Unboxing the 2025 D&D Starter Set

I grabbed the 2025 Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set at Barnes & Nobles on Friday. An 'undented' copy. 

Because it is a Starter Set  and meant to assist help new players and DMs get into the game I looked at it as if I were 10 years-old and also as myself as of today. There are differences in opinion. 

GM Companion for Shadowdark

Let's talk about Mr. Chubby Funster. Greg. If you go on RPG DriveThru and check out the Shadowdark section you'll see he had three books in the top ten. And if you look at his titles as a whole, 3 are Platinum, 3 are Gold, and 3 Electrum. Electrum? Don't get me started. That's one of those coins that is a little bit of this. Little bit of that. Not enough of either. With numbers like that Greg has sold thirteen buttloads of PDFs and books. Yes, buttload is a measurement (126 gallons). I think it's in the Bible. 

With that many sales and the number of books he written for Shadowdark Greg has earned his cred for being an authority on enhancing a Shadowdark. I speak from experience, I own nearly everything he's written (except his adventures he writes in French words). And if there is a podcast, YouTube channel, or Agway luncheon he's there. The man has turned into a PR machine. 

I kid. Not really. But I can't be too complimentary of Greg. I have to give him some shit. Because I'm going to talk about his book and it's very good. 

The GM Companion for Shadowdark is easily one of his best offerings if not the best. And one of the best 3rd party books for Shadowdark. I like to write adventures. A lot of them. When I write an adventure these days his books is close at hand if not smooshed down in front of me so I can refer to it. I want to break it down. All the fucking stuff its full of.

Point of Interest

The first section is Points of Interest. These are a collection of random d20 tables divided up into terrain types. Your party is traveling through an artic hex you can create an instant interesting 'thing'. Here my favorite party about these table. There are two columns. You roll two d20s and mix the two result together. These are my favorite types of tables because of expediential possibilities. He has 9 different terrains. Below is a sample of Artic table.

Hazards

The second section mimics the first but for hazards for each of the 9 terrain types. This time the tables use 2 d6. The first die determines the hazard and the second die determines what the hazard does to the party. The three categories are movement, damage and weakening. And of course combining effects is encouraged. Anything to make the players suffers gets the thumbs up from me. Another example of the tables found within. 

Settlements

This next section is particularly useful if a GM is struggling with a settlement along the way. The tables found here to generate a village, city or some redneck crossroads where everyone shares the same last name make it easy to give some depth. A few foothold to flesh it out before your party goes bat shit on the locals. The tables are detailed by districts. Each district type has its own d12 tables. At the end there are d20 tables providing possibility of businesses that could populate your town. Although Greg is being judgey in the one table where one of the entries is a predatory money lender. No other adjustives are in any of the other entries. I think Greg feels some kind of way about banks. 

I would have added a table here, but if you need to see 20 businesses listed then you'll need more than this book to be creative. 

Taverns

This is the obligatory tavern generator tables. It's needed. While there are several million billions of tavern tables if your going to write a book about generating colorful and handy taverns cause you know you're going to put a tavern where ever you can. Cause they are fun to have. If there is a tavern with the door hanging off its hinges, smells like an ogre's ass and the back part is one fire, the party is going in. 

The first table is to generate a name. Two columns. Roll separate. Smoosh together. You got a tavern. I rolled the Sullen Tooth. The third part of that table is what the tavern is known for. I rolled there is a magical fog that lingers around or in the Sullen Tooth.

The next d20 table is for the food and divided into poor, standard and wealthy. I'm going to say the Sullen Tooth is a standard tavern. Lets rolls on the grub table, Spiced Hoarfish. Sounds gross but that gives me an idea of where the tavern gets its supply of Hoarfish. 

Then on the drinky table. It has one column be still divided into poor, standard or wealthy to determine the number of drinks the tavern serves. And to determine what die type to roll. The lower numbered drinks are grog and gag drinks to the upper end they are the drinks one must stick out a pinky and take a whiff of it before drinking. Standard tavern serves three of these drinks and I roll a 2d8. Spiced cider, Bacon Broth Beer and Pudding Beer. Each drink has an affect noted with it.

