0:09

Welcome back to DM

0:12

Nastics to Jim for

0:14

Dungeon Masters to work

0:16

out their minds. I'm one

0:18

of your host, DM Neal,

0:20

A.K.A. Jote Moniac. And it's

0:23

me, your other host,

0:25

D.M. Celest, A.K.A. Seawitch.

0:27

Done, done. Today, Beryl

0:30

been built because it's alliteration. And

0:32

if I could get both together,

0:34

wow. That's the sweet treat. That's

0:37

the sweetest treat. Yeah, like the

0:39

previous one, build a barrel. Oh

0:41

my. As if to reference build

0:44

a bear. Yes, where DM Derek

0:46

and I talked about building a

0:48

barrel and having smaller dungeons. I

0:51

know we've started to like elude

0:53

to that because like, I'll be

0:55

comfortable in a dungeon forever. Celeste, you know

0:57

that. I love me and make a dungeon.

1:00

I can easily do it. But. One of

1:02

the other key pieces about a Mega Dungeon

1:04

is like going in and just exploring a

1:06

little bit and leaving. Like that's 100% okay.

1:08

It's how Under Mountain, original Under Mountain was

1:10

approached. Like you would typically have a quest

1:13

that you would do, you would go, you

1:15

would complete that quest and you would leave.

1:17

Sometimes you would get distracted and die a

1:19

terrible death. Like that is also an option.

1:21

Or you would go on your adventures and

1:24

find another entrance to another part of Under

1:26

Mountain. Yeah. And you would go and do

1:28

those quests. So like building out smaller

1:30

pieces, I think works really well because

1:32

you can move them around. Oh yeah.

1:34

And then every mega dungeon has like

1:36

those themed sections, right? Whether you want

1:38

to divide them by floors or different

1:41

regions, you know, that's your opportunity to

1:43

shake things up in a meaningful way.

1:45

So really designing smaller dungeons is

1:47

really just making pieces that can

1:49

go together in the big awesome

1:51

jigsaw puzzle of a bigger dungeon.

1:53

Yep. Just Zelda your way through

1:55

it. Just do it. Water table.

1:57

Here we go. Your favorite, everyone.

1:59

So on the discord, if you head

2:02

over there, there is an exercise

2:04

that I affectionately named, barrel been

2:06

built. So I made a small

2:08

dungeon that basically looks like a

2:10

hand and the theory abound. Is

2:12

it in fact a deity's hand,

2:14

was it a gauntlet that once

2:16

fell to earth and now has

2:18

crumbled away? That's kind of where

2:21

like the vibe leans, but in

2:23

the same way, it could just

2:25

be some dwarfs that decided that'd

2:27

be a cool way to build

2:29

a dungeon. So basically, it's your

2:31

standard. Five room, dungeon plus the

2:33

palm. So it's six rooms, if

2:35

you will, each finger being its

2:38

own room. Basically, we throw it

2:40

out there, choose a room, build

2:42

a trap. But this also harkens

2:44

back to DMV episode 232, haunted

2:46

traps with a. frequent guest, someone

2:48

were a huge fan of McKenzie

2:50

to Armis and yeah, the idea

2:52

of haunted traps was really interesting.

2:55

So yeah, because haunted traps was

2:57

something they introduced in Wizards introduced

2:59

in the Van Richton's guide to

3:01

Ravenloft for the first time. So

3:03

we got to see some like

3:05

spooky mechanics going on. Yeah. And

3:07

when you think about it, especially

3:09

like if you think like a

3:11

really old dungeon or even if

3:14

you're thinking about the Indiana Jones

3:16

of traps, like. There's often dead

3:18

people or you know dead characters

3:20

or around you know NBC's or

3:22

anything like that. A good trap

3:24

has many corpses. Yeah. Well you

3:26

know what? Maybe their souls are

3:28

at unrest because they just didn't

3:31

feel like that's a trap that

3:33

should have got them and now

3:35

they haunt that area and all

3:37

the things associated. So that leads

3:39

us to some of these amazing

3:41

entries like copy paste like just

3:43

straight into your game style entries.

