House of Dogs Issue One

 House of Dogs is the "Mongrel Journal" of Theory and Practice for Role-Playing Games and is a unique piece of rpg content. Weird Realms sent a copy to me with my copy of Inferno Road: Plague Edition. Instead of presenting a lot of new crunchy content, this one is full of reviews and thought pieces about rpgs (as well as some interesting artwork).

The first of these treatise is on the Tomb of Horrors. Written by Adam Thornton this one discusses the various versions of the adventure and equates them to music albums. There's a lot of thought and humor in this one. 

David Shugars gives us an article about Gardens of Ynn. While I've never heard of this OSR point-crawl before, I really want to pick it up now. The article is a discussion of hexcrawls and point crawls and how Ynn is a fantastic wilderness adventure resource.

David Wilke gives his thoughts on Wonder & Wickedness by Lost Pages. That tome presents a new no-level magic system in the vein of Eldritch Cock and Vaginas are Magic!. While I've not read W&W yet, after this piece, I want to check it out. It makes magic unique and dangerous. 

Luke Gearing has a brief reflection on Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play 1st Edition.

Shugars has a second piece with a discussion of the Whitehack. He primarily focuses the game's innovation that he thinks is the most impressive, the auction. He briefly explains the mechanic and then gives some examples.

Peter Webb discusses an infamous trap from James Raggi's Fuck for Satan. Not a whole lot to this one, but if you've read the adventure, he's talking about Eye of Many Eyes.

The volume ends with the Tomb of Whores by Adam Thornton. You read that correct. This is a frat guy take on Tomb of Horror ran by by the author. You might get a giggle out of it, but was for me.

I liked House of Dogs. Sadly, I think it only had one issue. While looking around the web, I can't find much on it. That's a shame, because I liked this. I'm actually thinking about talking to some of my other blogger and publisher friends and maybe creating a zine that does something similar. 

Dark Tides of Bilgewater

Howdy folks,

I've not been blogging much recently, because I've not been in the best mental state. Recent political and social events have exacerbated that. I'm keeping on though. It's a struggle sometimes, but I'm still here. Okay, that personal update aside, here's some awesome new content from D&D Beyond.

The original content has been taken down because the licensing agreement with Riot Games ended, but I've linked a compilation pdf someone made here.

Dark Tides of Bilgewater is a mini-setting that takes place in the world of League of Legends/Legends of Runeterra. It's a pirate city and wretched hive of scum and villainy. The setting includes three new archetypes:

• Path of the Depths - This barbarian path is for those that have experienced the crushing weight of the sea and been changed by it. The path is really cool, giving you a swim speed and the ability to breath underwater. As you level up your body further adapts and changes to suit aquatic life
• Renegade - This fighter archetype lets you play a sly and dashing warrior with swagger in abundance. It gives you some rogue skills and gunfighting ability. It also includes gun tinkering rules and upgrades.
• Wild Card - The rogue archetype allows you to twist fate and is perfect for silver tongue gamblers.

In addition to the archetypes, the setting includes an adventure, 6 monsters, 3 npcs, and 7 magic items. One humanoid described is the turtle-like ironbacks. I'd just make these a warrior off-shoot of the Tortle race.

I know that this is just promotion for another game, but this is quality content and I'd love to see more things like this. I figured I'd end with how I'd use this in established settings.

Eberron 

Honestly this can be used as is in Eberron. I'd place Bilgewater on the coast of or near Xen'drik. That seems like the perfect spot for it.

Exandria

Bilgewater sounds just like Darktow Isle to me (except the Plank King still reigns). I'd just merge the two. Ignore Bilgewater's lore where it doesn't suit you. Honestly this mini-setting is wonderful for anyone with characters in the Revelry. 

Forgotten Realms

Bilgewater can either be the a part o the Pirate Isles in the Sea of Fallen Stars or you can put them somewhere off the Sword Coast. Putting it near Chult would also be an excellent spot. 

The Jungle Tomb of the Mummy Bride and WotC

Jungle Tomb of the Mummy Bride is an outstanding adventure and one of my favorite 5e releases. I decided to take the adventure and discuss how to use it with the three established 5e D&D settings I know best.

Eberron
There’s really no question about the best spot in Eberron for this adventure. The mysterious continent of Xen’Drik has numerous ruins dotting its immense jungle. The Mummy Bride and cannibals make perfect antagonists for the pulpy adventures there. I would change the humanoids to drow, since they are the primary inhabitants of Xen’Drik (other than giants). While the drow there aren’t typical evil drow, there could easily be decadent tribes among the race.  Give the cannibals the following adjustments:

Fey Ancestry: advantage on saves vs. charm, immunity to sleep magic

Innate Spellcasting (spell save DC 11)
At Will: Dancing Lights
1/day each: Faeire Fire, Darkness

Sunlight Sensitivity
In the sunlight, drow have disadvantage on attack rolls and Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight. Note: The dense jungle protects them from this most of the time.

Adventure Hooks

• The party’s ship or airship has been grounded near the tomb. Hearing rumors, they believe there is magic there that can help them repair it and go home.
• The University of Wynarn or Morgrave University send the party as part of an expedition to a newly discovered elven ruin. 
• A member of a Dragonmarked house has gone missing  exploring Xen’drik and his family want him found. 

Forgotten Realms

Honestly, the adventure can be used with little change in the Realms. The obvious place to place the jungle temple is Chult. It could be a location you add to Tomb of Annihilation. The setting already has undead and dinosaurs. However, if you want something a little different, I’d place it in far off Maztica. I got a Central and South American vibe from Jungle Tomb and Maztica is the Forgotten Realms equivalent of those places. It also makes the place more mysterious. 

