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Excerpt: House Vadalis and the Mark of Handling

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A rearing hippogriff with the Mark of Handling above its head.
The Seal of the Handler’s Guild, as depicted by Matthew Johnson.

By many measures, humanity and its cousins may seem to be the weakest of Eberron’s children. Compare me to a simple housecat. My eyes can’t pierce the gloom of night. I have no claws and my teeth are poor weapons. I have no fur to protect me from the cold, and if I fall my bones will break. It may seem that I’m a poor creation next to my little friend. But what I have is the blessing of Balinor — the promise of dominion over all of the beasts of land, sky, and sea. I don’t need the strength of the tribex, because I have the tribex to bear my burdens. I don’t need the wings of a bird when I have a hippogriff to carry me through the air. I wear no crown, but I’m a prince of the wilds. 

When people think of the Dragonmarked Houses, the first names that are spoken are usually Lyrandar, Cannith, or Orien. People think of airships with their rings of fire, the lightning rail stretching across the land, House Cannith producing siege staffs and warforged titans. House Vadalis is a quiet house, easily overlooked. And yet, Vadalis is an integral part of life in the Five Nations. Mounts, beasts of burden, agricultural livestock, guardian beasts, pets—all of these are tied to the Handler’s Guild. There are Vadalis heirs who spend their lives producing dairy products or eggs. Of course, most farms and farmers aren’t directly tied to the house. But in the Five Nations, most farms associated with livestock are licensed by Vadalis. The House enforces health standards, provides veterinary care, and breeds and sells the finest stock—including magebred beasts and monstrosities. Vadalis runs the trade schools and offers expert advice. So magebreeding and monstrosities may be the aspects of the house that fire the imagination, but the bulk of the work of the Handlers Guild is comparatively mundane. 

As an heir with the Mark of Handling, where others hear barking dogs or singing birds, you can hear intent and emotion. All you have to do is concentrate—taking a few minutes to meditate on your mark—and that noise resolves into meaning. You can speak with any animal, and if you focus through your mark, you can compel obedience. And these are just the simplest gifts of the Mark. While it’s easiest for Vadalis heirs to manipulate beasts, some develop the ability to influence the behavior of any creature, at least momentarily. Others are able to manifest spirits—imagining an animal with such intensity that it briefly becomes real. 

All of these things are woven into everyday life in Vadalis communities. If you’re a Vadalis heir, you’ve grown up surrounded by familiars, awakened beasts, and all manner of mundane service animals. Between Dragonmarked heirs and Magewrights, nearly half of the members of the house have the ability to cast Find Familiar. In addition to the many ways in which they can be practical tools, Vadalis heirs use familiars to express their personality, their current mood, and as a fashion accessory. Remember that the form of a familiar can be changed every time the ritual is performed, so familiars can be adapted to match an outfit or used to make a specific statement. If a Vadalis heir has a bright red serpent wrapped around one arm, it means I’m busy, leave me alone; conversely, an Aundairian Silver parrot on your shoulder means I’m in a mood to talk, come say hello! Sparrowmonkeys are often used as assistants, whether Awakened or simply well-trained. Keep in mind that’s sparrowmonkey, not sparrow monkey; it’s the same principle as the owlbear. Vadalis sparrowmonkeys are small winged primates that use the Winged Monkey stat block from Tomb of Annihilation (Small Beast; AC 12, HP 3, 20 ft speed, 20 ft Climbing, 30 ft flight). 

Many Vadalis heirs dislike major cities and large crowds of humanoids. Most prefer to be out in the country and around beasts. However, it’s a mistake to think that Vadalis heirs seek to defend the natural world or that they have much in common with druids. Vadalis heirs dislike cities and crowds; but most are quite happy with their ranches and farms. And their powers don’t come from an understanding of Primal mysteries, or any devotion to balance or tradition. The Mark of Handling gives an heir the ability to understand beasts and to control them. Some heirs—notably the Grayswift family—believe in empathy and compassion for the creatures they work with, often going so far as to treat their animal companions as members of their family. But the majority of the heirs of House Vadalis believe that their Mark gives them dominion over the natural world. Beasts are tools to be used for the benefit of the house, and more broadly, humanoid civilization. Many further assert that as a House, Vadalis has the power and the duty to improve upon nature—that what exists is a foundation, but that Vadalis ingenuity will make things better. In creating a Vadalis character, consider if they accept this idea — that Vadalis has the right to bend nature to its will—or if they are more empathetic. 

This philosophical divide is complicated by the fact that Family and House are deeply important to Vadalis. Heirs are expected to place the good of the House above all, and the good of kin above anything else. Vadalis heirs know their family trees by heart, and the closer you are in blood, the more loyalty is expected of you. But even beyond direct relatives, all Vadalis heirs are taught to consider any other heir of the house as a cousin, as someone worthy of trust and devotion. Betraying another member of the house is a serious crime and can be cause for excoriation. When another Vadalis is in need, you are expected to offer sympathy at the least, and help when possible. There are limits to what can be expected from this; as a Vadalis heir, you can’t go into a Vadalis stable and demand their best mount. Surely, you don’t need their best mount, and you’d be inflicting financial hardship on them if they just gave it to you. But if you are truly in need—if there is a real emergency, and you have to get to Varna by the end of the day—they might lend you a riding Tribex, or prevail on the local stonespeaker to send a message on your behalf. They will treat you as family, and do what they can to help you. But any such demand and aid is always noted by the House, and you will be marked if you regularly take more than you give; if you receive significant assistance, you may find yourself being called upon to repay that aid with service to the family. So there are sharp divides within the House—the Grayswifts dislike the Lavarans—but they are still kin, and expected to set aside those differences when an heir is in trouble. 

THE MARK OF HANDLING

The Mark of Handling allows its bearer to understand beasts and to control them. Under the latest version of the rules, anyone who bears the Mark of Handling knows Speak With Animals and Animal Friendship and can cast each of these once per day without using a spell slot. As Speak with Animals is a ritual spell it can be used at will (with a ten minute casting time). The Mark of Handling also gives its bearer the ability to cast Speak With Animals and Animal Friendship on Monstrosities, provided the Monstrosity has an Intelligence of 3 or below. So, a Vadalis heir can befriend a Rust Monster, Basilisk, Carrion Crawler or Bulette as easily as a dog or a tribex. 

So at its most basic level, the Mark of Handling allows its bearer to communicate with beasts and to influence their behavior. Animal Friendship is a subtle, long-term effect. But Vadalis heirs can learn to use the Mark of Handling to “handle” creatures more roughly, forcefully shifting thoughts for a short period of time. Command, Confusion, and Hold Monster all reflect a mental demand or disruption, while Beacon of Hope and Calm Emotions are soothing effects. The idea of the Mark of Handling is that it focuses on Beasts (and low-intelligence monstrosities) and most NPC heirs can only cast these spells on such creatures; Calm Emotions is still about calming Beasts, not people. But there’s always been stories about Vadalis heirs being able to using the Mark of Handling to “handle” people—and that’s because some can. An adventurer with the Mark of Handling can use these Spells of the Mark on any creature. Exceptional Vadalis NPCs can as well, although many prefer not to. But there are some within the House who hone this gift even further, learning to cast Charm Person, Charm Monster, Suggestion, or even Dominate Person. Vadalis tradition discourages using the Mark in this way—but there are Handlers out there with this power. 