3:45

Good stuff. Yeah. On the forum.

3:47

So which one did you want

3:50

to look at? right now. Yeah

3:52

I think my favorite one was

3:54

the so somebody did letter lost,

3:56

favorite letter lost, hello again, your

3:58

ring finger engine room was very

4:00

clever. So what I like did,

4:02

it seems like most people went

4:04

like kind of puzzle, like haunted

4:07

puzzles, like which I was like

4:09

really trap like consequences, which I

4:11

was super here for, love me

4:13

a good puzzle. And Letter Loss

4:15

continued that trend with the ring finger

4:17

room. Basically, the idea is when you

4:19

enter the room, you see all these

4:21

like large metal rings on the floor and

4:24

the rings are like. way bigger than something

4:26

you'd actually put on your hand, but

4:28

you see like one wall is a

4:30

mirror and through the mirror you can

4:32

see that there's like a gauntlet like

4:34

with the fingers extended and so the

4:37

idea is basically you figure out that

4:39

you can pick up the rings and

4:41

it's a ring-toss situation because when you

4:43

toss the rings through the mirror they

4:45

shrink down to the actual size and

4:47

can land on the hands so basically

4:49

you have to put the rings back

4:52

on the hand to complete the room

4:54

and I was like That's just a

4:56

really cool thing. Like one, very

4:58

tricky to figure out at first,

5:00

like for the players, but obviously

5:02

so satisfying once you do. And

5:04

you know, just getting that feeling

5:07

of like a carnival style game

5:09

right in the middle of this

5:11

dungeon, super neat. And then of

5:13

course they went with a haunted twist,

5:15

which I thought was very cool. So

5:18

once you put the rings on

5:20

the hand, it's revealed the full

5:22

figure that it's like a ghost bride

5:24

like creature thing through the mirror,

5:26

right? And the whole reason this

5:29

person was trapped, right, the bride

5:31

was there, it was because somebody

5:33

basically put one of the rings

5:36

on their fingers outside and then

5:38

pushed them through the mirror and

5:40

like... I was like, well, this is so

5:42

cool, whatever. And then the consequence, of

5:44

course, if you fail or not or

5:46

if you succeed, you might have a ghost

5:49

bride that haunts you and shows up

5:51

at short or long rests. And it's

5:53

like, oh, let's plan our wedding, darling.

5:55

And I'm like, this is so good. There

5:58

are just so many details in this.

6:00

that are just fantastic. Yeah, I think

6:02

there's something to be said about

6:04

the idea of, what is haunting

6:06

me? Yeah. But it often isn't

6:08

just like, no, you know, stabs,

6:10

attacks, ghostly, all these things. In

6:12

my mind, that's not really haunting.

6:14

Yeah. Just this ghost that shows

6:16

up sometimes when you sleep. and

6:18

ask when you're going to get

6:20

married. That's haunted. You are officially

6:22

haunted if that happens to you.

6:24

And that's the kind of thing

6:26

that you could set out on

6:28

these quests to go get rid

6:30

of. I think about, I mean,

6:32

you could tell from my background,

6:34

it's Rick and Mordee, but I

6:36

watched, it's like kind of my

6:38

go-to show of like throwing on,

6:40

but one of the scenes he's

6:43

there where he made basically an

6:45

AI of his wife that had

6:47

passed, that's always one room away.

6:49

to haunt him. Yeah. The voice

6:51

will never be in the room

6:53

that he's in and there's no

6:55

there's no holographic image. It's literally

6:57

like, hey Rick, how you doing?

