Vox Arcana - Blog

  I’ve mentioned this before on the show, but wasn’t able to extrapolate on what I believe to be one of my greatest innovations.

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.

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. 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.

  Overview Hot Springs Island has big aspirations. I'm not just talking about the 270 locations, 87 NPCs and 300 new treasures. The scope of the story is big. Multi-planar, in fact.

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.

D&D players tend to be homeless people who murder everything. If you haven't experienced this, consider yourself in the minority.