Greetings, travelers! And welcome to Beyond the Audience where we shall discuss a topic many in our community have on their minds: how do I build games that appeal to both my players and an overarching audience.
Bonus actions are easily one of the most confusing parts of a combat turn in 5th Edition. In fact, designer Mike Mearls dislikes bonus actions and has declared that they are “fairly hacky” and that he prefers to run games without them. So why do bonus actions exist, and how can we understand them? To …
Cult Activity gives you a cult-driven set piece: location, background, hooks, everything you need to build your own adventures in Midgard.
This strong and handsome warrior has a snarling hyena’s face at the back of its head. Dark Appetites. Kishi are two-faced male demons perpetually driven by their voracious appetites, carnal or otherwise, with a predilection for female humanoids. Kishi frequently behead, scalp, or skin their conquests and decorate their shields with their trophies.
“Forth from craggy peaks they strode, Their blades bright-shined and razor-honed. Before them lay a dangerous road, With enemies both far and near.
Encounters have consequences. Every slain bandit has friends who will want revenge, and every devil banished back to the Eleven Hells reports its failure to its dark lord. What happens when the PCs’ daring deeds come back to bite them? The following encounter chains are more than just random conflicts. Each event flows organically into …
The Expanding Codex series fleshes out monsters from the Creature Codex, giving GMs ways to modify the existing monsters to surprise well-prepared players or to introduce monsters to a campaign.
Welcome to the table! This session was the last in the campaign. I had been planning it for a while, yet ending the campaign was a real challenge. I left the table hoping that everyone felt fulfilled or at least happy with how things wrapped up. Today, let’s talk about ending campaigns and the lessons …
Gen Con 2019 is done, and I’m on the long road back to upstate NY. This was my fifth year of seriously coordinating convention games for Kobold Press. We’ve had wonderful volunteers in years past, and this year was no different.
It’s Gen Con! So here’s a treasured set of wallpapers for your computer, your smartphone, or whatever electronic device you’ve got. Because this month… We got the Silver ENnie for the Creature Codex!!! (Art by Craig Spearing, Silver by the Kobold Monster Squad and you for voting for us!) We got your silver, adventurers!
Dwarves are often lauded for their impeccable engineering, but this extends far past intricate stone work and into the realm of science and artifice. They delve into the Ironcrags to glean resources needed to create mechanical inventions unlike anything else seen in Midgard. Don’t be fooled by the boisterous dwarf; these are nimble-handed folks who …
Warlock’s Apprentice: Dwarven Firearms and Airships Read More »
Though there’s been an explosion of 5th Edition compatible material for Midgard, including 173 adventures by last count, there’s a lot of Midgard goodness that came out before 5E debuted, including adventures written for 4E and for Pathfinder. And some of that is still “canon,” assumed to have happened one way or another when the …
The lands of the Dragoncoil Mountains have always been infested with drakes, wyrms, and wyverns—they give the mountains their name. But about 400 years ago, one especially cunning red dragon by the name of Mharot decided he was tired of working so hard to steal golden treasures from humans and dwarves, and then being forced …
Welcome to Midgard: Origins of the Mharoti Empire Read More »
I recently played in an Adventurer’s League game (at D&D Live 2019) where the GM accidentally gave our war machine damage reduction 20 instead of a damage threshold of 20. This is an easy mistake to make, especially for those used to older editions, but it made a big difference in the longevity of our …
Mastering the Mechanics: Features that Decrease Damage Read More »
The news from the Ironcrag Cantons is always of interest to lowland humans, given how often the followers of Mavros hire dwarves to serve as mercenaries in the Seven Cities or to help the Magdar Kingdom hold the line against the Mharoti in the east. In recent years though, many small dwarven companies are forming …
These aggressive, blue-black freshwater crabs inhabit rivers and streams, scuttling along the muddy terrain in search of prey.
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