Halls of the Nephilim

This collaboration between Patty Gurdy and Alestorm's Christopher Bowes is some nautical fun. Listening to it reminded me of how much I want to run Secret of the Black Crag 

This weekend I started watching Delicious in Dungeon. It's a dungeon crawling action comedy anime released by Netflix. Set in a D&D-esque fantasy world the series focuses on a party on a rescue mission in a megadungeon. They team up with Senshi, a dwarven fighting chef who's spent years dining on monsters in the dungeon. The series is a mix of dungeon action and cooking show. It's a weird mix, but works so well. So far the series has been pretty light hearted overall. I spoke with some friends that have watched it and have been told that it does get darker, but ultimately is hopeful in nature. The characters are quirky and fun, without being obnoxious and the animation is great.

If you've played D&D, the monsters and adventures will seem familiar, even if they have different names. For example the picklock Chilchuk is basically a halfling rogue. Marcille, the half-elven spellcaster seems like the stereotypical "I cast fireball" wizard when it comes to combat. Something I really like about the series is that it addresses the ecology of a megadungeon. It is revealed that Senshi is the caretaker of the upper levels of the dungeon and helps it maintain its balance. I know D&D is a fantasy game, but I do tend to like some logic with my D&D (though "it's magic" is also acceptable). If you enjoy anime and rolling dice, you should definitely check this one out.

Watching the series reminded me of a Old-School Essentials class I found while looking for nautical content for a Freeport game I want to run.  While it's called the Ship’s Cook, this class would work just as well in a dungeon and honestly, Senshi could have it. Charisma is its primary attribute and it has D6 hit dice. They can wear any armor and wield cooking utensils as weapons. They have built up resistance to poison and can create rations from fallen creatures (though there is a discussion about cooking and eating humanoids being taboo). They have bonuses on using knives, skewers, and pans as for weapons. Ship's Cooks can make bad food taste good and learn special recipes. These require special ingredients and have useful effects. As they gain levels they learn to make money and charm folks using their food. They can also create new recipes with new effects. I can't say its worth sacrificing one of of the classic core classes to play a Ship's Cook, but I do think they'd be a fun addition to a party. 

Ginny Di is a delight. For this Music Monday post I thought I'd share a sea shanty I've been listening to in order to get in the proper mindset for my upcoming game.

While looking on the DM Guild for useful supplements for my upcoming nautical game I found Nautical Achievements by BenDjinn. I love BenDjinn's stuff and am sad they took down all their horror content (which I'm assuming was for legal reasons).

Achievements and Trophies have been a regular thing in video games for a few decades now, though if you look at things like arcade high scores, the ideas has been around since the inception of video games. The modern idea is that you do a certain task in game and you get a named achievement added to your gamer record. This pdf takes that idea and adds it to 5e. It adds some nautical spice to the game. The pdf includes 100 achievements. Here are a few examples from Nautical Achievements:

• Wave Rider - You successfully ride a giant seahorse  
• Ship Hunter - You discover the remains of a sunken ship

I can see some people bitching about this being another example of trying to make D&D like a video game, but I think it's a fun little touch. It's not going to take anything away from the game and I think it will encourage players to do some interesting things that they might not do otherwise. This 7 page pdf is only .99 cents. The achievements and traits are formatted to be printed off on labels, which is a handy way to use them. If you are open to the idea I think it's could be a nice addition to your game.

It's International Talk Like A Pirate Day, so why not enjoy this live action JTMusic video inspired by the video game, Sea of Thieves. Also keep an eye out because I believe the Pirate Borg pdf drops today.

I made some cool purchases at Origins and one of them was Captain Hartchild's Guide to Oceanic Depths. Much like the Pirate Bundle, if you are running Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Freeport, Genial Jack, or any nautical themed campaign this book is a must have! The book is a 110 page black and white tome that includes content for both players and DM's. 

 Here's another pirate metal shanty cover by Little V. 

As Tim recently pointed out, sea shanties are in again. I have no problem with this. A metal guitarist I love has recently started doing pirate metal covers of classic shanties.

