Jamison Stone's Blog, page 3

A Collection of Healing Light and Crippling Suffering - The Sword of Feast and Famine

In Dungeons and Dragons, inspiration can truly come from anywhere. We Game Masters have the endless, but rewarding task of filling our worlds with rich, detailed lore for our players to explore, hopefully understand, then use to bludgeon the monsters of the countryside. It's in this creation that we need inspiration, fuel from the stories we take in to translate into something else.

As that book once said: “there is nothing new under the sun”. I've heard a lot of Game Masters feel ashamed and confused when admitting what they were inspired by. To that I say no. It's impossible to not be given an idea from something, that then translates into your games.

Here on the Apotheosis Studios Blog, there has been a lot of talk about Wizards of the Coast's other great game: Magic the Gathering. A game that deep in fantasy fiction is a treasure trove for those that want to brew something for their games, to make something new for their games. When looking at some iconic cards within Magic cards, there's few more iconic than the “swords”.

Sword of Feast and Famine

When you ask, nearly, any Magic player the question “what is the greatest equipment ever printed?” There are, in my opinion, two acceptable answers, but even then, one is kind of a trick answer.

Sometimes the weapon is more mighty than the warrior - Sword of Feast and Famine by Chris Rahn

Those answers are Sword of Feast and Famine, and Batterskull. Batterskull, while being an absolute powerhouse of a card, the fact it has living weapon means that it's almost always treated like a creature. It's such an interesting design and cool idea, but it doesn't fully feel like an Equipment card to me. So the crown has to go to the sword.

Sword of Feast and Famine has been a staple in every Voltron style Commander deck since the dawn of the format, and was instrumental in the infamous Caw Blade deck that saw the banning of Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic. It's power is evident. Giving yourself extra mana after attacking, and taking resources away from your opponent, all the while protecting a strong attacking creature from Black kill spells. It's a very powerful card that a lot of players both rightly love and understandably fear.

In the story of Magic, it was forged under the Black and Green suns of Mirrodin. For my own games, these swords have a long and storied history as to how they were made, and their place in the wider world. What they each do is translated as well as possible into the mechanics of our favourite role playing game, and it's what adds to their immense power.

Forging a Legend

As I said earlier, it's important to think of where powerful magic items came from when adding them to the worlds you Game Master. With the Sword of Feast and Famine, I decided that a Magic Item this powerful and grandiose could only come into being through a story as powerful and grandiose as itself. Take this as inspiration to weave the sword into your setting, or as the frame work to bring similarly powerful items into your world.

The Druids in the throws of their ritual to heal the world - Helix Pinnacle by Dan Scott

In the distant past, of my own Dungeons and Dragons setting, when the gods wandered the world, those of a particularly nefarious alignment wandered the earth. Gods of death and decay toyed with the first forms of mortal life. These dark gods wove the first necromantic spells into existence, and humanoid beings learned the pain of an agonising and untimely death.

One glade of druids said enough to this tyranny. The Verdant Sisterhood was a collective of seven druids gathered together. Their efforts were felt across the early world. Many flocked from across the continent and over oceans to have their festering wounds healed and deep black necromantic curses lifted from their weary shoulders. Sister after sister worked tirelessly for a hundred years, passing their hands, aglow with green, regenerative magic, over the deep black, pulsing wounds that covered each visiting patient.

It was the consistent pain that the people were in, and the consistent anguish on the grieving parents' faces at the sight of their withering, diseased children that drove the chief of The Verdant Sisterhood to say enough. It was extremely difficult for her to rally the other sisters to her side. Never before in the history of the world had a mortal defied the will of a god, even ones that thrive on the suffering of mortals. As the night drew in and the patients slept, the matron of the Sisterhood gathered the others and informed them that this deity must be defeated. The first words from the other druids was immediate dismay and disagreement. Going against a god was, and in the current day for Dungeons and Dragons is still unthinkable. The arguing among the druids is cut short as their youngest acolyte reveals her hand under her robes, the pale skin had been blackened by the death god's curse. This was the first time one of their own had been tainted, which brought the shock to each member enough to bring them to action.

The druids all gathered that night in a circle, even the younger acolyte who's curse grew worse as the sun set. They said a collective prayer of healing, extending their cleansing energy outward, instead of healing someone in particular, their benevolent energy went out to the world, and its effects were immediate and effective. Plants grew verdant and thick all around their grove, and a column of green light rocketed up to the sky, lighting the night. This light drew the death god, standing one hundred feet tall, striding across the wilderness as the black ichor dripped down and infected the land, which was quickly being healed by the collective prayers of the druids. As the god lumbered up, the light in the pillar begun to flicker. The pain of the young druid, afflicted by the curse, built more and more as the god drew closer. With their efforts combined, the druids angled the beam of healing light down and into the chest of the oncoming god. The immense being of deep blackness was destroyed by green light. The point where the two forces met became concentrated into a single stone. The god appeared defeated, with the source of healing light and corrupting dark fused into a stone about the size of a marble. The druids collected this stone, and hid it among their treasure, until it vanished along with The Verdant Sisterhood itself...

The Rare and Deadly, double bladed Sword - Sword of Feast and Famine by Efrem Palacios

The Sword of Today

It's unclear what happened to The Verdant Sisterhood. They existed many thousands of years ago. As some of the first druids in my fictional setting, they set a lot of precedents but also faded into history. The only thing that is known after the many eons is the of the moment of fusion between the healing energy and the death god. The ingot of two contradictory magical energies fused together into a source of intensely powerful magic. This magical ingot was seized by unknown forces to create something special.

The original ingot of healing power and necrotic wellspring was shattered. No one knows why or how. These shards went on to craft a very small number of weapons infused with both healing and necrotic magic. Favoured by a master of neither forms of magic, the wielder can channel the healing and harming energies in the form of a deadly blade. The user of the Sword of Feast and Famine can gain the benefits of regeneration and deadly necromantic magic.

Sword of Feast and Famine Stats Generated with Homebrewery

Depending on where it was made, the weapon can resemble a classical longsword. With a blade that extends upwards from the hilt, but in two slices. One being a vertical green beam of light that flashes with the original healing power, while the other blade saps light from the surroundings and the light from those who feel its sting. For some, there have been a slight variation in its craft. Two blades of the differing energies appear on either side. The double bladed sword has been a staple of warrior Elf societies and its use is highly skill intensive. As for a double bladed sword like it, it works the same as a longsword would, with the versatility coming when you need to drive one of the blades in for a finishing jab. The skill comes from being able to parry and strike with the differet heads of the sword at the same time.

The Sword of Feast and Famine, in games of Dungeons and Dragons is ancient and powerful. It can lift its user and level enemies with the power of two contrasting magics brought together in deadly craftwork.

Now we want to hear from you. Where would your players find a Sword of Feast and Famine? What other iconic items and cards from Magic the Gathering would you like to see translated to Dungeons and Dragons? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com , they write all kinds of gaming press, while they write news about the League of Legends Card Game on RuneterraCCG . On Youtube, they can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes , or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere . Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree .

The Elements Bind the Living into Elemental Aspects

The creatures within Dungeons and Dragons are what define the wider universe that we players love and appreciate. When an adventurer takes up arms and goes charging into the wilderness on the whim of a wealthy benefactor or the adventurer's guild, we take it all in good stride, ready to pursue, capture, and destroy the foul beasts of the wilds.

Certain monsters are iconic. Impossible to miss when leafing through a fantastical picture book, or narrated by a loving Game Master. This common nature between monsters is what keeps stories in this big fantasy genre so consistent, and one that draws readers and players like us back in every time.

