Observing the Power Growth of a Party

My long-running 5th Edition campaign that runs on Sunday nights reached an interesting crescendo last night. See, while I can talk all day about what I think about the balance of the edition, nothing actually matters until one sees it in play. As this campaign has walked a path of legitimate, in-campaign growth, adding and losing players, it's the only organic playthrough of the edition's tiers of power I've been involved in so far. It's been very enlightening.

So you know exactly what I've been dealing with throughout, the current party consists of the following:

• Eiranil, Half-Elf Cleric of Selune (Moon domain, a homebrew spin that's pretty similar to the Light domain with less laser-cleric stuff)
• Wren, Elf Ranger (Hunter archetype)
• Eldingar Volk, Human Paladin/Sorcerer (Storm sorcerer; paladin levels are not yet high enough to choose an Oath)
• Cyarra Farlong, Aasimar Fighter (Battlemaster, Protection style; I've house ruled Protection to increase its usefulness slightly, so that the shielded target has resistance to damage from the triggering attack even if they hit)
• Leyla Katinmah, Human Monk (Shadow)

For several sessions, the players have been exploring a fair-sized dungeon that was once a dwarven keep, now overrun with frost giants and their slaves (bugbears, ogres, and a handful of young and wyrmling white dragons). When they entered, they were already 9th level; nothing to sneeze at. I've already been surprised by the firepower they can bring to bear when the chips are down. It's a fairly unorthodox party with surprising secret techniques and powerful synergy.

In particular, I rather enjoy the glass tank that is the paladin/sorcerer. With plate armor, shield, and a magic sword pilfered from the party's treasure heap, he rolls across the battlefield like a thunderhead, blasting enemies with lightning and using quickened blur to minimize incoming damage. He's fairly fragile, but forms excellent front-line synergy with the battlemaster fighter who uses Goading Attack to keep focus on herself and the monk that blips in to deliver a barrage of deadly blows before darting away.

I do have to change my mind a bit on the core ranger now that I've seen it in action at this level. She is extremely powerful, using cover and stealth to ensure maximum battlefield advantage (usually with actual, mechanical advantage) and riddling enemies with arrows powered by the Sharpshooter feat. That said though, I don't know that she'd be anywhere near as effective if she were forced into melee (perhaps rightfully, she didn't exactly build toward that), or if even a melee-built ranger of equivalent level would be as useful in the same situation with the same relative build (that is, a ranger with a two-handed weapon using the Great Weapon Master feat). It's hard to beat her mobility.

I also find myself monumentally impressed by the crowd-control options in 5th Edition. For all that 4E had its Controller classes and archetypes, the spread of spells available and the smoothness of their mechanics is appealing. In particular, accolades go to the banishment spell, which serves as a great equalizer when there are two nasty monsters in the same encounter.

Anyway, last night they ended up finding the big bad of the dungeon, a frost giant thane with a small clutch of white dragons in his company (four wyrmlings and one young). He had a few legendary actions which allowed him to order the dragons to make extra melee attacks and do retribution cleaves once he was below half health.

(I'm still sad to see the bloodied terminology from 4th Edition go the way of the dodo, since I always felt it was a neat trigger point for certain effects. But I digress.)

This combat was brutal; not the hardest they've yet faced at-level, as I think that honor still goes to the Red Wizard they fought back at 4th level, but pretty nasty. Still, they handled themselves admirably and I didn't quite get anyone to drop unconscious. They were already at about 60% of their resources after a battle the previous session and hadn't any time to rest. Banishment took care of the young dragon early on (at least for a while), after the fighter and monk absorbed the brunt of its initial breath weapon. I had a moment of cackling joy when the giant thane hurled a treasure chest full of coins at the battlemaster in place of his usual rock-throw.

("Can I Parry the treasure chest?" The answer is, sadly, no, since that maneuver requires it to be a melee attack.)

All in all it was very eye-opening about just how strong this particular party configuration happens to be in the right situations. They seem to be rubbish against large groups of low to mid CR enemies, but small groups of equivalent or higher CR? They easily hold their own and fling out a few new surprises for me each session. I enjoy challenging them and seeing them come out on top, and I never need to pull my punches.

