “builds” on forums, and one could quickly be labeled a noob in D&D 3.x or Pathfinder if one actually played a character built on a concept and roleplaying as opposed to a character that was “fully optimized,” i.e. min-maxed. D&D and Pathfinder began to feel more like an MMO-RPG than a tabletop RPG (and let’s face it, the letters RPG are often left off of the term MMO by many players for a few good reasons).

The other side of this problem was that feats individually often weren’t that great, or if a feat was great, there was an involved list of prerequisites to get it. The system encouraged the player to find combinations of feats and prestige class abilities that were powerful.

D&D fifth edition has solved these problems in two ways. The first way is that feats are more scarce. Characters don’t get feats as often, they don’t get as many, and there are fewer feats to choose from (comparing the 5e PHB with the 3.5 PHB). In fact, only humans are able to get a feat at first level, and then only if the DM uses a variant rule (allowing DMs to keep feats out of the game entirely at the beginning by default). Also, in order to gain a feat, a PC must give up getting stat increases. It’s an either/or kind of thing. Deciding whether to take a cool feat or increase a couple ability scores requires some careful weighing; there’s not a clear-cut best answer.

The second way that fifth edition has solved the problems with feats is that individual feats are more powerful and meaningful. Also, the most common and sought-after feats of 3.x are now often given to all PCs or are class abilities (e.g. spring attack is something all characters can now do). Taking a feat is now more meaningful because it makes some visible changes to your character, however it’s not over-powered because you’re giving up stat increases to get the feat.

Feats are also nice in 5e because they allow you to gain the flavor of another class without having to multiclass. For instance, if you just want a little magical ability, you can get it with a feat instead of multiclassing into a spellcasting class or taking a spellcasting archetype.

Simplified Skills

One of the worst things about 3.x and Pathfinder in my mind is the skill system. If you’re going to lose a new player’s interest during character creation, it will probably happen when you get to skills. Not only are there a shit-ton of skills to choose from, but the system itself is needlessly complex—totaling bonuses from ability scores, skill ranks, miscellaneous bonuses from feats or abilities, situational bonuses, etc. There is way too much math in 3.x and Pathfinder, and it’s not even math you can be proud of doing—as in, “Look at me, I’m awesome; I just did this very difficult equation.” There are no bragging rights to adding and subtracting a bunch of 1s and 2s. It’s not difficult; it’s just tedious.

Fifth edition has solved this problem by reducing the number of skills and simplifying the bonus. Yes, you still add a bonus from your ability score (Strength, Dexterity, etc.), however your skill proficiency bonus is the same for all skills you’re proficient in, and it’s a function of your level, so it’s the same for all players at the table. For instance, at first level the skill proficiency bonus is +2, so with any skill you’re proficient in, you get a +2. There are no longer ranks to worry about. The lower number of total skills makes selecting them much easier. Often most if not all of your skill proficiencies come from your class and background, so you will often only have to choose one or two. This makes character creation faster, makes game play faster, and makes it easier for new players to grok. These are all good things.

There are also no longer situational modifiers to rolls. This is instead handled by the Advantage/Disadvantage system that I discussed in my article last week.

There is a bit of weirdness when you learn a new skill proficiency at 19th level, and you suddenly go from no proficiency bonus to a +6, but hey, you’re 19th level. You’re awesome, and the benefits of the system far outweigh this one minor negative.

I also really like how the tool and weapon proficiencies tie into this same system. You no longer have an attack bonus based on your class and level, rather you get your proficiency bonus when using a weapon you’re proficient with. This is great because your “attack bonus” is still scaling with your level, but it’s all tied in with the proficiency system, so you only have one bonus to rule them all. Brilliant! This also works with tools, like thieves tools. When using a tool you’re proficient in, you get your proficiency bonus.

I also really like that you can spend time and gold to learn new tool proficiencies and languages. So if my dwarf fighter wants to take the time to become proficient with brewer’s tools so he can make a kick-ass dwarven stout, he can!

Number of Attacks More Controlled

Another issue with 3.x and Pathfinder, especially at mid to high levels, is the number of attacks PCs get. If you have a PC who specializes in two weapon fighting, it gets even more ridiculous. This really drags down combat in mid to high level play, and is probably one of the biggest reasons you can spend a whole evening in one combat with these games. This gets tedious and old for the DM and players.

In fifth edition, not everyone gets additional attacks, and those that do get fewer than in 3.x or Pathfinder. You also get fewer additional attacks when using a second weapon. There is still a tactical edge to getting additional attacks or fighting with two weapons, but it doesn’t slow down play so much that it ruins the fight for everyone involved. I haven’t gotten to high level play yet, but it looks like it will be much faster and more streamlined.

Players Actually Want to Play Humans

One improvement that 3.x and Pathfinder made over previous editions is they gave incentive for players to play humans. In AD&D games I ran and played in, it was truly rare for someone to play a human, despite the fact that supposedly most people in the campaign worlds were human. There are quite a few reasons for this, but I think we can see from the number of players playing human characters in 3.x and 5e that a big reason was that the non-human races got cool bonuses that the humans didn’t.

In fifth edition humans get a +1 to every stat at first level, while the non-human races often get a +2 to one stat and a +1 to another one or two stats. If the DM uses the variant rule for humans, they can instead choose to get a +1 to two stats and choose a feat at first level. Humans are the only characters that can get a feat at first level.

I think this is very well done without being unbalanced. I see a lot more players playing humans than I have in the past, but they’re not all playing humans. The races in a party seem better balanced in this edition of the game than in any of the previous ones.

