#Zendikar #DnD Take 2: designing it organically, starting from PCs

As you can see, Zendikar is again in my cross-hair, and I can't get it out, so expect me to ramble about it even more!

In particular, I was thinking about my previous post and how the mechanic for the Roil could need to be simpler. So I am actually postponing a final version of it, to think more about the Player Character's experience, starting from character creation, and how this can actually shape the mechanics of the settings.

In particular, these I think should be the "tenets" of the Zendikar D&D experience:

• A focus on vertical exploration and combat, which means:
• Most characters should be able to move vertically somehow.
• Some characters should be able to provide vertical movement to those who can't.
• Omnipresent Roil: the environment can always change, which implies:
• Some characters can innately interact with the Roil (Merfolk, Surrakar, Goblin)
• Any character can learn the right skills to interact with the Roil (Lullmage feat)
• Some characters can specialize in the Roil (Roil Soul Sorcerers, Roil Mages, etc.)
• The Roil affects any encounter as a localized force, or travel as a regional force.
• A focus on small-scale adventuring, which means:
• Equipment is particularly important, and some tools and supplies should be extra-important. This means that...
• Environmental dangers, whether it's the Roil, traps, or hostile flora/fauna, sometimes damage/remove/eat equipment/supplies, making it important for characters to be careful when planning their expeditions' supplies.
• Hedrons are an integral part of the experience and can be:
• Equipment (pathway stones, hedron archives, hedron blades etc.)
• The focal point of Roil phenomena (and in this case, interacting with the Roil is like interacting with the hedron, and vice-versa).
• Having effects different from those of the Roil (and in this case, magic affecting the Roil can't affect the hedrons).
• Part of the scenery (when it's giant and/or inactive hedrons). 

Considering the abilities to interact with the Roil that characters can have, I can also picture better what kind of mechanic we really want for it.

I was thinking to leave the Roil at a fixed d8, so that players know what to expect, but can't help thinking the d6 is also nice. What I don't like anymore in this perspective is the split to 2d4s, because from there players seem to lose control of it too much. It could be a nice mechanic to represent the mess that happens when you BREAK a hedron, which should be something low level characters could not do even if they wanted to.

Thinking more about player-side control means that every change to the Hedron/Roil die should mean something. Hence, I would go for a table with a bit more variability, such as:

d8   Roil effect

 1:   Change to d6 and roll.

 2:   Implosive Roil Storm

 3:   Implosive Roil

 4:   Negative Lull

 5:   Lull

 6:   Positive Lull

 7:   Explosive Roil

 8:   Explosive Roil Storm

This way, first of all we have symmetric effects, which will be easier to design, and then we also reduce the numbers that don't have any effect to just 1 (5). We also don't need to add caveats to the roll of the d6, because every roll of the d6 will be ok (no crazy split to 2d4s).

Here would be the d6:

d6   Roil effect

 1:   Change to d8 and roll.

 2:   Weird Implosive Roil Storm

 3:   Weird Negative Lull

 4:   Weird Lull

 5:   Weird Positive Lull

 6:   Weird Explosive Roil Storm

Here we have actually more desirable states in proportion, but no half measures, making the d6 a high-risk/high-reward one.

Now, I would like to leave the duration of each state a bit under DM control, with random options being very random, such as:

d8   Roil duration

 1:   1 round

 2:   2 rounds

 3:   3 minutes

 4:   40 minutes

 5:   5 hours

 6:   6 days

 7:   7 weeks

 8:   8 months

This might seem to escalate pretty quickly to semi-permanent effects, but since the duration of each new state would have to be re-rolled, a very long-lasting effect could disappear quickly with a small interaction.

Another easy option, if one wants the roil to last only rounds, but without having to do book-keeping, is to just put a die next to it and decrease it every round.

As a last resort, as I said, it can be fully under DM's control. The point is that players with ways to interact with the Roil should also know how much the Roil is meant to last. So even if the DM makes it arbitrary, there should always be a way for the players to know about the duration, so they can play around it/with it.

Now, Roil effects in the hands of players could be the following:

Roil Sense: as an action, you can make a Wisdom (Survival) or Intelligence (Arcana) check to learn more about ongoing Roil effects within your line of sight. 

Not many details on the ability: depending on the result, the type, duration, stage etc can be learned.

This would be one of the abilities granted by the Lull Mage feat, and possibly one of the Merfolk racial features.

Then there's the fun stuff:

Lull Magic: as an action you can make a Wisdom (Survival) or Intelligence (Arcana) check to change a Roil Die affecting an area within 30 ft. The DC is set by the DM. If you succeed, you can either increase or decrease the Roil Die number by one towards a Lull state, and you can't use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

It's a bit limited being once per rest, but I envision actual Roil Mages and such using it more often by burning spell slots. A way to calculate the DC would be the assign value of severity to both Roil States and Durations: the more the effect is far from the average value, the more severe it is. That is: it should be more difficult to change a very short or very long state, and more difficult the more it's far from a lull state.

Em's Flight: if you are within a Positive or Explosive Roil's area of influence, you can spend an action to grant yourself and another creature within 10 ft. of you a flight speed of 30 ft. until the end of your next turn. After using this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

This would be the main Merfolk feature, or perhaps the one for the Emeria Creed, although I don't like separating Merfolk into creeds at racial level, so it might also end up on a racial feat instead.

Now, speaking of Creeds, Cosi Tricksters could actually most probably manipulate the Roil too. But doing basically the exact opposite of Lull Mages. This could be a way of enabling Em's Flight, or Ula's Waters.

Cosi's Trick: as an action, you can spend a Hit Die and instead of regaining hit points, you can invert the state of a Roil's area of influence within 30 ft. of you. You can't use this feature if the Roil's state is Lull or Weird Lull.

