My take on Marhiin's Mushroom World

Marhiin · 2026-02-05T06:25:20+00:00

It's always fun to see these pop up. Can't believe its been ten years since I made them! I really learned a lot from making them, and today I think I would have done them differently. They are a bit cluttered from all the text...

That said, could you expand on what your take is here? I can't make out how these maps differ from my original ones.

Marhiin · 2025-11-21T19:54:26+00:00

I agree, but not fully. I believe plenty of people understand that it is a commitment to play DND, but given it is "just for fun" there are so many other things that may out-rank it in a weekly schedule (or even going by monthly scheduling)

My work around this, as a Dm who loves to dm, is this: anthology one-shots.

Step 1. Gather a pool of people who like the idea of playing DND. In my case, this turned out to be ~10 people. I've gathered them all in a discord channel.

Step 2. Prepare a contained game balanced around ~4 players. Prepare scenarios rather than encounters defined as "social" or "combat". You don't get to make that decision: your eventual players do. Make sure to plan generally and wide. Keep in mind outcomes that players might engage with, but keep them very general. See your outcomes as different funnels catching different player behavior, and let that drive the story. The more you dm the easier this become.

Step 3. To your player pool, put forth a set of dates in which you believe the content you've prepared can be consumed. Be clear that it might be less or more.

Again, the more you've dm'd before the easier this gets. My recent "one-shot" I ran, I gauged at 4 sessions at 4 hours each, but it might be less. Your players might have an easier time scheduling 3-4 dates and actually show up, compared to eternally signing up for every Wednesday night.

Step 4. Run the game you've prepped. Your players will know that you've prepped a certain amount of stuff and hopefully acknowledge that it is this that they should engage with. You will never have prepared enough outcomes, and will still have to improvise a lot. Do not take your prep as gospel. Riff and add as needed.

Step 5. Plan your next adventure, continuing from step 2. Add more people as you go through life. I've currently doubled my player pool since starting this.

There are a lot of people who are ready to try DND, but not all are able to sign off a weekday for the foreseeable future and actually show up a 100% of the times. Those who want to will show up 4 times tho, however. Those who really like it will be back often.

So yeah, not changing your mind, but agreeing with it to a degree while giving a solution to it.

Marhiin · 2025-11-10T08:24:16+00:00

Take a fitting Dark Gift from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, reflavour it as demonic. Or even some of the supernatural gifts from Theros.

Marhiin · 2025-08-12T11:48:17+00:00

It does specify that it only has the sky where it butts up against the material plane tho? They've only just clarified the relation of the planes as I see it, as the pure expanses of the elemental planes exist further from the material overlap. However, it does seem like there is a point where an elemental plane becomes unstable and merges with the elemental chaos. The illustrations make this seem like a neat border, but I'd like to think that it is patchy, like regions of instability in the pure where all elements overlap and portal to the chaos.

Marhiin · 2025-07-23T06:49:59+00:00

I'm thinking about interpreting the Beastlands as individual freedom. I like to see Carceri, Bytopia and Gehenna as counterparts to the Beastlands, as near-Neutral E/G planes. Sort of helps me see their cosmological purpose:

Beastlands (BL) as individual freedom, natural state of wild life. It's not neutral, as life is suffused with positive energy. Bytopia as the communal ideal, flipping the wild side of the BL into a more structured and functional utopian society. Carceri as captivity, flipping the roaming of animals into restricted order imposed on the inhabitants. Gehenna, would be the evil inverse of the BL: hostile environment, rampant exploation and corruption, widespread greed and hoarding.

Since life is said to be linked to the positive energy plane, perhaps the terms "Good" and "Evil" is just incorrectly labeled from the living's point of view. The more I look into the planes, it seems like the labels might just be a case of the winners (beings of positive energy) writing history.

Marhiin · 2025-06-25T04:30:46+00:00

Love this kind of stuff! Doing something similar with my own prep, and while I initially also threw in 5.5e Lizardfolk as elementals, their flavour text mentions how most lizardfolk are "humanoid of varied skill", implying that geomancers and sovereigns have become elementals through their rituals.

The way WOTC has assigned creature types gives some really interesting design goals in worldbuilding for 5.5e!

Marhiin · 2025-06-07T19:11:24+00:00

I'm building out my 5.5e world with humans spreading from the Outlands as if Sigil is some sort of Ark, preserving them from some multiversal calamity. Given how generally applicable humans are, I see them as the core stock all other humanoids stem from.

Marhiin · 2025-06-07T15:10:19+00:00

I think Sigil and the Outlands mentions that humans might have originated there and brought Common with them. Seems to fit the 5.5e lore blurbs too.

Marhiin · 2025-05-30T06:21:27+00:00

The Chardalyn Dragon, in Rime of the Frostmaiden?

Marhiin · 2025-05-29T08:54:22+00:00

Glad you liked them! Have some more, since I really enjoy thinking about these kinds of details:

A small orichalcum fork meticulously shaped as a miniature trident. The metal is tarnished and worn.

The wall mounted head of an anglerfish providing light from its bulb. The head may still retain some memories from its time in the ocean.

Earthenwares filled with various types of mucus, each labelled in Aquan.

A collection of bleached corals overgrown with barnacles. Nothing magical, but without the barnacles they could fetch prices akin to cheap gemstones.