I almost dread seeing what happens at the level 11 spike. I predict, but in no way can be sure, that the ranger will begin to fall a little behind the other damage dealers, and that 6th level cleric spells and 5th level sorcerer spells will change the face of the battlefield in significant ways. I look forward to it.

House Rules for Ravenloft

In a few weeks, I will be running a continuation of a Ravenloft campaign that started a couple of years ago and ran for seven awesome months. My surprise and glee when Curse of Strahd was announced and subsequently released can't be adequately described here, so when it arrived I had no choice but to commit to running a follow-up campaign.

In the last campaign, the company ended up unwittingly working with Strahd, though they had good reasons for doing so -- a genocidal Gundarakite ghost who wanted to eradicate all Barovians proved to be the more imminent threat. It's a lot more complicated than that, but suffice it to say, the company ended up surviving by the skin of their teeth and safely fleeing the Land of Mists -- at least, for a time.

Now they are due to return. I need to make heavy modifications to the proposed adventure material in Curse of Strahd to align with what came before, but this in and of itself is not overly challenging. Instead, I want to try my hand at refining some mechanics and introducing some slight randomness to the game each time we play.

To wit, my proposed house rules, a work in progress at the moment. Among these are a small expansion of the Fortunes of Ravenloft mechanic from the adventure module, a Frankenstein's monster of various reincarnations of skill challenges that some of my cohorts have made, and the idea of an Inspiration pool.

Fortunes of Ravenloft and Tides of the Mists

The Tarokka deck is an instrument of prophecy and divination for the Vistani, wanderers of the land whom the common folk shun and fear -- unfairly or not -- for their strange ways. While a card reader may be located throughout the course of your travels in Ravenloft, there are two ways by which the adventure will be influenced based on this deck of mysterious cards.

First and foremost, as the adventure begins, an elected member of the company will draw a single card from a freshly-shuffled deck. This draw determines the Fortunes of Ravenloft, which will alter one aspect of the campaign permanently. This may manifest as a hidden item of power somewhere in Barovia, or a special encounter that only occurs due to the draw of the card. The result of this draw will not be immediately apparent, but clues will reveal themselves throughout the course of the campaign.

Additionally, at the beginning of each session, an elected member of the company will draw one card from a shuffled Tarokka deck. This draw determines the Tides of the Mists, the subtle twists of fate that influence each session. The result will be made clear when the card is drawn, and may manifest as a blessing or a curse -- the Dark Powers are fickle, and may help or hinder you in your quest.

While I don't go into detail here, the effects could be beneficial or not based on what occurs that session. I like a little randomness in my games to keep the players and myself on our toes. For example, drawing the Darklord will have Strahd or one of his minions make an appearance in the session to hinder the players. Drawing the Artifact will place a magic item from my prepared list of treasures somewhere in the session for the party to potentially acquire. It's a little metagamey, so I'll see how it feels for a few sessions. 

Skill Challenges

Difficult situations, or challenges that require staged progress, may call for skill challenges. During these situations, any player may contribute skills relevant to the situation (which the Dungeon Master will call out) to help achieve success. Each member of the company is allowed a single contribution to the challenge, and the number of total successes required will differ based on the situation at hand.

If the skills relevant to the situation are not ones you feel comfortable rolling (be it due to low bonuses or lack of faith in the dice), you may instead elect to give one other member of the company advantage on their roll. This increases the chances of a success, but lowers the net number of total successes the company might achieve. Each player states whether they wish to roll or give advantage to someone before any dice fall. You may also propose an additional skill that may be relevant to the situation, with sufficient explanation.

For example, examining the scene of a gruesome murder for clues allows everyone to contribute an Investigation or Perception roll. Three members of the company are proficient in one of those two skills, and so elect to roll. One is not proficient in either skill, but proposes that they can use their training in Medicine to examine the body; the DM agrees and allows that skill to be used. The fifth member is not proficient in any of the proposed skills and has poor flat bonuses, so instead elects to give one of the proficient members advantage on their roll.

The number of total group successes determines the significance and clarity of the clues gained. Continuing our example, three members succeed on the checks, which the DM has set to DC 12. One fails. The group has accrued three total successes, revealing the largest number of clues with the most clarity.

If all contributors to a skill challenge fail, the challenge is unsuccessful. Even if there is a seemingly total failure, there will always be another potential way of circumventing a situation -- never give up even if fate is cruel.