Playing a Single Class is More Attractive

Another thing that I really didn’t care for in 3.x and Pathfinder was how few players played a single class. The min-maxers loved finding the most optimal combinations of classes, prestige classes, and feats. Pathfinder improved on 3.x a little bit by giving more incentive to stick with one class and limiting the number of prestige classes a bit compared to 3.x. However, I think fifth edition really does a great job of giving you good reasons to stick with a single class. You can come up with some cool characters by multi-classing, but in fifth edition I think most players who multiclass will do so because of a specific concept, as opposed to doing it for purely mechanical reasons. From a mechanical standpoint, it can be more optimal to stick with a single class.

This is really great for new players, who can pick a class they like and stick with it, without feeling inferior to the PCs who agonize over multiple classes and prestige classes.

This again comes back to the Backgrounds and Archetypes. You no longer have to multiclass or take a prestige class to have a unique character. Even if you have two human fighters in the party, if they choose different backgrounds and archetypes, they will be two very different characters both in flavor and mechanics.

Conclusion

There is a thread of commonality running through all of the things I love about Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition. The system is streamlined and elegant, getting rid of a lot of the clunkiness of previous editions, while still retaining depth and complexity, so you can enjoy it not only as a roleplaying experience, but as a game as well. The game is very well balanced. It’s not only well balanced as far as mechanics and power levels, but it also finds an excellent balance between crunch and speed and ease of play.

Fifth edition is a much faster running game than 3.x or Pathfinder, and it’s more internally consistent that AD&D 1st or 2nd edition. It truly takes the best that each edition has to offer and combines them in a way that works. The Dungeon Master’s Guide is full of optional rules from across the editions, so it’s easy to make your fifth edition D&D experience exactly what you want it to be.

Finally, because of its relative simplicity and ease of play, D&D 5e is a much better point of entry for a new roleplayer than 3.x or Pathfinder. I’ve seen more than one new player lose interest during character creation in 3.x and Pathfinder, or lose interest during a battle. 5e is a streamlined and logical system that new players will pick up with ease.

The future vitality of our hobby depends upon new players constantly joining our ranks. I know many of us believe a strong Dungeons & Dragons is important to the growth and health of the hobby, as it’s the most common point of entry. Everyone knows what D&D is, even if they know nothing about RPGs. Our hobby is in very good hands with fifth edition. If you know of potential new players who are curious about the hobby and willing to give D&D a try, I highly recommend you introduce them to tabletop RPGs with fifth edition.

I also love the Dungeon Master's Guide for fifth edition. I discuss the new DMG in detail in a three part series on my podcast, Game Master's Journey. Part 1  Part 2  Part 3

I’ll admit it, I was quite reluctant to give D&D fifth edition a try. I got burned when 3.5 came out, because I’d just bought the 3.0 books a short time before. 3.5 came out way too soon on the heels of 3.0. To me it seemed to either be a money grab on the part of Wizards of the Coast, or an indication they’d put out 3.0 before they’d sufficiently play tested it. Basically, 3.0 was a playtest, one that we all paid top dollar to participate in. However, I finally decided the changes were worth it and did make the game significantly better, so I bought in.

I got quite a few years of play out of D&D 3.x, but then, due to numerous moves around the country, I stopped roleplaying for a few years. When I decided to come back to the hobby, I learned there was a new edition of D&D—fourth edition. I was skeptical to say the least, but as it had been years since I’d last played D&D, I decided to check out 4th. I watched some actual plays on YouTube and read through the PHB, and I came to the realization/opinion that D&D 4th edition was not an improvement at all. In fact it was quite the opposite—the worst version of D&D I’d ever seen. It was a dumbed-down D&D that seemed more like a tabletop RPG version of an MMO than the Dungeons & Dragons I’d loved for years.

It was then that I found Pathfinder, and I had some fun with it for a while. To me it seemed like D&D 3.75. Just as 3.5 made some much-needed improvements to third edition, Pathfinder made many improvements to 3.5. However, after a short time of running and playing Pathfinder, I came to realize I didn’t like what it was doing to my roleplaying experience. I didn’t enjoy Pathfinder as I’d enjoyed all the other RPGs I’d played. It was then that I got into Numenera, and I haven’t since had any desire to play or run Pathfinder.

When I first heard about D&D 5th edition (or D&D Next as it was called then), I just rolled my eyes. I saw it as just another example of WotC’s ability to sell the same books to their customers over and over again. When the free PDFs of the basic rules came out, I gave them a quick glance, and it seemed a lot like third edition to me. So I didn’t give it any more thought.

However, I kept hearing about D&D 5e, and despite my prejudices and preconceptions, I couldn’t ignore how most people seem to think it’s the best version of D&D ever made. I’ve heard many people describe it as a blend between 2nd edition and 3.x, with a few good ideas from 4th edition thrown in (yes, there were a few). I finally decided to get over it, and see what all the fuss was about. I broke out the free PDFs again, and this time I read them in their entirety. The more I read, the more I liked what I was reading, and the more excited I got. I hadn’t even finished all the PDFs when I decided to get the Players Handbook.

I’ve just started running D&D 5e, and I’m sold on it. I definitely like it better than 2nd edition, 3.x or Pathfinder. It gives me the classic “D&D experience” I remember from my earliest days of roleplaying without any of the headaches that came along with D&D back then.

There are a lot of reasons I love 5th edition and think it’s the best version of D&D ever made. Here are my top five.

No grid or miniatures required!

Before D&D 3.x I never used a grid or miniatures when I ran or played D&D, or any roleplaying game for that matter. I was aware that some people did, but I never felt the need.

When 3.0 and then 3.5 came out, I started using a grid and minis for the first time. For the most part I enjoyed it. Now I think that a lot of my enjoyment was due to the “newness factor,” and also because I used minis and the grid sparingly, only for the largest and most complicated encounters.

