Sean Does Games

I love music. Lucky for me then that what feels like a limitless archive touching on every genre is readily available through any of the numerous streaming services (both free and for pay) that are out there. I do not hesitate to take advantage of that access. Not a day goes by where I don’t listen to music of some kind for at least a couple hours, whether while working, during my commute, or just to unwind at home. (As I'm editing this, I'm listening to Funkadelic.) In many ways, music is the backdrop of my life. So, it should be no surprise that I can’t resist playing background music while I’m running a roleplaying game. I don't do this just  for my own amusement. When handled correctly, music in an RPG can enrich the events that unfold at the table, conjuring a feeling of dread when entering an unexplored lair, quickening the heart during a combat sequence, or lifting the spirit for an honored celebration. When mishandled, music can be a distraction, pulling playe...

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...

Hello all. Well, another two weeks has zipped by and here I am once again with another gnome non-player character. This is a divine prankster, a gnome prestige class that appeared in Races of Stone , by David Noonan, Jesse Decker, and Michelle Lyons (2004).  Enjoy! Trickfinger Folkor ( TRICK-fin-ger FOLL-core ) "Pull my finger." Trickfinger (CG) is a mercurial, 167-year-old male forest gnome who delights in and excels at imparting wisdom through harmlessly devious pranks. Though a high-ranked cleric of Garl Glittergild, he claims no direct affiliation with any specific temple; neither does he call any one burrow his home. Rather, he sees himself as belonging to all temples and to all burrows, traveling only where Glittergold leads and staying only for as long as Glittergold wills. He offers the usual cleric services wherever he goes but he specializes in the “noble-has-no-clothes” and the “too-big-for-one’s-nose” life lessons. These lessons always come in the f...

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...