Author: Jon

The Danger Series

I’m excited to be creating a new adventure series for DnD 5e called the Danger Series. The idea came earlier this year after I created the ‘Deck of Foes‘ book. I wanted to give each of these creations an adventure where players could discover them.

The second challenge I set myself with this series was to keep the adventures on a single page. I am a big fan of the One Page Mage having seen some of their adventures on social media. By designing my own products I had come up with my own series of short-cuts and designs to summarize NPCs and plot, so I was excited to put this into practice.

The Danger Series takes both the Deck of Foes creatures and the One-Page adventure principle to create environment-themed books. I started by creating the ‘Dangers in the Jungle’ and the ‘Dangers in the City’ books, but I have ten such books being planned. Each book contains five adventures. The Deck of Foes creature that inspired it is just one of the encounters to feature. There are also new hazards and NPCs to interact with.

Finally, each book has an Appendix with twenty magical, and twenty non-magical treasures to find. This extra resource gives DMs more flexibility when running the modules. So, if you fancy creating one-shots or side quests with your players, give the Danger Series a look.

Fantasy Bundles

This month I’ve been busy compiling my various books on DMsGuild into bundles. This is a way of getting more value from the products, and for me it’s an opportunity to spread the love between some of my well known and some of my lesser-known titles.

The Magic Items Collection combines my my magical gear into one bundle. It includes 101 magic items (Treasures of the Desert), 370+ boxes (Boxes of the Magi) and 35 potions and floral amulets (Glitzz’s Guide to Potions and Floral Amulets).

The NPC Collection includes twelve characters I created that were unusual in some way and either have oceanic or fiendish origins. The other part of the collection if NPC Builder, a series of tables that allows the DM to choose or roll up a ready-to-play NPC.

Tales Untamed focusses on different environments as the inspiration for encounters. Crossing the Great Archipelago contains many different water and island scenarios. Camp Fire Tales includes twenty different encounters that occur once the party settle down to rest. Finally, War of the Wilds provides the tools to explore unexplored territory where different factions want to claim the land for themselves.

Tales Below is a set of three quests that take the party underground. Expect intrigue, mystery, and plenty of loot. The Crystal Spires Mine is undertaking a dangerous mission for the local baron. Token’s Rock sees the party pursue a dangerous character called Baden to a desolate group of islands. The Hidden Sanctuary is the opportunity to discover the temple’s dark secret.

Tales Beyond is a set of three quests that take the party the realms of the material plane. The Tower of the Silken Brotherhood is the chance to steal a magical staff from within a mysterious group’s stronghold. The Trials of Sir Surlamund takes the party within the mind of a senior paladin in order to try and save his life. Journey into Twilight is a trip to the Fey Realm in the hope of reversing a curse bestowed on the village of Hemelchuk.

Football Town Manager

What stared off as a choose-your-own-adventure story about managing a football team (Football: A Town’s Tale) has now blossomed into a football management system, where the player can manage a team through an entire football season.

Football: A Town’s Tale is the origins story that started it all. The chance to challenge the town’s best side was too tempting, and began a new chapter in your character’s life.

Football Town League includes twelve opponents with unique team abilities, new event tables and a plenty of options each turn to improve your team. It will take a lot to make the play-offs and even more to win it outright. Can your team win promotion?

Football Town Cup gives your local team the chance to play in the FA Cup. Twelve rounds stand between you and the FA Cup trophy. Your decisions and rolls will determine how far they go.

All three of the series are now also available in one bundle:
Football Town Manager.

Magical Core

April of 2022 saw the completion of Agora Core; the six-year rpg campaign that I ran with a group of friendly players. Magical Core is the concluding chapter. The party of six players went from Level 11 to Level 14 during this time so it is suitable for high to epic level groups.

In Magical Core, the world is at stake from a very ambitious and powerful monk called Ilistria. The core is a series of planar levels testing the player’s resolve. It relies on teamwork but also on sacrificing magical possessions in order to gain gifts to survive the core’s magical environment. It could be a way of concluding a home game, an exciting one-shot or an unexpected way of opening up a dungeon-crawl. Expect challenging encounters and a final level that could go in any direction!
Magical Core is available from the DMsGuild.

