A pyroclastic new Fantastical Mount – Pyrosnort Ram
Smoke on the wind. Sparks underhoof. When the Pyrosnort Ram charges, the mountain remembers it is a fire-breathing thing. The Pyrosnort Ram is a creature born of molten stone and biting wind—bred in volcanic crags, charred highlands, and lava-choked plateaus. Broad-shouldered and powerfully built, these fire-infused...
👁️ Doll’s Eyes: Hazards in the Haunted Grove
The natural world is already strange enough to spark fantasy. Take, for instance, the Doll’s Eyes plant (also called White Baneberry), a wildflower whose berries look uncannily like staring eyes. Encountering one in the real world is unsettling—finding a whole grove feels like stumbling into...
Subclass Spotlight: The Symbiotic Engineer (Artificer)
Under the Dome – Balaria | Live Play Subclass Reveal [caption id="attachment_76414" align="alignright" width="240"] An Artillerist artificer as seen in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast][/caption] In our upcoming live play campaign, Under the Dome – Balaria, six unique subclasses will step into...
When the Beholder Glows Up: Mr. Potato Beholder 2.0 and the Ultimate Eye-Accessory Arsenal
When WizKids first unleashed the Mr. Potato Beholder into the world, we laughed, we gasped, and we swapped eyestalks like there was no tomorrow. It was the perfect marriage of tabletop terror and childhood nostalgia—one part iconic D&D monster, one part mix-and-match toy mayhem. But now?...
Player-Driven Objectives & Reactions to the Environment in Aether Skies and beyond
Making Combat Cinematic in Aether Skies (and Beyond) Combat in TTRPGs often risks becoming a grind: attack rolls, hit points, rinse, repeat. But in Aether Skies, where every fight could mean saving a floating city from collapse or dueling across the deck of a storm-wracked aethership,...
Bard Subclass: College of the Hollow Choir — Voices Beyond the Veil
"They sing with me. They have always sung with me." Some bards find their inspiration in nature’s beauty, the stories of old, or the cheers of an audience.Others… hear voices. Continuing the series of subclasses with symbiotes. We did the barbarian last week. Check it out here. The...
Odd NPC Vendors for Your Magical World: Durgan “Two-Copper” Ironsmile’s Discount Armory
Meet the Proprietor: Durgan “Two-Copper” Ironsmile Durgan Ironsmile is a stout, soot-streaked dwarf with a braided beard peppered with flecks of metal shavings and a grin that never quite inspires confidence. He runs a small, cluttered stall in the market’s far corner under a crooked sign...
The Plane of Song: A Realm Where Music Shapes Reality
Among the infinite planes of existence, few are as strange — or as enchanting — as the Plane of Song. This shimmering dimension is woven from pure melody, rhythm, and resonance. Here, reality is not bound by stone or soil, but by harmony and cadence....
The Monkey Orchid: Nature’s Trickster in Your Campaign
One of the wonders of our own world is a little flower called the Monkey Orchid. Native to high-altitude forests in South America, its petals naturally form the startling face of a tiny simian. Looking at it feels like stumbling across a secret joke that...
Zoo Mafia: Flaws, Scars, and Secrets—Let ’Em Bleed
In Zoo Mafia, every bullet wound, busted tooth, and broken alias is more than just a bad roll—it’s fuel for the story. The best fights don’t just chew up hit points; they drag out the things your crew would rather keep buried. Combat isn’t just about...
Madness Is a Choice (and a Weapon) in Aether Skies and more
Letting Players Wield Corruption for Power in Aether Skies and D&D In most games, madness is treated as a punishment: fail your save, lose control, wander off muttering until someone drags you back. But in Aether Skies, where the skies themselves whisper and Aether burns brighter...
Barbarian: Path of the Warbeast
Fleshwarped Barbarians Bonded with Symbiotic Predators This is the first in a series of subclasses that I am working on for subclasses that use symbiotes. I made a blog post a while back about using symbiotes as Magic items. You can flavor anything as a symbiote,...
More fun with Fantastical Mounts with the Thornback Crawler
Among the twisted jungle vines and rotting ruins, there is the sound of a thousand legs clicking in unison. Not all predators slither or stalk—some skitter, and those are often the deadliest. The Thornback Crawler is one of the strangest and most unnerving creatures to ever...
Player-Driven Stakes & Street-Level Choices in Under the Dome
What matters most in the moment? Under the Dome, survival isn’t a puzzle with one right answer. It’s a dirty gamble where you never have enough hands for all the cards on the table. The ganger with intel is bolting down an alley, your crewmate is...
Optional Rules: Succeeding with Consequences in D&D
Dungeons & Dragons, at its core, has a fairly binary resolution mechanic. You roll a d20, add modifiers, and compare the result against a DC or AC. If you meet or beat the target, you succeed; if not, you fail. It’s a simple and elegant...
