Feats of Deep Magic: Alkemancy from Kobold Press
I was privileged to receive a free copy of Kobold Press’s new Deep Magic: Alkemancy, a Kobold Press supplement for 5th Edition, in order to review it. Concocting potions and utilizing them is nothing new to the fantasy genre, and I was excited to cover this in a review. I love seeing new rules from passionate third party publishers I can use at my game table. Today, we’re talking feats. This supplement has two Alkemancy feats. One is for potions your character imbibes, while the other is for thrown potion bombs. As with any review, these are my own personal opinions on this material. I am not the be-all, end-all of critical D&D analysis. With that caveat out of the way, let’s break down the two feats and determine what I liked and what I didn’t.
Dungeons & Dragons Takes Manhattan
I went on a fantastical adventure in Manhattan in New York City. The Cauldron is a magical gastropub experience located on 47 Stone St., New York City. It’s a pub catering to the nerdier elements of the city. One of the first sights to greet me as I entered the establishment was two young ladies playing Operation. That’s right, the game with a red-nosed guy who lights up and buzzes annoyingly when you fail to remove a piece from him without touching the sides. The Cauldron’s aesthetic is that of a magical tavern as I made my way deeper in to see a 15 foot tree in the center of the bar. This is no ordinary tree — it has beer taps coming out of it. Magical wands activate the taps so patrons of this magical place can dispense their own ale. A true beauty to behold.
As cool as the surroundings are, I wasn’t on a sightseeing trip or even visiting to participate in the potion classes they hold. Oh, no, I came for the Dungeons & Dragons. Along with sharing my experience below including a photo gallery, you can watch the first episode of Cantrips & Casters I attended live in Manhattan.
Alchemical Items in Deep Magic: Alkemancy by Kobold Press
I was provided a free copy of Deep Magic: Alkemancy by Kobold Press, and for the past few weeks I’ve been reviewing it. If you haven’t seen my previous articles, please check those out first, then come back to this. Today, we’re embracing RPG materialism and talking all about items!
Alkemancy Arcane Tradition for Wizards and a New School of Magic? Review of Deep Magic: Alkemancy by Kobold Press
If you’ve been keeping up with my review series on the Deep Magic: Alkemancy supplement for 5th Edition from Kobold Press, you know that last time was rough, but we’re not done yet! This supplement also contained a whole new school of magic: Alkemancy. Of course, this was accompanied by an Arcane Tradition subclass for wizards. As a note before we dive in, I was provided a free copy to review. This in no way skews my opinions. With that out of the way, let’s dive in!
What is Alkemancy? An overview of Deep Magic: Alkemancy by Kobold Press
I was privileged to receive a review copy of Kobold Press’s new Deep Magic: Alkemancy supplement for 5th Edition in order to review it. The notion of potion making is nothing new to the fantasy genre, and I was eager to hop onto this. I love seeing new rules from passionate third-party publishers that I can use at my game table. That being said, this supplement is rich with content, and I cannot possibly cover all of the different aspects in a single article. As such, I’ll be writing a series of articles, each detailing different aspects of the book, and I’ll culminate the whole thing in a video review, over on my YouTube channel, once I finish the articles here. With all that out of the way, let’s dive into this overview!
A Legion of Monsters and Heroes with Pathfinder Battles: Ruins of Lastwall Miniatures
It is time to look at some more miniatures. This time we are going to look at Pathfinder Battles: Ruins of Lastwall miniatures from WizKids. One of the things I really enjoy about the Pathfinder minis is these sets occasionally come with set dressings or terrain pieces. By slowly adding new items to my collection I get inspired by the items that have come out of the boxes. Some things I might not choose to purchase if I just saw them on the table, but if I get them by chance, I already have them so might as well use them.
Board Games in Review – Smash Up World Tour: International Incident
If you want to check out any of the other articles I have written on this amazing game please feel free to check them out here. Smash Up is a fantastic game from published Alderac Entertainment Group pitting rival factions against one another as players try to take over the universe by capturing bases. But one faction cannot do it alone. They must team up. So you smash up two factions together to make your play deck.
Cool Off with Deep Magic: Winter Magic from Kobold Press
With summer heat cranking up, Kobold Press has the perfect solution to bring the temperatures down. Way down. Like, subzero levels. Deep Magic: Winter Magic is a new addition to the wonderful series of magical secrets waiting to be discovered in your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings, or expand on the already incredible myth and mystery of the Midgard Campaign Setting from Kobold Press.
