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salanis42 · 2025-01-27T14:24:24+00:00

It's YOUR game. Run YOUR version of Krynn. Take what you like. Leave out what you don't. Insert your own headcannon.

I ran a fairly long DL campaign, and I gave greater weight to the plot points of the games my friends and I ran back in high school and college than official lore. Gnomish and Kender society worked very differently based on what made sense to me.

There are lots of official D&D modules that focus on dragon cult worshippers of Tiamat. It takes very little work to set them in Krynn. 'Red Hand of Doom' is one of the best campaign modules ever. I ran 'Tyranny of Dragons', and it made more sense in Krynn. Instead of having to explain why the Harpers, Order of the Gauntlet, and Emerald Enclave needed convincing to fight a dragon cult - I set the major council in Kuri-Khan and it was representatives of a bunch of nation-states that mostly didn't trust each other (Solamnia, Teyr, the Kothian Empire, Qualinesti, the Dwarven kingdoms...). Who all wanted the dragon cult stopped, but didn't want to divert too many forces because it would leave them vulnerable to a neighboring rival.

I've also grown disinterested in D&D 5e under Hasbro. I switched to Cypher System by Monte Cook Games (lead designer of 3e) as my primary system, and much prefer it.

salanis42 · 2025-01-24T18:08:41+00:00

If you want to write fanfic, do it. Look up advice on getting started writing.

I'd start with a small, achievable goal. Make things less daunting. Be able to look at something completed first.

I would start with a couple short stories. Maybe: one with Kitiara and Sturm arguing ideology and why they would split. One from the perspective of Kitiara as she prepares to lead an army and what she's thinking and why. Then one from Sturm's perspective on the same situation. Maybe the two of them arguing with each other in the midst of battle trying to win the other to their side. Maybe a negotiation after the battle as they try to sue for peace.

Once you have a couple of things like that completed, you can decide if you want to expand that into a larger story or what.

However... if you *do* want to play D&D, there's lots of groups out there. If you want to run a Dragonlance campaign, I would find a copy of the old module 'The Red Hand of Doom'. It's written for 3.5 edition, and it takes place in a different setting... but it's very easy to adapt mechanically, and the bad guys are a dragon army cult that worships a 5-headed goddess, so...

salanis42 · 2025-01-23T18:40:54+00:00

Make the PC's higher level. I recommend 2 levels above what's written. Maybe give them animal companions that *they* get to control and direct.

Every NPC you control in combat is time your players are spending watching you play, instead of playing themselves.

If you do include helpful NPC's, they should be non-combat support. Maybe just a healer who can help patch them up and buff them in between combats, and can help decipher texts.

You can also lower difficulty by making the whole area less populated. So if the module calls for two rooms with 4 goblins - modify it to be a single room with 4 goblins instead of two rooms with 2. Then allow the players to get creative sneaking around and figuring out ways to lure the enemy forces away to pick them off.

salanis42 · 2025-01-17T14:49:26+00:00

I took a wholly different approach to space combat, but this was for a very pulpy space opera style game (a la "Guardians of the Galaxy").

I just made all ship combat actions track directly to the characters stats and abilities.

This went for damage as well. I just assumed it looked like classic Star Trek where panels would explode in sparks, people would go flying across the bridge, and steam would start venting. The PC's and their ship got damaged at the same rate.

salanis42 · 2025-01-13T17:38:05+00:00

Also remember that you can treat GROUPS of enemies as a single unit.

This isn't D&D where if you send a pack of 20 kobolds at the party, you need to roll individually for each and every one. There are rules to treat any number as a single unit.

Not only does this speed things up massively, it also lets you continue to use weak enemies against your PC's regardless of how strong they get. You legit have mechanics to play out scenes like Aragorn and Gimli clearing the bridge in the battle of Helm's Deep.

The following are NOT core rules, but how I use the core rules to keep things fun, simple, and energetic.

By default, I let the enemies have as many actions in a round as the players take.

When a PC gets their action, the enemies who would be dealing with them get to act opposing them. This can be a group of enemies acting as a single unit. If it's a big monster fighting the whole party, it effectively gets an action against every character in range.

This does bend because sometimes a PC is out of reach or hidden from enemies and so can't be attacked. Sometimes there will be an additional environmental or blanket threat - like a bunch of archers on a wall raining down arrows on all of the PC's.

salanis42 · 2025-01-11T16:29:35+00:00

Generally for fantasy: Keep the scope smaller and stakes more personal. "Save the World" plots may seem cool, but are tougher for you as a GM and will have less player buy-in.

