Vox Arcana - Blog

Our wonderful (and tragically lost episode of) Vox Arcana, detailed the Lost Mines of Phandelver adventure for 5e. We discussed how to really utilize all of our best 5e tricks to make the adventure great. While recording, I realized the entire thing could easily be cut-and-pasted into my personal D&D world. It’s an easy, fairly low-stakes adventure that involves some exploration, and it would require minimal modification to work in my game.  Spoilers for the adventure from the D&D Beginner Box, originally released in 2014. Here is what I would change: The name Phandalin is silly, and worst still, very recognizable. Let’s call the little mining town Dalin, which has an Irish feel. Let’s make all of its woodsy citizens speak with an Irish brogue. The adventure itself is already set up as a series of situations, so let’s lean into that. A local wizard is on the hunt for a lost spell forge, and will pay any price to find it (it functions as a 20,000gp library) . He’s hired hobg...

We were playing Tomb of Annihilation last week, and the players came across a man drenched in honey, being attacked by a swarm of bees.

There are too many spells in D&D.

It seems like every time I try to sit down and write a blog, I find another blog that says what I want to say, except better.

In episode 3, I posit that your world history should be virtually unknown, and discovery should be a natural part of the game, both for the GM and the players. I (seemingly) made the case that you shouldn't invest in your world history because it's mostly a waste of time.

This is part of a series, which starts right here. When I first read through Hot Springs Island, I saw the random encounter tables and I immediately wanted to change them.

This is part of a series, which starts right here. Gary Gygax made a big deal about timekeeping. Here's what he said in original Dungeon Master's Guide (1979):

Running a hex crawl can be a challenge, especially if it's your first time. I recently finished a six session campaign of Hot Springs Islands, and I learned a lot.

  I've never been happy with how dungeons work in D&D. It often feels like a fantasy version of 20 questions.

This topic came up when we were recording recently. There are some dark implications if goblins are people.

Like the rest of the D&D community, I spent last week reading over Xanathar's Guide to Everything.

  This doesn’t go the way you think. My Assumptions - Magic has not always existed. - Magic was discovered last year. - 1 out of every 1000 people are naturally gifted with magic. - Spells are being discovered all the time. - Magic breaks the laws of physics in ways we don't understand. - This is not the only spell in the world. CURE WOUNDS 1st-level evocation Casting Time: 1 action Range: Touch Components: V, S Duration: Instantaneous A creature you touch regains a number of hit points equal to 1d8 + your spellcasting ability modifier. This spell has no effect on undead or constructs. What it Changes This spell might be the most world-changing one so far. Being able to repair a damaged body is a huge change for our world, and would likely change healthcare as we know it. If you want to pick a spell that gives you infinite money, this is a decent choice, but Teleportation Circle is still better. However, this one would bankrupt the medic...

Today, we're putting airlines out of business.

Sometimes its the simplest spells that we most often overlook.

  As you might expect, I think about D&D a lot. In fact, I'm almost always thinking about it. About a year ago, I started thinking about how magic would impact the modern world if it suddenly appeared one day.

In D&D, you can cheat death. There are spells (powerful though they may be) that literally bring a person back to life.

While listening to the GGNORE podcast, I learned their GM has modified the XP system in D&D 5E: He converts XP values into treasure.

For the past 16 months or so, I've had an on-again, off-again interest in compiling all of the info from the Player's Handbook into an easily-printable format.