Mental manipulation is one aspect of the Mark of Handling. But the Mark can also grant the bearer the power to conjure animal spirits—to imagine an animal so vividly that it becomes almost real. The simplest form of this is Find Familiar; the heir imagines a creature and dreams it into a temporary reality. Beast Sense is an extension of this. An heir can always see through the eyes of their familiar. When using Beast Sense, they are essentially conjuring a familiar spirit and implanting it within the targeted beast, and that’s the foundation of the sensory link; they are seeing through the spirit they’ve planted within the beast. This is also the principle behind Vadalis Awakening. When a Vadalis heir casts Awaken, they aren’t actually raising the intelligence of the target creature. Instead, they are producing a familiar spirit and giving that spirit control of the target beast; it’s effectively the same as the quori Mind Seed, except that the spirit is a blank slate that doesn’t have the memories or skills of the caster. But the spirit is still a product of the caster’s mind, and Vadalis-awakened creatures often share personality traits or quirks with the person who Awakened them. Conjure Animals is less focused and more forceful, creating a purely spiritual manifestation; this is a relatively rare power of the Lesser Mark, and relatively few heirs can produce it. In my campaign, NPC Vadalis heirs can only use Awaken on Beasts; they cannot Awaken plants. A player character with the Mark of Handling could be an exception to this rule—but Vadalis isn’t known for working with plants. 

Kanon versus Canon. Two spells on this list are marked with asterisks, and that’s because they aren’t on the canon Spells of the Mark of Handling list as they will appear in Forge of the Artificer. This is because I’m changing the list for my campaign. The first change is that I’ve replaced the canon spell Aura of Life with Confusion. Aura of Life protects allies from Necrotic damage and restores people with 0 HP to 1 HP. It is a life-affirming healing effect, and in my opinion has nothing in common with the other spells on the list. Even Beacon of Hope is an EMOTIONAL effect rather than a physical one. Thus, I’ve replaced it with Confusion, building on the idea that if you can Command and Calm Emotions, you could disrupt thought and Confuse. Finally, by canon the only 5th level Spell of the Mark is Awaken. My issue with this is that Awaken is an extremely limited spell. It has an eight hour casting time and a 1,000 GP consumable component. It’s not a spell that an adventurer can use all the time, and I feel that makes it a poor choice. Hold Monster is a simple, useful spell for an adventurer that fits the idea of emotional demand—aggressive “handling” disrupting thought. So in my campaign, I’ll offer it as a choice; an heir of the Mark has to decide which of these two talents they possess. And as noted above, in my campaign Vadalis Awaken can’t be used on plants. 

By the rules as written, Calm Emotions only works on Humanoids. This is a spell canonically assigned to the Mark of Handling, and this makes little sense if it only works on Humanoids. In the original 3.5 Eberron Campaign Setting the Mark granted access to Calm Animals—but that spell doesn’t exist in 2024. As such, in my campaign I’m adding the following sentence to the Primal Connection trait of the Mark of Handling feat: “You can target Beasts when you cast Calm Emotions.”  

Monarchs and Druids. The Spells of the Mark reflect the most common powers granted by the Mark of Handling. These gifts don’t require any sort of Primal connection or Druidic training. Any Vadalis spellcaster—Wizard, Cleric, Sorcerer—can use spell slots to produce these effects, and the Potent Dragonmark feat allows any character to cast them; I generally treat Dragonmarked NPCs as having a form of Potent Dragonmark. However, I’ve also talked about a special sort of Vadalis spellcaster—a Vadalis character who has the powers of a Druid. Within the House, these people are called Monarchs, tied to the idea that the Dragonmark grants them dominion over nature. Vadalis Monarchs have access to Druidic abilities, including Wild Shape and expanded spellcasting; they typically follow the Circle of the Land or Circle of the Moon. However, as with the basic powers of the Dragonmark, these aren’t tied to Druidic devotion and are entirely driven by a powerful connection to the Mark of Handling. While a player character Monarch can cast any spells from the Druid spell list, most Vadalis Monarchs are limited to spells that directly affect animals (Animal Messenger, Locate Animal), that can be depicted as coercion or manipulation (Hold Person, Charm Monster), or which involve transmutation (Polymorph, Enhance Ability, Enlarge/Reduce, healing effects). This talent for transformation is the seed of Vadalis magebreeding. Relatively few heirs are able to master the powers of the Vadalis Monarch, but the seed is there and can be drawn out with focus items. The point of all of this is that House Vadalis has a significant number of heirs with powers that resemble those of Druids, but who have no tie to the Druidic mysteries—and the Ashbound in particular despise Vadalis Monarchs. With that said, there ARE Vadalis heirs who do embrace Druidic traditions, most often tied to the Grayswift family. 

FOCUS ITEMS

Vadalis heirs use Channeling Rods, Dragonmark Channels, and Dragonmark Reservoirs, and they’ve crafted unique items like the Collar of the Wild Bond to enhance the powers of the Mark. But they’ve also developed focus items and Eldritch Machines that are crucial to the business of the house but which have little application for adventurers. Balinor’s Blessing is one example of this; they are used at Vadalis ranches to enhance the health and virility of livestock. Other items ease the process of childbirth, help with long-term animal training and domestication, or play a crucial role in the process of Magebreeding. The Mark alone doesn’t grant spells related to Magebreeding; it’s through focus items and rituals that Vadalis heirs are able to produce these effects. 

Balinor’s Blessing

Eldritch Machine (requires attunement by a creature with the Mark of Handling) 

This six-foot stone pillar is engraved with the patterns of the Mark of Handling. As long as a creature with the Mark of Handling is attuned to the pillar—a process that must be repeated every day—It has the following effects within a 2000 foot radius. 

  • Beasts have advantage on Constitution saving throws. They are remarkably healthy, fertile, and resistant to mundane disease. 
  • Beasts have disadvantage on saving throws to resist any spell effect associated with the Mark of Handling. 
  • Any creature with the Mark of Handling has advantage on Charisma (Animal Handling) checks. 

Collar of the Wild Bond

Wondrous Item, varies 

If you possess the Mark of Handling, you may use a Magic Action to cast Dominate Beast on a Beast you can see that’s wearing a Collar of the Wild Bond. This doesn’t use a spell slot, but the other limitations of the spell apply. The effect has a range of 60 feet, and the creature can negate the effect with a successful Wisdom saving throw; your spellcasting ability for this effect is the same one you chose for the Mark of Handling. You must concentrate to maintain the effect, but as long as you are within 200 feet of the creature, you can maintain the spell indefinitely. 

There are two forms of Collar of the Wild Bond. The Uncommon Collar only works on Beasts. The Rare version of the Collar can be used on Monstrosities with an Intelligence of 3 or less. 

Scepter of Wild Dominion

Rod, Rare (requires attunement by a creature with the Mark of Handling) 

While holding this rod, you have the following benefits. 

  • You gain a +2 bonus to the Saving Throw DC of your Spells of the Mark. 
  • You cast Spells of the Mark as if using a spell slot one level higher than the slot you actually expend. 
  • You may cast Command, Animal Friendship, and Speak With Animals without using a spell slot. 

MAGEBREEDING

When most people hear “Vadalis,” they think of magebreeding. This is a term that has many meanings. Let’s start with the earliest description.

The widespread use of magic on Eberron has led to the development of magical enhancements to animal breeding, particularly within House Vadalis. Some experiments in that direction have created new creatures that are actually magical beasts, with unusual intelligence and supernatural or spell-like abilities. In general, however, the aim of these breeding programs is simply to create better animals—ones that are more suited for use in the work of daily life. These magically enhanced animals are called magebred.

Today, House Vadalis identifies three distinct forms of magebreeding.

Incremental magebreeding is similar to breeders in our world trying to produce a new breed of dog. The result is a slight variation in the standard beast well suited toward a particular role: a hen that lays larger eggs, a tiger that’s easier to train, a hound that thrives in colder climates or has a remarkable sense of smell. One concrete example of this is the Riding Tribex (seen in Frontiers of Eberron: Quickstone). For thousands of years, the Plains Tribex has been bred as a beast of burden and source of food. The Riding Tribex is smaller and faster—sturdier than a horse and capable of enduring long, sustained trips.

Enhanced magebreeding seeks to strengthen a creature, imbuing it with minor supernatural qualities. The Magebred Animal template in the 3.5 Eberron Campaign Setting suggests the following changes:

  • One of Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution is increased by 4; the other two ability scores are increased by 2.
  • Armor Class is increased by 2, reflecting increased overall durability.
  • Magebred animals are easier to train, can learn more tricks or maneuvers than purely mundane creatures, and the DC of Animal Handling checks involving the beast is reduced by 2.
  • The creature gains either a +10 bonus to one of its movement speeds, an additional +2 bonus to armor class, or a bonus to tracking checks.

