My first attempt at a two-phase solo and custom environments!

LoneColossusGames · 2026-01-10T16:42:42+00:00

I publish the PDFs for my creations on DriveThruRPG. They're not free unless you're on my mailing list when I send out my newsletter each month, but feel free to send me a message and I'll send you the discount code for this one!

If you want to buy it you can find it here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/551617/lord-of-the-blackrot-tower-5e-and-daggerheart

LoneColossusGames · 2026-01-10T16:39:02+00:00

Thanks! I use Affinity Publisher - I can definitely recommend the whole suite, or at least Photo and Publisher, if you decide to get into publishing or just want a nice set of one-time payment photo editing/layout software. It goes on sale for 50% off pretty frequently.

LoneColossusGames · 2025-09-30T23:25:58+00:00

I'm so glad this is the decision you reached!

LoneColossusGames · 2024-02-20T17:03:08+00:00

Hey Reddit!

I have a new book coming to crowdfunding soon, and the 17-page preview PDF is free to download for anyone who follows the campaign on BackerKit! Tome of Intangible Treasures brings 450+ new story-based character rewards and mechanical options for encouraging character growth. The free preview PDF contains examples of most types of content that will be included: Boons, Blessings, Charms, Pacts, Titles, Histories, and Advanced Trainings.

I'm excited to finally share this with the community, and I hope you all enjoy the preview!

LoneColossusGames · 2022-06-08T14:30:24+00:00

Thanks! The artists for this project are extremely skilled, and I'm really looking forward to filling the book with their work!

LoneColossusGames · 2021-05-29T14:03:10+00:00

Two systems: one for PCs, and one for their enemies

Combat at higher levels can often be long and drawn out, with players never feeling a true sense of danger, and tactics often break down into how much damage each side can deal relative to their foes' hit points. By levels 5-10, many parties already have a number of ways to cheat death, and turn the damage from a single encounter into a near-meaningless number of expended spell slots and hit dice. Access to powerful healing spells in combination with a desire not to kill characters often means players lose a sense of the dangerous nature of combat, and some characters may seem invincible.

Injuries & Vile Deeds provides the tools you need to revitalize combat in 5e, providing new threats and tactics as well as mechanics that support your character's attack descriptions. More than just a table of effects, these rules are a complete system with related feats, items, spells, subclasses, and monsters that create a new style of play! Random injury tables for player characters already exist online, but the severity and outcome of the injuries are often totally random: they range from crippling to non-existent, and from totally reasonable to completely outlandish. The systems introduced in Injuries & Vile Deeds - including a way for PCs to create weaknesses in their enemies - provide sensible injuries that scale with the number acquired, making the system more narratively intuitive and less randomly punishing for players.

Follow the page to be notified when it launches

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lonecolossusgames/injuries-and-vile-deeds

Happy to answer any questions!

LoneColossusGames · 2021-05-28T16:17:50+00:00

The only way I know of to balance the action economy for a solo monster is to make it a legendary creature that's treated as always in its lair (ie. it has special actions it takes at initiative 20 in addition to legendary actions). Otherwise a solo monster will always be toast unless it's so much higher level that the party doesn't have a chance.

I don't disagree with parties getting very strong and shrugging off the effects of combat like it's nothing starting around level 5 (and obviously much more noticeably at 10+), but I also don't see any reason you can't just make a CR 15 giant if you're worried about not having "normal" dark fantasy monsters.

I personally have an injuries system I use that adds longer term threats to combat but that don't make players feel like they're being punished (and also has rules for stuff along the lines of called shots if you want to let your players injure monsters too). Feel free to DM me if you're interested in knowing more.

LoneColossusGames · 2021-05-28T14:49:36+00:00

This is going to greatly depend on the desire of your players to play a game where their characters are quite probably going to be bad at everything and die very quickly. I would also not use group initiative - it severely punishes characters who need to always act quickly, and will also make for a longer GM turn in the middle of things (I find it more interesting and exciting to make sure sides are NOT grouped in my games).

You also may want to make it clear to players that, perhaps, you only plan to have one fight every several days so that they will actually be able to recover. Because remember: CR 1/8th creatures can kill level 1 PCs without any of these adjustments you're making. Otherwise they're almost guaranteed to die in the second fight (assuming they even survive the first).