When I got into Pathfinder, a grid was pretty much required. I found myself spending more time in adventure prep drawing out scenes on my wet-erase battle mat than planning the adventure or developing NPCs. I played with and ran for numerous groups with a variety of people, and in every group the gameplay quickly became something more resembling a tactical wargame than a roleplaying game (I would say devolved). Even with the best groups, RP pretty much ended as soon as initiative was rolled. Instead of roleplaying we discussed five-foot steps, attacks of opportunity, movements and positioning, and looked up rules.

One of the selling points of Numenera when I got into it was the lack of a need for a grid or miniatures, and after some time with that game, I resolved to never again play an RPG that required a grid. If I ever feel a need to play with minis on a grid, I’ll play Star Wars X-Wing.

D&D 5e can be played without a grid. In fact, using a grid and miniatures is presented as an optional rule in the game. Though the game does still use distances measured in feet, this can easily be replaced with something like Numenera’s immediate, short, long distance system. Honestly, anything beyond that is kind of false precision anyway (unless you’re using a grid).

This change in D&D has been interesting. Going from no-grid-play to grid-play and back again. Now people call no-grid-play Theater of the Mind, which I find amusing. Back in the day we never called it that. There was no need to call it anything. It was just how you played the game. I recently was recruiting players for a 5e campaign, and someone asked me how I could run a game without a grid. I feel our hobby is in a sad state of affairs when someone asks a question like that, so I’m glad 5e doesn’t require a grid—not just for my own enjoyment of the game, but so new people to the hobby can see that all you really need is your imagination.

Backgrounds

It wasn’t until I saw the backgrounds and associated mechanics in 5e that I realized that D&D had never before had any roleplaying mechanics (other than an optional rule that the DM could give a middling amount of xp for good roleplay). Granted, we always roleplayed our hearts out without any roleplay mechanics, but having RP mechanics in the game sends a good message, especially to new players and DMs.

Not only do I like the background and other mechanics because they’re there, but they're also really good at fleshing out your character. A common problem with D&D in the past was that you often didn’t know your character when you started playing. It would take a few sessions (or even a few levels) to really develop the character into something more than numbers on a piece of paper.

5e has an ingenious system where you choose a background for your character. This can be anything from criminal to noble. Not only does the background explain what your character has done in life before becoming an adventurer and provide some interesting and relevant starting equipment, but it also gives you lots of roleplaying hooks.

Your background provides a list of possible personality traits. You can choose two, roll for them randomly, or use them as inspiration for choosing your own traits. These are just quirks of your personality. So a criminal might choose, “I blow up at the slightest insult,” while a noble might choose, “My favor, once lost, is lost forever.”

You also choose an ideal, bond and flaw in the same way. Your ideal is something you believe in or something you strive for. Your idea can be tied to an aspect of your alignment (e.g. law or good), or it may not, but it’s always tied to your background. A criminal might have the ideal of, “Honor. I don’t steal from others in the trade,” while a noble might have the ideal of, “I must prove that I can handle myself without the coddling of my family.”

Your bond is a goal that your character has. The criminal might have the bond, “I’m trying to pay off an old debt I owe to a generous benefactor,” while the noble might have the bond, “I will face any challenge to win the approval of my family.”

Your flaw is just that, a flaw that holds your character back or can make life interesting. An example flaw for a criminal is, “If there’s a plan, I’ll forget it; if I don’t forget it, I’ll ignore it,” (I’ve known a lot of PCs with that flaw, come to think of it). An example flaw for the noble is, “I secretly believe that everyone is beneath me.”

From the very beginning you know a lot about your character in 5e. Not just how good he is in combat or what spells he can cast, but what he’s like, what his goals are, and what holds him back. There’s a lot of room for customization here, and if you’re ever stuck on an aspect of your character’s personality, you can always roll on the relevant table, or peruse the choices and look for one to jump out at you. Even if none of them quite fit, it’s very likely that one will give you an idea of your own.

Not only does the background system help you flesh out your character, it also gives the DM some clear guidelines of how and when to reward you for roleplaying. Not only can you earn xp for playing these aspects, but you can also gain Inspiration, which allows you to gain Advantage on one roll of your choice.

Advantage and Disadvantage

One of the annoying things about running 3.x or Pathfinder was all of the modifiers. There were +2s and -2s all over the place, from things like flanking, higher ground, limited visibility, or because the DM felt like being a dick, just to name a few. It was tedious and time-consuming. Players often had to recount their bonuses every turn (you’d hate to miss a bonus from a conditional modifier or a buff!). This slowed down play and was not fun.

Fifth edition has done away with a lot of this with an elegant system of Advantage and Disadvantage. Many of the things that would have given you a bonus in an early edition now give you Advantage. Many of the things that would have given you a penalty now give you Disadvantage. Advantage simply means you roll two d20s instead of one, and you take the higher roll. Disadvantage means you roll two d20s and take the lower roll. Elegant, simple, fun, easy peasy. Getting to roll two dice is a lot more fun than adding and subtracting a bunch of ones and twos!

The system is so easy to use it really speeds up play. Multiple Advantages or Disadvantage don’t stack. You either have Advantage or Disadvantage, or you don’t. If you have Advantage and Disadvantage on a roll, they cancel out and you make a normal roll (it doesn’t matter how many sources of Advantage or Disadvantage you have). Not only is the system easy and fast, but it’s effective too. Having Advantage and Disadvantage matters in powerful way that is far more visible than a +2 bonus ever was.

The Magic System

I have never been a fan of D&D’s magic system (what many people inaccurately call “Vancian magic”). I never thought the idea of a wizard forgetting spells every day, no matter how many times he’d cast them, made any kind of conceptual sense.

D&D 5e has made some small changes to the magic system that not only help it make more sense conceptually, but also leads to interesting and fun strategy and gameplay, while giving casters more options than they had before.