This is really just 4E's skill challenges with a new coat of paint. I mostly go for this method to reduce the number of times people will fail a roll and then someone else says, "Well, can I try instead?" and succeeds, making the first player feel crappy. Instead, everyone can try -- succeeding or failing -- together. This will be used for searching rooms, investigating crimes, chase scenes, and similar situations. I've borrowed elements from skill challenge discussions from both Harbinger and Stands-in-Fire over the years I've known them, so credit to them for their ideas even if I've altered or butchered them for my own necromantic purposes.

Inspiration Pool

Inspiration is a useful mechanic, but not all players will necessarily be able to make use of it, or may accrue Inspiration when they already have it. As such, rather than losing the Inspiration, all Inspiration is accrued in a pool that any player may draw from on their turn. Players may hoard Inspiration in this way, but never will the pool be able to contain more than five Inspiration tokens -- one for each member of the company.

Inspiration is retained between sessions. At the beginning of the campaign, the Inspiration pool is empty. The company gains Inspiration tokens in the following ways:

• Commitment to roleplaying. Doing something at a detriment to yourself because it is what your character would do is always rewarded, provided such behavior does not become masochistic.
• Acts of true heroism and valor. Ravenloft is a land of horrors and despair, and only true heroes can push back the darkness.
• Unveiling secrets of the Domains of Dread. The natives of Barovia know very little of the true nature of the land in which they dwell. Bringing light into the darkness will reward you with knowledge -- but not all secrets are meant to be dragged into daylight.

Inspiration is a great mechanic, but all too often I see it go unused or I forget to hand it out. With a dish of little blood-red beads in the center of the table that is consumed and resupplied with regularity, I hope to encourage more use of it. I almost went more insidious with it, allowing it to pool above five, but amounts over five that are expended go into the DM's pool for use... but that felt too evil. I already have a lot of tools for mayhem at my disposal, after all, so I didn't want to go overboard.

I'm really looking forward to this campaign in general, so expect more updates on it as I go along. I adore Ravenloft and can't wait to drag my players back into the mists -- perhaps to their doom.

Council of Wyrms Conversion and Setting Document

So uh, this got linked in a few places. Um. Hi? Quite the unexpected traffic spike, but I'm glad people are interested!

After a few caffeine-fueled late nights and lots of wear and tear on my keyboard, I've produced an updated version of my Council of Wyrms conversion. This contains all of the latest changes to the systems, as well as the full homebrewed version of the setting based on what I've been rambling about the last few entries.

Approximate change list of systemic stuff (patch notes, if you will):

• Amethyst dragons now deal force damage with their breath weapon, and are resistant to it.
• Added section on designing encounters, mostly from a guidelines perspective.
• Added half-dragon character options.
• Added campaign option discussions.
• Added Io's Blood Isles Bestiary with five sample creatures a DM might want to use; at least one of these is specific to the aforementioned homebrew version of the setting.
• Added dragon equipment.

Without further ado, here you go.

Go forth and conquer!

The Culture of the Council of Wyrms

Today I wanted to talk a bit more about my version of the setting, and how the dragons' culture is wonderfully rich and diverse beyond the simple structure of lord and vassal. After that, I wanted to expound a bit more on what I imagine the homeland of the dragon slayers to be like.

Dragon Culture

Dragons neither want nor need many of the luxuries common in the development of other civilizations. As a simplified example, most breeds do not feel significant discomfort from inclement or extreme weather and find most indoor environments claustrophobic, and so have never needed to devote their considerable mental faculties to the development of advanced architecture.

Naturally, they support (perhaps a bit condescendingly) the needs of their vassal servants to do the same, but when the dragons control the funding and approval of such endeavors, technological advancement is understandably slow. In the thousands of years the Council and dragonkind has been in control of the isles, its vassal races have seen little development beyond the confines of their late medieval and early Renaissance level societies.

There is great development within those confines, however, and one should never underestimate the power that magic provides in replacing some of the creature comforts that more advanced societies enjoy. Furthermore, the spread of learning institutions, funded and governed by the dragons, is supported by all but the most tyrannical wyrms. Vassal races and their dragon masters are generally better educated and enjoy a greater standard of living than those who exist outside of Council society.

