- A noise or light coming from the direction of the effect (Grinding gears, monster voices, dogs howling, water running, et. al.)
- A change in wind pressure, new breezes or smells
- Opening a door, portal, gate, or other passage
- Scenery changes due to teleporter
On Artifices & Deceptions, Triggers: Latches, Switches, Levers
On the Clerics Devotion
Clerics are all messed up.
I run a lot of classic style (basic/expert and 1st edition) games and I don't use clerics.
Problems include people feeling like they need to take a cleric, a complete dissociation with how polytheistic religions actually worked, and questions about how society looks if it can eradicate disease and raise the dead.
If I do have to run clerics, I follow the advice located in Men and Magic.
"The number in each column opposite each applicable character indicates the number of spells of each level that can be used (remembered during any single adventure) by that character."
What if it meant exactly what the meanings of the words implied it means? (What are the chances, right?)What if spells can only be used during any single adventure.
The cleric gains her spells because she is seeking out danger for her deity. If she stays home, she is granted no spells. Only when she leaves home to defeat evil does she have access to her magic.
Devotions
On the 5th Edition Shadow Wizard
School of Shadow
New shadow spells are italicized. Spells that are normally of other schools, categorized as shadow spells before are identical to their Players Handbook versions, excepting the fact that they manifest as shadow, instead of illusion. Blur cloaks you in shadows, rather than obscuring your form using light.
Cantrips
2nd Level
Create Darkenbeast
6th Level
7th Level
Duo-Dimension
8th Level
Shadow Form
9th Level
drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.
The shadow is friendly to you and your companions for the duration. Roll initiative for the shadows, which have their own turns. They obeys any verbal commands that you issue to it (no action required by you). If you don’t issue any commands to the shadows, they defend themselves from hostile creatures but otherwise takes no actions.
If your concentration is broken, the shadows don't disappear. Instead, you lose control of the shadows, they become hostile toward you and your companions, and they might attack. An uncontrolled shadow can’t be dismissed by you, and it disappears 1 hour after you summoned it.
The DM has the shadow’s statistics.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, more creatures appear. Twice as many shadows appear with a 7th level spell slot, and three times as many with a 9th level spell slot.
All other factors involved with the spell are as they are listed above. Casting time, range, and duration are as the original spells, as are saving throws and damage. This spell can only duplicate damaging evocations: no rituals or non-attack effects.
At Higher Levels, When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, you can duplicate more powerful evocations, a 7th level spell allows you to duplicate 5th level spells like Cone of Cold or Bigby's Hand (but not Wall of Force or Wall of Stone, because those are damaging evocations), an 8th level spell slot allows 6th level spells and a 9th level slot allows 7th. You may also choose to use a spell slot of 7th level or higher to increase the level of the evocation spell being cast. A 7th level spell slot will produce a fireball cast as a 4th level spell.
The wizard can declare that he is keeping himself turned to the side against one opponent as a bonus action. This makes the caster unaffected by any form of attack from that opponent. However, any damage the caster does suffer (from area affect spells or damage from other targets) is doubled.
The caster does not gain any extra actions, but may use her actions to control either the form or herself. If the shadow form is struck in combat or dispelled, it vanishes, leaving nothing but dust and leaves.
On Spending Money
What to spend money on?
Brewing a potion: 500 gp and 1 week per level.Crafting a magic item: Takes 1 day per 500 gp of the item.Spell Research: 1000 gp and 2 weeks per level.Vat Creatures & Crossbreeds: 2000 gp per hit die, 5000 gp per special abilityConstructs and Vehicles: 500 gp per ton for wooden, 3,000 gp per ton for metal.
On Dragonlance Denied
"We are not moving toward breach of contract, but we will not approve any further drafts." -Defendant, Wizards of the Coast.
Margert Weis and Tracy Hickman, authors of the best-selling Dragonlance saga have filed suit against Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast for breach of contract.
There are two completed new Dragonlance books! We can't read them!
I'll be describing parts of the filing, but if you want to look for yourself, it's right here. That is a plaintiff filing, and there's been no response yet. That means we only have one side of the story. There may be facts that come to light—but more likely a settlement. That makes everything in this article that isn't a quote or a link from a document unfounded conjecture.
It's important to note that Tracy Hickman is a New York times bestselling novelist, and 10 million dollars seems to be a completely realistic total for how well a new Dragonlance trilogy will sell. They have already sold twenty-two million copies.
What is Dragonlance? It was a revolutionary series of novels, music, and adventure modules co-written by Margert Weis and Tracy Hickman, chronicling a war of the lance among dragons destined to return the gods to the world, and two brothers, one good and strong, the other feeble and evil, and what the evil brother will sacrifice to become a god.
I'm going to say some things about Tracy Hickman, and merely mentioning them may cause people to assume I'm casting aspersions. I am not. Here are some facts regarding Tracy Hickman.
Dragonlance and D&D
He is known for co-writing the Dragonlance Novels, and writing the Dragonlance series of adventures.
"If the party fights the elves, they must take on the rest of the elven army, one unit every game hour. . . they keep coming, wave after wave, fighting for their homeland with cold fierceness. They fight to the death." -DL1 Dragons of Despair
"If the PCs foolishly decide to attack the unicorn, he calls at once for magical forest creatures to defend him. . . .From now until the PCs leave the woods, all creatures encountered attack them on sight." -DL1 Dragons of Despair
Dragons of Despair is one of the less restrictive modules in the series. It "allows" you to use your own Characters: "Players may wish to use PCs from the DRAGONLANCE story, detailed on character cards in the center of the module. It is generally an advantage for players to use these characters rather than bring their own into the campaign."