Tavern Feast by Manolis Karavidas

Acts of Devotion 

While the rest of the party is getting trashed and causing problems, what is a devote holy man supposed to do? Watch their friends get cranked on a dwarven drink called Smegma from the Forge? Watch their thief in the party get into a fight with a bush while taking a leak and lose? Or watch the human ranger ask the serving wenches to play smell my finger? After discarding the option of smothering them with a pillow while they sleep, Greg has a couple of table that could prove to be constructive for the overworked, under appreciated man of holy. 

The first table is determined by the amount the priest is willing to devote to the act. The amount you give is accompanied by flavor texts of what happens followed by a bonus. Now the person of holiness is supposed to do this for altruistic reasons but we all know that's complete bullshit. Their true god is XP! 

The second table is to determine how please your god is. You roll a d8 and add your bonus on the table that goes to 14. Read the flavor text and gather all that sweet loving XP. In addition the priest can gain fanatics, allies, luck tokens or a frickin marriage partner. I can see players using their luck token to reroll on this table.

Then Greg adds tables like these for the other three classes. It adds a cool element to to off time. I think off time, between adventures are difficult for GMs to handle. Especially with games that don't have rules set into place for it. But with these tables you can divide up the time and have the players still be productive.

World Below or How I Built a Dungeon and Learned to Love the Ettercap 

Okay. This is where I rub my hands together and say, this section is worth the price of admission. This section takes the adventure from the original Shadowdark rule books and turns it up to 11. This section is divided into 5 sections: Dungeons, dungeon hazards, dungeon traps, NPCs and rival crawlers. 

Dungeons

I'm not dicking around with this section. I'm going right to the page I use the most. I have it marked so I can find it easily. It's the room type table. The original table is Shadowdark has a d10 table with 9 entries. Greg's table is a d20 with 14 entries. What are the additional entries? Each of these entries has additional tables to refine the result. 

• Change Over Time: Change the room every time the party leaves/returns. Love this addition. It allows the area to change and keeps the party alert. Tracking back to the entrance may not be as simple as retracing their steps.
• Magical Power: Magical effect that can harm/help the party. The PCs walk in an are revolted by the smell of charred flesh. A corpse in the room is blackened and smoldering. But I swear I saw it move.
• Combat Aftermath: Corpses of 1d4 monsters of average PC level. This is one of those entries I enjoy putting into my adventures. The hint of some extreme action occurred giving the place an active dynamic and depth. 
• Dead Zone: Hinders or completely negates a certain activity. I've used this in the past. When my PC priests find themselves in abyss and they are summoning their godliness I have them roll with disadvantage because of the roaming charges. 
• Unique Item: An object with properties not immediately visible. Objects with hidden properties is something I enjoy. It gives the eggheads in the party something to explore, research or if you have a player like Joe he slams it on and watches his hand rot. 

These additions and the tables that accompany the entries make dungeon/adventure creation a lot of fun. It provides juxtapositions you may have not thought of. Like in other of his table I roll twice for some rules and combine the results to come up with some great idea seeds.

I'm going to wrap this up but there are sections for Hazards and Traps. NPCs and rival crawlers with expanded tables. There is a lot of additions from Greg's Players Companion to Shadowdark. If you don't have that one get that one. 

Then to end the book Greg has a fantastic collection of monster and treasure tables. The monster tables are broken down in levels, 0 thru 9. I addition he's statted an assortment of monsters that are in the traditional games. He statted a rot grub. Just for that I approve. 

Then the treasure tables are broken into Dungeon Dressing, things of little monetary value but the party may find useful. Then the loot tables are broken into levels of 0-3, 4-6, 7-9 and 10+. Is that all. Nope. He put a lot of effort into this section. Then collection of boons. Tables to create random potions. Tables to create random suits of armors. My only critique of this section is Greg added tradition, other suits of armor in his PC Companion, but did not include them here. Time to break out my Sharpie and modify. Then you find tables for magic items and magical weapons. At the end he includes a health chunk of original magic items.

As you can read this fucking book is packed. I am not going to call the GM Companion for Shadowdark a 3rd party supplement. It is THE 3rd party supplement. There is no hyperbole in my statement when I say when I write an adventure this book is open next to me. 

A lot of Shadowdark people have already bought it, but my pitch is to those who don't play Shadowdark. Maybe you play one of the thousand of RPGs available these days. This book only benefits you no matter the system. It is written in simple and straight terms. Easy to manipulate into your game.