Dragons of Council society, regardless of their nation and clan, are distinct from their counterparts in other worlds of the multiverse. The dragon language has a well-developed written form, and Council dragons do not shy away from composing elaborate scriptures and treatises for distribution in libraries; these are, of course, copied down in smaller versions for consumption by vassals, who may find it quite troublesome to lift a seven hundred pound book bigger than themselves. Many dragons enjoy reading, and literature is traded amongst clans as vassals might trade in gold or grain.

Perhaps affected by their time among their vassals, some dragons even enjoy wearing simple garments or jewelry. A sash across the throat, a gem-encrusted gold chain, a claw glittering with rings, or even wing piercings are not unheard of for a dragon to wear. This separates them, they claim, from clanless “rogue” dragons who are more rough around the edges and cannot manage such luxuries.

The many centuries that dragons endure risk the onset of terrible ennui, and so some wyrms stave off their boredom with games, hunting, and other activities to sate their needs. Clan Jadress, for example, brings in much of its wealth by playing host to various gaming dens and the preparation of elaborate cuisines to fulfill any dragon’s appetites.

Of course, few dragons will admit they can fall prey to such mortal afflictions as boredom. Dragons are nothing if not proud and so sure of themselves as the pinnacle of creation, so ordained by the Ninefold Dragon. A vassal that speaks out of turn about their benefactors can expect to be devoured in a red dragon clan, and at the very least be visited with scorn and condescension by a silver or gold clan. How could a dragon be anything other than right?

On the subject of vassals, each clan and breed treats theirs differently. The culture of vassal sometimes affects dragon, and vice versa, so across the generations they often grow to reflect one another. The elves, dwarves, and gnomes that populate most of the isles alongside their masters have long recognized their place in the society, which even in the best of circumstances is that of second class citizens.

Naturally, metallic and gem clans tend to treat their vassals better, but this is not always the case. Stories of gold wyrms who exile dissenters, even well-meaning ones, for the simple crime of flouting the dragons’ decrees for the greater good are not unknown. Conversely, even brutal red and white clans realize the value of their vassals, even if they are eminently expendable. Clan Vermillion, for example, has a surprising system of meritocracy where even a powerful vassal champion can achieve great status in the clan -- provided they can continue to maintain it against the constant stream of challengers.

Regardless of clan or breed, vassals perform many of the tasks dragons cannot (or will not) perform. The claws of dragons, despite their relative dexterity, cannot weave nets or form pottery, or quarry stone. Emerald dragon philosophers correctly surmise that Council society, and even individual clans, simply cannot survive as they are now without the support, labor, and love (or fear) of their vassal servants.

The Human Menace

In ages past, the dragon slayers came and wreaked havoc across the isles until the dragons banded together to fight them. Though they were defeated after decades of warfare, the scars the humans have left on dragonkind are psychologically profound. Humans are the one thing that dragons truly fear, and that is never easy to admit.

Human tribes, long degenerated from their heyday as the dragon slayers of old, still dwell on the isles. These remnants of the abandoned or vanquished dragon slayer armies have no knowledge of their ancient and glorious past, and rarely rise above the status of nomads or savages. Occasionally, a charismatic human warlord will rise and raid vassal villages, and it is then that the dragons act to cull the herd.

Despite this, humans have proven remarkably resilient and difficult to excise from the isles completely. Somewhere over the eastern horizon, the rest of their race lives still. The dragons quietly offer prayers that they do not return.

The land of the humans, should it ever be visited, is a monster-infested wilderness dotted with crumbling kingdoms and decadent city-states. Human civilization never truly recovered after the grand crusade of the dragon slayers, even thousands of years later -- tyrants and petty nations rise and fall, with society never advancing beyond a perpetual dark age.

The ancient grandmasters of the dragon slayers live on, however, as monstrous undead lords in crumbling Gothic citadels on the fringes of known lands -- cursed by Great Io for performing the very duty he charged them with in days of yore, hated and feared by the rest of humanity for leading their kind to disaster in a failed crusade. Recruits are few and far between, usually criminals or other outcasts that find shelter from justice or the depredations of monsters in the dragon slayer citadels. The choice the grandmasters and their servants give them is simple: join the slayers, or join the dead.

