I'll be streaming Thousand Year Vampire & Descent Into Avernus design work tonight @ 6:30pm CDT!

(I usually stream Wednesday nights, but we're shifting to tonight this week due to a scheduling conflict.) Image
Thousand Year Vampire is an incredibly cool solo storytelling game chronicling the life of an immortal vampire. Image
You can catch up on our first session of Thousand Year Vampire here!

twitch.tv/videos/1164528…
Stream starting now!

twitch.tv/thealexandrian
Switching to Design an Adventure with the Alexandrian Remix of Avernus! Image

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More from @hexcrawl

28 Oct
@MTBlack2567 There's other stuff you can do, too.

For example, Special Interest XP (which partially tied PCs gaining XP to them spending GP on civic projects) had the incredible result of having 1st level characters founding a meadery, building shrines, etc.

thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4094…

(1/)
@MTBlack2567 Colville did "run realm to get cool abilities you can use during adventures." The results tended to be dissociated, but were an interesting carrot.

I think you might want to go the other way: Add realm-oriented abilities that characters get automatically when leveling up.

(2/)
@MTBlack2567 OD&D and 1E did this to some degree, with characters automatically attracting followers, etc. But if you give players cool toys, they WILL go poke at the thing that lets them use them.

(3/)
Read 5 tweets
27 Oct
Let's get this straight: The original Buzz Lightyear is from the animated series in Universe T1 and was voiced by Patrick Warburton.

In Universe T1 the series was a huge hit and they made Buzz toys, one of which was bought by Andy's mom (she's got it going on).
We can film events in Universe T1, but only through Pixar's proprietary transdimensional LIDAR sensors. That's how the documentaries Toy Story 1, 2, 3, and 4 were filmed.
Pixar could also record audio, but not 2D images. So they recorded the audio from the original animated series and then re-animated it for UPN & ABC.
Read 7 tweets
15 Apr
I think someone saying that any beer that isn't Budweiser is a homebrew is weird.

I also think someone saying that Budweiser IS a homebrew is weird.

But when it comes to D&D, the term "homebrew" is in a really weird place right now.
First: "Homebrew" inherently carries the meaning of an amateur effort made for private enjoyment.

Its meaning when applied to the RPG or video game communities has evolved over time, but it's not a term that originated with those communities. It has a dictionary definition.
Arneson creating the first roleplaying game in his basement? Probably homebrew.

Gygax buying the rights to that game, revamping it with Arneson, professionally publishing it, and turning it into a multi-million dollar brand? Definitely not homebrew.

Read 28 tweets
19 Feb
There's definitely a place for "we're done with that now, here's a spell so you can stop thinking about it and focus on new stuff" abilities that create tiers of adventure.

But, of course, 5E isn't built for tiered adventures.
Let's start by looking at how this worked in previous editions.

thealexandrian.net/wordpress/7632…
The DMG talks about different "tiers" of adventure in which "their ability to change the world around them grows," but this is all window-dressing.

In terms of structure and mechanics, the tiers are basically defined entirely by which Monster Manual stat blocks you're fighting.
Read 11 tweets
19 Feb
My biggest gripe about 5E #DnD is that it often models specialization by trivializing the associated actions.

If you're interested in X, you design a character who's good at X. But the result isn't doing more X. It's that X becomes automatic and is no longer part of the game.
Take #TombOfAnnihilation, for example. A big chunk of the campaign is mounting a wilderness expedition into the heart of darkness!

If that's exciting for you, you'll pick a character class that can really contribute to that part of the campaign! Rangers and druids, for example.
ToA models the challenges of the expedition through travel speed, a Navigation check, and Dehydration.

A Ranger's Natural Explorer ability eliminates travel speed variation and auto-succeeds on the Navigation check.

The Druid has a 1st level spell to create water.
Read 7 tweets
16 Sep 20
Live-tweeting reactions to #IcewindDale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, but trying something different: I'll have one thread of stuff I didn't like (this one) and another thread of stuff I did (link below).
As with previous live-tweeting threads and Remixes, my emphasis here will not be "this bad, me hate"; expect critical thinking and in-depth discussions of scenario structures and best DM practices.
Read 37 tweets

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