These creatures are still considered beasts; in 3.5 D&D terms, they were limited to an Intelligence of 2. A few critical points about this template. It’s intended to reflect BREEDS of magebred animals. So Redleaf hounds all have +4 Dexterity and a bonus to tracking; it’s not as though two pups in the same litter each get to choose whether the +4 goes to Strength or Dexterity, or whether they get the boost to movement or tracking. House Vadalis created the first Redleaf hounds through active enhanced magebreeding; but ever since then, Redleaf Harriers have bred that enhanced line, while the innovative magebreeders have moved on to other things.

The second point is that this is a simple template that is intended to give a broad example of what can be done. The template only suggests a possible bonus to movement, armor class, or tracking checks. But I could see any of the following as being the sort of features that enhanced magebreeding could produce:

  • Increased fertility; increased laying for egg-laying creatures, along with potentially unusual egg characteristics.
  • Animals used to provide meat or dairy could be magebred to enhance these aspects, whether that’s simply increasing the quantity or adding an unusual quality (flavor, color). This is how you get the cow that produces chocolate milk.
  • Heightened senses; a magebred falcon might have a bonus to Perception instead of Survival.
  • Specific resistances: creating a creature that doesn’t just have thick fur, but that is actually resistant to cold damage.
  • Unnatural appearance. A horse with metallic, silvery fur; a hound with glowing eyes; cats that always have identical markings.

The key points here are that the general goal of enhanced magebreeding is to produce new breeds with hereditary traits and generally requires generations to produce results. They don’t take an existing horse and give it metallic fur; they easily COULD with cosmetic transmutation, but it wouldn’t last. Instead they work to instill a trait over multiple generations, that will thereafter be passed down to offspring. Typically enhanced breeds are only available to bound businesses in the Handler’s Guild, and enhanced beasts are sterilized before they are sold to others. Stories say that there are all sorts of safeguards to deal with poachers—that enhanced animals will die if they aren’t fed special Vadalis supplements, that they will frenzy and turn on rustlers, that Vadalis has death squads that sneak around the world hunting for unauthorized breeders—but these are probably just rumors. Probably.

Innovative magebreeding involves the creation of either an entirely new species or imbuing an existing creature with dramatic supernatural characteristics. Popular legend holds that the house’s first act of innovative magebreeding was the production of the hippogriff; skeptics claim that Vadalis simply discovered the first hippogriff after it emerged from a manifest zone tied to Kythri. A more recent and dramatic example is the Tressym, first produced just twenty-four years ago. The house is always working on innovative projects, but actual successes are far and few between; innovative creations are often sterile, stillborn, or mentally unstable. Many innovative creatures are Monstrosities as opposed to Beasts.

While it’s more colorful and exciting than, say, dairy farming, magebreeding is a tiny fraction of the work of House Vadalis. Ranches and kennels tied to the Handler’s Guild may perform iterative magebreeding, but enhanced and innovative magebreeding is performed almost entirely within house enclaves or in conjunction with the Twelve. The Tressym was produced through collaboration with House Medani, and there are stories of Vadalis working with House Jorasco on ghastly experiments involving troll’s blood and medusa’s eyes.

So what does a magebreeding facility actually look like? What is the daily work that goes on within? The following tools are used in magebreeding.

  • Manifest Zones. Zones tied to Kythri and Lamannia are both highly prized by House Vadalis, though any zone can have value; a Risian manifest zone could be crucial when trying to breed a creature resistant to cold. Sometimes this is about creating a facility in a manifest zone, but often it involves using secondary materials, such as foodstuffs grown in the relevant manifest zones or harnesses formed from planar materials.
  • Focus Items and Eldritch Machines. As described earlier in this article, Vadalis magebreeders use focus items that help them both to maintain control of beasts through the process of magebreeding, compel necessary behaviors, shape instincts, and monitor the state of their charges. Eldritch Machines can serve more dramatic purposes; one that comes to mind is the Spire of Growth, a monolith that accelerates the aging of any beasts within its radius; these help with generational breeding, though these spires are expensive to create and dangerous to maintain (supposedly they don’t affect humanoids…). In general, Eldritch Machines that produce truly dramatic effects are likely to be either unique or experimental, and may become unstable or require a steady supply of dragonshards.
  • Rare Components. As noted before, Vadalis has been experimenting with troll’s blood. Innovative and enhanced magebreeding often uses transmutation techniques to imbue a creature with the qualities of another creature; this can require organs, blood, or other elements of the creature with the desired trait. Likewise, planar resources can be important in magebreeding.
  • Transmutation Magic. Magebreeding can involve a wide array of transmutation rituals, most of which have little practical application to adventuring: rituals to enhance fertility, highly specific Polymorph effects, rituals that simply increase a beast’s chances of surviving the transfusions and other operations it’s going through. A side effect of this is that there is a corps of specialists within Vadalis who excel at cosmetic transmutation (as described in Exploring Eberron). This is rarely a service they perform for humanoids, but there is at least one Vadalis transmuter who runs a business altering the new pets of rich clients to match the appearance of a deceased pet. As a general rule, Polymorph alone doesn’t allow successful breeding; Polymorphed creatures are functionally sterile while under the effects of the spell, so while you can turn a cat into a dog for an hour, if it mates with another dog in that time it won’t end up producing either puppies or kittens. This is certainly something Vadalis has and continues to experiment with, but lasting change isn’t as simple as a single 4th level spell.

So the point is that magebreeding facilities often look like farms or veterinary hospitals, with special chambers for performing rituals or imbuing planar energies. But magebreeding is invariably a long-term process, involving both breeding and the careful study of multiple generations. Vadalis is always searching for ways to produce swifter and more dramatic results… And these efforts often end in disaster, or at least adventure!

This is an excerpt. The full article is three times as long, and explores the history, structure, and families of House Vadalis. To get access to the full article, check out my Patreon!

GenCon 2023 Events

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GenCon is just around the corner, and I’m going to be busy as always! If you see me wearing my hat, I’m on duty and happy to talk about any of my games or sign things. If I’m not wearing my hat, I’m doing my own thing. Meanwhile, there’s lots of places you can find me! My company Twogether Studios is at Booth 1459 in the Exhibitor’s Hall—drop by and try our latest game Cool Cool Cool! Meanwhile, I’ll be playing D&D live with an amazing group of people with Six Sides of Gaming. Here’s a breakdown of events…

CELEBRITY SIDE QUEST: THURSDAY
Time: Thu 11:00 AM  Location: ICC 500 Ballroom
Description: Dungeon Master Luke Gygax takes a party of bold adventurers through a tower of traps and thieving mayhem! The audience will have the chance to influence the game with suggestions, voting, cheers and more.
Participants: Luke Gygax (DM), Deborah Ann Woll, Krystina Arielle, Keith Baker, Tommy Gofton, Surena Marie

WORLDBUILDING WITH KEITH BAKER
Time: Thu 3:00 PM  Location: Hyatt Studio 1
Description: What does it take to create a compelling fantasy world? Where do you start and how deep should you go? Whether you’re developing a setting for a novel or a TTRPG, whether you’re creating a world to share with your friends or a product for wide release, there are basic principles that can guide you on your journey.
Participants: Keith Baker

CELEBRITY SIDE QUEST: FRIDAY
Time: Fri 6:00 PM  Location: ICC 500 Ballroom
Description: Dungeon Master Vince Caso (The Guild/L.A. by Night) takes his party of adventurers through a mysterious adventure of murder and mayhem! The audience will have the chance to influence the game with suggestions, voting, cheers and more.
Participants: Vince Caso (DM), Deborah Ann Woll, Krystina Arielle, Keith Baker, Tommy Gofton, Sandeep Parikh

ILLIMAT LEARN AND PLAY WITH ONE SHOT!
Time: Fri 8:00 PM  Location: ICC : 144–145
Description: Illimat is a modern card game that feels like it’s been around for a century, Whether you’re an experienced member of the Society of Luminaries, a seasoned skyjack, or a novice who’s never heard of the Fool of Winter, this is your opportunity to play a round of Illimat with the creators of the game and some of the hosts and players from the One Shot Podcast Network! Rules will be taught and hearts will be broken. Join us!

