Hello, and welcome the first-ever issue of LoreMasters! This newsletter is going to be your regular source of inspirations, ideas, and homebrew for your TTRPG games. Each issue I'm going to be bringing you a veritable Heroes Feast of items, spells, podcasts, streams, Kickstarters, and STUFF, so if you like this, please subscribe and pass it on to your close friends and distant relatives.
The main part of each issue is going to be some homebrew from me to you. I’m going to hopefully spend some time to explain the thought process behind the design, what I’m aiming for. If you’ve got any questions or need any clarification, please shoot me a message on Twitter.
The Eith Wand Of Balance
The kobolds had them cornered, their calls and hoots echoing down the stone corridors, coming from all directions and none…
Razira hunched over the bleeding form of Saca, pulling a small wand from her pocket, “Hold on…I’ve got this…”
She touches the wand to her arm, a dark stain spreading up and into her sleeves, her eyes hollowing out. With a sudden jerk, she pulls it free, reeling in the movement.
With a grunt, she pushes it into Saca’s neck, his wounds knitting themselves together, his breathing slowing, “C’mon, get up, we’ve got to get out yet…”
The Eith Wand Of Balance
Wand, Uncommon (requires attunement)
While attuned to this wand, as an action you can take 2d6 damage and heal an adjacent creature of the same amount. Both the healing and the damage happen at the same time, and any reduction of the damage reduces the healing as well.
If the damage knocks you unconscious, the healing still applies, but only up to the amount that took your HP to 0.
The Eith wand is intended to be a low-level magical item for your players, offering some simple and small healing for any player. But I didn’t want to be as basic as that. 2d6 is a solid heal, and to make that available without spell slots would likely be game-breaking.
So the balance is added, that healing also hurts the healer. This aims to add some complexity to the decision, at lower levels 2d6 is just as likely to gravely injure the healer, so this makes the risk/reward for the action far more volatile.
This is something I try to find wherever I can with my games - risky and unsure decisions - it helps to keep combat less of a rote experience.
If you find a place at your table for The Wand, let me know how it goes!
Shows To Check Out
Along with my homebrew of the issue, I’m also going to be spending some time looking at other things out there in the community. These may be podcasts, streams, other published adventures, Kickstarters, and so on. If you have something you’d like to me check out, get in touch!
And for my first week, two excellent podcasts for your earholes.
Spirits On Tap
If we’re all honest, D&D hasn’t got a great record for handling Asian settings.
It’s not even got a passable record.
And that’s why it’s a delight to see the community stepping into the gaps left, and bringing their real-world experience to bear. Anna S is half-Korean and you can feel that in the world she creates, it seems alive with sounds and smells, the food, in particular, is so evocative.
But that’s not to say the players are slacking either. All three have crafted distinct and memorable characters with Atonement From Sin a personal favourite.
The audio can be a little rough in places, but there is a lot of gold beyond that.
Where To Start - Episode One: Arrival At Malang
Merely Roleplayers
Merely Roleplayer has been a wonderous show for me. I was brought up almost entirely in the D&D ecosystem, from 3rd, to 3.5, to 4th (which I’ll defend to the hilt), and now to 5th, but this show really showed me about moving beyond that. Their first season (The Blackshaw Saga) ran on Powered By The Apocalypse, with season 2 embracing all manner of systems, predominantly Monster Of The Week. There is something for any games master to learn from all systems, and whilst this newsletter is going to be about 5th Edition D&D for the most part, you can be certain that some of the inspirations are going to be coming from other systems.
But that isn’t to say the show is just educational, being played by theatre professionals, it is equal parts hilarious and heartfelt, with the rotating cast of players always chasing the drama.
Where To Start - They say to start at Any Act One, but I’d honestly suggest the start of Cold Snap in Season 2, really is the show firing on all cylinders.
And that’s it! See you next time…