Sean Does Games

A Collection of Gnome Encounters You'll Not Soon Forget I've been putting together some adventure hooks that center on gnomes. They're suitable for any fantasy role playing game, but let's face it these are really for Dungeons and Dragons campaigns. They can be used either as side quests or as full story arcs. Here's the first ten encounters. Once I reach one hundred, I want to collect them into a single publication (with additional information on how to use each one) and put them up on the DMs Guild. So, any feedback is always appreciated. The Encounters (1-10) The doors into a gnome burrow are wide open. Orange and green smoke pours from the entrance and escapes through dozens of concealed vents scattered across the landscape. A deep, rhythmic growl rattles the ground and nearly drowns out the high pitched screech of an alarm and cries for help from within. A traveling gnome artificer is selling magical goods from the back of a wagon alongside th...

This is just a short blog. Sorry. This is just a short blog for a few reasons. First, I finally got around to playing Mass Effect: Andromeda and -- surprise -- it's consuming my free time from the inside out. This point could actually spin out to "media" in general, especially podcasts. Sure, The Adventure Zone wrapped up (THE FEELS), but a new story is on its way. I also listen to Mission Log (Star Trek related), Sawbones , Nerdist , WTF , Gnomeland Security , and a few others. Netflix binge-watching is also a wonderful time sink! (Isn't the new season of Stranger Things coming soon?) Second, life. Stuff happens and it takes time and effort to resolve. Work takes a huge bite out of the day. Gym takes some time too. Family. Friends. Sick dog. Yada yada yada. Third, gaming. The Skyfell campaign I'm running looks like it will be starting back up on a more reliable basis so I've been thinking about and prepping for that. Also, there's the Infini...

Character Concept Package The character concept package is a collection of backgrounds, feats, equipment, and other role playing ideas related to a single concept. Materials in a package can be used by any character of any class. Though a particular concept might be race related, they can generally be used by any race as well. This is the third package I've posted to my blog (the first was for a  toy maker  and the second was the rocktender ) beta testing and feedback. Eventually, I'll be publishing a final product on  DMsGuild . I look forward to constructive feedback. Goblin Sticker* Background They came at night. They swarmed your burrow. They crushed its protectors. They slaughtered the defenseless. You don't remember how you managed to escape the massacre. You used to try, of course, in a desperate attempt to explain your own survival. But those moments had a will of their own. They revealed themselves without warning as disconnected, stinging flas...

Character Concept Package The character concept package is a collection of backgrounds, feats, equipment, and other role playing ideas related to a single concept. Materials in a package can be used by any character of any class. Though a particular concept might be race related, they can generally be used by any race as well. This is the second package I've posted to my blog (the first was for a toy maker ) beta testing and feedback. Eventually, I'll be publishing a final product on  DMsGuild . I look forward to constructive feedback. Gnome Rocktender * Background Rock and stone are not merely a resource to be harvested or treasures to be hoarded. They are ancient entities who form the foundation of the world. From an early age, you intuitively understood this. Perhaps that's why you spent most of your childhood studying and meditating upon the geology in and around your burrow. And why, when those familiar benefactors could teach you no more, you set out ...

When I wrote  Epic Gnomish Inventing  for Dungeons and Dragons 5e, I tried to balance overall cost of the gadget, its stability, and its relative difficulty to build and maintain so that both the DM and player would find it fair and useful. The worse possible outcome for me was to end up with rules that made it prohibitively difficult, costly, dangerous, or boring to create a gadget when compared to, say, a magic item with the same capabilities. The difficulty was in finding a sweet spot that was fair for every possible gadget players might come up with. For example, it would be unacceptable if the "charges" of a rifle cost 50GP, a ridiculous sum compare to other weapons. On the other hand, it would be equally unbalanced for a much stronger (or epic) invention such as a flying machine to be rechargeable for only 5GP. The task wasn't easy and there was much gnashing of teeth as I flipped back and forth trying to find said spot of sweetness. The final result works wel...

Tales about everyone's first dungeon-mastering experience have been popping up on Twitter lately. It's really been too long for me to remember the details of my first attempts so it has been fun reading the stories of fellow gamers. This past week, I even had the privilege of witnessing my daughter run her first Dungeons and Dragons 5e game. Well, to be honest, this wasn't her first attempt. Her first try was a couple of years back. It didn't go well. The players were a mix of junior-high boys and girls. Most of them were only partially interested in the game. After a series of unfortunate events, YouTube was on, the phones were out, and the game was forgotten. My daughter was understandably disappointed. She wanted to play. I agreed to run a campaign for her and any of her friends who still wanted to give it a try. That campaign is still going, albeit intermittently. It even involves another parent. My daughter was (and still is) grateful, but she couldn'...

I've been toying around with the idea of blogging some tips on managing initiative in a D&D 5e game. Given the July 10th release of Unearthed Arcana's  Greyhawk Initiative , I thought now might be a good time to go ahead and do just that. Hopefully, other readers will chime in and add their ideas as well in the comments. Natural 20s and Natural 1s I am a really big fan of the concept of Natural 20s and Natural 1s in 5e. For those not familiar with D&D, you use a 1d20 for almost every roll you make to accomplish a task (adding any appropriate bonuses you might have to the result). Rolling a 1 on the d20 is referred to as a natural 1. It is always a failure. Well, it's not just a failure. It's a particularly BAD failure. Rolling a 20 on the d20 is a natural 20. It's not just a guaranteed success but a particularly stylish, interesting, or down-right awe-inspiring success worth bragging home about. Sure, there are game mechanics that are affected by ...