Mythology Behind Classes

This is going to be a brief overview of the classes of 5e and how they are represented in and around the Gold Coast. Individual classes may get their own write ups later on, but as of now these are just history lessons. The players will help flesh out the classes as they play them or encounter them.

One way I categorized the classes was in a practical way. Meaning I asked "how do you become one of these?" And went from there. There are a few big categories: Cultural, College, Faith, and Guild. I'll still list these in alphabetical order. Let's just begin.

Barbarians - Cultural. Barbarians are tribesman, vikings. They are like the native americans, or the Inuits. They live off the land and follow strong family-run groups, with a definite male and female leader and defined gender roles. The women are the life givers, the men are the life takers. It's that simple. The adventurers that come from a barbarian tribe are typically infused with the rage of their ancestors, or a spirit, or some other power. They are the chosen and represent their tribe with their name. Some of the big tribes of the Gold Coast: Throatstompers, Gravediggers, Firestarters, Hugtakers.

Bards - College. Bards are trained at a college or in some sort of scholarly way. They are masters of knowledge and stories. They are librarians, reporters, leaders, kings. They are not belittled by combat and are certainly not pacifists. They are well respected along the coast and are well recieved wherever they go. It's almost ridiculous what they get away with. The adventurers that are bards typically become great leaders or artifact hoarders.

Clerics - Faith. Clerics are chosen by their faith (animism, monthiesm, Buddhism). They are blessed and have conversed with their god(s) or have had some sort of calling, or a sign, that has dragged them to their purpose. Most clerics come from the Tower, the largest, possibly man made, structure along the Gold Coast. Other come from the monk temples. It's not unheard of for Clerics to come from no particular place at all. For them to just be plucked from their normal lives and gifted their divine domain. Adventurers who are Clerics typically become powerful leaders or founders of churches.

Druids - Culture. Druids are very similar to Barbarians except that druids are infused with the raw spirit of nature. They live in circles all across the Great Forests and abhor the idea of the Gold Coast. They would do anything to stay free of civilization. Adventurers who are druids are typically banished from their circles, or feel a calling from nature that other druids do not.

Fighters - Guild. Fighters are a guild. You can tell a fighter from their boots and their sword. Fighters always have nice, comfortable boots, and a clean sword. If you see a man with a ratty blade, he's a bandit or a cut-throat. See a man with solid, sturdy boots and a short sword, you can trust him. Not that it's just males who become fighters. Some of the best fighters are females. When you choose to be a fighter you become apart of a lifestyle that lasts until you die.

Monks - Faith. Monks are chosen by faith. Nobody is born into it. No one is raised to be a monk. You choose it or it chooses you. Then you travel to a temple and that's all it takes. You are one of them. Well, there is more to it, but only you can choose to do it. All monks are Buddhists. It's that simple. There's no other way around it. Monks are the only class that you can choose to become an adventurer in. You take your spiritual journey, then you open your chakras, and you become cosmic.

Paladins - Faith. Paladins are oath takers. They could have become clerics, but they chose to take an oath, either to a spirit, a belief, a king, a leader, their mother. Anyone. They get the call to a higher power, or they take up an oath of their own accord. The only way to differentiate between a chosen paladin and a self made paladin is to ask. Though some can be obvious through their monetary value. There are a few famous paladins with little more than the shirt on their back.

Rangers - Guild. Rangers are a spread out class, but they are similar no matter where you go. They are protectors, hunters. They are the bulk of the Monster Hunters. They are also travelers, like gunslingers of the wild west. They are a form of primal law, and in groups they are extremely dangerous. They are the only class that druids fraternize with. And by that I mean, they can travel through the Great Forests without threat of druidic punishment.

Rogues - Guild. Becoming a rogue can be either a learned experience or a taught one. What I mean is that you can become one on the streets or through a guild/master. Rogues will get a special post when I tell you all about "The Black Dot".

That's it for the night. Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Wizards will get a separate posts. Arcane magic is a very important part to the Gold Coast and the Great Woods.

Stay awesome,
Your DM

Areas and Landmarks of the Everwood

This is a brainstorming post. This is all being created right now, so ideas may come up and then be shot down, but they may also expand into other ideas. This is how creation works. This is how I come up with ideas.

Let's start with some landmarks.

1. The River Quiet - This is a big river. It's the Everwood's Mississippi, and it snakes through all of the known Great Forests, and most believe it goes further, though the one expedition that went down never came back up.