And on to Ula's waters:

Ula's Waters: if you are within a Negative or Implosive Roil's area of influence, you can spend a reaction to attract water from below or above and give it a shape kept pressurized by the Roil. You can use it to propel yourself, and up to one creature within 10 ft of you, 20 ft in any direction, or grant you and the chosen creature three-quarters cover. After using this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Goblins would use the Roil very differently from the Merfolk, and very differently depending on the tribe.

Grotag's Lullaby: when you are within a Roil's area of influence in any Lull state (including Positive and Negative), you can spend an action to make a Wisdom or Charisma (Animal Handling) check to charm a beast within 10 ft. of you. The DC is equal to 10 + the number of Hit Dice of the beast. If you succeed, the beast is charmed as if under the Animal Friendship spell. If you fail, the beast becomes hostile and the Roil state worsens by one step. After using this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

This is a funny one... Of course the Grotag's expertise with beasts was never officially tied to the Roil, but since I tie it to Lull states (and careful: this still means you need Roil to use it...), it can be easy to miss how the Roil is involved. The Grotags are basically finding a way to make the Roil help them in taming beasts, without even knowing. The fact the Roil worsens when they fail means the Roil is also connected to living things nearby, and an animal getting enraged makes the Roil enraged. Very Zendikarian!

Also, this brings me to a nice terminology for the Roil: to worsen or improve.

A Roil's state can always worsen or improve. This means changing the Roil Die number so that it's respectively farther or closer to the Lull state, by a certain number.
For example if a d8 Roil Die is on 6 (Positive Lull), worsening by one gives a 7 (Explosive Roil) while Improving by one gives a 5 (Lull).
A Roil's state can't worsen more than the maximum or minimum of its die.

With this terminology set, Lull magic becomes easier to phrase:

Lull Magic: as an action you can make a Wisdom (Survival) or Intelligence (Arcana) check to improve a Roil state affecting an area within 30 ft. If you succeed, its Roil Die improves by 1, and you can't use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

Continuing on the wave of Goblins, I would love to redo the Tuktuk tribe's feature based on the Roil. This is actually tricky, because it used to be based on the usage of Daily Arcane spells, if I remember correctly, so not just any spell, but I think we could convert it to just any spell of 1st level or higher.

Tuktuk's Fortune: when you take damage from a spell or magical effect of 1st level or higher within the the area of influence of a Roil state, as a reaction the Roil state briefly changes to its maximum, but you fly right outside of its area of influence in a random direction (use a d10, with 1 being directly upwards, and 10 meaning diagonally upwards, needing another roll for the direction.)
If the spell had hit you with an attack roll, it misses you, and if it affected an area and you move outside of it, you are not affected.
If you flew up, you still take falling damage as normal, unless you prevent it somehow.
The Roil's state returns to its previous state at the start of your next turn.

A bit wordy, but a lot of fun! It enables tactics like having the Tuktuk attract enemies near a Roil's epicenter (that's another nice term to use!), and then targeting it with a spell on purpose, to provoke a Roil Storm and affect the enemies in the area. Too bad there is a 20% chance the Tuktuk will take some damage, and a 10% chance the poor devil will take a LOT of damage (flying directly above, meaning landing/crashing within the Roil Storm just created..!)
After all...

"Survival rule 883: Fire distracts the eye of danger and warms the heart of fortune."
—Zurdi, goblin shortcutter

Note that since the epicenter is basically a point, one could also rule you just go out of the area in a straight line out of the epicenter, meaning "up" only if you are standing on it. But this could also mean the feature would be useless many times, since the goblin could already be very close to the border of the area, and in that case nothing much would happen, while the random flight actually gives more chances of being moved far away.

Lavastep's Grit: you are immune to the effects of Red Roil. When within the area of influence of a Black, Green, or White Positive or Explosive Roil, you can use an action to briefly change the Roil color to Red in a radius of 10 ft centered on you. The change lasts until the end of your next turn.

This is a bit cheesy and probably more at home with Roil Soul Sorcerers or Roil Mages, but it could be funny for these fiery goblins to actually bring the fire where they go. Blue Roil, being so elementally opposite, would be immune. And even Green honestly seems like a stretch. But changing White and Black Roil to Red seems really cool. I just wouldn't exactly know how would that "look" and "work" thanks to the Lavastep's "grit" mineral.
A possible solution could be making the Tuktuk feature belong to Lavastep (with the addition of immunity to Red Roil), and coming up with something more tame for the Tuktuk. Needs some thought.

By the way, this brings me to an easy write-up of the three Goblin tribes.

The basic race would be the official one from Volo's Guide to Monsters, but I would eliminate the Fury of the Small feature and include instead the following:

GROTAG TRIBE:
- Proficiency in Animal Handling
- Grotag's Lullaby

TUKTUK TRIBE:
- Proficiency in Survival
- Tuktuk's Fortune

LAVASTEP TRIBE:
- Proficiency in Arcana
- Resistance to fire damage
- Lavastep Grit

Note that Lavastep would get resistance to fire also because I see their feature as more situational and less universally useful than the others'. In addition, for another Goblin to gain such resistance would be easy: just eat as much grit as the Lavastep.

Also, if you're thinking power-creep, remember that all these features are very situational, since they depend on the Roil. Zendikar races are meant to be slightly better and have the extra power be tied to the Roil exactly because the Roil adds difficulty to the game: you lose some and you get some. Plus, the race becomes or remains useful enough in other settings only if these features are mostly on top of regular racial features, and not in substitution.

That's all for now! We have a more or less final general rule for the Roil, a nearly complete feat, cool features for Merfolk or Merfolk feats, and the Goblins.
Next I should complete the Merfolk!

#Zendikar #DnD Take 2: new mechanics for a new edition

All right, I got distracted with some Ikoria, before that I passed through some tough D&D 4e nostalgia, but who am I fooling: "fixing" D&D is a titanic task that I can't hope to do by myself (at least not unless they hire me at WotC heheh...) What I CAN do is finally get Zendikar back to the present form of D&D!

