Variant Social Rules

Here are a couple of variant rules for social interactions. Their goal is to spread around who gets to be the party face, both by lowering the incentive for the character with the highest Cha to make every social roll, and by occasionally forcing other characters into the front seat.

Languages

One thing that struck me when watching The Bad Sequel is that:

• whenever there's an alien language, one of the protags can pretty much always speak it and translate for the others
• unless C-3PO is around, the translating protagonist is more-or-less randomly chosen

And I like this. It's simple and quick. It's no longer "everyone but the bard can safely dump Cha", since you never know when you'll be called upon to handle negotiations.

So here's a variant language rule:

All PCs, being widely-travelled oddball sorts, are multilingual, but language proficiencies aren't determined at character creation. Don't write down any proficiencies you might have from race, class, background or a high Int score.

When a character tries to understand or communicate with an NPC who isn't speaking Common, the GM decides the following:

• Is the NPC even capable of language? One GM might rule that a reanimated skeleton understands language, another might rule a skeleton magically follows its creator's commands but otherwise doesn't understand language. This is fine.
• Do outsiders share the NPC's language, or are they so culturally insular or isolated that this isn't possible? Obviously, secret languages like Druidic fall under this category too.

If the answer to both questions is yes, then the GM selects a single PC at random. Optionally, hirelings and the like can be included in this random selection process. This can be done with a bag of tokens, rolling a die and counting clockwise, whatever. I like the bag of tokens.

That PC can speak the language, perhaps not fluently, but enough to hold/follow a simple conversation.

Persuasion

There are no skills like Persuade, Intimidate, Diplomacy, etc.

You might decide to leave a Sense Motive/Insight skill in place. I would limit its uses to learning an NPC's emotional state, one of their ideals or bonds, or, in combat, judging what their immediate intent might be.

The player roleplays their character's pitch, then someone rolls 1d6 to determine the outcome. On a modified 5 or greater, they succeed.

The GM might raise or lower the difficulty. A Peaceful Villager might only need 3, a Haughty Archmage might need 7. Or the GM might apply the Powerful Enemies rule instead. This is meant to be simple though -- don't overcomplicate things trying to capture every nuance.

Modifiers to the roll:

• +1 if you have a relevant background
• +1 for a good social stat, e.g. 13+ in Cha. No further bonuses.
• +1 if you offer something of value*
• +1 if you appeal to one of the NPC's ideals, bonds, factional alignment etc.
• +1 if you act your heart out (can be hammy, doesn't have to be "good")
• -1 to 3 for demands that put the NPC at risk. -1 is "risk a parking ticket", -2 is "risk divorce", -3 is "be your torchbearer in the dungeon"

*Obviously the thing you offer needs to have value somewhere in the same ballpark as the request -- this is left to GM fiat.

Options

Use a Powerful Enemies rule if you like -- if the NPC has more hit dice than the PC, the difference is added to the difficulty of the roll. The reverse doesn't apply -- a 15th level fighter doesn't magically make every turnip farmer bend to their will. For 5e, use the difference in CR instead of difference in Hit Dice.

Certain NPCs may be immune to swaying the odds in particular ways, or may be more susceptible. Maybe a Magpiefolk gives you +2 to the roll if you offer a shiny geegaw of value, while a Angel gives you -1 to the roll instead, righteously furious that you would dare offer a bribe.

You can simulate regional language groups, loanwords, pidgins etc by putting an extra token in the bag when choosing who knows the language. This token represents whichever character, based on the GM's judgement, is most likely to know a language. e.g. the token represents the party dwarf when adventuring underground, the elf when adventuring in forests, and within the cosmopolitan City States of Arthea, the PC with "Background: Merchant". This isn't really a mechanical benefit, as any increase in one character's odds of knowing a language come at the expense of everyone else's odds. That is, don't make this a feat or anything.

I've presented this as a d6 roll-over, but feel free to reskin it to d6-roll-under, or modify this into a PbtA move or something. You could also multiply all the modifiers by 3 and use d20 roll-over, or use SotDL's boons & banes mechanic, whatever takes your fancy

Rationale

Yes, this means the polar Snow Elves and the Aquatic Elves of the tropical coral atolls probably don't speak the same "Elven" language. This is intentional.

I don't like how much weight 3e/4e/5e, or The Black Hack's d20 roll-under Cha, gives to possessing a high social stat. e.g. low-level 5e has a difference of about +5 (or +7 with Expertise) on d20, between a trained character with 16 Cha, and an untrained character with 10 Cha. All other factors (bribes, appealing to the NPC's beliefs, good roleplaying, etc) are typically handled with advantage/disadvantage, which doesn't stack.

This just gets worse as characters level up -- their proficiency bonuses increase, they may even find magic items that raise Cha beyond 20. For 3e D&D (faster scaling, stats don't cap at 20, magic skill bonuses are commonplace) the math is even worse, though Rich Burlew did write a nice, if crunchy, replacement Diplomacy rule a looong time ago).

So I want to reward clever manipulation and willingness to perform, but also allow a bit of room for characters being better at social stuff than their players, and not have the outcome be entirely DM fiat. Having a die result to point to, with really simple modifiers that are all worth the same 17% of the die spread, hopefully strikes the right balance for me.

Offering something of value is only ever worth +1. Why? Consider the following two examples:

• A stranger in the street offers me $10 to do some errand. Sure, I'll probably do it. If he offers me $10,000 for the same errand, he's probably a scammer.
• You're medieval nobility. A representative of the Pope says if you go on crusade, you'll be absolved of your sins (and oh, how you've sinned). This is theoretically a reward of infinite value, the difference between paradise and eternal suffering, yet not every nobleman went and did a Richard I. Humans are not rational appraisers.

Jellymanders (BX and 5e monster)

Another monster suggested to me by @mountain_foot! This one was a bit of a struggle to write. My major mistake was to put together a list of oozes spanning several editions and try to cove them accurately. There's a lot of oozes with samey abilities out there! I think it's better pared back to six entries, though I might write some fanciful entries that are more exciting than brown, dun and white puddings.

Jellymanders

These slimy amphibians live in cloud forests. Like many amphibians, they were vulnerable to fungal infections, until a freak mutation gave them the ability to absorb plant and fungus cells and embed them in layers of mucus.

Like other newts and salamanders, they can regrow lost limbs and other extremities. For this reason, as well as their talent for kleptoplasty, they are prized research subjects for vivimancers. They also make excellent animal companions for adventurer-types who must often face oozes in dank dungeons.

The following stats are OGL-compatible. As usual, I'm happy for anyone to use them in a product with attribution. Let me know if you need the appropriate legalese.

B/X Stats

Jellymander

Armour Class 7 [12]
Hit Dice 2+2* (11hp)
Attack 1 × bite (1d4+1)
To-Hit 17 [+2]
Move 90’ (30’)
Save Unified 14, D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (F1)
Morale 6
AL Neutral
XP 35
NA 1d4 (1d4)
TT None

• Breath weapon: Once per day, a jellymander can cough up a spray of phlegm with the properties of any fungus it has absorbed via its kleptoplasty ability. See the Special Fungal Ability table below.
• Kleptoplasty: Jellymanders are immune to the corrosive and/or poisonous attacks of oozes, slimes, and similar creatures. Whenever they bite such creatures, they can assimilate tissue and gain special abilities. The XP entry above assumes the jellymander has one such ability; award extra XP for defeated jellymanders with additional powers (see "Experience Points", BX Essentials: Core Rules, p14)
• Nauseating stench: A jellymander has a 2-in-6 chance of having fungal strains that produce a strong odour: creatures must save vs poison or suffer -2 to hit while in melee with jellymanders. Humans can notice the odour from 120 ft away; only stenchless jellymanders are capable of surprise. Roll on the Stench Table below to determine odour.
• Swallow whole: An attack roll of 20 indicates a small victim is swallowed. Inside the jellymander's belly: suffer 1d6 damage per round (until the jellymander dies); may attack with sharp weapons at -4 to hit; body digested in 6 turns after death.
• Water-dependent: Jellymanders sicken after 1d3 days in dry air, and die 1d3 days after that.

Variant: Giant Jellymander

Armour Class 7 [12]
Hit Dice 6+6* (33hp)
Attack 1 × bite (1d8+1)
To-Hit 13 [+6]
Move 90’ (30’)
Save Unified 11, D10 W11 P12 B13 S14 (F4)
Morale 6
Alignment Neutral
XP 750
Number Appearing 1d4 (1d4)
Treasure Type None

Special abilities as above, except the giant jellymander can swallow creatures up to the size of a bugbear.

5e Stats

Jellymander

Medium beast, unaligned

Armour Class 11
Hit Points 22 (4d8+4)
Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
12 (+1)	13 (+1)	13 (+0)	2 (−4)	10 (+0)	3 (−4)

Senses darkvision 30 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages —
Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)

Kleptoplasty. Jellymanders are immune to the corrosive and/or poisonous attacks of oozes, slimes, and similar creatures. Whenever they bite such creatures, they can assimilate tissue and gain special abilities.

Nauseating Stench. A jellymander has a 2-in-6 chance of having fungal strains that produce a strong odour. Any creature other than another jellymander who starts their turn within 10 ft of the jellymander must make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw. Failure means the creature is poisonedA poisoned creature has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. until the start of their next turn. Success renders the creature immune to the stench of jellymanders for 1 hour. Humans can notice the odour from 120 ft away. Roll on the Stench Table below to determine odour.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) piercing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 11). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained • A restrained creature's speed becomes 0, and it can't benefit from any bonus to its speed.
• Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature's attack rolls have disadvantage.
• The creature has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws. , and the jellymander can't bite another target.

Swallow. The jellymander makes one bite attack against a Small or smaller target it is grappling. If the attack hits, the target is swallowed, and the grapple ends. The swallowed target is blinded • A blinded creature can't see and automatically fails any ability check that requires sight.
• Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature's attack rolls have disadvantage. and restrained • A restrained creature's speed becomes 0, and it can't benefit from any bonus to its speed.
• Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature's attack rolls have disadvantage.
• The creature has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws. , it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the jellymander, and it takes 5 (2d4) acid damage at the start of each of the jellymander's turns. The jellymander can have only one target swallowed at a time. If the jellymander dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse using 5 feet of movement, exiting prone • A prone creature's only movement option is to crawl, unless it stands up and thereby ends the condition.
• The creature has disadvantage on attack rolls.
• An attack roll against the creature has advantage if the attacker is within 5 feet of the creature. Otherwise, the attack roll has disadvantage. .