The River Quiet is a black-watered river that carries songs with it from beyond the Great Forests. These songs sometimes drive people to do things they wouldn't normally do. Such as help someone in need, tell the girl of their dreams they love them, or drown their dog in the waters. It's quite eclectic. Many people don't believe it has any powers, but those people are probably just being told what to say by the songs...

The river snakes along the backside of the Everwood and is more prominent in the Bryre wood, where the river and thorns mix to create a marshland ruled by Pain and Torment (yes, proper nouns). But even with just a small section, the Eyrewood is greatly affected by its presence. A wolf pack comprised of Huge artic wolves patrols its banks, drinking the water and dragging the corpses that all too occasionally float face down, down the river. There has been on sighting (or at least, one person who saw it a lived) of the wolf god marching along the banks. A large, artic wolf, with elk antlers and a human face.

The animists among us will tell you that the river is a weak spot, or, a spot in our world that is also in the spirit world. Swim too deep and you don't know which world you'll come up in. Follow it too far and you might fall into Twilight. Drink too much and your corporeal form may leave you. Stare into it and you may see your spirit walk away. But they will also tell you that the river and its spirit means no harm, it is simply doing its job. Which is to guide those who are lost to the afterlife. Souls travel down it because it is easy to see and water is one of the few things that spirits still feel.

2. The Valley Deep - This is a valley that comes in from the Bryrewood and tapers up to sea level. Going down into it is like stepping foot on another planet. A swampy, tropical, sink-pit of a planet. Not much is known about the Valley Deep, except that when a horse knows its going to die, it tries to go there, and if the mud were to ever dry and someone excavated the valley, the amount of horse fossils would date back before known history. And druids would see that it dates back before their history, which is rumored to be long before the Sundering.

3. The Steppes - The high elves of the region call the Steppes Wasuremashita (wah-soo-rey-mah-she-tah) or, the forgotten. It is a grave site, littered with shallow buried high elves and druids alike, haunted by the Albatross, a spirit of a great wingless, flying serpent that takes people to Twilight.

The Albatross has slept for many years, and even though spirits and undead are typically seen waking from the graves, they are not dangerous, just mournful. Animists believe that the buried know their death was of no fault, it was merely something that happened. You see, the steppes descend from the far side of Rosutoreiku (Lost Lake), and when it flooded long ago, the water rushed down the steppes and killed the largest Elven city in druidic history. There have been larger since, but its legend still keeps Elf communities cautious of growing too large.

4. The Lost Lake - A salt water lake. It has sharks and was once a part of the Gold Coast before water levels went down after the Sundering. There's rumor of a feral merrow tribe living at the bottom.

5. The Flower Fields - Tenshi no firudo to the Elves. This is land exclusively hunted by wood elves. No one knows why. It's beautiful. Why is it stalked so constantly? The wood elves wouldn't tell you, but they'd let you die to prove their point. DON'T GO INTO THE FLOWER FIELDS!

Okay...so you're going to go anyways...I see. Well, then you best be warned proper. The flowers live together. Two yellow flowers are brothers, all yellow flowers are brothers. All white flowers are brothers. The families know each others. They talk. They mate with bees. They elope with the wind. They are not nice people and they do not like being stepped on. 

Do not be surprised or alarmed when they attack. Or when they turn the ground to quicksand. Or turn your horses against you. Or convince your hair that you are the enemy. Do not laugh when they sing, because when they all catch on, the sound will deafen the entirety of the Everwood.

Be careful. Stay out.

That covers the major landmarks. I think this post is getting large enough. Damn. I'll do the location next. Places like the Elven city of Takagi, the Lookouts Camp and Outpost, the vanished city, the rocks, the Flower Forest (flowers as tall as trees), the Mushroom Grove (which doesn't have any mushrooms), and maybe some others.

I hope you all enjoyed that. It was fun just writing down everything that came to mind. I'll look over this later and see what sticks and what doesn't.

Stay cool,
Your DM

The Moon Over Head

The moon has a strong pull on the Everwood. In the entirety of the known world the moon is a very important conversation piece and source of study. You see, as much as the sciences and magics are quite advanced along the Gold Coast, the known world is still very strange and highly variable. There are patterns that are followed by things which can be measured, like tides and such, but these patterns seem to be on an even larger scale pattern which has yet to be determined. History is still quite new, so give them time to catch up.