The thing that makes for a new fantastical story is when the familiar takes a turn into something truly new. Making the unique out of what we can expect from the given tropes of fantasy fiction is what can really elevate your games of Dungeons and Dragons. As a Game Master, I seek to do this all the time with my layered and psychologically deep antagonists, and detailed NPCs, to give that high realism feel for a game full of magic and mystery. I bring my own spin on monsters too, to subvert those expectations and keep those games memorable.

The Hydra

A creature in fantasy fiction, that's technically as old as fantasy fiction itself, is that of the hydra. It was first told about in the myth of Hercules. Not just the Disney classic, but the Greek myth, which to be honest, is one of the first shots of fantasy fiction and has inspired the likes of Theros from Magic the Gathering and Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson novels. Greek Myth are some of the oldest and most enduring fantasy stories, and they gave us the hydra.

People are pretty familiar with the hydra at this point. A great, reptilian creature, sometimes with legs, sometimes a great long serpent. It has a long, snaking neck and a great fearsome face. It's usually found in the wild with many heads but is born with anywhere between one and five heads. When one head is cut off, two more take its place. That's what gave Hercules the trouble in the myth, but he did his best by cauterising the necks with fire to prevent them from regrowing.

We've seen how the hydra works in Dungeons and Dragons. It has that interesting mechanic of heads “dying” then regrowing in the classical double way. The whole myth around the hydra is that it does this if the head is cut off. The expansion of the lore to say that heads die from shock of it taking damage is a nice idea, and the best way to figure in the classic mythical element of the creature.

At the same time, this doesn't quite add up. It's different enough from the myth that some players I've played with have been genuinely confused as to why the hydra would act this way. It's so contrary to the myth.

the danger of a primal beast will always be a true terror - Invasive Hydravine by Kudos Productions

When I narrated the “death” of a hydra head, I would make it decidedly metal. The end of the slaying hero's turn, they'd see the head drop. Then they eyes would flash open again. The mouth would burst open as a pair of new jaws wriggle its way out of the throat, but a reversed set. The new bottom jaw clicks into place under the glowing eyes, while a new pair of even brighter eyes blinks open and a head forms around the old bottom jaw. The long, coiling neck splits and coats the party in a thick goo left behind by the transformation.

If we were to take that amazing, metal image away to favour things much more literally, I think the way a hydra would be prompted to regrow a head would be simply through slashing damage. Only when the hydra took significant slashing damage, from a sword, axe, or claws, then its neck would be weakened enough to regrow and regenerate in the way that it normally would.

In my own games, the hydra is an ancient breed of beast, that can be found across many green biomes, such as swamps and forests. In those places of raw magic, there can be a meeting of magical energies. Elemental hydras can come into being, bringing their own take of powerful primal vigour to the landscapes they inhabit.

Elemental Aspects

Elemental, magical energy can seep into the material world through gaps in reality that bleed into the planes of raw elemental chaos either through natural portals or the wild magic abundant in magical places such as a Manawood.

The magical creatures common within our own world may find such energies as this. In small or large doses, magical energy such as this can change the psychology and biology of the creatures that interact with it. In many cases, the energy is too great, and the visitor is destroyed. But in many other instances, the creatures are suffused with the raw power of elemental magic. It's a reaction like this that often brings Sorcerers into the world. It's also this manner of magical cataclysm that lead to the creations of elder elementals back in ancient times. The origin of creatures such as the phoenix and the leviathan trace back to the earliest days of the formation of the world. As time wound forth from those ancient days, the bird that is constantly reborn from the flames or the great turtle made of the earth has become so known with the four cardinal elements that every culture in the prime material world knows them and their ancient power.

A magical beast that has taken on the energies of raw magic changes completely, becoming more roaring flame or twisting whirlwind than flesh and bone. Its physical dimensions are the same, as are the memories and capabilities of its mind and soul. Many wonder whether that's because the body changes around the mind, and these monsters which normally cannot speak, have all the memories, beliefs, and soul inhabit the new body made of magical energy. Or, the opposite may yet be true, that the magic has absorbed and destroyed the original creature but all the memories are burned into the elemental magic. So instead of a hydra learning how to exist as an immense plant, it's a plant that's learning to be a hydra.

The Many headed east wind hunts its prey endlessly - Norsudovest by Edvan Soares

In my own writing, as we've seen a few times here on the Apotheosis Studios blog, I take the term Elemental in a very broad way. Things that marry together two different elements, though uncommon in the Dungeons and Dragons we all play at present, is something I use a lot in my monster building and story telling. I also include quite a few other things in the broad world of elemental magic. Ice and plants are the kinds of elemental energy that are hard to find in the worlds of elemental chaos, but they're powerful building blocks of the world we know.

I use hydras in this example, though any beast or monstrosity can become an Elemental Aspect. Their type changes from whatever their previous type is to Elemental. Damage they would deal matches the right type based on what they have absorbed.

The silhouette of the hydra, the long reptilian body and many many heads that loll around on long, serpentine necks. When suffused with elemental energy, claws and jaws bring the sting of flames or the poison of a deadly plant. That which makes a hydra truly a hydra is even more dangerous when filled with elemental energy.

The party of adventurers have trekked for hours across the dense jungle. They're exhausted and out of supplies, but the trees groan and crack under foot as an immense creature made of a great whirling creature made of spinning torrents of air. The spells and swords of the adventuring party charges up to attack the beast but as one of the tornadoes curling up forming a head would sever, and an explosion of rushing wind bursts forth and sends a shock wave of wind that staggers the party. A clash with a creature like this would lead to a dangerous encounter to say the very least.

Now we want to hear from you. What manner of elements do you foresee a hydra being made of? What other creatures would become elemental aspects in your games? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com , they write all kinds of gaming press, while they write news about the League of Legends Card Game on RuneterraCCG . On Youtube, they can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes , or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere . Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree .

'But He's Attacking You...?' - A Review for 'Roll to Seduce'

Dungeons and Dragons has inspired creators and story tellers since the game was created. We've all shared many strange and heroic tales. We lived the lives of our characters as they carved out grand, heroic destinies or great and wicked villainy. Anything the combined imagination of our Game Master and the players around us.

Some stories can take us to a particularly fruity and adult place. As with our own lives, the attention of a pretty stranger across the room can lure us anywhere. Sometimes we may wish “rolling to seduce” were as easy in person as it is in game. The particularly lusty bard has always been able to do this, and it's become one of Dungeons and Dragons' greatest memes as of late.

We've looked a lot at the antics of All For One here on the Apotheosis Studios blog. Their third season has been a real treat, and the look down memory lane has been enlightening. It's great to see how a team has grown over the months and years of making D&D comedy web shorts. In this great call back, we get to see how this troupe of D&D heroes handle the strange nature of trying to seduce the NPC.

This is going to be a longer review than the ones we've done in the past. There's a lot of stuff that can be unpacked in an episode of any media. Looking at why a creator chose to do something, and how effective it is, is reviewing at its core.

Roll To Seduce

It's a welcome and common sight for the gaggle of adventurers to come to their, not so reputable, employer to see how they did on their last, not so reputable mission. This is the fourth outing we've seen with these characters, so their antics and slightly villainous methods aren't a surprise. It's got them in trouble in the past, and it seems to do so again here.

Putting the Moves on Him - Image by Deerstalker Productions

The entire episode, as with many of the early All For One skits takes place in the one room. The lavish, flower interior and the arrogant Tiefling Warlock reclines surrounded by beautiful servant girls wearing very little. It's clear the Game Master was inspired by Jabba the Hutt for this crime lord, but then again it's a strong comparison to draw. The reason we don't see these servant girls is we get that amazing continued joke from episode one. The GM's face under the platinum blonde wig smiling at the Fighter. It's a thing for some players to imagine their GMs as every NPC, so imagining this one person as the bright red Tiefling and his lovely assistants is funny and consistent across the series.

