Table Fiction

Check out my new blog: Table Fiction.

It covers fiction that I write, along with world fluff and game mechanics so that you can bring my worlds to life at your gaming table.

Dungeon Master Game Notes: Outcasts of Byr, Session 1

I thought it would be interesting to see what everyone's DM notes looked like. Maybe we can learn from each other? Perhaps we can "ooo" and "ah" at each other's genius. Perhaps we can look at wonder at how someone's notes could ever translate into a playable game session. I'm curious!

Below are the beginning game notes for the current session we are playing. I will have to censor some of these because I never know who will see some of the spoilers sooner than intended. The top half is the world notes. Some of it is still intact and it sets the background for the current campaign. This all used an early playtest packet of the D&D Next Open Playtest.

Everything below was ALL I had written down to begin Game Session 1. I had two players at the time. One was playing a changeling rogue and a warforged fighter (both races homebrewed), and the other was playing a dwarf cleric and a human rogue.

Marvel Hero-brew: New Suit Milestone

A few weeks back, we played the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying game and I took the role of the Suit, master of the old Atlantean magiks (spelled with a 'k' because that means it's old). During play, I barely managed to earn a single experience point. Ergo, I have created a new Milestone to fit the character so that he can grow faster than the snail's pace. This will take the place of the In Sheep's Clothing milestone until the time comes for the Suit to begin to open up to his allies and the world.

Reluctant Savior of Humanity

"These apes are like children. They need guidance, protection, and parenting. Unfortunately, I'm the only one that can do it."
1XP...when you go out of your way to protect an innocent human.
3XP...when you gain stress up to d10 while protecting an innocent human.
10XP...when you no longer reluctantly protect those who need it, or when you give up on the apes forever.

This milestone was created for use in the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying game by Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd.

Marvel Hero-brew: The Suit

This character exists in a universe wherein the Atlanteans and the Mu Empire wiped each other out in our prehistory. The two cultures had similar themes of mixing magic with technology and used those abilities to sink each other into their respective oceans.

D'Rin Tarengal was a young Atlantean nobleman learning to become an arcane-technician when the Cataclysm began. He was placed in cryostasis...and awoke in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in the modern age, grasping to the lid of the stasis chamber to remain afloat. He would later discover that an underwater earthquake was recorded in the area at that same time, possibly shaking his stasis chamber loose from the remains of his civilization.

D'Rin was rescued by a fishing boat and was led back to the United States to make a new life for himself. Without any record, a limited knowledge of English that he quickly learned on the fishing boat, and his claim of "memory loss", he was declared a John Doe and began a new life in America.

Dungeons and Dragons Next: Warforge Errata

After giving it some thought, I decided it was time to reevaluate my Warforged design for D&D Next. I have to admit, though, that I am excited for the day Wizards of the Coast publishes their own design and I can drop this like a ton of bricks.

4th Edition Homebrew: Monster HP

What? Me doing another article on 4th Edition!? The Mayans were right; it's the end of the world!

"We predict that a blogger will write a stupid Mayan joke.
Thousands will die."

Why I LOVE Dungeons and Dragons Next!

...as of the 11/13/2012 playtest release. That's a reference point for you who are reading this in THE FUTURE.

Good news, everyone! WotC released ANOTHER playtest packet!
Time to remake all your characters!

Randomly Generated Exploration

Explore to your heart's content, my friends.
Beware the dragons.

I come out of "retirement" momentarily to bring you this latest blog post!

In my current D&D Next game, my players have been hired to map out the Wyld (spelled with a "Y" because it's fantasy!), a vast expanse of land that has not been touched by civilization in centuries. The following are the charts that I use to randomly generate events in the Wyld. I decided that instead of designing an entire region that was more than twice the size of their country of origin, it was better to just design the basic geography and allow chance to decide the rest, barring anything related to the plot.

An End of an Era

Every week for over a year, with a few exceptions, I wrote Weekly 4th Edition articles to entertain and provide the masses with fun options, equipment, and monsters for their 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons home games.

But, I fear, that time has come to something of an end. It has become increasingly difficult to find something to write about. I don't know if it's life happening or if I just lost my muse or if I'm falling into some kind of emotional trench, but I'm going to have to leave Weekly 4e where it is for now.

This doesn't mean I'm completely hanging up the homebrewing. Whenever inspiration hits enough to write an article, it will happen. The system doesn't matter. If you've been hanging around, you'll know that I've worked in 4th Edition, Dragon Age, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, and most recently the latest Dungeons and Dragons Next playtest. I'll even take requests. You can shoot me an e-mail at thatrobedguy@hotmail.com and you can also find me on Twitter as @brannonhutchins. I check my Twitter more often than my e-mail, just so you know.

Perhaps the updates will occur weekly again some time in the future. Who knows, maybe once the next edition of Dungeons and Dragons finally hits the shelves, the articles could come back in full swing. Until then, I'll see you around this crazy series of tubes.

Weekly 4e Homebrew: Harvester of Souls

Every Sunday, I'll have a completely homebrewed Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition element that you can use in your games. I do take requests so you can either post a comment here, email me at thatrobedguy@hotmail.com with the subject "Homebrew Request", or send me a tweet on Twitter (@brannonhutchins) with the hashtag #weekly4e.

"The world is in chaos."
"Yes, we see that. Evil has grown strong."
"We have chosen a Champion to guide the people."
"Send him...the sword."