Adventure Hooks

• The party are friends with Volo. They hear news that he’s gone missing and the last time anyone heard from him he mentioned exploring a lost pyramid. This plot hook works really well if you’re running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.
• Something is disrupting trade with Port Nyanzaru and the Merchant Princes hire the party to investigate. 
• The party is payed handsomely to be a part of an Amnian merchant’s trade expedition to fabled Maztica.

Exandria

In the Critical Role world, the jungle is based placed on a large island in the Lucidian Ocean between Tal’Dorei and Wildemount. This makes it accessible to both campaign books set in Exandria. I think I would put it somewhere not too far from the Menagerie Coast, but still a distance from trade routes. The dark gods and spirits the Mummy Bride is bound to could be betrayer gods (such as Zehir, Torog,  Vecna, or Tharizdun) or lesser idols like the Arms of the Betrayers, Ceratos, Desirat, or Uk’otoa).  

Adventure Hooks

• The Revelry - One of the Plank King’s favorite captains has gone missing and he offers a reward for their return. Not only does the party have to deal with the jungle and it’s dangers, but they also have to deal with rival pirates.
• Clovis Concord - Rumors of the jungle riches have reached a powerful merchant. They hire the party to investigate and offer them a percentage of the find.
• Kryn Dynasty - Bright Queen Leylas Kryn has had a vision of the Luxon in a distant tropical island. With her forces at war with the Dwendalian Empire, she sends the party to investigate.  

If you want the pdf of the adventure you can snag it from DriveThruRPG. If you want a print copy, you can message the Planet X Games Facebook page and ask if they have any left. 

Plane Shift Ixalan

Earlier this week Wizards of the Coast dropped another free Magic: The Gathering meets Dungeons and Dragons 5e supplement: Plane Shift: Ixalan. Ixalan is the setting for another recent release X Marks the Spot.

The 47 page pdf has quite a bit of material.  The first section discusses the four major factions of the setting (as well as giving suggestions on how to create them as D&D characters with new ideals and bonds). There's also discussion of how to bring these factions together. The second discusses the races of Ixalan (as well as a short section discussing other MTG versions of these races). We have humans, merfolk (with green and blue subraces), vampires (with a new feat), orcs, goblins, and sirens. The next sections discusses the Lands of Ixalan. This is pretty cool because you get setting information, as well as appropriate treasure tables, maps,  and a "who created it or was intended to use it" chart. The next section is a bestiary. Ixalan is dinosaur heavy so there's quite a bit of dino discussion. We get new stats for Frilled Deathspitters and the legendary dinosaurs of Ixalan. Gishath, Sun's Avatar gets stats. he's a pretty beastly challenge 10 (with Legendary actions), but he's nothing compared to the elder dinosaurs. These monstrosities are challenge 30! There are base stats and then additional actions that can be taken be each of the six primals. We get a few more stat blocks: sunbirds and chupacabra, The final section of the pdf discusses the colors of magic and how to apply them to D&D. There's a discussion on how to play the five colors of magic in addition to personality traits and ideals associated with each color.

Like the others, this is an awesome free pdf. Given the jungle and dinosaur nature of Ixalan, this is a good supplement to Tomb of Annihilation. Also, given the Sun Empire's Mesoamerican feel, Ixalan could be your replacement for the Forgotten Realms Maztica.

X Marks the Spot

Not sure how I missed this one.

While it's not the official Planeshift article full of Ixalan setting material I expected, Wizards has released a pretty cool Magic: The Gathering adventure for 5E. Clocking in at 28 pages, X Marks the Spot is a MTG Planeshift adventure. The pdf is a short adventure, new monsters (including the chupacabra), locations, magic items, and pre-generated characters.

Since Ixalan is a setting of dinosaurs and jungles I don't think it would be to hard to use the information of the adventure to supplement Tomb of Annihilation.

You can grab X Marks the Spot here for the amazing price of free.

Tomb of Annihilation Character Sheet

If you've planning on paying Tomb of Annihilation you should really considering using this great character sheet created by Adam Thaxton for the Dungeon Masters Guild.

This sheet has the same layout as a typical 5e sheet, but has a tribal look. For me that makes it much easier to use than some custom sheets (though don't get me wrong I love custom character sheets). You can download the full-size pay what you want version here.

The Tortle Package

Today, Wizard's dropped the Tortle Package. It's a special pdf supplement for Tomb of Annihilation. All money that WotC earn from its sales go to their Extra Life charity.

The pdf clocks in at 28 pages. It includes information about tortles, pc stats for them, as well as more information about the Snout of Omgar, an island (formerly a peninsula) of Chult that the tortles reside on. We're presented with information about a tortle fort, Ahoyhoy, as well as an old temple to Umberlee, the Bitch Queen. The last of the new content is monster stats for the decapus, geonid, topi, tortle, and tortle druid. The pdf ends with handouts about three tortle guides mentioned in the pdf, a picture of a holy symbol of Umberlee, and unmarked maps of the islands and locations.

Is this a must have? Absolutely not. However, the money goes to a good cause and it's still a really cool pdf. If/when I run Tomb of Annihilation, I'm definitely using this supplement. You can grab the Tortle Package here for 9.99. 

Tomb of Ixalan

I think it's little coincidence and Magic: The Gathering's next set, Ixalan, has dinosaurs and jungles. With Tomb of Annihilation dropping soon (or already if you're a premier store), Wizards is hitting up with a double dose of lost world fantasy. I also hope (and think) this mean we'll get a Planeshift: Ixalan.