Alright. I'm done giving Greg props. His head won't fit in his car. But I guess there is one more thing. He's got a Kickstarter running right now, ShadowCity: Blood and Neon. So far all the early opinions are glowing positive. 

What to do on a Gaming Break

It's summer again. Well it's supposed to be but with temperatures lingering around 40 it doesn't feel like it. Most summers I take time off. A couple months. To hang out with the wife full-time, if she doesn't get sick of me, to recharge the batteries. It's a standard procedure for most gamers. 

But when do you go back? Everything is relative. Sometimes after a week I start twitching. Compulsively reaching for my d20. Reading about the newest and greatest setting/adventure/supplement of all-time. Watch YouTube videos of 5e gaming because I watched all the old school gaming videos already. Not gaming can make you do fucked up things. Like posting a picture of a weird looking ginger dry humping a giant d20. I have no idea what this meme means. 

So what to do with that time off? Read. Read a lot. Read non-gaming things. Without hesitation I will say I get more gaming ideas from non-gaming material. 

Sub-Cutures

I enjoy books that focus on a sub-cultures (i.e. Melungeons, Sukeban, and Gopniks) with substance. Don't get me started on the Bagel Heads. You can grab a beautifully odd culture that is very specific and develop it into a wonderful setting. Maybe the idea is big enough to flesh out into a kingdom or just place these quirky individuals within an already established setting. 

Cults

Slip in any cult. Any. This material is rich with a skewed view of reality. Skewed POVs need to be solid, at least a little believable. Enough to make sense why people would belong. I see this as the biggest struggle when I read about gaming cults. They are kinda like DC and Marvel big bad villains. I'm doing bad things because I'm a bad. Or I want to rule the world! Or I want to destroy the world! But the reasoning behind their horrible attitude is missing. Superhero movies aren't bothered by this most of the time. Unlike these movies, we need to have something of substance in game. The players are interacting and moving within the world they affect. If a cult's reasoning doesn't have some semblance of reason, it doesn't have to make sense to the party, but it needs to saturate the cult you are selling as the next group of baddies. Or a pleasant group of well-adjusted people who happen to worship dog poop.

History

No brainer. Read history. Lots of it. All of it. Go ahead I'll wait. But I do steer away from this category especially the broad sweeping books. While they cover a lot of time, events and wide perspective, I don't get as much from these types of books. What I use them for is to find funnel material. What's funnel material? Oil, milk, flour, a little powder sugar... Let's say I'm reading the Roman Empire. Yup, the whole fucking thing. 27 BC through the fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD. Or thereabouts. Yes I looked it up. As I'm reading how wonderful and horrible these Romans were I read something about the Saminites. They sound interesting. I funnel down. I start read articles, maybe a book. They have interesting blended way of worship. Funnel down. They worship spirits called Numina and sacrificing animals to Vulcan, Diana, Mars and Mefitis. While the overviews are good I prefer digging down. Getting into the dirt. That's where I find my gold.

General Fiction

Read fiction. Fiction that you wouldn't normal read. It may surprise you how much you learn from these books when you go outside the fantasy/sci-fi genre. Part of this is I have such a hard time reading genre fiction because the ground is so tread upon. The fucking snake is dead. So I lean into quirky fiction. I find it an amazing source for NPCs. The beautiful depth you can capture to bring into your game. Unless someone buries and axe into his chest. First rule of NPCs: Don't Name them after an ex-girlfriend. Second rule of NPCs: Don't get attached. 

Weird Shit

Probably my favorite category. And probably the most adjacent category to gaming. Stuff like paranormal boogie ladies, cryptids, folklore, folk stories, and of course books about the strange fuckers who hunt them. Love these books. Don't be surprised if you find gaming material in the introductions. One of the lacking aspects of most campaigns is the sense of wonder. Because everything that is consider supernatural, extra terrestrial, ultra terrestrial, or myth is real. No need to wonder. Ned in the corner had his left arm torn off by Bigfoot. You don't have to wonder if it exists because it does. But if you can capture some sense of the wonder they provide in a game then that is a big fucking win. Reading these kinda of books help with developing the story behind the creatures and things. 

Next section. Lets talk about movies and videos.

