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Tabletop Gaming Resources

@tabletopresources / tabletopresources.tumblr.com

I've been a Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master (DM) and player since the mid 90's. I currently run two D&D 3.5e campaigns, one with heroes and the other with a group of villains. I post resources that can be used to add a little something more to your game. It could be sharing tips or suggestions, answers to questions I'm comfortable with, inspiring images, encounter ideas, or anything helpful or fun I find online that relates to tabletop gaming. Most of what I post will be meant to apply to D&D 3.5e, but a lot of it will be system-neutral. Thanks for visiting! A Note on Tags: I use tags to remind myself of what an image/tip/tool/etc could be USED FOR not what it's from. I sometimes add a tag reflecting the source if I'm certain of it, but frankly that's not what I care about. So yes, I am fully aware that the subject of a post may ACTUALLY be from X,Y, or Z and NOT D&D (for example). Thank you, tumblr tag police. ;)
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Sharpen those axes and load your crossbows - It’s Time for a Monster Hunt! Available now on the DMsguild!

Populating a town or city and in desperate need of quick bounty quests?  Players asking the local tavern for rumors when you had nothing prepared?  Don’t Panic! Just head on over and grab a copy 100 Monster Hunts!  Each quest has been outlined with a bounty advertisement for your players, and additional quest details for the DM, including named NPCs, plot or objectives, loot and treasure rewards, as well as helpful page references for each item or monster used in the quest. Need something quick and don’t want to drag through all 100 hunts to find something? Just roll a d100 and consult the table to quickly whip up a sudden quest whenever you need it! So what are you waiting for? Give yourself a chance to flex those RP muscles and have your players ready their weapons - it’s monster hunting time!

#tabletop rpg#rpg#tabletop gaming#pen & paper#roleplayer#roleplaying#gamer#games#inspiration#pen & paper games#dnd#d&d#pathfinder#dungeons & dragons#Dungeons and Dragons#fantasy rpg#adventure#reference#product#100 monster hunts#quest#list#table
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Encounter Building | Dungeons & Dragons
An alternative set of encounter-building guidelines for D&D.
dnd.wizards.com

This Unearthed Arcana article by Mike Mearls introduces a variation on building combat encounters, with an emphasis on helping those Dungeon Masters who value ensuring an encounter they’ve planned is of the desired challenge level for their players.

Check out Tabletop Gaming Resources for more art, tips and tools for your game!

#tabletop rpg#rpg#tabletop gaming#pen & paper#roleplayer#roleplaying#gamer#games#inspiration#pen & paper games#dnd#d&d#pathfinder#dungeons & dragons#Dungeons and Dragons#fantasy rpg#encounter#encounter building#dm tips#reference#mike mearls
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Reblogged regerem
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Common Occupations in the Middle Ages