 I've started work on Grognautical again. To get inspiration I've been playing Assassins Creed Black Flag, watching swashbuckling and nautical films, and checking, and listening to sea shanties and hurdy gurdy music. This lead me to the discovery of this Key & Peele sketch.

While the first issue of Genial Jack gave an overview of the Godwhale and the society that dwelt on and in him, the second issue details the living dungeon inside him. The focus of issue two is all about his guts. The dungeon is designed for low level adventurers, but there are several really tough creatures found inside. 

Genial Jack is a really interesting 5e setting by Lost Pages. Jack is a god whale that is the host to a cosmopolitan city. While nautical in nature, it reminds me of Sigil, the hub of the Planescape setting. That's high praise from me, given that Planescape is one of my all time favorite D&D settings. 

I reviewed the first volume last year. You can now get a print on demand version from DriveThruRPG. This is good news, because originally the zine was only available from the UK publisher or occasionally Exalted Funeral, which meant shipping was costly.  

The second issue is now available too. I'll be picking up a copy when I have some extra money. I'll make sure to review it when I do.

Until then expect a how to use Genial Jack in an Exandria game later this week.

 I love sea shanties, kitties, and Trailer Park Boys... so you can bet your ass I love this.

 I was beyond excited to find out that Green Ronin has released a 5e update to their classic adventure Death in Freeport. I also felt strange because this meant that 3rd edition came out 20 years ago. Long time readers will know that I love Freeport! The Freeport Trilogy is one of my top 5 all-time favorite adventures. It's the perfect mix of fantasy and horror and is Pirates of the Caribbean meets the King in Yellow. Plus, Freeport can be easily dropped into just about any setting. 

The pdf is roughly 40 pages (which is about 10 more than the original version if I remember correctly). They layout and art are all fantastic, which is a staple of Freeport releases. 

Ther pdf is broken down as follows

• Freeport background - 4 pages
• Adventure - 14 pages, for levels 1-3 
• Appendix - 16 pages

Men & Monsters of Polynesia is a monster source book by Skirmisher Games. The pdf is 22 pages, though only about 15 are actual game content or background information behind the design. Illustrations were created by by Travis Hanson and they are phenomenal! The book is OSR and the stats are provided for 1e D&D, though could be easily adapted to other editions. Obviously, the creatures included are based on legends and things from the islands of Polynesia, specifically Oahu, Hawaii, Kauai, Bora Bora, Moorea, Tahiti, and both the main islands of New Zealand.

Before proper stats are given to the new creatures, there's discussion of guardian animals and divine creatures, important concepts in many Polynesian cultures. There's also discussion about how to make them using existing animals and such. This is followed by a random encounters table (because every old school monster book has one, right?) and then the "monster manual" proper. In addition to the new monsters presented here, existing MM monsters that are fitting to the setting are mentioned.

Here's a quick run down of the new monsters:

• Boar, Monstrous - gigantic destructive beast touched by the divine
• Green Lady - an evil undead spirit of a mother that's lost or even slain their own children
•  Kawekaweau and Kawekaweau, Giant - island geckos, the smaller aren't normally aggressive but the giant variety can be
• Kupua E'epa - were sharks
• Kumi - large monitor lizards bites that can cause awful infections
• Maero - man-size woodland troll-kin (these are the creatures on the cover
• Menehune - island demihumans who were the original inhabitants of Lemuria
• Mo'o - female guardian creatures of natural sites, their natural form is a man-sized lizard
• Night Marcher - undead warriors who rise from the graves at certain times of their year and can draw others into their marches
• Tiki Statues (Wood and Stone) - Tiki are spirits that serve the gods and can be drawn into statues of stone or wood to protect sacred sites.
• Weta, Monstrous - heavily armored spikey giant crickets
• Weta, Workshop - intelligent spell casting giant crickets and a nice joke

The monsters are well designed and if you want to include some non-standard European inspired monsters you can't go wrong with this one. If you're running a pirate game such as Freeport, Skull & Shackles, or Razor Coast, this would be really good to have.

Normally a 1.99, its currently only .99 because of the Christmas in July sale.

The Mermaid's Blessing is a new 5th edition adventure for a party of 5 to 6 5th to 6th level characters. The party is summoned to a poor island nation (that has a pirate connection so you know I'm sold), by an old friend that's unwittingly unleashed an aquatic evil onto the island. The party has to find a way to defeat it and save the day.

