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Here is a small map from my sketchbook of an old, decrepit wall that runs through the middle of a forest. You can download it below in color on in line art, with a grid and without a grid.
I tried some different things with the colors and did some Dyson style shading on it.
We have a short encounter for the map we will be writing up to go along with this map. Hope you get some use out of it.
Alternate Dropbox Links:
Last week Mike Mearls posted the following on twitter:
Gave myself a design challenge for GaryCon - create a system whereby rolling 3d6 once generates a complete 5e character.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) March 1, 2016
It seemed like a fun challenge, so while it's not in time for GaryCon, we took a stab at it. The original version was rough...
But we got enough interest on twitter that it seemed like it might be a useful tool to people playing quick pick up games or maybe even for DMs who wanted to keep some characters in their back pocket for their own uses, such as when you have a player show up you didn't expect and don't want to get too bogged down in character creation.
So, we've produced a new version for DMsguild that not only has a much more refined look and art to it, but also incorporates alignment and backgrounds!
Note that it isn't completely random, but it does have some nice advantages:
Finally, we also generated 100 characters using this method, so even if you don't have dice, you can still pick one of those at random (or just pick one, whatever works for you).
Hopefully this is useful to you, let us know any feedback!
In honor of GM's Day, and in celebration of the release of Curse of Strahd from Wizards of the Coast we put together an encounter based on the map I posted earlier in the week.
The Boatman's Dog is a low level encounter for 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons inspired by Ravenloft but can be set in the Frogotten Realms or your homebrew campgain.
Designing the encounter, we wanted something that was a little dark but could be scaled to fit the tone of your campaign. We came up with Angus Thickheel, a charismatic chef and proprietor of the encounter's namesake, The Boatman's Dog inn. He can be played as a greedy, sinister character, or more lighthearted, inadverntently disturbing, bumbling type of character.
If your players get to visit "The Dog" they will meet the colorful locals, and have a chance to find out if the rumors are true: that guests of the inn go missing, and end up in the stew.
So, this is the first subclass release from Broken Knives. We as a company were really excited by the dmsguild and OGL news posted in January!
We've decided to use dmsguild to the fullest. Posting our files there not only allows us to serve a larger audience, but also allows us to easily notify people of revisions and collect feedback on the quality of our products. Speaking of quality, we think that dmsguild has a huge potential to change Dungeon's and Dragons as we know it. So we've decided to not go in halfway. We aren't a big company. We're a couple of dudes that like playing and designing games. Still, we have decided to make an investment in all the products we're placing in dmsguild.
Which brings us to our first subclass release: The Path of the Consumed barbarian subclass.
Our plan is to release the actual subclass on dmsguild.com, which you can find here. The blog will be used to discuss some of the thought and design processes behind the subclass.
Let's start with the basic idea of the subclass. The Path of the Consumed is a barbarian based a character that is driven by an inner darkness within him that compels him toward carnage on the battlefield. Part of the description we gave the artist was:
“Massively built in terms of muscles, with battle scars on his visible flesh and his cheeks and face hollow.”
We wanted the character to look powerful, but at the same time haggard as if the dark force within him was taking a toll.
The hallmark feature of The Path of the Consumed barbarian is his Consuming Rage ability. He is able to deal damage to himself in order to increase his damage output. This is not an idea new to D&D, and this particular implementation was partially inspired by the bloodclaw weapons of 4E. We tried to make sure that this ability, while it does scale, does not overshadow the berserker subclass's damage output.
The second ability Threatening Demand is a supernatural expression of murderous intent by the barbarian. This is reflected in an ability that allows him to be intimidating at a level well beyond a simple skill check. Interestingly, it also gives rage an out of combat use.
The next ability Morbid Glee reflects the zeal the barbarian feels on the battlefield and gives him a mobility boost after dispatching an enemy.
The capstone feature of the class at 14th level Unstoppable Malice ensures that when the barbarian is raging he is unstoppable for anything short of death.
We also want to not only give the players options, but to give the subclass some substance in the world. To that end, we included a brief description of Thoregar Stonebreaker, an NPC that follows the Path of the Consumed. His description also includes an adventure hook that a DM might use.
We really hope you enjoy our first release and look forward to any feedback!
Here is a generic inn from my sketchbook to use in your game. You can download it in two flavors: full color or line art. There are grid and no grid versions for both. The file will print to give you 1" squares if you are using minis or tokens. I hope you get some use from this map.
Later this week we will release a short encounter for 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons that uses this map, so stay tuned for that.