The action we get that opens up the skit serves a masterful double role. We see Evandra, our brash Elf Fighter aggressively shunt her sword off to one of the guards outside the room. A little later in the episode, we hear Andrius the Bard say that “they took our weapons off us”. It's great continuity to show this. It's also the way she did it. She pushed her sword into the guard's chest. This shows off her confrontational attitude. This simple effort keeps things so welcome and consistent across many episodes of a few minutes long.

The consistency of the production is so satisfying in this show. Even for something done for Youtube TV. Deerstalker Productions applies great care and attention to their work to make it feel truly Dungeons and Dragons, even in an episode that has very little in the way of grand cosmic magic or the great clashes and threats we would know from Dungeons and Dragons. This, for me, is typified in the look of the other character than the main three. The Marquis in his floral sitting room. This garish, swirling wallpaper feels Elvish and aristocratic, and it matches the deep dark suit he wears. The costuming is what makes it feel truly D&D too. We feel like he's a Tiefling, effortlessly here. We're used to it from the character, Nixie, who's bright pink every episode and has classic, up curling horns. This Tiefling's deep red is generally classic given what we would expect from a Tiefling, or at least someone partly devilish. This Tiefling's curls backwards from his brow and up again, which truly seems ram like but different enough from the main character to show the diversity we'd get from realism and as it says in the rules. His tail is also an amazing detail. Each Tiefling tail I've had in the games I've been involved with. Some have a triangle point, or a pitch fork, or even barbs. While the end of his tail isn't much visible, I love the almost dragon like ridges that go up along it. That's a detail I've never thought of, and it's a treat to see them here.

The treat is ready to be revealed - image by Deerstalker Productions

Something I commend throughout the entire existence of All For One is its queer friendliness. We Dungeons and Dragons players are a pretty open and tolerant people, despite the reputation of some of its creators. We saw Evandra feel up the barmaid in episode one, and similarly enough she checked out one of the lovely assistants here in this episode. The uncompromising and in your face style of queer is what I have always appreciated. We get no shyness or hesitation from the creators, the overt appreciation of a hot lady is on full force here. This appreciative queer representation continues as the male Bard rolls to seduce the male NPC. Our DM, fully in character bends to the narrative that the dice make, as a good Game Master should. This is their good comedy at full force. We see the meme we know in our games of Dungeons and Dragons be extended out to it's greatest extent.

As I discussed with other content creators on a larger show, the best representation – in my opinion, is the self assured one. We do not need to make any attention in the fact that a character is queer. If it comes naturally in conversation, and you the Game Master divulge the detail with little room for follow up, then the players will go with it. The Drow matriarch can simply “say I do not care for the company of men” or the gruff Goliath Guard Captain, can walk hand in hand with a Half-Elf with an immaculate, shaped beard. I've been in the situation where I've Game Mastered for people who are from much more insular backgrounds, and aren't as familiar with LGBT people and how they're represented. The right kind of people can easily just take it in their stride, if you the Game Master stay resolute in how you deliver a detail that may be strange to them but shouldn't be in this day and age.

We have to address why this grand comedy was able to happen at all. Three natural twenty rolls in a row. I'm going to look past the mathematical unlikelihood of this, and instead talk about what the natural twenty means. In the game's meme culture, the natural twenty has become an unshakeable beacon of success. That all depends on the Game Master you're rolling with. For the kinds of people who take it strictly as rules as written, the natural twenty means nothing. It's just the highest a die can possibly roll, and outside of the automatic, double damage hit in combat, it's just a roll for some. For other Game Masters, it has that same automatic success that you can expect as in combat. It's a real debate that can get quite heated among some players. As a Game Master, I personally look on a twenty with a great deal of favour but it's not necessarily an automatic win as some would like it to be. For a moment like this, for a show taking the antics of Dungeons and Dragons to its most extreme, we can laugh along with it. No need to take it too seriously.

Successful Seduction - image by Deerstalker Productions

The Seduction is In

This episode, as with many offered by All For One is a hilarious and relatable look into the world of Dungeons and Dragons. Even the grand conclusion, bringing us to the end is a nod to the rules and how things work for Paladins. Comedy all players can truly relate to.

Now we want to hear from you. Can you relate to the antics of flirting with an NPC only for it to go very wrong, or very right? What other Live Action D&D content should we look into? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com , they write all kinds of gaming press, while they write news about the League of Legends Card Game on RuneterraCCG . On Youtube, they can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes , or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere . Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree .

Gain Magical Insight from the Endless Motion of Planets on The Ancient Orrery

Magic is everywhere in the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons. It infuses and permeates through the world, lifting the fates of our player characters, and breathing life into powerful monsters and beings of unknowable power.

That is a wondrous start, but perhaps not enough for little old me. I have brewed something very special for some of my games based on some very simple fantasy fiction logic: can only things and people be magic? What about places?

In a past article, I looked at the Shrine of Holy Light. A holy site that can bestow powerful energy to Clerics and Paladins if they remain penitent to the holy forces energising the place. This power comes from a Landmark, a kind of Magic Item that bestows benefits for a short time to those who visit that site. Places can be just as magical in the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons. Or they have been in my games. Here's another site of unlikely, but phenomenal power.

The Ancient Orrery

Wizards schools, magical academies, and grand observatories dedicated to staring at the stars all have their own models of the universe. On the inner dome of the art deco building, a great mural of the stars with dotted lines with labels of ancient names of the constellations in Elvish or Draconic. A great brass telescope can dominate the space while shelves upon shelves of books drift from surface down to the students as they need them.

The Spheres Move in perfect hArmony - Chromatic Orrery by Volkan Baga

Somewhere deeper within that institution, a person will find the orrery. A diagram great or small that mirrors the cosmology around you. With enough research, astronomers can map out the local solar neighbourhood. It's how Galileo did it in our world. The cosmology in Dungeons and Dragons varies greatly whether it's the standard model in the Player's Handbook or if you've created something special for your world.

An Ancient Orrery is one such special diagram of space. One of the first made in the given world, it is accurate before its time. This immense model of the local celestial bodies is a miraculous marriage of astronomy, the science of the stars, and astrology, the magic of the stars. Some orrery devices are simple and can occupy a table top, but the Ancient Orrery is grand and immense.

The great grinding gears of the Orrery power themselves. The ancient brass and bronze will have tarnished in places, losing the metallic shine here or there, but never losing functionality or consistency. The orbs of the nearby planets and light of the sun and moon. The synchronisation between the celestial bodies in the Orrery and the grand beyond above in the heavens matches perfectly and has never decayed over the ages.

The movement can track many things - Ghirapur Orrery by Kirsten Zirngibl

The Ancient Orrery look vastly different depending on which world you set your games on. Unlike our world, the Material Plane may be in the centre of the Orrery, while the sun would be in the centre of ours. Great brass tracks would loop around the centre, like rings. These rings track the orbits of the planets and other bodies in the local system. The power source inside, ancient and immeasurable never runs out inside this device, giving the accurate, bright glow of the suns and moons in the solar system. Each planet and other body in this Orrery moves on the track on a tiny pole, letting the planet rotate as close to its real world equivalent in the night sky.

The astrologers who built the device all those centuries ago used methods lost to time to build the device with such precision. In those times, the accuracy is so great, that the device mirrors what we see so far. If a comet or meteor ever threatened the Material Plane, the rings that the planets spin would extend and unfold, and a body that looks just like the new mark in the sky. Astrologers can look up in the sky, to see a red comet streaking across the blue sky but also look down at the Orrery to see a piece of red glowing glass tick across a new track, mirroring that comet.