If you look at a spell caster’s class table, it will look very similar to previous editions. However, instead of having a given number of spells per day for each spell level, casters have known spells, prepared spells and spell slots.

Cantrips (0 level spells) work as they do in Pathfinder, which is to say the caster knows a given number of cantrips that she can cast an unlimited number of times per day.

A wizard’s known spells are all the spells in her spellbook, while a cleric’s known spells are all the cleric spells of a level the cleric can cast (just like previous editions). Other than this difference, wizards and clerics work identically when it comes to spellcasting. A wizard can prepare a number of spells equal to her wizard level plus her intelligence modifier. These spells can be any spells the character knows and can cast in any combination. When the wizard casts a spell, she uses a spell slot. So a wizard casting Magic Missile would use a first level spell slot. Many spells that used to scale based on the caster level (e.g. Magic Missile) now scale based on the level of spell slot that is used to cast the spell. Spells also tend to be more effective at low level. For example, cast at first level, Magic Missile produces three missiles, and produces one additional missile for each level above 1st that it’s cast at (so 4 missiles as a 2nd level spell, 5 missiles as a 3rd level spell, and so on). Wizards also have the ability to regain a few of their depleted spell slots when they rest for an hour.

I really like this system. No longer are you limited by a specific list of spells. You have access to all your prepared spells, and you can cast them in various spell slots. So if you only need three Magic Missiles to take out a foe, you can use a 1st level spell slot. If you need more fire power, you can use one of your higher spell slots.

There are also spells that can be cast as rituals (like Detect Magic). This means you can cast the spell without using a spell slot. This is great for utility spells. You no longer have to take up a spell slot with an Identify spell that you never end up using.

Limits on Ridiculousness

Another thing I love about fifth edition is that it sets caps on things like ability scores, magic items and spell buffs.

You can’t raise an ability score higher than 20. You can't have an ability skill higher than 15 at character creation unless you roll it (i.e. the point-buy and standard array options don’t allow scores higher than 15). Part of what makes 5e great is that the power curve has been toned down. This will, along with other mechanics, speed up play at higher levels as compared to 3.x or Pathfinder. Having a hard limit on ability scores at character creation and overall makes it much easier for a GM to balance encounters and use published adventures. When I ran a Pathfinder adventure, I always had to do calculations at the beginning to see where my PCs stacked up ability score-wise compared with “standard” PCs. I would often have to adjust the encounters in the adventure accordingly. With 5e, if you follow the rules, you’ll never have that problem, and the spread is smaller and limited (there is no ability score limit in 3.x or Pathfinder).

You’re also limited in how you can stack magic items and how many you can have. This is done with the attunement system. Powerful magic items require you to attune to them in order to use them (or to gain access to their most powerful abilities). You can only be attuned to three magic items at a time. This again limits power creep and limits the possible disparity among PCs and between the PCs and the challenges they face. It also simplifies the magic item identification process because anyone can attune to an item, and by attuning to it, you learn what it does and how to use it. Spells like Identify are now used to learn about the item more quickly (attunement takes an hour). No longer do you need to worry about filling every “item slot” with magic items like you’re playing an MMO. Instead you can focus on a few powerful items that are unique and meaningful to your character.

Ridiculousness is also curbed when it comes to stacking spell buffs. Many common buff spells, like Bless, now require concentration to keep up, and a caster can only concentrate on one spell at a time. There are buffs like Mage Armor that don’t require concentration, but the number of buffs a given character or party can have active is now limited by the concentration mechanic. This eliminates the requisite time spend stacking buffs before a combat in 3.x or Pathfinder, and it also makes each buff more meaningful. PCs now have to make decisions about which buff each caster will maintain and on whom, instead of just casting everything they have on everyone. This also reduces the divergence of capability of different parties based on party makeup.

Conclusion

So there you have it—five reasons why I love fifth edition D&D and prefer it to earlier versions or Pathfinder. I have many more reasons, so if you enjoyed this article, let me know, and maybe I’ll do a sequel in the future.

Five More Things I Love About D&D 5e

You can also hear my first impressions of D&D 5e on this episode of my podcast, Game Master's Journey.

This article is part of a bloggers roundtable of other GMs. Here is the question that was posed:

How would you, as GM, encourage roleplaying in a player who doesn't roleplay as much as you'd like, whether it's roleplaying with NPCs, being more descriptive in combat, or referring to themselves in the third person. If you want to take the roleplaying at your table to the next level, how do you get your players on board?

If you GM for very long, and if you play with a variety of players, then this is a situation you will inevitably run into. You may have a group where most people roleplay well, but you have one player who won’t (this is easier to handle), of you may have a group where none of the players roleplay (this is more difficult).

I grew up in rural Indiana, and it was always hard to find people to play RPGs with. I often recruited players who’d never played an RPG before, so in addition to the teaching the mechanics of the game, I had to also teach them how to roleplay and what that was.

Compatibility

The first step happens before you even bring the group together (or it should). That is that you want to have players that have the same goals as you as a GM—players who want the same kind of experience. Some players don’t like to RP for various reasons, and some will never do it no matter what you do. If having good RP is important to you as a GM, then you don’t want those players at your table. It will be easier for everyone not to invite them in the first place.

Talk with each potential player and let them know what you expect. Try to get a feel if he’s into the RP, or if he’d rather just build min-maxed characters, roll dice, move miniatures and kill things. It shouldn’t be too hard to decide whether or not each potential player is a good fit for your group.

If you don’t find out until too late (the game has already started), consider having a talk with the player and explain to him that it’s not working out. If he really dislikes roleplaying, and you’re running an RP heavy game, he’ll probably be as relieved to go as you will be to have him leave.