New for 2021

After a busy time in the workshop, what started off as two new projects grew into four. This was because the Agora Core roleplay group needed new scenarios to match the intensity of the moment. Let’s walk through them…

Token’s Rock
(available from DMs Guild)
In Agora Core, the group was pursuing a slippery character called Baden, but to find him they would need to leave their comfort zone and enter a strange subterranean environment where ancient secrets are waiting to be revealed. This is a rich and surprising storyline that provides opportunities to gather information as well as some unique combat encounters.

Quarterstaffs of Legend
(available from DrivethruRPG)
After creating the Treasures of the Desert book, which contains 100 magical items, I watched a number of Japanese anime series and felt inspired to create a series of unique quarterstaffs. This was a fun project in which its simplicity allowed me freedom and flow to create interesting items. Quarterstaffs are generally underrepresented but there’s no reason that these honed pieces of wood couldn’t be lethal in combat or useful in traveling.

Tomb of the Witch Queen
(available from DrivethruRPG)
Currently in Agora Core, the party are biding their time, trying to stay in the good books of a tyrant until they can strike a deadly blow. From a range of options, they decided to go on a tomb-raiding mission for their employers. Creating this adventure was fun because it was a blank canvas and unrelated from the main plot thread. As I thought about who Sassaya (the Witch Queen) was, I thought about the history of the tomb, her strong, enduring magical essence, and how it was discovered later on by devotees as well as women who had nothing left to lose.

There is a section called the Witch’s Labyrinth, which is based on an idea that is a story element in the Hilda animated TV series as well as the sweet and sour anime, Magica Madoka. I decided to make traversing the labyrinth a player-driven experience, which is a decision I’m really pleased with.

War of the Wilds
(available from DMs Guild)
Inspired once again by the Agora Core group that I DM. A major plot thread in the campaign is the war over the wild and new landscape of the Da. As the players tried to gain allies and find an opportunity to defeat a dangerous enemy, they needed a backdrop where events and conditions could unfold at any given moment. War of the Wilds has become the setting template that I use for each session when they are traveling through the wilds of the Da.

Thanks for taking this tour of the new books with me. If you decide to give them a try with your group, I hope you enjoy the experience! Please do let me know.

December Visions

As the year comes to a close, I have one wonderfully thematic tale to promote and two exciting new fantasy books on the horizon!

The Low-Elves: A Festive Tale 
Two Low-Elves thought they were unique among their kind, but after their father’s death, his will reveals that he had other siblings. Now, they are desperately looking for adventurers to help fulfil their father’s dying wish; to bring the family together again for the Winter Festival.

Token’s Rock
A story of intrigue and exploration on an island full of mythology and a very ambitious explorer.

Quarterstaffs of Legend
This collection contains 12 remarkable magic quarterstaffs, including their backstory and magical effects.

The Low-Elves is available now on DMs Guild, while the other two books will be out in January 2021. If you have any ideas for topics for an RPG module, or if you have any questions about DMing a roleplaying group, please do let me know.

A very Happy New Year to you all!

Critical Roll Options

Critical hits and misses are the blessing and curse of a roleplayer. They can provide classic moments when a character shines in combat, or fails so atrociously that the scene runs like a slapstick action scene from a silent film.

Often though, the results can be underwhelming, with critical hits still doing less damage than expected or a critical miss that passes by without comment.

I enjoy improvising critical miss effects but the decisions are inconsistent, so I wanted to create a system that the player could roll to determine the outcome. I also read comments online about how critical miss consequences were unfair to fighter classes who are more likely to suffer from these effects.

This set of simple rules using a single d6 die aims to add the possibility of an awesome critical hit as well as provide rollable consequences for a critical miss. By doing both, the combat system remains balanced but adds exciting possibilities to the mix!

Each table has a 50% chance of not adding any effect, meaning the critical hit doubles the dice damage as usual, or the critical miss does not affect the player’s actions beyond missing their opponent. If they roll the other 50% though, things get interesting…!