  • Almoners: ensured the poor received alms.
  • Atilliator: skilled castle worker who made crossbows.
  • Baliff: in charge of allotting jobs to the peasants, building repair, and repair of tools used by the peasants.
  • Barber: someone who cut hair. Also served as dentists, surgeons and blood-letters.
  • Blacksmith: forged and sharpened tools and weapons, beat out dents in armor, made hinges for doors, and window grills. Also referred to as Smiths.
  • Bottler: in charge of the buttery or bottlery.
  • Butler: cared for the cellar and was in charge of large butts and little butts (bottles) of wine and beer. Under him a staff of people might consist of brewers, tapsters, cellarers, dispensers, cupbearers and dapifer.
  • Carder: someone who brushed cloth during its manufacture.
  • Carpenter: built flooring, roofing, siege engines, furniture, panelling for rooms, and scaffoling for building.
  • Carters: workmen who brought wood and stone to the site of a castle under construction.
  • Castellan: resident owner or person in charge of a castle (custodian).
  • Chamberlain: responsible for the great chamber and for the personal finances of the castellan.
  • Chaplain: provided spirtual welfare for laborers and the castle garrison. The duties might also include supervising building operations, clerk, and keeping accounts. He also tended to the chapel.
  • Clerk: a person who checked material costs, wages, and kept accounts.
  • Constable: a person who took care (the governor or warden) of a castle in the absence of the owner. This was sometimes bestowed upon a great baron as an honor and some royal castles had hereditary constables.
  • Cook: roasted, broiled, and baked food in the fireplaces and ovens.
  • Cottars: the lowest of the peasantry. Worked as swine-herds, prison guards, and did odd jobs.
  • Ditcher: worker who dug moats, vaults, foundations and mines.
  • Dyer: someone who dyed cloth in huge heated vats during its manufacture.
  • Ewerer: worker who brought and heated water for the nobles.
  • Falconer: highly skilled expert responsible for the care and training of hawks for the sport of falconry.
  • Fuller: worker who shrinks & thickens cloth fibers through wetting & beating the material.
  • Glaziers: a person who cut and shaped glass.
  • Gong Farmer: a latrine pit emptier.
  • Hayward:  someone who tended the hedges.
  • Herald: knights assistant and an expert advisor on heraldry.
  • Keeper of the Wardrobe: in charge of the tailors and laundress.
  • Knight: a professional soldier. This was achieved only after long and arduous training which began in infancy.
  • Laird: minor baron or small landlord.
  • Marshal: officer in charge of a household’s horses, carts, wagons, and containers. His staff included farriers, grooms, carters, smiths and clerks. He also oversaw the transporting of goods.
  • Master Mason: responsible for the designing and overseeing the building of a structure.
  • Messengers: servants of the lord who carried receipts, letters, and commodities.
  • Miner: skilled professional who dug tunnels for the purpose of undermining a castle.
  • Minstrels: part of of the castle staff who provided entertainment in the form of singing and playing musical instruments.
  • Porter: took care of the doors (janitor), particularly the main entrance. Responsible for the guardrooms. The person also insured that no one entered or left the castle withour permission. Also known as the door-ward.
  • Reeve: supervised the work on lord’s property. He checked that everyone began and stopped work on time, and insured nothing was stolen. Senior officer of a borough.
  • Sapper: an unskilled person who dug a mine or approach tunnel.
  • Scullions: responsible for washing and cleaning in the kitchen.
  • Shearmen: a person who trimmed the cloth during its manufacture.
  • Shoemaker: a craftsman who made shoes. Known also as Cordwainers.
  • Spinster: a name given to a woman who earned her living spinning yarn. Later this was expanded and any unmarried woman was called a spinster.
  • Steward: took care of the estate and domestic administration. Supervised the household and events in the great hall. Also referred to as a Seneschal.
  • Squire: attained at the age of 14 while training as a knight. He would be assigned to a knight to carry and care for the weapons and horse.
  • Watchmen: an official at the castle responsible for security. Assited by lookouts (the garrison).
  • Weaver: someone who cleaned and compacted cloth, in association with the Walker and Fuller.
  • Woodworkers: tradesmen called Board-hewers who worked in the forest, producing joists and beams.

Other medieval jobs included:

tanners, soap makers, cask makers, cloth makers, candle makers (chandlers), gold and silver smiths, laundresses, bakers, grooms, pages, huntsmen, doctors, painters, plasterers, and painters, potters, brick and tile makers, glass makers, shipwrights, sailors, butchers, fishmongers, farmers, herdsmen, millers, the clergy, parish priests, members of the monastic orders, innkeepers, roadmenders, woodwards (for the forests). slingers. Other Domestic jobs inside the castle or manor:

Personal atendants- ladies-in-waiting, chamber maids, doctor.

The myriad of people involved in the preparation and serving of meals- brewers, poulterer, fruiterers, slaughterers, dispensers, cooks and the cupbearers.

By Lise Hull READ MORE

Source: castles-of-britain.com
#tabletop rpg#rpg#tabletop gaming#tabletop gamer#pen & paper#roleplayer#roleplaying#gamer#games#inspiration#pen & paper games#dnd#d&d#pathfinder#fantasy rpg#Dungeons and Dragons#Dungeons & Dragons#fantasy#middle ages#reference#occupations#npc#encounter#writing
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Spellcasting Combat Narration for D&D

image credit: Ben Wootten

So I was gonna include this in my other article on narrating combat, but it proved far too lengthy, so I made this into part 2! 

Combat is easy to describe compared to narrating spell attacks. I ran into this problem last session when I was getting into detail telling the barbarian how they tore off an ogre’s head but then the druid just kept using Fire Bolt and I kept defaulting to “you shoot a bolt of fire at his face.” I’m going to try and vary things up with these lists and help everyone else in the process! I am organizing them by energy type.

Mode of Attack

Half of a spell’s attack is how the caster shapes their spell. The same spell can look very different with every casting if you have a creative DM. Feel free to switch it up each time it’s cast, or vary the same spell when cast by different characters of different classes.

Attack Words

Generic shapes and terms that will launch from the caster’s hand.