In this blog you find tons of material that is marked as for 13th Age (I passed that phase too), but honestly it's perfectly fine for D&D. Icons and relations with icons can first of all not require additional mechanics, and then they can just be implemented with 13th Age mechanics within D&D, no tools required.

What I never properly converted to the new system are the things that need conversion, like races, subclasses, feats, backgrounds etc.
You could say: "Hey Lord, excuse the informal register, but WotC did that already, it's called Planeshift: Zendikar, and it's a free PDF!". And, "Well" - I'd reply - "I believe that document is one of the worst adaptations they could do!" - Because come on, Zendikar is widely different from other settings, and the mechanics have to show it.

When I praised recent design coming out of WotC was few days ago, when they came out with mechanics for Psionics that FINALLY made a good job conveying the flavor of the theme.
This is what I firmly believe: you can have fantastic narrative, world-building, and ideas, but if the mechanics are always the same, the playing experience will be always similar.
A brave new world requires brave new mechanics.

Speaking of this, the first mechanic that I would introduce is actually an add-in, something of a thin layer covering all or most of Zendikar D&D gaming. The ROIL.

Zendikar without the Roil is like Ravenloft without the Mists, or the Forgotten Realms without Drizzt and Elminster. You just can't. And although some types could say that you could easily reskin spells and environmental effects to "represent" the Roil, I don't want to just represent it: I want it to be an integral part of the experience. Something the players will have to think about. Possibly even something to build characters around.

The Roil mechanic I have in mind borrows again from 13th Age, and in particular from its Escalation Die. But only on the surface.
It's meant to be a die that can add randomness, but also some kind of "track". And it's not meant to be just a unified "this is how we do the Roil" thing either: the Roil is a force that manifests differently in every continent, and many times differently within each continent of Zendikar, as I briefly mentioned at the end of my previous post.

So each time there is Roil (spoiler alert - there's ALWAYS Roil on Zendikar, everywhere. It's just not always something visible. Or at least this is my plan for it) there is a particular die that can have different colors, and a different table, depending on the continent it comes from, and the mana involved.

Taking a page from the Psionic Die, this die can change in size, but the typical size is the Zendikarian size per-excellence: the d8, shaped (a bit) like Zendikarian hedrons!
This die is for "real roil", which can escalate to something terrible.
In "lull" conditions, the die is a d4. While in certain specific conditions, the die is a d6 (like the cube hedrons, and this may or may not be related...)

The idea is to have roil specifically tied to hedrons (although this is not canon, but it could be if you know the story) and the shape of hedrons being an indication of particular roil configurations.
This could mean two different scenarios: each die works in its own way (but that's three tables for each of five continents and each with five color variations, might be too much), or they follow the same "track", with the d4 obviously never reaching the "bad" levels of a d6 or the "terrible" levels of a d8.

What I came to prefer, though, is the exact contrary, and this is kind of supported by Rise Of The Eldrazi art: when Hedrons are Octahedrons, things are okay-ish. It's when they reconfigure in cubes that the Roil hits the fan... So it could be cool to have the three tables just for the system to go backwards in size, with the d8 being the most controllable (abilities and effects changing its value by 1 would not be as drastic on a scale of 1 to 8 as on a scale of 1 to 4, obviously), and the d8 would figure more prominently, which could kind of be the signature of the setting. The d4 could actually be 2d4, and symbolize the mess that happens when a hedron gets broken: worse effects, less controllable, and now you have two of them.

In particular, following this latest model which seems to me like the most iconic, the typical situation would be this:

Roil Die: 1d8
1 Reconfiguration to d6 (roll it, rerolling 1)
2 Negative Roil
3 Lull - something
4 Lull
5 Lull
6 Lull + something
7 Roil
8 Roil Storm

Roil Die: 1d6

1 Reconfiguration to 2d4s
2 Weird negative Roil
3 Lull - something weird
4 Lull + something weird
5 Weird Roil
6 Reconfiguration to d8, level 8

Roil Die: 1d4 (the two d4 act separately)

1 Negative Roil Storm
2 Very Negative Roil
3 Roil Storm
4 Dire Roil Storm

Yes, the d4 would  not reconfigure anymore, but they would also not last for long. Possibly a number of turns equal to the number. After which it would reconfigure to... d8 level 4: easy to remember (from d4 to d8 set on 4), and makes sense.

Now, what is positive or negative Roil? I picture it very simply: it can be explosive (positive) or implosive (negative). A sudden geyser, gravitational uplift, awakening water, or vegetation bloom are examples of positive Roil. A quicksand, gravitational pull, whirlpool, or vegetation encroaching are examples of negative Roil. Note that I didn't say vegetation withering: a withering is a Black effect, which would have both positive and negative variants, but it would work kind of counter-intuitively, with explosions being actual creation of ooze, sludge, and decay, and implosions working like anti-blooms: withering concentrically to the point of implosion.

And speaking of points of explosion and implosion, here's the cool thing: the die can be placed directly on the map, as the source of the roil. Note that it could represent a hedron, or not. I would say that having it tied to the hedron would give extra ways of dealing with it (and especially a clear clue on where to tread carefully), while if there is no hedron, the die should be only on the DM's map, revealing itself only when the effect makes it obvious (the lake suddenly balls up in a floating gravity-defying bubble of water: pretty sure that makes the point of origin at the center of the bubble! And it's Blue Negative, d8 set on 2!)

The d6 Roil is cool because it should completely change the way you deal with it. First of all it's more subtle (although it's at the tipping point to the crazy state of d4s), and then it should also be more useful: there's plenty of characters shown manipulating hedron cubes, and while we are talking Roil here and not Hedrons exactly (or necessarily), I think it would be cool if the d6 Roil could lend some power to those who know how to channel it, although it could backfire (Hexaroil now sounds like the best name for it!)
Example: a Black Hexaroil on negative numbers could make a character either cast Hex together with a "Black spell", or suffer it when casting it. On positive, it would probably just deal Necrotic damage straight up, either to the target of a spell and surrounding creatures or to the caster and surrounding creatures.

