To help mitigate the difficulty of running RPG games with parties in which members are of significantly different level, we are pleased to announce a few changes to the Lost Lair of the Manticore system.

1. Guild Level: A new statistic called Guild Level is calculated using an average of all active members’ total XP and mapped against the level progression for an individual member. For the purposes of participating in Game Night, members whose in-guild character is of a lower level than the calculated Guild Level can instead choose to play their character at the higher level. The goal for this change is to make it easier on GMs trying to balance their games for a specific target. In a roleplay sense, higher level party members provide an Aura of Advancement to their compatriots, through the supportive nature of membership in Dungeons & Toast.
2. Magic Item Progression: To ensure members have the opportunity to acquire magic items uniformly and without having to participate in specific Game Night sessions, 5E magic items (separate from those listed in the Magic Item Shop and not requiring the expenditure of XP to purchase) are now available for selection at levels 3, 5, 7, and 9. Item quality is limited to common and uncommon rarities and are available to select as follows:

During the month of July and August, guild members participated in two playthroughs of the Lost Things pre-adventure as part of our annual RPG campaign event, the Lost Lair of the Manticore. Over the course of two game nights members created and played child versions of their grown 5E Forgotten Realms characters, partaking of the wonders and magic — sometimes dark, sometimes light — of the Witchlight Carnival.

[campaign_stories_list event_slugs=”game-night-et-track-2022-07-29,lost-things-encore-session-2022-08-22″]

While a write-up like the ones above is strictly optional, each author earns a special achievement for having put forth the effort:

Beyond the Board (Written)
Spirit Quest

88 Gold

Submit a writeup of one of the games within the annual TTRPG campaign or additional world-building material (with approval).

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• Publish a story.

10 Things I Like and Dislike

On September 7, Dungeons & Toast banded together to raid Brewmeisters, another Toastmasters Club that happens to count guild members Kelly and Cliff as members. This also happened to be the first time I attended a Toastmaster meeting in person. With that in mind, I thought I’d do a little write-up of my raid experience. Hat-tip to my favorite basketball writer, Zach Lowe, who utilizes the “10 Things” format to help organize his thoughts in an easy to consume manner.

1. Reconnecting with old friends

The president of Brewmeisters happens to be an old friend of mine and seeing Tom was such a pleasant piece of happenstance I was already halfway in the deep end to loving the meeting strictly for the opportunity to reconnect.

2. Getting old

Alas, reconnecting with Tom made me realize that I have not played basketball since before the pandemic. While those who are not inclined to participate in said sportsball activity, the sad truth is that your basketball life goes something like this:

Stage 1: Play because it’s fun
Stage 2: Play to compete
Stage 3: Play to stay in shape
Stage 4: Stay in shape to play
Stage 5: Play after you’ve recovered from the last time you played
Stage 6: Stop playing because the last time you played was so long ago there’s no possible way your body will actually survive the brutality of what you do to it on the court.

Some of you may be thinking, “take it easy, then.” If only it were that easy… I go hard or not at all.

3. The buzz of an active room

This was my first in-person meeting and there is something pleasant about the subtle energy a room has when there are multiple conversations and set-up activity happening in anticipation for the fall of the gavel. The fifteen minutes before a Zoom meeting are like nails on a chalkboard (for me) because it is impossible to have one-on-one conversations with guests. It feels very much like whoever is speaking is being watched by the group. Alternatively, people space out and are not present and engaged; just sitting there until the meeting starts. It was a nice change.

4. Presentation of beer

Someone brings beer. Beer for everyone to drink. You get to drink it. If you’re so inclined, you can listen to them present about said beer. Or you can just drink it. There is free beer to drink. Brewmeisters may be on to something. I’m surprised they don’t have more members for that reason alone.

5. The awkwardness of transitions

So the 15 minutes of dull time may be awkward in a Zoom. On the flip side, I did find the need to get up and walk to the lectern, especially while there are those Zooming in, to be just a tad awkward. The flow feels… off. Especially when comments are brief. A good example is a functionary role. Lots of walk time.

6. The dap transition

Having said all that, I do love being able to encourage and support different speakers while we share the lectern. Taking back to basketball, nothing makes me feel more like a team than a simple dap and once I figured out Cliff wasn’t trying to smash me with those guns, the fist bump exchanged between toastmasters as they commuted to and from their seats was a delightful pleasantry of encouragement.

7. The goofy absurdity of debates

I will never get on board with hurricanes being “cool” but watching two people debate a silly topic is definitely entertainment in my book. You can be sure that I will steal the concept for a table topics in the very near future.

8. Winners!

While it was nice to win the “Best Table Topics” vote, I have mixed feelings about announcing things like “best speaker,” “best table topics,” etc. because I wonder if people would get discouraged. On the other hand, it’s cool that as a guest I was able to take down a prize – more street cred for D&T.

9. Loni making a mistake

Just call me the petty president. She made a grammatical mistake and I damn near fell out of my chair in giddiness. I’m quite positive I fist-pumped. Having two functionary roles thrusted upon me was all worthwhile the moment I caught it. Ha!

10. This

It was a wonderful raid. Brewmeisters is a great club and I would happily visit again. Many thanks to past guildmaster and gamemaster/raidmaster, Patrick, for coordinating. Shoutout to all those who joined online: Lucas, Cynthia, Loni, Michael C., and Hovey!