The Ancient Orrery is a miraculous and ancient feat of magical engineering that can mirror the wider universe with little effort. It's been a source of learning and wisdom for hundreds of years.

Wisdom of the Spheres

The Orrery has been placed in one location near a hub for wisdom and learning in your setting for Dungeons and Dragons. Though attempts to move it have been made in the past, the intricate machinery was too precise and fiddly to be disassembled safely, though this isn't to say ambitions to move it haven't been applied.

Instead, the access and visibility of this artifact is given to the public in very very controlled manners. The long lost of appointments that can be made to see the Orrery is long and competitive. Many have joked it's easier to see a monarch or a holy figure who lives reclusive in their grand palace or immense temple shrine.

In the past, there have been many attempts to steal pieces from The Ancient Orrery. One such event was known as The Slow Heist. The efforts of one particular thieves guild planted an Artificer who a great deal about magical machinery. Over a time of years, the Artificer was placed as one of the Orrery's mages, keeping the peace and maintaining the competitive scheduling demands of the people visiting the Orrery.

The lights of the stars above bring insight and clarity - Vedalken Orrery by John Avon

As the Artificer worked alongside the machine, he took one piece per year, and sent them over seas back to his thieves guild employers. His long Elvish lifespan made this easy, and he would send screws and bolts, then rails and pistons. The Artificer found it curious that the machine did not suffer. It never grew sluggish or One of his most ambitious tasks was taking one of the glowing orbs that orbits the machine. His cover story was easy. The machine began to tick slower over night, but he didn't think much of it. He'd then spread some broken glass under the Orrery, to make it seem that one of the celestial bodies fell off and broke.

When he removed the orb, and sent it off to his masters, there was something strange. He came into the laboratory with his bag of glass shards, but saw the orb he had removed, ticking around the edge of its perch as it should have been. The Artificer took a good long look under the panels and gear boxes of the Orrery. Every piece he had removed was still there. Years of the Artificers work seemed to have been undone. He went to visit his employers, but they had received all the pieces he had sent, and they had even started to put the pieces together. The decades and centuries went by, and the Elf Artificer sent more and more pieces to his bosses. The original Orrery lost none of its functionality. After five hundred years, the entire Orrery was shipped away, but to no effect. The original pieces, which where shipped across the world, were successfully built by the Rogues, but the machine didn't tick and didn't move. The one in the original workshop was moving perfectly, as though it were never tampered with or taken apart. The ancient artifice used to make the Orrery is still miraculous and couldn't possibly be understood.

Boon of the Stars

Ancient Orrery Stats generated with Homebrewery

The grand majesty of the device is what draws mages from across the world to see it. A spell caster can look up at the synchronous movement of planets, suns, moons, and other grand bodies in the sky being perfectly mirrored by the device their in them.

Those that look up at the device during a long stretch of study. The spell caster can feel an immense surge of power added to their magic. The movement of figures in the night sky can influence their thinking and can bolster how much they can cast their spells, how powerful their spells are, and even what their spells an do. This influence can join together mage schools that need to conduct a divination ritual or bolster their damage and defence going into a battle.

A party of adventurers can be tasked with guarding the site or escorting a visitor moving to see the site. Its benefits are immense and its reputation cannot be ignored.

Now we want to hear from you. Will your caster characters enjoy the astrological benefits of the Ancient Orrery? What other arcane sites and locations could make for a Landmark? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com , they write all kinds of gaming press, while they write news about the League of Legends Card Game on RuneterraCCG . On Youtube, they can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes , or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere . Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree .

The Rare Mana Woods are Miraculous and Guarded by Sentinels

The worlds of Dungeons and Dragons are suffused with magic, mystery, and madness. Our adventuring party members all find them selves in the wildest and most curious locations in your adventure setting.

When they're not taking down time in the big cities, the adventures can come across creatures of terrifying might. But whoever said all things were truly bad?

The Mana Wood Grove and its Sentinels

Natural spaces, the oldest and most gnarled forests in the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons are where you may find a Mana Wood, and where a creature like this may dwell.

There are few wooded places this ancient and unknown, and even fewer that the Elves and Gnomes dare not tread. Truly ancient places are where these Sentinels roam. The magical energy suffused into a place like it is palpable to the senses, feeling like static, giving off a strong tingling. Places like this are usually created on leylines – in areas where immense magical energy are at their strongest.

The Sentinel and a druid looking over an elemental bloom - ‘God Willow Seedling’ by Kudos Productions

These spaces between different states of magical energy are their most dangerous. Orders of Rangers and Druids have dedicated generations to looking over these fragile spots in the world. The efforts of mortals is not usually enough sometimes, but the overflowing natural elemental energy is enough to draw the ire and interest for certain entities from across the worlds.

A Mana Wood is a place of endless arcane power, hence the need for its close guardianship. Those able to siphon off the magical energy can use it to create an arcane focus, infusing a magic item, or even filling up spell bomb bottles. What few realise is that it's not an infinite source of magical energy.

A quirk of the Mana Wood is its unique, but harmless effect on the wilderness that lives there. Beasts that would be common in a forest like this will take on some very interesting magical adaptations. Some squirrels may sprout immense, glassy wings to soar from treetop to treetop. Some birds may grow a great sharpness to their beaks, broadening their ability to feast on the magically enhanced prey of the Mana Wood. Fuya Birds, those that sing the thoughts of people caught in their swarms are often found in their fledgling states in a Mana Wood. Elemental Blooms of all varieties grow in great clearings here in the Mana Wood. For your own games, any Beast or Plant may be found here, except it's creature type is now Fey, cannot be Charmed, and it has a resistance to psychic damage.

Mana Wood is in a balance of certain kinds of energy, poised in a specific way. Taking too much of one kind of essence can curse the land, turning it into a murky land that fills the countryside with roaming undead. Too much of another removed can blast the land, taking all the life from the once lush forest, into a dry and blasted land. Or even if there's a build up of such energy without a natural way to extract raw magic can make the forest of the Mana Wood. The trees would twist together up into a horrific shadowed canopy, drawing monsters that thrive in the dark spaces of the world while twisted copies of normal life. Siphoning the safest amount of the right magical energy is the safest way to keep a Mana Wood healthy and safe.

A Sentinel's Duty

A Mana Wood always draws attracts a Grove Sentinel, a rare creature from the realm of the faerie. The fae being is usually very shy and reserved in it's native fae wilds; resembling a fox, only larger and able to speak the languages a Sentinel knows.

When a Mana Wood forms in the material world, or land of faeries and shadows, the fledgling Sentinel makes its way there, using the magic it can sense across the worlds as a catalyst to create door ways and portals.

Once the Sentinel makes it to a Mana Wood, it takes a long rest there. During this rest, it safely siphons off the top layer of magical energy in this wood. While it rests, the magic of the wood protects it. A thirty foot radius sphere extends over the sleeping Sentinel, which prevents any creature from entering or it being the target of spells or abilities. This protective barrier can look very different dependent on the attitude and personality of the Sentinel.

Once this rest period is over, the Sentinel has grown to many times its original size. The magical energy that permeates the entire enchanted forest fills the entire creature, and grants the Sentinel a deep connection to it. The Sentinel will spend the rest of its century long life at the Mana Wood.

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A sentinel on their endless watch - Vulpine goliath by Adam Paquette

During its life, the guardian regularly patrols the perimeter of the Mana Wood to watch and deter interlopers who would extract magical essence from the Wood. At the same time, a Sentinel must pay close attention to the Gaps, each place in the forest where the magical energy is at its strongest, and seeping out into the world. Each Mana Wood's build up of energy is different, so each requires careful attention. A Gap that bleeds Evocation energy may cause spontaneous bursts of fire and lightning that must be carefully dispersed. A Necromantic Gap may bleed dark energy animated the bodies of lost wanderers and magical beasts that have long since passed, causing their hunger for the living endless as the wood itself.

