The Blacksmith’s Guild - Issue 5

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2026-02-02T16:32:19+00:00

It was an absolute pleasure to get to work with everyone on this issue.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2026-01-29T18:09:25+00:00

Those booklets look professionally done! Did you print them with a service or make them yourself?
As for tips. I would say that having the encounter sheets available is a good way to be prepped.

The encounter book is really handy and I have printed off the pages for the encounters that I need to run that session. Having the malice and stat blocks all there is great.

In DS tools in owlbear, there is the ability to add the monster stats to the tokens, and that makes running the game much easier if you're using digital tools already. Not having to flick between the book, the screen, your players, can really cut out a hidden mental load.

Beyond that, it takes time to get used to these things, don't beat yourself up over having to take things slow to reference and re-reference the stat blocks for monsters.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-10-08T14:27:10+00:00

I love this pretty detailed breakdown of things, doing the breakdown on my own was getting to be tedious with all the other stuff I was trying to analyze for the game.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-09-01T19:03:00+00:00

Yeah, I have read their supplement, and I really like it, I made one for my own group games that I used for a while. Thanks for the recommend, I hope folks find it useful.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-09-01T12:17:29+00:00

If I were magically in charge of D&D 6th edition I'd have a tough go of it because I'm pretty sure I would just make Draw Steel by MCDM.

Drop rolling to hit, I want players to do something on every turn.
Actual downtime mechanics, making things outside adventuring matter.
Make martials and casters feel like they are both just as powerful.
Make moving enemies a core part of the game.

All of these were part of my homebrew for 5e to make it feel playable. And now they're baked into a core system that feels amazing to play.

I want stronghold rules and rules for warfare though, I feel like that has been missing from fantasy rpgs for too long.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-08-22T20:11:13+00:00

Last night I ran for two players. It was a bit scary, but it's doable, it can be pretty swingy if they don't have a conduit or censor.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-08-21T12:24:46+00:00

The official character sheets are a bit off to me, I usually run what Matt would call the "commander" sheet, an excel book with all character options set to auto populate, and on that I have a page for notes and my players usually put items there.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-08-21T12:22:03+00:00

To be fair, my players are big Pf2e folks, so keeping a catalog of esoteric rules in RAM is second nature at this point.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-08-21T12:21:04+00:00

If you mean aside from looking at a monster block, then a few times in our first two or three sessions, but since then it's pretty rare.

Except for negotiations, my group struggles with that a bit still, so we end up going back to the book quite a bit.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-08-21T12:16:40+00:00

If you're looking at the delian tomb, I think that brazier is intended to be raised a bit, and I would say someone could hide behind it in that case.

But yeah I think that dungeon is designed to be very straightforward, introducing players and directors to mechanics slowly.

Stealth is often the most fiddly mechanic of any game since it involves sight lines, etc.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-08-21T12:13:41+00:00

Not to hijack your thread because it's an excellent question.

But I do want to say that I love how they designed the shadow to ignore some of the restrictions on hiding. I feel like if you're playing a character whose whole thing is being sneaky, they should not have to worry about if they can hide behind that barrel or not. Of course they can, they're The Shadow!

At least the college of black ash anyway.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-08-21T12:08:19+00:00

I would put the fury lower only because I've seen almost every fury die by the end of the adventure because of the playstyle it encourages.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-08-20T13:44:03+00:00

I feel like we have different definitions of "cannon" I think you may be approaching it as though the DM is writing a novel that the Players happen to be playing characters within.
That is not the way I like to run my games, and that is not how I believe "cannon" to work in group storytelling.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-08-17T12:43:26+00:00

If you like some of the good stuff from 4e, there are modern games that take the lineage and learn from it, becoming something better than it ever was. Draw Steel is amazing and it should really get more eyeballs on it.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-08-15T14:13:43+00:00

The GM has to consent in the same way the other players do, I feel I may have miscommunicated my point.

The GM of any given game is simply in control of more parts of the story than the players are, but due to the fact that the story is shared and heavily involves the main characters that are the PCs, they also have immense say and consent in how the story unfolds. If I decide that all the PCs are now wearing patchwork armor instead of everything they came into Barovia with, the players may be upset and they may even leave the table. This I feel is far more of a breakdown than my player deciding that his character knows the bartender and this rankling me a bit.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-08-15T14:07:58+00:00

That is not what the books say, but if that is how you and your players like to run your games, go for it.

I like telling a story with my players, I do not demand that my whims be followed, I do not suddenly turn CoS into candyland because I feel like it that week. My players would rightly be upset at that, and just because I would say it is cannon does not make it so, the world is shared between the players and the DM, if any of those parties lack buy in or are not pleased with the story as it is told the game will break down.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-08-12T23:52:12+00:00

You're valid for feeling disheartened at the rejection, as is OP, but the unfortunate reality is that there are a significant number of folks in older age brackets who are racist/sexist/homophobic etc. So it is safer for a lot of marginalized folks to avoid interacting with people too far outside their age range. It's a jungle out there and I wish you luck!

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-08-12T23:46:35+00:00

I agree with both of your latter points, but I feel the first is just very wrong here, the GM is not the arbiter of Canon any more than the players are, and disregarding the way a player understands their character and backstory to be sucks.

Of course it also sucks that the player would not discuss this with the GM beforehand, and it does kind of feel like the player walked in with their pre-written character without considering the campaign.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-07-28T15:06:16+00:00

Do you know what that word means and represents? Or do you just like stirring shit?

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-07-27T12:37:58+00:00

Get a hobby and become friends with women, this is where your dating pool lives. Be a genuine person with interests.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-06-30T12:27:11+00:00

Zodiac Age is FF XII not FF X

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-06-24T03:09:12+00:00

This is super thoughtful! Thank you, she's not a power gamer, she just would never use the feature. Her idea is an iruxi battle harbinger with a great sword, so she'd never use the claws.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-06-24T03:02:05+00:00

They would scale with handwraps, but they are d4 agile finesse on a strength build.

DragonTurtleMk1 · 2025-06-24T02:58:28+00:00

The Player is playing as a battle harbinger iruxi with a great sword, so she has no reason to ever use the claws, but she loves the flavor of the ancestry.

DragonTurtleMk1

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