6:59

Yeah. She's like, that's right Diane,

7:01

you're always one room away, wouldn't

7:03

be very good at haunting if

7:05

it wasn't. And so it's like,

7:07

yeah, like those kinds of like,

7:09

ha, you know, this, but I

7:11

also thought how interesting it would

7:13

be to layer those elements in

7:15

as they're trying to solve the

7:17

puzzle. during the puzzles during the

7:19

traps and letting like that be

7:21

more of the haunted element of

7:23

just in the moment and giving

7:25

me possibly like seeing a player

7:27

react a little bit more and

7:29

like letting that be disadvantaged yeah

7:31

or if they don't react like

7:33

even getting genuine reactions from the

7:35

players and choosing to give advantage

7:37

or disadvantage rather than even rolling

7:39

of just making those decisions. Yeah

7:41

or like would be really interesting

7:43

as if like to complete the

7:45

puzzle you know that whoever puts

7:47

that last ring like gets the

7:50

toss on there is going to

7:52

be the betrothed of the ghost

7:54

right and like you have to

7:56

solve the puzzle to like get

7:58

out of this but what's a

8:00

one of you has to step

8:02

up to the plate and basically

8:04

agree to be haunted right like making

8:06

that final toss so like what a

8:08

drama moment for the party like who

8:10

is gonna be that person is anyone

8:12

willing to do that or you know

8:15

not like that's a good that's a good

8:17

you know character development like who's

8:19

gonna take one for the team

8:21

moment yeah because one of the

8:24

main conceits of like the this small

8:26

dungeon was that in the central area

8:28

there is some ghostly haunted type figure

8:30

that basically is guarding the MacGuffin and

8:33

the only way you even get a

8:35

shot at the MacGuffin is to then

8:37

go solve all the riddles and traps

8:39

and everything. Defeat the rooms. Yeah, defeat

8:42

the five rooms and then go from

8:44

there. So it's like, yeah, someone has

8:46

to do it. Yeah, so yeah, fantastic.

8:48

Great, great job. Blood or lost. Did

8:51

you have one you wanted highlight deal?

8:53

So the one I want to highlight

8:55

is from Swordspear, and this focuses

8:57

on the middle finger, which is

8:59

a test of speed. So basically,

9:01

which I think is, I think it's

9:03

such a good AB connection that I

9:06

wouldn't have initially made of, like, it's

9:08

the longest room, make a test of

9:10

speed. And so everything looks like this

9:13

mosaic where, you know, wild birds, grass,

9:15

everything. and basically the original test is

9:17

small sign on the door says upon

9:20

entering the room you shall have ten

9:22

turns of the glass to unite mothers

9:24

and children thrice and basically you have

9:26

ten turns to locate three empty nests

9:29

that have tiles missing and then you

9:31

basically have to decide like what birds

9:33

and eggs and like basically you're

9:35

you're completing this mosaic and you

9:38

have ten turns to do it. Now

9:40

the haunted test is all of

9:42

the above, but as soon as

9:44

the characters touch a basket, the

9:47

door slams shut and the scenery

9:49

changes. The ground now includes mosaics

9:51

of pecked to death adventurers, and

9:53

the trees darken and become more

9:55

gnarled. And basically, you're just going

9:58

to get attacked by birds. the

10:00

entire time that you're trying to solve

10:02

this. You still have to basically put

10:04

the mombird and the eggs back together

10:07

to not end up like the adventurers

10:09

that you now see in the mosaics.

10:11

Which is... It's good. It's freaky. Very

10:14

Hitchcock. Yeah. Like... Yeah. All back. Depending

10:16

on your campaign, which is always a

10:18

great qualifier. I'd kill an NBC and

10:21

have them fall into the mosaic. Yeah.