The rarest form of Gap is a Divination gap. The air swirls with a thick mist of flickering colours. It's relatively harmless compared to the Abjuration Gaps that lock travelers behind a shield or a Conjuration Gap that shunts them to different places in the Wood. Breathing in too much of these magical fumes gives a person a near perfect vision of the future. This can range from a strange woman you've never met finding a misplaced sock or the fate of a nation in the middle of a bitter war, losing the struggle without a dark secret. The only way to accurately disperse this fog, something a guarding Sentinel can do, is to ensure the fulfilment of the prophecies the mists bring. This jaunt is one of the only reasons a Sentinel may leave their wood. They do so out of their duty, confident that if they were away too long, another Sentinel will take up the mantle of an unwatched Mana Wood and defend it well. A wandering Sentinel is extremely rare, thus making the prophecies they speak of the most grave or banal importance.

A Sentinel's Methods

Mana Wood Sentinel Stats generated with homebrewery

The Sentinel resembles an immense fox. Each Sentinel is as unique as their Mana Wood. Some can have fur that's deep red or bright orange. Some can have the a single tail or multiple. A common feature some have is a wreath, crown, or set of antlers that have a strong magical glow, where some of the energy they harvest from the Mana Wood collects.

Their strength and mastery of magic makes them a truly formidable in their Mana Wood. The crushing paws and scraping claws, while their jaws can bite through steel. They channel magical effects to truly devastating effects based on their own will power and imagination.

There are few tactics that a Sentinel will not employ to defend their homes. Their mastery of magic will make some into vicious tricksters. Some stand stalwart and motionless, using their immense size and strength to bring the earth down or immense pain through their bites and scratches.

Despite the ferocity with which they fight, and despite their own willingness to fight to the death to defend their Mana Wood, they themselves will never kill an interloper. Against an opponent that would drop to zero hit points. They will instead choose to let them fall unconscious from their wounds, but their mastery and understanding of the forest will shelter the beings, channelling healing magic into them so that they're incapacitated but not in any mortal danger.

For the few creatures that defeat a Sentinel in their Mana Wood, they will retreat back to the heart of the wood to use the same healing magic that would heal the intruders, but to heal itself. It will keep the area around the heart, the biggest gap in the Mana Wood defended with the same unbreakable shield that it uses as it rests. It will speak kindly, and entreat the interlopers from a safe distance, doing what it can to send them off or appease them. An adventuring party may receive a quest to investigate somewhere in the Mana Wood or bring some kind of arcane implement to help safely siphon excess magical power.

Now we want to hear from you. Where would a Mana Wood appear in the settings you Game Master? Are the Sentinels that watch it kindly and lilting, or fierce and territorial? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com , they write about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out themselves. On Youtube, they can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes , or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere . Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree .

A Guide to Starting the League of Legends Card Game - Legends of Runeterra

Gaming, of any and every kind, is a passion that has brought the fine people here at Apotheosis Studios all together. We've seen one of our favourite games, Magic the Gathering cross over with another favourite, League of Legends. Sort of.

I can tell you all about the Solari and Lunari religions, as well as the entrenched history of the void creatures influencing the entire continent of Runeterra. Despite my knowing an immense amount about Riot Games' flag ship game, I have to confess I have played 0 hours and 0 minutes of League of Legends.

How is this possible? One excellent game set in this universe has taught me everything I need to know, whilst being one of the only games I play every day. Legends of Runeterra. What is it? How did it get me so hooked? Where can you play it? You came to the right place!

Only fools play the hand they’re dealt - Twisted Fate Level 1 by SIXMOREVODKA

Beginner's Guide to Legends of Runeterra

Legends of Runeterra is a digital card game, similar to Magic the Gathering Arena or Hearthstone. It's set in the League of Legends universe, but far away from Summoner's Rift. We get to see the familiar Champions from League interact with the characters from their home regions.

At the end of 2019, Riot Games have made real efforts to bring their IP into other places, and Legends of Runeterra was their first foray into doing so. As someone who plays a lot of card games, the ideas that are familiar in Legends of Runeterra are very welcome, and the elements that are new are great game changers.

For this post, I'm gonna give my explanations as though you know roughly how trading card and collectible card games work. The crossover between the many people who love Dungeons and Dragons, League of Legends, and Magic the Gathering is pretty high, so there may be plenty to follow here.

Shuffle the Legends

Legends of Runeterra, which we're going to shorten down to LoR, is a digital only collectible card game. No paper variant for it out there, and believe me, it'd be impossible to replicate in paper. The world and characters of the League universe are boiled down into card game flair for this game, and those who know them will find so many similarities.

There are 1026 individual cards in the game, and there are many ways to play.

For regular constructed, players build their own deck of forty cards, with a maximum of 3 of any card. The world of Runeterra is split into ten regions, and they make up the different kinds of cards, like Classes in Hearthstone or Colours in Magic. Decks can only have two regions. At present, many players agree that each has their strength, but some are stronger than others.

The regions are:

Demacia (home of knights, elites, and spells that want your guys to punch their guys)

Ionia (mystics and sages that want you to play many spells and out think your opponent)

Shadow Isles (land of the undead, effects that sacrifice your guys for power and ruthelessly eliminate enemies)

Noxus (the conquering empire that push damage and aggression with fast attackers and fiery spells)

Freljord (the ruthless arctic that rewards endurance with ways to heal yourself and allies and punish enemies with the cold)

Bilgewater (pirates and scoundrels, using random effects and chip damage to plunder their rewards)

Targon (warriors of the sun and moon try to climb an ancient mountain, drawing powerful cards from the stars themselves)

Shurima (An ancient empire that have the powers of the Ascended, a legion of soldiers, and powerful buffs to regain dominion)

Bandle City (tricky nature spirits that take their advantages from other regions, as well as dishing out their unity and buffs, and multiple tricks)

ChampionS AND FOLLOWERS ARE CLOSELY LINKED - Fae Guide by Dao Le

There's a grand mixture of combinations one can make for a deck in Legends of Runeterra. You can combine your favourite champions based on how they play in League (since Yasuo and Malphite both stun) or something synergistic out of an unlikely duo (both Senna and Veigar deal damage with Darkness).

The newest expansion, Magic Misadventures, comes out today. This update brings 43 new cards into the mix, including fan favourite champions: Kennen, Pantheon, Rumble, and Ahri. I have my new decks ready to go, just need to craft the cards for them.

There are many other ways to play, following the same sorts of deck building rules.

Expedition is LoR's limited format like Draft for Magic or Arena for Hearthstone. You get several themed packets of two or three cards to build a deck on the spot. The more games you win in an Expedition, you get extra cards to supplement the deck.

Gauntlet is a best of three format that you take 3 decks into, to earn Glory, bettering your chances for qualifying for the competitive Seasonal Tournament (which I have played in more than once).

a WELL TIMED SPELL CAN CHANGE THE GAME - MYSTIC sHOT ART BY mAX gRECKE

The Path of Champions is a casual player vs engine mode that features fun story elements, and powers that buff you the player and your cards.

League But In Cards

In games of League, your champion and the rest of the team try to control the board and punch your opponent's Nexus to death. In LoR, the Champions, followers, Landmarks, and spells are all tuned to punch your opponent's Nexus to death (or have some other way to win).

Anyone familiar with Hearthstone will recognise the growing mana gem system. You gain 1 mana each Round up to a maximum of 10. When you end a Round with unspent mana, up to 3 of it is banked for a later turn just for casting spells.