In your world, the moon is roughly 384,000 km away from the Earth, sometimes being closer and sometimes being further away. Well, in the Everwood, the moon's position is much more variable and seems to move closer and further away as it pleases. The closest recorded position of the moon was 400 km away from the planet and the furthest was when it disappeared from the sky for an entire month.

The strange thing about that was that the tides did not seem to care. The ocean actually relished in this new freedom, coming and going in a very calm way, and only pulling in and out a few feet each day. It was a great time for the Gold Coast.

So what difference does the moon really make, whether its up close or far away? Well, scientist aren't quite sure. They think that the mechanics and patterns that the moon typically has over things like weather, water, and werewolves, are only mechanics that are followed when the moon is present, or rather, when it is close by. A few studies stand to reconcile this and may actually, with further elaboration, bring more understanding to the strange ball in the sky.

One such study was an intense look at Lycanthropy in relation with the moon was conducted by the Monster Hunters, in conjuction with Castle and his wealth. They found that during a time when the moon was reserved, pulled back, close to "normal" position of anywhere between 350,000 and 400,000 km, the amount of Lycanthrope outbreaks decreased. So say, for instance, that a werewolves turns every full moon for 4 hours a night (this is not the case, but for the sake of argument let it stand). This study showed that at first this idea was followed. But slowly, as the moon stayed further away, the duration of the lycanthrope outbreak decreased from 4 hours to 3 hours, so on and so on. It even went so far as to skip full moons, changing every other full moon.

But! When the moon came close (which scientists saw was rather sudden. Some even went as far as to say it was as if the moon had saw that the werewolves were slacking. Though no one ever published that) the exact opposite was true. The disease was strict and followed things down to the letter: a breakout every full moon, never before, never later, lasting the same amount of hours each time, killing the same amount of innocent people each time.

This study was published by Castle under the idea that the moon held a certain dominion over things, but that it was not necessary for those things to exist without the moon. Lycanthropy could break out without the moon. Tides can change as well. The moon is merely a supervisor, or a higher form of order to the natural order of these forces.

The clergy, more so, the Tower and all its paladins and clerics located in Mercury, both agree and disagree with the findings of Castle and the Monster Hunters. They agree that the moon is a form of a higher hierarchy over things that typically have patterns themselves. But they see it not as just patterns intercepting other patterns, they see it as the Moon as a being, as its spirit, being a watchful eye. In fact, many scholars and scientists alike believe that "moon" is an ancient Elven word, which means "One who watches". Which is why the rangers in the Eyrewood wear crescent moon pendants.

The clergy, both monotheists and animists, believe that the Moon speaks to these other forces through their own shared language. The Moon acts as a supervisor, trying to keep things on its schedule. And things tend to slack off (for lack of better words) when they do not have a supervisor to wrangle them on schedule. So when they thing the moon is not looking, the Tides will stay out a little longer.

Then there are those that believe the Moon is a creature, not a planetary body. These are mainly stories, wives tales, druidic myths and legends, that come from the unknown deep woods. Woods that have no name. The earliest of these legends was discovered in the Bryrewood. A strange bard who had to be a druid, but spoke common and dressed in commoner's clothes, sung song of the Moon's face. The lyrics were never recorded proper, and many botched attempts at recreating it have been as unsuccessful as the attempts to find this strange bard again.

The gist of the song was that the Moon not only waned and waxed, pushed and pulled, it could turn. Now, scientists and theologists alike have always been perplexed by the sight of always seeing the same side of the moon. Why does it not spin so that we can gaze upon the dark side? Of course the smartest of them know that it does spin, but just at a rate that keeps it always facing us. But still, the song purposed that there would come a time, as it had many times before, when the Moon would turn to show its backside, and there, peering down at all the planet, would be a face.

The song's ending has been twisted since that first telling. Some say the moon will judge those it deems worthy. Those who follow its pattern and who have worshiped diligently. Others swear they heard that it would just sit and stare at everyone, eyes shifting to a new person every minute until it has looked at everyone, then it would turn around.

The most desperate of them believe the Moon will open its mouth and swallow whole the planet. I'm akin to believe them. Sometimes, late a night, way out in the Everwood, when even the squirrels and racoons and druids sleep, and the wind takes its midnight break, if you listen closely and really strain your ears, you can hear the Moon rumble...as if it's hungry and is getting ready to feed.