10:23

Yeah, why not? Yeah. Or if you

10:25

had like a summoned creature or you

10:28

had a familiar or you had... Yeah,

10:30

I feel like a familiar would be

10:32

a really good choice because the player

10:35

has the ability to either... Yeah, they

10:37

can make a new one. Yeah, recast

10:39

the ritual, go through actions and things

10:42

like that, like, but having the birds

10:44

attack something that is most like them,

10:46

you know? typically your familiar is another

10:49

bird potentially or you know bat rat

10:51

cat anything that rhymes with it sat

10:53

the that's not it but but having

10:56

it morph into the mosaic yeah and

10:58

then the players just like oh no

11:00

oh just can't be good it's like

11:03

what if we solve it yeah go

11:05

back to the other scene and now

11:07

now what where I like to that

11:10

he specifically points out or they specifically

11:12

point out that the birds in the

11:14

haunted version they're all mummified eggs and

11:17

birds like in the in the paint

11:19

and I'm like that is just a

11:21

very scary and cool haunting image right

11:24

like you know these petrified fossil eggs

11:26

that you're returning to whatever I did

11:28

with this one though I was wondering

11:31

how you would like gamify it in

11:33

a way you know, add the mechanics

11:35

to make it work in the context

11:38

of a game, because I think, you

11:40

know, just, you could do things like

11:42

they suggest in here, kind of like,

11:45

maybe nature checks or something to identify

11:47

the birds. But I would, I would

11:49

probably make this like a full on

11:52

more like a puzzle, like you might

11:54

find an escape room or something, and

11:56

maybe have like, if you touch certain

11:59

eggs, you like, play a bird call

12:01

like an auditory bird call right and

12:03

then you have some pictures like printed

12:06

out you know from the internet of

12:08

different birds and you're linking them up

12:10

right like that that could be a

12:12

cool you know set a timer for

12:14

your players and then use audio visual

12:16

elements to make this happen. I

12:19

really really like that and also

12:21

because you have a term term. I mean, don't

12:23

get me wrong, I'd love to have

12:25

a discussion about term limits, but that's

12:27

not fun. But basically, you have turn

12:29

limits, so it's like, okay, cool, that's,

12:31

okay, now, what do you do? Is

12:33

it that they're figuring out how to

12:35

hand things off because, type constraints, is

12:37

someone distracting the birds, and that's what

12:39

they're choosing to do with their time,

12:41

and so like, I think you could,

12:43

like, with the visual elements and the

12:45

time restriction, that you could really have

12:47

a very fun room, And you can

12:50

keep it simple, right? You

12:52

know, because everybody knows what like

12:54

an owl sounds like versus like a

12:56

crow. You know, so just as long

12:58

as you don't get too tricky

13:00

with your with your picks,

13:02

unless you have an ornithologist

13:04

at your table, just don't

13:07

be too mean. Or your druid

13:09

player will feel bad that, you

13:11

know, because their characters should know

13:13

what that is, but if you'll,

13:16

who'll sense the same to most.

13:18

You have to figure out with

13:20

you. Oh my gosh. This is

13:22

what it sounds like when it's

13:25

flying. It's owls? Oh no, nothing. The

13:27

softest grain of wheat moving

13:29

across a table. Oh my

13:32

God. Well, I think we've

13:34

done it. I think those

13:36

are amazing. But that means

13:38

that you and I get

13:40

to lift the mental weights

13:43

right now. Lifting weights is

13:45

what I do. Look at me.

13:47

Lift these weights. Okay, I have

13:49

been inspired by swords beer by

13:51

taking the idea of the middle

13:53

figure being the longest and it

13:56

being a speed test. Now, opening

13:58

the door to the in... index

14:00

finger. Clearly, it needs to be lined

14:02

with shelves, books, books on them. Yeah,

14:05

those immediate, I was like indexing, intelligence,

14:07

heck yeah. So, yeah, because we've already,

14:09

like, there were some charisma elements to

14:11

the bride and the ring. This is

14:14

focused primarily on, this, the bird one

14:16

can focus on a ton of different

14:18

things. But I think speed is really

14:20

the factor that you're looking at the

14:23

most. Whereas this, yeah, intelligence, I think

14:25

is. really really good. So how are

14:27

we going to create a either a

14:30

puzzle, a trap? I mean, which I

14:32

know you're a huge fan of, so

14:34

I'm very excited to hear, like what

14:36

is an idea? And then obviously we'll

14:39

try and figure out the haunted element

14:41

for the index finger. So let's see,

14:43

with lots of books, there are a

14:45

lot of different things you can do,

14:48

but immediately my mind goes to like...

14:50

arranging, picking, finding the right books and

14:52

then arranging them in a particular way.