The continent variants would provide first of all the diversity of colors (according to what I found out, Zendikar's remaining five continents go from 1 to 5 colors, each), and then peculiar effects, especially on positive. A Roil Storm in Ondu (where Roil tends to be circular) would be something like a hurricane, with a very calm eye of the storm in the middle, while in Akoum, (where Roil comes from the earth), it would be lava geysers erupting everywhere with or without an associated vegetation bloom, depending on the presence of Green mana.

Lullmages, a very common mage in Zendikar, so much so that I would make it a feat accessible to everyone with Arcana proficiency, would have the power of stabilizing the Roil die, bringing it to middle values in case of d8s and d6s, or reducing the duration of whatever mess the d4s are.

Merfolk instead could ride the currents of some Roil settings gaining the ability to fly, and could possibly have the racial power of making the die go closer to those settings they prefer (possibly of mild to medium Roil, most probably positive.

An actual Roil Mage, a Wizard specialized in this stuff, or a Roil Soul Sorcerer, could instead be aiming at changing the d8s to d6s, so that they can use the Roil to power spells. This could of course result in a mess happening, before they manage, and even more probably after they manage.

I better stop here, because anyway I am not going to create all the tables here and now: this is just a pitch, and possibly a more complete take would be my Z post for the RPG Blog Carnival of my friend Gonzalo!

#Ikoria and #Zendikar in #DnD: fanta-geo-ramblings

Hello folks!

I think I am finally regaining the will to continue this blog, and I must say the recent developments from D&D's design team were a big boost. But not the only one!

The thing I am most excited about is the return to the Zendikar setting, in  Magic: The Gathering. And not from the perspective of the game of Magic itself of course, but because of my usual fixation with role-playing in that marvelous world!

The fact they declared it will be Eldrazi-free (or at least not focused on them) and adventure-heavy is pure bliss! So I have been thinking about a few things.

Then there is Ikoria. 

While to me it feels like an "un-set" (an expansion of the game that is not playable at tournaments and is full of "joke cards"), it must be said I am judging like a thirty-something years old a product that probably was aimed at pre-teens (at least I think it must have been, with that trailer...)
But when I got to play with it I actually liked it, which speaks volumes about my maturity I guess..! :D

Again though, I am considering it mostly as a source of RPG inspiration, and I am totally in love with the characters and settings connected to my favorite cards: the blue-black flash crowd, and in particular the enabler of it all: Cunning Nightbonder!

Apart from the mechanic effect of the card, which I love, the character made me want to explore animal companions and such, which I seldom do.

In addition, she seems to me like she could be a psionic character as well!

For now, excluding Blood Hunter which is not official, I think she would be a weird Ranger/Warlock with Wild Talent focused on Wisdom and a pact with the Lurker in The Deep, reflavored as a Nightmare lord from Indatha, the land where these little mean beasties come from.

But enough with my character ideas, and let's talk about something more useful!

Roleplaying in Ikoria

While I don't doubt a Planeshift: Ikoria document will come out soon, with rules for bonded animals, mutating ones maybe, and interesting locations for adventuring, I wanted to speculate a bit about the latter.

First of all, there is a bit of a strange thing when it comes to the locations, its inhabitants, and the mana colors they are associated with. Although this shouldn't influencing the adventuring aspect, I wanted to point out that Indatha, the region (or "triome", in the setting's terminology to refer to a biome connected to three mana source) where the nightmare creatures are from, is White, Black, and Green. These are not the colors you find Nightmares in, at least not all of them: my favorite one, is Blue-Black.

Slitherwisp, by yigitkoroglu

Which is a combination of colors that fits much more the Zagoth triome, which is my favorite: Blue, Black, and Green.

I think they might have thought more about the function of the card and what colors would that be, as it's typical of such a technical game, but there is also another explanation: the two triomes share some land. Something confirmed in this tidbit from the guide:

"It is said that some of Indatha's lowlands were formed by a long trail of enormous footprints, leading from the forests of Zagoth in the south to Indatha's northwestern coast."

Now, this common swampy coast area between the two triomes, THAT's where I would like to have adventures set in!

So what is there?

• Skysal, the airhip city: this actually rather Zendikarian locale is hovering Indatha in general, so it could be one of the safe havens from which to explore the swamps between Indatha and Zagoth. Admittedly though, having your base on airships when exploring swamps is kind of pointless, since you wouldn't be able to reach them just escaping on foot...

• Zagoth's hunter camps: although a true settlement is not mentioned in the guide, these hunters of Zagoth must live somewhere, and the self-proclaimed leader (a certain Chevill) is said to "spend most of his time slogging through the wetlands like he owns them." So there's that!

I guess a bonder like the favorite of mine I mentioned wouldn't be very welcome among the hunters, so there could be this kind of rivalry dynamic, between bonders and hunters, with the beasts and nightmares preying on both when they're not careful enough.

Then there's the people of Skysail. The cards and guide picture them as very isolationist/defensive, so they would want to mind their business, but they would be sought from the afore-mentioned parties, whether for equipment, shelter, or as actual prey from the monsters' point of view, since many can be or become aerial in Ikoria, thanks to mutations.

The main ruin to explore would be that of Orn, the only settlement in Indatha that used to be rather big, the citizens of which were the ancestors of the poeple of Skysail.
I picture nightmare bonders as isolated survivors of that old tragedy, who found a way to coexist with nightmare creatures.

Not much else to say, except I see this as very similar to Zendikar adventures, due to the verticality involved in Skysail and aerial creatures, and the crazy monsters and landscape.

