I've been particularly negligent in my promo duties for MY FIRST KICKSTARTER! I am working on Fantasy Feasting, a cookbook / sourcebook (a saucebook!) for D&D 5e - though we'll be going with less of their branding later as it's OGL.I had the pleasure to collaborate on Luis A. Amaya's recipe for Dire Cow Enchilada … Continue reading Spicy food made from big cows
Category: writing
Adventure seed – twilight caverns
I have another idea for an adventure brewing, although currently it's pretty early days. I was thinking about the caverns in the Elder Scrolls games, and how they're never entirely pitch black despite being deep underground. There's always a useful beam of light or small, high gap in a ceiling - never mid the inhabited … Continue reading Adventure seed – twilight caverns
Keeping on top of things
In recent months, I've been pretty bad at keeping to my regular weekly updates. I'm hoping to get back on track shortly when I have a bit more time, but after heading back to the office at the start of the year, I've lost a lot of my free time to commuting! There's a lot … Continue reading Keeping on top of things
A D&D Reward Chart
We recently picked up a sticker reward chart for our toddler, hoping that it would help motivate him to tidy up after himself, brush his teeth, and take medicine. So far the allure of shiny Paw Patrol stickers is all we've needed to get some more willingness from him for those activities (playing All I … Continue reading A D&D Reward Chart
Quirks of a City at the Centre of the Planes
I've been thinking a bit about how being at the centre of everything might affect Sigil, specifically how cosmopolitan it might get. A lot of big cities in the real world have established ethnic communities and imported cuisine, chances for fusion cooking, and unique ways of doing things like architecture, art, customs or even laws … Continue reading Quirks of a City at the Centre of the Planes
Mundane magic item ideas
I'm writing a product based on the Adventuring Gear table from the Player's Handbook. The general idea is to write some useful magic items that are based on mundane equipment. Here are a few samples, from a list of 30 or so that I'm working on. Collapsible LadderWondrous item, rareThe collapsible ladder looks like two … Continue reading Mundane magic item ideas
A Feywild Bundle
I haven't had any time to do any writing this week, for one reason or another: a return to full-time office work after 18 months working from home or on short shifts and a sick toddler mostly. What I do have to report though is that a community bundle that I contributed to has gone … Continue reading A Feywild Bundle
Soul-forged blades
I've been giving some thought to a 5e magic item based on the sword from Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, based mostly on the idea of a magic item that's powered by psionic forces in some way rather than a physical item.Here's what I've come up with so far: Soul-forged BladeWeapon (varies), rare (requires attunement)A … Continue reading Soul-forged blades
And a Happy New Year!
Not much to report - I haven't had a lot of writing time over the festive period, between spending time with family and having a toddler catch covid! In the meantime, I've done a bit more writing on the Hall of the Red Earl, and played around with a new Raspberry Pi (so I might … Continue reading And a Happy New Year!
Magical mundane items
I started thinking of a new idea for all kinds of magic items.Take the list of Adventuring Gear from the equipment section of the Player's Handbook, and then just come up with magical versions of each item (disregarding ammunition, holy symbols, and druid and spell focuses). I'm surprised there aren't more of these already available … Continue reading Magical mundane items
A series of rejected sequel titles
One year on, and my biggest moneymaker is still A Town Called Mud: The Haunted Mine. It has yet to reach a bestseller medal though.I've thought long and hard in the intervening year about how to write a sequel, or a prequel, or just another western-inspired adventure, but I've not managed to come up with … Continue reading A series of rejected sequel titles
And they say creativity doesn’t pay
I have now been published on DMsGuild (and DrivethruRPG) for a full year.My total earnings for that time are... Drum roll please... $180.13.(And I've actually made almost two more dollars the very next day from collaborations too, but let's ignore that.) I'm pretty terrible for advertising what I've written and don't often go back to … Continue reading And they say creativity doesn’t pay
Slowvember
So, currently, I won't be releasing a new adventure in November. I'm currently hoping to get everything together for The Hall of the Red Earl to have it ready in December. Between my birthday, seeing my parents for the first time in almost two years, and having a lot of late toddler bedtimes, building time … Continue reading Slowvember
Skip week
I'm seeing my parents this weekend for the first time since February 2020. So I'm busy cleaning out the room I write in to make it a functional guestroom and not the place we store stuff.(By the time you read this, it will be too late and they'll be staying in the room. Hopefully it … Continue reading Skip week
Ideas for D&D using cryptids
OK, let's get the definition of cryptid out of the way first for those that don't know it:"an animal whose existence or survival is disputed or unsubstantiated, such as the yeti." So I recently saw call for writing/design collaboration around non-Eurocentric lines, and with an effort to focus on the writer/designer's own cultural mythology.I'm a … Continue reading Ideas for D&D using cryptids
RPG Adventure Writer’s Workshop Fall 2021
Last year, for the month of November, I took part in the RPG Adventure Writer's Workshop, hosted by what is now Storytelling Collective. It was a lot of fun, and I learnt a lot from it - and it's given me the chance to write some more things for other people to read. But I … Continue reading RPG Adventure Writer’s Workshop Fall 2021
Barok’s Miscellany of Dragonblood
Last week, I talked about old editions of D&D I'd been mining for ideas for my new product.On Wednesday, I published Barok's Miscellany of Dragonblood for $5 on DMsGuild. Let's take a look at what I ended up writing.The contents of the Miscellany are for both players and dungeon masters, with character options and monsters … Continue reading Barok’s Miscellany of Dragonblood
Revisiting old editions to mine for ideas
I've spent a little while recently going over some old books I have to mine them for publishable content, specifically (because October brings all sorts of dragon-y delights with Fizban's Treasury of Dragons) I've been looking at a lot of old dragon-based books: the dragon sections of old Monster Manuals, old Draconomicons, and the 3rd … Continue reading Revisiting old editions to mine for ideas
Creating a Feywild Domain
If you've missed it, Wizards of the Coast released an add-on for The Wild Beyond the Witchlight that allows you to create your own Domain of Delight following their guidelines. There are a lot of random tables, but overall it helped with some creative prompts for me. I pitched to a collection of domains that's … Continue reading Creating a Feywild Domain
More fey character options
A few afters after last week's post went live, I finally managed to publish my warlock patrons supplement Puckish Patrons (I updated the post when it went live, but here's the link again). And then, over the next few days, I published two more books. So here's the synopsis of the other two! The Grimalkin … Continue reading More fey character options
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