14:54

So something you could do is like,

14:57

you know, if you have a certain,

14:59

like word you need to fill in

15:01

or something, like it's like seven slots

15:03

or whatever, and you need to find

15:06

books that start with that letter, right,

15:08

like in some kind of phrase. So,

15:10

you know, you might have like a

15:13

random generator table of a bunch of

15:15

different, like book names, and then have

15:17

to have the players figure out that

15:19

they need a place. the books correctly

15:22

to get, you know, like, as easy

15:24

as guide to, you know, alphabet, you

15:26

know, is going to be your A,

15:28

right, in that spot. So you could

15:31

do that, or you could have to,

15:33

if you have, like, 20 books in

15:35

the room, they might need to arrange

15:37

them all, like, maybe find book titles

15:40

that start with the same letter and

15:42

end with the same letter as the

15:44

next book in the line. So that

15:47

way you could arrange them all in,

15:49

like a ritual circle that you need

15:51

to, or something like that. Okay, I'm

15:53

gonna try and find this. It may

15:56

take me a quick second, but there's

15:58

a game. Well, whatever. It's all nebulous.

16:00

All right, so. I watch Hank Green,

16:02

he approaches things in an interesting way

16:05

sometimes, and it comes up on my

16:07

YouTube page, not subscribe, well done YouTube,

16:09

algorithm, all that. Sometimes what he'll do

16:11

to like kind of like almost decompress

16:14

after like talking through, which is also

16:16

interesting that it's also content that he

16:18

has on the end of a video,

16:20

is he'll basically do like a wordle

16:23

style equivalent game where it is. a

16:25

bunch of words and you're trying to

16:27

select four of them and deciding why

16:29

they go together. Like so well, or

16:32

well, reverse that. You're deciding why they

16:34

go together and then you select four

16:36

of them and it will be like,

16:38

yeah, great job. Here's why they were

16:40

all together. And I think, you know, kind

16:42

of going off of the idea of

16:44

having like a visual element. Coming

16:46

up with even D&D or campaign

16:49

specific world specific ideas of like

16:51

NPCs or history or all of

16:53

these things and saying like okay

16:55

So which four do you think

16:58

go together? Yeah, and like matching

17:00

them and having it be that way

17:02

or even having like you said these

17:04

four are there So what's a fifth

17:06

one? Yeah, now that you've determined

17:08

or you think you've determined why these

17:10

four are together. What is a fifth

17:12

book? Okay, look through here are some

17:15

other book options that are either on

17:17

other shelves, on the floor, on a

17:19

table. Which book do you think you

17:21

could add to this to make it the

17:23

fifth? And of course. I mean, so then

17:25

what's a haunted element, I think, for

17:27

failure of any of the ideas that

17:29

we've put forth? Well, I think, I

17:31

mean, you often think when books like,

17:34

you know, poltergeist come to mind,

17:36

like throwing... stuff around a room so

17:38

maybe if that's the problem not only is

17:40

it just all these books you have to

17:42

do something with them but if they're

17:44

like being flung across the room and

17:46

like flying through the air and aggressively

17:49

pummeling you maybe you have to like you

17:51

have to fight and restrain you know the book

17:53

so it makes it that much harder to one

17:55

see what they are and then also contain

17:57

wringle them so it kind of gives

17:59

your your strength and you know speed

18:01

people something to do while your brain

18:03

acts are sitting there maybe actually doing

18:06

the puzzle and other people are literally

18:08

catching the haunted books that are trying

18:10

to escape or you have the books

18:12

opening up and like screaming and doing

18:14

psychic nonsense. I like a reordering as

18:16

well of just like a thing that

18:19

like even success or failure like you

18:21

did it. And now you got to,

18:23

you know, here, step two and just,

18:25

blah, everything just starts reordering on all

18:27

the shelves. It would be so great.

18:29

If the puzzle was like, here we

18:31

go, and they think they solved it

18:34

right, and they put the books in

18:36

place, and then immediately when they put

18:38

them in place, if they don't take

18:40

steps to hold the books down, the

18:42

books fly back apart, whatever. And like

18:44

you, so basically, okay, you solved it,

18:46

but. You need to find a way

18:49

to solve it and then also keep

18:51

the books from moving. Like, you know,

18:53

I have enough of you to hold

18:55

them down or like a rain, you

18:57

know, strap them down somehow or something.