Unlike most card games where you have a turn to develop and play your cards then take your attention to respond on your opponent's turn, this game works in Rounds. Each round, you and your opponent take turns playing cards, and whoever can attack usually does. When the round ends, you refill your mana, gain 1 more, and whoever had the attack token last turn gives it to the other player. There are ways to gain the attack token or starting free attacks which are very powerful.

The thing which really appeals to me about LoR is that you can respond to a lot of what your opponent does. Interaction makes a game for me. Some spells can be played in response to things your opponent does, or during combat. Anyone used to Blue in Magic should be very familiar with the stack and priority, and Runeterra does something very similar.

Card Capture [image error]

WHAT’S IN THE BOX? - The Vault chests by riot games

The biggest part of a collectible card game is getting the cards themselves. It's been a while since I participated in an in-person tournament at a friendly local game store. The action of peeling open a booster pack and fanning out all my treasure is the best feeling. Even better if they're my winnings.

Digital card games have their own ways of giving cards to their players. Criticisms around the card collecting system are always big discussions among the players. The biggest, and most consistent criticism of MtG Arena is that there's no system similar to Hearthstone's “dusting” - the practice of turning cards you have into some other currency to make other cards you do want.

In LoR, the free to play model actually feels possible. Cards are earned by playing games which turn XP you earn for winning and filling quests into higher value chests in the Vault, which opens every week. The region roads are battle pass style tracks that reward you with cards of a specific region the more you play, allowing you to get cards of the style you like to play. When you have more than 3 copies of a card, they convert into shards that can be crafted into any card, and you get regular wildcards of all four rarities to turn into the exact right card.

With this very fair free to play model, we have to wonder how this game can stay free. The same way League does: pay to look pretty. Card gamers always want to make their decks personal and unique. Fancy playmats, themed card sleeves, shiny or foil versions of cards with exclusive artwork. We all have magpie minds – we all desire pretty, shiny things.

Legends of Runeterra lets its players pay to look as pretty as they want. Players can get card backs with favourite characters, a board themed around a place in Runeterra or a key champion; and each board has different music or things to click on. It's dangerous to go alone into the card game arena, you can purchase from the game store a different guardian. A different cute or fearsome little mascot who sits in the corner of the board and cheers you on.

There are many ways to make the game your own.

The pride poro and a personal favourite guardian - image by riot games

To Become a Legend

Legends of Runeterra is free to play and available right now direct from Riot Games or on the Epic Games store. It's a game I play every day with a competitive mindset, and has inspired a lot of my Dungeons and Dragons writing and characters.

Now we want to hear from you. What kinds of games do you want spotlighted like this? Will you try Legends of Runeterra for yourself? Want to hear more strategy and news about LoR? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com , they write all kinds of gaming press, while they write news about the League of Legends Card Game on RuneterraCCG . On Youtube, they can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes , or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere . Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree .

A Look at Thomas Gofton - Mind Behind Legacy of Mana

We here at Apotheosis Studios have a deep love for the many other creators doing great work in the world of TTRPGs. In this detailed biopic of Legacy of Mana’s creator, we can learn where a new and ambitious project began. Make your pledges to Legacy of Mana right here.

Gofton in action as a paladin

While most youths focused on their schoolwork, Thomas Gofton was creating a world. Written into the margins of his homework were stories of flying elves, anti-magic empires, time manipulation, and destiny. So began the world of Legacy of Mana, and a journey that would span several decades of inspiration, challenges, and accomplishment.

A Legacy All Its Own

The world of Imaria started as a short story written in 1990 and evolved over the next few years as more characters and plots were added. It was then that Gofton was introduced to what seemed the perfect outlet for the narratives jumbled around in his brain, Dungeons & Dragons. With dice, books, and friends in tow, the seed of Imaria took root and flourished at the gaming table. So much so, that Gofton got his first job working in the local game store so he could be closer to telling the stories he loved. When the store was forced to close down, however, he made a vow to restore this type of community to the world again.

Lynnvander Studios

One decade and a university graduation later, Gofton involved himself in the world of film where he continued to excise his passion for storytelling. During this time in 2011, Gofton set about finally bringing Imaria to the world with the first published Legacy of Mana book for Savage Worlds, Pathfinder, and D&D 4E. While Gofton was pleased with this first excursion, he always felt he could do more with the world if he had more resources.

Soon after, Gofton ventured into boardgame design as a side hobby on a dare from a friend, which ended up leading to his next major outlet. Designing boardgames went from side hobby to full business as more and more games were published under the banner of Lynnvander Studios. From there, it was only a matter of time before the Round Table boardgame café was opened in Gofton’s home town of Guelph, Canada.

The legendary Boardgame Cafe

With years of boardgame design and a dedicated team, Gofton looked to revamp his world in 2017 with the new 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Though there were many trials and tribulations, which led to a finished yet dissatisfying product, the book was published and Gofton believed that was the end of Legacy of Mana. Until the pandemic offered one last chance to do things right.

Six Sides of Gaming Twitch Banner

So it was that work began on the final version of Legacy of Mana in 2020, with a team comprised of both new and old faces. Meeting each week afterhours at the Round Table, the design started with defining the cosmos around the world to the cities and people who live upon it. Many debates, arguments, and profound epiphanies occurred until the Legacy of Mana setting had been re-invented in a fresh and unique way. The heart and soul of Gofton’s original ideas so many years ago are still there, but accentuating them are new distinctive game mechanics looking to re-invent the experience of playing Dungeons & Dragons as well as rich lore providing a modern take on old-school ideas.

With such energetic and passionate people working with him on his lifelong dream, Gofton started his next big venture with Six Sides of Gaming. After years of the constant joke that they should get into streaming with longtime Round Table patron, Adrian Kemp, Gofton saw the pandemic as the perfect time to explore this new idea. Together with his design team, Gofton brought the stories of Legacy of Mana to the public eye in several streamed D&D campaigns. Now the stage was set, and everything started falling into place.

Designing the World of Mana

Legacy of Mana Creative Team

For Gofton, the immersion and theme of this project was paramount, and being a professional game designer, he understood the value of balance and blend of theme. He wanted to ensure the mechanics could fit into a game of D&D 5e, yet feel unlike any other world he'd played in.

Working alongside Gofton to create his world are longtime Round Table patrons and veteran Dungeon Masters Kyle VanDyke and Devin Wilson. All three of them passionate gamers and storytellers, they sought to explore design spaces they felt were underutilized by the mainstream and push the boundaries of what their beloved game could do. Starting with a unique concept for a character or story moment, the team would strive to bring profound and exciting new ways to experience that concept.

Of specific interest to Gofton is the concept of chronomancy. As someone whose whole life is about living for the present moment and knowing that it's finite, being able to manipulate time and bend it to one’s will is an attractive power. When discussing his obsession with time, Gofton often references a perceived curse of parallelism in his mind’s eye that constantly reminds him of amazing times prior and hopes for a crazy executed future. He doesn't live in regret, and is not afraid of the future, so he constantly puts himself out there and tries crazy things, even when he makes mistakes.

Chronomancy is a huge theme in Legacy of Mana, and something the design team has worked hard to emulate in a way that feels engaging as a player yet streamlined for a dungeon master. Some examples include fluctuating time to modify initiative mid-combat, witnessing the past of a person or object, or dividing their turn up throughout a round.

These sorts of unconventional abilities are what mechanics designer Kyle VanDyke and the rest of the Legacy of Mana team thrive on, and what they hope players in their setting will be able to really enjoy. Aside from chronomancy, the team were also tasked with designing interesting and unique monsters, knights capable of absorbing magic, black powder firearms, and modular ships as well as several new races, class archetypes, magic items, and feats.