Laying the Groundwork

Welcome to my third post. I feel a certain way, because I started this blog to do some deep digging into some lore ideas I've been having. Writing up some folktales and myths and locations. But that isn't the case. Why? Because there's a lot of set up I have to do to get things ready, so that when these deeper pieces come in, they elaborate on the base.

So what do I have to set up? I've said I'm starting a new campaign for the summer. I've said a few bland, very broad ideas about the place. It's called the Everwood, which is one of the few known, great forests. And our adventurers are exploring the idea of Manifest Destiny! Yay.

Well, I've got more ideas on the campaign itself. Still basic stuff, but I'm beginning to understand the conflicts of the region.

This is a detective story. I enjoy detective stories. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Chinatown, Who Framed Rodger Rabbit, Memories of Murder, High and Low, Rashamon, Seven, etc. I love a good mystery, and more than that, I love a good set of people searching for clues. I don't know why. Maybe I should figure that out. But for now I am saying that this campaign is a detective story.

It's being run in 5th edition, because I like it and I think that the encounter rules (exp and the adventuring day) can be EASILY translated into investigation. Combat will still be there but it's the background. Well, that's not entirely true. Combat is elevated to a dangerous level because the monsters here are not normal. I would equate them to monsters from The Witcher, which is a deadly game.

Okay, so it's a detective game being run with D&D 5th edition. Well, what else? What's the story?

The idea is that there are several big mysteries and they won't necessarily have anything to do with each other. Why? Because it creates urgency. The players have to choose which mysteries to look into. Which monsters to slay. Which areas of the Everwood to scour for clues.

Why can't they just solve all of the mysteries? Because they only have forty days. Which is at the heart of one of the mysteries of the Everwood. Why does it never stop raining? From misty drizzle to torrential downpour, it's always fucking raining. And in forty days the river will rise too high for anyone to escape the Everwood until it goes down. Which really doesn't mark the end of the campaign, but it does present a new challenge.

(My ideas on this are not too developed yet, but I'm thinking it has something to do with spirits. The water spirit or the sky spirit or something. There's an imbalance that needs correcting, or a wrong that needs righting.)

So that doesn't really limit them to the forty days, does it? But you are forgetting there are other mysteries. The big one, the one that really pulls from all of those movies I listed up above, is that children are going missing from the Gold Coast. There are too many reports of missing children and there are even more cases of sleepwalking, where the children are seen (and sometimes stopped) walking towards the Everwood. Why?

Fairies.

There will be an extended post about the roles of Fey in the Everwood, but all I'll say is that it has to do with Goblin Punch's take on the Tooth Fairy and an interesting character known as the Sandman.

Alright. So that's two big mysteries and that's really enough. But I want more. I want consequences. So that's why I'm dumping it a big WORLD-LEVEL mystery. Why is it that the night sky has been refusing to leave, extending its stay by mere seconds for the past few months? Now the moon and the stars look down at the Gold Coast for a few minutes more than it used to, and while it's not a problem, the Tower feels that the moon is up to something...that bastard.

Lunar specialists and werewolves alive have been noticing the changing gaze of the moon...It has turned slightly, just a fraction of a degree, revealing part of the dark side and hiding part of the light side. Using maths and magics, these specialists (and following their beastial lust) believe the moon is now looking at the Everwood.

So there. That is three big things and while the party can focus on all three and explore the possibilities, when those forty days are up, they will have accomplished very little and either die in the Everwood (ideally not, but it's a big possibility) or go back to the Gold Coast defeated. So a huge part of this is deciding which of these things need solved. Obviously, stopping the rain is very beneficial, but as of right now it is the only mystery that is escaping me. Meaning, I don't know how to fix it yet.

But also, it means that a lot of children will die by the hands of the Sandman, and also that the moon's sinister plan will come to fruition. As the moon turns tides change. After forty days (if the calculations are correct) the Gold Coast will belong to the merrow and sharks.

This makes this world sound kind of hopeless and honestly it is to a degree. But the whole ideas is that they are just one party in a new world trying to get by. Nothing is world ending, just world changing. Tides can be stayed, cities can move, children will be born again, and it rivers eventually unflood. But what do the players (and the characters) value? What defeat can they live with and which victory will bring the most glory?