The module indicates when the characters should read their backgrounds, and later instructs them to read the prophecy out loud to each other, and then sing the song of Goldmoon, the white savior who finds the golden plates of Morm—I mean the discs of Mishikal with the truth about the old gods of Krynn.
Apropos of nothing, Tracy Hickman is a proud Mormon.
"Song of Riverwind is in the center of this module. If Goldmoon is a PC in the adventure, have the player . . . sing them with the music provided."
Music is provided. It's even on the internet.
But it's Dragons of Flame that led to the 'force a narrative' shift from adventure and exploration based play of first edition. To wit:
"To run this module properly, you must think of it as a story, and try to motivate your players subtly to follow the right path. . . This module introduces several enemy NPCs. . .Since these NPCs appear in later . . . try to make them have “obscure deaths” if they are killed. . . their bodies should not be found. Then, when the NPCs appear in later modules, you have a chance to explain their presence. Be creative; think up an explanation for their “miraculous” survival. The same rule applies to the PCs on pages 17-18. Most of them have roles in future modules, and must be able to return to life somehow. This does not apply to PCs other than those who are part of the story."
This was the genesis of the sea change in the approach of the game. Dragons of Flame has a literal secret door that must be found for the adventure to progress.
Adventure Module DL3: Dragons of Hope introduced the Aghar—Gully Dwarves. From the module:
"Aghar are the lowest class in the dwarven cast systems—indeed, most Mountain Dwarves say that they aren't part of any caste. These raggedly clothed dwarves vary in skin color from parchment to mottled to olive. Their hair is as unkempt as their clothing. Their health is generally bad, their bodies bear sores and scars, and they smell.
Though humans often find the Aghar comical, they are a disgusting race who's motto is "Do anything, no matter how mean, to survive." Occasionally a decent moral Aghar can be found but those are extremely rare. Gully Dwarves. . . have weak constitutions and low intelligence. . . An average Aghar cannot count higher than two."
You see, on Krynn. the world on which the Dragonlance novels take place, all dwarves are ignorant filthy subhumans with giant noses who are too stupid to count.
It's a commonly accepted fact that Tolkien founded the dwarves on semetic tropes, but World War II caused him to re-evaluate the horror of those stereotypes, and portray them more positively. ("I do think of the 'Dwarves' like Jews: at once native and alien in their habitations" and "[t]he Dwarves of course are quite obviously—couldn't you say that in many ways they remind you of the Jews? Their words are Semitic, obviously, constructed to be Semitic "J.R.R. Tolkien)
You know, let's step away from Krynn, Gully Dwarves, pale-skinned saints and kleptomaniac Kinder who wear bright clothing and roam around in caravans completely immune to fear.
Ethics in Fantasy
"Fantasy is not escapist fiction; it is a morally based genre. Good fantasy demands ethics and good fantasy role playing demands ethical play and design.
Ethics is not something which is outmoded; truth is not situation nor relative and we shouldn't pretend that it is. Our games are teaching people around us not just about a fantasy world, but about how we deal with each other. If we cannot learn to deal with each other honestly in our imaginations, how can we hope to deal with each other face to face in the real world?" -Tracy Hickman, Summary, Ethics in Fantasy Gaming.
It seems born out of a desire to educate fearful clergy about the reality of Dungeons & Dragons by selling the idea: it's a moral testing ground.
It contains some bold, unproven claims: "Because of this heavy identification, players in role playing games learn lessons from their games as though they really were experiencing the adventure. They don't set out to learn anything. It's just a game, isn't it? No, they learn from their experience in the game." -Ethics in Fantasy: Part 3: The Moral Imperative of Fantasy
"Do thieves always get away with their crimes in your game? Do player character assassins murder at will? Do your players use torture without being tortured themselves? Are towns being ravaged by players without fear of retribution from the king?
If you answer yes to any of these or similar questions, then you are not only misusing the game but you are teaching false and negative lessons to your players. . .
Games that allow such things are not only teaching the wrong lessons, they are bad games."
TL; DR—Stop having badwrong fun.
Still, he says, there are some ethics we can all agree on in fantasy.
- The Omniscience and Omnipotence of God
- The Good Redeems its own
- Evil Feeds upon itself
- Man may choose good or evil for himself
- Consequence for our choices are mandated by nature.
The Lawsuit, Finally.
"35. On or about August 13, 2020, [Wizards of the Coast] held a telephonic meeting with plaintiff[s]. . . At that meeting with no forewarning [WotC] refused to perform under the license agreement. . . respond[ing] with the nonsensical statement
"We are not moving toward breach (of the contract), but we will not approve any further drafts."
- In June of 2019, Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast Expressly approved a detailed outline of Book I ("Dragons of Deceit")
- In November 2019, the complete manuscript was submitted and expressly approved by January 2020 via written approval form #272074-0
- In June 2020 Liz Schuh and Hilary Ross were removed and replaced with Nic Kelman and Paul Morrissey.
They claim to have complied with all these changes.
And the road goes ever on. . .
I aspire to Isaiah 52:7. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” It is my hope that in all that I write I am publishing peace.- Tracy Hickman