Breath Weapon (Recharge 5–6). The jellymander can breathe a 15 ft. cone of phlegm. The effect of the breath weapon is determined by the Fungal Ability table, below.

Giant Jellymander

Large beast, unaligned

Armor Class 11
Hit Points 39 (6d10 + 6)
Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
15 (+2)	13 (+1)	13 (+1)	2 (−4)	10 (+0)	3 (−4)

Senses darkvision 30 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages —
Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Kleptoplasty. Jellymanders are immune to the corrosive and/or poisonous attacks of oozes, slimes, and similar creatures. Whenever they bite such creatures, they can assimilate tissue and gain special abilities.

Nauseating Stench. A jellymander has a 2-in-6 chance of having fungal strains that produce a strong odour. Any creature other than another jellymander who starts their turn within 10 ft of the jellymander must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. Failure means the creature is poisonedA poisoned creature has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. until the start of their next turn. Success renders the creature immune to the stench of jellymanders for 1 hour. Humans can notice the odour from 120 ft away. Roll on the Stench Table below to determine odour.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d10 + 2) piercing damage plus 5 (1d10) poison damage, and the target is grappled • A grappled creature's speed becomes 0, and it can't benefit from any bonus to its speed.
• The condition ends if the grappler is incapacitated (see the condition).
• The condition also ends if an effect removes the grappled creature from the reach of the grappler or grappling effect, such as when a creature is hurled away by the thunderwave spell. (escape DC 13). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained • A restrained creature's speed becomes 0, and it can't benefit from any bonus to its speed.
• Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature's attack rolls have disadvantage.
• The creature has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws. , and the jellymander can't bite another target.

Swallow. The jellymander makes one bite attack against a Medium or smaller target it is grappling. If the attack hits, the target is swallowed, and the grapple ends. The swallowed target is blinded • A blinded creature can't see and automatically fails any ability check that requires sight.
• Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature's attack rolls have disadvantage. and restrained • A restrained creature's speed becomes 0, and it can't benefit from any bonus to its speed.
• Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature's attack rolls have disadvantage.
• The creature has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws. , it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the jellymander, and it takes 10 (3d6) acid damage at the start of each of the jellymander's turns. The jellymander can have only one target swallowed at a time. If the jellymander dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse using 5 feet of movement, exiting prone • A prone creature's only movement option is to crawl, unless it stands up and thereby ends the condition.
• The creature has disadvantage on attack rolls.
• An attack roll against the creature has advantage if the attacker is within 5 feet of the creature. Otherwise, the attack roll has disadvantage. .

Breath Weapon (Recharge 5–6). The jellymander can breathe a 15 ft. cone of phlegm. The effect of the breath weapon is determined by the Fungal Ability table, below.

Stench Table

d20	Odour	d20	Odour
1	acetone	11	hot plastic
2	baby powder	12	lemon
3	barnyard smell	13	liquorice
4	bubblegum	14	peaches
5	burning tyre	15	smegma
6	cinnamon	16	soap
7	corpse	17	strawberries
8	dirty sock	18	sweat
9	fresh bread	19	tobacco
10	garlic	20	vinegar

Fungal Ability Table

d6	Organism	Skin Properties	Breath Weapon
⚀	Black Pudding	Can climb sheer walls and ceilings. deform flesh and bone to slowly pass through openings. Has resistance (half-damage) to any non-fire attack. Non-fire attacks also have a 1-in-6 chance of causing binary fission, creating two smaller jellymanders. Divide remaining hp evenly. Giant jellymanders become regular ones, regular ones become smaller, harmless ones.	Paralyses for 2d4 × 10 minutes. A save vs paralysis or DC 11 Constitution saving throw negates this.
⚁	Gelatinous Cube	Transparent skin and muscle, showing organs and bone within. Immune to cold and lightning damage.	Paralyses for 2d4 × 10 minutes. A save vs paralysis or DC 11 Constitution saving throw negates this.
⚂	Green Slime	Can climb sheer walls and ceilings. Immune to all damage except cold and fire.	Acidic slime that destroys wood or metal in 6 rounds. Once in contact with flesh, slime catalyses its conversion into more green slime over 1d4 + 6 rounds. Only fire can halt this process, dealing half damage to the slime and half damage to the patient. The slime must be dealt damage equal to half the jellymander's maximum hit points to be eradicated.
⚃	Grey Ooze	Visually indistinguishable from wet stone. When still, characters have a 1-in-6 chance or must succeed on a DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation) check to spot small movements/life signs. Odour may also betray presence. Objects will adhere to skin, requiring a cumulative Strength score of 20 to pull free (e.g. a Str 8 halfling and a Str 13 fighter could cooperate). Immune to cold and fire damage.	Acidic, sticky phlegm that deals 2d8 damage per round until removed. Destroys nonmagic metal (including armor) in 1 round. Enchanted metal is destroyed in 10 minutes. Phlegm can be scraped off (residue will inflict one more round of damage), neutralised with chalk, lye or some other base, or washed off with strong alcohol.
⚄	Ochre Jelly	Resistance to all damage except cold or fire. Objects will adhere to skin, requiring a cumulative Strength score of 20 to pull free (e.g. a Str 8 halfling and a Str 13 fighter could cooperate). Dissolves cloth, leather or wood in one round, magical in 10 minutes. Can deform flesh and bone to slowly pass through small openings. Lightning and weapon attacks have a 1-in-6 chance of causing binary fission, creating two smaller jellymanders. Divide remaining hp evenly. Giant jellymanders become regular ones, regular ones become smaller, harmless ones.	Acidic, sticky phlegm that deals 2d6 damage per round until removed. Destroys nonmagic leather, cloth or wood (including armor) in 1 round. Enchanted materials are destroyed in 10 minutes. Phlegm can be scraped off (residue will inflict one more round of damage), neutralised with chalk, lye or some other base, or washed off with strong alcohol.
⚅	Yellow Mould	When struck with enough force to cause injury, the jellymander releases a spore cloud to a radius of 10 ft, that is poisonous if inhaled. B/X effect: Save vs death or die in 10 minutes. 5e effect: A creature subjected to this poison must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or take 3d6 poison damage, and must repeat the saving throw at the start of each of its turns. On each successive failed save, the character takes 1d6 poison damage. After three successful saves, the poison ends.	A mist that instantly corrodes wood, leather, cloth and bone. Living tissue is mysteriously immune.

Review of Marsie Vellan's Artificer class

This is a review of a playtest Artificer class (not the official one) for 5e D&D.You can get it here, PWYW.

tl;dr:

Marsie's take on Artificer is less complicated, more open-ended and encouraging of shenanigans-based play than the current Unearthed Arcana playtest Artificer. If artificers in 5e are at all interesting to you, get thus, pay her a nonzero amount, encourage further development. This is a class I would happily allow in my game, and ask 5e DMs if I could play. I also want to start porting it to B/X.

Full Review

So I've found the Unearthed Arcana iterations of the Artificer pretty underwhelming. Here's why:

• Long-winded class features
• Asking players to keep track of a separate spell and infusion list.
• A short list of "replicable magic items" that looks like it's meant to synch up with what you can buy in downtime in Adventurer's League play.
• There's a nice bit of advice about describing your spells as magic items you make (e.g. a tiny mechanical spider that sutures wounds) but this doesn't following the logic of "well can another creature use this item then?". If I'm just refluffing spells, I might as well just play a wizard??

Basically, its class mechanics are designed to lock down any sort of shenanigans-based play, which is the entire point of being an artificer IMO. Marsie apparently agrees with me, because this class encourages the sort of play I relish. Let's unpack it.

You start off with Ardent Crafting, which lets you make items efficiently. You can make one common magic item, two pieces of nonmagical gear, plus one "signature item" which can either be nonmagic (max 25gp value) or from a short list of consumable magic items (e.g. potion of healing). You can make your signature item 1/day for free, but you have to spend gold for the others. You halve the GP requirement, but the time requirement seems to be unspecified. I would say a short rest.

Note your other known magic item can be any common magic item. This automatically makes this class far more interesting than the WotC offering. I'm already dreaming up an artificer who makes pots of awakening, and has a little family of shrubs tending to tasks in a safe haven :3

Importantly, these items only last until your next long rest before degrading. So you could make a tidy profit of at least 25gp per day as a town healer, but you can't stockpile potions this way, unless you take the Alchemist subclass at 3rd level. Otherwise, if you want to make permanent items, you need to spend weeks on it like anyone else.

(so I'll have to check with my DM about that pot of awakening. Maybe my artificer is heavily caffeinated and only benefits from a long rest every month or so)

The instructions for making these items are called "schema", and are kept in your "codex", which is also your spellbook. You can reverse-engineer magic items you possess to write more schema into your spellbook, or find schema as loot just as a wizard might find scrolls or spellbooks. At higher levels, you can learn schema for rarer categories of item.

As a side note, even though Ardent Crafting items degrade, a profit of at least 25gp per day, funneled into making a stockpile of permanent magic items, is nothing to sniff at. DMs, keep this in mind. You can enforce encumbrance rules, make up a threat that creates time pressure, or use common sense about how much money a village can afford to spend on healing potions.

At 2nd level you get spells. Paladin spell slot progression, you learn and prepare spells the same way a wizard does. You can also infuse your spells into objects, making them into one-use magic items. You can give these items to other people, and since they're based on your spells, not some bespoke list of combat-focused "+1 sword", "+1 armor" infusions, you can therefore give your allies neat utility effects.

Like the WotC class, you have to infuse items at the end of a long rest. At 5th level, you can infuse items after a short rest, making you more adaptive to problems encountered during the adventuring day.

The subclasses are Alchemist, Homonculist, and Saboteur.

Alchemist removes the "your items degrade" restriction with Ardent Crafting, as long as it's a consumable item like a potion. You can also convert crafting materials into gold (I assume at 3rd level this means "stable trade goods that are as fungible as gold", not a literal transmutation to gold), and administer potons as a bonus action. See above advice regarding encumbrance and time constraints.