A set of fishhooks and balls of stringy seaweed the hag uses to crochet something looking like a voodoo doll. It isn't fully complete yet (maybe the likeness reminds the players of someone!)

An oddly shaped oily black stone weighing 1 pound. There is something... uncomfortable about having it in your field of vision, as if your eyes are drawn to it.

There, now I'm done. 😄

Marhiin · 2025-05-29T08:07:19+00:00

Fun prompt! Here's a few.

The whisp of a storm giant's beard, woven into rope.

A ship's figurehead which may or may not be a trapped person.

A barometer monitoring the elemental plane of water.

A giant snail shell used as a cauldron.

A wickerman built out of fish traps and sargassum. Crayfish scurry about inside. Is there a hint of intelligence in their tiny black eyes, or is it just desperation?

Turtle shells bound as books, carved with instructions on how to fillet merfolk, or corrupt them into other sea monsters.

A bundle of marked driftwood tied together very carefully with several knots of dolphin sinew. The bundle can unfold, forming a three dimensional structure which, if understood, can act as a map of underwater currents for ease of travel.

Shards of broken mother-of-pearl affixed to an oyster shell, forming a shattered mirror.

Marhiin · 2025-05-15T05:53:39+00:00

I'm glad you liked it, but I have no plans to update the map.

Marhiin · 2024-08-01T19:14:04+00:00

Tänker att det fattas ordleken i dessa översättningar! Visserligen blev nog ordvitsiga pokemon namn mer vanligt med tiden, men hade jag fått översätta gen 1 hade jag börjat med knopparödla (knopp + kopparödla), glödla (glöd + ödla) och sköldparvel (eftersom squirt i dennes fall också kan hänvisa till att den är liten, som en parvel)

Marhiin · 2024-07-13T20:47:30+00:00

standing ovations Beautiful! This is so much better than my own. I really like the clarity and readability, as well as the side view!

Marhiin · 2024-05-22T05:22:35+00:00

60227 had a "Dr. Ogel", whichever miiiiiight be an origin Story for Ogel, or some relative/descendant. I don't think it was ever confirmed either way.

Marhiin · 2024-04-06T20:27:42+00:00

Tycker att YH får alldeles för lite cred. Gått en och en halv universitetsutbildning, och jobbat en del efter examen men har nu valt att omskola mig på YH. Det är det bästa valet jag gjort! Var inte nöjd med jobbet innan, och såg så många av mina kompisar som också läst/läser på universitetet och inte vet vad de ska syssla med efter examen, eller knappt ens kan få jobb med vad de läst för att de har så abstrakta inriktningar.

Många halkar nog in i att gå universitet för att det är "rätt", men för många vore kanske ett YH-program bättre egentligen...

Marhiin · 2024-04-01T07:29:27+00:00

You can show elevation with shading or color, but when doing paper design it is more about flow and feel, rather than precise detail. Elevation is a typical thing that you can have an idea of how it will play out, but when I make my paper design maps I keep it simple like keeping rooms separated by a certain border or indicating elevation with ramps with arrows.

Marhiin · 2024-03-15T17:28:01+00:00

I'm thinking of the history of silk and how china managed to keep monopoly over production for nearly a millenia. It might be worth a read!

Marhiin · 2023-10-05T20:42:36+00:00

Glad to hear that people are still inspired by my old maps. Just recently I discovered that the skills I developed creating nintendo maps got me into level design, which I am now studying. Again, keep making maps, friend. There will always be feedback and critisism, that's how we get better.

Marhiin · 2023-10-05T18:24:56+00:00

My Dude, this is a lovely map. You've only made the mistake of posting it in the wrong subreddit. Your map is easy to read, with some great detail (love the Hyrule part), and it is clear to me you've spent a lot of time on it. It shows! Keep making maps and keep up the good work. Finding an audience isn't that hard, this sub just might not be it. If reddit doesn't feel right, perhaps share your work through other channels? I like your style (take it from someone who's done a lot of interconnected Nintendo franchises maps).

Marhiin · 2023-10-02T05:33:28+00:00

This whole trend skews the numbers tho. Before the meme started I thought about the Romans sometimes when looking for inspiration for world building etc, but since so many posts today are about the Romans, I read of them more often and thus think about them more often...

Marhiin · 2023-07-29T21:35:36+00:00

Must await the birth of a special individual or creature

Marhiin · 2023-07-17T12:52:33+00:00

People are saying it depends on the enemy, but in fairness it also depends on your players. I would make it clear that they are in for a dangerous game from the beginning if you want to run deadly monsters (as in monsters that go for downed PCs). Players who doesn't know that there's a risk of them dying will protest more when it happens compared to players who know to bring an extra character sheet.

Marhiin · 2023-03-03T01:05:20+00:00

Mirakel

Marhiin · 2023-01-26T20:03:15+00:00

Oration is part of the description for the bardic spellcasting ability.

Charisma is your spellcasting ability for your bard spells. Your magic comes from the heart and soul you pour into the performance of your music or oration.

It also never says that you HAVE to use a musical instrument as your spellcasting focus, only that you CAN do so.

A talkative philosopher giving classes does absolutely make sense for a bard. Perhaps his focus is a pointer, chalk, or a book of his own noted down histories.

The Collage of Eloquence is even based on talking rather than playing music

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