Music to Game to: Shirley Collins - Lodestar

I listen to a lot of music (over 40 days worth in 2017 according to last.fm) and I find that few things help me keep the mood of a game foregrounded in my mind like a good soundtrack. Plus, I’ve discovered that when I’m playing music to a speaker via Bluetooth, I’m less likely to be on my phone, lest my players hear any stray sounds, letting me better model engagement during a game. To that end, I want to share some of my favorite music to game to; the albums that inspire and inflame my imagination and that I’ve found work well as background music for games as well. I’ll do a mini-review and cover the basics of what mood it helps me set.

SHIRLEY COLLINS – LODESTAR

Famed folk singer and song collector Shirley Collins first full album after 38 years, these songs are given profound and resonant backing by experimental musicians Cyclobe. A collection of traditional songs with one original composition, they draw on the British folk ballad tradition which lend them well to games set in a post-medieval, pre-20th century settings that draw on folklore. Moving seamlessly between dread, levity, sorrow and beauty, the songs provide a rich palate for any game master to draw upon to set the mood.

• Vocals?...Yes
• Music Genre(s)… Folk, Traditional
• Perfect for…Games with a folkloric or archaic feel that still have a vein of darkness running through them. 
• If you only grab one track, make it... The deceptively dark and rich “Cruel Lincoln”, where the birds sing as the murderer’s deeds and punishment are narrated.

Wand of the Wooden Spoon - Weird Magic Item #15

Inspired by the incredibly excellent Weird Magic Item generator over at Donjon.bin.sh, I've been coming up with a few of my own system agnostic weird magic items to put in the many games I run, be they 13th Age or Beyond the Wall...

Eventually I want to try and put them into a randomizer, but I need to generate a few first. I'm going to try and post one every other Wednesday. Please let me know if you end up using an item I've created in your own game. You can find the entire series here...

Antagonist Relations Weird Magic Item Generator Presents...

Wand of the Wooden Spoon

The last magic item crafted by a potent archmage in the throes of dementia, this wand appears to be a simple large wooden spoon and it smells strongly of oatmeal. When in the hands of a spell caster who memorizes spells, the wand can be used to sacrifice two of that caster’s memorized spells in order to cast any spell the caster knows or has in their spell book or on a scroll. If the spell caster sacrifices three memorized spells, the spell they cast counts as being cast by a caster (or with a spell slot) of two levels higher. The wand will also fill any bowl or pot it is placed into with warm oatmeal flavored with cinnamon, honey and butter. For some unknown reason, this wand is prized above all other things by Derro, who will literally kill to obtain it and always seem to smell when a wizard posses it if they encounter them.

N1 in the time of 5E - Against the Cult of the Reptile God Review

Terror by night! The village of Orlane Is dying. Once a small and thriving community. Orlane has become a maze of locked doors and frightened faces. Strangers are shunned, trade has withered. Rumors flourish, growing wilder with each retelling. Terrified peasants flee their homes, abandoning their farms with no explanation. Others simply disappear...
No one seems to know the cause of the decay—why are there no clues? Who skulks through the twisted shadows of the night? Who or what Is behind the doom that has overtaken the village? It will take a brave and skillful band of adventurers to solve the dark riddle of Orlane!

One of my favorite modules and definitely my favorite of the 1st/2nd edition AD&D modules I’ve gotten to run/play, Against The Cult of the Reptile God is a fantastic low level module that you can easily translate to any fantasy RPG. I’ve now gotten to play it once, run it full through twice and I’ve broken it apart and used various pieces of it to set up the campaign and adventure locations in the Antagonist Relations Podcast Actual Play Beyond the Wall game.

What makes Against the Cult of the Reptile God great to run? (Spoilers follow)

Music to Game To: Free Nelson Mandoomjazz - Awakening of a Capital

I listen to a lot of music (over 40 days worth in 2017 according to last.fm) and I find that few things help me keep the mood of a game foregrounded in my mind like a good soundtrack. Plus, I’ve discovered that when I’m playing music to a speaker via Bluetooth, I’m less likely to be on my phone, lest my players hear any stray sounds, letting me better model engagement during a game. To that end, I want to share some of my favorite music to game to; the albums that inspire and inflame my imagination and that I’ve found work well as background music for games as well. I’ll do a mini-review and cover the basics of what mood it helps me set.

FREE NELSON MANDOOMJAZZ – AWAKENING OF A CAPITAL

It’s easy to see a bit of Lovecraftian influence from the song titles on Awakening of a Capital, The Stars Unseen, The Pillars of Dagon, Erich Zann and Beneath the Sea all fit, but undoubtedly Howie would find the free jazz, doom metal inflected stylings degenerate and unpleasant – which, when you think about it, is probably what you want to serve as a soundtrack for a cosmic horror story. But another song title is the most evocative for me, and sometimes I think would serve well for as a theme song for certain D&D PC’s… “Poking the Bear” which stands out as the most playful of the album. Overall the album would serve well to bring a slightly discordant and jazzy background to any game of 20th or 21st century horror, balancing melancholic doom with a more propulsive free jazz style.

• Vocals?...No
• Music Genre(s)… Doom jazz, free jazz
• Perfect for… 20th century games of cosmic horror.
• If you only grab one track, make it... The spasmodic and squawking “Poking the Bear”, where a yawping and frantic sax melody flies fitfully over a driving and insistent bass line and steady drumming and could serve well as the theme song for the more impulsive PCs of many a gaming table.

Into Chult -Tomb Thoughts #1

Note: I have not read the book, so if my spelling of NPC names and/or locations is off, it is because I am taking my best guess at spelling them.