Define the Ideal

If you’re dealing with a player new to RPGs, you may need to explain what good roleplaying is. The simplest way to do this is to describe an ideal of roleplaying. For instance, I often tell new players that the ideal is an actor on the stage. The player makes the character come alive, and takes on a new persona using techniques including: changing voice timbre (perhaps speaking in a lower pitch than he usually does), using an accent (only if he can do it well), choice of vocabulary (a blacksmith who always uses smithing terms and analogies), body language, costume (dressing the part), etc.

Unless you have a true thespian in your group, no player is going to achieve this ideal, but that’s not the point. The point is to give the player something to shoot for. Explain that he probably won’t be able to use all the techniques (maybe he can’t do accents), but the more of them he can employ, the more real and distinct the character becomes.

Encourage the use of first person.

Tell the player in the very beginning that you want him to use first person perspective when describing what his character does and says.

This means he will say things like, “I try to pick the lock with my thieves’ tools,” or, when speaking to an innkeeper says, “How dare you charge so much for a room? That’s outrageous! I will pay five silver and not a copper more!”

Oftentimes new players will want to describe their character’s actions and words in third person. You want to break this habit right away. Speaking in first person will inherently put them more into character without them even realizing it. The previous statements done from third person would sound like:

“Anton tries to pick the lock with his thieves’ tools,” or “Anton is offended and tells the innkeeper he won’t pay any more than five silver for the room.”

See the difference? In the first examples (first person) the player IS the character, which is roleplaying. In the second example (third person), the player is describing what a character does, which is storytelling, but it’s not roleplaying.

If you have a new player, you really want to build good habits in the beginning, from the very start. If the player isn’t new to RPGs, but is speaking in third person, you want to inform him of your expectations right away and be consistent in always asking him to speak in first person.

Do a prelude with each player, and develop a background for the character.

The prelude is a perfect opportunity to break a new player in, show him what you expect and give some good examples yourself of good roleplay. It’s also a chance for a new player to ease into roleplaying with only one other person (you, the GM) as opposed to having to do it with a table full of people. Most of us are a little shy when we first start roleplaying. We feel silly. It’s a lot easier to do with an audience of one. I discuss preludes in detail in episode 71 of the GM Intrusions podcast.

The prelude is also a great time to work out the character’s background and attachments to the other PCs. Do your best to help the player flesh out his background. Make sure there are at least a few interesting hooks into the story that you have planned. Make sure the character has some compelling connections and history with at least some of the other PCs at the table. With a new player, I really recommend giving the character connections to all the other PCs.

Do you best to pull the character’s background into the story into the story whenever possible. Having a rich background that is relevant to what’s going on will really help the player get into his character and the story.

While you’re running the game, lead by example.

Use NPCs to roleplay with PCs. Show the PCs good roleplay by using good roleplay yourself. Even something simple like buying a new piece of equipment or renting a room at an inn is a chance for you to roleplay with the PCs using your NPCs. Give each NPC a distinct personality and voice, do your best to live up to the RP ideal with each NPC you play. Don’t let your NPCs be one-dimensional merchants or barmaids. Make each one a character with a story.

Do the same with creatures and monsters that the PCs encounter. Challenge preconceptions. Is every goblin really evil? Does every “monster” need to be killed?

As GM you set the tone and the stage of your game. If you’re not getting good RP at the table, a lot of the times the real problem isn’t the players—it’s you.

Ask for descriptions in combat.

Don’t let the RP stop because you roll for initiative. Show your players that even in combat this is a roleplaying game, not just a rollplaying game. Don’t allow metagaming or talk of tactics that wouldn’t be possible in the situation. Don’t let your roleplaying game devolve into a tactical miniatures wargame.

Ask for more than “I attack the thing.” Ask for descriptions of exactly how the character attacks. Whenever possible award those descriptions with situational bonuses. Not only is descriptive combat more fun and engaging, but if you’re giving bonuses, it gives a tactical edge as well. Your players will catch on.

Ask for help from the other players.

If you have a good roleplayer at the table, encourage her to ham it up and pull the other players into her RP. Ask her to RP with the other PC—ask him about his past, about his strange scar, or how he got the sword he carries. Get the player to talk about his character’s background, goals, dreams, etc. The other players are an invaluable resource. If you have one or more good roleplayers at your table, pull them aside and ask for their help in bringing more RP into the game.

Set up situations for roleplay.

One of the best RP sessions I’ve run was a game of Changeling where the characters went to a party thrown by the local nobility. We had a whole night of excellent roleplay where the PCs interacted with many of the influential NPCs in the area.

Sometimes putting the PCs in a situation where they need to accomplish something, and there’s nothing to do BUT roleplay can work wonders. Perhaps they need some information, and the only way they can get it is to attend the Duke’s annual costume ball.

Use NPCs the players respond to more often.

If a player responds to a specific NPC, make that NPC a major character (even if you didn’t originally intend to) and use him more. This works with NPCs the players really like and NPCs the players really don’t like. Players are much more likely to get into character when dealing with NPCs they have a strong reaction to, whether positive or negative.

Award good roleplay with experience and other rewards.

Award roleplay with xp and let the players know why they’re getting xp. It’s often better to award xp as the players earn it, as opposed to waiting till the end of the session. Let them know what the xp is for. If a player sees other players getting rewards for roleplay, he’s more likely to try to roleplay more.

Look for other ways to award roleplay as well. I already mentioned giving bonuses in combat. If a player roleplays well with an NPC, perhaps he can get that NPC as a contact, or perhaps learn a secret the NPC wouldn’t have otherwise shared.

NPCs may help out a PC they in all kinds of ways—supplying equipment, money, food, etc.