18:59

Or, oh, oh my God, what if

19:01

you had a ghost, like a librarian

19:04

ghost and you had to do it

19:06

in complete silence? And that was the

19:08

thing. And anybody who talked was like

19:10

lost their life or got like false

19:12

touched or whatever. So you as players

19:14

cannot talk to each other to solve

19:16

the puzzle. all you can do is

19:19

like write notes or whatever and any

19:21

noises you make and somebody is getting

19:23

you know dragged to hell. You make

19:25

it now that you like you unlocked

19:27

a piece of my brain that like

19:29

I'm ultimately excited and just insanely frustrated

19:31

about is that the idea of adding

19:34

quickly adding in either physical or digital

19:36

elements to help you play the game.

19:38

So you've unlocked a piece of my

19:40

brain and one of the ones that

19:42

I was thinking of that you could

19:44

physically do, especially if you're not talking,

19:46

it's called the mind. So it's a

19:49

game where you basically, depending on how

19:51

many players you have, you're dealing out

19:53

a certain number of cards. And when

19:55

we start the game, what collectively we

19:57

as a group need to do is

19:59

lay them. down in numeric order. But

20:01

we have to do it without talking. And

20:04

if we, let's say, I throw down a

20:06

five, but in the next one, you

20:08

throw down a 20 because you think,

20:10

oh, maybe that's close enough because it's

20:13

one to 100. But then another person

20:15

had a 15. Well, you lose a

20:17

life. Yeah. Oh, and then obviously

20:19

in this context, you would

20:21

set up some negative element,

20:23

but it's all through not

20:25

nonverbal verbal cues. Yeah. And you're

20:27

just trying to get a good vibe.

20:29

Everyone's just like doing nothing. Trying to

20:31

use hand signals to figure it out,

20:33

you know, somehow, yeah. But it also

20:35

has positive elements where you have certain

20:38

things where you can like cancel things

20:40

out or just like throw something down

20:42

and like everyone stops. You like kind

20:44

of talk about your, you can talk

20:46

a little bit and then like one

20:48

person definitely sets down the next one

20:50

and then you start again. So there's

20:52

a lot of those. You know, it

20:54

took me a while. It's called Connections.

20:56

That's the other game with Hank Green

20:58

that I was talking about, where basically

21:00

you're trying to put four groups of four

21:03

together. And each of the four groups

21:05

is, you have basically, one of the

21:07

groups should be the easiest and then

21:09

it would go through that. But basically

21:11

that would be another really interesting way

21:13

to do it, where you have them

21:15

either play connections, because like this one

21:17

that I pulled up is like connections

21:19

number 603. And like none of these. None

21:21

of these are real world like

21:23

so if you're not trying to

21:25

break that particular piece of immersion

21:27

is little wedge snap screw zing

21:29

like none of these are names

21:32

of characters sometimes that happens just

21:34

choose another one hit refresh you'll

21:36

be fine so yeah there's so

21:38

many options yeah man house like

21:40

I just I love the visual of

21:42

describing this like you know the

21:44

players characters running around the room

21:47

doing their best and right away

21:49

you had the scary ghost like first

21:51

thing into the room the like moment

21:53

right and like that feeling of silence

21:55

and then that ghost like sitting there

21:58

with a bloody you know like or

22:00

something right where the books are.

22:02

I was like just waiting for

22:04

somebody to mess up. Like so

22:06

good. Has such so good horror

22:09

movie. Yes. Like that's what I

22:11

think of like the like I

22:13

enjoy watching that genre. I know

22:15

not everyone does. So again, no,

22:18

your players know your table. But

22:20

the idea of like that jump

22:22

scare or there's just that haunting

22:24

moment. Like it's there staring you,

22:26

you're doing the thing. something stripping

22:29

and they're just like face to

22:31

face. Oh my god, or you

22:33

could do a, oh now I'm

22:35

good now I'm just gonna I'm

22:38

just gonna design these puzzles now.

22:40

It would be so cool if

22:42

you had if the books like

22:44

your information about them you know

22:46

when you touched on it opened

22:49

up and had like an Edward

22:51

Gorey style like little you know

22:53

this is how ex person died

22:55

like. Susie died of pneumonia, right?