The main thematic elements presented in Legacy of Mana are inspired by classics such as the Arthurian legends and Conan the Barbarian, but with added contemporary influences like Highlander and Final Fantasy. This mixture of old and new combined with each member of the design team’s own vision has led to a dense world filled with both cosmic and high fantasy, as well as steampunk sci-fi. The most modern media property to loan its themes to Legacy of Mana is one that has actually been officially integrated into the setting, that of the Mexican video game, Greak: Memories of Azur. Their world fit so well within the lore of Imaria that both Gofton and the game’s developer, Navegante Entertainment, knew they had to collaborate.

Brought to life by the combined writing talents of Devin Wilson and Jaym Gates, the world of Imaria is ripe with storytelling potential. Their challenge of combining different elements such as invading lunar aliens, kaleidoscopic dreamscapes, magical airship armadas, and gritty medieval empires has resulted in many rewrites and retcons but their dedication to ensuring the world feels as real and immersive as possible shines through.

Tactical Look into a Dark Place...

When the time came to procure art for the setting, Gofton chose Ryan Valle as the lead illustrator, whom he’d worked with on other projects in the past. The intensity of Valle’s depictions seemed to make Gofton’s childhood imagination leap out at him from the page. Confident with this new art direction, Gofton brought in his trusted boardgame designer Josh Derksen to stylize the book’s layout and formatting, as well as several maps to include in the accompanying map book. This map book allowed the team to really add tone and color to the world's atmosphere, showing the vibrant and unique environments found within Imaria. Derksen’s long experience with boardgames has led to truly professional designs that look just as at home on the gaming shelf as any other book.

Knowing that this would likely be his last chance to share his world the way he knows they’re meant to be, Gofton also hired prolific fantasy author Josh Vogt to write his stories in novel form. This novel serves as the canon pinnacle for everything to begin with. Where the novel ends, the setting guide begins. A perfect introduction to the story. Together, the mechanics, maps and story steeped together to become the definitive Legacy of Mana experience.

Welcome to Imaria

World Map of Imaria

Imaria is a land where mana dreams. Lush, wild, and filled with powerful beings, it is a world of dreams and nightmares. A place for grand stories, mythic heroes, and daring exploits. It is a world unlike any other. A planar barrier known as the Veil wraps around the world, preventing gods and the extraplanar beings of the Lunar Hordes from meddling in the affairs of sentient beings. Vast continents float through the sky while massive caverns and tunnels cut through the earth. Airships ply the wind streams as their marine cousins ply the waves and deep-sea currents. Societies rise and fall, powers wax and wane, and even the great dragons fade away.

Mana flows into Imaria from the twin suns themselves, stars of pure magical energy. This energy is absorbed by the world and gathered in the core where it bursts forth in the form of leylines, serving as the lifeblood for the land itself. These incredibly potent streams of pure energy surge from an underground volcano in the heart of Thalagrant known as the Mana Well. Everything from the growth of plants to the weather, from the birth of certain magical creatures to the fostering of societies, is shaped by the flow of mana. Throughout the ages, it has been the one constant in this chaotic world.

Vupine Chronomancer

Mana has many ways of manifesting across the world. The niimals of Tensire, mana-infused beasts given sentience and humanoid form. The zayanku bloodlines that rule the human lands, wielding strange powers and great gifts granted to them long ago in a forgotten age. Even the monstrous creatures that hunt deep in the woods. All are aspects of mana. Some creatures, such as elves and dragonborn are nearly mana incarnate, their blood laden with potent magical potential. Others feed on it, consuming mana to fuel their own life. Mana fuels weapons, airships, and empires.

Some places, however, like the separated subcontinents of Phaelan’s Republic, lack the bountiful mana the rest of the world thrives on. As such, they have been forced to rely on other means such as science and technology. Black powder firearms, steamships, biomechanical enhancements, and psionic might allow their people to keep up with the magic of the world.

Warriors of all Kinds call Imaria Home

But in all the ages, few events have shaped the world like the rise of the Iltherians. Ruthless warriors capable of destroying mana itself, cancelling out the powers of wizards, sorcerers, and others with their mana-devouring renik steel. They rolled across the land, a scourge against all those who were different, all who would not fall into the ranks of the glorious future.

The world is beset with inequality. The falling Iltherian Empire ruled harshly, trampling all those they deemed unworthy beneath their boots, and killing anyone who used magic or even bore it within their veins. Slavery, genocide, and oppression have thrown Imaria into disarray, and though there are many working to right the world, there are also many who seek to profit from chaos, or to sow yet more.

Because the world was once a highly magical place but has been stripped of much of that magic, supernatural monsters are fading away. Many of the surviving magical monsters are starving, rabid, afraid, and desperate. Guardians and champions may find themselves in the position of healing and aiding these monsters, who are so much a part of balanced ecosystem. Others must simply be put out of their misery, too dangerous to be allowed to survive.

Currents of power long stagnant are shifting wildly, leaving some used to power gasping in its sudden dearth, others drowning in newly found possibilities. The world is in need now, more than ever, of heroes, of someone to make sense of this great change.

Welcome to Imaria, you will never find anywhere like it.

Legacy of Mana Full Kickstarter Selection

Legacy of Mana is now available on Kickstarter! Get your copy today and explore the world of Imaria! Back this project for yourself right here!

Your Sessions Come To Life with a Legendary Soundtrack - A Guide to GM Music

We here at Apotheosis Studios love to tell stories. Our work in the worlds of TTRPG has been defined by the stories we want to tell. When we create our gaming table environments, telling tales for our friends and community.

There's been a lot of talk about the things you can bring to your table. This blog is filled with the many kinds of new monster, items to outfit your characters, and places for them to go. Game Masters who are savvy with the rule systems they play with will always find ways to build new content for their games. I always encourage Game Masters to brew new things for their games.

But say you're a Game Master and you've worked tirelessly to build new material and hooks for your campaign. Your minis will be dry by the time the players come and the battle maps are drawn and ready. Now how do you make the game feel the part?

Music Sets the Scene

It's December now, and those of us who have Spotify open when they work would know they listen to quite a bit of music. It's a strange and eclectic report I've been given by the elves inside that app. Music is an immersive way to set the tone of where you are and what you're doing, and it's strange for there not to be something atmospheric underscoring the TV and movies we watch.

Why should our games be any different?

I've been using background music in many of my own games, and it adds a level of cinematic flair to your games. It's an added layer of work to your game but makes for great effect.

Bards using their music can change the tide of battle, just like you, dear GM - ‘Field Musicians‘ by SIXMOREVODKA

Setting the Score

I know when I first started Game Mastering, I know I mostly turned on my sound system and played movie soundtracks. Lord of the Rings and the Marvel Cinematic Universe were some of the early choices. LotR has the benefit of the high fantasy genre callbacks, as well as the right mixture of subdued and light, as well as grand and heroic. The tone of the song is very important – I'll talk about that in a moment.

It's easy to just let an album like that play on repeat in the background. It's what I did when I started, but there's so much more that can be done when you put in a little work with it.

For the music I use in my games, I try to cover a lot of bases. There's more than just one tone or mood you can give in a certain situation.

I've designed, built, and worked in my setting for well over seven years. It has an extensive history that spans thousands of years, and the different geographic locations in the world. Finding different kinds of music that fit these locations was a very fun challenge. The world we live in has a wide spread of cultures, and they usually inspire how we imagine parts of our own world. It's hard to not imagine Dwarves with a Scottish drawl.

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Your musicians match the music - and they Inspire your games - ‘Tragic Poet‘ by Edvan Soares

We can actually take Dwarves as an example. In my own setting, the Dwarves mirror what we would consider Scottish or Celtic in one part of the world, but in another, I mirror them on Vikings or other Scandinavian cultures.