EBERRON AND BEYOND
Time: Sat 11:00 AM  Location: ICC 245
Description: I’m known for creating the Eberron Campaign Setting for Dungeons & Dragons and the card game Gloom, as well as games such as Illimat, Phoenix Dawn Command, and The Adventure Zone: Bureau of Balance with his company Twogether Studios. Join me for a discussion of projects past and present, including behind the scenes tales of Eberron and a peek at what’s coming next from Twogether Studios!
Participants: Keith Baker

FINDING YOUR THING WITH TRAVIS MCELROY AND GUESTS
Time: Sat 1:00 PM  Location: Westin – Grand 3
Description: Podcaster/author/creator/voice actor, Travis McElroy (The Adventure Zone; My Brother, My Brother and Me) chats with friends about the journey of finding that “thing” at which you excel & makes you happy in life.
Participants: Travis McElroy, Krystina Arielle, Keith Baker, Jenn Ellis, Cate, Osborn, Danny Quach, Laser Webber

CELEBRITY SIDE QUEST: SATURDAY
Time: Sat 6:00 PM  Location: Crowne Plaza : Pennsylvania Station A
Description: Dungeon Master Tommy Gofton (The Gamers/Evil Dead 2 Boardgame) takes his party of special celebrity guests to their pan-ternity BruH to defend against their old Frat – the Delta Nu Delta! Can they survive the mayhem? The audience will have the chance to influence the game with suggestions, voting, cheers and more.
Participants: Tommy Gofton (DM), Krystina Arielle, Keith Baker, Vince Caso, Bee Zelda

DESIGN A MODULE PLAYTHROUGH
Time: Sunday 11:00 AM  Location: Crowne Plaza : Pennsylvania Station A
Description: Dungeon Master Devin Wilson (Destiny of Worlds/Shadowrun Takedown) takes his party of special celebrity guests through the Design A Module seminars run during Gen Con! The audience will have the chance to influence the game with suggestions, voting, cheers and more.
Participants: Devin Wilson (DM), Keith Baker, Vince Caso, Surena Marie, Elisa Teague, Bee Zelda

Outside of these events, you might find me at the Twogether Booth (1459) — See you there!

Dragonmark: Denizens of the Age of Demons

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An image of demons and dragons locked in battle.
Art by Eldon Cowgur from Chronicles of Eberron

Imagine that your world is a plaything for cruel gods. There’s no escaping them; every corner of reality falls under the dominion of one of these fiendish overlords. Their power manifests in countless horrifying ways. In the domain of the Gatekeeper, you can hear lost souls wailing in the wind… and you know that if you die, yours will join them. In Bel Shalor’s realm, your shadow conspires against you… and some day, it will kill you and claim your body as its own. Dral Khatuur brings slowly advancing, inevitable ice. But the greater and more subtle threats strike at your mind. Within the realm of Rak Tulkhesh you’ll find your anger surging. You find yourself gripping a knife you don’t remember picking up. You keep thinking about your enemies. A week ago you didn’t even know you had enemies… but now it’s hard to think about anything else. The hatred is like fire in your blood, and the only thing that will sate your rage is violence. Perhaps—perhaps you can overcome this brutal haze, to realize that these aren’t your thoughts. But the longer you stay, the more your own memories and motives will fade away in the bloodthirsty fog. This is the power of the overlords. You’ve never seen Rak Tulkhesh, but he’s in you… and soon you’ll be ready to kill for him.

Whether they twist your thoughts or the environment around you, there’s no escaping the influence of the overlords. But you have more direct threats to worry about. To Rak Tulkhesh you’re one of hundreds of thousands of fleas; his hungry wrath sweeps over you, but he won’t manifest personally to strike you down. And he doesn’t have to, because the world is filled with fiends. Some flaunt their horrifying forms and delight in spreading terror and bloodshed; others conceal their true nature and wear the faces of people you love or trust. Demons can possess corpses or beasts… or, for that matter, your body. Perhaps you’ll have to watch as one of Tul Oreshka’s vicious children uses your hands to murder your best friend and then paints a perfect, heartbreaking portrait of them using your fingers and their blood. Fiends could be in the plants around you, in the words you read, in the sword in your hand. If you’re lucky you’ll still have a strong enough sense of self to be able to feel fear and horror at what’s happening around you. 

This is life in the Age of Demons. But who are you in this time? You might live in a thatched hut with your extended family. You might be hiding in a network of caves with two other survivors, and you’re pretty sure one of them is possessed. Or you might live in an ancient, crumbling city filled with scheming factions. Your may feel that your time is coming, but the oracle has seen a vision of dragons filling the sky with fire; she says that by nightfall tomorrow, your city will be in ruins. All of this depends on the whims of the overlords. Over the course of a hundred thousand years, the inhabitants of the realm of the Wild Heart have never been anything other than prey. While in the domain of Sul Khatesh there have been a dozen civilizations in that same period, each of which eventually followed a path of arcane science that ultimately destroyed it. But even where you find civilizations, they aren’t free. The subjects of Sul Khatesh can’t resist abusing magic any more than the subjects of Rak Tulkhesh can avoid war. You might ask why Sul Khatesh and her children would do this, why they’d allow a civilization to rise up only to wipe it out in an instant with an arcane cataclysm or over the course of a century through a brutal inquisition. Is it an experiment or art, like the daelkyr? Is it part of a master plan? No. Ultimately, it’s more like food, or perhaps music. The only thing an overlord truly desires is the joy it receives from tormenting mortals. Why? Because mortal souls have power. Gods in some settings need mortals to worship them. In Aerenal, it is the devotion of the living that sustains the Undying Court. The overlords don’t want worship; they want fear, and they want mortals to experience their vision of the world. Rak Tulkesh wants to see hatred and war. Sul Khatesh delights in the fear of magic, and so she creates scenario after scenario in which magic is abused and leads to cruelty, terror, and ultimately destruction.  Dral Khatuur wants people to live in fear of the creeping cold. They don’t have an endgame, because they are immortal and endless. They don’t want to ever completely destroy the mortals, because it is torturing mortals that bring them joy. And so it was for millions of years. Some domains saw millions of years of brutal chaos; others saw civilizations rise and fall, but those civilizations were always under the psychic sway of the ruling overlord (whether they knew it or not) and would inevitably be destroyed. 

That’s the backdrop to keep in mind when thinking of the Age of Demons. It was a world that was utterly dominated by immortal overlords, where fiends roam freely in the world, both openly and covertly. Civilizations only existed to serve the appetites of the overlords and were wiped out when they lost their savor. Overlords had broadly stable domains, but the borders of their realms were constantly in flux; among other things, the people of a neighboring territory aren’t as used to the terrors of a rival overlord, and their fear is sweeter. Dral Khatuur wants people to fear the advancing ice, not just to learn to survive in it; as such, she would choose to let her borders ebb and flow. The side effect of this is that the overlords were constantly warring with one another.   

Now I’ve painted a picture of the Age of Demons, let’s look at a few questions my Patreon supporters have raised this month. 

What was the relationship between the Couatls and Dragons during the Age of Demons? Did they respect each other as equals, or did they have conflicts? 