Conclusion

It’s easy as a GM to blame the players when we’re not seeing the level of roleplay we want, but a lot of it comes back to us. We have a lot of tools in our toolbox that we can use to encourage the kind of roleplay we want in our games. There’s a lot to be said for leading by example and showing the players what’s desired as well as telling them. Set yourself up in the beginning for the experience you want by communicating your expectations to the players and making sure they’re compatible. Reward the behavior you want to see in every way you can think to do so, and encourage the better roleplayers in the group to do what they can to draw the others out of their shells.

Other articles in this series:

Living for Crits by Jim Walls

Inspiration Strikes by Marc Plourde

Strange Encounters by Scott Robinson

Dread Unicorn Games by John Marvin

The scientific method is a simple, yet powerful, methodology that has changed the world and has led to all the technology that surrounds us and improves our lives today. Just as important as the scientific method, however, is the scientific mindset. Not only is the scientific mindset absolutely essential for performing good science, but it's also advantageous to cultivate this way of approaching the world in day-to-day life. There are four aspects of the scientific mindset--curiosity, an open mind, skepticism and humility.

Curiosity 

Curiosity is the heart and soul of science. Scientists never lose that childhood infatuation with the question "Why?". This single question has guided many of our discoveries and has led to much of our understanding of the world around us.

A scientist approaches the universe with an insatiable curiosity. We look for patterns in the world around us. We ask questions of "Why?" and "How?" and "What if?" about everything we see. It's not enough to know something is; we want to know why it is, how it became that way, and whether it will ever change. 

An Open Mind

A good scientist always keeps an open mind. When beginning to attempt to answer the many questions her curiosity brings to light, she considers all possibilities. She relies upon the scientific method to separate the true from the ridiculous. In the beginning, all possibilities are valid. 

Despite what many among the ignorant think, science is not about having a "pet theory" and designing experiments to "prove" that theory. That's called "pseudo-science". A good example of pseudo-science is the nonsense called "Intelligent Design". (Don't take my word for it, the teaching of intelligent design was ruled unconstitutional in the Kitzmiller v. Dover case. Learn more in this excellent NOVA program.)

Rather, a scientist seeks to disprove a hypothesis through experiment. Experiments can only disprove a theory—nothing is truly ever proven in science, because there's always the possibility of new data and understanding modifying a hypothesis. This happens all the time in science as our understanding grows. For instance, it was once believed that nothing could escape a black hole, but now it's believed that black holes actually emit what's called "Hawking radiation".

Many scientific theories that are now accepted and widely used in technology were originally discounted by many as "crazy". For instance, Einstein's idea in special relativity that time doesn't flow at the same rate at all places in the universe--that the flow of time is affected by gravity and velocity. We now know this to be true, even though people once thought it was crazy (because it defied "common sense", or as I like to call it, "common nonsense"). In fact, GPS works based on this principle. It's because of the variable rate of time that the GPS in your car or phone can tell you exactly where you are.

Skepticism

A scientist's open-mind must be tempered by a very healthy dose of skepticism. While in the beginning of the experiment all possibilities must be considered, eventually we must start weeding out the erroneous ideas in our quest for truth. A maxim in science is "correlation is not causation". Scientists must always scrutinize their results and conclusions. They always search for hidden variables—things that may be producing the observed effect that are outside what they've considered. 

Many of us know of someone who believes everything he’s heard or read, no matter the source. A good scientist always checks for the sources of information. Every piece of data must be scrutinized. Unfortunately, as humans we love "proving ourselves right". Skepticism combats this tendency, which can often blind us to evidence that we're not right. 

All scientific findings are open to peer-review. This is another hallmark of science that many among the ignorant don't understand. Every published paper is open to debate and debunking. A proper scientific paper gives the reader all the information they need to carry out the experiments themselves, and many do. Many of the lovers of conspiracy claim that science is "bought". While it's true that any given scientist's ethics may be compromised by large sums of money (we're only human, after all), the peer review process will weed these out pretty quickly. Scientists are harsh critics, and someone exposed in such a way can kiss his career in science goodbye. 

Humility

Finally, a good scientist is humble. In the search for truth, one must be able to admit when one is wrong. One must be willing to throw out a hypothesis that doesn't hold up to testing. It may seem counter-intuitive, but most scientists are actually happy when an experiment proves a hypothesis wrong. The reason is that this is the way the secrets of the universe are teased out. A hypothesis can never be proven with 100% certainty. Theories in science are those hypotheses that have been supported by countless experiments over years and years of study, but even these theories could be disproven with more sophisticated knowledge in the future (or at least amended, which happens all the time). However, a hypothesis can be disproven with certainty.

Before science, people answered their questions with superstition. People lived in fear of the unknown, the unknowable. To combat that fear of what hid in the dark, humans invented myth, superstition and religion. Today, we have a better way of figuring out the universe. It's true that some people still choose to live in ignorance. But they have the choice, and choice is a beautiful thing.

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I am a member of an overlooked minority in the US you don’t hear much about—people who don’t celebrate Christmas. There are many reasons why, not the least being the blatant materialism of the season in a culture that’s wasteful and materialistic on the best of days. For more on our culture of waste, please see The Story of Stuff. I also happen to think that buying someone something is one of the worst ways to try to show them they mean something to you (it is, however, one of the easiest). So, for those of you who have similar feelings, I offer an alternative: Newton Day.

I got this idea from the writer of a blog I follow, Off the Hook Astronomy. She made a post about this a few years ago, and I thought it was brilliant. I found her term of "Newtonmas" a bit cumbersome, so I decided to go with "Newton Day." I think she explained the concept very well, so I'll quote her here:

I ... subscribe to a much more scientific belief system .... Therefore, this year I've decided to celebrate Newtonmas. Isaac Newton, considered by many to be the father of modern Physics, was born on Christmas day in 1642. There was some confusing stuff going on with dates back then, and so according to our modern calendar, his birthday is on January 4th, but since the calendar back then said it was December 25th, I think I'll stick with that one for the sake of the holiday.

