Spicy food made from big cows

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

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

5e creature idea – living weather

Eberron has living spells, magical emanations that have somehow gained sentience through some strange arcane twist, and now roam the landscape causing mayhem. I've seen suggestions of living breath weapons having the same twist - dragon's breath that's gained a will of its own, and now travels about causing mischief. I've been watching some old … Continue reading 5e creature idea – living weather

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

Adventurous Locales

I've been trying to come up with some more interesting places to stick adventures, similar to Sigil in scope though not purpose. My City of Sunsets post sort of inspired this, as did all of my digging into Sigil (such as most recently) and other planar locations. I need to hash out the ideas a … Continue reading Adventurous Locales

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

Belated promotion of a new product

So, there was no blog post last Saturday...No reason, I just forgot to write one. I was clearly too busy celebrating having published a new product on DMsGuild! Utility Tattoos is a series of 18 magical tattoos, using the rules presented in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, but focused on cantrips and tools, and minor magical … Continue reading Belated promotion of a new product

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