Tim Bannock

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DD-02 The Darkness Beneath Dalentown
DD-02 The Darkness Beneath Dalentown

DD-02 The Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor out now!

01/26/2021 / / 1 Comment

After an awfully long time fidgeting with the layout and presentation of this thing, we’re finally releasing DD-02 The Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor! This follow-up to DD-01 can easily be run as a standalone house of horrors-style 5th edition adventure as it contains all the lore you need. But there are a few connections to DD-01 that can really expand on that adventure’s storyline, or inspire even bigger adventures elsewhere!

Easy Reference Layout

What we’re hoping you find really useful is the layout: it uses a landscape format for presentation on your computer screen, or if you print it out, this format allows quick and easy reference of maps and room descriptions all in a simple, minimal spread. You can even just put up the current level on your DM screen since none of them are more than 3 or 4 pages.

Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor adventure layout

Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor adventure layout

Monster & Treasure Cards

The appendices include ALL the monster and magic item stat blocks, and they are formatted for ease of use as well! The monster stat blocks are either in 2 column spreads or entire pages, so you can cut up the spreads and arrange the monsters by encounter or use these as initiative cards/tents, or whatever.

Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor monster appendix

Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor monster appendix

Magic items are similarly laid out so that they don’t break over columns whenever possible, allowing you to chop them up and use them as reference cards or player handouts without any fuss.

Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor magic item "cards"

Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor magic item “cards”

SRD Reference Links & VTT Support

Plus, there’s an appendix of handy lists to help make prep way easier. And on top of that, we’ve linked all the monsters, traps, and magic items throughout the text of the adventure. So, if you hate our layout tricks, just pull up the stats (from 5eSRD.com) on your own and format them however you like, even if that means just having a billion tabs open in your browser of choice. For VTT folks, this is a great way to get what you need to import into your VTT of choice. Oh, and all the maps are included in a separate appendix, for easy printing or porting into your VTT of choice.

Enjoy the adventure!

If you like DD-02 The Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor, check out the start of this storyline in DD-01 The Darkness Beneath Dalentown. You can also pick up the setting — including not one but three settlements full of plot hooks, NPCs, new monsters, and more — in Adventures in Dalentown. Both can be found at DTRPG and itch.io; links are in our shop!

Logo for Let's Start Over, Shall We? MCU-inspired Marvel FASERIP Actual Play Podcast
Let's Start Over, Shall We? Logo

Let’s Start Over, Shall We? The MCU-inspired FASERIP Actual Play Podcast

12/29/2020 / / 0 Comments

Here’s a belated announcement if there ever was one!

I’m the Judge (read: 1980’s term for the Game Master) of ‘Let’s Start Over, Shall We?‘, the Marvel Cinematic Universe-inspired actual play where a massive cast of MCU fans play the 80’s/90’s Marvel Super Heroes Roleplaying Game by TSR. Additionally, we have only one rule: the dice fall where they may. Affectionately referred to as the ‘FASERIP’ system, this ridiculous game system is proving to be a blast for us as we mess up the Marvel Cinematic Universe real quick!

Even though we might sound like it, we’re not some big, well-funded program! We’re a bunch of MCU fans playing a fun game together. So don’t judge us too harshly! We’re producing the podcast so all of our players can stay up to date on the continuity. However, it sure helps that mastermind Leon Doell has been editing and polishing the episodes so they sound utterly marvelous!

Follow along in the fun, and if you’re interested in running one-shots that might expand our continuity as things go awry, we might still be recruiting!

Find us on your favorite podcast listening service via Anchor.FM. Also, keep an eye on the LSOSW social at Twitter and Facebook to get engaged, yell at my rules mistakes, and catch some cool content! We’ll release heroic and villainous character sheets, fun in-world asides, episode summaries to help you catch up or recap stuff really quick, and a whole lot more.

Stay tuned here as I share some behind-the-scenes stuff and mirror some of the content as we create it.

If you enjoyed this article, please like, comment, and share! Use the widgets to subscribe to get an email as soon as I publish something new, or check out my stuff on itch.io or in my shop, or at DMsGuild and DriveThruRPG,. I really appreciate your support.

Happy gaming to ya!

Seas of Vodari plus LMoP and DoIP
Seas of Vodari plus LMoP and DoIP

Lost Mine of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak in the Seas of Vodari

08/26/2020 / / 0 Comments

Last time I started a project on Greyhawk adaptations of the adventures Lost Mine of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak from the D&D Starter Set and D&D Essentials Kit, respectively. I mentioned some Greyhawk factions that I’ll post (actually re-post from my old site neuronphaser.com), but that’ll have to wait a hot second. You see, the day after writing the Greyhawk article, I got my hard copy version of Tribality Publishing’s campaign setting and rules expansion The Seas of Vodari (<– affiliate linky, if you wanna help support articles like this).