Homonculist is a pet class. Unlike the silly, videogame-like "I summon a turret" subclass of the WotC version, you have to actually figure out how to bring your construct into the dungeon, royal ball, or suspicious village. The customisation options for the construct are interesting without being overwhelming. Note you have to spend your action to command the construct to attack.

Saboteur lets you activate your infused items from up to 60 ft away, and gives you proficiency with thieves' tools. It also gives you advantage at checking for traps, which makes me uncomfortable. Advantage is generally stronger than Expertise, and I don't think any class should be better than Rogue at finding traps. That minor complaint aside, this is my favourite subclass. Simple effects that open up even more shenanigans-based play.

Finally, the spell list. The differences I found notable, compared to the WotC artificer, are:

Lacks:
1st: sanctuary
2nd: alter self, enlarge/reduce, lesser restoration, rope trick
3rd: blink, fly, gaseous form, haste, revivify
4th: stoneskin
5th: greater restoration

Has:
various Xanathar's spells (the WotC class is PHB-only), and some low-level damaging spells (the WotC class requires you to go Artillerist to get magic missile or thunderwave)
1st: feather fall, fog cloud, silent image, snare, Tenser's floating disc
2nd: find traps, knock, Nystul's magic aura, shatter, web
3rd: counterspell, Leomund's tiny hut, magic circle, nondetection, sending, tongues
4th: dimension door, hallucinatory terrain, locate creature
5th: awaken, passwall, scrying, teleportation circle, transmute rock to mud

I don't have strong opinions on which list is better. As a DM I'd be fine combining them to be honest The artificer is so limited in spells/day compared to a full caster that a broad spell list isn't going to make them unbalanced.

Final Thoughts:

This class is in playtest, so some vague wording is to be expected. I would like to see some work on the text to make it more easily understandable. e.g. I had to read over Ardent Crafting a few times to understand what it does, partly because an important aspect of it is in the next class feature. I'd also like to see a curated table of common magic items that are suitable as a starting schema. Apart from that, I have no real complaints. This is a great class, buy it.

Selkie Spells and Warlock Options

Four selkie spells and some warlock options (a pact and six invocations) that I've been working on. The spells and most of the invocations are techniques selkies developed, often to solve various practical problems, but are not necessarily selkie-only. The Pact of the Skin and the two invocations which have it as a prerequisite do require the warlock to either be a selkie, or possess the sealskin of one. See the Pact of the Skin below for details.

Spells

Give these to any class you want. None of them are combat spells, and all of them are well within the “balance” guidelines for what those classes should be able to do.

Crown of Perfect Recall

2nd-level transmutation

Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 day

You destroy a single written work, converting the text into a halo of glowing blue words orbiting your head. You have disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks while the halo is in effect.

This spell can be used on spellbooks and scrolls. At the referee's discretion, there is a chance of mishap.

By taking 10 minutes, you can regurgitate the words onto blank material, after which the spell ends. If there is insufficient material, roll on the following table to determine what happens.

If the spell ends or is dispelled before any regurgitation, the words are lost forever.

1d6	Consequence
1	Text squished, requires a microscope to read.
2	Text cuts off once material runs out, remainder is lost forever.
3	Text overflows onto the closest blank materials.
4	Text permanently etches itself onto your skin.
5	Target material somehow contains all the text without changing size, by some non-euclidean packing of its surface area.
6	Text rejects the target material and spills onto the ground as a lego-like mess of tiny glowing words. They gain sapience and start a society. Their society is structured along linguistic principles, and they wield punctuation marks as tiny tools and weapons. They hate you for dispossessing them of their home.

Knitted Servant

2nd-level transmutation

Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (yarn and combustible salts worth 50 gp, which the spell consumes)
Duration: Permanent

You create a knitted servant. At a certain time each day, chosen when you cast the spell, the servant will animate and perform a programmed task. This can be any simple task that a human servant could do, such as fetching objects that match a given description, cleaning, mending, folding clothes, lighting fires, serving food, and pouring wine.

The servant cannot be given additional orders unless it is reprogrammed. Reprogramming a servant requires unraveling it and recasting the spell, though this doesn't require the expenditure of additional material components.

The servant has AC 10, 1 hit point, and a Strength of 2, and it can't attack. If it drops to 0 hit points, the spell ends.

If tasks cause two or more knitted servants to come within 10 ft of each other, their magic weaves tangle and corrupt each other’s programs. Roll on the table below to determine the form this corruption takes.

1d6	Consequence
1	Complete unraveling, both servants cease to function.
2	Servants swap nouns, e.g. a pair of servants programmed to "sweep the floor" and "fetch firewood" become "sweep firewood" and "fetch the floor"
3	One servant (chosen randomly) overwrites the others' programming with its own.
4	Time derailment. One servant (chosen randomly) now performs its task seven times a day, the other only once a week.
5	Both servants revert to an inert state, listening for new orders. They will interpret and follow, literally, the first imperative statement they overhear from any creature
6	Servants fall in a mechanistic simulation of love and elope. They travel 6 miles each day in a random direction, but continue performing their programmed tasks each day at the appropriate time, if possible.

Magewind

2nd-level evocation (ritual)

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self (100 ft sphere)
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 hour

You change the current wind speed and direction. You can change wind speed one stage up or down on the following scale. The effect persists in a 100 ft radius sphere around you.

The spell ends prematurely if you no longer have a clear path to the sky. After the spell ends, the wind returns to normal.

Stage	Wind Speed
1	Calm
2	Moderate
3	Strong
4	Gale
5	Storm

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd or higher level, the radius affected increases by 100ft for each slot level above 2nd.

For every two slot levels above 2nd, you can change the wind speed by an additional stage.

For example, if you cast this spell with a 6th level slot and the weather is currently calm, a radius of 500 ft is affected, and you can change the wind speed to anywhere from calm to a gale, as well as changing its direction.

Seafoam Clothes

1st-level transmutation (ritual)

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self (100 ft sphere)
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 hour

You fashion seawater into clothing on your body, of any appearance you wish. If iron (but not steel) touches the clothing, make a concentration saving throw (DC 15) or the clothing reverts to seawater.

Selkie Warlocks

The unbreakable bond between a selkie and their sealskin holds a mysterious power. Though most selkies are loath to tamper with such an integral part of their identity, those looking for quick power will find many otherworldly patrons eager to dig their claws in, all in the name of collaboration, of course.

Pact of the Skin

Your patron has taught you to exploit the magical bond between you and your sealskin. Choose a number of warlock spells you know equal to your proficiency bonus. You can cast those spells while in seal form.

Whenever your proficiency bonus increases, you add another spell to the list. Whenever you gain a warlock level, you can choose one spell on this list and replace it with another warlock spell you know.

This pact is exclusive to selkies. However, a warlock who acquires a selkie’s pelt can learn invocations that have this pact as a prerequisite. In this case, the invocations only function while the warlock has the sealskin on their person. The selkie must be alive, but does not have to be a warlock themselves.

Even after death, the pelts of selkie warlocks with this pact carry traces of the magic the warlock knows. These spells may be successfully discerned (and transcribed into a spellbook, if wizard) with an Intelligence (Arcana) check with a DC equal to the warlock's spell save DC.

Warlock Invocations

Fey crossing

You can expend a spell slot to sense the direction towards the nearest gateway to the realm of Faerie. An active fey crossing is detectable from 12 miles away, while a dormant one is detectable from 6 miles away.

Additionally, you have a strong intuitive sense of the means by which one can open such a crossing. When you touch a fey crossing, you automatically receive a clue from the referee without the need for an ability check. This can take the form of a short phrase, cryptic rhyme, or riddle.

Fog Sight

You can see through fog (including clouds, haze, or steam) unimpeded to a distance of 120 ft. and through heavy fog beyond that distance as though it were only light fog.

At the referee's discretion, this also applies to clouds of ice (such as cirrus clouds), of other chemicals such as those exuded by certain trees, or to dust clouds.

Lore of Shifting

Prerequisites: 5th level, Pact of the Skin

You learn the alter self spell. It counts as a warlock spell for you, but does not count against the number of warlock spells you know.

When you cast alter self, its range is Touch instead of Self. Regardless of target, you choose the form taken, and can change it with an action, but an unwilling creature can resist the spell with a Wisdom saving throw.

Additionally, when you cast alter self, it has the following form option and “At Higher Levels” text:

Flight Adaptation. The creature’s weight halves, and its arms change into wings. They can be the wings of a bird, bat, or any other animal. The creature gains a fly speed equal to its walking speed, but cannot hold or wear items on its wings (rings, gloves, etc. are forced off by the transformation), nor can it use them to perform somatic components of spells.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 2nd. The same form must be chosen for each target, and when you use your action to change the chosen form, all affected targets change form together.

Skin Puppet

Prerequisites: 5th level, Pact of the Skin

You learn the animate dead spell. It counts as a warlock spell for you, but does not count against the number of warlock spells you know.

When you cast animate dead, you can target an unattended skin or hide. This includes suits of leather, studded leather, or hide armor. It also includes a selkie’s sealskin, even if that selkie is still alive.

Some special cases follow:

• If you are a selkie and animate your own sealskin, you can use your action to dismiss the spell.
• Animated hides use the stats for animated objects (reproduced below), except they are undead, and can squeeze through spaces two size categories smaller than them.
• Animating skin that is still attached to a corpse merely produces a zombie.

Animated Object Statistics

Size	HP	AC	Str	Dex	Attack
Tiny	20	18	4	18	+8 to hit, 1d4 + 4 damage
Small	25	16	6	14	+6 to hit, 1d8 + 2 damage
Medium	40	13	10	12	+5 to hit, 2d6 + 1 damage
Large	50	10	14	10	+6 to hit, 2d10 + 2 damage
Huge	80	10	18	8	+8 to hit, 2d12 + 4 damage

Weather Augur

You learn the augury spell. It counts as a warlock spell for you, but does not count against the number of warlock spells you know.

If you are outdoors and clouds are visible, you can cast augury without the normal material components.

Weatherworker

You learn the druidcraft cantrip.