YouTube

I have a confession. I hardly ever watched YouTube. I heard about all the shitty stuff they do to their creators. Hated watch those fucking ads. Promote the most asinine idiots of the week. And thumbnail after thumbnail were filled with faces I wanted to punch. In my text group they would send me a dozen videos during the day about dumb shit. Apparently when they are at "work" they watch YouTube.

Then I got a subscription. 

Pretty much. I vetted my channel. Subscribe to the faces I didn't want to punch. Had to learn a nanoscopic level of tolerance. It was hard. But now I find YouTube is a good source of other voices on topics I've heard a hundred times. I've been playing since 79 so what's that? 46 years. During that time I ate RPGs like they were Reece's Big Cups. Do I really need to watch a video about Hex Crawls? Random Encounters? Mapping? Or watch some dumbass tell me how little he knows about the horribleness of TSR adventure modules? No. But I like to hear how others do it. Granted you have to sift through a lot of manure to get to the good stuff but it's there. Lots of it. Recently I've indulged in a lot of YouTube. And I have my own channel because I wanted to be the face you wanted to punch.

Don't forget to like and subscribe! 😉

Movies

I  feel like this category doesn't pay off like it used to. Personally my movie watching has slacked off. I used to be a weekly movie-goer. Even if there wasn't a movie I wanted to see I'd pick one I'd never heard of and give it go. Back then I got a lot more out of movies. While I enjoy a good movie I can't tell you when the last time I left a movie inspired to create something. The last one I remember was the Matrix. 

Limited Series

I love how they call them limited series. I guess so we all won't get confused with the Unlimited Series. But this is where the new gold lies these days. There is a lot of great content we gamers can delve deep into. How many wanted to run a Yellowstone type of campaign after it ran for a couple seasons? How many people wanted to run a Rings of Power campaign...wait, bad example. You know what I mean. These series have cool elements. While many of the series are two-dimensional they may have juicy tidbits to pluck off the cardboard tree. 

Board Games

If you are playing a board game during your gaming break you are lying to yourself. You are gaming. Maybe it's not a thirteenth month campaign where you journey to the great white north to uncover a monster that will kill the world (see DC and Marvel movies above) but its gaming. Shush. You're lying to yourself. It's okay. Recognize. Accept. Change.

Conclusion

As you can read there is no such thing as a break from gaming. You walk into a local Taco Bell and see the toilets are clogged. You immediately want to blame it on the Quesada Otyuth that is obvious living in the large sewer tunnels beneath. You hear a clip of a conversation, "And I woke up with a rubber chicken with lipstick on it." How do I work that into a starter quest? Everything is fodder for your game.

There is no break. Once a gamer always a gamer. 

Adventure Writing Session Turns Into a Hex Crawl

Last Thursday I got on to do another Adventure Writing Session and Paul Turner joined me. We decided to use his zine, Critical Hit to roll up a hex flower. We had a lot of fun. A lot of participation from viewers. This is part one of a short series.

Best OSR Cartographers

A video about some my favorite cartographers in the game. This is not an exhaustive list, but the ones I go to the most and ones that have influenced my style of maps. 

If there is someone who needs to be on this list please add their name in the comments. 

Enjoy! 

Indexing Adventures

June 11th, 2014 I started my Patreon. 1While I haven't been active during the past half year or so I've accumulated 110 micro-adventures, 37 micro-locations, 43 NPC cards  and 2 collections of Shadowdark magic items. Through those years I've written for different systems starting with Swords & Wizardry Complete, Swords & Wizardry Continual Light, Old School Essentials and most recently, Shadowdark.

Nearly all have a place within my home campaign of the Komor Forest. Joe the Lawyer has been on my ass about combining them all. 

While I am no place to do a setting compilation I am cataloging everything I have created on Patreon and my other products over the years. What I am creating an index. I go through each one and detail the place type of the adventure (i.e. crypt, forest ruins ect...) enemies, any new thing I introduce such as gods, items and magic items, relics, spell reagents, disease, groups and places of note. 

It's been interesting returning to the old adventures. I've forgotten a lot. It'll be good to have them organized so I can finally have a definitive guide to the Komor Forest. This will allow me to generate more content that will relate to other pieces I've written and allow me to funnel down into my world mythology.

If your interested in checking out my work, my world please join me at https://www.patreon.com/gothridge. I'm going to tell you secret. To get access to my content. All of it, you don't even have to join. Don't tell anyone. All my PDFs are free to grab, but if you'd like physical copies check out the pledge levels. 