The adventure is designed to be played in 5-6 sessions and sounds pretty cool to me (especially as someone that loves pirates and ocean adventures). It will include many interesting NPC's and monsters (including some new monsters), new magic items, eight full-color maps. A new Warlock patron for NPC's and villainous religion is also a part of the adventure, which has definitely piqued my interest.

From what I picked up from the adventure's description there are many ways to add this to existing settings.  Of course the first place my mind goes is to the world of Freeport. The island could be between Freeport and the mainland. Zaltara could be a part of  the Nelanther  Isle. It could just as easily be an isolated island in the Trackless Sea. In Greyhawk, I'd say its somewhere in the Azure Sea.

The adventure is written and edited. The modest $500 dollar goal (which is 70% funded at the time of the post)  is to pay for additional art, maps, layout, and design. The adventure is already written and fully edited. There are 23 days (again as of the time of this post) for it to be funded. I'd love to see it hit its various stretch goals so that the city and island could be expanded. Even if it's not though, this one sounds like a lot of fun to me. This project is definitely getting my gold pieces and I think you should check it out too.

We're in the last hours of the Shadow of the Demon Lord Freeport Companion. Shadow of the Demon Lord is great and Freeport is also great, so think of this as the ultimate peanut butter and chocolate together sanity destroying combo. If you want to get into the game, this is a optimal time. Every product in the game's catalog are available as add-ons at a reduced cost.

The Shadow of the Demon Lord Freeport Companion Kickstarter is live and funded. This is a great time to pic up pdf's of previous books too (most of which are half-price in the add-ons section).

The stretch goals are pretty sweet. The first is a SotDL update to the classic Freeport Trilogy. The Second is Beyond the World's Edge, a 32 page expansion that details strange and bizarre islands. The third is Tales of the Pirate Isles which contains three one session adventures. The final stretch goal is the Demon Lords Companion 2, which if it's in anything like the first, will be an amazing addition to any SotDL game.

Are you a player of Shadow of the Demon Lord and curious about the content? Here are some some pages from the companion (which are not final layout, but contain some nice crunchy bits).

Growing up The Pirates of Dark Water was one of those shows I loved. Here's the show's premise:

The alien planet of Mer is being devoured by an evil substance known as Dark Water. Only the brave (and inexperienced) prince, Ren and his allies can stop it by find the Thirteen Treasures of Rule. His allies in a monkey-bird, a pirate, and an eco-mancer. They travel the water surface of Mer looking for the relics in their ship, the Wraith, all the while being chased by the evil pirate lord, Bloth, and his massive ship the Maelstrom.

The show had a great style and unlike many cartoons at the time, a serious plot. I think it would make a great setting for a Shadow of the Demon Lord game. What if the Dark Water was actually the Demon Lord's shadow on the world? I'm sure just about everything a person would need to run this game will be in the Shadow of the Demon Lord Freeport Companion. Well, except monkey-birds, which would be a fun ancestry.

What do you think? Do you remember this show? Ever use elements of it in your game?

+Robert Schwalb has released his first preview of the upcoming Shadow of the Demon Lord Freeport Companion. One of the new expert paths in the book the celebrant looks like a lot of fun.

A devotee of the unpredictable pirate god, One-Eyed Pete, the celebrant is the best kind of cultist. These pirates are trouble makers that seek to find treasure and booze to placate their chaotic patron.

The celebrant path's abilities all hinge on him being wasted on rum or another pirate-y spirit. They become impaired but take less damage and are capable of doing other feats while influence by that famous old spiced. In addition, they get some pirate appropriate magic.

I have to say, the first taste of Freeport SotDL-style is quite awesome. Keep your eye out for more pirate-Demon Lord shenanigans here and remember the kickstarter is supposed to launch in less than a week (March 1st).

+Robert Schwalb has announced that Shadow of the Demon Lord is getting the Freeport treatment which is one of the (many) things persuaded me to pick up the game. I found this picture and it made me think of a swashbuckler with clockwork ancestry.

Pirate Robot by Angel Diaz