And thank you to our Dungeons & Brews crew: Kelly and Cliff. Glad you let us disrupt your meeting.

Cheers!

July marked the beginning of our yearlong campaign to retrieve the artifact the Orb of Davras from the Lost Lair of the Manticore, and members have so far embraced the concept with a series of in-character speeches.

The first is from member Cliff C, in which he has recently returned triumphant (and malodorous) from battle and toasts his friends and companions and their recent travails.

And here’s a double-feature, two speeches delivered by member David E, translating from the original orcish of his imported Manticore character, Uggh (the second speech was technically delivered at the first meeting in August).

Sure! That sounds like an easy question to answer. In response to this question you may say to yourself of course I do! My characters have mad skills and I know what I can do with them! But do you?

I thought I did for my Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fifth edition (5e) characters, until I saw this post on Reddit. The information contained in this post changed my perspective on what I can do with the skills that my D&D 5e characters have. 

Use this list as a springboard to creativity for what your characters can do in-game to enhance the role-play, gameplay, and experience of everyone at the gaming table. Please be sure to reach out in advance to your Dungeon Master (DM), or Game Master (GM) if you plan to use this in another TTRPG (Tabletop Role-playing Game) system, to get their approval prior to the inclusion of what can be done with this list of skills into the adventure or campaign world. 

In reality — which is an ironic choice of words given the fantastical, made-up nature of TTRPGs! — the only limit to what your characters can do with their skills, or anything else, is your imagination and creativity. (And your DMs/GMs approval!) 

Although the thread is archived on Reddit and thus further comments are unable to be posted in said thread as a result, please feel free to post any suggestions or comments that you may have here. 

Players, the addition of what can be done with this list of skills into your adventure or campaign world may enhance your gameplay, level up your game, and add another string to your bow.

As I worked on my Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) character for the Dungeons & Toast guild (Toastmasters club) Year of the Manticore narrative campaign, I stumbled when I hit this roadblock—character likes and dislikes. Likes and dislikes?! How should I know? It’s a first level character! And to the best of my knowledge, I’ve never delved that deep into character creation to create likes and dislikes for any of my roleplaying game (RPG) characters—ever. (And I delve deep when it comes to character creation, as I seek to mine the character for all it’s worth and to uncover treasures heretofore undiscovered.)

What was I to do!?

Well, I reached out to the Aether (internet) and contacted the sages there. And I found some hidden nuggets of knowledge—ancient scrolls which contained wisdom about character likes and dislikes. Right away I incorporated these character traits into my character’s personality and backstory as these wise words dovetailed into what I had already created for my character.

If you want to find likes and dislikes for your D&D, or other RPG system characters, go here. (The list is also a good list for writers’ prompts, per the author.) Although some of the prompts are modern, and thus may be a poor fit in your campaign—or they might be!—they might be a good resource to create the historical or futuristic equivalent, if possible, or used as a springboard to other ideas for possible likes and dislikes for your characters.

If you’d like your characters likes and dislikes to be more random and left up to the gods of chance and fate, and determined in a random fashion, go here. (This is a great way to stretch yourself and include likes and dislikes for your characters that you might otherwise pass on.)

Another way to draw inspiration for likes and dislikes for your characters is to draw from your own life experiences; or perhaps you know someone who has likes and dislikes that are different or unusual, odd or eccentric, or quirky. Another source to draw inspiration from for characters of your own is from characters that you like from other sources (books and the like; please be sure to respect the author’s works.) People watching is another great way to get ideas for character likes and dislikes.

Now go forth and create characters! If you have any great character likes and dislikes that will enhance the roleplay, fun, and experience for all those at the table, please share them so that we can all benefit!

Additional Resources:

Let’s be productive!

I am a strong believer that co-working sessions to get things done and bounce new ideas off another brain when it feels like you have no creative momentum. I’ve done it often both professionally and personally and I have found that a room “bustling with productive activity” helps me channel my creative focus.

With that in mind, I’m excited to share that periodically, when I’m in work/writing mode, I will be opening up my Zoom room to the guild as an opportunity for members to take advantage of a “shared workspace.” Please join me to try and make progress on anything that may have you stumped. Initially I saw this as a good opportunity for group feedback regarding speech ideas but I would say, don’t limit yourself! If you’re working on something for your Clark Kent job, bring it to the Zoom.

Rules of Engagement:

• Please bring something to work on – this is NOT socialization hour.
• If you realize you’re in a zone and don’t want to be interrupted but still appreciate being in the “busy space,” just turn off your camera.
• If you need more in-depth discussion, consider using a breakout room with those who are available to provide feedback and leave the general area open for the wonderful vibe of working with no talking.
• I will most likely play some light music. If you don’t like my music choice… tough cookies.
• Okay, if you don’t like my music DM me some suggestions for a different playlist.

That’s really it. Whenever I’m opening up the room I will post in the Members Only channel on discord. I imagine most sessions will run between 45 minutes to 2 hours. And finally, if you ever want to schedule a working session or discussion, please don’t hesitate to let me know – I love scheduled project time! It makes me feel uber productive.

Cheers y’all!

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…