You add the following spells to your warlock class spell list, though not to your spells known; you must still select them normally:

1st: create or destroy water, fog cloud
2nd: magewind¹, gust of wind
3rd: call lightning, sleet storm
4th: control water, ice storm
5th: commune with nature, conjure elemental²
8th: control weather
9th: storm of vengeance
¹ new spell, see above
² air or water elemental only.

Eight Magic Items for Selkies

I'm a bit of a selkie tragic, it's true. I have a lot of stuff written for them -- see the selkie tag, but it's a matter of getting it into a form that's presentable, intelligible, and ultimately, gameable. That's going to take a while. For now, here's some magic items a selkie might make or possess.

Some of these are items created to solve problems selkies have, such as securing their sealskin from theft, or having a weapon once one resumes human form. Others are included for the aesthetic.

If you like these, check out my dungeon. It has four more magic items, plus a few thousand words of other weird stuff for your players to find. Or you could buy me a ko-fi?

Bad Penny

Wondrous Item, Uncommon

This silver piece is obviously clipped and the lustre looks off, like the metal's been debased.

There is a 2-in-6 chance an NPC will refuse it unless it’s hidden in a large transaction.

The penny bears a subtle charm of teleportation. Regardless of whether it's discarded, given away, or used in payment, it will always return to your person after a certain amount of time. Roll a d4 to determine units of time (seconds, minutes, hours, days). The penny takes 1d6 × that time unit to return to you.

Cobble of Conversion

Wondrous Item, Rare

This flat beach cobble has a hole in it that looks naturally worn. It is astonishingly heavy.

Pouring seawater through the hole turns it to freshwater, and vice versa. The rock stores extracted salt within its mineral matrix, and will stop converting freshwater if it runs out. When found, it holds d100 pounds of salt. Seawater has roughly 3 pounds of salt per 10 gallons.

If the stored salt exceeds 255 pounds, the rock explodes in a spray of rock shards and salt. The explosion deals 10d6 piercing damage to all creatures in a 30-foot-radius sphere. A creature takes half damage if they succeed on a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw.

Driftwood Club

Weapon (club or staff), Uncommon (requires attunement)

This looks like a piece of driftwood.

You use a d8 damage die when attacking with this weapon.

You can will it to follow you when you swim. It does so in a way that appears natural, following water currents where possible. When you leave the water it will wash up some time later and distance away, though always within 100 ft and 10 minutes.

An observer can tell the movement is unnatural with an Intelligence (Investigation) check made with disadvantage, versus your spell save DC, or DC 10 if you are not a spellcaster.

Glamered Lockbox

Wondrous Item, Rare

A mossy boulder. You can hear a faint echo of childish laughter

This weatherproof lockbox requires no key, it instead has a combination lock of great cunning (DC 20 to pick or bypass).

It is glamered to look like a rock, like many such fairy charms this can be dispelled with a channel divinity attempt in addition to the usual dispel magic.

Sand Dollar Skeleton

Wondrous Item, Uncommon

A five-lobed hand-sized disc of chalk, bleached white.

This sea urchin skeleton, or test, can conjure a huge spectral sand dollar once per lunar month. This functions as the floating disc spell, except you can direct the disc to move anywhere within range (i.e. it doesn't have to follow you). The conjured sand dollar lasts until the next sunrise.

If you snap the test in half, you instead conjure twelve spectral sand dollars.

Seaglass Ring

Wondrous Item, Rare

A chunky ring of green, pitted seaglass. If immersed in water, its colour drains away.

The wearer of this ring is invisible while fully underwater. However, their body and any worn or held items become as fragile as glass.

• All worn armour is ignored, and their AC becomes 10 + their Dex modifier.
• Spells such as shatter affect them accordingly.
• If they suffer physical chips and breaks, these remain when the ring is removed.
• If reduced to 0 hp, they shatter and die without making death saving throws.

Secret Seashell

Wondrous Item, Uncommon

A spiraling seashell, pearlescent lavender, that tapers to an imperceptibly thin point.

If the owner of this seashell brings it to a place on the ocean or shore, they can perform a 10 minute ritual where they bind the seashell to that location.

After that, as long as they’re on the same plane, they can listen to the seashell’s hole and hear the ambient noise at that location. Performing the ritual again at a different location causes the shell to forget its original binding.

This is divination magic that can be blocked by measures such as nondetection or private sanctum.

Starskin Weapon

Weapon or Wondrous Item (any metal), Rare

This velvet-black weapon is decorated with dim motes of light reminiscent of stars. As you shift it, the motes slide across its surface.

Pilgrims from the firmament once visited our world, offering exotic materials harvested from their celestial home for the right to visit sites they considered sacred.

These weapons are a recent invention, born of experimentation with the now-dwindling, much-coveted supply of firmament. Dissolving firmament in aqua regia, then bonding it to a steel surface, produces a material which always shows an accurate starry sky among other useful properties. Every navigator who has resorted to dead reckoning on an overcast open sea dreams of finding one of these rumoured marvels.

While any steel object can be treated this way, daggers and shortswords are most common.

A starskin weapon has the following properties:

• It will not rust.
• It is a magic weapon that deals radiant damage instead of its normal damage type.
• It always show the stars as though its surface was a mirror that only reflects their light, and did so regardless of intervening obstacles. This allows navigation by the stars, but any ability checks to do so are made at disadvantage, owing to the limited field of view.
• The stars illuminate with dim light out to 5 ft, but are of course visible from much further away.

Review of "Books & Libraries", a DMs Guild supplement

sometimes it's correct to judge a book by its cover :-)

Books & Libraries is a 40-page supplement written by RPGPapercrafts, available on the DM's Guild. It's written for 5e D&D, but relatively low on system-specific stats and mechanics. It also assumes a game set in the Forgotten Realms.

Disclosure: unlike my previous reviews of stuff I happened to buy, this one was solicited, and I received a free review copy.

Art Impressions

I love this art style. Watercolour-and-pen illustrations, and a variety of watercolour wash backgrounds replacing the typical faux-parchment background. It gives the otherwise stock DM's Guild &/or Homebrewery layout a breath of fresh air.

Book Categories

There's a page of tables for generating a book's appearance and condition. There are some liberties taken here with book terminology, i.e. a "codex" here really refers to the category of magical book described on page 21, not the medieval innovation (replacing the scroll) of binding separate sheets to a spine, i.e. what we think of as a "book" these days. But for generating a "codex bound in dyed leather, ancient and falling apart, written in Deep Speech" it functions fine.

The random table for book contents is weighted towards the magical ones. Great for generating the stash of books on a wizard's shelf, not so good for a public library.

Lore

A catchall for all the non-magical books. A d100 table of Fairytale names and subjects, another d100 table of Compendia (i.e. nonfiction) names and subjects. For books of Verse, a d8 table of music type, and some sample lyrics for five songs. The Compendia and lyrics are heavily tied to the Realms, if using for another setting I'd print it out and rewrite names & topics before play.

Overall, these tables are vanilla D&D fantasy. This isn't at all meant as a slight -- I quite like having tools for running a world of familiar fantasy tropes to then contrast against the "not in Kansas anymore" high weirdness of many dungeons.

The risk is that the tables end up saying nothing you couldn't have come up with on the spot. Here though, I think the author succeeds. I've run adventures where players have looted a wizard's shelf of (nonmagical) books, only had a super-terse table of broad subject matters on hand, and had to tell them "OK I'll come back next week with their names and topics".

Skill Guides

Has a solid mechanic for rewarding regular study with minor bonuses to individual skill rolls. I personally like the lack of granularity in 5e's skill system and don't miss the days of minor +1 bonuses to various rolls, but if my players wanted their characters to learn and grow through finding an in-universe manual these rules will work just fine.

Religious Works

Has a lovely little mechanic for when a character studies religious prophecies. Basically it's an Intelligence (Religion) check over the course of a day, with different levels of success. But each level of success is tied to something concrete, like "reveals an important name", or "foretells next move of an important figure", or "several doctrines speak of a foe's vulnerability". This gives a lot of tactility and is a better springboard for DM improvisation. It reminds me of some of the better Dungeon World moves.

I found the material on studying cosmological models relatively weak, but there's a great idea here of minor rewards for characters who apply established game world spiritual principles to the situation (e.g. the Rule of Threes, or the Unity of Rings). It's similar, but not quite the same as, campaign aspects in Fate. I want to write a bunch of these for an Ancient Greek setting, or a setting inspired by early medieval theological debate.

Illuminated Manuscripts have minor mechanical benefits for people who pray to the corresponding deity. For example, if you regularly pray to Lolth with her manuscript, you get +5 temporary HP (maximum of 20) for every Good-aligned creature you kill or enslave. These rules are a good way of emphasising the gods' heavy, interventionist presence in the Realms in a way that isn't specific to clerics and paladins. However there is little insight about the nature of these devotional services, just a restatement of the god's basic tenets and goals.

Trap Books

Three stat-blocks (CR 1/2, 1, and 2) for monsters disguised as books. A d12 table of Subliminal Books. These implant a compulsion in their reader, e.g. to pick up any gold coins seen, or knock on every wooden door. A d12 table of Spell Snare books, which unleash a spell (or similar effect) when read, such as being sucked inside a Planar Novel, or showing a vision of a horrible future.

Arcane Publications

This section has six spellbooks for characters to find, with notes about their owner's history and some custom spells (13 in total) custom spells said owner developed.

Three spellbooks let you attach a unique rider effect, called an Alteration, to any spell cast from the book. This involves spending a bonus action and making an Intelligence (Arcana) check. The rider effects always offer a quite low DC 5 saving throw, so I think for my own game I'd omit the ability check. But I really like this mechanic, and think any game with a wizard PC would benefit from a unique rider per book, enforcing encumbrance for PCs who want to lug multiple tomes around, of course!

About half of the custom spells are non-combat and quite creative, I particularly like track treasure, ward hoard, and spider nest. The wording is at times vague -- I'm not sure if spider nest is supposed to last indefinitely, though as a 7th level spell, I would rule it that way. The damaging spells are fine, though 5e isn't exactly lacking for combat spells. Mutilation's damage is quite low (especially given the name!). I think it could be safely quadrupled to 8d10 damage, given its other limitations (short range, single target, save negates all damage even though it's an atypical save).