Helix, Spiral, Beam, Erratic, Mote, Bolt, Stream, Blast, Burst, Blade, Arc, Miasma, Cloud, Eruption, Wave, Cone, Missile, Rune, Glyph

Class-Based Ideas

  • Bard
  • Energy manifests from thin air a foot in front of their instrument as they play
  • Energy is shaped like ribbons of written music that ripples towards enemies
  • Several tiny motes of energy appear with each note sung or played. Each point of damage comes from a mote hitting the opponent (rolls a 4 out of a d6, 4 of the 6 note-motes hit)
  • Cleric
  • Energy falls from the sky or emerges from the ground as the cleric prays
  • Beam of energy originates from holy symbol
  • Spell attack should highlight that the cleric is granted their powers from a greater power, don’t have the energy come from their hand/finger. Have the energy come TO them, and then be thrown at the enemy.
  • Druid
  • Energy is shaped like an animal.
  • Energy rushes forth from the surrounding wilderness and zooms past the druid and toward the foe.
  • Much like Cleric, energy shouldn’t come from the caster. It should come from elsewhere before being thrown at the enemy.
  • Fighter (Eldritch Knight)
  • Energy blasts from their bound weapon pointed at the enemy.
  • Energy fires from their mouth as they yell.
  • Energy surrounds their weapon and is used in tandem with it (if close enough)
  • Monk (Way of Four Elements)
  • Literally just watch Avatar: the Last Airbender and do that.
  • Paladin
  • Most Paladin spells are smite-based, so they usually happen when an attack hits. Otherwise, let the energy come from a higher power like the Cleric.
  • Energy bursts forth from within the creature hit
  • Energy surrounds weapon right as the strike lands
  • Energy falls from the sky or erupts from the ground
  • Ranger
  • Honestly, most Ranger spells often seem a lot like man-made traps like Cordon of Arrows (arrow traps), Fog Cloud (smoke grenade), or Grasping Vine (slipknot trap). But otherwise, Play it like the Cleric where the energy comes from a higher power.
  • Energy takes the form of the Ranger’s animal companion or an animal they associate with.
  • Spells seem to cast automatically whenever the Ranger is in a tight spot, almost as if nature itself is protecting them. The Ranger gives an approving nod whenever this happens in thanks.
  • Rogue (Arcane Trickster)
  • Energy is always accompanied by a shimmer of glitter
  • The Rogue plays with the energy over their fingertips as they whistle before casting the spell.
  • Energy enchants one of the Rogue’s daggers and casts the spell by tossing the dagger at the intended location or target.
  • Sorcerer (Draconic Bloodline)
  • Energy takes the shape of a dragon of your bloodline.
  • Energy surges forth from your breath
  • All energy takes the shape of your bloodline dragon’s energy type, regardless of the actual energy type. For instance, a sorcerer of a blue dragon’s bloodline that casts Burning Hands or Cone of Cold keeps the energy type but shapes the fire and cold damage into the form of a bolt of lightning. 
  • Sorcerer (Wild Magic) 
  • Energy takes on many random forms, never under the full command of the Sorcerer.
  • Energy erupts from random places in the environment when the Sorcerer calls upon them.
  • Energy bubbles and fizzes with all energy types (but mostly the one called upon), as if a piece of Limbo was thrown at the enemy.
  • Warlock (Archfey)
  • Your energy shimmers with iridescent colors and showers enemies with sparks of glitter.
  • Warlock (Great Old One)
  • Your magic corrupts and twists the flesh of the target of your spell, regardless of the energy type.
  • Warlock (Fiend)
  • Energy takes the shape of the unholy symbol of your patron.
  • Wizard (Abjuration)
  • Energy shoots forth from your magical wards, arcing towards your enemies.
  • Wizard (Conjuration)
  • You conjure a short-lived elemental of the energy type you need. It soars at the enemy.
  • Wizard (Divination)
  • You weave the glowing threads of fate in the palms of your hands, tweaking reality to cast your spell.
  • Wizard (Enchantment)
  • You enchant an object to exude the energy and toss it at the enemy.
  • Wizard (Evocation)
  • I mean, you just sorta blast them. That’s what this school’s about.
  • Wizard (Illusion)
  • Your spell usually spawns two or three illusory copies. When the attack misses, the enemy simply managed to dodge the right duplicate.
  • Wizard (Necromancy)
  • Your energy takes the shape of a skull screaming as it flies toward the enemy
  • Wizard (Transmutation)
  • You transmute the energy out of the surrounding environment and fire it at the enemy

On-Hit

So if half of a spell’s attack is the shape and travel of the spell, the other half is when the spell hits. I organized this list by energy type, as different energies will do different sorts of things when they hit a creature. This is mostly a collection of interesting effects, colorful language, and examples.