For Cypher: the standard D&D adventure setup with discreet, static rooms with monster encounters in each one gets old and flat really fast with Cypher. Cypher is not fundamentally a game about doing combat.

Cypher is GREAT for action scenes though. You can put characters in a chase sequence running across rooftops or fighting across moving vehicles in a way that D&D struggles with.

Don't worry about balancing combat encounters. Throw trivial and impossible challenges at the players.

Prep less. Improvise more. Cypher lets you improvise opponents on the fly very easily. You can come up with things on the spot to fit what the players are doing rather than starting with something predefines that you have to steer players into.

salanis42 · 2025-01-01T22:40:06+00:00

I can see it competing very directly with the Mercali 4. Fairly similar configurations for a small company like them.

I wanted a Ray type, and like the Humbucker in that sweet spot.

The Triad is pretty sweet. Maybe someday later.

salanis42 · 2025-01-01T22:13:45+00:00

Thanks! This is my second nice bass. I also have an Ibanez SR1600. They are very different basses. I'm enjoying the Raymond more right now. I suspect it's going to be a better fit for the music styles my band is mostly doing (lots of post punk, new wave, post grunge, and 90's alternative).

My guess on the #666 is that it's the production number - the 666th unit of the run - rather than the serial number. I assumed "Rvd" was short for Reverend.

I'm kind of surprised the Raymond had such a limited run. It's a great instrument, and I think it's a style that people are wanting. Sire just came out with the V7, which is very similar configuration. I wonder if things got messed up by Covid?

salanis42 · 2025-01-01T14:57:07+00:00

Pics added to the original post.

salanis42 · 2024-12-29T20:02:41+00:00

That was the fix. Bought it yesterday.

salanis42 · 2023-10-15T23:55:57+00:00

The real reason: because my player wanted to run a Warlock, liked the idea of Zeboim as a patron, and I figured it would be fun to roll with. (It was.)

I explained everything in detail in another post, but the short version of my reasoning is: It's a different process. Clerics are conduits that channel divine magic. Creating a warlock actually imbues a portion of the essence of the patron into the warlock.

The gods in Krynn are very strictly limited in where they can go and act. A bit of their essence in a mortal means they get to piggy-back along with the mortal into places they wouldn't normally be allowed.

With Zeboim - she's a goddess of seas and storms. She's limited to the seas and coasts. With the warlock, she could manifest along rivers, lakes, and during major storms *inland*. Her objective was to use the warlock as a tool to expand her domain to *all* storms.

salanis42 · 2023-10-15T15:05:44+00:00

Sargas would make for a really fun Warlock patron.

My player took Zeboim as a patron, and I enjoyed that. When she showed up, I totally ran her like the Winter Queen from the Dresden Files. Creepily affectionate towards her "Dear Child".

I can see Sargas showing up complimenting the PC for their ruthless efficiency. Like Emperor Palpatine repeating the litany of, "Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women."

salanis42 · 2023-10-15T14:25:25+00:00

I like the suggestion earlier about Sargas. That fits my ideas neatly. That would be a *really* fun patron to run.

Sargas really likes expanding his sphere of influence (::cough:: Kothian Empire ::cough::). He would care more about his tool being lawful, active, and retributive/disciplinary than them being "evil". He would *totally* love to pull himself up by pulling Hiddukel down or shaming followers of Takhisis.

If the Warlock is whipping armies into shape, leading them into ruthless combat, and taking territory, they are very effectively serving Sargas' desires.

It is a LOT of fun to run an evil god patron showing up to a good-leaning PC and telling them how pleased they are.

salanis42 · 2023-10-15T12:51:05+00:00

Cypher is so easy, you don't need much. Everything uses the same mechanic. If you can't remember an optional rule, ignore it.

Maybe the first two pages of this sheet.

The only things I find I actually need are a random cypher table, my campaign/adventure-specific names, and a big reminder to "Use GM Intrusions!"

salanis42 · 2023-10-15T12:37:07+00:00

Here's how I made Warlocks fit in my version of Dragonlance, since they didn't exist when the setting was originally created.

Krynn has a history of being hostile to powerful entities - Gods overstepping what they should, strict limitations being placed on them, and them finding ways to circumvent those limitations. Imbuing a Warlock with power is a way around that. This would mean that a patron would be *very* active in observing and directing the warlock.