Ten excellent scrolls of unique, mostly utility magical effects. Since they're not specific spells, anyone can cast from them. My favourites are scroll of lies (a reverse "zone of truth" effect), scroll of illusionary hole (very Looney Tunes), scroll of snail invasion (conjures 100 ravenous snails!), and scroll of radiant shield (which I would rule makes you immune to all nonmagical damage (falling, lava, huge crushing trap) for a round, not just attacks.

Magical sheet music requires you to be proficient with the specified instrument group, and to be a spellcaster (not necessarily bard). Much like the scrolls, these are excellent and encourage creative problem solving. Some are one-time-use, others have a number of uses that renew daily. I like Serenade of the Dead, which lets you move dead creature around (they don't rise as undead). I also like Ode to the Raven, which magically mutates all participants for an hour. In particular, I love that there's no maximum number of participants, a needless balancing measure that plagues a lot of 5e design. You can totally use this to evacuate a whole city from an invading army by helping them safely jump off a sheer cliff or something. Great stuff.

Secret Codices

The Archivist, who judges your conduct,
silent and unseen. Until you read a book describing
yourself, in the room you're standing in,
being watched by a fey creature...

These are a rather odd concept that took a couple of read-throughs to understand, but they've really grown on me. These are books that describe a location (often the location or room in which they're found). When you read one, you gain mystical awareness of a particular kind of secret at the location, such as a secret door, or a hidden enemy stalking you. They only work when within the location described. They can function as an incentive to travel somewhere, if found outside the keyed location. Or they could be quite effective for evoking wonder or dread if found and read within their keyed location.

The d12 table of rooms the secret doors may lead to is a good one for improvisational DMing. The d12 table of enemies I feel would benefit from some purple prose describing the enemy's appearance, even motivations (after all, it's a book, it can be an omniscient narrator) instead of just linking to a stat block and describing how the creature enters/manifests. The other three codices have no random tables, and are more like adventure set pieces: the hidden archivist, the hidden, orbiting sanctuary of Selune, and the hidden Ring of Power, cast into the void.

Eldritch Volumes

What self-respecting supplement on magic books would omit these? Unsurprisingly, they interact with the madness rules in the DMG, and optionally, the Sanity system. Four eldritch beings are described. Each has three volumes, which can be found and read out of order. The more volumes you read, the more abilities (and madnesses) you unlock. Once you've read one volume, if you encounter another, you must make a Wisdom save if you want to avoid reading it.

A straightforward approach. What I like about these is that the four beings specified are deliberately vague, each with a certain emotional/behavioural core to how they corrupt people. For example, the Volumes of Neg Hamaaar promise salvation through inner peace, and teach its readers rituals of dissociation, mindlessness, and finally, obedience.

Generally the mechanical benefits are +2 to a couple of skills for reading one volume. Two volumes will teach you a ritual roughly equal to a low-level spell, with a minor roleplaying cost attached (vivisecting an animal, destroying someone else's property), three volumes teaches you the final sacrifice (crushing and eating twenty moths, cutting off an arm) with a more permanent boon attached.

The author notes that the books can be quite disruptive to a campaign, and not everyone is OK with their character being slowly corrupted, so one should check in with their players.

Planar Novels

Except for maybe the spell scrolls and sheet music, this was my favourite part of the supplement. A lovely nod to the Linking Books of Myst, though the demiplanes they link to are less pocket-worlds and more "holodeck simulations". There's the entertaining suggestion of just describing white-space or unresponsive NPCs if the players act or move outside the novel parameters. One instance where railroading is actually a useful technique.

The two example mini-adventures (each one page) are an educational book that teaches apprentice mages about different cantrips, and an epic that tells of the downfall of a city.

If the book is destroyed, you are ejected from it, taking damage. If you "die" inside the book, you extit unharmed. But hey, holodeck safety protocols were far from infallible, so I'm sure some planar novel with damaged binding or a missing page is out there, just waiting to kill its readers.

Sentient Books

Four animate books, two good & two evil, each with a backstory and statblock (including spells they can cast). Their spells tend toward utility and noncombat, so like Tom Riddle's diary, they're intended as mastermind adversaries or strange NPCs to encounter, not as powerful monsters. I kinda question the need for stat blocks at all here.

The Rest of the Book

Libraries

Some notes about different kinds of library, e.g. bookshop, temple scriptorium, city archives. A page of tables to determine subject matter the library specialises in, the kinds of scholars it might have. With only a page here, it can't go into much detail.

More interesting is a page of sample fantastic library ideas, designed to fit within the Forgotten Realms but adaptable elsewhere. For example, the Spires of the Sun, white twisted stalagmite buildings, each dedicated to the local sun deity, but all working as part of a cooperative network. Or a Storm Giant's Observatory, full of 10-foot high books detailing giant prophecies. Amusingly, most books are locked shut, but the mechanisms are so huge a thief can simply reach inside the keyway and manipulate the insides.

Canonical Books and Libraries

A section of famous canonical books, with links to their Forgotten Realms wiki entries. I like this nod towards useability, and it's effective at freeing bits of Realmslore from their exhausing web of canon, making them actually gameable again. I would have preferred more pages of libraries & books inspired by the Realms or by other things the author enjoys, but that kind of worldbuilding is obviously much harder, and I'm aware that cutting 4 pages of a PDF that summarise other material doesn't mean there's "space" for 4 pages of new ideas.

Script Handouts

Finally some nice, handwritten examples of various Forgotten Realms scripts. Useful if you want a quick handout to give characters a feel for a race's or Outsider's script, I don't have the patience to see if they translate to anything.

Usability

The art-heavy PDF makes my old laptop struggle, but I've experienced a lot worse. Apart from that, the layout is generally excellent. I only counted two sections that break onto the next page, let alone paragraphs or sentences -- there's more thought put here into page spreads than WotC puts into official hardcovers.
There are minor breaks from the WotC style guide, this isn't inherently bad (I'm no fan of it) but it does mean certain game rules don't always stand out from the rest of the body text. e.g. in some sections, calls for skill checks are bolded, in others, they are not.

Spells in creature stat blocks link to their dndbeyond.com entries. Many pieces of lore link to their fandom wiki entries. No internal hyperlinking or bookmarking though, e.g. from the table of book types on p.5 to the page detailing each type.

I unfortunately find it near-impossible to copy-paste the correct text the correct text, e.g. to send the effect of an illuminated manuscript's boon to a player. I'd probably resort to screenshots. The PDF also doesn't have separate layers for images/backgrounds and text, making it hard to print.

Final Thoughts

I think one thing that would have benefited this book is a bunch of book titles, one-line summaries, longer descriptions, and library descriptions, that deliberately flout Forgotten Realms lore. This either lets DMs spice up their game by assuming these works' claims as true, or lets them seed the world with incorrect information. Not every book is, or should be, reliable. Look at our world, where medieval bestiaries described bears as literally licking their cubs into shape. Or heretical traditions within various faiths.

There's unfortunately some parts of the book that have a lot less to say than other sections. The opening paragraph of each section is often pretty handwavy and can generally be skipped. Some sections (arcane publications, planar novels) are far more creative than others (trap books, illuminated manuscripts). Some sections needed a little more attention to detail or another editing pass.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have this, as-is, as a print-on-demand softcover. It breaks down Realmslore in a way that is focused and runnable at the table. If you're running a game in the Realms, this is great, 5 stars, you should buy ASAP.

If you're running a game with very different setting assumptions, e.g. noninterventionist gods, libraries are primarily in dungeons built by borderline-unintelligible civilisations? Its use will be more limited. You might get use out of the secret codices, eldritch volumes, or arcane pubs, but a lot of the other material will be unusable as-is.

If you're like me, someone who likes to mix a comfortable, familiar overworld to make excursions to the underworld feel strange and rule-breaking, then the majority of it will be useful as-is. The best of the material is pretty system-neutral, and can easily be applied to other editions of D&D or other fantasy tRPGs.

At the very least, many of the ideas in here have sparked my own imagination, and I want to write some supplementary tables for various book categories. You could also supplement the weird elements with something like The Stygian Library by Emmy ‘Cavegirl’ Allen.

I look forward to whatever the author puts out next.

Using my tieflings in D&D 5e games

Want to adapt my OSR tiefling stuff for your 5e game? Here are some draft guidelines.

5e Variant Tieflings

Variant tieflings have the following traits:

• Ability Score Increase. Roll three d6. For each roll, consult the table below and improve the corresponding ability score by +1.
  
  

  1d6	Ability Score
  1	Strength
  2-3	Dexterity
  4-5	Intelligence
  6	Charisma

  
  
• Age & Alignment. Whatever seems appropriate :-)
• Size. Tieflings are about the same size and build as humans. Your size is Medium, unless a minor trait alters it.
• Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
• Fiendish Power.Roll twice on the Fiendish Powers table and choose one of the results. It is possible to acquire additional powers in play, depending on your character's actions.
• Minor Traits. Roll any number of times on the Minor Traits table (suggested either three times on d100, or twice on d20 and once on d100 if you prefer more typical tieflings). See below for edition-specific notes about some of the entries.
• Taint of Demonkind. The referee may make reaction rolls to determine the starting attitude of various NPCs. Whenever they make a reaction roll for your character, and the NPC is an animal or an Outworlder, the roll will have a penalty. The more fiendish powers you have, the greater the penalty.
• Underclass. To get by, you've picked up skills from more unsavoury professions. Choose or roll one of the following skills or tools. You gain proficiency with it.
  1. Athletics
  2. Sleight of Hand
  3. Stealth
  4. Investigation
  5. Perception
  6. thieves' tools
  7. disguise kit
  8. forgery kit
• Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one additional language. Choose or roll once the table below.
  
  

  1d6	Language
  1-2	Abyssal
  3	Deep Speech
  4-5	Infernal
  6	Primordial

Notes

No Darkvision?

Yeah, I hate Darkvision, and tieflings are mostly human. Nothing's stopping you from giving them darkvision if you believe they should have it.

Minor Traits

52 – your eyes shed bright light in a 5-foot radius and dim light for an additional 5 feet.
67 – unlike some powerfully-built races, the extra height does not affect your carrying capacity.
77 – your size is Small. You have disadvantage on attack rolls with heavy weapons.

