Search results

In a dark computer lab, a strikeforce of elves in sleek, futuristic military garb overturn furniture, jack into hardware, and rummage through paper records—searching for any clue or shred of data which might be of help in their corporate espionage scheme. In a warmly-lit pub in the grimy part...

Hi friends, in light of the news on the Battle Zoo leak of OGL 1.1, I decided to put together a fact sheet of the content of that document. It is helpful if you want to review the information over the course of 3 pages instead of having to read all 15 pages...

Hi everyone! New heritage just dropped --- the harpy! Harpies are the classic Greek monster, but we wanted to draw their story to close connection with nature! So they are vicious birdfolk who also make formidable allies! Plus, we include new rules for overland flight! Included in this...

Hi friends! Thanks for participating in my poll last week, and thanks also for all the downloads on Ecology of Gravitas: The Green Witch. Now I've got another Ecology of Gravitas! This time it is for the khalkoi! This free supplement spotlights the khalkos, and how to make running this monster...

Hi friends, you probably saw how I wrote a free supplement called Ecology of Gravitas: The Green Witch. Well, it has over 100 downloads so I want to do the Ecology of Gravitas treatment on other Halloween creeps as part of an ongoing October celebration. I'd maybe like to do 2 more? And I'm...

Hi everyone! Happy early Halloween! To help celebrate, I'm releasing my first in my Ecologies of Gravitas series for free! (Okay well, PWYW) "All trails lead to the green witch." This document incorporates the work I've been doing on monster ecology, which many of you have helped and...

Hi everyone! Got a different kind of A5E product today: Crests of Destiny! Crests of destiny are heritage gifts which mark characters fated for heroic deeds! These traits are suitable for any campaign, but especially for those curious about matters of fate---and the very underpinnings of...

Hi everyone! I just dropped a new A5e heritage, a conversion of the classic elan heritage! Elans are beings of psychic energy walking among us in human guise! These characters fit easily into almost any heroic fantasy setting, but especially in settings with psionic themes (whether contemporary...

This is my third and final post in this series—slightly overdue but I hope it's worth the wait! Making Monsters Matter is about doing that very thing. Previously we have looked at how to make classic folkloric monsters more thrilling by diving back into our ghost story roots. We took that theme...

Hi everyone! I'm Josh, a freelance writer. I've got a proud history of work both with EN Publishing (EN5ider, Level Up: Advanced Fifth Edition, Gate Pass Gazette), as well as some self-published work. I've recently revamped one of my old free/PWYW articles, and I wanted to share it with you...

Hi friends! I am so proud to present my first self-published piece in a long time! Talos is a heritage that is sort of my take on the Constructed. I really wanted to emphasize the themes of dungeonpunk, especially considering gestures vaguely at current events Some of y'all know me--I worked...

I miss the days in 4e where you could curate an entire dungeon with the rote mathematical guidelines that no matter the character level, X encounters yielded 1 character level. So I've very often wondered about how a similar system would work for 5e/A5e, and the fact that we now can design...

The encounter tables in the A5e books are not just good, they're amazing. Besides being able to generate random encounters appropriate for your environment and level (making overland travel quite nice), the tables mix a combination of encounters from all three pillars. Even individual monsters...

So I write stuff for EN Publishing's 3PP DnD stuff, so when news these days about AI being able to help you write articles wholesale and the (disturbing but probably not true) rumors of a sentient AI at Google have me wondering about the applications of AI in RPG writing. Today I made my first...

So I've been having a lot of thoughts about monsters recently. The Monstrous Menagerie does a lot to help make monsters matter on a storytelling level. That said I still sometimes feel like I drop monsters into a scenario and they don't quite pop as they do in, say, my favorite scary stories...

The A5E warlock opens a lot of design and story space, so it got me wondering. What kind of new warlocks are y'all thinking about these days, given the changes in lore? A few altered aspects that come to mind: INT or WIS or CHA as spellcasting ability. Is your warlock intellectual, devoted, or...

This is a guide for porting in O5e rules and characters for use with A5e. When we talk about Level Up: Advanced Fifth Edition (A5e) and "compatibility" with original Fifth Edition (O5e), there has been a considerable amount of confusion. What is advertised about A5e is that it is "fully...

Hi friends, Happy St. Patric's Day and happy A5e SRD release day! I wanted to share with you a document I made that came out of my home A5e game. It's a digital character sheet for 5e using Google Docs. It uses a layout similar to monsters and pre-gens, but it has some added functionality for...

Hi everyone! You might have heard me on this week's episode of Morrus's Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk. I just realized today that I should tell y'all about my podcast! Last month we launched Mysteries of the Mournland, the first-ever A5e actual play podcast! It is a horror game, and it's set in...

Hi everyone! My name is Josh and I'm a pro DM now taking clients for online games. Already-formed groups are preferred, but individual inquirers are welcome. I have been a DM for 15 years and I am a freelance writer/designer for the game. I'm also a lead designer for Level Up: Advanced Fifth...