Newton is most famous for discovering the Law of Gravitation by showing that the same force which causes objects to fall towards the ground also governs the motion of the planets around the sun. However, he is also credited with inventing calculus (though Leibniz also gets credit for that), building the first reflecting telescope, discovering that light is made up of many different colors, and much more. He was also very religious and a practitioner of alchemy. He might also have been a bit of a jerk.

Anyway, to properly celebrate Newtonmas, I will be doing the following:

Eating an apple

Singing some Newtonmas carols

Shining light through a prism to watch it split into a rainbow

Doing some calculus problems

Dropping stuff on the ground

In addition to these fun activities, I also recommend learning something new (and scientific) today. We're very fortunate to live in a time where we can find real answers to our questions. We don't have to rely on superstition. I'm very thankful for that!

Happy Newton Day!

As gamemasters and players we are, by definition, creative people. It’s only natural when we find a game we love as much as we do Numenera or The Strange that we should wish to contribute to it. It’s also only natural when one puts in the time required to come up with an adventure, foci, descriptors, creatures, etc., that one would want to share it with other gamers. And once one has gone that far, why not make a little money for all your hard work? Because of all this, it should come as no surprise that there are so many of us considering the Numenera or The Strange Limited License.

Ultimately this comes down to a personal and business decision that each person must make for himself. I’m not going to try to tell you what you should do. What I will do, however, is present you with some facts you may not have considered.

When I first conceived of the idea of The Obsidian Monolith, I went through a thought process that may be familiar to you—a process that led to me believing that applying for a limited license would be a “good idea”. I now realize I didn’t have all the facts, and my decision wasn’t as informed as it should’ve been.

My goal is to give you those facts now, so if you’re considering a limited license, you can make as informed a decision as possible. As we go forward, consider one thing—why do you want to put out a supplement? If it is simply for the love of the game and to share your work, and if thoughts of profit or “breaking even” don’t concern you, then this discussion may not be entirely relevant to you. However, if you would like to make a small profit or break even, then this article is for you.

The fee to acquire a limited license is currently $100. The license limits you to $2000 in sales. That’s not $2000 in profit, that’s $2000 in sales.

Writing a supplement, of course, isn’t enough. You need a way for those who might be interested in your supplement to be able to find it and purchase it. For most of us that means using DriveThruRPG for sale and distribution of PDF documents and/or POD (print-on-demand) documents. One thing I didn’t know when I made my decision is that DriveThruRPG charges you 30% to use their service. That means if you max out your sales at $2000, you will end up paying DriveThruRPG $600. Already, your maximum possible profit is capped at $1300 for the project, and we’re just getting started.

The supplement must be written, edited, designed and laid out. You will most likely want art and maps in your supplement. You will definitely want a cover. You will most likely need to license at least one font (probably two). You must also factor in the value of the time you will devote to the project.

All of these things cost you money. Even if you do the writing, editing, layout, art and cartography yourself, it all takes time, and time is money. If you happen to be an excellent writer, artist, cartographer, and designer, at the very least you will want to hire an editor, as writing your own supplement without a second pair of eyes to edit is not advised, even if you’re the best writer and editor on the planet. Chances are good that you will have to pay someone else to do a few, or even most of these other things.

With aspects of the project you’re going to farm out, the question becomes, “Who is going to do the work for you?” For instance, to have a professional do the layout for your supplement would cost far more than the $2000 maximum of the limited license. You will need to do it yourself if you know how, which is a lengthy process even using professional software like Adobe InDesign, and will take much more time with other software. Adobe InDesign is not cheap ($20 per month for a minimum of one year). If you don’t already know how to do layout in InDesign, you can learn to do it yourself (which will add a great deal of time to the project, as well as costs for training), or try to find someone who will do it for a price you can afford. Such a person will either be a professional willing to work on the cheap because she loves you or the project (and even then you could easily pay $200 or more), or will be someone who is not a professional.

You will face similar decisions with editing and art. If you pay for quality, professional work, you will quickly go beyond the bounds of sales limited by the license. If you are able to find a cheap alternative, you will likely either owe a professional a huge favor, or you will end up with sub-par work, which will, of course, affect sales. You will also want to license two fonts, which would run around $65 each, for a total of $130. The choice of fonts you can use in a for-profit product without licensing are limited. Editing can be very pricey as well for quality work, but even if you find someone who will do it for cheap (or is inexperienced), you could easily pay $250 or more for a 60 page supplement.

These are all expenses you need to consider. Every corner you cut will diminish the quality of the finished product and will impact sales (which again, are capped at $2000).

For every project, the math looks like this:

$2000 maximum sales
   - $100 cost of the license
   - $600 DriveThruRPG’s 30% cut (assuming $2000 sales)
= $1300 maximum profit

Now, here is an estimate of what some of the other costs may be (and these are very conservative estimates, unless you have connections you won’t likely be able to find quality work at these prices).

$1300
  -$130 license of two fonts
  -$250 editing
= $920 maximum profit

At this point we still need a layout done as well as cover design and art, interior art and maps. These things can (and likely will) end up costing more than the fonts, editing, license and DriveThruRPG cut combined.

Also, I should point out that if you’d like to have a hardcopy of your supplement available for print-on-demand, that requires a separate layout, which you will have to either do yourself or pay someone else to do.

Even if you can do some or all of these things yourself, it’s easy to see that you will be lucky to recoup your costs, and that’s without factoring the cost of your time.