Fiendish Power Progression

If you worry about intra-party balance, allow tiefling characters to gain additional Fiendish Powers only in lieu of an ability score increase or feat. The referee should not feel restricted to the level progression when determining when the tiefling gains a new power. e.g. a character might gain a second power at 3rd level, paying off the "debt" with a foregone ability score increase at 4th level.

Reaction Rolls

Reaction rolls are one of the defining features of old-school D&D relative to modern editions. The exact dice used are less important than when the roll is called called for -- unlike a Cha (Persuasion) check, they happen immediately when encountering an NPC. The roll determines starting demeanour, and only rarely the outcome of a conversation. I find they gel much better with roleplayed conversation far better than outcome-determining Persuasion checks do, but there's nothing stopping you using both mechanics. Typically the referee makes the roll, using the Cha stat of the most conspicuous PC, or the first PC to speak.

If you wish to make old-school reaction rolls, roll 2d6. Because of the smaller die range, the character's full Charisma modifier isn't added. Add +1 to the roll for a Cha of 13 or higher, subtract 1 from the roll for a Cha of 8 or lower.

If the NPC is a mundane animal (i.e. the beast type) or an Outworlder, for each fiendish power the tiefling possesses, roll an additional d6. Use the worst two d6 for the reaction roll.

• 2 or less, or natural 2 (snake eyes) – Hostile, attacks
• 3-5 – Unfriendly, may attack
• 6-8 – Neutral, uncertain
• 9-11 – Indifferent, uninterested
• 12 or more, or natural 12 (boxcars) – Friendly, helpful

If you wish to make reaction rolls on a d20, the following best approximates the above probabilities. Use the character's full Charisma modifier in this case. You can move the DC 7 cutoff to DC 10 if it's easier to remember, no-one will know ;-)

If the NPC is a mundane animal (i.e. the beast type) or an Outworlder, each fiendish power the tiefling possesses adds a cumulative -2 modifier to the reaction roll.

• 1 or less, or natural 1 – Hostile, attacks
• 2-6 – Unfriendly, may attack
• 7-14 – Neutral, uncertain
• 15-19 – Indifferent, uninterested
• 20 or more, or natural 20 (boxcars) – Friendly, helpful

For a 5e game, an Outworlder is any creature with one of the following types, unless the referee decides otherwise:

• aberration
• celestial
• elemental
• fey
• fiend
• undead

Reincarnated Background (5e)

You died.

The druid brought you back. You are now something else.

The druid won't say why they did it, or what they want in return. They left a token behind. You tried throwing it away, but it always returned the next day.

"You are free to continue your mortal life", they told you. Druids always lie.

Note that choosing this background does not mean you have to roll on a reincarnation table for your former or current race. Two tables are provided below, the standard table, and a spicy table. Consult your GM about which to use if you decide to roll.

Proficiencies and Equipment

As another background (choose or roll), plus one of the following trinkets left to you by the druid.

Trinket

1. pendant carved from oak, stylised weeping eye
2. tiny smooth riverstone knife, grip shaped for no human hand
3. owl skull, glimmer of starlight in its orbits
4. hybrid flower, dried/pressed between two sheets of giants' fingernail
5. wax anticandle, grows taller and sheds darkness when burned
6. fairy-chess piece, imparts intuitive sense of its legal movement to all who touch it

Feature: Agent of The Druid

You understand Druidic, but cannot speak it.

The druid reincarnated you for a reason they chose not to share with you at this time. They exist as a patron who may offer additional favours or call in their debt.

You are also notable within druid circles, apart from the most remote or isolationist ones. Revealing your benefactor's sigil may open certain doors, but it may also attract unwanted attention.

Ideals, Bonds, Flaws

Use another background's tables for these. Your reincarnation has not changed these.

How You Feel About Your Reincarnation

1. Ill-fitted. Phantom limbs, itching sensations, clumsiness with your new proportions.
2. Alienation. Accepted neither by your old race or your new one.
3. Gratitude. The possibility of redressing past regrettable actions.
4. Freedom. To live a new life unshackled by your old reputation and actions.
5. Fish out of water. People react to your new identity, affording different privileges, trust, or fear.
6. Absolutely nothing. The mortal body is false and transitory, the spirit is the true reality. So nothing's really changed, right?
7. Relief.. You were dragged out of Hell. You probably fear returning.
8. Grief. You were dragged out of Heaven. You probably hate the druid's guts.

Standard Reincarnation Table

d100	Race
01-04	Dragonborn
05-13	Dwarf, hill
14-21	Dwarf, mountain
22-25	Elf, dark
26-34	Elf, high
35-42	Elf, wood
43-46	Gnome, forest
47-52	Gnome, rock
53-56	Half-elf
57-60	Half-orc
61-68	Halfling, lightfoot
69-76	Halfling, stout
77-96	Human
97-00	Tiefling

For the following, spicier table, roll a d6 twice (i.e. d36) for uniform odds, or d100 for odds closer to a typical fantasy setting.

Note that a GM who prefers a less kitchen-sink setting should curate their own table, or let player rolls on this table determine which intelligent nonhumans exist or are predominant within the setting.

Spicy Reincarnation Table

d36	d100	Race
1-1	00-01	Aasimar
1-2	02-03	Aranea
1-3	04	Azer
1-4	05-06	Crabfolk
1-5	07	Dragon (wyrmling, random colour1)
1-6	08-10	Dragonborn
2-1	11-16	Dwarf
2-2	17-21	Elf
2-3	22-24	Fir Bolg
2-4	25	Flumph
2-5	26	Garuda
2-6	27-31	Gnoll
3-1	32-35	Gnome
3-2	36-43	Goblin
3-3	44	Golem (clay)
3-4	45	Gwyllion
3-5	46-53	Halfling
3-6	54-55	Houri
4-1	56-65	Human
4-2	66-67	Jinn
4-3	68	Kappa
4-4	69	Kitsune
4-5	70-73	Kobold
4-6	74-76	Lizardfolk
5-1	77	Maenad
5-2	78	Mantisman
5-3	79-80	Merfolk
5-4	81	Naiad
5-5	82	Nāga
5-6	83-88	Orc
6-1	89	Sahuagin
6-2	90-91	Selkie
6-3	92-93	Slugfolk
6-4	94	Tanuki
6-5	95-98	Tiefling
6-6	99	Yakfolk

¹Roll d10 and read across: black, blue, brass, bronze, copper, gold, green, red, silver, white

Low Fantasy Gaming, a review

This is a largely 5e-compatible ruleset that borrows a lot from old-school D&D and the OSR. And that's the kind of space I like to dabble in, so let's hop in!

This is a review of the free PDF of the 2016 basic edition. Since you can read it yourself for free, this review, while long, won't be as in-depth as my Let's Read of Best Left Buried. There's currently a kickstarter for the Deluxe Edition, in its final week. So if this review is rushed in places, I'm sorry, I wanted it out before the kickstarter ends.

TL;DR this ruleset did not grip me enough to back the kickstarter, but I would happily play it if a GM or my players suggested it. The bits that appealed to me are super easy to lift for other D&D-ish games. It's easy to learn if you're versed in 5e, though there's some interesting differences (including basic mechanics) that I'll cover below.

What Low Fantasy Gaming Promises

• Rules-light, rulings over rules.
• Fast combat, encouraging creativity over carefully delineated spells or powers. If you hate 5e's already loose combat maneuver rules (as compared to 4e or 3.5/PF), this will not be your cup of tea.
• Dangerous and gritty. Expect injury tables.
• A "Realistic" World. Magic and monsters are rare, PCs and villains are humans more often than not.
• Dark & Dangerous Magic. The basic rules have only one spellcasting class, and the Deluxe rules only have two. Magic is risky. Permanent magic items are rare. Expect wild magic tables.
• Riches & Glory. You're treasure hunters exploring the unknown, not the Epic Chosen Heroes.
• Open World. Sandboxy, episodic adventuring. Not that 5e has any mechanics that push long, arc-based storytelling *shrug*
• Generic Ruleset. The author has his own Midlands setting, but the rulebook can be used for various low magic &/or swords-and-sorcery settings.

Character Generation

The game uses the classic D&D ability scores, except Wisdom is split into Willpower and Perception. One score is automatically a 15, the rest are rolled on 4d6b3 as with 5e. The player chooses where scores go. There are no ability score adjustments for race, in fact, having races at all is entirely optional.

Ability score modifiers are closer to those of BX D&D rather than 3e/4e/5e D&D. e.g. an ability score of 9-12 maps to a modifier of +0, and 17-18 maps to +3.

PCs and monsters have a Luck stat, used for saving throws and as a character resource. It fuels martial exploits, but the text suggests playing free and loose with it, e.g. make a Luck roll to choose which monster to summon with a spell instead of it being random. Luck is always set to 10 + half level (round up) at the start of an adventure, but is depleted by 1 with every *successful* Luck check. A long rest only restores 1 Luck point.

PCs also have a Reroll Pool equal to their level, used for trained skills, various class abilities, and on rolls to avoid dying if the character hits 0 hp. Honestly I don't see why this couldn't have been merged with the Luck stat. It's difficult to remember which rules and abilities deplete which resources.

No Alignment, and no Backgrounds in the 5e sense. Instead, each PC rolls on a table of Bonds to generate connections with at least one other party member. e.g. you were both "lone survivors of the Blackbrand Mercenary Company, destroyed in a recent engagement with their bitter rivals, the Shen-Zu Raiders."

There are five classes, Barbarian, Bard (not a spellcaster), Fighter, Magic-User, and Rogue. The Deluxe rules are adding Artificer, Cultist, Monk, and Ranger.

There is no multi- or dual-classing, but every 3rd level, each class gets an open-ended "make up your own ability" feature, which includes the explicit advice to crib ideas from other games, pick "cross class" abilities if wanted (so... kinda like 4th edition), or just increase an ability score by 1 if you prefer a simpler character sheet. The Deluxe Edition promises 36 pre-made abilities for those who don't fancy designing/balancing their own.

Classes follow the "no dead levels" philosophy of later-edition D&D, getting a new feature (or spell level) at every level. The classes are all roughly the level of complexity of a 5e class, and most features are clearly written. They're all roughly what you would expect from playing 5e -- a barbarian can choose to enter a rage, a bard buffs their allies, etc. Magic-User can take healing spells and some other cleric staples.