If you haven’t heard of it or checked out, hit that link above (even if you don’t want to buy it) and check the preview. It’s an awesome seafaring campaign setting made up of a post apocalyptic world of island nations, at the center of which is a raging magical storm. From a setting perspective, it’s got a lot of great ideas and tools for being a lot more inclusive than classic D&D settings (i.e. LGBTQIA representation; diverse artwork; not all orcs and drow are evil), and it doesn’t go grimdark with the post apocalypse side of things. From a rules perspective, there’s a huge amount of supplementary material on firearms, cannons, boats of all shapes and sizes, and loads of new class options, monsters, and magic items. Oh, if that’s not enough of a sell, there’s a 26 page free preview, too.

So what’s that got to do with LMoP and DoIP? Well, here’s a map and a few ideas on porting those adventures to The Seas of Vodari! Read on!

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Phandalin Region in Greyhawk - Player map
Phandalin Region PC map - right click to save

Lost Mine of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak in Greyhawk

08/14/2020 / / 1 Comment

Since chances are high that I’ll be running a combined Lost Mine of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak campaign set in Greyhawk in the not-too-distant future, I figured I’d share some of my work. Which, of course, is built on the shoulders of giants. A Fifth of Greyhawk posted about this very same thing back in 2018, so I’ve borrowed from that, created player and DM hex maps, and made a few tweaks. Check it out below.

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Folk of Dalentown Volume 1 landscape
Folk of Dalentown Volume 1 landscape

Meet 3 New Playable Ancestries in Folk of Dalentown Volume 1 for 5th Edition

05/12/2020 / / 0 Comments

Folk of Dalentown Volume 1 for 5th Edition is out now on itch.io and DriveThruRPG, and we couldn’t be more proud of this release! It is easily one of our most ambitious, featuring three fully developed new ancestries (“races” in 5th Edition lingo). “Fully developed” means there’s a detailed write-up, all the stats, new feats specific to each ancestry (and some of the heritages AKA “subraces” within them), and a detailed settlement full of NPCs and plot hooks! That’s a lot of bang for your buck, because it provides players with live examples of these characters, and gives Game Masters material to use in their home campaigns. While technically set in our world of Trueland (introduced in Adventures in Dalentown), these settlements can be dropped into just about any fantasy campaign setting.

Here’s the blurb from our product page:

Folk of Dalentown Volume 1 is a supplement for the 5th edition of the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game. It features three new playable ancestries, some of which have a few different heritages among them, and all of which contain interesting cultural notes, new Feats, NPC stat block modifications, and unique settlements that can be dropped into any campaign setting with ease. All of this provides players and GMs with exciting new material to liven up their games.

Inside you’ll find:

  • The antlings, featuring the insectoid warriors and the humanoid emissaries, both connected to the antling hivemind but with unique abilities.
  • The bovathi, a pastoral folk who are strong and hardy, and live so closely with nature that they have a natural affinity for druidic magic.
  • The cawbrie, featuring two heritages including the colorful plains cawbrie and the camouflaged woodland cawbrie, both of which can soar the farthest heights and love to spin a tale!
  • Specialized feats for each ancestry.
  • NPC stat block information to quickly apply each ancestry’s abilities to existing stat blocks like commoners, guards, veterans, druids, and so on.
  • Monster stat blocks for giant ants, the mounts, workers, and pets of the antling people.
  • Monster stats for the antling empress, the monstrous spellcasters that rule the antling hivemind.
  • Developed settlements for each ancestry set in the Western Frontier, as introduced in Adventures in Dalentown.
  • Well developed, diverse NPCs for each settlement, each with a plot hook that gets you right into the adventure!
  • Character art tokens for virtual tabletop use!

Developed by Matthew Bannock & Tim Bannock. Writing by Matthew Bannock, Tim Bannock, and Ewol Navi. Editing by Tim Bannock and Justin M. Cole. Custom character art and VTT icons by Tori McKenna. Additional art and design elements by Rick Hershey/Fat Goblin Games and Elena Naylor. Cartography by Dyson Logos and Tim Bannock (using Worldographer by Inkwell Ideas).

Folk of Dalentown Volume 1 for 5th Edition cover

Folk of Dalentown Volume 1 for 5th Edition cover

If you enjoy this release, check out Adventures in Dalentown for 5th Edition or Tales from Dalentown: Trueland Gazetteer for 5th Edition (which is PWYW!) to learn more about the world of these characters.

On DriveThruRPG:

On itch.io:

Or jump right into the adventure with DD-01 The Darknesss Beneath Dalentown for 5th Edition, a tier 2 adventure!

Buy It Now

So what are you waiting for? An invitation to Wellspring, or a journey to the Ruins of Soldara? Pick up Folk of Dalentown Volume 1 for 5th Edition is out now on itch.io and DriveThruRPG and start building new characters!

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