And speaking of landscapes...

Let's talk Zendikar geography!

One of the things I never liked of Zendikar, and I noticed online that many noticed the same, is how many discrepancies and subsequent ret-cons there have been from the source, when it comes to the setting and its history.

Most of this has to do with "Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum: A Magic: The Gathering Set Novel" (yes, that's the full title, and no, the novel itself doesn't fare better than it) being such a low quality book, with a lot of inaccuracies and mistakes.

But I also suspect the designers themselves simply didn't talk or agree enough, between the first sets and the "sequel" of Battle for Zendikar, which happened much later.

In fact, when the continents are described in the latter set, on the land cards, the descriptions are partial at best, especially since they tried to shoehorn entire continents into a description tied to two mana colors, which was not the original intent in the first Zendikar at all.

So I want to go through them, and "correct" them, by adding at least one more color, if not two, for each, explaining why I see this more accurate, according to the first sources.

MURASA: Canopy Vista

Now, the illustration is actually quite right to represent a part of Murasa: the forest of Jaddi trees that dominates Kazandu. Bust Kazandu is also described as "a mass of irregular canyons, twisting valleys, and high broken steppes, all dotted here and there by plateaus that tower above the landscape—surviving pillars of the previous ground level." If you ask me, this is pretty Red due to all of the mountainous/rocky features. And in fact the previous Kazandu Refuge card was Red-Green.

So to define Murasa, the "walled continent" with white and green is very reductive. It should at the very least have Red in it as well, without mentioning the not-so-minor Blue and Black sources, respectively Sunder Bay and the Root Caves, both of which rather attached to Green. 

Based on this, I would say Green is dominant, with White and Red being both strong secondaries, making Murasa like Naya in Alara, suggesting that Zendikar is more about "allied" colors, rather than "enemy" colors. 

The Green dominance also matches the fact we are talking about a mostly Elven land, hosting both Tajuru and Kazandu elves, with Kor (White) and Orcs/Ogres (Red) being the strongest minorities in numbers.

ONDU: Prairie Stream

Ondu is tricky, because more than a continent it's an archipelago, although it is said to have a "mainland". Ondu proper, so to speak. So I will limit myself at this land.

And Ondu's mainland surely can't be reduced to White-Blue. It has a very strong Green component: we are talking about the birth place of Omnath, Locus of Mana: the greenest thing ever existed, except when it got "enraged", becoming Green-Red.

There is also quite a confusion between Ondu and Murasa I think, because plateaus and meandering rivers sound a lot like the Na Plateau and Raimunza and Vazi rivers of Murasa, while the sheer verticality of the landscape that should characterize Ondu, seems to have been assigned mostly to Murasa, lately.

All in all, I would say Ondu's mainland is like Bant of Alara, making it another three-allied-colors land, with White perhaps being the primary one. Minor sources of other colors would include Red for the Makindi Trenches/Cliffhavens, and Black for the Binding Circle's globular swamp and its Soul Stair.

AKOUM: Cinder Glade

This is one of the most accurate: it shows the life blooms of Akoum next to its rivers of magma and floating rocks. I would be even tempted to say it needs nothing more, with the previous land cycle of Refuges (Akoum Refuge) being the inaccurate one, since it was Red-Black, for no apparent reason, unless it referred to the selfishness of the people in such refuge, which include the tomb raiders of the League of Anowon.

Black is indeed tempting as an addition, to complete the Alara comaprison, but I really don't see it: there's nothing swampy anywhere in Akoum, and if anything one should say White or Blue could be secondary together with Green. So we are either looking at a more Naya combo like Murasa, with Red primary instead of Green, or at something in enemy colors like Tarkir's Temur clan lands or Ikoria's Ketria triome. But again, I think limiting it to Red with secondary Green should be enough, geography-wise. After all Glasspool and its Ior Ruins were said to be its only "reliable" source of Blue mana, and it's a simple lake, and the plains that would mean White are not mentioned anywhere, and are just implied as the few routes used by the Goma Fada Caravan.

TAZEEM: Sunken Hollow

This is probably the most inaccurate yet, because just as there is no Black in Akoum, there's extremely little of it in Tazeem too.

The exception would be perhaps the pit caves that possibly inspired this land, but they are described as sources of fresh water, so not swampy at all, and even sometimes as geysers, which would make them Red-Blue.

The true colors of Tazeem are again Blue-White-Green, or like Bant in Alara, and similar to the main ones of Ondu, with the difference that Tazeem, having an inner sea, would have Blue as primary, instead of White. Green is important because of the Vastwood, and White because of Emeria the Sky Ruin, and the city of Sea Gate itself (which is White-Blue by definition).

I don't see much in terms of tertiary sources, since Black is basically absent and Red would be only associated to the geysers, which anyway don't seem to define any region in particular.

GUUL DRAAZ: Smoldering Marsh

I said Tazeem was the most innacurate "YET", because I knew this was coming. If Tazeem has little to no Black, Guul Draaz has absolutely ZERO Red. There is no mention fo mountain, hills, rocky landscape, geysers, or geothermal anything in the guide.

Guul Draaz is the most monocolor of the continents, with Black being absolutely dominant, with perhaps traces of Blue and Green, making it if anything a triome like Zagoth and Sultai lands, which are in fact very similar in their description to Guul Draaz, but only if you stretch things: Guul Draaz is really just an immense swampland, with colorless features (Hagra Cistern, Helix of Zof) more common than other colors.

So what did we learn?

Strangely enough, I think if we count the five REMAINING continents of Zendikar (my beloved Bala Ged and Sejiri are no more... So sad!), the only symmetry I find is they all have different degrees of diversity when it comes to geography/mana sources.