22:58

And like, whatever. And then it's

23:00

those words, right, that are giving

23:02

you the things. And just the

23:04

gruesome ways adventures have been, like,

23:06

murdered is what you're seeing on

23:09

the pages. Oh. Okay. Is this,

23:11

we'll put a bow on this

23:13

with this last terrible choice where

23:15

the Wizards spellbook. gets haunted and

23:18

the strength grows with each cast.

23:20

Yeah. And eventually. It becomes sentient.

23:22

Horrible. Messed up. Something emerges forth

23:24

from it. Cool. Cool. Terrible index

23:27

finger of dew. It is the

23:29

point. This is the it's the

23:31

pull finger used for finger of

23:33

death and all the other ones.

23:35

So it makes sense that this

23:38

one would have to be the

23:40

most messed up one, right? Yeah.

23:42

All I have to say like,

23:44

and I don't, we didn't really

23:47

like. The big Maccuffin is kind

23:49

of the thing, but I would

23:51

also definitely have some carrots at

23:53

the end of all these terrible

23:55

sticks that we've made and having

23:58

library is a very easy way

24:00

to do that, especially. I mean,

24:02

that feels really manipulative to some

24:04

degree. I'm like, you found these

24:07

brand new spells. Oh, well, I'd

24:09

love to add them. my smell,

24:11

but I bet you would. Of

24:13

course you would. You fool. Why

24:15

do you keep saying that in

24:18

their tone? No reasons. I'm fine.

24:20

Chase your bliss. Yay! But of

24:22

course if you enjoyed this episode

24:24

as much as I think we

24:27

did in making it Then you

24:29

could always head over to your

24:31

pod catcher of choice leave a

24:33

rating and review Or on the

24:35

street as it helps and of

24:38

course if you want to email

24:40

us about any of the trap

24:42

ideas Especially haunted ones that you've

24:44

made you can always email us

24:47

at dungeon Master block@gmail.com And of

24:49

course if you head over to

24:51

social medias and I am at

24:53

C. Conowich. Go find us. We're

24:56

searchable. It's fine. Yeah. But as

24:58

always, a huge thank you of

25:00

the Bard's over on Bombarded. For

25:02

our intro and outro music, you

25:04

can find more about what they're

25:07

doing at Bombardedcast.com. But rather than

25:09

let these mythical gains go. Yes.

25:11

So I have something to talk

25:13

about that is... a really really

25:16

cool and interesting TTRPG that has

25:18

really struck my husband's fancy and

25:20

particularly lately and the more I

25:22

hear about it the cooler it

25:24

is and so I'm holding it

25:27

right now it's called Ultraviolet Grasslands

25:29

in the Black City written by

25:31

Luca Rijek and this book is

25:33

just a wild wild like campaign

25:36

setting slash setting that if you

25:38

ever enjoyed anything even vaguely like

25:40

spell jammer ask or like outland

25:42

style with a little bit of

25:44

like alien weird kind of dreamy

25:47

strange expressionist scenery and locations like

25:49

this is the book for you

25:51

what it has in there it's

25:53

really basic mechanic system that you

25:56

can use or not as you're

25:58

going through but the heart of

26:00

this book is just incredibly strange

26:02

and

26:05

interesting

26:08

settings

26:11

and just

26:13

like truly a masterful.