For moments when a party of adventurers are trekking through the tunnels and caves beneath a great range of mountains, something quiet with a lot of base and ambient strings play. It needs to feel cold and gloomy, a little frightening. They can proudly claim Dark Vision all they want, but that's always going to be a gloomy environment. When they enter the great underground caverns, then the musical tone changes greatly. Something grand and echoey, with lots of horns and strings can perfectly underscore the narration you give about the impossibly high cavern vaulting upwards. A low, understated moment in the song can be for a moment that a player kneels down to inspect the intricate, near microscopic details the Dwarves have carved into such a pillar.

When the party wanders into the great hall of the Dwarf lords that live down here, that's when the details start to show through, and can really help the tone of your story. A generic Dwarf playlist may have something grand and heroic, with bagpipes and reed guitars playing, but would that tone fit if the last king under the mountain has just died? Perhaps a classic Viking funerary song would fit far better here, describe a non-Dwarf Bard performing the song you're playing but the party are hearing from a corner to the side. The lively drinking songs of these two cultures are both very different, in our world and theirs.

The different cultures of Dwarves I use feature Celtic music, lots of pipes and flutes in some locations; compared to the throat singing and bassy horns and drums of more traditional Scandinavian songs. Tracks with a more subdued but strong tones can greatly affect how the scene feels.

If you know the setting you play in well enough to have a culture mirror between your locations, having accompanying music really builds up great atmosphere.

An idea for musical supplements you can use is a theme song. Some specific track to play when an NPC is a focus, or a party theme when they do something heroic or are in danger. Moments like these feel like a great needle drop moment like in the movies, and gives the character being emphasised a lot of weight for good or bad.

On the Right Soundtrack

Breaking down a location into battle music, ambient music, and tense music usually works very well for me. They can be as long or as short as you need it. A ten minute version of a song that fits the location perfectly can be looped to do the job just fine. A few quick, similar tracks are also excellent. As long as it's not too repetitive on your players, then they can let the musical journey move around them.

Now we have some ideas for what we could make our playlists be like, we can begin scouring the internet for music sources. Obvious places like Youtube, Spotify, and Soundcloud are excellent sources and great places to start looking. Do remember to keep all your playlists and songs saved in the same place. It's incredibly bad for the player's immersion if you suddenly have to pause the music to switch playlists on a different site to change tone or location. Bonus points if you somehow save all the audios and play them through from one place.

As I said earlier, fantasy film and TV soundtracks are usually great places to start for inspiration. Electro funk and obscure dubstep are excellent picks for your scifi themed games. It's also a chance to showcase artists you and your friends have never really heard of. Here are some of my quick picks:

For location matters playlists: the Civilisation games have songs to symbolise each country you can play as in game, for both peacetime and war. This is a great spread of cultures in both ambient and aggressive situations. Civilisation 5 (as well as being one of the best games in history) has an excellent soundtrack that you can find on Youtube here.

For general fantasy music: Fantasy & World Music by the Fiechters are excellent and provide many examples in tracks ranging from two to twenty minutes. Find their channel right here.

For grand, dramatic music for combat encounters and reveals of the BBEG, channels like Two Steps from Hell and Epic Music World will always be channels I can recommend for the truly cinematic.

music in TTRPGs can be wildly different depending how you play, bring the noise to level up your play - ‘Chempunk Shredder’ by SIXMOREVODKA

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: This advice works very well for your home games. If you stream your TTRPG goodness like the fine people at Gilding Light or my friends No Ordinary Heroes and BiscuitTinRPG, then you have to go to the extra search of finding the music that is royalty and copyright free. The work of Fesliyan Studios offers copyright free fantasy music for all kinds of use.

Once you have them all saved together in one place, saved into this location for calm, tense, and in battle, now you have to wonder how to play it. In my case, I have a fairly good music setup. My stereo produces grand surround sound and has everything ready to go once linked to my phone. I know not every Game Master will have such a setup, and there's many ways to get around it. A good speaker, turned down to a volume just quieter than speaking placed in the middle of your table is usually good. If you don't use your phone when you play, putting it behind you with a cup over the speaker also works surprisingly well.

Go forth, armed with symphonies to bring a new level of story to your stories.

Now we want to hear from you. Will you be bringing a musical sensation to your upcoming games? What kind of tracks do you use when you GM your tabletop role playing games? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com , they write about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out themselves. On Youtube, they can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes , or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere . Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree .

Runeterra's Magic - The Final Cards in the Arcane Secret Lair

Gaming of all kinds is a deep love for us here at Apotheosis Studios. When we say bye to our friends after a tabletop roleplaying session, and there isn't too much work to do, we can fire up our PCs and consoles for adventure, action, and anything in between. Or, if you're like me, delve deep into the strategy of trading cards.

We've talked at length about the titan of TCG's on this blog before. Magic the Gathering has informed my imagination as a writer and mechanical know-how as a gamer. The frequency of my playing it has come and gone, but it will always be there. When Magic brings in an IP I love as much as Riot Games' Arcane series, how could I not love it?

Arcane Secret Lairs

In a past article, I've talked about the characters and scenes from the Arcane TV series making their way onto upcoming Secret Lairs Magic cards. To sum up, Secret Lairs are a small collection of cards that get a special collector's reprint and design rework.

The themes have been mixed from historic, to iconic, to hilarious. This time, scenes depicting our favourite Arcane characters and scenes have arrived.

We saw the majority of the cards before, but the final three are here, and I can understand why they chose to hold these back. Two of the three of them depict Vi, our favourite future law enforcer, in her signature power gloves. We didn't see these until the final drips of the show, and it makes sense to want to hold off on them.

Seize the Day has its place in Red aggressive Commander decks, while Krosan Grip is tech against pesky Artifacts and Enchantments.

Duress, with the shattered mirror, is an excellent depiction of Jinx's madness. She puts herself under mental duress until the dramatic conclusion of the show brings her into a state where she embraces the crazy.

This Secret Lair is on sale right now, and I really cannot resist.

Now we want to hear from you. What other IP do you want to make into Secret Lairs? Have you dabbled in the League of Legends card game, Legends of Runeterra? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com , they write about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out themselves. On Youtube, they can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes , or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere . Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree .

The Clearing Appears Perfectly Safe - Review for 'Perception Check'

Tabletop roleplaying gamers have some of the biggest imaginations. We can dream up whole worlds and interweaving plots of an afternoon. When we game, we transport ourselves completely to these other places, and they feel so real that they surround us.

Similar such people, are those at Deerstalker Productions. Their show All for 1 on Youtube has been something we here at Apotheosis Studios have really loved. Their mix of detailed fantasy costuming, rich Australian settings, and hilarious gaming comedy have kept us coming back for more D&D hi-jinks.

The bandits are invisible, or the players have terrible perception - Image by Deerstalker Productions

Perception Check

We've looked at their older episodes in the past, and these early episodes have shown off just how far they've progressed as a studio and as creators.

Roll for Perception - Image by Deerstalker Productions

This episode plays right into the fears that every player has when their party camps out in the wilderness. Ne'er-do-wells coming to take all their things, even the clothes off their backs, while they sleep. I think we should have guessed that things wouldn't go well when Nixie admitted she had a “-1 in Perception”.

We get the premise of characters with bad Perception rolls stretched to its most extreme here. Which is the essence of comedy, in a way. There's something so funny about seeing the party fail to see bandits badly hiding behind shrubs and bushes right in front of them. When you combine that with the bard falling asleep, and the same bandits handing him a cuddly elephant and covering him in a blanket, we feel the real comedy of the whole sketch.

Now we want to hear from you. Did you laugh along with us to Perception Check? What other well made D&D media like this should we know about? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com , they write about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out themselves. On Youtube, they can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes , or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere . Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree .