Music to Game to: Andrew Liles - The Dying Submariner: Complete Download Version

I listen to a lot of music (over 41 days worth in 2018 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.

Andrew Liles – The Dying Submariner: Complete Download Version

The original edition of The Dying Submariner was subtitled: A Concerto For Piano And Reverberation In Four Movements is extremely minimal in instrumentation but extremely effective at portraying a sinking, claustrophobic atmosphere of being lost at, or worse, below the sea.
Ghostly piano playing echoes through the tracks, recasting the familiar instrument as an eerie explorer diving deeper and deeper into pitch black water. Nearing a length of 3 hours, the album provides plenty of soundtrack, bordering on soundscape, for doomed maritime adventures.
The Aqualungs versions, making up the last seven tracks, expand the instrumentation of the album but retain a maritime theme.

Vocals?...No
Music Genre(s)… Experimental, Ambient
Perfect for… Pitch black, haunted sessions of slowly building tension and dread.
If you only grab one track, make it... The minimal, yet menacing “The Dying Submariner – Part II”, which features rumbling piano lines that emerge from the depths of the track.

Bag o' Gulls - Weird Magic Item #27

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...

Bag o’ Gulls

Uncommon Wondrous Item

This filthy, off-white sack smells faintly of seabird guano and was created by the notoriously eccentric Dwarven sea-mage, Scant Muckbeard. Once per day, as an action, the holder of the bag can use a command word and open the bag to release 2d12+12 sea gulls (for 5e D&D, use the stats for a raven, without the mimicry trait). The individual who utters the command word can have the gulls perform one of the actions below:

• Seek Dry Land. The gulls fly in the direction of the nearest dry land, soaring at a speed that can be followed by a boat or ship. The gulls circle above the dry land until the individual who spoke the command word is within 300ft of the dry land or until 8 hours have passed, at which point the gulls disperse.
• Swarm. The gulls swarm and attack a single target you verbally designate as a free action, using the stats of a Raven Swarm (for 5e D&D) or other appropriate stat block for the system. The gulls attack only the target creature, dispersing if the target of their attacks falls unconscious or dead.
• Befoul. For 1d4+1 minutes the gulls befoul an area of huge size or smaller, eating any food, flapping their wings and squawking at any creatures present. If attacked or driven away, they do not fight back, instead they fly up and let loose a truly epic amount of guano, covering any creatures attacking them or attempting to drive them off. If left undisturbed, the gulls may still defecate before they depart but they do not focus their excretions on any single target, instead covering the area with their droppings.
• Communicate. For a number of minutes equal to the number of gulls released, the user gains the ability to speak and understand Auran (the language of Air elementals) and has the effect of the Speak with Animals spell but only for birds, allowing them to use the gulls to speak to any other avians present.

Additionally, the bag serves as the material component for a find familiar spell, but when cast only sea gulls arrive to serve as the caster’s familiar.

Once the Gulls complete the command of the user, they fly off as normal gulls, completely free of any lingering effects and the bag cannot be used again until the next day.

The Heroes of Swanholm - Antagonist Relations Beyond the Wall Actual Play Podcasts

I finally took the time to break our first play session of Beyond the Wall (Episode 29) into three hour-ish long chunks, to make for easier listening and to mirror the lengths we started doing after that session.

I've also decided to refer to the campaign as the Heroes of Swanholm, making it easier to tag the episodes.

Below is a listing of all the episodes so far, in case you want to catch up. You too can enjoy how I am unable to maintain consistent accents for various NPCs, plus the terrible jokes and puns that arise from play! The actual play episodes are labors of love and an excuse to get the group together to game, but hopefully they are half as fun to listen to as they are to make.

• Episode Twenty-six - He's the Conan of Bears (BtW #0) - Session Zero & Character Creation
• Episode Twenty-Seven - Lonely Fun #1 - Beyond the Wall Setup - GM Commentary
• Episode Twenty-Nine (A) - Shkelington Party OoOoOo, Part 1 - April 2018 Session
• Episode Twenty-Nine (B) - Shkelington Party OoOoOo, Part 2 - April 2018 Session
• Episode Twenty-Nine (C) - Shkelington Party OoOoOo, Part 3 - April 2018 Session
• Episode Thirty-One - A Suspicious Weasel - May 2018 Session
• Episode Thirty-Two - Seeing Eye Bear - May 2018 Session
• Episode Thirty-Three - Slithering Beneath the Surface - May 2018 Session
• Episode Thirty-Five - Ixnay on the Bloodbath-ay - June 2018 Session
• Episode Thirty-Six - "Can we see the stench?" - June 2018 Session
• Episode Thirty-Seven - The Bear's Entourage - June 2018 Session
• Episode Forty-Three - Snake Steaks - August 2018 Session
• Episode Forty-Four - Save Vs Dad Joke... Fail! - August 2018 Session
• Episode Forty-Five - Cellar Gases - August 2018 Session
• Episode Forty-Six - Coffin Books Are the Worst - December 2018 Session
• Episode Forty-Seven - It Was Not Grave Robbing (It Was) - December 2018 Session
• Episode Forty-Eight - We Can't All Be Giant Murder Bears - January 2019 Session
• Episode Forty-Nine - Creepy Snake Bones and Cursed Rooms - January 2019 Session
• Episode Fifty - Skeletons... Seems Sketchy - January 2019 Session
• Episode Fifty-One - Sometimes I Forget My Last Name - April 2019 Session
• Episode Fifty-Two - Everyone I Know Is Dead - April 2019 Session
• Episode Fifty-Three - Let's Go In Your Dad's Hobo Hole - April 2019 Session
• Episode Fifty-Four - Some People Died, What Else Happened? - May 2019 Session
• Episode Fifty-Five - I Feel Like This Is A Trap! - May 2019 Session
• Episode Fifty-Six - Put a Pin in this Hot Mess - May 2019 Session

Most of the podcast crew, minus Ben who was serving as the photographer

Player created maps
GM Hex Map (not for player eyes)

We also took a break from Beyond the Wall in July 2018 to play Godless, an adventure of my own devising, Clean Up In Aisle Five, which I swear I will finish editing and publish soon... But honestly, the four podcasts that came out of that session contain some of my favorite RPG memories...

• Episode Thirty-Nine - Employee Orientation
• Episode Forty - "How You Did Me Wrong"
• Episode Forty-One - Halt, Party Time!
• Episode Forty-Two - Karaoke Dreaming Explosions

Finally, if you enjoy the podcast and give it a listen, take our listener survey. If you provide your email address, I will send you some sweet RPG adjacent swag, like stickers, D&D themed temporary tattoos, old 2nd edition AD&D Trading Cards or a gelatinous cube enamel pin!

Here I am tormenting the Ginger Giant with a pyschotic clown mask...

Music to Game to: Undersmile - Narwhal

I listen to a lot of music (over 41 days worth in 2018 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.

Undersmile – Narwhal

Sludgy, epic, female fronted doom metal, Narwhal has a maritime theme that makes it perfect for throwing on while you run Ghosts of Saltmarsh. The sprawling tracks feature thudding drums and guitar riffs that wash over listeners like crashing waves. The vocals provide a haunting atmosphere without being distracting.

Vocals?...Yes
Music Genre(s)… Doom Metal
Perfect for… Dark, maritime themed fantasy where you want to evoke epic storms, crashing waves and titanic monsters moving inexorably towards land.
If you only grab one track, make it... The massive and menacing track, “Berk”, which moves between roaring riffs and quieter haunting passages, provides a good taste of the heavy and inevitable sonic-scape of the album.

Antagonist Relations Podcast Episode 56 - Put A Pin In This Hot Mess

Antagonist Relations Podcast Episode 56 - Put A Pin In This Hot Mess

The third episode from our May 2019 session. The party wanders the Barrow Downs searching for Valeska Unruh, the village witch of Swanholm, but instead encounter frogmen, goats and more...

Starring Ben as Hugen Coldhands, the New Watchman, Christy as Ziska Forespark, the Student of the Dark Arts, Mike as Jasper (Jape) Sweetberry IV, the Gifted Dilettante and Cassandra as Tulip, the Village Bear.

• Player created maps
• GM Hex Map (not for player eyes)

If you want to know more about Beyond the Wall, check out the Antagonist Relations reviews:

Antagonist Relations reviews Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures

Antagonist Relations reviews Further Afield.

Please take our listener survey here.

Antagonist Relations Podcast Episode 55 - I Feel Like This Is A Trap!

Antagonist Relations Podcast Episode 55 - I Feel Like This Is A Trap!

The second episode from our May 2019 session. Tulip and Ziska have a pleasant picnic, Hugen has a frustrating conversation with family and then the party heads into the dangerous muck of the Barrow Downs!

Starring Ben as Hugen Coldhands, the New Watchman, Christy as Ziska Forespark, the Student of the Dark Arts, Mike as Jasper (Jape) Sweetberry IV, the Gifted Dilettante and Cassandra as Tulip, the Village Bear.

• Player created maps
• GM Hex Map (not for player eyes)

If you want to know more about Beyond the Wall, check out the Antagonist Relations reviews:

Antagonist Relations reviews Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures

Antagonist Relations reviews Further Afield.

Please take our listener survey here.

Antagonist Relations Podcast Episode 54 - Some People Died, What Else Happened?

Antagonist Relations Podcast Episode 54 - Some People Died, What Else Happened?

The first episode from our May 2019 session. The party discusses where to journey next, but then gets bogged down in some spooky business in Swanholm.

Starring Ben as Hugen Coldhands, the New Watchman, Christy as Ziska Forespark, the Student of the Dark Arts, Mike as Jasper (Jape) Sweetberry IV, the Gifted Dilettante and Cassandra as Tulip, the Village Bear.

• Player created maps
• GM Hex Map (not for player eyes)

If you want to know more about Beyond the Wall, check out the Antagonist Relations reviews:

Antagonist Relations reviews Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures

Antagonist Relations reviews Further Afield.

Please take our listener survey here.