For the first time since the D&D Next Playtest back in 2012 or 2013 I've got the opportunity to play in a D&D 5th Edition campaign. Now, I've played a few 5e one shots, probably 2-3 a year on average, but I haven't had the chance to play the same PC for concurrent session in a 5th Edition D&D game since it was released in 2014. Since my darling wife wanted to play D&D with Dinosaurs (aka Tomb of Annihilation) but my DM'ing plate is full, we have tricked DM extraordinaire Thomas into running the module for us and three others. (PS. Thomas has an excellent new DM's Guild Supplement out, Mercy & Justice).

Since I've been spoiled with an excellent player in my online 2nd Edition games who takes detailed and copious notes, I decided that I should attempt to take notes for the group for our Tomb of Annihilation game. And since I'm taking the notes anyway, I figure I'll also include them here on the blog as well as giving my impressions as a player moving through the module and put it all together into these posts that I'm going to refer to as "Tomb Thoughts".

Photo of my character sheet for Ordulin Bellweather, sheet is Dyson Logos' Fifth Edition Character Sheets.

Now, since I rarely get to play 5e, I showed excellent restraint and only stated out a dozen or so potential PCs and only wrote up brief backgrounds for half of those. But since I can't recall seeing a Warlock PC in any of my 5e campaigns, I settled on Ordulin (Darvin) Bellweather, a Half-Elf Archaeologist Hexblade Warlock. I went whole hog on a terrible pop-culture archaeologist rip-off too, having Ordulin adopt the name of a Realms location that seemed the most like Indiana in my five minutes of quick wiki-searching and deciding to use a whip for a melee weapon despite the low damage.

Initial Thoughts after Session 1

I'll include my character and session write-ups below, in case you want to skip those. The first session went pretty well, we started in Port Nyanzaru and Thomas gave each of our characters a few hooks. We could have probably wandered around the city doing some exploration, but I probably pushed a little hard for our party to take the very first mission we heard about. In hindsight, as I wrote up the session notes, I could see how my DM experience led me to urge the party to take action and be decisive instead of dawdling, so I need to remember to try and keep some of that in check as we move forward. We managed to make it through the evening without fighting anything, instead diving into the factional intrigues of the Merchant Princes. We traveled from Port Nyanzaru up to Fort Beluarian and back, and so far the locations seem interesting and fairly memorable, though we have not seen much. The biggest thing that stood out, was that Thomas took the time to print out the Guide pitches for us, which made deciding on a guide much easier and quicker than it would have been otherwise. It was fantastic to have the guide portrait and their sales pitches to help us decide on the guide for us. We only played for about three and a half hours, but it seemed like we were able to accomplish quite a bit, visiting two major locations, having conversations with a half-dozen NPCs, getting into some potentially dangerous shenanigans and even plotting out our travels for quite a while.

Music to Game to: Allfather - And All Will Be Desolation

I listen to a lot of music (over 40 days worth in 2017 according to last.fm) and I find that few things help me keep the mood of a game foregrounded in my mind like a good soundtrack. Plus, I’ve discovered that when I’m playing music to a speaker via Bluetooth, I’m less likely to be on my phone, lest my players hear any stray sounds, letting me better model engagement during a game. To that end, I want to share some of my favorite music to game to; the albums that inspire and inflame my imagination and that I’ve found work well as background music for games as well. I’ll do a mini-review and cover the basics of what mood it helps me set.

ALLFATHER – AND ALL WILL BE DESOLATION

Thunderous sludge metal with heavy riffs, these songs should have your players feeling like their first level PCs can walk right up to that corrupt minor lordling and punch him right in the gut. From the first listen, this album has been inspiring dreams in me of getting to run a commoner rebellion campaign or to play a berserker dedicated to battling nefarious and rotten nobles. The refrain of “Citadels” sums up the fighting spirit of the album best… “Instead of burning bridges and raising citadels / We should be burning flags and raising fucking hell”.

• Vocals?...Yes
• Music Genre(s)… Metal, Sludge
• Perfect for…Dark, gritty fantasy games where the PCs fight the good fight against oppressive forces.
• If you only grab one track, make it... “Citadels”, the perfect theme song for a game about commoners battling decadent and corrupt nobility. 

Bird's Eye Talisman - Weird Magic Item #14

Inspired by the incredibly excellent Weird Magic Item generator over at Donjon.bin.sh, I've been coming up with a few of my own system agnostic weird magic items to put in the many games I run, be they 13th Age or Beyond the Wall...

Eventually I want to try and put them into a randomizer, but I need to generate a few first. I'm going to try and post one every other Wednesday. Please let me know if you end up using an item I've created in your own game. You can find the entire series here...

Antagonist Relations Weird Magic Item Generator Presents...

Bird’s Eye Talisman

This silver pendant is shaped like a raven’s skull. When you hold it in a hand and close your eyes, a shadowy raven appears above you, thirty to forty feet up, tethered to you by a strand of shadow. You see through the shadow bird’s eyes and with concentration, you can move this vantage point as fast as a crow can fly, though control is clumsy. When you open your eyes, the shadow bird dissipates slowly, as does the shadow strand that links it to you. The shadow bird cannot move through physical barriers that would impend a natural bird and has normal vision, even if your character has low-light, dark or infravision. No magical divination or special abilities can be used through the pendant. There is no limit to how far the shadow raven can fly from you, but no matter how far it ventures from you, the shadow raven is always tethered to you by an ever-elongating strand of shadow, which a perceptive or canny enemy could use to trace their way back to you.