Fire

  • Your bolt of fire singes their armor (burning cloth, blackening leather, discoloring metal)
  • A tiny bead of fire explodes on contact
  • Showers them with red sparks
  • Your attack leaves behind a billowing trail of smoke
  • A fast-travelling meteor of flame soars from the sky towards the enemy.
  • Your flames leave blisters and cracked skin in its wake.
  • Your fire blackens the enemy’s flesh

Cold

  • You freeze the moisture in the air into icy daggers that fall onto your enemy
  • You freeze the water in their blood to damage them
  • Their skin turns blue and numb
  • You literally hurl a snowball at them.
  • Your spell leaves them covered in a layer of frost
  • A buildup of ice covers where your spell hit. (it’s easily shattered once they move, though)
  • A blast of icy wind and rain leaves them shivering.

Thunder

  • A crack of thunder pummels your foe
  • A high-pitched, deafening shriek focuses itself on the target
  • A thin trail of blood races from the foe’s ears from a sound no one else can hear
  • The enemy falls to their knees cupping their hands over their ears, gritting their teeth
  • You buffet the target with waves of thunderous sound
  • The ground shakes with the force of your spell. Brittle glass objects nearby shatter.

Lightning

  • Lightning comes from the sky to smite your foe
  • You all smell the faint odor of ozone before a bright bolt of lightning streaks toward the target of your spell
  • Before your enemy can blink they are showered in electrical sparks followed by crippling pain
  • The enemy’s back stiffens as the powerful current of lightning surges through them
  • Your attack leaves a permanent web of lightning shaped burns all over one side of their body
  • Your blast of lightning causes their skin to rupture as it travels through their body

Acid

  • Your acid sizzles as it burns a new, unnatural color into their skin
  • The attack melts their flesh, leaving them permanently disfigured at the site of the spell
  • Your spell’s acid causes blue fire to burn where it hit their skin, and bleaches their armor and belongings
  • A rancid smell fills the foe’s nostrils as the acid bubbles on their bare skin, burning through the simple cloth of their shirt.

Poison

  • You spew a poisonous cloud from your mouth at your opponent
  • A spectral viper or insect is flung at the opponent, biting them and filling them with magical venom
  • Your index and middle finger each grow a poisonous fang which you sink into your opponent’s arm (melee range spell attacks only)
  • The enemy’s mouth fills with a foul tasting liquid which forces its way down their throat

Necrotic

  • Your target’s flesh bubbles and boils as a black ichor sputters from the spell’s origin
  • The foe’s flesh festers with magical disease as boils and wounds quickly cover the affected area
  • A skeletal hand wriggles free from beneath the earth, flying towards the target
  • An incorporeal undead shrieks as it flies from your finger toward the enemy to deliver the spell’s effect
  • Black energy swirls around your arm before launching towards the enemy as if it had a life of its own
  • Your iridescent blue magic enters the target’s body and afflicts their soul, making them momentarily dazed as their eyes glaze over.

Radiant

  • A holy light shines from the skies to harm your target, regardless of time of day or obstructions
  • A halo of radiant energy surrounds your head and blinds the target as they gaze upon it
  • Enemies that aren’t of your alignment hear the whispers of your deity moments before being enveloped in a blinding white light
  • The foe’s eyes and mouth emit warm light and they howl in pain
  • A blade of radiant energy slashes through the victim, leaving a trail of blinking motes of light in its wake
  • The enemy’s skin blisters from the raw positive energy surging through them

So essentially this whole post was a creative writing assignment for myself, but I hope that it gives you guys new creative ideas for new spells or new ways to describe existing spells! They don’t much affect the mechanics of the spell at all, so most DMs I suspect will be fine with most of these descriptions if you want your character to cast spells a certain way.

#tabletop rpg#rpg#tabletop gaming#tabletop gamer#pen & paper#roleplayer#roleplaying#gamer#games#inspiration#pen & paper games#dnd#d&d#pathfinder#fantasy rpg#Dungeons and Dragons#Dungeons & Dragons#fantasy#community list#reference#dm tips#dm tools#narration#storytelling#describing actions#spells#spellcasting#caster#spell#writing
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Reblogged feebledungeons
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I’m a very lazy person. I know my characters well, but every time I try to fill out a proper character sheet, I either get distracted or simply never finish them.

SO!

I made this! A silly, simple character sheet in which you only have to check boxes to get to know your dear puppet character. Use to your heart’s content, and if you’re going to repost, please credit! Enjoy~

PDF/Printable version on Google Drive

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Thanks you @happydooky for sharing this with the writing-prompt-s community! 

#character sheet#reference#inspiration#writing#Dungeons and Dragons#dungeons & dragons#tabletop rpg#fantasy rpg#rpg#tabletop gaming#dnd#d&d#pathfinder#tabletop gamer#pen & paper games#pen & paper#roleplayer#roleplaying#gamer#games#sci-fi rpg#scifi rpg#SciFi#cyberpunk#shadowrun#science fiction#tools#writers