Hope you'll join and partake in some fun nonsense. 

GM's Day Sale Picks

It's March. That means RPG Drivethru is having its GM Day Sale! I've got a couple, a few, a whole lot of good picks for you. Here are four that jumped up and bit me. All the links included in this post affiliate links. 

Here are my Shadowdark selections.

Here's and interesting entry from Rune & Relic Press, Formoria. Formoria is a setting that was developed through actual play. It's an interesting look at 4th century Europe and integrating the historical aspect into a setting. If you like to run pseudo-historical setting Formoria is a great place to get inspiration.

Another kick ass offering from Chubby Funster, his GM Companion for Shadowdark. This book is packed with GM tools to elevate your game. Tools for hex crawl. Generate shops. Tavern and drinks. Lots of dungeon options. It'll enhance your game on all levels.

 

Fantastic GM Tools!

Sandbox Generator is a book I use a lot. A lot, a lot. You can make short of developing a hex crawl for your party. I've written all through my book adding and changing, tweaking it to fit my campaign. It is a fantastic book.

A Kevin Crawford offering, Worlds Without Numbers. Kevin sets the standard for quality gaming products and I think Worlds Without Numbers is the best. I run fantasy games and this one suits what I do. Tons of random tables to generate a ton of content. Its a lot of fun to grab your dice and start creating. 

Players Companion for Shadowdark

 

This post includes affiliate links. 

A grabbed a copy of Greg Christopher's Player Companion for Shadowdark a while back. And since then it has been my go-to third-party reference book. Let me give you the stats.

20 New Backgrounds

24 New Ancestries

36 New Classes

A gi-gundo amount of new equipment, armor and weapons

A breakdown for poisons

and spell catalysts that add an entirely new element to spellcasting

One of the main questions that I was asked if the new classes stepped on the toes of the four classes in the primary rulebook. Greg intends them to be drop-in replacement for the existing classes and ancestries. I'm not one that worries about class protection. I see the main classes as templates to build upon. A warrior in one region will look different from the typical warrior from another region. The differences are what adds the distinct flavor/feel of a campaign. Greg has provided different ways to do this. 

I am also a huge fan of his expanded equipment list. Always have been. Back when he penned Ambition and Avarice my favorite section was the equipment section. He provides a lot of diversity to how a character can interact with their environment. 

Players Companion is affordable priced at DriveThru RPG.

PDF is $8

Soft Cover + PDF is $9

Hard Cover + PDF is $15

If you like Shadowdark you can't go wrong getting a copy.

Creating a Hex Crawl Series

I've seen several people doing the 30 days/30 dungeons or variations. I love the idea, but I know my ability to focus on one series for that long is absent. I've been watching this guy Flint Fireforge doing his series keeping it simple. He draws a map...as an aside his maps make me hurt inside. They're all wonky and skewed and jacked. Now I think he does it because he knows. He is a spiteful dwarf. But he's trucking along doing one everyday. Map. 2d6 rooms. He rolls from various tables to get the idea for the dungeon. Check out Paul's (aka Flint) videos. He's oozes enthusiasm. Maybe I should stat Paul as an ooze. I heard he was kinda sticky.

And then there is this knucklehead. Matt Jackson. Need I say more? He looks to be doing the Dungeon 25. I believe that's where you map a dungeon room per day. Matt has his unique style of maps and adds a write up for each of the rooms. Below is a sample of his entries. Now don't tell Matt this, but he has a great way expressing his idea through his maps and layout. Always approachable and fun. Click the picture for the link. 

I'm sure there are others, but these are the two I am following right now. 

And then there is me. After watching Paul's videos and knowing my attention span limitations I decided to take the idea and make it more suited for me. I am generating a hex flower (a term I believe ChicagoWiz coined) hex crawl. I am generating geographical locations, settlements and some of the its and bobs. So this series of videos shows how I generate content for a hex crawl and then constructing adventures, sometimes dungeons, within the context of the surroundings. If creating hew crawls interests you please click the picture and the internet will whisk you away to my playlist. I'll add one or two a week. 

If you are creating 30 days/30 Dungeons or the Dungeon 25 please let me know. 