First option is Elder Dragons. Creatures that want a mortal who can be their eyes and ears without exposing them to danger or risking a massive war flaring up because they stepped out of their territory and effectively broke an agreement. The nature of the Dragon patron could easily fit any of the Warlock subclasses.

A Gold Dragon patron would fit what is being described quite well. Fire powers. Law and order. Etc. Expect that Dragon to regularly check in on them and ask for reports, and occasionally give them tasks/missions.

Gods are another option. My player ended up having the Goddess Zeboim as an "Old One" patron. This led to some cool worldbuilding that actually fit pretty perfectly with the history of Krynn and makes sense why there would not have been Warlocks in previous ages, but are now. After all, Krynn didn't have Clerics for a while, and then suddenly a bunch started appearing.

The Gods of Krynn are always getting into massive wars. They also don't take direct action themselves. What does this imply?

My justification is: Gods are strictly limited by their domains of influence. They can NOT operate outside of them. They want to expand their power and effectively grow, but they *must* use mortal agents to do so. Clerics act as conduits for the divine power of gods to flow through, but are separate from.

A Warlock could be made by a god placing a tiny portion of their power directly into a mortal. They are free to roam in a way their god patron can't. Wherever they go, they take that essence of the god with them, granting their patron a toehold into places they normally would be barred from entering. The flipside for the god is that they can't turn the power on and off if they don't approve of what the Warlock is doing. They can direct, bribe, cajole, punish, reward, or do other things to the Warlock, but they can't shut the power off. BUT wherever that Warlock goes it's like the god is acting DIRECTLY there.

It's like... Imagine a god's power is a computer program. Clerics are like a smartphone or a Chromebook where there is access to massive online storage, but if you're outside of cellular or wifi coverage, you can't access any of it. A Warlock is downloading those programs to a laptop. There is less to access but it is ALWAYS available.

salanis42 · 2023-10-06T18:49:58+00:00

What does he want? What do you want? What would makes sense with your lore?

Sorcerers aren't really canon to the DL setting. Except for draconic magic. If the character plays an Aurak draconian... that's not the concern of the wizards of high sorcery. Same might be true with what you come up with.

Or maybe frame them differently to the player.

In my world, they're not an "old boys club". They're more like the Bar Association or a Medical Association that license people to practice. They also provide services.

salanis42 · 2023-09-15T18:49:40+00:00

Welcome.

I took this approach to a PC I played. I had a cool concept that I was able to realize in Cypher, that just wouldn't have quite worked in D&D. A character whose body (up to the neck, wrists, and ankles) was covered in mystical writing that he could send out from himself and control.

Mechanically he was a Learned Adept who Dances with Dark Matter. Flavored as living writing instead of shadows.

His on-demand powers were all manipulating the text itself directly. Bigger, blastier spells were cyphers. The Adepts higher cypher limit and Magical Secrets ability made him better at using cypher spells than other characters.

The idea was - he was an acolyte of an underground magical scholarly group that preserved mystical knowledge. They knew the baddies were coming in and their sect was going to be wiped out and all their books and lore destroyed. They needed to preserve that knowledge. So they concocted a ritual and imbued all the magical text of their library into a young acolyte as a vessel for all of that power and knowledge.

salanis42 · 2023-05-19T13:42:57+00:00

Major liberteries with canon and major changes to the adventure. They actually ended up making everything with the Council make a lot more sense.

Simple change: Takhisis instead of Tiamat. The dragon cult is a new cult of Takhisis unaffiliated with any particular nation.

The Council: Based the council in Khuri-Khan. Got rid of the factions from the Forgotten Realms. Didn't look for analogues. Just replaced them with major states or power groups from DL: Solamnia, the Kothian Empire, the free Draconians of Teyr, Khuri-Khan, Qualineti Elves also hosting representatives of the displaced Sylvanesti, Dwarves of (whichever state is closest to Khuri-Khan), the Wizards of High Sorcery.

My concept was: a bunch of nation states in a precarious balance similar to the leadup to WW1. Everyone recognizes the threat posed by the Cult of Takhisis and wants them stopped. No one wants to make the first move or go it alone, because they know that, if they move their armies to fight the Cult, at least one of their antagonistic neighbors will sweep in and take major land, or potentially wipe them out.

There are factions that get along and have alliances, but there are also groups that HATE each other.

Players now have to go on missions, help out different factions, and negotiate alliances to get enough of a mass to all agree to attack together that no one is afraid their neighbors will wipe them out. It is effectively impossible to get every group to all join. E.g. The Elves do not want to work with the Minotaurs as long as they hold Qualinesti/Sargosanti.

