What I would like to see more of in urban fantasy writing:
– More werecreatures besides werewolves, ie. werebears, werecats, werebirds, etc.
– Transformations for werecreatures that vary from person to person, ie. one person’s might be extremely violent while the other sort of just melds into it
– Werecreatures who have different behaviors while transformed besides “KILL EVERYTHING”
– Werecreatures who don’t have this messed up canon where there can’t be any females, or they can’t give birth, or they’re extremely violent, yadda yadda yadda
– Werecreature loners who were forced to be loners by circumstance rather than chose it and are actually looking for or to form a new pack
– More packs with werecreatures that are positive, supporting places
– Werecreatures with “transformation night” packs so they’re ready for whatever
– People who are friends with werecreatures who knows what’s up and try to help them through the night if they need it
– Werecreatures who are totally cool being werecreatures
– Vampires who are sensitive about their age
– Vampires who aren’t the most beautiful creatures ever to behold in existence UGH
– Vampires with acquired tastes to different blood
– Vampires with different skintones in their own variations of pale
– Vampires who don’t give a flying fatooty about history and are rather annoyed when people start to ask them questions like they should know
– Vampires who can transform into more than just bats
– Vampires who are endlessly frustrated they can’t get drunk but they try anyway
– Vampires who still wear the styles from, like, 20 years ago (70’s vampire guys!)
– Vampires who won’t drink blood without consent
– Vampires that still look like children but are actually well over 200 and swear like sailors
– Vampires in broods
– Vampires who are total geeks and have memorized every line of every Star Trek (or insert your own) movie and quotes them all the time
– Vampires who are totally cool being vampires
– Witches who can’t afford fancy glass vials so they use milk jugs or tupperware
– Witches who make more potions besides liquidy ones, ie. some are really thick and grainy, others slimy, etc
– Witches who specialize in a certain craft, ie. potions, divination, thaumaturgy, etc
– Mass-produced witch items you can find in grocery stores and other witches complaining about how they’re not as powerful as homemade
– More familiars besides cats
– More magical focuses besides wands, ie. a pocketwatch, a favorite old coin, a keychain, etc
– Witches with planters on their windowsill
– Witch magic developing at different times for different people, ie. at birth, puberty, a random age for no reason, etc
– Witches having to LEARN how to use magic properly, not knowing how to do it instantly
– Witch support groups for people having trouble controlling or even using magic
– Wizards who classify as witches and witches who classify as wizards and wizards and witches classifying as neither because that’s who they are
– Witches who summon monsters or demons just to chill or hang out and the monsters and demons are totally chill with it
– Witches who are totally cool being witches
– Other supernatural/mythological creatures besides the regular ones
– A supernatural society that isn’t hidden from human society and even if they have problems they work together
– Supernatural creatures who run for political office
– Supernatural creatures working as baristas
– Supernaturals creatures who live in specific neighborhoods and identify with different races, classes, religions, etc.
– Supernatural creatures in gangs
– Romances between supernatural creatures, other supernatural creatures, and humans being A-OK and healthy and wonderful
– Romances beyond straight romances
And so much more! Please, guys, we need more variations! We can’t get stuck in an ocean of stale, overused urban fantasy stories! We need to improve upon the genre!
It seemed like a good idea at 4am. Anyways, here’s a quick fantasy insult table for when you don’t have a witty line prepared. The ‘Son of a” tables are based off of Shakespearean insults.
Tag your weird combos? I have no clue what else to use this for.
Your bread-and-butter Dungeons & Dragons party won’t include a manticore, a gargoyle, a hyena or a sentient fungi, but maybe it should. One D&D player spent a year and a half converting every single creature in the D&D [5E] Monster Manual into playable characters, and now players can live out their dreams of being a great fire beetle who slays dragons.
There are hundreds of monsters in D&D’s Monster Manual, many of which don’t really lend themselves to the Lord of the Rings-esque adventures that traditionally star humanoids. Most dungeon masters won’t let players stray too far from that model. It’s hard to wrap a plot around a rag-tag team of dire bats and oozes, and it’s hard to make sure a party’s stats are balanced when it contains both a faerie dragon and a mastiff.
Creator Tyler Kamstra’s new 283-page homebrew mod “Monstrous Races” offers ways for players to embody any of D&D’s monsters using stats, role-playing notes and everything else you’d expect to see listed next to the “Human” race in the D&DPlayer’s Handbook. To play a basilisk, for example, players can attempt to petrify a creature with their gaze as an action. This is helpful, since basilisks don’t have hands, rendering them incapable of holding a sword. To play a banshee, or an undead spirit of a female elf, Kamstra recommends that players covet beautiful objects and remain within five miles of anywhere the banshee lived while alive.
This “Monstrous Races” mod is the sort of wonderful thing that, back in D&D days of yore, would exist as a titanic document in some far-flung basement, only to be enjoyed by a handful of players. We can at least thank the internet for giving us playable purple worms.
Since May 2016 I’ve created well over 200 monsters, NPC’S, weather, hazards, traps, and items to add to Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition adventures and campaigns. Here is a list of FREE available material so far. Use the links below to download them from google drive. New content always available first on my Facebook group page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/dmweber/
Jungle Encounters has over 50 monsters, NPC’s, new races, weather patterns, and traps. Arctic Encounters has over 40 monsters, NPC’S, new races and weather patterns Desert Encounters has over 50 monsters, NPC’S, weather Patterns, Encounter ideas, new races and items. Holiday Encounters has over 30 Monsters, new races, and items. Jurassic Encounters has over 30 Monsters, and items.