Besides this there are a few side quests that will play a big part in the overall goal of Manifest Destiny! Or, exploring and conquering this unforgiving great forest. These will be things like Bounties given out by the Lookouts, the boy scout guild of the Everwood. There's a minor mystery (that might be involved with the moon) of the undead who walk the woods at night and only at night. There's the strange vortex symbol that keeps showing up (which might be involved with the children going missing). There's the druids and their fight with each other and their hatred for this new interest in the forest. There's a guild calling themselves the Un-Evil who are raising an army in the forest for unknown reasong (though they clain they are the good guys, I mean, their name is Un-Evil!). Plus the rumors of what happened to the city that used to exist out there. As far as the Gold Coast is concerned, the city just up and vanished. Bricks and all.

There's also a religious conflict happening all over the world and different forms of animism conflict with monotheism, and Buddhism. Some people believe that the everything has a spirit and they are uncaring, they merely exist and should be prayed to. Others believe that each spirit has a name an personality (they are named after legendary pokemon). There are some that believe the spirits have all died. And a few cultists believe that the spirits have a physical presence and should be worshiped like gods, such as the seasonal dragons, the weather dragons, Rayquaza the great sky dragon who began the Sundering.

Then you've got those you don't believe in the Sundering at all. They believe that there is only one god and that we are his dream. Giants typically believe this and they have taken to calling the god Morpheus.

And lastly you have the monks (who are less of a class and more of a culture) who believe in chakra and are very much like the Air Nomads in Avatar: the Last Airbender.

There's a lot in this world and I'm kind of hoping the players all latch onto their own things. I'm comfortable with them splitting up to dive into the various things. I think that will help me flesh things out.

Just so I don't make this too long, I'll make another post tomorrow detailing the players in the campaign and what they've told me so far and what they will most likely be playing as. Well, maybe this will come later as we are still chatting. But there will come a post where that information comes to light.

Anyways, that's all for now.

Stay fly,
Your DM

Mechanic Stuff!

Today on the second blog post, you get to learn about how I'm a complete liar. You know how I said this blog would not be a discussion on mechanics? Well, we're going to talk about some mechanic ideas I've had. Particularly pertaining to bosses.

First of all, let me say that some huge inspirations for this are:

1. The AngryDM's paragon ideas. He has a great blog first of all, and second of all his ideas on boss battles is unique yet familiar. Take a look at his stuff.

2. Spoony's look at the Terrasque in the 1e monster manual. All of Spoony's youtube videos are quite entertaining and some of them are worth mining for ideas.

3. Goblin Puncher's post about boss mechanics in WoW and how they could translate into boss fights in DnD.

Now, onto the post itself. This is be quite disoriented. None of this is organized in any way that helps to understand it. It's just a bunch of ideas and concepts that I find interesting when dealing with a new creature type I like to call Colossi.

Why Colossi? Well, because this idea started brewing in my head on my re-playthrough of Shadow of the Colossus. I started thinking about the idea of fighting giant creatures and beasts like that in a DnD campaign. But Colossi aren't always large. In fact, their size is not indignant of their name at all. Some of them are as small as bacteria and some don't have a organic form at all and only exist as thoughts.

So let's look at some of these ideas I have, starting with rules for what constitutes a Colossi and then diving into what makes each one an individual.

1. All Colossi must be wished out of existence after being slain. This leads to a campaign that is 3/4 collecting a wish spell through questingj, and 1/4 fighting some a Colossus. If they are not wished away then they will return as if never injured, and they hold grudges. They live forever. And I mean forever. If you could ever speak to one (maybe in the afterlife) they could tell you about what it was like before time, before a sun lit the galaxy. Things of that nature.

2. Colossi campaigns are not made for hack and slashers. Dungeon crawlers can still find solace in them, because some Colossi are so large that their bodies are in fact dungeons. But the idea behind the Colossi is that it is a thinking-mans campaign. It takes deciphering and understanding of each ones particular weakness or circumstance to be able to defeat these beasts. Here's a quote from my original notes: "What can I say? I like it when players are clever and ideally, if the party comes up with a unique way to defeat one of these creature, let them." The idea behind these things is for them to be epic. Fun.

So, that's not many rules, but I think that covers the basis. Make them epic. Wish them away. Simple as that. That's all it takes to make a creature a Colossus. So, simply put, Strahd could very well be a Colossi. As could the Tomb of Horrors. And yes, I mean the Tomb itself, not the creatures inside of it.