Their land has its own dragons, of a sort -- degenerate drakes, sinuous linnorms, and inbred hybrids exiled from the Io’s Blood Isles centuries or millennia before. The dragon slayers continue to hunt and slay these creatures, a mere shadow of what they once were, but begrudgingly allowed to exist for this service they provide to the rest of their kind.

The dragon slayer grandmasters have not forgotten the Io’s Blood Isles or the dragons who dwell upon them. Even thousands of years later, they boil with hatred of the dragons and their manipulative creator, the Ninefold Dragon, who deceived them into being his tools and then abandoned them to suffering and undeath.

That Which Dragons Fear: Dragon Slayers of the Council of Wyrms

While I am working on more dragon nation write-ups, I wanted to talk a bit more about an amusing idiosyncrasy in the Council of Wyrms setting.

Dragons fear humans. In this setting, it's not in the same way that a human fears a vermin infestation; humans are fecund, for certain, but dragons have much more to fear from what humans are capable of rather than just their sheer numbers. They would never admit it, of course, except in the most trusted of company.

As previously mentioned, the Council of Wyrms was ultimately spurred to creation by the danger posed to dragonkind by human dragon slayers -- champions originally inspired by Great Io to sail across the sea and give the dragons a true threat that they must unify against. Now, there's a lot about this old legend that causes one to scratch their head, first and foremost why creatures and proud and stubborn as dragons would give homage to a deity that repeatedly engineered their destruction until they were brought to heel. I may delve into that conundrum at a later date.

The dragon slayers came from a nameless, obscure land across the eastern sea, one the dragons either ignored or did not deign to learn about during the war. All that is known (though perhaps, only by the most cloistered acolytes of Great Io) is that the humans were visited by the Ninefold Dragon and told of the wicked monsters that lived across the seas. Great Io taught the humans magic, metallurgy, and the means to make war on such titanic creatures.

For what reason did the humans follow his wishes? Well, at the time of the visitation, the humans were naught but scattered tribes, and the appearance of such magnificent divinity in their midst assuredly inspired a culture that both worshiped and feared dragons. Perhaps Great Io told them that one day his wayward children would visit calamity upon the humans unless culled or vanquished first. Fantasy religions have been founded upon stranger things.

What we don't know is what the culture of the humans of this setting is like except for the broadest strokes, or why every once in a great while (we're talking on the scale of centuries or more) one or more dragon slayers return to the Io's Blood Isles. Now, the reason this isn't covered in the boxed set is pretty obvious; this is a game about dragons as player characters, centered around the Io's Blood Isles, not humanity and its cultural dichotomy of both hating dragons while worshiping their chief god (or at least, such seems to be implied).

The Council of Wyrms books talk about the dragon slayers once visiting the Isles with flashing steel and terrible magic that rivaled that of the dragons themselves. Some interminable number of human lifetimes later, at least a couple return to play a part in one of the boxed set example adventures (it's been 22 years, statute of limitations is up on spoilers there, I think).

We can assume that this society of humans has mastered high magic, shipbuilding, and the forging of tough steel armor and large weapons capable of penetrating dragon scale. There is even a precious single image in the book as to what one might look like -- a woman with fabulously 80s hair clad in full body armor, mercifully (and possibly unique in this era) free of boob-plate, with a helmet shaped like a dragon skull and a sword on her back that is absolutely styled after a historical zweihander.

The adventure also tells us, in a couple paragraphs, that the dragon slayers were scattered after their defeat at the hands of the united dragon clans. Some of the human tribes remained behind on the Io's Blood Isles, living in hiding or at the mercy of benevolent clans (but never as part of their society). Some returned home, scorned by their own people for such a disastrous conflict -- and as the centuries passed, they lost much of the knowledge gifted to them by Great Io, particularly how to build their mighty ships to cross the seas.

Many fantasy roleplaying game cultures adopt the idea of eternal medieval stasis in order to maintain the status quo and retain mass market appeal; that is, technology rarely evolves beyond Gothic architecture, sturdy full plate armor, steel weapon construction, and Renaissance-era medicinal and artistic advancement. The vassal races and humans of the Council of Wyrms setting are no different. There are, of course, notable exceptions whose unique flavor sets them apart. A culture that fully integrates magic into its academic and technological achievements nets you Eberron, for example (which I adore, but that threatens a huge digression).