Campfires Aren’t Just for Character Intros Anymore!
Campfire Writing Software is a tool for writers. It’s phenomenal for tracking everything from characters, to major plot lines, to world building, and more! I was provided a free copy to review, and boy, do I have thoughts. Spoiler alert (in case the article’s title didn’t give it away), I loved it! If you want to watch me go through it initially and get my raw thoughts, you can watch this week’s RPGtube video on my channel!
Make Your Own D&D Maps with Dungeonfog
Let’s face it — Game Masters can never have enough tools to help make running their D&D games easier. DUNGEONFOG is just one of those tools. The fine folks over at DUNGEONFOG sent us over some copies to check it out and sponsored this article and some videos. They were even nice enough to give us the promo code Nerdarchy so you can score a 10 percent discount on the annual subscription which is already discounted from the monthly subscription. There are a ton of features to help GMs run their games and prepare beautiful maps. Not only that, there are tons of maps already on DUNGEONFOG that you can drop into your games or modify to your needs. Go sign up for free here.
Kobold Press Dares You to Quest Through 12 Peculiar Towers for 5E D&D
As a follow up to getting Midgard Sagas, another package arrived recently and inside was another terrific book from Kobold Press — 12 Peculiar Towers. This collection of adventures contains quests for characters of 1st through 13th level with each featuring a tower of some sort. But I suppose you probably guessed that from the title of the book. Adding new adventures to my collection is always welcome, and it should be no surprise to anyone that Kobold Press produces a lot of my favorite content for my fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons games. So naturally, these peculiar tower adventures will find their ways into my 5E D&D campaigns. (One of them already has!) Let’s get into it and traverse these towers bottom to top.
Strongholds and Followers from MCDM
Many of us look back at the old editions of Dungeons & Dragons with rose-colored glasses. Reminiscing about THAC0 and the uniqueness of the old races and classes. One thing I always liked though that slowly died out was strongholds as a level reward. This mostly died off after second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. There was the Strongholds and Builders Guide in 3.5, but I found it more of a Dungeon Master supplement and players never gave it a glance. This goes back to something removed from D&D — politics. Old settings like Birthright, Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, and Ravenloft all had factions that lead to a lot of political intrigue and plots. Due to this it was not uncommon for people to be awarded baronies in these games and used as quest points themselves. As the editions changed, we would see the leadership feat come and go, and followers and cohorts fall to the wayside. Now from the brilliant mind of Matt Colville and the creative staff from MCDM they have returned these things to the light with the 5E D&D supplement Strongholds & Followers. For those of you unfamiliar with Matt Colville you can check out his Running the Game series over here. Let’s take a look at the book.
Kobold Press on the Spot with Midgard Sagas 5E Adventures
Getting the mail is always a great delight when there’s a delivery of a new book from Kobold Press. This publisher consistently puts out awesome content I use in my 5E D&D games, whether it’s their Deep Magic series, my beloved Book of Lairs, the twin titans Tome of Beasts and Creature Codex, or the monthly Warlock Patreon booklet. So I fully expected Midgard Sagas to surpass my expectations, and I am most certainly not disappointed. This book of six 5th Edition adventures were originally designed for convention play. This means the aim if fast-paced action. But each of the 5E adventures is fully fleshed for a complete, satisfying experience. Let’s get into it.
New D&D Campaign Setting — Guildmaster’s Guide To Ravnica
We got our hands on the new D&D campaign setting — Ravnica from Wizards of the Coast, aptly named Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica. It is a great resource for players and Dungeon Masters alike. It’s full of D&D monsters, subclasses, spells, backgrounds, and more. Ravnica is a fantastic setting. Different from any other D&D campaign setting. It’s a whole planet that is a city — a city run by guilds and full fantastical creatures and beings. Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica is Wizards of the Coast’s first official Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons mash-up.
Banner Saga Needs a Tabletop Version Pronto
There are hundreds of fantasy novels, games, and movies that would make for amazing tabletop experiences, but few of them have the potential that Banner Saga has. With its balanced, yet varied gameplay mechanics and rich mythology, its perfectly suited to adaptation. Banner Saga has only recently come to my attention, and this is how it happened. I was playing 5E D&D this past Saturday with my usual group, and during a break we got to talking about video games. This in itself is not interesting, as it happens whenever you get our group together, but my friends were shocked when they asked me if I had played Banner Saga and I said No. I have since rectified this mistake.
