Creations
This is category for stories and art I make.
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Setting Project: The People of Ballad
More world building for the world of Ballad. This time I look at the native (not human) races of Ballad.
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Setting Project: Redefining Humanity for Ballad.
This is my second article exploring the world Ballad. I am going to dig into the thing that started me thinking about the setting in the first place. I started with the notion of a setting where humans were rare and treated with distrust. This would not be unlike how Drow or Tieflings were treated in other settings. What would that kind of setting look like? A thread started by my friend Rabbit over on Twitter certainly contributed to that line of thought. Before I dig too far in, let me address the history here.
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Setting Project: The world of Ballad
So, I have had a stressful life of late. I distracted myself by coming up with a new campaign world. Some people drink, I apparently come up with fictional worlds. Ballad is a high fantasy setting. It is leaning into a lot of mysterious magic rather than the notion of magic like technology that you find in Eberron or Ravnica for instance. I also started with the premise that humans were rare. The assumption in most settings is that humans are the “us” stand-in and not innately magical. They are the neutral default and all other races are alterations on the human base. This is problematic and should be discussed,…
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The Kingdom of Durnam
This post is an experiment. I will do a second part soon. My favorite gaming supplements over the decades have been the ones with an in character commentary. This is my attempt at that sort of thing. Here is a travelogue style bit from a scholar traveling through the Kingdom of Durnam. I have included a random encounter table at the bottom, and some other game information. I also made sure there are some story hooks in there. This is set in the post-apocalyptic setting I have written about in the past. It is hundreds of years after the giant Space Gods came and reeked enormous havoc on the world.…
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Fiction: Vasilisa the Beautiful and Baba Yaga’s Light
This is a short tale I wrote as a writing project a while back. It is a retelling of an old Russian folk tale. It is interesting to take and old story and reframe it. I did some further polishing before posting it. I hope people like it. Come closer, says I. It is time to tell the story of Vasilisa, the Beautiful, and of her terrible light. It is time to tell of her journey and troubles, of the old crone, Baba Yaga. I will not bite, my children. Not yet, at least. This is time for a story. There is time enough for you to land…
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Yet another take on Kalashtar for 5th edition
I recently offered to run the alternate, off-week, D&D game for the group I play with on Tuesdays. I would be the fill in guy for weeks when the normal DM did not want to run. My offer was generally greeted with some enthusiasm. The normal DM and another player expressed a desire for Eberron. Now, I love me some Eberron. I could wax rhapsodic about it for days. It is a setting with a wider range of setting conventions than are found in Forgotten Realm. And then there is Sharn: City of Towers. That said there are some issues with running it in 5th edition, at the moment. Some…
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A Guild Tale
“I need your help,” the voice called to Kenet. The place was dark about him, and memory eluded him. Where am I, he thought? He cast around the place, looking for something to tell him where he was. Dim fog filled the air, and shadows stretched across towards him. The figure stepped from shadow. It was Ele, her slight form cloaked in little more than shadow. She looked at him with sad, loving eyes. Her broken and blood-splattered hand reached for him. The deep cut in her throat made a sickening movement and spilled blood with her every breath. Her lips moved as if to tell him something, but…