Here’s all the bookmarks in my 5e folder. Not everything may be
specifically 5e related but since we’ve started playing this edition, this is what
I’ve collected so far.
Seen guides pop up the last few weeks for
rangers, wizards, clerics, paladins, and warlocks, but I don’t think
there’s one for the 5E barbarian yet. Seeing as it’s so straight
forward, I feel like it might not be needed, but because it’s so
straight forward, it’s also really easy for me to make it, so here you
guys go
If you are like me and you like to scan through all
of the backgrounds to find the perfect set of personality traits,
ideals, bonds, and flaws for your character, then these lists might come
in handy.
Protector of the Dead
* *Symbol*: Horns around a lunar disk
* *Home Plane*: The Offering Fields
* *Alignment*: Chaotic Good
* *Portfolio*: Death, grief
* *W
Instead of starting a new thread for every set
of tools I create, I am going to use this thread from now on. I will
continue to make updates to it as I create new tools. Here is the
complete set of tools I’ve created to date:
Name generator for RPGs, video games, novels, etc.. Can generate names
for elves, dwarves, barbarians, “evil” names, “Lovecraftian” names,
modern English names, and others.
Elf names. Create elf names with the Sindarin
elf name generator! View lists of elf names, generate random names, or
choose an elf name based on your own name. Great for rpgs and mmorpgs.
A fantasy name generator for every fantasy
character. From Chinese to Viking and from dragon to werewolf, I have a
fantasy name generator for all your needs.
Magic: the Gathering Art. Best MTG Art, updated
daily with new and old artworks. Organized by artists and mtg sets, Art
of Magic the Gathering is an ever growing collection of amazing magic
fantasy artworks.
Nerdarchy for nerds by nerds specializing in
role-playing games especially as game masters for d20 systems like
Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder RPG games.
I think that a map can be a DM’s best friend
when running an adventure. However, many adventure maps do not provide
much additional information other than location and a reference key
number to that points to text in the adventure. I took the classic map
of the Caves of Chaos from Gygax (1979) Keep on the Boarderlands…
Just whipped up this random prophecy/vision generator. There’s about a million things you can change/add to this list (like substitute “birds” for “hags”) or change “wolf” to “winter wolf” or even “worg” but really it’s just meant to inspire you. Maybe your next character can show up to the party with terrible visions of the dragon who devoured its young from the altar!
A manual outlining the fundamentals of the local language
A portion of land with a fixer-upper of a keep
The finest hound from the kennels
A large, unidentified, jewel encrusted egg
The captain of the guard as a retainer
A map detailing the location of a mythic treasure
The book of vile darkness
A willow extract that cures headaches
A book of coupons (near expiry)
A great list! I hope you don’t mind my adding ten of my own…
Access to a library where PCs can find a book that will give them a +2 bonus on any one knowledge check should they spend a few hours searching and reading among its tomes (cannot be retried until player has put at least one more rank in that skill)
A painting/statue of a subject of their choice
Access to a restricted area or person (thieves guild fence, head alchemist, the prisons, etc)
10-25% discount on any items in a store
Permission to court/marry a family member without the family taking action against it
Approval to teleport to this (or the NPCs) location at any time, should they need a quick check in or a place to hide. If its a place, the NPC will ensure that the area is stocked with bed rolls, water and basic food, as well as a couple healing items, once a week.
A broken artifact and a rumor of where it can be reforged
A new, trained, animal companion
The friendship, loyalty, and trust of an NPC
A +2 bonus (diplomacy or the like) on any negotiations of rewards to be given from this NPC, or anyone in the NPC’s social network
I’ve got a few of these on my blog as well. I’ve started calling them Community Lists (and I will add that tag to the older lists someday, I promise).
1. The usage of a scrying well, although they’ll need to bring something from the place, or person, they wish to scry on. 2. Passage out of town before they find you. 3. A Community list of non-monetary rewards! 4. A way back into the towns good graces. 5. A hint of what’s happening in the town. What’s, /really/, happening. 6. A reluctant backstab, and a deeper understanding of just how deep the rabbit hole goes. 7. A better understanding of why the “Villain/s” does what they do. And an inkling, that there are other forces at work. 8. Information of rites you can perform at a place of worship for a boon. 9. Information of rites you can perform at a place of worship to prevent a boon. 10. Safe passage into a secure location, but you’re on your own from there friend.
and because 3 was a joke. 11. An answer to a question you didn’t know you wanted to ask.
Okay I know it’s beautiful, I know, but here’s the thing: it’s a trap. Because that’s almost definitely like 600% a kelpie, and if you touch it it will drag you into a river and eat you.
Historically, there are major four groups that have commonly been described as “adventurers”:
a. Pirates and bandits who realised that the real money lay in getting people to pay them to go pillage someone else;
b. Members of the idle rich who wandered about robbing tombs and subjugating the locals for fun rather than for profit, often distinguishable from the first group only by the presence of a “Sir” before their names;
c. People who just wanted to look at birds, but it sort of got out of hand; and
d. Lesbians.
Now, I’m not saying that this taxonomy would make a reasonable basis for a class system in a tabletop roleplaying game, but I’m not not saying it either.
D&D but your only class choices are Pirate, The Idle Rich, Birdwatcher, and Lesbian.
SlythKris (tumblr backup babey) 