With the advent of the Year of the Manticore RPG campaign, members are encouraged to create a character to play over the course of the year, both through speechwriting and delivery, and on Game Nights dedicated to moving the narrative forward. For those interested in creating a playable character, we’ve created a tutorial for building Fifth Edition characters, using the free tools provided by D&D Beyond.

Continue reading Creating a 5E Character…

2022-2023 is known as the “Year of the Manticore,” wherein members of the Dungeons & Toast guild must band together to recover the Orb of Davras — a legendary artifact said to grant fantastical oratory powers to anyone who possesses it — from the hoard of the elusive Manticore of Sword Mountains. Along the way, there will be opportunities to improve your skills, perform heroic feats, and develop friendships with those numbered among your companions!

View the backstory:

Learn about the mechanics:

Learn more about the Lost Lair of the Manticore campaign.

Any good magician, any good story, will leave you entranced and enchanted. The past 15 months as the guild master (club president) for this amazing guild, full of amazing guild members, has been magical. It is my hope that your experience in the guild (club), whether as guild member (club member), party leader (club officer, sponsor, or mentor), or visiting dignitary and guest, has entranced and enchanted you.

It’s been an honor and a privilege to serve as the guild’s guild master. I was adamant that the role of guild master was one that I was uninterested in, as I saw what was involved. Until the Dungeons & Toast masters of toast (Toastmasters) guild came along, that is. That opened me to to new possibilities, new horizons, new adventures. All I had to hear was that a new guild for fans of RPGs was starting and I was in.

In an instant, my no transformed as if by magic, into a yes. I’ve had the good fortune to work with some of the best party leaders a guild master could ask for; masters in their own right. The Sacred Scroll stored in a place of honor in the guild house contains their names; it is long, and ever growing as it should be, and includes–Hovey Y., Ryan K., Kelly S., Greg S., Andrew B., Michael H., Loni H., Jeremy K., Arbind R., Yanini C., Matthew G., and Michael C.

There are many people to thank, and many awesome memories to share. Too many to fit on this small scroll. Special shout outs to Stephanie H., Greg S., Loni H., Andrew B., and Michael C., for helping with our special themed guild meetings; shout outs likewise to Greg S. and Loni H., for our fabulous guest speakers.

Thank you to Loni H., Hovey Y., Cathy B., Michael H., and Greg S., for bringing our aetheral communication machine to life (our wonderful club website).

I also want to bring attention to our guild champion in our lord’s yearly verbal joust (Toastmasters speech contest): Andrew B., who advanced far and made it to the district speech contest, and did himself and the guild proud. Kelly S., also competed in the verbal joust, albeit for another club. Kelly did a great job, one that deserves to be recognized, regardless of what club she competed in. Fantastic job Andrew and Kelly!

Team Awesome–aka the Magnificent Seven–Greg S., Andrew B., Michael H., Loni H., Jeremy K., Arbind R., Yanini C., Matthew G., and Michael C., all were party leaders par excellence.

And to you, my fellow guild members, all treasured members of this guild, go my many thanks. You make this guild run. You make it fun. It is by and for you. Thank you for being excellent in so many ways.

I’ve had the time of my life and had more fun in the role than I ever thought I would. I’ve leveled repeatedly in ways that I never imagined I would, or needed to.

Thank you all for taking this journey with me.

When I served as a local lord (Area Director) of an area in the masters of toast realm, my Division Director, a woman of great foresight and wisdom once said to me, “We leave the division better than we found it.” When I apply that statement to our guild, I’d say we did just that in the fist 15 months of our existence as an official guild. (Eighteen months, if you count the chartering period.)

I ask you to look back and remember all of the fun we had. And to look ahead at all of the fun we’re going to have in the new masters of toast year (Toastmasters), that starts on July 1. More on this, I cannot say, as I am sworn to secrecy. Come to our July 8 guild meeting and you will learn what quests and adventures lie in store for you!

I now prepare to pass the mantle of leadership and the mighty, magical guild gavel to our next guild master–Andrew B., as I level up and ascend into a new position of leadership–that of Immediate Past Guild Master (Immediate Past President).

Until our paths next cross, guild members, guests, dignitaries–friends–stay safe, remember that “It’s dangerous to go alone (The Legend of Zelda)”, so take trusted guild members with you, and may your sword be as sharp as your wit. Always. If you ever need help, blow the Horn of Gondor and I shall be there.

Patrick V.

Guild master

Invisible Sun is a completely unique RPG by Monte Cook Games. The game is designed  from the ground up to be not only sandbox style, but to encourage collaborative world building. 

The world is surreal, has ubiquitous magic, all players can use magic in their own way and mysteries hide in every corner.

Session Zero for the game involves collaboratively creating neighborhoods, potential plot hooks and goals for each person playing in the game. The first part of this process, the creation of each player’s neighborhood, is done by brainstorming ideas for neighbors, points of interest and problems for the neighborhood–the person whose neighborhood it is picks off the list of ideas, and so creates their own neighborhood.