26:16

collection of great locations

26:18

to add if you're

26:21

running any kind of

26:24

like wasteland style game

26:26

or this would be

26:29

great for anything like a

26:31

free marches style campaign that's

26:33

heavy on exploration and just

26:35

like visiting interesting game elements like

26:38

check out this book no

26:40

matter what system you're running

26:42

this is a great great

26:44

stop for imaginary dreamy fodder

26:46

if you're creating games and

26:48

other planes or entirely new

26:50

worlds. Highly recommend. So again,

26:52

that was ultraviolet grasslands and

26:54

the Black City. And seriously,

26:56

just do yourself a favor and

26:58

check out some of the art. just

27:00

online of this book. It's gorgeous. Did

27:02

you find it, Neil? Are you getting

27:05

some of the... Holy cow. Yeah. A

27:07

series that it makes me think of,

27:09

which is super popular, Real Bomb did

27:11

only got one season so far, fingers

27:14

crossed, it makes me think of Scavenger's

27:16

reign. Yeah. As really, like... really interesting

27:18

vibes of just stuff that is truly

27:20

alien like I just you know opened

27:23

this up the forest of meat is

27:25

the name of one of these locations

27:27

in here you know all the rules

27:29

for like running a caravan lots of

27:32

random tables for interesting treasures

27:34

and trinkets caravan quests just

27:36

all kinds all kinds of

27:38

really great stuff talking about

27:40

like system agnostic like how you

27:43

can introduce things like undead or

27:45

alien creatures or you know half

27:48

people have beasts like a

27:50

lot of good theory and

27:52

inspiration that applies to all systems.

27:54

So these are so one of the

27:56

things that like I think goes to

27:58

the heart of like. why Celeste and

28:00

I bring these things up is like

28:03

there could be something in here that

28:05

changes the way you game? Yep. Forever.

28:07

Yeah. And again, worst case scenario, you

28:10

figure out stuff you don't want to

28:12

do. Oftentimes of the book, like you

28:14

just read a book cover to cover.

28:17

fun fact everyone that's how books are

28:19

intended yeah i don't need to get

28:21

into it but the idea that like

28:23

i'm just looking at excerpts and one

28:26

of the options is bio magical corruption

28:28

yes their corruption and their magic mechanics

28:30

are so interesting yeah like the idea

28:33

of just adding that to like a

28:35

portion of a campaign because you've gone

28:37

into an area that magic is broken

28:40

or like you add that to your

28:42

entire campaign just the world itself but

28:44

basically exposure to failed spells dangerous magic

28:46

random ghosts and mutagenic blights source corruption

28:49

bilemancers vote and like these are all

28:51

the options of like why this could

28:53

happen yeah roll on the table and

28:56

you see what happens they have lots

28:58

of also just like beautiful neutral maps

29:00

to and locations so they're like here's

29:03

like a planned route and you know

29:05

six locations that would be great along

29:07

it and that's perfect for like a

29:10

party that is traveling from place A

29:12

to place B and you want to

29:14

spice things up with some interesting highly

29:16

magical or you know sci-fi-esque encounters like

29:19

it really is just a trove of

29:21

brilliant ideas and imagination. 2024, any nominee,

29:23

and if you wanted just the PDF

29:26

30 bucks, and if you wanted the

29:28

PDF and the print, it's 50. The

29:30

layout is truly beautiful, truly beautiful book.

29:33

Link over to that on exalted funeral,

29:35

unless I can find a more direct

29:37

link, which is often what I try

29:39

and do to. as best support the

29:42

creator as possible. This may be our

29:44

best bet, but yeah, there'll be a

29:46

link in the show notes to go

29:49

check this out. And Silas just made

29:51

50 of my dollars go away. It's

29:53

so cool. It's like really, he's reading

29:56

it like every night and ever is

29:58

like, Look at this location. I'm like,

30:00

that's so cool. And then it keeps

30:03

doing it. I'm like, how can a

30:05

book up this much cool stuff in it?

30:07

Yeah, it's also why like literally right next

30:09

to me is World's Beyond Time, Sci-Fi, art

30:11

of the 1970s. I've talked about it before,

30:13

but like that's the same thing. Like just

30:15

having a book of art to get inspired

30:18

is huge. It's a good, good. And this

30:20

one also has mechanics mechanics. Yep. But with

30:22

that, we'll turn out the lights. We'll

30:24

head out of the gym, but before

30:26

we go, I want to implore you,

30:28

the listener, to join the forums, the

30:31

discord, Twitter, and anywhere else you can

30:33

find, us, and take part in these

30:35

challenges, exercises, and other amazing conversations

30:37

being had. To do that, head over

30:39

to bit.Y slash DM Bantur, and try

30:42

some gymnastics, sir players don't ask.

30:44

Do you even lived?