All classes can contribute to finding traps and disarming them. All classes have Detection (the former) on their skill list, while Bards, Fighters & Rogues have the Traps & Locks (the latter) on their list. The Rogue has no class features making them extra-good at disabling traps, though they (and any class) can take such abilities with their open-ended slots.

Similar to B/X, all classes cap out at 12th level. They also all get a "stronghold" type feature at 10th level. No level titles though ;-)

You roll for starting money which is used to buy equipment. This is made more awkward by the fact that prices for equipment (though not weapons or armour) are rolled randomly, e.g. an acid vial costs 5d10+50 gp. I prefer either the "equipment package" approach of 5e, the random items of a system like Maze Rats, or Into the Odd's table lookup method. If you want to stick with the shopping method, decide if you want lots of rolling for prices, or rule that items cost their average when bought during chargen.

Task Resolution

Attack rolls are your typical d20 system rolls. Roll d20 + your attack bonus + relevant ability modifier, equal or exceed the target's Armour Class. Melee is always Str, ranged is always Dex, i.e. there are no finesse weapons, and the few spells which call for an attack roll don't base that roll on Int.

Unlike 5e, there is no unified Proficiency Bonus. Different classes have different attack bonus progressions: Fighters & Barbarians (and monsters) have an attack bonus equaling their level, while the other classes have a roughly 2:3 progression. You add your Str or Dex modifier to that, as appropriate for the attack.

Ability checks are *roll-equal-or-under* the relevant ability score. A relevant skill proficiency adds +1 to the ability score, and more importantly lets you spend a use of your Reroll Pool to reroll a failure.

The winner of an Opposed Check is whoever rolled under their ability score by the most. e.g. a beastman (Dexterity 10) is trying to hide from Linda's Fighter (Perception 15). The beastman rolls 7, Linda rolls 15. Neither failed the roll, but the beastman succeeded by 3 and Linda by 0, so her Fighter fails to spot the monster.

Saving throws are roll equal or under your current Luck score + the relevant ability score modifier. Recall if you succeed on the save, your Luck then decreases by 1. This means saving throws vs spells are more like the old-school norm. A 12th-level caster's fireball is no harder to resist than a 5th-level caster's, though it will certainly deal more damage!

Situational modifiers generally range from +2 to -2, though some rules like three-quarters cover grant larger modifiers, and there's the now-ubiquitous Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic. There are suggested rules for Group Checks (i.e. everyone succeeds if at least half do) and Degrees of Success/Failure, though unlike PbtA games and the like, there's no "succeed at a cost". There are also rules for Chases. They boil down to a 4e-style skill challenge, with a random event/obstacle/complication table that gets rolled on each turn.

Overall, task resolution is based on functional, well-understood ideas, but the mix of d20 system rolls and d20-roll-under is needlessly complicated. I love d20 roll-under, but if you're going to use that for ability checks, may as well use it for attacks as well a la Whitehack, The Black Hack, or derivative games.

Combat

1st-level characters don't have maximised HP. As with old-school D&D, after 9th level, characters only get +1 or +2 HP per level, no Con modifier. That and the different ability modifier scale means characters will have slightly less HP than in 5e. It isn't quite as brutal as BX and similar games though -- Hit Die results are limited to the upper half of their range. e.g. the Fighter doesn't roll 1d10 + Con each level, instead they roll 1d5 + 5 + Con.

Player turns in combat do look like they'd be kept fairly short despite the feature-heavy classes. Fighters and Barbarians can make an Extra Attack starting from Level 7, but each usage costs a point from their Reroll Pool. There are no bonus-action or reaction spells, and combat maneuvers either trigger on a natural 19 or are made in addition to an attack. Not all the tactical consideration is removed -- players will still be choosing what resources they're OK depleting (HP, Reroll Pool, spells, limited rages/bardic inspirations/day).

Combat follows a typical d20 system structure. Each character acts on their own individual initiative, rolled on a d20 unmodified by any ability score, though some weapons and other effects adjust Initiative).

Unlike 5e, you cannot move before and after your action.

Attacks of opportunity (called "free attacks") exist, but are provoked only by moving out of an enemy's reach (*not* moving out of each/every square within enemy's reach, as with 3.5) and by critical fumbles. Casting a spell doesn't provoke them.

Rolling poorly on initiative is bad for spellcasters -- you can't cast a spell at all if you've already been hit that round.

The weapon table has a similar number of entries to 5e, but the rules for each weapon are generally more complex. Many grant bonuses to certain rolls, and/or have a special ability that triggers on a natural 19, e.g. a heavy crossbow will knock enemies prone.

Attack rolls crit on a natural 20, dealing max damage + 1/2 your level. A natural 1 is a critical fumble, provoking a free attack from an enemy in melee or possibly hitting an ally instead.

Damage is based on weapon, not class. There are no Finesse weapons -- all melee attacks are made with Str, all ranged with Dex. Anyone can two-weapon fight -- unlike 5e the off-hand attack is made at disadvantage but adds Str modifier to damage. Unlike 5e, crossbows deal lots of damage but take your action to reload.

As with 5e, Armour Class is 10 + Dex modifier + armour bonus, but your full modifier is added regardless of armour type. Shields give a +1 bonus, but a player can also simply declare that a shield negates an attack. This ability cannot be used again until the shield is repaired back in civilisation, but the shield will usually continue to provide its +1 bonus.

Combat maneuvers (here called Exploits) are handled as case-by-case GM rulings. Minor Exploits with a 1-round effect (e.g. throwing sand in someone's eyes) are handled as follows: attacker states desired effect, then makes an attack. If it hits, it deals damage as normal, then an Opposed Check determines if the desired effect happens. Major Exploits (e.g. severing a limb) are available to PCs only, have some guidelines affecting their power (e.g. no single-target extra damage, no instant death/incapacitation unless the monster has Hit Dice less than PC's level), and call for a Luck Check instead of an Opposed Check, so are limited in use.

I really like these Exploit rules. They're not as constrained as, say, 4e martial powers or 5e's Battle Master Fighter archetype, but have more guidance and dwindling Luck management than just being a really permissive GM towards Champion Fighters, which is my usual approach in 5e.

The game borrows 4e's bloodied mechanic (called staggered here). Some PC and monster abilities care about whether a creature is staggered.

You are unconscious and dying at 0 hp. After combat (or once your body is hauled out of danger) an ally can tend to you. You then make a Con check (not a Luck save). If you fail, or if no ally is around to rescue you, you're dead. If you succeed, you're stable and will wake on 1 hp in 1d3 minutes, and make a roll on the Injuries & Setbacks table. Note that while magical healing works instantly if the target is above 0 hp, if used on a 0 hp creature, it takes 1d3 minutes to work. Once someone hits 0 hp, they're out of the fight.

Adventuring

Short rests are only a few minutes, rather than 1 hour. You are limited to three short rests every 24 hours, and each one allows you to roll a different number of Will checks: 1, 2, or 3, plus extra checks per day equal to your Con modifier, distributed among the three rests as you see fit. For each successful Will check, you either:

• regain half your lost HP + your Con bonus
• regain a limited-use class ability or spell slot
• restore 1 point to your Reroll Pool.
  

Honestly the accounting here is a bit complicated here, and I would immediately houserule it. Three rests, make one Con check for each one. Success means you choose two of the above benefits, failure means you choose only 1.

I am unsure about the shortened rest duration. I like how a short rest in 5e is long enough to incur at least one wandering monster roll, but also understand the desire to encourage players to push on instead of retreating & making camp for the day.

A long rest, on the other hand, takes 1d6 days (1d4 in an inn), recovers pretty much everything (including attribute damage), except only 1 Luck is regained, and you only regain slightly more than half your lost HP. This is fine, though with 3 short rests/day plus healing magic I'd just handwave everyone goes back to full HP.

There is even less emphasis on inventory management than in 5e D&D. The Fighter even has a class feature (useable 1/adventure) that lets them retroactively have brought along the right mundane equipment for the situation. There are no guidelines for how much items weigh, how much stuff a person of a given Str (or Con) can carry, or how they are affected if they approach/exceed this amount.

(I'm kinda OK with this. People with strong opinions on the importance of encumbrance also usually have strong opinions on their preferred subsystem for modelling it, and for everyone else, GM fiat is good enough)

There is no XP. Levelling-up happens after every adventure, assuming the character meaningfully participated. There's optional rules for acquiring parts of your next level (e.g. the extra HP, class abilities, or reroll die) after each session.

GM-Facing Stuff

NPC reactions and morale are handled with Cha and Will checks rather than the 2d6 rolls of old-school D&D. This is fine, but I'd use degrees of success here -- binary "friendly/unfriendly" is less interesting than the old-school reaction results of "hostile, unfriendly, unsure, indifferent, friendly". Some monster abilities, e.g. magic resistance, are handled with percentile rolls.

Wilderness travel speeds and encounter distances by terrain type are provided, but no B/X-style procedures for hexcrawling, getting lost & veering course, weather at sea, etc. This is probably not the ruleset for you if you're interested in playing a game about the journey, not just the episodic adventures that punctuate it.

Traps are divided into Simple Traps, and more setpiece Complex Traps. There are no "hazard/trap severity by level" guidelines as with later D&D editions. Clever narration of a PC's actions can find Simple Traps without a Perception check, and it's suggested that Complex Traps telegraph their presence before they activate. Good advice, wish more DMs would follow it.

Magic

The big change is that casting magic is always risky. Whenever a spell is cast, the caster rolls a d20. A natural 1 causes a roll on the Dark & Dangerous Magic table and a loss of one Luck point, but the spell is still cast. If no DDM effect occurs, the odds of DDM increase by 1 for subsequent rolls. When a DDM effect finally happens, the DDM chance resets to 1 in 20.

The rules are unclear whether one DDM number is used to track all PC and NPC casters, or if each has their own DDM number. I could see either choice being fun.

The DDM table is full of creepy/sinister effects rather than the lighthearted goofiness of the 5e Wild Magic table. Some mechanical benefits, some banes, and some that have no mechanical effect but which could definitely influence play direction. For some reason, "an enraged [monster appears for 1d4 minutes]" has multiple entries in the table, even though the table is already d100 with varying odds for different entries.