The dragon slayers that remain are outcasts, and we know very little about what else exists over there. Dragon slayer cabals continue to exist and train future generations, but if they enjoy a status little better than unwelcome neighbors in human societies, then they surely lack the numbers and support to mount further invasions. Their culture and advancement seem stuck in the same state they were at the time of the last war -- it's easy to imagine the tribes, so quickly uplifted by divine intervention, that they settled into perpetual and unending conflict in the generations that followed.

While we don't know what these lands are like now, I prefer to imagine them as crumbling kingdoms ruled by impotent dynasties, feuding over precious resources and the loyalty of a populace that never quite recovered. Warlords and monsters sweep in with generational frequency, visiting calamity upon the humans. Perhaps the dragon slayers -- conquerors of titanic beasts they are -- gain periodic influence by restoring order and vanquishing mighty terrors, only to be driven back into their crumbling citadels after the threat passes.

And when they discover a way back to the shores of the Isles? The dragon slayers would likely jump at the chance to finally complete their mission, thousands of years after they failed.

Click to embiggen.

Dragon Nations, Conversion Updates, and Setting Discussion!

Before I started off this one, I wanted to re-link my conversion, which has received updates since version 1.0. A couple things changed since the original posting, specifically the following:

• Harbinger edited it for me, because I have a serious problem with passive voice. The perils of writing spoken dialogue for much of my day job's writing needs. He probably still wants to kill me after a decade of never quite shaking the habit.
• Sapphire dragon breath is now a combo of psychic and thunder damage; it was too samey to make amethyst, emerald, and sapphire dragons all do the same damage type, and I'm not comfortable using raw force damage for the amethyst dragon's lozenge-bomb. I might change my mind though.
• Sly Talon fighting style got buffed up.
• Dragon rogues treat all of their natural attacks as finesse weapons, so they can naturally make use of their primary Dexterity score. Since, you know, they can't take Sly Talon unless they multiclass, and I don't want to force that on them.
• A couple natures received some upgrades. I'm still not completely satisfied with them all yet, so more changes may happen.
• Dive was slightly reworked so you don't need to crater every time you use it if you're flying low.

Since that's out of the way, I can dive into some more customized setting conceits.

Get Your Alignment Checked

First off is the idea that alignment does not figure in as strongly; red dragons won't always be chaotic evil (though most are), silver dragons won't always be lawful good (though most are), and allies may be a bit fuzzy. Clans are less bound to the family of dragon to which they belong (that is, chromatic, gem, or metallic) and more to their clan-kin and the other clans of their nation.

Unlike some of my cohorts, I don't hate alignment as a tool in general (I like it being a rough guideline of a creature's expected societal behavior and quick-reference moral compass), but I do detest it being used as a cudgel to muscle players into behaving a certain way. Council of Wyrms was originally designed with the alignment system being very rigid, which is very much a product of its design era. Gold dragons must be lawful good, red dragons were always chaotic evil and thus unsuitable for player characters.

Well, I don't like that for a number of reasons, but mostly because sapient creatures don't work that way. While it's a fantastical setting where gods sometimes literally mold their followers in a particular image, that creates kind of a boring status quo. I like the idea of neutral evil bronze dragons, or lawful neutral red dragons playing politics on the Council without constantly trying to destroy it. I mean, how annoying would it be to constantly have to invite a guy to a party when you know he's going to try to knife you in the kitchen when no one's looking?

Anyway, this approach might not appeal to everyone, but alignment will be fluid without sacrificing what the dragons are deep down. Reds are still conquerors and tyrants, but they can work with the Council and the other clans even if the relationship is tenuous at best.

Draconian Politics

I've organized the dragon territories into discreet "nations" which all owe allegiance to the Council of Wyrms. The Council ostensibly has authority to influence the clans of these nations with edicts and proclamations, but each nation has its own form of governance and its own discreet laws which coexist with Council mandates. This isn't a sleek, uneventful arrangement; the Council chafes against the very existence of these nations, but knows that it cannot effectively govern dragonkind on anything but the macro level without them.