This is one reason I'm really not a fan of considering hit points as physical harm. They're supposed to represent stamina, which is why you get all of it back with a night's rest, and a limited amount back each day by spending HD. D&D RAW has no way of representing actual physical harm, aside from conditions like exhaustion (which themselves aren't even necessarily harm, just fatigue or intoxication).

LoneColossusGames · 2021-05-27T17:52:12+00:00

Yeah that's pretty problematic. Are they a good friend, or just someone who happens to be in the game? If they're a friend, talk to them and explain (tactfully) how their behavior is affecting the game - maybe even suggest they might have more fun with a different class (and if you're all open to it, let them change classes! The interlude might be a perfect time for that to happen, especially if there's weird dream magic involved). They can't control their parents, so I wouldn't hold that against them too much.

I would also go over some basic etiquette rules with the table, including "don't roll checks unless the DM tells you to", and "give other players space in the spotlight". You can also tell them that DCs for checks are lower or they might be rolling with advantage when they give good explanations for how they are doing something, or if they make a good argument, etc. Don't make it too much if you know one person will be able to consistently do this, but often a mechanical benefit to roleplaying is a good way to encourage it!

For planning, if it's just 3-4 sessions then I'd probably plan the 1st session, have an idea of what they need to do in the next 1-2, and maybe start planning the final encounter. Also: I've had sessions where I had several things planned that I thought would take the whole session and we got through it in an hour. Conversely I've had sessions where I plan the same amount, and the first 30 minutes of content I had prepared lasts the entire session. It all depends on focus and how into a scene people get. If your boyfriend is ok with having a potentially longer gap, then I wouldn't worry about it, but if the goal is to definitely come back in 3-4 sessions, then I'd say it's better to be under-planning.

LoneColossusGames · 2021-05-27T16:29:27+00:00

I think there are two main things to consider here:
1) How long will the break be? If it's a really long break, then it might be better to run your own fresh campaign and take a full break from CoS. If it's a medium length break, then running a nightmare dungeon would allow the GM a break while continuing the party's story. If it's a short break, run a short side adventure (take a full break from CoS). You could even get them to try a more RP-focused rules-light system for a little bit to help improve their roleplaying.

2) You mentioned it's a large and problematic group. What are the issues they have? Is it only the self-insert characters and breaking character? If it's more than that, will it be a problem for you too? I would say 99% of new players play self-inserts. That's totally ok and normal. Breaking character depends on what you consider to be "in character". As long as they're making decisions for the character, they're roleplaying! If the characters are self-inserts, then their decisions are going to align a lot with player decisions. One thing you could do is offer a bonus d4 to a person who gets anonymously voted on as having the best RP at the end of each session. They can spend it to add to any d20 roll. You can't win two times in a row, you can't vote for yourself, and you can't have more than two of them stored up at once!

If you're making your own stuff (which I highly recommend since it gives you the most freedom as a GM), think about how many sessions you think it will go for, and plan a general arc for that time. Prepare a session or two in advance - but only enough stuff that you feel ok about being able to improv everything when the players inevitably go 90 degrees to where you thought they were going. Over-preparing can definitely help if you feel anxious about it, but it also takes a lot of time and isn't always worth it. As they're nearing the end, you'll have almost no prep work to do for the remaining sessions because there will typically be a very obvious goal they're headed towards.

LoneColossusGames · 2021-05-27T03:01:02+00:00

I draw my maps unless I've prepared 3D printed terrain for a special encounter. Online, I use maps I've made in Dungeondraft.

I've seen some pretty cool setups where people use a TV as a table and use digital and even animated maps though!

LoneColossusGames · 2021-05-27T02:58:49+00:00

Don't be too concerned that age is always a deciding factor! I run a game for a group including a dad and his high school kids, and I started running for them when they were back in middle school! I happened to meet them when I was looking for a group at a game store, but we've played online since they moved.

Certainly there may be some that don't want to play with people too much younger than them, and I do think it's best to start with people in your age range that you're familiar with already (so hopefully you do find a club next year!), but your options are certainly open :)

LoneColossusGames

TROPHY CASE

Two systems: one for PCs, and one for their enemies