The Age of Demons lasted for millions of years. In the final ten thousand years of the Age, there was a powerful draconic nation that called itself Argonnessen. Its disciplined flights of dragons trained to incinerate armies and to raze cities. And these mighty creatures were utterly devoted to the Daughter of Khyber. This overlord is an immensely powerful being. The dragons of the present day have to go to great lengths to avoid falling under her influence, and that’s while she’s bound. During the Age of Demons she was at the height of her power, and the dragons were her tools; she used them to terrify mortals and to attack the domains of other overlords. So there was no powerful nation of dragons that fought the overlords, because any powerful force of dragons would be corrupted by the Daughter of Khyber. The dragons opposing overlords were a small band of scrappy rebels who had been shielded from the influence of the Daughter of Khyber by their allies, the native celestials. Let’s consider each of those forces. 

NATIVE CELESTIALS

It’s said that Khyber created fiends, Siberys created celestials, and Eberron created natural life. But Khyber slew Siberys. This is why the native celestials are so much weaker than their counterparts, and why there are no celestial equivalents to the overlords. The celestials that exist are just a faint echo of what would have been had Siberys had an active hand. 

Native celestials embody the broad concept of goodness in the world. Compassion, justice, defense, wisdom, love; these are the sorts of concepts personified by the celestials. Just as the fiends exist to prey upon and terrify mortals, the purpose of the celestials was to guide and protect them. Given that the celestials were massively overpowered and outnumbered by the fiends, this was something they did subtly—working to inspire people or to guide key mortals who could help others… teaching people to fish rather than giving them fish. Whenever celestials were exposed, fiends would swarm in to destroy the interlopers and whatever they had accomplished; subtlety was vital. However, keep this section from Chronicles of Eberron in mind… 

Glance across a Khalesh plain and you may see what looks to be a giant bone projecting from the earth—a fallen column of something like polished ivory. The locals call these “dragon bones,” saying they’re the bones of Eberron herself. But search further and you may find patches of wall, foundations, or even small buildings formed from this dragonbone. It’s virtually indestructible and seemingly immune to the passage of time. In truth, this isn’t made from the bones of the earth; it’s a building substance used by the ancient couatl, the most numerous of the native celestials of Eberron. Khalesh is one of the places that the couatl came into the world in the Age of Demons, one of the anchors where these immortals would reform if they were destroyed. In a sense, it’s the celestial counterpart to the Demon Wastes of Khorvaire; a place suffused with lingering celestial power. 

The fiends vastly outnumbered the celestials, and over the course of millions of years they learned where most of these celestial anchors were. But they couldn’t actually DO anything about them. The celestials are as immortal as the fiends, and when destroyed they would eventually return. Given a good reason—for example, if the couatls tried to foster a mortal civilization in their spire—the fiends would bring sufficient forces to bear to destroy everything in a celestial spire. While the immortals would return the mortals would be lost. For that reason, the celestials kept their work subtle, working with individuals or small groups of mortals who then worked with others. The celestial guides could shield mortals from the psychic influence of the overlords. They could teach them, helping mortals master magic or other skills. They could even channel their power into a mortal, a form of voluntary possession. However, throughout most of the Age of Demons, they were never able to affect any grand change. The final rebellion wasn’t the only rebellion; it’s just the only one that had lasting results. 

While it’s never been mentioned in canon, in my Eberron Flamekeep is built on dragonbone foundations and that the font of the Flame is a celestial anchor point. Likewise, there is a celestial anchor in the Labyrinth around the Demon Wastes; this is a sacred haven of the Ghaash’kala orcs. 

Throughout this I’ve been saying celestials instead of couatls. Any celestial statblock could be reskinned to reflect a native celestial of Eberron. Just as the native fiends have a certain fondness for feline forms, the native celestials often have some blend of serpentine features or prismatic feathers. The couatl are by far the most common form of native celestial, but adventurers could encounter a deva with rainbow wings or a ki-rin with prismatic scales and a serpentine head. Compared to their counterparts in Shavarath or Syrania, these celestials are still guided by the basic principle of embodying positive ideas—of protecting and inspiring mortals as the Silver Flame continues to do today. Throughout most of the Age of Demons, these native celestials were only loosely aligned and largely sought to express their nature as individuals. They didn’t try to act as a host, because all that would accomplish would be creating a target to rally the fiends; they worked subtly and on their own. Which brings us to…

DRACONIC CHAMPIONS OF THE AGE OF DEMONS

In the last era of the Age of Demons, Argonnessen was a tool of the Daughter of Khyber. But there were small groups of dragons who evaded the Daughter’s control—first through celestial intervention, and then through the use of rituals and spells that they created. Dragons possess innate arcane power. The celestials helped the dragons understand their potential, but the rebels developed their own tools and techniques. Different cells specialized in different things. Dularanahk and her brothers led groups of warrior dragons and titans, capable of unleashing devastating force when it was required. Ourelonastrix worked with a cabal of dragons studying arcane science. Think of this as a hacker collective that provided logistical support and facilitated communications between the cells. All of this built on the work of previous generations; Ourelonastrix didn’t single-handedly master the secrets of arcane magic. But working with the couatl Hezcalipa, he made a crucial breakthrough that would ultimately bring the Age of Demons to an end: he discovered the Draconic Prophecy. What followed likely took centuries, as Ourelonastrix rallied the disparate dragons and Hezcalipa called on scattered celestials to help find Prophecy signs, gathering enough data to understand the power and possible paths of the Prophecy. Up to this point, the rebels had no real goal other than survival; without a way to permanently defeat an overlord, there was no reason to start a war. Now there was a glimmer of hope—a path through the Prophecy that could lead to victory. 

The dragons who challenged the overlords weren’t a nation or a massive army. They were remarkable individuals, leading small bands of other remarkable mortals—including dragons, giants, titans and more. Ourelonastrix was the greatest expert on magic and knowledge. The Dols led militant cells, while Kolkonoran facilitated logistics and support, moving supplies between the cells. Eventually the studies of the Prophecy revealed a possible path to victory. And this is when the war began in earnest. This is where we have Dularanahk facing the Lord of Death, and other clashes in which the rebels gathered all their military might together—because they needed to win battles, acquire artifacts, or even potentially to lose key battles in order to lock in the future Ourelonastrix had discovered. The final key element was the sacrifice of the celestials to create a force that could bind the overlords. But even this wasn’t an instant victory. Once the celestials kindled the Silver Flame, the overlords were severed from their heart demiplanes; when their avatars were destroyed their essence would be bound into the prison shards. But each one had to be individually defeated… and even though they were weakened, this was no small task, especially without the help of the departed celestials. The first target was the Daughter of Khyber; once she was bound in the Pit of Five Sorrows, her hold over Argonnessen was broken. And now there was a true army of dragons fighting to bring down the remaining overlords, one by one. 

OK… BUT WHAT ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEM? 

The original question was What was the relationship between the Couatls and Dragons during the Age of Demons? Did they respect each other as equals, or did they have conflicts? The important thing to understand is it wasn’t about the relationship between THE DRAGONS and THE CELESTIALS. It was about the relationship between Ourelonastrix and Hezcalipa, between Dularanahk and Azcalanti, and others. Because you aren’t talking about nations, you’re talking about remarkable individuals. Within that framework, it was the purpose of the celestials to guide and protect the mortals. There were many conflicts between them—disagreements over actions that endangered innocents, dragons believing the celestials were holding back, celestials trusting tradition while Ourelonastrix urged them to follow his instincts. Likewise, there were celestials who opposed the sacrifice that kindled the Flame, even if they ultimately took part. But again, these agreements and disagreements were between individuals, not cultures. While the celestial anchors resemble cities, the couatl never had a nation. 

You’ve mentioned native celestials… What are native fiends like? 

