On Tiroeth: Arrix & Surrounds

When I started my game, set in my custom setting of Tiroeth. I spent many hours playing around with Maps and such. Here are three Maps, for your use.

Nice Classic Black and White

Hex Map made with Hexographer. Each Hex is about a day of travel.

Spire Dwarf Subrace for 5e

These dwarves are commonly mistaken for gnomes - this is why dwarves are often called gnomes by the lay person. The truth is these dwarves are an entirely separate subrace of dwarves.

Just as Mountain Dwarves stick to the heart of the mountain, Hill Dwarves, the deep earth, so do the Spire Dwarves stick to the airy peaks of the world. They make their home in lofty mountaintops and impossible monasteries, seeking to be in touch with the Weave.

But unlike their more earthen cousins Spire Dwarves do not share the sturdy build, thick, tufty hair or darker tones of skin. They are slight, and shorter, with hair and beards more akin to the thin hair of the Elf. Their skin is rarely darker than a pale white or pink red.

Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 2.

Spire Artistry. You gain proficiency in one of the tools of your choice: Alchemist’s supplies, herbalism kit, calligrapher’s supplies, jeweler’s tools, or painter’s supplies.

Make your Dwarf Wizards yeah.

Brownie Race for 5e

Ugly, hairy, small, incredibly mischievous and fiercely loyal; the common household Brownie.

They usually live in rural or urban households, generally entirely unbidden, doing odd housework while the proprietors of the households are sleeping. Incredibly loyal to a household, they prefer to remain completely unseen. Giving them a name, acknowledging their presence in words, or giving them clothes is enough to make a Brownie irrationally angry. Some decide to leave a household entirely, some decide to become personal poltergeists, some become Boggarts; corrupted by their code of etiquette.

Adventuring Brownies are all, and none of these things. Some decide to go nameless, some do not wear armour, some are heard but not seen. Many of them are Brownies seeking a new home, and in the interim, they have an anchor or “Brownie Stone", an object, sometimes junk, which acts as a mobile house. When it comes to working in groups they love playing pranks on their comrades, or spitefully (sometimes for no reason at all) ruining the households of random villagers.

Brownie Traits

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Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity Score increases by 2, and your Charisma Score increases by 1.

Age. Brownies are known to be part of households for generations. From creation (or birth) you can live from 300 to 500 years.

Alignment. You are both a lover of good honest work and, when the fancy takes you, a dangerous prankster. You tend to lean towards being Chaotic Neutral or Good. Chaotic Evil Brownies are often called Boggarts.

Size. You are smaller than a mountain but larger than an ant. Your size is Small.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft.

Darkvision. Since you are used to working in low light conditions, you have superior vision in dark and dim Conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in Darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in Darkness, only shades of gray.

Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on Saving Throws against being Charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

Always Careful. You are proficient in your choice of two of the following skills: Arcana, Deception, Intimidation, Investigation, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand.

Household Spirit. You have Advantage on all investigation checks relating to the goings on in a currently occupied household.

Hidden Step. As a bonus action, you can magically turn invisible until the start of your next turn or until you attack, make a damage roll, or force someone to make a saving throw. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Hob-Faerie Ways. You know the Thaumaturgy cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the Purify Food and Water spell as a 1st-level spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a Short or Long Rest. Using the same slot, you can instead spoil food. Food spoiled in such a manner is not considered poisoned. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the Locate Object spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a Short or Long Rest. Charisma is your Spellcasting ability for these Spells.

Scarlet Heroes Quickstart Character Sheet

I quite enjoy Scarlet Heroes. Perfect for small groups. I'm playing a game tonight using Trilemma Adventures The Full-Dark Stone, details for how I did it in another post.

Here is a character sheet for Scarlet Heroes Quickstart. Available on Google Drive, simply copy the document, duplicate the slide several times for each member of your group, and share it with them.

Behold Aang! An Eckzampel to all of us.

Enjoy!

Pact-Born & Plane-Touched

These are my variants on Tieflings and Genasi. I do not particularly like the 5e renditions of them, and want them to be more grounded in useful tricks and faults which hint at supernatural ancestries. I have no stats for them (yet) but here are an idea of how they would work

Pact-Born

They go by so many different names - tieflings, succubi, changling, aasimar, corrupted, half-fey - but they're all the consequence of the same thing: When a person makes a deal with a faraway entity - the soul belongs to the person already, and cannot be "transferred" or "sold" thus Faraway lords make do with the offspring of these persons. Pact-Born are brought into this world as the consequence of the indelible stain on the soul of the signed, and serve as a reminder of the Pact made, and as an agent of the Faraway Lord. They may be raised as a human, until an awakening occurs, and they are given the knowledge of their heritage. They have no choice, and are unwitting agents of their parent's pactee.

• They have one characteristic feature; wings, tail, eyes, horns, skin-colour, claws, scales, etc.
• Many are shockingly beautiful, or exceptionally charismatic.
  