Some of the ideas I use are certainly more modern, and the dragons in my vision of the setting are more... civilized? That's not really the right word, but the clans are more like familial groups rather than political bodies. Each still has a representative on the Council, but this representative may (as in the case of the Fireshore Republic) have to pull double-duty in their own territory.

There's probably a lot wrong with my approach and I'm still ironing out some of the details. For consumption, I'd like to share one of my write-ups of the dragon nations, the Burning Isles. This nation is a collection of islands in the southern seas of the campaign setting; Bloodtide, Lightning, Eversand, Storm, and the Forbidden Isle.

The Burning Isles: An Example Nation

As the group of islands with the largest concentration of dragonkind, the Burning Isles are a constant hotbed of intrigue, proxy wars, and conspiracies that range from the mundane to the staggeringly complicated (in ways that only dragons can make things). Dragons of polar opposite breeds find themselves forced to work and conspire together against the other feudal domains of dragon lords with greater influence on the Council.

The undisputed master of the Burning Isles is the ancient and terrible Firebrand the Red of Clan Bloodtide. A domineering schemer, he holds most of the other clans in the Burning Isles under some manner of threat, blackmail, or largesse. Like most of his breed, Firebrand desires power above all else, but goes about it in a different manner than other, less-careful red dragons.

Instead of immolating cities and dominating lesser dragons through brute force, Firebrand has constructed a vast network of trade routes, treaties, and blackmail with the other clans of the Burning Isles. Exotic goods of all kinds flow in and out of the streets of the other cities in the region, from delectable jungle fruits desired by vassal races to highly addictive narcotics that even dragons crave.

Whenever a clan falls out of line of the red dragon lord’s plans, Firebrand merely lifts one claw holding down another clan that would just as soon battle its rival for better status in the region. The problem typically corrects itself in short order, as all of the clans are interested in maintaining the status quo, at least on the surface.

For all that everyone in the Burning Isles feuds with each other, they hate Firebrand more, but the dragon and his ilk are so powerful that it would take the concerted efforts of three or more clans to stand a chance against Clan Bloodtide’s fearsome power. In particular, the red clan maintains an order of powerful elementalist wizards, the Cabal of the Unquiet Earth, comprised of both dragons and favored kindred with impressive magical aptitude. A small army of elementals is at the Cabal’s command; primarily to hold back the fury of the active volcano upon which Malice, Clan Bloodtide’s capital, resides in all of its terrible majesty. It would be trivial to turn these elementals against would-be invaders, or unleash the full destructive power of the volcano on would-be invaders.

The other clans of this region function in a manner similar to the baronies and duchies of medieval societies; the dragon lord is the autocratic ruling body, who empowers a select few dragons as its dominates to mete out justice, supply it with tribute, and oversee the vassals that populate clan territory. Alliances with other clans are common, but often short-lived as Firebrand’s machinations do not allow them to remain allies for long before a scandal or small-scale raid (blamed on the other party, of course) drives them apart.

Unique within these domains is the black dragon clan of Darkmoon, a small and winnowing family of dragons numbering no more than seventy or eighty individuals and their few thousand oppressed vassals. The clan’s lord, Deathstream, is a wyrm recently accorded the status of ancient whose responsibility it is to bring the clan back to greatness.

Unfortunately, Firebrand knows that Deathstream is a weak and vacillating ruler, and so does his part to sabotage the ambitions of Clan Darkmoon. What Firebrand does not know (and indeed, very few of even Deathstreams court know) is that Deathstream has acquired a new, secret ally -- the red dracolich bearing the moniker “Infernus”.

This eldritch, undead warlock was slain at the claws of Baraster, the gold dragon founder of Clan Baraster, many thousands of years ago. The insidious dragon had a contingency plan, as well as a small cult of followers, which enabled him to rise again in lich form. Infernus is a powerful infernal pact warlock who has curried the favor of vile demon lords in exchange for his sorcerous might, and has designs of conquest over the isles.

First, he will use Darkmoon to broaden his power-base; already, a majority of the Darkmoon vassal populace has taken up worship of myriad minor gods that are, in fact, demonic generals. In time, Infernus hopes to open gateways to bring through a demonic army of conquest and march across the face of the world.