I would in fact go as far as ordering by color diversity:

1. Guul Draaz (Black)
2. Akoum (Red/Green)
3. Tazeem (Blue/Green/White)
4. Murasa (Green/White/Red/Blue)
5. Ondu (White/Blue/Green/Red/Black)

Which is for sure not intended, but still a nice way to look at them.

What the designers probably forgot about, is a nice coincidence-or-not with the gravitational Roil effects in each continent.

In fact, it seems like each continent has a general "direction" of the Roil, or preferred movement if you wish:

• Guul Draaz: no direction/hanging (like its Hanging Swamp)
• Akoum: from the ground (all the geothermal activity)
• Tazeem: from the sky (Emeria the Sky Ruin)
• Murasa: from the sides (hence the wall, the winds etc)
• Ondu: circular (as seen in the disc-shaped geography of Agadeem, the Binding Circle, the Piston Mountains etc)

This is partly referred to in the Akoum guide ("Whereas the Roil on the continent of Tazeem seems to affect the land from above, the Roil seems to affect Akoum from below.") with possibly the only stretch being Murasa, where the Roil is just described "unpredictable". The wind is there though.("The interior of Murasa is a rugged landscape of steep, windy hills and precipitous jungle valleys.")

So this makes me think there might be some kind of connection between these forces, especially since we know the Roil is a form of rebellion of Zendikar to the Eldrazi imprisoned within it, and that the prison was located mostly in Akoum. One could for example imagine Akoum and Tazeem being at opposite longitudes, with Ondu and Murasa in-between, where the Roil would form currents of some kind, and Guul Draaz being the farthest from all the mess.

There are of course many many ways of looking at it, and the best is not to try to make much sense. 

But I am happy to see these peculiarities, because they might influence new mechanics to described the Roil in D&D, that I have in mind... And for that, we better write another post!

My Prayers Listened!! New #Psionics in #DnD5e: a most welcome surprise!

After the last entries of crazy psionics subclasses, I was disheartened and disillusioned about the whole direction WotC took with D&D design.

I wrote lengthy feedback, stressing mainly the following:

• Psionics has to be mechanically different compared to magic. Otherwise it's just Psychic magic and we already have it.
• Psionics has to have unique mechanics not just to be different, but because the concept it should convey is that of something that is totally enclosed within the user, so it should be more flexible than magic, but at the same time more straining. Closer to martial abilities than spellcasting.
• The concept of Psionic subclasses is ok in principle, but they can't all just add some psi-sounding features and call it a day: they have to draw from a common system/mechanics, showing that the mind's power has many forms, but is ultimately a unified power source.
• A true Psionic class would still be nice.

Now, the last point hasn't been covered this time around, and maybe never will be, but on the other points, they delivered EXACTLY what I asked for!! And this after being called all sorts of names in forums, reddits etc. when I was exposing my point of view is proof that, as I thought, I am actually in a majority that may be less vocal on social media, but takes feedback to the designers seriously.

Because here's another point that I mentioned in the feedback, and was not well received in social media:

• If you want to do Psionics right, you have to listen to people who are actually invested in the concept. If you ask the people who don't care, they will just want to avoid "messing" with the game, so they will say everything is good as long as it's bland and irrelevant, even if it's terrible at representing the concept.

I am not saying that hardcore fans of Psionics should be the only ones dictating how it goes of course, because there are indeed those that enjoy the concept only if it serves as a way to power-play. But I am convinced this is a minority: most fans of Psionics are actually happier with LESS power, as long as it conveys the concept as something truly unique.
And if before I was saying this just as the outcome of a personal "Insight check" on the community, seeing what they did after feedback I now see it's actually a good approximation of reality: they indeed listened to fans that, at the cost of a bit of added complexity (which is welcome I think, in a game that has become so simplified) asked for a unique mechanic that just FEELS PSIONIC.

This mechanic came under the guise of the extremely elegant "Psionic Talent die": a d6 at first, growing with levels, that simply dictates the maximum numerical bonus (or substitution of other die in some case) provided by the mind power, with a few important caveats:

1. If you roll a maximum, you actually strain your mind and you will use a smaller die afterwards, which means initially a d4.
2. If you roll a minimum, you can regain the larger die (but you will have probably botched the action you were trying to perform, not to mention it's irrelevant if you already have the largest die in use: a wonderful balance!)
3. If you roll a maximum again when there is no smaller die available (so you roll 4 on a d4) you just lose the Psionic Talent die for the rest of the day.

I don't even know where to begin to praise this design, because I think it's one of the most elegant ideas coming out of the designers since EVER.

1. The connection of a good roll with something bad (risking losing the power for the day) and of a bad roll with something good (regaining stamina, if you had lost some) is not only just balanced, but extremely good at conveying the Psionic flavor: the mind can overwork and get tired, or botch something but find new paths. It's PERFECT.
2. This crazy thing of having a power function at-will or not at all is also SO PSIONIC! Typical in pop culture is in fact seeing these gifted people use their power with little to no limits for some time, and then at some point suffering some kind of outburst or drain, and just lose their powers for a long while.
   It's portrayed by the mechanics with incredible efficiency and style. This is what I meant with "mechanics that convey a concept"!
3. It's a system that can be applied to so many things. In this playtest material we have it in three different subclasses, plus a feat that makes it available for everyone, even for characters already having Psionic subclasses! In fact you never have more than one die: you just grow it in size, and add more ways to use it, which also means more ways to lose it... 
4. It adds a new layer of strategical thinking: do you use the Psionic Talent now, and risk not having it later? Is a bonus now better than more bonuses later? It really is a game inside the game, and this is awesome, and truly distinguishes a Psionic character, making you feel the weight of such power: it's basically a constant Russian Roulette!

Now, the material is not perfect either: the Sorcerer remains a poor way to represent a true "Psion" (although it's ten times better than that nonsense "Psionic School" Wizard we got before...) and the fact the designer still wanted to consider "psionic spells" a thing, and just call all of Divination and Enchantment such, is bad in my opinion. But all in all, the subclass is a nice try, and an original concept: this Sorcerer really conveys a mix of Magic AND Psionics, and does it well. Perhaps even too well, which brings me to what will be the most common criticism for sure...

There are a few slightly overpowered things. But easy to fix!

Adding a d6 to an ability check, even limited to a single ability (speaking of the Wild Talent feat) is VERY powerful, even considering you have a chance of running out of this power.

It stacks with Expertise, meaning I KNOW I want a Rogue or Bard to be Psionic from now on, just to be able to add, potentially, +13 to a skill check at first level. It's a bit too much and could have been probably solved by making the bonus be half the die result, capping the total at a very good +10.

With damage it works perfectly, and in the feat it's even slightly under-powered, although it can be awesome if for some reason one uses small-die weapons (the double-scimitar from Eberron would be the optimal choice!), since it substitutes a die, instead of adding.

Which brings me to another possible fix for the skill bonus granted by the feat: leave it as it is, but make it substitute the Proficiency bonus, effectively becoming my beloved Skill Die which never saw the light of day after the old D&D Next public playtest phase. It would still mean adding on average a +1 and many times +2 or +3, up to +4, at first level. So still amazing. But interaction with Expertise would become harder to figure out. I guess for those cases, the best would be basically die and single Proficiency bonus: like it is now, basically.

Another feat offender is Tower of Iron Will: although it's supposed to be fairly high level for non-psionic characters, a Fighter might take this at 6th level and become basically a nightmare for the DM, since adding a whole d6 to saving throws, yours and others' means saving the day many times.

Again, if this would be instead of proficiency bonus, or half the die's result, it would probably be a bit more in-line with other bonuses.

When it comes to the subclasses, instead, as I mentioned the Sorcerer might be an offender.
I don't see any reason to play any other Sorcerer subclass after seeing this, and not just because I like it, on the contrary: the strength of the mechanics attracts me even if the flavor itself is the worst of the bunch for me personally. I really love the Psi Knight and the Soulknife (ten times better than their last incarnations, although it was a low bar...), but this Psionic Soul Sorcerer is just WOW: temporarily learn spells? Amazing. Avoid the spell components? At last! Telepathic Speech? Of course!

It's just a bit too much, and it gets crazier at higher levels, although all very thematic.

This I don't have many fixes for, honestly. Discovering spells is probably the most amazing feature, and I think it could be ok if it came later on, and/or if it would be limited to a selection of spells (like Cleric's domain spells), and not two entire schools, which by the way also forces one to find indexes of spells by school, which are weirdly not present in the manuals.

One more highlight:

The awesomeness of the new mechanic is shown in the cost of some powers of the Psi Knight and Soulknife, which is a great example of how the Psionic Talent die can be used for more powerful effects too:

"Once you use this feature, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest, unless you decrease your Psionic Talent die by one die size to use this feature again."

See, this is a great way to control daily uses of powers, without even having to do book-keeping of slots and numbers: the player just keeps the Psionic Talent die close at hand, and instantly knows how many uses left, and how good or bad an idea it is to lower it. Plus, again, it makes you ponder your decisions much better, because all your other Psionic abilities will be affected by the decrease.
This is an example of drawback of Psionics compared to Magic that we fans actually LOVE TO SUFFER! Imagine if a Wizard would have all its spells weakened after using a Fireball: players would come down on the streets marching in protest, but for Psionic fans, this is actually cool!

One more fixable problem:

Wording. Although the mechanic is awesome, it takes a lot of space to be described. This is better fixed by designers than me, since I am notoriously verbose, but in general I think the worst offender is the Wild Talent feat: it's just too long, and while it's basically the same in the classes, one expects this length of stuff more in classes than in feats. My solution would be, once again, to actually nerf it, for example not giving out with it the Psi Replenishment feature, or even the scaling die size, although the latter would mean the ability would at some point become irrelevant, at least for damage.

The best solution would just be to really shorten the explanation in the whole Changing the Die's Size section: it perhaps states too many examples, and could be shortened a lot.

All in all, we don't want Psionics to be considered convoluted or difficult, at least not too much, otherwise the same usual vocal minority will have another excuse to complain it makes the game worse, just because they don't like it in general. Never mind the fact they would have not wanted to use it anyway, and they could just avoid it... It's like people wanting to ban a product that they would have all the rights of banning just from their houses! Which brings me to an appeal to the designers, to end this anti-rant...

Speaking of feedback which might be against this new development, I appeal to the rational mind of designers.

Don't miss opportunities just to please naysayers: create something liked by the ones who actually care, and then the naysayers can always choose not to use it. But us the fans, we can't really choose to use something if it doesn't exist, unless we home-brew it, which inevitably distances us from the game, like it was already happening to me...

So just continue on this path: balance things out, and have Psionics be really unique, really different. And if someone doesn't like it, nothing will happen to them: they can always ban it. If instead you will go back to avoiding new mechanics and lean heavily on spells to do everything psionic (which unfortunately is still being done here and there, like mage hand representing telekinesis...), you will just have created something that nobody complains about, but nobody really enjoys.
A complete waste of time!

So here is hope we are on the right path to a great comeback of Psionics, perhaps tied to Dark Sun or similar "psi-heavy" setting, and that perhaps we will even see a true psionic class, instead of only subclasses. A man can dream!

I is for Ixalan - My entry for the "To Boldly Go" #RPGBlogCarnival

My dear friend and digital brother Gonzalo is the host/protagonist of this month's RPG Blog Carnival, titled To Boldly Go, and themed around planes of existence, both from D&D and Magic: The Gathering. It's combined with the Blogging A to Z Challenge, but with my geologic rhythms I would have never been able to follow through with it...

But when it came to "I", I couldn't skip it... And not only because I am egotistical, but because I is for Ixalan, one of my favorite Magic: The Gathering settings/planes to date, which is saying a lot!

Of Ixalan I absolutely LOVE the Merfolk, which seem to me like the most solid tribe, culturally and anthropologically speaking: you can sense their traditions, culture, and history just by looking at the illustrations, and the fact they are so synergistic in-game adds to the feeling.

Speaking of their culture, the language comes to mind, of which we get a glimpse only through their names.
Out of sheer obsessive-compulsiveness, I noticed the names were always recycling the same syllables, other than always being composed of three syllables. This got me thinking that their names follow some sort of convention and pattern (apart from the declared intention of following the names of the great nine rivers of Ixalan), and made me think that, from a role-playing perspective, players wanting to create a Merfolk character would stick to this convention.

From here to what I envisioned, there's quite a big leap, but it's just too satisfying for the rules-tinkerer inside me: racial bonuses based on character's names!

So for this entry I will present a draft for an Ixalan Merfolk race, with a few shared traits, and most of the rest coming from the choice of character name, or syllables that compose it.

Ixalan Merfolk Syllables

Analyzing the names of the nine river heralds (Tishana, Kumena, Pashona, Vuhana, Mitica, Notana, Falani, Tuvasa, and Kopala), I came up with nine syllables, each with a few variations.

• Na/No/Ni
• La/Ra/Li 
• Sha/Sho/Sa 
• Ti /Tu/Ta/Te
• Vu/Va
• Ku/Ko/Ca
• Ha/Hi
• Pa/Fa
• Me/Mi

Associating each of them to an "element", a class, and an associated ability (roughly inspired by the characters and what they have in common) I came up with this

• Wood, Warrior, Dexterity - Na/No/Ni
• Water, Wizard, Intelligence - La/Ra/Li 
• Wind, Shaper, Wisdom - Sha/Sho/Sa 
• Jade, Mystic, Wisdom - Ti /Tu/Ta/Te
• Mind, Scholar, Intelligence - Vu/Va
• Gold, Leader, Charisma - Ku/Ko/Ca
• Monkey, Expert, Dexterity - Ha/Hi
• Rock, Protector, Constitution - Pa/Fa
• Sun, Tyrant, Charisma - Me/Mi

This already gives meaning to the names (using alternatively the element or the class, such as Tishana being either "Jade Wind Warrior" or "Mystic Shaper of Wood" or any other combination), and also some bonuses.

To go with a bonus to the ability, I came up with a few thematic bonuses. At first I thought to just make them stacking, since I wanted the syllables to be repeatable once in a name, considering there are variations to the vowels and not only. But then I thought it would be cooler if the repetition would just give something cooler.
To avoid missing out on these cool effects and kind of forcing the repetition, I would allow a feat that would make you take an extra syllable chosen from one that you already have. Just once.

• Na/No/Ni: Your Dexterity score increases by 1. You have proficiency with a weapon of choice that doesn't have the heavy or two-handed property. You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls with the chosen weapon.
  
  Taken twice: As a bonus action on your turn, you can give yourself advantage on a weapon attack roll. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.

• La/Ra/Li: Your Intelligence score increases by 1. You know the Shape Water cantrip.
  
  Taken twice: When you reach 3rd level , you can cast the shield spell once per day. When you reach 5th level, you can also cast the mirror image spell once per day.
  
  Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

• Sha/Sho/Sa: Your Wisdom score increases by 1. You know the Gust cantrip.
  
  Taken twice: When you reach 3rd level , you can cast the catapult spell once per day. When you reach 5th level, you can also cast the warding wind spell once per day.
  
  Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

• Ti/Tu/Ta/Te: Your Wisdom score increases by 1. You have resistance to necrotic damage.
  
  Taken twice: You have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws against magic.

• Vu/Va: Your Intelligence score increases by 1. You have proficiency in two skills among Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion.
  
  Taken twice: You gain expertise with the chosen skills, which means your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make with it.

• Ku/Ko/Ca: Your Charisma score increases by 1. When you use the Help action to grant advantage in combat, the friendly target can be up to 30 ft from you.
  
  Taken twice: You can use the Help action as a bonus action on your turn.

• Ha/Hi: Your Intelligence score increases by 1. You have proficiency in one skill and one tool of your choice.
  
  Taken twice: You gain expertise with the chosen skill and tool, which means your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make with them.

• Pa/Fa: Your Constitution score increases by 1. You gain proficiency in shields.
  
  Taken twice: When a creature you can see attacks a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll. You must be wielding a shield, or be able to cast the shield spell.

• Me/Mi: Your Charisma score increases by 1. You have advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) checks.
  
  Taken twice: When you take the Ready action, you can make another friendly creature perform it, instead of you. When the trigger occurs, you can take your reaction to make the designated creature perform the chosen action.

As you can see, most of the abilities are borrowed from other races, or sometimes classes, with the exception of the last one which is basically a reinvention of the Warlord, from my beloved 4e D&D.

The rest of the racial entry is much more simple, as you can see below.

Ixalan Merfolk

Ixalan Merfolk have varying abilities that come from the spirits evoked through their names.

Syllables: You can compose your name out of three syllables, with the possibility of repeating one of them. You gain the bonuses associated to the chosen syllables. You can't choose a combination that would increase by 3 an ability score.

Age: Merfolk reach maturity early, around 10 years of age, but can live up to 200 years.

Size. Mefolk are slightly shorter than humans, averaging about 5 feet tall. Your size is Medium.

Alignment: Although depending on their names and therefore on their place in society merfolk can tend towards chaotic or lawful, most of them favor neutrality when it comes to choose between good and evil, with the exception of protectors and tyrants, which respectively tend towards good and evil.

Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 ft and you have a swimming speed of 30 ft.

Amphibious: You can breathe air and water.

And that's it! I hope you have fun making up your own crazy merfolk as much as I do!