Me: My Dragonborn pulls out her symbol and tells the party that she’s a cleric.
Unknowing to the party, her deity is Tiamat. Her symbol looks like a 3 pointed star with some dragon heads designed on each extension. It represents this diety as there’s a flat painting of a white and a black dragon. Their heads and necks chase each around the circle in a clockwise direction much like a yin and yang illustration in the middle of the amulet while 3 other different colored dragon heads protrude on their own facing the same direction clockwise. The outer heads are embossed and sculpted with fine detail rendering three different dragons about 100 degrees apart as their necks meet at the center circle with the two black and white dragons. This strange object glistens as it’s being shown to the party while they pander about it’s significance.
The party seems to be understanding what I’m explaining as I add one more horrific detail to make it painfully clear.
My cleric holds the middle of the symbol between her thumb and pointer finger, flicks the symbol with her other hand and the 3 dragon heads spin for a very long time. And then almost at the same time the players realize the shocking truth.
Party: IS YOUR CLERICS’ SYMBOL A FIDGET SPINNER?!
Me: Yes
Tag: dnd
There are a lot of candidates out there for the best dungeon
dive, but for me, none measures up to Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. There
may be better dungeons out there, sure, but I doubt any portray the boundless
potential of Dungeons & Dragons like Barrier Peaks.That’s mainly because in this case, the dungeon is actually a
downed space ship, full of robots, ray guns and aliens. And boy are the
monsters – or space aliens, I guess – totally weird and surprising (Froghemoth!
Wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing!). Lawrence Schick (who wrote the amazing White Plume
Mountain) recalls that Gary Gygax was in “full-on funhouse mode” with Barrier
Peaks and it shows.It is an old-style module, focusing on combat and traps to
test players rather than characters and narrative, but boy, I can’t imagine how
people reacted to playing it back in 1976. Robots? In Dungeons & Dragons? We’re
allowed to do that?That’s exactly what Expedition to Barrier Peaks is: an
invitation for DMs and Players to do anything and everything they ever wanted.
And that’s why it is so special.The elaborate art booklet illustrating rooms and monsters is
also a big appeal (though Tomb of Horrors also had a similar visual component).
The images I’ve selected are all by the legendary Erol Otus except the wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing
(there are no clear credits aside of Gygax [typical], so I’ve no way on knowing
the artist).So, that’s my favorite dungeon. What’s yours?
Old Gus’ Thunderdome – Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild
It’s live! We have officially released this adventure as a pay-what-you-want product on DMsGuild! Honestly, just take it for free. Please! Included is everything you need to run the adventure in 5th edition, minus the core rulebooks!
For our Dungies, we hope you enjoy this, and if you run it, let us know how it goes! We only ask that you rate and review the product if you end up using it, as those kinds of things can help us gain exposure and get more fans and listeners! Thanks for all you do! We love you!
Bringing this back around. I helped write this free and silly adventure, and you checking it out would be super awesome!
Old Gus’ Thunderdome – Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild
Some of the new items from my fave D&D NPC’s refurbished Slightly-Cursed Items Shop, in which she sells my players items ranging from effectively useless to legitimately deadly – but always entertaining. Feel free to use these tragedies!
Edit: Here’s some more!
Way more accurate D&D Alignments
This is absolutely the alternate alignment spectrum used by some players
I’ve been listening to too much critical role
to be fair bard is the best class to play as when you just don’t care
Somewhere in my Persona 3 tag is a ficlet I wrote once about the part of Persona 3 where their original DM tried to pull a Rocks Fall Everyone Dies, but Aegis’s Warforged Paladin made her will save to resist mind control and had her paladin’s mount, Cerberus, bullrush the high priest off a cliff and he ended up storming out.
*During a series of puzzles where each player gets a puzzle especially designed for them*
DM: “in the next room, you see 4 doors before you numbered 6, 7, 8, & 9. Two doors are fake. one holds a terrible beast, the other? safe passage to the next stage”
Tank: “well 9 is obviously fake because seven ate nine”
*door 9 disappears*
Tank: “…and so is 6 because six seven ate”
*door 6 vanishes*
Tank: “The monster is probably behind door 7 because it keeps cannibalizing his friends”
*door 8 unlocks and opens. No monster*
D4 Long Rest Encounters
Not everything that approaches camp is trying to kill the characters. There are encounters that the character on watch may let their companions sleep through.
Roll on the table for your encounter in the night.
1) Pixie Mischief: A pixie sneaks into camp to paint one of the sleeping characters faces. Their magical pigments are permanent until the next new moon. The pixie does not try to hide from anyone on guard.
2) Flight of Light:A flight of migratory butterflies known as the starlight glisten overhead in the moonlight. Those that gaze upon it are filled with inspiration.
3) Satyr’s Lullaby: The person on guard hears a satyr playing its pan pipes before seeing it. The satyr is playing a comforting lullaby that seems to sooth those sleeping. The satyr encourages the person on guard to sleep too. It is willing to watch over them. THe next morning the satyr is gone, but a fresh breakfast has been made for them. They gain 10 temporary hit points from the relaxing sleep.
4) Hungy Bear: A sick and hungry brown bear lumbers quietly into camp looking for food. At any sign of danger it will flee. If the bear is treated with any level of sympathy it will become a loyal pet of the characters.
Plot Designing 