I like the DDM mechanic. I know some people aren't a fan of how 5e Wild Magic Sorcerer triggers their magic surges (i.e. the DM just says a surge happens, then gives the sorcerer their special reroll back). This is a good alternative that is applicable to all spellcasters. And some of the DDM table entries are great, e.g. "Heartless: You have no discernible heartbeat, and do not bleed. The effect lasts 1d12 months.", even though I overall prefer the goofiness of the 5e table.

The rest of the magic system changes are more subtle:

Magic-Users cast spells like a 3e Sorcerer, or 5e non-warlock class, i.e. spontaneous casting from your known list, not strictly Vancian fire-and-forget casting.

Magic-Users have no cantrips, but otherwise have a similar number of spell slots to 5e wizards (though remember a long rest is 1d6 days!). Int is always their casting stat, but this has minimal effect on their spells' effectiveness. I only spotted it counting towards HP healed by Cure Light Wounds or Cure Serious Wounds, and to a Luck(Int) check that Dispel Magic instructs you to make. Int does determine number of known spells (Int mod × character level) + 1. In a nice touch that pushes adventurers towards dungeon delving, magic-users get an extra known spell each level-up if they have new tomes, scrolls etc to pore over.

Each spell level has 20 listed spells, which are numbered. Anything that aids random generation is good. Some spells can be reversed, as with older D&D editions.

There's no casting a spell as a ritual to save the spell slot. Some spells like Detect Magic have much longer durations to compensate, a nice attention to detail. Similarly there's no "Duration: Concentration" spells. You can maintain as many spell effects as you have slots to cast them with. There are also no "At Higher Levels" entries for spells -- they automatically scale with the caster's level, such as Fireball, or they don't scale at all, such as Sleep.

The spell text is a mix of old and new, e.g. Thunderwave is in there, but so is Protection From Normal Missiles. Fireball will shape itself to the available volume, Lightning Bolt doesn't bounce off walls though. The damaging spells are closer to their AD&D and 3e text than to 5e, e.g. Magic Missile produces 1 missile every odd caster level, instead of 5e's 3 + 1 per higher-level slot. Sleep affects 4d4 Hit Dice of creatures, rather than affecting creatures by current hit points as in 5e.

Magic-users can learn elemental variants if desired, e.g. Frostball instead of Fireball. Researching unique spells is also briefly mentioned as a possible downtime activity. Sometimes players need explicit permission to come up with new stuff, make the game their own, so this is good. Monsters rarely have elemental resistances or vulnerabilities, so modding spells doesn't cause any balance issues.

The Deluxe text (and the Midlands setting) renames a bunch of spells, e.g. Hold Person becomes Crush of the Warp. This may or may not suit your tastes.

Resurrection magic is deliberately absent, as is long-range teleportation and lie detection. Dimension Door is in there, but unlike 5e, requires line of sight to the destination.

A couple of original spells are quite nice: Ritual Magic is a catch-all for long-term warding spells like explosive runes, while Forbidden Wish can duplicate lower-level spells, or strike a bargain with an otherworldly being for a more powerful effect, incurring a debt, madness, and Con loss.

Overall this keeps magic relatively simple, not as easy to teach as Knave's system, but closer in power level to 5e with less of its fiddly specifics.

Magic Items

Permanent magic items are meant to be rare, most magic items should be potions and spell scrolls. Unlike 5e, anyone can cast from a scroll. But if you're too low-level (or not a Magic-User) you make an Int check or the spell goes awry, rolling on the DDM table instead. This is basically how I houserule scrolls in 5e anyway, so this change is welcome.

Because permanent items are rare, there's no equivalent to 5e's "max 3 attuned items" rule. "Attunement" in this ruleset refers to the tendency of permanent magic items to gain extra powers as an owner continues to wield them. The rate at which these powers might be unlocked, and/or any requirements for them, are left to the GM to decide.

Instead of a list of "canonical" permanent magic items, the game provides a random table of item types, and two random tables of item properties, one obvious, one discreet. Items have a 2 in 3 chance of being discreet in their nature, but there are 20 listed discreet properties and 34 obvious ones, which is a bit back-to-front? Probably still enough to get you through a campaign or two before duplicate effects get rolled. Many properties, when used, cause a DDM roll to be made after their use. Many properties mimic a spell, these generally can only be used every 1d4 days, but aren't subject "if you've been hit this round, you can't cast spells" rule.

I just rolled up:

• a Storm-Calling Greatsword that can change the weather within 10 miles to anything short of catastrophic (i.e. no cyclones) for 1d4 days. It requires a DDM check each day the unnatural weather persists.
• a Telepathic Cloak, that lets you mentally communicate at will with creatures, causing a DDM roll after every conversation.
• a mysterious scaled egg, the size of a child's fist and warm to the touch. Its possessor can treat themself as trained in any skill, but must make a DDM roll each time they use this benefit.

Pretty functional way to quickly put together treasure for a one-shot :-)

Random Tables

I covered the Dark & Dangerous Magic and Magic Item tables above. This book has plenty of other random tables, most of which are either system-neutral or trivial to adapt to your game of choice.

I like the 1d20 list of Bonds for connecting PCs with each other. e.g. you were both "Indentured gladiators of the dreaded Ogorien Fighting Pits". This is much faster and easier to bring up in play than 5e's Ideal, Bond, Flaw system.

The Injuries & Setbacks table (rolled on if you hit 0 hp but survive) is rolled on d20, has 13 injury effects, 3 "damaged equipment" effects, or is just a minor scar on a 17+. Some entries cause ability score damage, requiring recalculation of modifiers. Others cause a roll on a separate Madness table. Otherwise, pretty straightforward.

The Chase Events table is quite useful. I prefer Whitehack's auction mechanic for chases over the skill-challenge mechanic here, but will pinch this table for spicing up the former.
A d30 table of paragraph-long dungeon room entries, generally pretty evocative and good in a pinch.

The Madness table has no associated mechanical penalties/benefits, leaving that up to player/GM suggestion. There is a minor mechanic for madness progression/remission, i.e. more or less frequent triggers. The spell Cure Malady can weaken a madness one stage, or cure a madness on the lowest stage.

The Carry Loot table (i.e. "I loot the bodies") entries are generic, though I guess you don't want every slain brigand to be carrying bizarro trinkets and cursed gold. The Trinkets & Curios table is excellent at building out the world in unpredictable ways. The Valuables table is somewhere in between, there's some description but far fewer of them will spark unusual play directions.

The Random Encounter tables are pretty solid, unlike some games the author actually realises not every encounter should be "raar, a monster attacks". There's advice for new GMs that not every rolled monster should be approached as a combat encounter. The City/Town/Village table is almost entirely non-combat (though could certainly escalate into it). A few entries are basically just local colour, but a lot more entries will likely drive play forward. The wilderness tables are 70% monsters, 15% hazards, 15% oddities/adventure seeds. The tables deliberately avoid providing "level appropriate" encounters. Monsters usually have a stated behaviour or motivation, even if it's just "hunting for food" or "camping", these are better prompts than just saying "1d6 fire beetles".

There's a better idea density in the encounter tables than in, say, Xanathar's Guide to Everything. But they felt very typical low-mid level D&D to me, not the "monsters are rare, most threats are human" that was promised. This isn't necessarily bad -- I'd use these for a Forgotten Realms or Skyrim game, just not a Westeros or Middle Earth game. Maybe the Midlands setting book has different encounter tables?

Monsters

These have simplified stat blocks closer to old-school D&D. Their Hit Dice (always d8) also count as their attack bonus. Ability scores (including Luck) are provided for the purpose of ability checks, but modifiers to attack, damage, etc are ignored, and monsters don't have skills. Special weaknesses and powers are usually described in accompanying text rather than the stat block. Each monster has a special ability that triggers on a natural 19 attack roll, e.g. an ogre mage can summon spirit warriors, a roc might grab a target and fly away, some other monsters just force a roll on the Injury & Setback table.

I like this "take the load of tactical analysis off the GM by having monster abilities proc randomly" idea -- speeding up the GM's turn and getting back to players is always good. But I would increase the odds for a lot of these abilities. 5% per attack is pretty low given how many rounds combat usually lasts, e.g. 3 rounds means only a 14% chance the monster's neat trick will come up.

Guidelines for turning any monster into a Boss Monster are provided: double HP, immune to Major Exploits unless staggered, a Reroll Pool same as adventurers, Off-Turn Attacks, and special powers of the GM's design.

Most of the provided monsters are standard D&D-isms, which is useful for compatibility purposes but undermines their scariness for all but the newest players. Converting monsters, either from 5e or OSR games, is trivial though, so that's not a huge problem. A few nods to classic tropes, e.g. dragons automatically smelling all living things within 60 ft, make some entries feel more alive than 5e's more sterile "blindsight 60 ft" text.

Conclusion

There's a lot to like in this game, and it's very easy to pick and choose the bits you like and apply them to other d20 games. Creating a character is faster than in 5e, most classes don't have spells, the spellcasting rules are easier to explain than 5e's are. Dark & Dangerous Magic and the depleting Luck resource are fun mechanics, death & dying is more threatening than 5e, but magical healing still isn't necessary to have. PC and monster combat abilities are worded so as to avoid combat slowdown, while the Exploit rules provide just the right level of guidance for me.

But I'm underwhelmed by task resolution being a mix of typical d20 system rolls and d20-roll-under, by the game having both a Luck stat and Reroll Pool, by some aspects of the combat system, by the resting rules.

I would happily play in a LFG campaign, or run one if players specifically requested it. But if I ran it, I'd be inclined to houserule a bunch of stuff, and at that point, choosing this over 5e or Whitehack makes a lot less sense without some external factor pushing me to do so. And if I specifically wanted swords & sorcery, Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells provides at least as many tools to emulate that genre as LFG does, while being a much lighter ruleset.

I won't be backing the Kickstarter, but I will keep an eye out for the Deluxe version once it's available for non-backers & see if I like it more. I also want to read more of the Adventure Frameworks -- I bought one and it's gone straight into my pile of one-shots, so it's pretty likely I'll buy and read the Midlands setting book sometime soon.