Also, I should point out that relatively few independent pdfs on DriveThruRPG generate $2000 in sales, so you shouldn’t take it for granted that you will do so well. To be considered a Copper Bestseller on DriveThruRPG, you only need to sell 100 copies, so that should give you an idea of how many copies the majority of projects sell.

In a best case scenario, you may recoup your costs if you max out your sales at $2000, if you’re lucky you may even make a little, but you’ll be making cents per hour once you figure in the time you’ve put into the product. If you don’t max out sales, you most likely will lose money on the project.

As a caveat, it does seem that once you get to $2000 in sales you can get another limited license for $100 to add another $2000 in sales on that product. However it really doesn’t change the math that much, and few products will get there anyway.

We have now reached the point of this essay, which is this: If you want to write and publish a supplement because of your love of the game and desire to share you work, and if you don’t care if it ends up costing you a lot of money and time, then by all means go for it.

However, if you want to write a supplement as a way to generate some supplemental income doing what you love, then I suggest you give it a lot of thought. Look over the figures I’ve given here, and fill in the blanks for your project. You know right out the gate you will have $700 in costs between the license fee and DriveThruRPG’s fees.

To fill in the blanks, you’ll want to figure out which of the below things you can realistically do yourself (and how long that will take), and which you’ll have to hire someone to do. Then start researching what that will actually cost you. Find out who will do these things for you, and how they will charge you.

Other costs:

Licensing two fonts Editing (could be $250 or more)

PDF Layout (or software if you're doing it yourself, $240 or more)

Print Layout (if you want POD hard copies)

Cover Design

Interior Art

Maps

If you have published a supplement under one of the limited licenses and you have anything to add to this discussion to help those considering it to make an informed decision, please leave a comment below. 

A question that often comes up in the Cypher System community is, “Can you use abilities that have an intellect cost when you’re out of intellect pool?”

The answer is yes. For example, if you're playing a Nano in Numenera, and you want to activate an esotery, but your Intellect Pool is at 0, you would then spend might.

Here is a link to the Google+ thread where Monte Cook clarified this.

Here is a quote of Monte's post:

It's the intent of the rules that points come out of pools in a certain order of operation, but that as long you obey that order of operation, you can keep spending points. It's just like with damage: you lose points from your Might, and when you have no Might, they come from Speed, and when you have no Speed they come from Intellect.

This means that while yes, esotery power (and Effort associated with that power) comes from Intellect, if you have no Intellect, it comes from [Might]. And if you have no [Might], it comes from Speed. So that means someone could indeed harm or even kill themselves by performing esoteries (or other abilities) over and over.

But you should play the way you want. This sort of corner case isn't covered explicitly in the rules.

I also discuss this topic on episode 36 of GM Intrusions.

I commonly see people ask about language and literacy in the Ninth World. What languages does a beginning player character speak? Can PCs read and write?

There are two sections in the Numenera corebook that deal with language:  The Language and Literacy sections on pages 132-133 and the Language section on page 339.

The Truth is the only language widely spoken in the Ninth World.

The Truth is the predominant language in the Steadfast, where it is spoken by about 80 percent of the people; in cities, that number is closer to 100 percent. In the Beyond, about 60 percent of the people speak the Truth as their primary language, but many isolated villages have their own tongue (Numenera, page 133).

Characters start out knowing the Truth and maybe one other local language/dialect that fits their background.  As the game progresses, they can buy additional languages as a short-term benefit for 2 XP each (it's short term because, other than the Truth, each language is only spoken in a very small area, and it's likely the PCs won't be there long).

Characters should begin the game knowing the language(s) that make the most sense for them. For the vast majority, that will be the Truth, and maybe a bit of some local dialect or unique language. As the game progresses, characters can learn new languages by spending XP [2 XP] to gain short-term benefits. More than likely, learning a new language will have only a limited or short-term benefit because most languages other than the Truth aren’t widely used (Numenera, page 339).

On page 132 of the corebook it states that in the Steadfast about 50% of people are literate, and in the cities about 70%, although most people can recognize a few words in the Truth. I think it's safe to assume that PCs fall into the percentage (however small) of literate people unless a player specifically wants to play an illiterate character.

Not only does every settlement beyond the Steadfast likely speak its own language, but many of the creatures, abhumans and visitants of the Ninth World have their own languages as well.

Although you as the GM can ignore language in your games, I highly recommend that you don't do that. Communicating with entities that don't speak their language is a unique challenge to PCs that will really add a new degree of depth to your games and roleplaying.

There seems to be some confusion out there about what the sun should be like in a billion years compared to how it is in the Ninth World. This is the passage that's causing the confusion:

The people of the Ninth World don’t realize it, but at its current age, the sun’s luminosity should have increased to a point where life on Earth (as we know it) is impossible. And yet it continues. Something happened millions of years in the past to prevent life from disappearing. Most planets in the solar system remain, although their orbits have altered somewhat, but the planet we call Mercury is long gone. (Ninth Worlders don’t know it ever existed, so they don’t wonder why it’s absent.)  (Numenera Corebook, page 130)

A lot of people seem to think this is referring to the sun's future evolution into a red giant and expansion to consume Mercury. However, this is not the case.

The sun will evolve into a red giant when it has consumed all its hydrogen and begins fusing helium. This will not happen for 5 billion years, far far beyond the time of the Ninth World. At this point the sun's outer layers will begin expanding, consuming Mercury, Venus and even Earth. Earth will be consumed in approximately 7.6 billion years.

Find the image source and more information here.

What the corebook is referring to is that in a billion years the sun should have grown hot and bright enough that it would have burned the atmosphere off of Earth, making it uninhabitable to human life. This is what one of the prior 8 great civilizations managed to prevent or forestall.

To learn more about this, check out episode 8 of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey - Sisters of the Sun. Or better yet, watch the whole season. You'll be glad you did.