I started with Heroquest Too ;-) great game

Barbarian vampire hunter?

You should cosplay as Gale from Baldur's Gate

I love the determination you have expressed in this video, Esper. Keep at it! We support you.

Your NPC expressions are great! Great way to exemplify what you explained ^_^

This reminds me of one of my favorite NPC’s I’ve ever made. His name was Kali Stonecutter a dwarven cleric of the god of compassion in my setting. The players met him while he was undercover investigating a demon cult. He was making moonshine in a tub on the ship he was crewing and happily shared it with the party. The party ended up shipwrecked with him when a kraken trashed the ship they were on. After escaping the island he became a recurring character in the campaign.

Great approach!

Good job as always, Esper. So, early in your TTRPG history you played a PC who was good to a Kobold and the Kobold was good to you. No wonder you have a soft spot for monstrous heroes. If I knew any decently behaved monsters, I would tell them about you.

I figured out what is so out of place with the 5E Deep Dragon art: It's clearly inspired by the more caricatured anime dragon designs. While it's fine to use narrative and setting tropes from anime in D&D, never ever should the anime visual art style be copied. For visuals either you go all-in by using the anime art style for every piece of art, or don't use anime art style at all. Sneaking in little pieces of anime here and there destroys the visual cohesion of the work.

Wonderful wonderful video. I'm making plans to run a short campaign in my own setting with one player in the near future, and this will help tremendously.

You should make videos of you reading your short stories again. I know you have more. Your stories from many years ago are epic

I remember fighting my way to the bottom of a dungeon and meeting an angry looking edgelord knight, expecting a boss fight. He introduced himself as Brian the Brutal, then headbutted a hole in the back wall of the dungeon and ran off into the sunset, never to be seen again. Anticlimactic? Yes. Iconic? Also yes.

I wasn't the biggest fan of 13th Age from a combat mechanics perspective, but it DID have some things that I absolutely loved. One, a character's One Unique Thing. I just think it's a great idea, especially for players. And you were encouraged to get a little out there with them. Two, replacing skills with backgrounds. It's a great way to merge character backstory with capability. Mechanics and Roleplay working hand in hand. But third, and what applies to this conversation, are the Icons. The Icons are famous, very powerful people in the game world. I think there's 12 of them. Each character has ties to one or more Icons. Maybe not directly; it could be through the Icon's institutions, for example (maybe you stole something from a temple, or fought with a war band, etc.) Could be positive or negative. And before each session you'd roll some dice and see if that connection would come up at some point during play, or you could utilize that connection. If you had a negative association with The Archmage, for example, some of his acolytes might try to foil your plans in some way. Or, if you needed help, you could use your negative association to get on the good side of other people who are enemies of The Archmage. Things like that. I'm probably not explaining it all that well... If you have the spare $20 or so, though, worth buying the 13th Age PDF and giving it a read. Anyway, it helped add some influence from a strong NPC into almost every session, and it was reinforced mechanically, not just via story. Really nice bit of work that made the game feel a little more alive.

Great tear names.

[13:18] interesstingly that is exactly how I note down my NPCs. Except for alignment - I did not consider this information until now.

Love this. Im going to be starting a campaign with my nices and nephews around the age of 9 and i think i should be making memorable and important npcs instead of just focusing on treasure, combat, and exp.

I appreciate you Esper.

Serendipitous encounter is awesome.

I'd have that Tyrant Dragon meet a true Conqueror. Bellona: Warforged Krieger (Homebrew race designed constructed for all out war) Chaotic Evil, Paladin (Oath of Conquest), Worshiper of Tiamat. Along with her Corrupted Round Table, I'm sure the Tyrant would be the one bending the knee.

I don't know how many people agree but I for one would love to see the next big project after Monstrous Heros be an official WEAPON CYBORG core rulebook lol

That quote at the beginning was perfect! I always thought with the few short stories I've read of his that he makes you love one character then kills that one off

You had me at HeroQuest

NPCs in our Kickstarter Khor The World of Many Portals are all reincarnations of past NPCS. What better way to "flavor" NPCS than to make their backstories as reincarnations? The possibilities are endless.

What do you feel about the Dungeon Dude's setting Drakkenheim? It's very faction driven and has very strong NPCs. It definitely is a good source for inspiration.

Comment, sub and thumb him if you think jarlaxyl was the s***.

Great day for fishin' innit? We must save my family!

Hello

Purple in 3e/3.5 us different then deep dragon and it is far more powerful then a deep dragon.

Me

OMG do this a lot of fkin elves

How to horrify your players in 3...2...21Minutes.

I love your content.

I like the Flumpf for the Niche it fills. If you do not like the Visual, just reskin Nothing wrong with the Modrons. If you don't like R2-D2 from Star Wars, well...that's like...your Opinion, man! Manes have Stats because they are the lowest of the Demons. They are the Commoners ofthe Abyss. Don't want to fight Commoners? Don't use them. Yeti Tykes are Baby Yeti to give you moral Quandry. They should not be on this List. Guards - finally a valid Point. Grunks - see Flumpfs Tortle - valid The Visuals of the Giff is awefull. But the Rest is solid. Gnome Ceremorph - I am happy that I don't even know this Thing. And the Owlbear is your worst Monster? Oh come on! Here is my list: (best worst to worst worst) Hill Giant Ettin (better in D&D 3.5) Quaggoth Oblex (all of them) Star Spawn (all of them) Eidolon Tortle

Best thing about WOTC D&D, you can toss 95% of it in the bin and still craft an excellent campaign. Thanks again Esper, great choices Buddy, however; - I saw a pic in a module book some time ago, it was of a Cleric Tortle. Thing is, this was a "Snapping Turtle" styled critter and it looked terrifying! - I threw Grung at my Party of PCs during a Chult Jungle expedition once. Damn near a TPK. They actually look remarkably like their true namesakes, Poison Tree Frogs and are great for jungle encounters. Some of their Stats are truly impressive and in a group, are tricky for PCs to manage. :)

What we need is 'Tamer' that works like Ash Catchum

Thanks so very much once again, Esper. It's so sad that WOTC has nerf-bat most poison in the game so hard. Either everyone is immune/resistant to it, or it's now pathetically weak even if it does hit. Whatever... Anyway, love the focus on the low-level mobs for encounters., it can be real tricky for a DM to craft intro level beasties that won't intimidate new players. These certainly help. I feel level-2 beasties would benefit from so exploiting as well, since it can be by next session some PCs have leveled at this stage, so DMs need to be quick on their feet this early. Thanks again dear Sir. :)

A lot of the shortcomings in racial benefits could be improved or diminished in the same way a lot of players write in personal flaws; homebrew. Our Aaracokra Fighter asked our DM if he could flavor his bird to be a penguin instead of a flight capable bird, giving him a swim speed instead of flying and a bonus action straight line slide that was 50ft. My wife really digs Dragonborns, but thought they'd be more traditional Laimia/Naga like, so instead of taking Yuan-ti, she asked our DM to let her flavor her Dragonborn to just be a half cobra lady, which he allowed. Just flavor stuff. Change stuff around. RAW is more like GAW [Guidelines as written]. The very beginning of the PHB and the DMG both say the rules in the books are merely suggestions, and to play how you feel is best for you.