• Any person they fuck are lightly charmed, and are susceptible to Faraway bargains. Usually those of the Pact-Born's heritage.
  
• They intuit falsehoods and, to a lesser extent, truths. This applies to any sentient creatures in the Mundane (world) with obvious celestial exceptions. Concentrating, they can detect falsehoods in the Material as well.
  

Pact-Born, unlike simple Tieflings, can be born of Genies, Fey, Old Ones, Demons, Devils, Rakshasa, Deva, Vanir, Aesir and so on. They are exceedingly rare, except in cities, being 1/500 to 1/1000 people. They give birth to normal humans.

Plane-Touched

The Mundane is a strange place with a long history. Sometimes, when a fold of the Yemeje (Elemental Planes or Quintessence) rubs up against the borders of the Mundane, the Plane-Touched are born. They pop up otherwise too, seemingly at random. They find occupation closest to their attuned element.

For all intents and purposes they are human, and give birth to normal humans, but are so attuned to thaumic currents that they make horrible Magic-users.

Isat (Fire)

Common backgrounds: Fire Priest, Circus Flame breather, Soldier, Arsonist.

Can know the origin of a flame, and can see the faces of those who lit it. Have some fire resistance.

Wiha (Water)

Common backgrounds: Sailor, Water carrier, Tea house Publican, Fisher, Ferryman.

Able to find the path of least resistance (in a maze, for example) and can detect impurities in water (but cannot remove them).

Sema (Air)

Common backgrounds: Mountaineer, Sailor, Dungeoneer, Long-distance messenger, Storm-Chaser, Highwayman.

Can sense the direction of the smallest breeze (including breath) and have an uncanny sense of smell.

Midir (Earth)

Common backgrounds: Miner, Mason, Builder, Dungeoneer, Thief, Assassin, Soldier.

Can ask stone questions. The still earth does not like being asked questions by those that are quick, and usually only gives one word answers. Have an incredible constitution.

Menif (Spirit)

Common backgrounds: Priest, Bard, Fortune-teller, Backdoor politician, Playwright, Shaman.

These take the place of any celestial born creatures. We are to gods as cells are to an organ - one can hold divinity, but cannot originate from it wholly. The spirit is divine, to an extent.

Emotions are like the neurotransmitter; the Menif, a neuron. They can detect the true emotion of a person. Crowds are deafening, and most tend to stay away from cities due to the constant barrage of emotions. Their inherent connection also means that they tend to have prayers answered more easily.

Additional

Well damn, the Pact-Born are by no means an original idea. Check here and here.

Old-School Roleplaying

I really like Pen-&-Paper Tabletop RPGs. A lot; it's almost debilitating.

I've been looking at a lot of systems. D&D of course, because most people enter from there. I started in 4e, with a Dwarf Artificer, and looked at 5e when it was published. I know Fate, I know the Powered by the Apocalypse games. I've looked at Pathfinder, played with Dungeon World. I've read plenty, but was always slightly dissatisfied. I was enamored with online discussions about how mechanics facilitate play, and was unknowingly pretty convinced by it. Playing around with game mechanisms is enormous fun, hence min-maxers. 

But recently I've become...burnt out. All these systems, these ideas, and nobody really wants to play. Most want to play 5e, and create mad characters in line with Critical Role - and for me, that isn't particularly fun. The characters are overpowered, advantage is nice but consistently feels like a huge boost, the monsters aren't very easy to run, and its attempts at balance make me shudder. I want something simpler that isn't so hard to hack without a legion of Grognards coming down on you. Mostly, I've looked at DW, and have familiarized myself with how the 6-stat system works.

In the past weeks I've been looking at Kevin Crawford's work; Scarlet Heroes, Stars without Number, Spears of the Dawn, Wolves of God etc*, Ben Milton's Knave**, B/X D&D, and the B/X reformat Old-School Essentials***. B/X is on the face of it a homebrew system with odd table-specific rules, which boils down to the 6 stats and their associated bonuses. Knave is so bare bones it can be hacked into anything, and all of Kevin Crawford's work is excellent and deliciously compatible with most B/X based Old School Roleplaying systems. Reading through Mr Crawford's AMA, and came across this question and answer...

And he is 100% correct.

People want to play games, and everybody knows the basic D&D model. Game mechanics be damned - I want to play a game with friends. And the point of the game is a having a great time with people. Not "dice pool" or "+2" or "Flat Footed AC". If you and your friend like 'em, go for it. Flex on those numbers and plan your PC to Level 20 bois.

Not my vibe.

Unless the mechanics make it literally impossible to do certain things (which D&D shies away from, being a combat simulator with a "higher number wins" approach to everything else) I really don't see a good reason to play anything else.

The 6 stat system with bonuses is perfect. Allows me to concentrate on what I want, a fun time with people playing in the make believe world I want.

* Check Kevin Crawford's other games: Sine Nomine Publishing
** Ben Milton's Knave
*** Old-School Essentials Basic Rules (the best starting point; rip it apart to see how it works)