Waiting to Exist

What is this little underground complex? A basement. A dungeon of some sorts? Maybe a resupply station? Or a prison? Maybe. Maybe all of them. It's a place that has travelled through time becoming what it needed to be for those who decided to give it purpose. It has echoes of those who walked the corridors years before. The notches in the wall are where the sconces used to be until the iron rusted and flaked away bit by bit until only the holes in the stone remain. Over in the corner, or what used to be a corner, is not an opening and the ground has fallen within. A clear violation of the contract of earth. Walls are to keep the outside out and protect the insides from the outsides. 

Despite all of what it was. What is it now? It lingers between existing and not existing. No one remembers this place. No one knowns of this place. It is a forgotten space. 

The contract of earth was violated again. The ground gave way during the heavy rains this season. The ground slid away revealing a section of the walls. Now it waits. It waits for someone, something to notice. It waits to exist. 

As chance would have it, this underground complex was found by a series of actions and accidents. A halfling by the name of Hobbs was bored as he stood in line waiting to enter the northern gates of Scorn. As he whistled, annoying those around him, he saw a shiny tucked into the belt of an older man in front of him. He estimated he was a merchant, by the smell of him, some sort of spice merchant. Good boots. Must do well. His mule's bags were empty. Must have sold his wares. Probably a heavy purse somewhere in the mule packs, but it was the distinct glint of gold that transfixed the halfling. He looked around. A few people, but they looked tired. Fieldhands covered in dirt, exhausted from their day toiling under an unforgiving sun. 

Hobbs heard someone approach the spice merchant. He kept his eyes averted to avoid showing interest in him. A quick, sharp exchange with a woman who asked if she could get a drink of water for herself and her child. He told the woman to get away from him. Hobbs smiled. The justification to steal from this man was granted. 

With a quick, quiet step, Hobbs slid the object from the man's belt as he fussed with a saddlebag on his mule. Hobbs heard the jingle of coins. Hobbs froze as he heard the coins. Sound like a lot. Muffled. Large sack crowded with coin. 

The hesitation, distraction of coin, was enough to allow the merchant to see Hobbs standing uncomfortably close to him. "Get away from me you foul half of a man." He sinched the mule pack tightly closed. Then absently checked himself and found the object missing. "Thief!" He shouted. 

Reflex took over. Hobbs vanished in front of the man and ran toward the forest edge. Behind him he heard the merchant shouting for the guards. The others in line cheered as Hobbs fled. A smile crawled over Hobbs's mouth as he entered the forest. His preternatural ability to vanish would quickly give way to the natural order of things and reveal Hobbs. He tucked behind a tree and felt the invisibility slide away. There were no voices nearby. In the distance the merchant continued to shout. Demanded the others in line to help him with finding his thief. 

Satisfied with himself, Hobbs trekked deeper into the forest turning south. He'd just take an hour to walk and enter through the southern gate. His friend Big John would be working, harass him, but it was worth it. It was dark in forest but Hobbs wanted to see what he acquired.

The ground gave way and he slid a few feet before hitting the stone wall. The stone caught him under the ribs knocking the breath from his body. The pain flared and he dropped the object. Hobbs attempted to curse, but all he managed was a desperate gasp for air.

After waiting a few minutes his breath returned. He scrambled to find what he dropped, but it was too dark and there was so much mud. With the dark came the cold. He wanted to light a torch to find his treasure, but feared it would give away his location. After a short search Hobbs couldn't feel his fingers. 

Hobbs noted the location as best he could before tromping toward the southern gate. Any trace of triumph vanished. Mood soured. Aggravated. And worst of all, hungry.

Hobbs returned the next morning expecting to find the location, but didn't. Hobbs is thief of the city, not one for exploring wilderness. His confidence in his abilities was unjustified. 

With this act, the underground complex came into existence. It now exists in Hobbs's mind as he obsessed where it is. Before to long others discovered it. Today the underground has consumed the lives of small animals, a woman gathering herbs, and an unarmed elf who believed he'd found an undiscovered place he could loot.

It waits to be told what to be.

A Walk-Thru of Unnatural Selection

I received my copy of Unnatural Selection the other day and decided to do a video walk-thru. I travel through each section giving an overview of one of biggest 3rd party releases for Shadowdark.

https://youtu.be/Z7Hje2OFTS4