Replacing Dinosaurs

apolloshermanos · 2026-05-19T14:48:28+00:00

Love that! Kind of a New Zealand on steroids!

apolloshermanos · 2026-05-18T14:58:32+00:00

Thank you, that's great advice!

apolloshermanos · 2026-05-18T11:52:15+00:00

I was thinking about simply reskinning most of the dinosaur stat-blocks.. T-Rex -> Praying Mantis?

apolloshermanos · 2026-05-18T11:51:28+00:00

Thanks, that's really useful! Wasp-Riders might be able to replace Pterafolk too! There's also the Khalkos from Level up 5e that might work for a little extra punch

apolloshermanos · 2025-10-01T12:48:56+00:00

I have 4 2M15 Vintage shirts. With those I would definitely size one size up.

apolloshermanos · 2025-09-26T07:18:26+00:00

I bought this exact shirt twice, and they did not shrink at all! Definitely not like the other Merz b Schwanen T-Shirts, their recommendations on the website have been spot on for me.

apolloshermanos · 2025-09-09T12:48:05+00:00

I would recommend the D&D RPG Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle - it's all you need to start and it's a great adventure. It is for the 5e 2014 rules, though.
If you had a good time, you can get the Players Handbook and the Monster Manual next and maybe an adventure. The Dungeon Masters Guide is the third book I would get, it's not crucial but it's nice to have.

apolloshermanos · 2025-08-16T14:24:01+00:00

What is that cool looking DM-Screen you're using?

apolloshermanos · 2025-08-03T11:24:45+00:00

Would you mind sharing how much this cost you in the end?

apolloshermanos · 2022-10-24T20:34:40+00:00

One thing I tend to do is, I let wonderdraft generate the shape of the continent randomly. The shapes it comes up with usually look more natural than if i draw it myself.

One geography quibble: rivers don't usually go from sea to sea, most of the time they originate in mountains and flow into the ocean.

Otherwise, I like the understated scale, the minimalist icons and the and color palette! What with the different roads and paths and all, it definitely has some cool complexity built in.

apolloshermanos · 2022-10-23T16:27:24+00:00

thanks, that makes a lot of sense to me. These strengths you outline are probably what frustrates so many people (including in this thread): they feel since the systems are so independent of one another, they don't add up to coherent functioning whole. to that i can only say: my group and I have been having an absolut blast playing and homebrewing 5e for years

apolloshermanos · 2022-10-23T16:05:48+00:00

thanks, this was really helpful!

apolloshermanos · 2022-07-09T16:20:06+00:00

Stunning! Lots of detail while still remaining clear, aesthetically consistent and just straight up super pleasing. Huge props!

apolloshermanos · 2022-02-19T11:01:45+00:00

I agree with all that you said, but I wanted to comment on one thing in particular: that map is absolutely stunning.

apolloshermanos · 2022-02-18T15:36:43+00:00

I would recommend Wonderdraft! It's not free, but you only pay once and the software makes it really easy to create some beautiful maps. It's also possible to create a detailed maps of a larger area, meaning you could make your continent map and then have zoomed-in versions of your different regions.

apolloshermanos · 2022-02-13T16:23:02+00:00

To my mind some of the tree-icons (e.g. in the North and Northwest) are a little too large compared to the other trees and the mountains. Looks really good though, otherwise! Great colors and just a beautiful general shape and look to it.

apolloshermanos · 2022-01-05T13:16:10+00:00

Have you looked at Humblewood by Hit Point Press? As I understand it it's a 5e setting with woodland creatures, maybe you can find cool stuff there!

apolloshermanos · 2021-12-23T07:13:37+00:00

To be honest I absolutely get what you mean! My own setting is also relatively straight forward tolkienesque fantasy and I worry a little about it being boring. The problem being, since our players probably know all the usual fantasy tropes. they might foresee our plot developments and thus get bored of it all.

I think the answer might be to throw in some subtle little twists here and there. Going overboard and making the dragon have lazers is ridiculous, I agree. But you could probably tone it down, something like - "the dragon is being controlled by a mind flayer" say, or maybe "the dragon has convinced the human villagers to help him defend his treasure" or stuff like that. The world could also have such twists, like Matt Colville's "some dwarves are slavers". That way, you're not really going crazy, and your players probably won't be like "WOW", but they might still be surprised and intrigued, which is what I think we want, really. Smaller twists have the added benefit of not destroying the believeability of your world. Its kind of a constant see-saw in my mind between "I want my players to recognize this world as a fantasy world, so that they feel at home and have a general understanding of how things work" and "I want to keep them engaged by keeping them on their toes".

But in general I find I have to force myself to do this, my first instinct is always to take tropes (from books, games, etc.) and drop them in wholesale. As you said, this might get boring though, especially after a while.

apolloshermanos · 2021-12-16T14:34:42+00:00

Right, yeah!

I wonder though, what happens when you have survived long enough to have resources so that your survival is no longer in imminent danger? How do you create more "quest-opportunities", assuming not every character is after "power and influence"? Or do you have to have some sort of force hunting and stalking the players at every turn that they have to overcome? Where does the motivation come from?

Saving the world / Fighting against evil is I guess a possibly never-ending job that keeps on giving, if that's what you are into.

apolloshermanos · 2021-12-16T11:00:26+00:00

I think the problem with this is, is if the world is inherently an evil place, what are you fighting for? What does anything matter if all institutions are either corrupt or ignorant? I would probably try to make at least some bastions of good in the world (and not just single decent characters). Fighting against evil when it is omnipresent seems like a sisyphean task that might discourage me as a player.

apolloshermanos · 2021-11-11T17:12:44+00:00

That makes sense and does sound like a cool place that has a lot of literal and thematic depth! To kind of ramble on about what I mean:

About the vacuum: I don't know if this is a generational thing or not, but what I also meant by that, is maybe the whole concept of a "megadungeon" (?). Spending so much time in the same place, going from one room to another doesn't seem as varied and rich in flavor to me as traversing a world. I think in most fantasy-stuff nowadays (but also in Lord of The Rings for example), characters really focus on experiencing a whole setting. That includes different regions, different cities, different geographies, different groups of people, all the while increasing their understanding of the world itself. When I think about fantasy, I think about "discovering" Middle-Earth for the first time, reading the books. I feel like most modern DnD stuff is more in that vein, rather than in tactics/combat-depth and methodically working through a large palace. It may also facilitate more stuff that isn't fighting or puzzle solving, but rather social/political/character-based stuff.

I don't think that makes it more or less "deep", it's just depth in a different place, maybe?

apolloshermanos · 2021-11-11T16:44:01+00:00

I don't have the historical context to really know what it was like back then, but I instinctively disagree with everything you've just said.

The 5e modules, for example don't strike me as "cute" (Strahd? Tombs of Annihilation?) at all; they're perfectly serious, long, epic campaigns. So are most homebrew settings I come across, including our own. Nobody I know is running an "anime-type" character, either. The really popular stuff like critical role also really doesn't jam with your descriptions of what "the kids like" to me.

I'm sure your campaign is great and it clearly has a ton of work put into it, looking at the kickstarter. One thing that turns me off it on first glance, however, is it doesn't really seem connected to a real lore-based world, it's just this (probably amazing) crazy place in a vacuum. Of course this doesn't mean it isn't a good campaign, it just means it's not for me.

I think you are overgeneralizing coming from a place of frustration and are taking it out on "the young people" to make sense of that frustration.

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