The June 3, 2022 Table Topics was to recreate this process for a single neighborhood, with each speaker identifying one element. Instead of a single phrase, though, the speakers spent 1-2 minutes elaborating on the element.

As promised, I am posting the results (as best as I could capture them writing in real-time) of that session here. Also as promised, these are being entered into my World Anvil world building site as canon elements that can be encountered in the two Invisible Sun games I run.

The first three volunteers were prompted to think of a person who would fit the neighborhood, and who live near the player’s own house. The next two speakers described the points of interest, strange behaviors or other elements that build out the spirit of the neighborhood itself. The next prompt was for someone to describe a problem that is occurring in the neighborhood. In each instance, the speakers had to come up with their own ideas but also listened to what others were saying, and created something that “fit” the collaborative neighborhood.

Normally the neighborhood-building would end there, but I added two additional prompts (to allow two additional speakers) where people described interesting features of the player’s house. Normally, these details would be filled in by the player themselves or would come out during play–but it worked to have them crowd-sourced.

Left Neighbor

It’s not technically left. This is an MC Escher neighborhood, so left isn’t really left. You end up somewhere else. The “first” neighbor looks sort of like a gnome but never stays constant. He always knows where he’s going, and he’s a good source of information and directions. As long as you follow the directions, you end up where you want to go. Maybe he’s a map maker? His directions worked beautifully last time, but you couldn’t get home before the ice cream melted.

Right Neighbor

Bob. He “gets” the world and especially the Escheresque neighborhood. He’s incredibly forgetful,  never seeming to remember what he discovered the day before. In any case, it’s hard to get any information out from Bob. People have learned that Bob can be tracked. If you see and follow Bob, he’ll always get you back home.

Across Neighbor

Whether you can walk there or not, if you stand on the player’s yard, you see a beautiful well-maintained 3-car garage. The whole neighborhood knows that Matigan owns the house. Mail arrives addressed to Mr. Matigan. Punctually At 7:55am, he’s driving away to work. At 5:05, he returns home. 

He’s not interesting. What’s interesting is that if he leaves at 7:55, then at 8am the animals start moving towards his house. His cats jump the fence. The rats go along small paths through the  fence. The birds fly over. The dogs wander around the outside. By 4:30, the yard is covered in neighborhood animals. At 4:55, they start to leave, and are gone by 5:05.

Neighborhood Feature #1

A babbling brook. I mean literally babbling. All the property values are worse. Worse than living next to a train yard. Sometimes it gets a little profane, sticking 4 letter words into its babble. It does have the most delicious water, from the magical mountains. It’s not all bad. Or they would have long ago damned it up. (h/t to whoever quipped “Tourette’s tributaries” after the speaker finished.)

Neighborhood Feature #2

As you travel through the seen and unseen. Things come in and leave, but they all feel the tickle. This thing is here, and in our heads, and passing through. It doesn’t map on any senses we know. It maps to others, unknowable, with either a capital H or R in the name. There seems no rhyme or reason. It delights tickling all the wrong places. When you want to have a pet, it’s somewhere else. They might actually know what’s going on in the slithering thoughts between the thoughts.

Neighborhood Problem

It used to be so easy to get around the neighborhood. For the last few months there have been problems. People drive, and their cars disappear in the walls of the canal. When people try to use their narrow boats the canal becomes a road. We need to get control of our transport. Just get what you wish and get the roads and airstrips working again.

House Secret #1

I move here. I can concoct my adventures here. There’s another door and another door, and then I’m back in the original door. Or is it? Everything on the left is on the right. I must have gone into a mirror dimension. Everything that’s in the house is normal. Everything is normal including this…wait, I’m not a wizard. There are secret lizard people that know about this!

House Secret #2

The House has a whispering willow. Like a weeping willow tree but when you stand underneath it or if you find one of its leaves it will whisper a secret or piece of gossip the tree heard in the neighborhood

Last night, Dungeons & Toast celebrated a successful, fun-filled year with an end-of-year retrospective, presented by Guild Master Patrick. If you had to miss last night’s meeting, we invite you to check it out below!

Last night, Dungeons & Toast was honored to host author and world-builder BH Pierce for an open house event. BH shared lessons he’s learned over years serving as a convention panelist on topics such as fiction-writing, game mastery, and world-building. You can view his speech below:

Follow author BH Pierce on Twitter at @BHPierce203. Purchase one of his two book series at Amazon.

Charter member Michael H shares his “5 Ws” approach to writing and world-building on the Graph Paper Architect YouTube channel. Learn how to make “Bill the Blacksmith” more than just a pretty face.

Hear the harrowing tale of Uggh (pronounced like the furry winter boots, not the sound you make when eating vegetables) who saves his fellow orc-kin from a fate most unsavory.

To recognize Friday, May 13th, our meeting was themed for Voudon, the syncretic religion commonly associated with West Africa, Haiti, and New Orleans. Recruitment Master Andrew B. delivered used the occasion to deliver a Voodoo-themed eulogy in honor of one of our two Guild Patrons, Ryan K (who is not, as needs to be said, actually dead).

This approximately 3-minute speech was given as a project within Visionary Communication, Level 3: Deliver Social Speeches.