The tables are available for free from DMs Guild. Why not spice up your criticals in your next session!

Potions, Magic Items and Temples

It has been a busy few months as I hit a creative period. Following that was the inevitable administration; simpler tasks but no less time consuming! I am delighted to share this new set of ideas, that I believe will be a fun addition to any home campaign.

Glitzz’s Guide to Potions and Floral Amulets is a magical, easy-to-use collection that I adapted from a previous product (The Magic of Nature). For all 35 potions and floral amulets mentioned, it describes its effects and its rarity, which will affect its cost and availability. The ingredients used are also mentioned, and there is a table of ingredients with appearance, terrain where it is found and rarity, in case the DM wishes to allow players to literally ‘home brew’ their own potions and floral amulets!

The Hidden Sanctuary

Using the tables in the Dungeon Master’s Guide to create rooms and content was a fascinating process. It gave me the background with which to build up an adventure. The result was not what I expected and I was excited by the scenario.

The Hidden Sanctuary can be applied to any temple scenario and adds extra layers to a distinguished place of worship. What lies beyond the grand outer halls is sensational and could lead to many problems if discovered. The players will need to decide what to do with this information.

Treasures of the Desert

I was excited by the idea of creating a collection of 100 magical items. I created magical items for other modules and enjoyed the process. It soon became clear just how much work creating 100 items in a row was, but it was very rewarding seeing the collection completed.

Having the treasures come from the desert was a way to bring the items together under one theme. I based the desert on The Da; the prominent land mass in my home campaign. In that, it used to be a much different landscape and the Elven kingdom known as Chan’Danis. The idea that the desert dunes hid many lost artefacts from past kingdoms was an attractive one, and that sometimes a fortunate or persistent adventurer would uncover a tomb or ancient settlement containing these treasures. Only the Desert truly chooses when to reveal its secrets.

There are no future products in development at the moment as I will be spending the summer concentrating on other parts of my life, but I hope to create some quick documents if and when inspiration strikes during my home roleplay campaign, Agora Core. In the meantime, have a good summer!

Sea Adventures and Charity

The D&D group I DM are currently crossing the seas and decided to create a module based on their adventures.  It turned out to be a much larger volume than anticipated!  I am very pleased to release this to other groups and DMs who are looking for buccaneering, sea-swept adventures to add to their stories.

This was always going to be a product where the author’s royalties would go to a charity.  It’s a strange time for everyone, and I wanted to help in some way.  In buying this product, you will be helping ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty); their Arts Resilience Fund is designated to bring the arts to those most in need during this time.

Crossing the Great Archipelago is available from DM Guild for $4.99.

The islands of the archipelago are jealously guarded by greedy rulers and powerful, wild creatures. The waters are the hunting grounds for pirates and sharks while corals and storms sink the ships of many a reckless captain.

There are 30 different scenarios and many unique encounters as well as some classic watery foes!  There are also 60 different treasure items, all rated from low to high, depending on the encounter.

Happy adventuring, and stay safe and well out there!

A Time for Collections

Since my last blog entry, a lot has happened in the world. Limitations are very hard in terms of separation from loved ones and social activities that people depend on. Every plan we had this year is out the window and we are indebted to those workers who enable us to continue to live our lives in isolation. One positive is how limitations focus the mind on activities that can be done. With that in mind, I’ve been busy updating and compiling my fantasy RPG publications into comprehensive collections.

Compendium of Fantastical Ideas

It was very satisfying combining all five books into one collection. This was always the plan, as each contains sixty unique ideas, so five books creates a total of three hundred ideas, which seemed a good place to stop the series.

Compendium of Fantastical Ideas is available from DrivethruRPG for $15

Solo Adventures – The Collection

I created these stories in late 2018 and the Covid-19 quarantine gave me a chance to revisit these and update them, which was a lot of fun! Now they are in a collection of their own ready to provide entertaining to someone else looking for a bit of escapism and interactive story-telling.

Solo Adventures is available from DrivethrurRPG for $10

I’ll start working on new projects soon. But in the meantime, I hope you stay safe in these uncertain times. Lots of love, Jon (rollplaysidekick.com).