Now onto some ideas for specific Colossi:

1. You can't willingly kill it. Only natural ones hit the creature. It goes against the very nature of the game. This could be interesting, at least to me I think it could be. Players would have to figure out how to not hit the beast. For example, maybe swinging on your friend would instead cause damage to the creature? Or trying to become its friend? Or helping it destroy a town? Who knows?

2. Healing hurts it. Hitting it gives it hit points. It starts at 1 hit point. This has sort of been done, because in games that I run, undead are harmed by healing spells, including healing potions. So disguising this thing as anything but a skeleton or zombie should let this "trick" work. They attack, it doesn't seem to die. They end up making it so powerful it's nearly unstoppable. But what if they cast True Resurrection on it? Hmm...

3. The monster is a dungeon, literally. A big, confusing dungeon crawl inhabited by all things it has eaten, Maybe it flips upside down, turns sideways, breaks itself, swallows lava, etc. Maybe the way to kill it is to survive long enough for it to kill itself?

4. The moon is a mimic. Also, maybe the atmosphere is becoming a gelatinous cube, OR! Maybe a gelatinous cube from space is threatening to devour the planet.

5. The Colossus must be killed in one turn. ONLY ONE.

6. The Colossus only takes damage from one person, chosen at random, and it changes every round. There would be a pattern. Figure out the pattern, coordinate your buffs and attacks, and you're good to go.

7. Exists on one plane at a time, so you must be able to travel to various other planes for the entire battle. Or maybe there are several parts that exist in random planes at any one time, so you have to find where it is and attack each part at the same time. It moves quite often, or at least some of it does some of the time.

8. Distorted reality. The creature can swap HP, stats, etc, with players. Example: it attacks itself and gets close to dropping, then it switches its HP for a players. Or it drains its STR and switches it with the fighter. So it never actually attack anyone. The trick (one of them) is to kill a party member and trick it to switch HP with it. So you "Weekend at Bernie's" it. Another idea is to put magic itmes on that raise a low score to a high one, so it wants it. Then, when it takes it, it doesn't have the ring so it's score is low enough to be drained to zero.

9. An entire city. I've actually designed this one. I'll link it: https://www.docdroid.net/JVWQjhB/make-my-day-5e-starter-adventure.pdf.html

10. A monster like Sin, from FFX. Cutting off parts are easy, but each part cut off becomes its own monster. Merely touching this Colossus risks being plan shifted/amnesia. It's attacks cause tectonic plate shifts. It is split into body pats and its lesser parts have gravity based attacks. One way to kill it is to sacrifice yourself and let your party use your spirit to do some massive damage (the last aeon).

Well, that's a lot more than I thought. Not as disjointed as I remembered it being. Hopefully something in here sparks your interest. If it does and you think of more to it, or if you come up with your own ideas of Colossi, let me know in the comments.

Stay awesome,
Your DM

Starting a blog about D&D

So I'm starting a blog. And what better way to start it than to explain why it will exist.

First of all, the main thing is that I love to write, and with my online class ending early I'm going to have much more free time on my hands. So I'm going to fill it with more writing.

Secondly, with this free time (and inspiration from some great blogs) I will be prepping a summer-long campaign for, well, this summer. The group is gathered (maybe I'll talk about them later) and ideas are spurring around.

So this blog will be a flexing of my writing and the gathering of ideas for a campaign.

What this will not be is a "how-to" guide. I'm not a teacher. Don't think I could be if I tried. I hate kids.

It will also not be a mechanics based lecture of any kind. I'm not huge on creating mechanics. In fact, I prefer to leave things open and hope my players will agree with my rulings. Sometimes they don't, but that's okay. Most of the time they do.

So what will this blog contain? Thoughts, maps (maybe), inspiration for you and for me, write ups on guilds from my homebrew world, as well as the homebrew world itself. I'll speak of it here, but as the thought gathering process is new and this is supposed to just be a introduction, I'll keep it brief (yeah right).

This world is a savage world. And I mean that in a literal sense. Civilization is an anomaly. Nature rules. The known woods are the Everwood, which is the primary hub for the adventure, the Bryrewood, which is said to be a place the moon watches feverishly, and the Neverending Wood, which is speculated to only exist in the twilight hours.

Each place is large enough for adventurers to never have to leave and varied enough so that it's not just trees after trees. But the primary location for dungeons and adventure will be in the woods.

There is an epoch of civilization in this world. A place where these woods branch out from. It is called the Sunbroke Sea. There are rumors speculating its creation, many of which say that it was where the sky stood during the Sundering, when it separated itself from the ground. But no one is quite certain. In fact, history itself is a new concept to this world. Maps aren't to be trusted. Religion is considered rumor. Nothing is for certain but your own beliefs. And even they may be false.

I don't want to dive into detail on planes and the pantheons yet, but the idea is that the only "real" religion is spiritualism, or, the concept that everything from the smallest pebble to the tallest mountain has a spirit, and those spirits can communicate, is true. Some do, some don't. But that's the main concept. As for planes...there aren't any. Or so they say. Most scholars believe that the spirits themselves have a realm. They speculate this from many reports of sailors sailing out of the Gold Coast, far into the Sunbroke Sea, and seeing strange things...They call them weak spots. Places where the two worlds become one.

And there are also those that support the idea of a dream world, or dreamscape of some kind. Shared dreams have been known to occur among families, guilds, and even complete strangers. Sometimes a mystical creatures, typically your spirit animal, will visit you in your dreams. Those dreams are said to become true.

A quick note on spirit animals: everyone has one, and yes your spirit animal can be a rock. A spirit animal is really not up to you. One just binds to you and watches over you for the rest of your life. If you're lucky you get something like a dog (which are said to be guardian angels) or something like a great mountain. If you're unlucky you get the aforementioned rock, or possibly something that portends danger, like a dragon, or a banana tree.

An aside about dragons (considering the name of the game). The "true" dragons are non-existent. In fact, most people don't believe dragons exist. But they do. Oh yes, they do. Why do you think there are seasons? Or, if you're in the Neverending Wood, why there are only two seasons? Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn. They are the effect of dragons. As is the weather. Rain, heat, ice storms, hurricanes, whatever. They all have a dragon to them. You don't believe me? Ask one yourself. A wise man once said that if you catch a dragon by its tail, it must answer any question (there's got to be a rhyme in there somewhere). Though why you would want to risk touching one's tail is beyond me.

Okay, I think that's about all I want to cover. Or, at least that's the groundwork for what's to come.

A few inspiration points and a summary of what the world is aiming for. First of all, Lovecraft is a huge inspiration. And not in the way most people think of Lovecraft. Honestly I don't know if half the people who talk about him have read any of his work. I mean Lovecraft in the way of his density and his spirit. Spirit may be an odd word. What I mean is, this world is bleak, mainly in the sense that nothing is for certain. The world does not care that you spent forever making your character. The world does not care if you forgot to bring a compass. The world is unforgiving. It is nature. It will be here long after your character is worm food. Much like Lovecraft's cosmic indifference, this world has an indifference to those that live on it. It is alive. It breathes, eats, and even sleeps. Our folly is of no concern.

Secondly is Miyazaki films. The wonder, the emotion, and the childlike quality of them. Spirits are always a big part of his movies and so they will be in this world. In fact, I just thought of this, you could almost say that the dead have more pull on this world than the living. But that's up for discussion. I know that saying the world is indifferent makes it's hard to believe that it could also be cute, but the world is very cute. There are cute things. Fairies, tiny talking drakes, other things. The world is meant to be loved and to be adored. The NPCs are zany, sorta loopy, as if the world just makes everyone a little off. And it's meant to be fun and enjoyable.

Thirdly would have to be the Dark Souls series. I would go ahead and say that everything under the From Software brand. This is because of the lack of civilization. The idea of exploring surreal locales. The NPCs being sparse but intricate. The mystical nature of the monsters and the dungeon-like quality of the area (how they are sectioned off and accessed by a singular hub). The vibe is also something to be wondered at. Melancholia. Lost souls wandering around. Curses that force deadly quests. Great winged beasts that carry you to new worlds. Dead kings of ash and cinder. Witches of dark flame.

So yeah. Maybe you find this and you think this sounds cool. Maybe you don't. Maybe I'm just talking to myself. Regardless, this will be updated irregularly at times and frequently at others. It all just depends on the flow of ideas.

So long for now,
Your DM

The Summoner (DnD Next Class)

The Summoner and Her Guardians

The first time I played Final Fantasy X was the first time I fell in love with a video game character. I know it may sound weird, but if you think long and hard about it, there’s probably been at least one character that you've been enamored with. Whether it was the way they dressed, or the way they acted over the course of the game, or some other factor, you ended up falling in love with them. You became attached and never wanted to see them go.