Fiends are incarnations of evil concepts. In the planes, they are tied to the central idea of their plane. A Shavaran devil reflects the idea of evil in war. A Daanvi devil embodies tyranny or oppressive order. A Fernia balor represents the cruel, chaotic destruction of fire. The native fiends more broadly represent evil in the world. Their purpose is to tempt and torment mortals, wreaking Khyber’s vengeance against the children of Eberron with a hundred thousand tiny cuts. All native fiends are tied to Khyber; most are specifically part of an overlord and its heart demiplane, but there are some time to demiplanes without overlords. Native fiends generally reflect an aspect of their overlord’s defining concept. Fiends tied to Rak Tulkhesh are tied to some aspect of hatred or war. Those associated with Sul Khatesh are more likely to be associated with magic or dangerous secrets. However, they can approach this in different ways. A raskhasa serving Rak Tulkhesh may excel at inspiring mortals to go to war—using its talents for deception to set conflict in motion. While a goristro bound to Rak Tulkhesh is a fiendish engine of war waiting to be unleashed on the battlefield. 

A goristro? Absolutely. Just as couatl are the most common celestials but not the only celestials, rakshasa are the most numerous of the fiends but far from the only ones. Any fiendish stat block could be used for a native fiend, with a little cosmetic reflavoring. In the image that accompanies this article, the multiarmed figure on the left is a native marilith. Feline features are in fashion among the native fiends, but in describing a fiend, don’t feel you need to make it mundane. What differentiates a rakshasa from a weretiger? Canonically, the rakshasa Mordakhesh has stripes of blazing flame across his black fur. The First Scribe, Hektula, has arcane sigils on her fur. Remember that fiends aren’t natural creatures; when they are revealed in their full power, they should have obviously supernatural aspects. 

Beyond this, I’ve suggested that feline features are a fashion. Rakshasas are natural shapechangers, and they are immortal embodiments of ideas, not creatures of flesh and blood. There may have been a time when the Lords of Dust wore shark heads, or even draconic features; the present use of feline features may be a fun retro reference to the Age of Demons. With this in mind, when adventurers in my game use True Seeing on a fiend, they don’t see its tiger form. Someone looking at Mordakhesh with Truesight will see him as a figure of shadows striped in flame and as a bloodthirsty sword, all at once. They will see that he has killed tens of thousands with his own hands, and feel his all-consuming appetite for war. Because THAT is the truth of Mordakhesh. For fiends and celestials, truesight doesn’t just strip away disguise self; it reveals their truth. Depending on the power of the fiend and the circumstances, I may make the individual with Truesight make a saving throw to avoid psychic damage or a condition; it can be dangerous to look too closely at a powerful immortal. 

Just for fun, here’s a table you can use to add some random flare to a rakshasa or other native fiend…

Fiendish Features

d8
1BurningStripes
2BloodyHorns
3SteelTeeth
4ShadowyScales
5OozingTalons
6IcyEyes
7RottingWings
8ManyTentacles

Was there a time before the Age of Demons? 

There was a brief time, yes. If you believe the myth, Eberron defeated Khyber by constricting her and then becoming the world. The principle is that Khyber’s children were able to slip through Eberron’s coils. But this wouldn’t have happened instantly, and even once the overlords were out in the world it surely took some time for them to sink their roots into reality and to establish their dominions. So, there was a period in which natural life flourish before being dominated by the overlords. What was it like? Who knows. Keep in mind that this was millions of years ago and that most likely, cultures didn’t appear fully formed. How long did it last? Were there any significant cultures in place before the overlords claimed the world? Largely, that’s a question you need to answer based on the needs of your story. Morgrave professor Cord Ennis suggests one possibility in this article about sphinxes:

While intriguing, Ennis admitted that there was one piece of the puzzle that still escaped him. When do these time-traveling sphinxes come from? His first thought was the distant future—that they could even be some sort of mystically evolved descendants of the modern races. Yet if that were the case, is there no risk of their meddling changing their own future? Given this, he ultimately favors the idea that the sphinxes are from the very distant past—that they could potentially be the citizens of the FIRST civilization of Eberron, a society that predates the Age of Demons and whose existence was wiped from history by the dominion of the overlords. With this as a foundation, Ennis suggests that the actions of the sphinxes might not be the absolute demands of destiny one would expect from embodiments of the Prophecy, but rather a grand game. As their time is long past, the sphinxes don’t actually care about the ultimate outcome; whether the overlords rise again or the daelkyr are unleashed doesn’t actually hurt them. Ennis further suggests that this could reflect the different techniques seen among sphinxes. The “divine” sphinxes—those wielding clerical abilities—could see their actions as being a divine mission, potentially even one mandated by the Progenitors (because what other gods were there at the dawn of time?) while the “arcane” sphinxes could be the scientists of their time. Thus, Flamewind could be in Sharn because she knows it is a nexus of elements she wants to deal with—events or people she wants to observe or influence—but that between those key events she is simply enjoying studying this time and place, so alien to her native time.

The key point of this idea is that the Sphinx civilization is so far back in time that no evidence of it remains, and that its downfall is utterly inevitable. The sphinxes can’t save themselves; all they can do is to play games in the future. 
That’s all for now! I have very limited time at the moment and most likely will not answer questions posted in the comments, but feel free to discuss them yourselves. I do answer questions on my Patreon, and in fact, I will be hosting a live Q&A on my Patreon Discord at 9 AM Pacific Time on Saturday, July 22nd. So check out my Patreon if you want to participate in that! Your support directly determines how much time I can spend creating Eberron content, so thanks to my current patrons for making this article possible.

What’s the story with Action Pups?

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We’re in the final two days of my latest Kickstarter and I’m still looking for some good dogs. But what IS this game? What it all about? What do I love about it?

In 2017 I made a game called Action Cats! as a labor of love. I never intended to release it; I just wanted to make a game with pictures of my friends’ cats. The structure is simple: the judge presents a picture of the cat and gives that cat a name. Everyone else combines two cards in their hand to create a sentence, and then tells that story. This is a critical point. You don’t just hand the cards in; you present the story, expanding and adding as much detail as you want. It was a simple side project, but once I started playing it with people, I discovered that it was a lot of fun. Collaborative storytelling is one of my favorite activities, and it’s the best part of Gloom. But… we’re living in very gloomy times, and as much as I love Gloom, it’s fun to have an excuse to tell HAPPY stories for a change.

We released Action Cats early in 2018. The next day, I woke up to find my pug staring at me as if to say “Dude, where’s MY game?” Scientific studies have determined that he’s 104.2% as cute as our cats (full disclosure, these are pug-funded studies), and we know a lot of other people with adorable dogs. So Action Pups! seems like the next logical step.

Gameplay

At a quick glance, Action Pups! looks like a lot of games you’ve likely already played. There’s a judge. People combine cards to make an answer. The judge makes a choice. It is a common design, and that’s a good thing about it; it’s a game I can play with any member of my family, and I can teach you how to play in 15 seconds. But the actual experience of playing it is quite different from, say, Apples 2 Apples. Let’s consider a round.

The judge sets a dog in the middle of the table and introduces them… in this case, the judge declares that this dog is Loudmouth Larry.

Each player has a hand of cards. One side of the card has a picture of a dog; the other has two story prompts—the beginning and the end of a sentence. Each player combines two cards to create a story; when everyone is done, they take turns pitching their stories.

Keith: At the end of the day, I think there’s one question we all ask ourselves. Who… think about it… Who’s a good dog? Is it you? Is it YOU? Every week, Loudmouth Larry examines another of the great dogs of popular culture. This week: Snoopy. Cultural icon, sure: but is he a good dog? Tune in to find out!

Jenn: I admit, “Who’s A Good Boy” is a compelling podcast. But Loudmouth Larry’s personal story is far more interesting. You may not have thought about this, but when people go into witness protection, they can’t take their dogs with them; it’s a dead giveaway for someone searching for them. Loudmouth Larry is a professional surrogate dog, providing people on the lam with temporary canine companionship until they can return to their own lives. His podcasting is the one thing that provides continuity in this nomadic life. 

Now, if you’re not feeling inspired, you can just read the text straight off the card. But like Gloom, what I love about the game is using the card text as a starting point for a more interesting story. If the dog is a superhero’s sidekick, who’s that hero? Does the dog have a super power and a secret identity, and if so, what are they? If they have a podcast, what’s its name? Who sponsors it?

