What the Ocean’s Movies Teach Dungeon Masters About Running Better D&D Heists
The Ocean movies are a a journey in and of themselves. The chaos of their heists in incredible. And speaking of Chaos. Last week we too inspiration from even more chaos. Pirates of the Caribbean is controlled chaos at its finest. There is a moment in...
Aether Skies: Skyway Outlaws and the Lawless Frontier
The known skies of Aether Skies have thirteen floating cities. They have merchant guilds, established trade routes, airship laws, military organizations, sky ports, and people who make their living keeping the great vessels of civilization moving between those cities. But civilization has limits. Beyond the trade routes are...
The Goblin Inventor: What Does a Goblin Do When Adventurers Aren’t Around?
Adventurers have a pretty simple idea of what goblins do. They raid villages. They steal livestock. They build traps. They swarm unsuspecting travelers. They live in filthy caves and make life generally unpleasant for everyone around them. And sure, goblins do plenty of those things. But somebody has...
The Sword of Damocles: D&D’s Most Dangerous Throne
In our last installment of Legendary Artifacts Reimagined, we went searching for the Holy Grail, one of the most famous legendary relics ever imagined. The Grail gave us the possibility of miracles, healing, immortality, and divine power—and, with a little help from Monty Python and...
Villain Playbook: The False Prophet — Creating a Memorable D&D Villain
The most dangerous person in a kingdom isn't always the person sitting on the throne. Sometimes it's the person standing in front of the throne telling everyone what happens next. The False Prophet doesn't need an army. They don't need a fortress. They don't even need to...
Under the Dome: Monster Hunter Guilds: D&D Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy Setting
In our last article, we looked at Mercenary Companies in Under the Dome, the soldiers for hire who take on the jobs that official military organizations cannot or will not handle. In a world protected from the Chaos Storms by massive Domes, there is no...
Pirates of the Caribbean Is Controlled Chaos, D&D Media inspiration
Last week we looked to how the Witcher can make D&D monsters more interesting, but now lets look to another direction. There is a particular moment in a good D&D campaign when everything starts going wrong. The players have a plan. The villain has a plan. The local...
Aether Skies: Mapping the Uncharted Regions Beyond the Trade Routes
The known skies of Aether Skies are dangerous enough. Airships navigate aether currents, merchant guilds control trade routes, sky pirates hunt vulnerable vessels, and enormous creatures move through the clouds. Ancient ruins drift through forgotten regions, and every skywreck tells the story of someone who pushed...
The Holy Grail: D&D’s Ultimate Legendary Artifact
In our last installment of Legendary Artifacts Reimagined, we explored the Philosopher's Stone, the legendary alchemical substance capable of transforming matter, creating gold, and potentially granting the secret of eternal life. The Philosopher's Stone asked a dangerous question: What would you change if you could change anything? Now...
Villain Playbook: The Fallen Paladin — Creating a Memorable D&D Villain
There are plenty of ways to make a memorable villain in D&D. Last time we explored the concept of the Benevolent Tyrant as a Villain Playbook. But today we are going to go in another direction. Give them an army. Give them a powerful artifact....
Mercenary Companies: The Soldiers for Hire of Under the Dome
Last week, we explored the military organizations of Under the Dome and how the scattered nature of civilization has changed the way people think about warfare. With the Domes separated by dangerous wilderness and Chaos Storms, massive armies marching against one another are rare. Instead,...
The Witcher Makes D&D Monsters Interesting
One of the easiest things to forget when running D&D is that monsters are supposed to live in the world. We tend to think of them as encounters. The party enters a cave, discovers a monster, rolls initiative, and somebody eventually gets eaten, stabbed, blasted, or...
Aether Skies: Skywrecks Every Adventuring Party Wants to Explore
The skies of Aether Skies are filled with airships, floating islands, strange creatures, ancient civilizations, and places that have never been mapped. But where there are ships, there are also wrecks. Somewhere beneath the clouds, a broken airship tumbles through the endless sky. Perhaps its crew...
The Philosopher’s Stone: D&D’s Most Dangerous Alchemical Secret
In our last installment of Legendary Artifacts Reimagined, we explored the Mirror of Narcissus, a legendary relic capable of showing someone the person they could become. The Mirror wasn't dangerous because it lied. It was dangerous because it told the truth—or at least showed one...
Villain Playbook: The Benevolent Tyrant — Creating a Memorable D&D Villain
Last time in our Villain Playbook series, we went all the way to the end of the world with The World Ender, a villain who doesn't want a kingdom, riches, revenge, or even power. They simply want existence itself to come to an end. This week,...
