Mastering the Mechanics: How to Cast Fireball Twice on Your Turn
It’s time to throw your whole spellbook out the window because chances are that everything you thought you knew about casting two spells on the same turn is wrong. Get ready to cast feather fall because we’re going to take a deep dive off the cliff of D&D rules minutia. Many 5th Edition players know that you can’t cast fireball as an action and misty step as a bonus action on the same turn—but you can cast sacred flame as an action and...
The 4th Pillar: Learning to Let Go
Lots of RPGs in the D&D vein have progression systems based on accumulating XP and balancing systems based on the difficulty of monsters and challenges therein, which grant XP accordingly and keep the wheels of the game turning. Because of this, we often have guidelines on how to create balanced encounters, so players can be challenged accordingly, usually referred to as the encounter budget. The budget typically exists as a few pages of...
Beyond the Audience: Razzle Dazzle Em’
In the last article, we talked all about working with others to increase your show’s audience, so now we’re going to talk about how to keep that audience invested with stellar showmanship. Here goes nothing. Let’s start with a couple questions. Why put your weekly RPG game show in front of a microphone? What is it that makes you think your best pals and personal brand of play can be enjoyed by a larger audience? These are questions...
Tools of War: Formations and Hordes
Enormous battles against overwhelming odds are a staple of the fantasy genre, of the books and movies and games that inspire so many campaigns. Trying to bring that experience to the tabletop, though, is difficult with the increased bookkeeping, time, and attention that such combats require. To War! There are existing rules to mitigate this. Both the Monster Manual and Dungeon Master’s Guide offer ways to speed up combat or handle large numbers...
Warlock’s Apprentice: Catscratch
The cat before you emits a horrific yowl as its body begins to bulge and swell. Within moments, a massive veined form covered in patches of fur casts a mad gaze upon you. Not of This World. A catscratch comes from parts unknown. No one is quite sure of its source, but wherever domestic cats are found, these creatures appear. It is a hybrid monster, created when an aberrant virus infects a cat or cat-like humanoid. Summoned by Rage. A...
Midgard’s Icons for 13th Age
Midgard is a place of war and intrigue, where powerful figures pursue agendas that have roots in the distant past. In some cases, their plots, alliances, and enmities are older than Midgard itself. In the 13th Age Roleplaying Game, these individuals are known as icons—and adventurers, even those just beginning their careers, are vital to their intrigues. Player characters can use their relationships with their chosen icons as a resource during...
Kobold Guide to Game Design Wallpapers
It’s December, and everyone’s gaming! So here’s a rolling set of wallpapers for your computer, your smartphone, or whatever electronic device you’ve got. This month, we’ve got a piece from Kobold Guide to Game Design, 2nd Edition. Let’s brighten the season, adventurers! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Please, click on the image you want to download to expand it into a downloadable...
Cult Activity: The Toys of Hariq al-Naar
The name Hariq al-Naar is likely a pseudonym. Many sorcerers have claimed to be the famous trickster and fire aficionado, but none could quite manage to match all of the pyromancer’s accomplishments. Whomever al-Naar truly is or was, their name lives on amongst the people of the Southlands through the myriad inventions and magical devices that bear the creator’s mark. Often clever, sometimes genius, and universally hated by those they are...
Welcome to Midgard: Cursed Lines and Arcane Weather
The magical turmoil and strain has warped the terrain into supernatural badlands. Travelers report entire patches of dunes where all magic falls dead one day and is augmented the next. The absence of ley lines makes spellcasters nervous, and some spells perform at maximum capacity or sputter out for no discernible reason. Teleportation, shadow roads, and other magical forms of transportation are extremely risky, since without guiding ley lines,...
The Amber Bazaar: Double-Edged Magic
Traveler! Come close. You like magic, yes? Everyone loves magic. You’ll find great deals here. But fair warning, magic often takes as much as it gives. And these magic items bite back. Take heed. Arrow of Ancestral Annihilation Weapon (arrow), legendary (requires attunement) Fletched with bloodhawk feathers and charred black by demonic fires, this arrow of slaying is attuned to kill one specific person. The claimant of the arrow also gains the...
A Midgard Harvest Festival
The nights are longer in Midgard now that the harvest season is upon us. As they begin to swap out their fair-weather garments for the warmer cloaks indicative of the changing weather, the different regions of Midgard prepare to honor the bounty during the Harvest Festival. Given the geographic confines of the various locations, the expectations for how to celebrate are not unilateral. Most of Midgard is not actively cultivating a harvest by...
Inbar’s Guide to the Northlands: Arrival in Stannasgard
Dearest Mother and Father, The journey has been long, but my feet have now touched ground in the Northlands. We saw what remained of a ship, abandoned in the water. A crewmember explained it had likely been set upon by pirates. It had sustained some damage, and the captain gave it a wide berth. Once, the barrelman said he saw something in the distance and claimed it to be a kraken, but we never saw it up close. The Journey The port city of...
Warlock’s Apprentice: Cogs and Gears
Patients with the strange metal-transforming disease I have spoken of in the past have been appearing at the hospital in greater frequency. I have been able to confirm that the strange rust covering the gearforged patient I went to see is indeed the same disease that infected my previous flesh and blood patients. How a mechanical body could so be infected by disease is still beyond me, but that is not the most troubling news. The disease rust...Get Kobold Press News
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