What I've Done Differently

In "canon" Council of Wyrms, Firebrand is indirectly billed as one of the biggest draconic dangers in the setting. He's got eyes on dominance and hates the Council and everything it stands for, but I like to think of him as a cunning manipulator rather than a rampaging force of nature. He dominates the isles through a combination of blackmail and a horrendously complicated web of influence. It's closer to lawful evil than chaotic evil, technically, but I've always found that to be the more interesting evil.

On the other hand, I've retooled Deathstream and Infernus, who have the same relationship in "canon" Council of Wyrms but with slightly different dark secrets in my version. Here, Infernus is a dracolich warlock, rather than a dracolich wizard, and has designs of conquest by using his demonic benefactors and their Abyssal legions.

As it pertains to the nation and its politics, I guess I made it a bit more grimdark. Which is kind of overdone these days, so I might scale it back a teensy bit -- the idea of drug-addicted dragons who have to go to Firebrand's contacts for their fix is possibly a little too modern of a concept for this setting.

Anyway, there's my example nation! I've got most of the others written up and ready for some polish, but I'll put them up in future entries. Happy gaming until then!

Direction Change: Back to the Isles

It's been a while since the last post. A crushing blow of work and life circumstances, along with a deep plunge in my creative energies, put the kibosh on my sandbox attempts. Until I can rekindle my drive on it, I think I'll table it for now and re-devote myself to a previous conversion that received significant traction elsewhere.

Harbinger poked me to do some more work on my Council of Wyrms stuff, since I hired him to do some actual editing work on it. Some complicated legalities prevent me from attempting to submit it for consumption on the DM's Guild, at least for any attempt at profit, but I may do so at a later date. I've been making updates to the conversion doc, and Harbinger's prodding has encouraged me to develop another component.

The setting provided to us previously only gave the lightest touch of the setting's particulars. A couple of introductory adventures, some flavor regarding the Council and its environs and antagonists, as well as a handful of clan descriptions were all that was provided. That's not a condemnation, I actually like when settings do that and don't bludgeon you over the skull with so much setting material that you don't have any room to make your own without performing generous reductive surgery.

To wit, I've been working on developing an interpretation of the setting for consumption. It takes some of the elements of the core Council of Wyrms setting and examines them through a new lens. It's a bit messy still, and I need to do some cleanup, but here's part of what I'm working with thus far.

The Council Aerie on All Clans Island is still the center of Council society and government, but even with the might of dragons it's difficult to truly contain and govern the whole of the species. It's a messy business, and though all dragon clans pay homage to the Council, they have fractured into a number of territorial nations comprised of multiple breeds sometimes forced to work together under chafing circumstances.

This is a lot of dragons to govern from one tiny island roughly the size of Maine.

The dragon nations each have composite forms of government, usually working together in matters of trade and defense, and all owing allegiance to the Council (who enforces its will through Io's divine mandate, a well-trained group of spies, and a substantial military). For example, the Icy Reaches are fairly remote in the island chain and are made to work together against regular raids by the frost giants from the northwest, who slay dragons for their hides and their treasure. White, crystal, and amethyst dragons will put aside their differences temporarily to work in tandem to repel these periodic invasions before returning to their isolation.

By contrast, the much more intertwined Exaurdon League, comprised of gold, green, and topaz dragon clans, have a well-connected nation of city-states and clan holdings. Gold dragons maintain universities and legal centers whose advocates are sought across the island chain to mediate disputes, while the greens manage a thriving lumber trade and the topaz clans deal in pearls from giant clams and control the fishing industry. All three breeds are threatened by violent fey creatures led by mysterious Wild Gods from the island's interior, who seek neither peace nor parley with the wyrms, only their eradication.

Other nations, such as the Starshine Principalities, the Azure Sea Compact, the Burning Isles, the Fireshore Republic, and the Giantbane Archipelago have their own unique cultures and melting pots of dragon clans that I am working on developing as well.

This project has helped rekindle my creative spark and I will be sticking with it for the foreseeable future. That's not the say the sandbox stuff has been abandoned, but until I feel inspired by it again, it will sit on its shelf for a bit. Apologies to any who were holding out for it.

Anyway, this setting concept has some kinks to work out and it's definitely a deviation from "canon" Council of Wyrms. It has a lot more modern sensibilities mixed in, and I'm eager to hear any feedback or suggestions regarding it.