One of the things I enjoy about this is that it adds variety. There’s over 28,000 possible card combinations. But someone can play the same combination of cards three games in a row and come up with a different take on it each time. This is further enhanced by the use of gray text. In the example about, the card says ‘This dog would like to know: who’s a “good dog?”‘ The fact that good dog is in gray means that you can change it when you present the story. So Loudmouth Larry wants to know who’s a SOMETHING. He might want to know “who’s a cat in disguise?” or “who’s addicted to podcasts?”

Ultimately, the goal of Action Pups! is to encourage people to tell stories… to give you a reason to think about what your pup’s podcast might be, or how this dog is going to save the world. It’s family friendly, and some of the best games I’ve played have been with three generations at the table. It’s not a game about winning; but it’s a fun tool to get people telling stories. And, of course, it’s a chance to…

Get Your Dog In The Game

Action Pups! will include 170 dogs. But we don’t just want any dogs in the game; we want YOUR dogs. Anyone who backs the game can submit pictures of their dogs, and our favorites will be in the game. In submitting pictures, there’s a few things we’re looking for.

  • Portrait Orientation. The picture needs to fit on the back of a card.
  • Pups, Not People. We want images of individual dogs with no people in the shot. It’s about the dog’s story.
  • Props. Poise, or Potential. We’re looking for dogs that inspire stories. They’re all good dogs, but we want pictures that make you say “What’s that Pug doing in front of a microphone?” or “Why is that Corgi wearing a crown?” Whether it’s an interesting location, funny costume or prop, an interesting pose or expression, we’re looking for pictures that will inspire stories.

That’s all there is to it. But there’s not much time left! If you think your dog is an action pup, back the Kickstarter campaign before it comes to a close!

Kickstarters to Check Out!

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Crowdfunding is a great thing. I wouldn’t have been able to create Illimat or Phoenix: Dawn Command without Kickstarter. I’ve backed exactly one hundred projects on Kickstarter, and I wanted to share a few with you. Most of these are in their final 24 hours, so if they sound interesting, act fast!

abandonplanet

ABANDON PLANET

A new tabletop game from Donald Eskridge, creator of The Resistance and Avalon. While I don’t think it’s directly connected with The Resistance, the story makes sense to me: the dystopian future has gotten even worse, and now you need to get off planet before meteors destroy it all in a fiery death ball. Players need to form (and break) alliances to get their shoddy ships off the ground. Among other things, Abandon Planet includes 16 awesome plastic rockets. As I’m writing this it only has nineteen hours left, so if it looks interesting, check it out fast!

tales-from-the-loop

TALES FROM THE LOOP

While I haven’t actually played this game, or any of the games the engine is based on (Mutant: Year Zero or Coriolis), I love the art, I’m generally a fan of the concept (kids deal with strange things in the eighties!) and I’m willing to take a chance on anything that Matt Forbeck is involved with. So count me in for Tales From The Loop. This one has EVEN LESS TIME left than Abandon Planet does, so if you like surreal Eighties adventures – or Matt Forbeck – check it out now!

harlemunbound

HARLEM UNBOUND

I’ll let this Gumshoe/Call of Cthulhu sourcebook speak for itself: This sourcebook flips the standard Lovecraftian view of minorities on its head, putting them in the role of heroes who must struggle against cosmic horrors while also fighting for a chance at equality… The heart of the Renaissance was a revolution aimed at changing the world through art, ideas, and the written word. It was a uniquely powerful movement against the unjust status quo, a time in history that still inspires today. The history, people and stories in this book shine the spotlight on the people of Harlem, their successes and their struggles. There’s 28 days left in this campaign, so you’ve got a little time to check it out… but check it out!

lenore-kickstarter

LENORE: A DEBUT ALBUM

Switching from games to music, Lenore is a Portland-based folk band getting ready to launch their first album. I can’t tell you much that you can’t hear better with your own ears; if you got to the project page you can stream two tracks from the album and see what you think! I recommend taking a few minutes to watch the video, which is a touching retelling of the origins of the band (and features awesome cellist Jessie Dettwiler!). There’s ten days left in the campaign, but they’ve still working towards their funding goal, so if you back them spread the word!

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back tomorrow with a new Eberron Q&A.

 

Mister Pants

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PantsBalloonsYesterday my wife Jennifer Ellis and I said farewell to our best friend and companion for more than a decade. I’ve never felt as close to a dog as I did to Mister Pants; he is a member of our family, and his loss is deeply felt.

We’ve posted a few of our favorite memories of Mister Pants here. If you ever met him, please take a moment to remember this wonderful pug – and feel free to share your thoughts below.

Recent Releases: Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding

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While my next big thing is a long-term project, I’ve got a number of small things in the hopper. One hit shelves today: The Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding. This is an anthology of essays by a host of talented designers, including people I’ve worked with in the past and others whose work I’ve long admired. The topics range from very broad to quite narrow; some look at things from a high level, whereas others are more practical… how to design a cult, a guild, a tribe, a nation. I contributed two essays, “How to make a High-Magic World” and “Bringing History to Life.” I’ve only just received my other’s copy, so I’m still digesting the other essays in the book. So far I’m enjoying it, and as someone currently designing a new setting, it’s given me a lot of things to think about. Wolfgang Baur will have more to say about the Guide in this week’s Six Questions, but until then, take a look for yourself at Drivethru RPG, Createspace, or Amazon!

Beyond this, my most recent releases are all tied to my love of Lovecraft. Unpleasant Dreams is an expansion for Cthulhu Gloom, adding new Stories, Transformations, Guests, and more; I discuss it in more detail in this post. Earlier this year I released Cthulhu Fluxx, which brings a little much-needed madness to the chaos of Fluxx. While it keeps the overall structure of Fluxx – get the Keepers you need to meet the shifting goal, while dealing with the ever-changing rules – Cthulhu Fluxx adds a second layer. You’re trying to win for yourself, but you also need to work with the other players to keep everyone from losing. No one wins if Cthulhu rises… with the possible exception of the secret cultist, if one is out there! It was a fun challenge as a designer, and I’m happy with the results.

I’ll be talking about my next big thing soon; we’re still catching up from the chaos of the holidays, and I’m getting back into my work groove. I hope that 2013 is treating you well so far!

 

 

12/12: Books I’m Reading, Games I’m Playing

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Clothes make the SpaceTeam.

I’m working on my post about my Next Big Thing, but in the meantime I thought I’d throw out a quick note about the things I’ve been enjoying over the past month. This isn’t a best of the year post; these are just the things I’m listening to, watching and reading RIGHT NOW, and my thoughts about them.

THINGS I’M READING

Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

I’ve been enjoying Locke & Key for years now, but I had the good fortune to receive the special edition of Welcome to Lovecraft as a gift, and that’s got me reading the series through again. Locke & Key is certainly my favorite comic of recent years, and on the list with Sandman, Hellboy, and Grant Morrison’s run on Doom Patrol for lifelong favorites. It’s best to discover it on your own, but I’ll describe it as a blend of Narnia and a good ghost story. A group of children return to an old family estate and stumble across its ancient and magical secrets… but the doors opened by the magical keys can lead to more gruesome dangers than Lucy or Edmund ever faced in Narnia. I like keys, and as such I’ll also give a nod to Skelton Crew, a studio that has produced replicas of the magical keys from the series. As comic collectibles go, these are fantastic. The keys are the critical visual element and tool from the stories, and Skelton’s replicas are a good size and weight; they’re fun things to carry around even without the story connection. So far they haven’t opened any doors for me, but who knows.

The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

In The Hobbit, the people of the Shire know relatively little about the world beyond their fields. Luckily, Gandalf shows up and provides us with detailed exposition about the history of the dwarves and that the dragon. Moving on to the Lord of the Rings, through Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel we are kept well-informed about the history of the conflict and its major players.

