Sean Does Games

I spend a lot of time on my blog talking about and providing content for Dungeons and Dragons . I do actually play other games though. So I thought it was time to post about a few of the ones I play the most often and maybe get others to give them a try! I’m going to start with my favorite.  The Art of Chill Bob Ross - The Art of Chill Bob Ross  was a painter and host of an art-instruction program called The Joy of Painting (1983 to 1994) that originally aired on PBS . In each half-hour episode, Bob completed a painting all the while providing instructions, tips, and life advice in a soft, friendly voice. Watching an episode is like slipping into a meditative state where a “charming cabin” lazes about with “happy little trees” beneath “fluffy clouds.” A state where, “There are no mistakes, only happy accidents.” The Man, The Myth, The Legend Since his death, Bob, his work, and his quotes have experienced a resurgence of pop culture popularity. Twitch kicke...

I’ve been thinking about glitches for the gadgets in my Epic Gnomish Inventing supplement. The rules as they are now are very much focused on practical mechanics. There’s nothing wrong with this; some folks like concrete rules to follow and I wrote those glitch rules with that in mind. I like storytelling. For me, it’s the most important creative element in any RPG. I already use natural 1s and natural 20s as story elements whenever I DM. It only makes sense that gadget glitches should be treated in the same way. Really, what could be more capable of injecting unpredictable events into a game than a gnome invention gone amuck? I mean, they are perfect for those sorts of shenanigans. To that end, I’ve been toying around with this idea of narrative glitches. Like the dreaded natural 1s, narrative glitches introduce new elements or creative complications into the game that make life a little more challenging for the characters. It’s even possible for a gadget to achieve the desi...

Like other DMs and GMs, I have a set of recurring locales that appear in just about every campaign I've run. Some even cross genres and are updated accordingly but the core concept, NPCs, and purpose remain the same.  In a previous blog post, I wrote about Skyfell, one of my homebrew campaign settings. In this post, I'm writing about the WhatNot Shop, a store that appears in that and other settings. I've even used this store as the backdrop to some of my DMs Guild offerings (see the links below). I hope you enjoy this locale. Feel free to use it in your own homebrew campaigns and let me know if you do. The WhatNot Shop The WhatNot Shop is a lopsided building in the heart of Garrison Market. It’s easy enough to spot. Just look for a place where a hodgepodge of architectural elements have been slammed into each other with the ceremonial pomp and forethought of the tail-end of an all-night pub crawl. Given its appearance, it’s quite understandable that the reactio...

Here's another gnome NPC to use in your campaigns. Enjoy! Sourwind Hedskor (sour-WIND HEAD-score) “Separately, any one of these components could strip the skin off your face in a heartbeat. Combine them in exact proportions and you get a bracing beverage that will tickle your nose and make you the life of any party. Wait! Did I already add the toe-wort?" Sourwind (NG) is an awkward, 52-year-old, female rock gnome who channels the energy that most gnomes spend on socializing, eating, and pranking into alchemical research and experimentation instead. She runs a cluttered alchemist’s shop called Potions Plus where she concocts a variety of intoxicants, restoratives, fragrances, and other alchemical curiosities. Some are effective. Some are hokum. A small number are quite popular and always in demand. Almost all were accidental discoveries. Sourwind and her siblings all suffer from silent but particularly foul flatulence, the unfortunate result of an unwise prank he...