Blades in the Dark Landing Page

/

I’m starting a new Blades in the Dark campaign today, and I have been setting up the landing page for my players. They have a lair in an warehouse in the Docks, so I’ve set up the page to resemble an old industrial space. True to the steampunk vibe of the RPG, I have included a few pipes and dials.

On top of the background, I placed progress clocks from my clock sets available on Roll20. My landing page includes items from my soon-to-be-released “Heat” set: the furnace is a nine-count heat clock and the wanted poster is a four-count clock as well.

Download the background image here if you’d like use it to create something similar. It’s in a 4x3 aspect.

Free Progress Clock Images Suitable for Roll20

/
Red_Lamp.gif

I’ve been playing Blades in the Dark lately on Roll20. An important part of that system and some other newer RPG systems is the use of clocks to track the progress of factions, actions, or events.

I created a bunch of themed clocks for my campaign and also put them up on the Roll20 Marketplace. I also wanted to make a set of five clocks available for those who want to try them out, or who don’t mind doing the bit of work to create the rollable tables that hold multi-sided tokens on Roll20.

These clocks are from my Steampunk set. They’re based on carriage lanterns with Fresnel lenses. You can download the ZIP file and use these to set up your own 4-, 6-, 8-, 10- and 12-sided clocks on your own Roll20 tabletop.

Link to free ZIP of PNGs (build using instructions here).
Link to Steampunk set on Roll20 Marketplace.

Point of Interest Markers on Roll20

/
POI-marker-large.jpg

239 Point of Interest Markers now on Roll20 for your VTT maps of towns, cities, or regions. These tokens are custom-designed for your fantasy RPG. Each is named and categorized for easy searching:
• Numbers 1—40
• Letters A—Z
• Architecture (17)
• Creatures (12)
• Earth and Sky (12)
• Gates and Portals (8)
• Government and Gods (18)
• Rest and Relax (12)
• Rumors and Rites (11)
• Shops and Trades (48)
• Symbols (20)
• Transportation (5)

Preview the entire set or purchase on Roll20.

Token Markers on Roll20 Marketplace

/

I’ve created some sets of token markers for the Roll20 Marketplace. They are designed to provide flexible, generic status indicators for fantasy RPGs. Each set contains approximately 80 markers, and they are optimized to be distinct and legible at small sizes.

Spell Effects Token Markers

Spell Effects Token Markers

Combat, Damage, and Condition Token Markers

Combat, Damage, and Condition Token Markers

Fear of Death in 5e

/
Death

I seldom have helpless PCs on the field. That's as it should be — I assume ours is the story of the band of heroes that were both lucky and good and survived against all odds. But that doesn't mean that the threat of death shouldn't add a little frisson to the proceedings, nor that death shouldn't be an inconvenience, a strong story beat, and a chance for the party to reevaluate their tactics.

@DMDavid has written a short article entitled Can a DM Have Monsters Kill Fallen Characters Without Bringing Hurt Feelings?. It’s about how DMs can increase the sense of peril to 5e’s nigh-unkillable PCs.

I realized a few sessions ago that we'd had a PC down, left untended for a few rounds while the others assumed they's mop up and deal with the downed fighter after the mêlée. And of course that's what happened, and the healer fixed it, and a short rest got everybody back in fighting trim. From a story perspective, that's mortally wounded to ready-to-go in about an hour. Pretty unsatisfying narratively.

I think with 5e the idea of front-loading the dread of death is a great solution to this problem. We are all exhilarated when we come through a potentially dangerous situation with skill, luck, or the help of our friends. Now I just have to remember to hit these beats at the table.

Review: Festivals, Feasts & Fairs (5e Supplement)

/

I’ve run a festival for my players before. They were in a village, managed to defeat a baddie, and the influx of well-wishers, news hounds, gossips, and opportunists soon turned the town into an impromptu two-day party. The heroes got an award from the mayor, there was dancing, and jugglers threw things about.

Mostly I ran it narratively. Trying to figure out a bunch of guess-my-weight and dunk-the-halfling mechanics on the fly seemed like a bit much.

That’s precisely what Festivals, Feasts & Fairs is meant to address. It provides a bunch of background, color, and mechanics for the kinds of activities our adventurers would find at a festival. Feats of strength, carnival games, fortune telling. It’s basically a set of mini-games that allow your players to use their skills to try their luck on the carnival fairway.

I’ll reproduce some of the ToC here to give you an idea of the breadth of content:

  • Denizens Of The Circus

  • Attractions

  • Competitions

  • Carnival Games

  • Visiting The Fortune Teller

  • Vendors

  • Items Around The Carnival

  • Backgrounds

  • Designing Custom

The PDF is well laid out in a familiar style, and contains internal links to all sections. My only quibble is that I’d love to see a more comprehensive link list as I would likely run this on my laptop during a session.

I think if you generated a few memorable NPCs and had this supplement at the ready, you could fill an entire session with your PCs just wandering around shooting arrows at targets and eating fried foods. If this sounds like something you could use, I recommend it.

Festivals, Feasts and Fairs

D&D Supplement

PDF, 38 pages