The Kingkiller Chronicles have some common threads with Lord of the Rings or The Wheel of Time. There’s an ancient evil lord. He’s got a cabal of powerful minions, much like the Nazgul or the Forsaken. They’re all up to something. But unlike LOTR or Wheel of Time, we don’t know what it is. Imagine Lord of the Rings without Gandalf. Frodo has the ring. He actually knows that it’s bad and should be destroyed in Mount Doom. But he doesn’t know where Mount Doom IS. The stories about Sauron are full of conflicting details, and while some legends say that he lived in Mordor, there are no current maps that show the location of this long-forgotten kingdom. In The Kingkiller Chronicles, Kvothe has much the same problem. He’s had a disastrous encounter with the ancient evil, but he has trouble finding out exactly what it IS. As he learns magic and hones his other skills, he—and we, through his eyes—gets glimpses of the truth through folktales, songs, rumors, and religion. But there are conflicts in all of these, and the truth remains to be revealed. Rather than the story being about the goal—IE, the destruction of the Ring or the defeat of the Dark One—it’s more about the journey. For me, much of what I enjoy is the way that the mysteries of the world are slowly unfolded instead of being laid out from the start.

I’m still only partway through WMF. In some ways, it’s a blend of Harry Potter and Ender’s Game—a brilliant boy learning the secrets of magic, using his wits to deal with rivals at school and the other challenges of life. Yet there are constant patches of crabgrass foreshadowing great deeds and tragedies that lie ahead. It’s a very different sort of tale from the warring kings of A Song of Ice and Fire. But it’s certainly managed to hold my interest; I want to know more about the world, perhaps more than I want to know about Kvothe.

 

GAMES I’M PLAYING

I play a lot of games. In the last week I’ve played Cards Again Humanity, Ticket to Ride, Lost Cities, Love Letters, Quirks, Cthulhu Fluxx and a few different flavors of Gloom. I’m very happy with Unpleasant Dreams, the first expansion for Cthulhu Gloom… if you have any questions about Unpleasant Dreams (or for that matter anything I’ve made), please ask here! Here’s some thoughts on a few of my favorite games I’ve played in the last month.

SpaceTeam

You’re flying a ship through a galaxy crowded with wormholes and asteroids. Your ship is barely holding together. Panels are falling off. Slime is leaking out from the cracks. There are an endless assortment of adjustments that need to be made. Punch the orbvalve! Set the microfluxer to 5! Deactivate the quantum valve! Consider purchasing upgrades! It’s more than one person can handle. Fortunately, you’re not alone. You’re part of a SpaceTeam.

SpaceTeam is a cooperative game for 2-4 people, played on iPads and iPhones. Each player has a piece of the ship’s control panel, covered with an assortment of bizarre and often hilarious controls. As the game unfolds, you receive instructions and have a limited time to complete them. But many of your instructions apply to the controls on the panels of other players. The result? A lot of panicked shouting, as you watch the timer counting down and hope that the command you’re shouting makes sense to one of your comrades. “Tighten the Ubercronk! Set the Hypermodulator to six! Tip the Waiter! Wormhole – EVERYONE FLIP!” Any given action is quite simple: push a button or turn a dial. However, the combination of time pressure, communication within your team, and console malfunctions that have to be fixed or simply ignored make it an extremely entertaining experience. I’m sad that they didn’t create a holiday version; I can imagine sitting around the living room with my family shouting “Deck the halls! Parum the Pum-Pum! Mistletoe – everybody kiss!”

In short, it’s a fun, quick cooperative experience, and a perfect way to pass time while standing in line or waiting for something to start. And it’s free. So what are you waiting for?

 

Geistes Blitz

A simple game that combines speed and pattern recognition. Five objects are placed in the center of the table. A card is drawn from the deck. Each card has four elements: two objects and two colors. If a color/object combination matches one of the objects on the table—for example, there is a picture of a white ghost—the first person to grab that object off the table gets the card and the point. However, in many cards, neither of the two objects shown are the proper color. In this case, you look for the object that isn’t represented on the card in any way. So if a card has a green rat and a red ghost, you are looking for an object that’s not a ghost or a rat, and isn’t red or green… which only leaves one possibility, the blue book. Grab the book and you get the point. If you grab the wrong object, you lose a point—so while speed is important, you don’t want to grab until you’re sure.

This basic game is a great deal of fun, and it’s good for people of all ages; I admit that I played about five rounds with an eight year old and lost every time. However, there are lots of ways to increase the complexity once your group is familiar with it. You can say that if there’s a ghost on the card, you need to shout the name of the proper object instead of grabbing it… or that if there’s a book, the correct answer is the object that’s the color of the book on the card, not whatever the normal answer would be. It’s fast and easily portable. The only problem is that it’s somewhat hard to find. I got my copy off the internet, and I’ve been recommending it to every brick & mortar store I’ve been to.

Always/Never/Now

Always/Never/Now is a cyberpunk adventure cycle created by brilliant designer Will Hindmarch, and I’d say that it’s something like a mash-up of Mission Impossible and The Usual Suspects as written by William Gibson. You’re a brilliant operative who’s been called out of retirement for one last job… a job that will span the course of many adventures and delve into a host of mysteries. The system is inspired by Lady Blackbird; it’s easy to use and encourages players to get into the mind of the character. As the group’s strategist, you don’t get experience for killing things; rather, you get experience when other people follow a plan that you’ve devised. As such, you are rewarded for being a leader. Pregenerated characters are provided, which means that you have a well-balanced team with a lot of interesting backstory built into the characters themselves. One element I found particularly engaging was the use of environmental tags. When our group was engaged in a tense car chase, Will provided us with a list of specific objects in the scene – high tension wires, a hapless motorcyclist, a tanker truck, a news helicopter, an overpass. Over the course of the scene, we could use each of these elements once in the description of an action in order to get a bonus to the roll. Now, nothing was stopping us from introducing these or other elements on our own; but by providing us with a list, Will really got me thinking about what we COULD do with those things. I might have simply tried to outrun the enemy; instead, I starting thinking about how the hapless motorcyclist could flip over their hood, causing them to crash into the tanker truck. It’s an idea I could easily see transporting to other settings and systems, such as Eberron. If you want someone to swing on a chandelier, let them know that the chandelier is right there waiting to be used!

Always/Never/Now was funded on Kickstarter early this year. At the moment, the only way to play it is to corner Will Hindmarch at a convention (and I suggest you do). However, it will soon be available as a PDF for download. I’ll be sure to mention it here when it is; it’s definitely worth a roll of the dice!

And finally, for those who missed my earlier post, here again is Gloomy Santa…

Have A Gloomy Holiday!

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Overall, I’m pretty happy with 2012. We survived the Mayan Y2K+12 Bug with a fine bunker warming featuring Molly Lewis & the Doubleclicks. Looking back over the year, Jenn and returned to Portland after a brief stay in Austin, Texas. We sailed the seas on the second JoCoCrazyCruise. We acquired a pair of adorable kittens who have since quadrupled in size…

Our lives are one big adorable YouTube video.

In gaming news, I released Cthulhu Fluxx and the first expansion for Cthulhu Gloom, Unpleasant Dreams. Gloom was featured on the Geek & Sundry show Tabletop. I’ve expanded this site with Six Questions, which has helped me to get to know some of my friends a little better and answered such burning questions as “What three dice would Will Hindmarch take to a desert island?”

In gloomier news, the current issue of Dragon marks the final installment of the Eye on Eberron series. It is my hope that Eberron will continue to be supported in D&D Next, but I don’t have any news on that front. With that in mind, I am developing a new fantasy setting that I’ll be using as a foundation for games and fiction. Expect to see a more detailed discussion of this new world over the next few months!

I count myself lucky for all of the good things in my life. I’m grateful to be surrounded by good friends and family, and especially for my wonderful wife Jenn. And I consider myself blessed to have been able to share my creations with so many people. Working on Gloom and Eberron has been a wonderful experience. I always enjoy discussing my games and novels with people, and if there are things you’d like to know, use that contact button on the right!

Happy holidays to all of you, and I look forward to sharing stories in 2013!