            My first video game love was the High Summoner Braska’s daughter, Yuna. The first time I saw her I went through the same emotion’s poop did (poop was my go-to video game name, so, thankfully, Tidus’s name became poop). I thought she was a gorgeous specimen of video game physiology. Then she brought down the bird.

            “My god! Is that a giant monster? And it’s listening to her? Oh, no way!” That was my freaking dream, I swear. She was this weak, frail little girl that there was no way she could ever be any help in combat. But damn did she have friends in high places. Strong friends. Giant, destructive friends. And they could throw meteors!

That’s what I always wanted! When my friends and I would run around after school and play pretend, that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to look weak, make people think they could defeat me, but then…wait, what’s that? Oh yeah, that’s right! It’s a giant freaking monster that thinks I’m pretty awesome. What’s that? You surrender? I thought as much.

Final Fantasy X let me do that, it let me be that. And it let me do that with a gorgeous girl. Wait…maybe that’s not the best way to phrase that. But you catch my drift. It was legitimately the first time I fell in love with something and damn it if I didn't find myself using the Summons every chance I got.

Let’s go forward a bit to the day I started playing DnD. I loved it because it let me be a wizard and damn it if I don’t love being a wizard. But what do I love more than being a wizard? Being like my love, Yuna, summoning large beasts to help me accomplish my goal of saving the world.

My DM hated summoning.

I was crushed.

But that didn't stop me from trying to develop a way that I could be like Yuna, because even the summoning present in 3.5 wasn't what I had in mind. It was a step in the right direction, but summoning was all I wanted to do and I wanted to summon beasts! Not some peasant creature. Forget that.

So I went to work. But for some reason or another I could not find a way to make it work. Not in 3.5. So I put the project away for a long time. Way too long. Before I knew it, 4e was oreleased and I was a little weirded out by the huge change from 3.5, but it made me think a Summoner was possible again. With daily and encounter powers, maybe my dream of being my love was closer than it ever was.

I was wrong and it was impossible. At least the way I wanted it done was impossible. So again, I tabled it for a very long time. Almost forgot about it. Then I heard about DnD Next and the play-tests that were being held. I downloaded the nice little packet and started running my own campaign.

The first thing I noticed was the versatility in all aspects. My home-brew rules seemed to work more effectively, characters became more fleshed out and my players actually started getting into the role-playing aspect of DnD. I was exuberant and once again began thinking about my Yuna. While my love for her has faded over the years for a newer, more mature love (Dr. Liara T'soni) I still hold a fond place for her in my heart.

And I still really want to be a summoner.

So here it is, my version 1.0 of the summoner build. It may be unbalanced as of yet, but that’s why I am posting this for all to see. I want it to be play-tested and developed alongside DnD Next because I believe it is the next wave of DnD and will last for decades (or until they start losing money).

The first thing you will notice when you download the package is that I added quite of lot of extra material besides just the Summoner class. I've developed a new form of magic (Aeonic magic) and added more spells for both the Cleric and Wizard, I've wrote up a few backgrounds that are inspired by the characters in Final Fantasy X, I've created a few new specialties and feats to go with them, and I’ve taken a few of the legendary weapons from Final Fantasy X and made them magic items.

Now, just because I created these things along with the Summoner does not mean that you must use them. I created them spice up the package and to add flavor to an otherwise boring DnD download. I did this solely so that the Summoner class would get tested in real-game settings and in combat. So by all means, download the packet, take the class and leave the rest. Whatever gets it out there.

To answer your question, no I did not use the original Aeons from FFX. I know that it may seem like a stupid idea, but for one, converting Final Fantasy stats to DnD stats is not that easy to do correctly. I’m working on it as an addition to the Summoner class, like a Deity for a Cleric. Whatever Summoner Deity you choose gives you five specific summons.

Secondly, the DnD world isn’t Spira. I created summons that I thought fit in with the DnD setting. If you were looking to run a Spira campaign where you fought Sin and summoned the final Aeon, that will take a lot more time. Not that I don’t plan on doing it, but I’m a one man team. Cut me some slack.

If you have any questions, concerns or have results of your play-test, let me know. 

Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?97kb9gm7cawtbcb