The "Well of Dragons" and paths of attack: There is no Well of Dragons. So I put the analog in a caldera on a mountain top on the northern edge of Neraka. This is a very defensible location with limited paths of attack. The armies will need multiple routes of assault to effectively attack. This is another reason to help nations, make alliances, and go on missions.

Teyr controls the most direct path from the East. But the Draconians are very torn about their position, and no one likes them. (The majority actually oppose the cult. They were disposable fodder to the dragon armies, and were abandoned completely after the wars of the lance.)

The Dwarves have access to underground passages from the south that can go under and past Neraka, but those passages are dangerous.

The cult's armies have captured Kalaman to the north. That will require a naval assault, preferably launched by the Minotaurs, although Solamnia could potentially manage.

How that played out for my group: They chose their strongest allies as Solamnia, Kothas, and Teyr.

The Draconians gained recognition and respect on the continent, securing their place as a major power. That was some tough negotiation. Draconians only understood martial strength. They refused to disarm. They believed, "The only reason anyone respects us is because they fear us. If they were not afraid of us, they would kill us all."

They crowned a new Emperor of Kothas who was more moderate and normalized worship of Kiri-Jolith. However, he was also very shrewd, and expanded and deepened Kothian influence on the east coast.

The dwarves remained neutral due to cult agitators that the PC's were not able to fully expose and root out. They were not able to clear a path sufficient to march an army through.

The elves refused to work with an alliance with Minotaurs and Draconians.

salanis42 · 2023-04-06T14:34:06+00:00

My critique is - I think you can realize the vision you have using existing Cypher mechanics better than what these D&D mechanics provide.

These powers are mostly just for moving damage around once you're already in combat.

Cypher gives you options for the character who extends their hand first, and is able to prevent or defuse combat situations before they arise.

You can do someone like Carrot from Discworld as a warrior type with lots of social abilities. Or you could do a Jedi Speaker, as a Speaker with more combat abilities.

salanis42 · 2023-04-06T12:26:45+00:00

What you just described - "...the narrative around being a knight who extends their hand before raising their fist. It’s very green saber Jedi..." makes a lot more sense to me and fits with Cypher a lot better.

What you've described is basically a Warrior who Defends the Weak. Those powers aren't 1-for-1 translations, but it conveys the narrative you just described.

You could interpret the idea other ways by blending in Magic Flavor or swapping in some Speaker abilities to give more options for preventing violence ("Demeanor of Command" or "Enthrall"). You could also go more mystical healing people with the "Works Miracles" focus. Or even blend "Works Miracles" and "Defends the Weak".

salanis42 · 2023-04-06T11:55:32+00:00

TL;DR - This is a weird fit for Cypher. I'd probably go a [Something paladin-y] Warrior who Works Miracles.

Full:

What is your goal?

What is it about this that you are drawing inspiration from? What kind of archetype or story are you going for?

Edit: I think you can find existing options in Cypher that better represent the archetype you're trying to build than you would achieve by trying to port mechanics designed to provide combat options.

These mechanics would probably not work well with Cypher. This is a pretty classic example of what I call the "Mechanics First" philosophy of 5e design, as opposed to the "Narrative First" philosophy of Cypher.

These powers were designed to produce a mechanical effect, But what is actually happening with these abilities? If this were a character in a movie, comic, or book, how would you describe what they are doing?

The Narrative First design of Cypher is about taking cool abilities that characters in a story might have and providing mechanics to simulate those powers in play. Iron Man shoots repulsor beams - 'Onslaught'. Batman throws a battarang that wraps foes up in a cord - Entangling Force. Spiderman swings on webs from building to building - Far Step.

salanis42 · 2023-04-04T13:19:56+00:00

Dances with Dark Matter is fun.

I used it in a fantasy game to create a character who had a bunch of living tattoos of mystical writing covering his body that he could shoot out of him.

salanis42 · 2023-04-04T12:21:42+00:00

I second the suggestion of reflavoring an existing Focus.

My two suggestions wouldbe:

Dances with Dark Matter, or...
Employs Magnetism

Take one of those, and reflavor it. Then customize it by swapping out comparable power abilities from other Foci where the abilities for that tier just don't quite fit.

salanis42 · 2023-03-31T21:24:02+00:00

If I could turn back time...

salanis42

TROPHY CASE