The Gith is a 5e dungeons and dragons monster type that originated in the first edition dungeons and dragons Fiend Folio monster book which was produced by the UK arm of TSR.
The Githyanki (one of two fractured sides of the same race) adorned the Fiend Folio cover and has been a classic monster since – and since the publishing of the 5th Edition’s Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes both the Githyanki and Githzerai became available character races. The Gith also appear to be an available player option in Baldur’s Gate 3 computer game.
The term Githyanki first appears outside Dungeons and Dragons in George R.R. Martin (yes the Game of Thrones author) in his 1977 novel called Dying of the Light. Reputably the name was later submitted to White Dwarf by a reader of the book who used the same for a fictional race in his homebrew game.
Deep Magic by 5e publish Kobold Press is a Kickstarter project designed to present in a single tome the new spells, cantrips, divine domains, new arcane subclasses, expanded familiars and conjured servants. Funded by more than 4,500 backers and raising more than USD $240,000 this 2020 release book is filled with illustrations and ideas to expand your game beyond the core provided by Wizards of the Coast.
The book contains a bevy of new classes drawing from Kobold’s Midgard campaign setting. If you are a fan of wizards, sorcerers, druids, clerics, bards, fighters, warlocks, rangers and paladins the book contains at least one thing you will like to play.
Behold the mind behind Kobold’s Presses: Deep Magic.
Wizards: new arcane traditions include: the Elementalist and the White Necromancer (finally a good necromancer!)
New schools of magic include Alkemancy, Angelic, Chaos, Dragon, Elven Ritual, Heiroglyph, Illumination, Ring, Rune, Shadow, Temporal, and Winter. These directly tie into the law of the Midgard setting but can be dropped into the Forogtten Realms your homebrew setting without difficulty. Speaking of brewing clerics get the Beer Domain these faith casters get access to “Ale-dritch blast” the parody of the overly cast warlock spell.
Clerics: have 16 new domains to choose from includes Cat, Moon, Time, and Winter. Players will have no trouble finding several domains they can relate too.
Bards: Two new domains College of Wyrdsingers who believe that destiny is set but how you wriggle towards is makes all the difference and the Greenleaf College which exclusive for half-elves and builds them a faction and home for those who feel they do not belong to either human or elf society.
Druids: Have access to four new circles, including Oaks, Owls, Roses and Spirits.
Rangers: Aerial Griffon Scouts and a dedicated Vampire Slayer (watch out Strahd!).
Paladins: Oath of Radiance, and Oath of Thunder
Blood Magic: Nothing good will come of this
Sorcerers: Aristocratic Bloodline, Elemental Essence (a sorcerer tied to the elemental planes) and Farseer (a sorcerer whose magic comes from a god of prophecy and prognostication).
Warlocks: Are provided with two new patron options: Genies and the Sibyl (a divine being associated with prophecy, knowledge, and fate).
New Spells
The bulk of book comprises new spells. To say there are a lot is an understatement with 50 new cantrips are available to Wizards alone.
Many spells do not achieve anything new (and sometimes are not as good) for example Douse Light performs the same as Control Flames, and some are just variants of others for example Phase Bolt is almost the same as Lightning Bolt.
Some such as the 3rd level spell Compelled Movement which fuses creatures together has the potential to cause delightful chaos and new experiences at the role playing table.
Temporal Magic
Artwork
The book contains less artwork that I would have expected and much of it has been resurrected from other Kobold Press books – but it is to a high standard.
Summary
The Tome of Deep Magic falls into the category as a useful text for expanding your game options. Dungeon Masters should understand the implications of adding this to your gaming session. By its nature it will make gameplay more complex as you will have one more book to be across. Those who use virtual table tops like Fantasy Grounds (which can be used at a in person game) will find this easier to use.
If you do decide to add Deep Magic to your table you won’t be disappointed.
Peter Atkinson, creator of Magic the Gathering, founder of Wizards of the Coast and business owner who purchased Dungeons and Dragons from TSR (Tactical Rules Study) has commenced an interview series with key contributors to the creation of the game.
These interviews are increasingly important as the first generation of gamers reach their older years and the opportunity to learn the history of the game.
Tracy Hickman
First up a chat with Tracy Hickman one of the co-creators of Ravenloft and Curse of Strahd which is widely considered to be the best Dungeons and Dragons Adventure of all time. Tarcy Hickman is also one of the two authors of the famed Dragonlance novels which spawned a series of gaming products and a popular game setting.
The interview provides a new insight into the early years of Tracy Hickman.
Bill Slavicsek
Bill Slavicsek is a developer, designer, and creative manager and his resume includes Paranoia, Ghostbusters, Star Wars, and Torg roleplaying games along and joined the the staff of TSR, Inc in 1993. Bill worked three well loved settings: Dark Sun, Ravenloft, and Planescape.
Bob Salvatore & Mary Kirchoff
Bob Salvatore is well know as the author behinds Drizzit Do’Urden and Mary Kirchoff the ediotor of Bob’s many popular books.
Skip Williams
Skip Williams is a well known name from the early editions of Dungeons and Dragons. Skip worked in TSR and for Wizards of the Coast 3E
Todd Lockwood
Todd is an illustrator from early editions of Dungeons and Dragons
In the 23rd July 2020 developer update D&D Beyond provided an update on the popularity of a range of spells, feats, and cantrips. The list revealed no new surprises for things shown previously but there is additional information for fans of artificers and those who horde magical items.
So you want to spice up your living room game or maybe enhance the headphone experience whilst playing a game online? Then there are three options readily available which are:
Youtube
Online Music Players
Sound Engines
1. Youtube
Youtube is and easy simple choice for music for your role playing games – there are a small army of creatives producing music suitable for use by your gaming group. Notable examples include:
Adrian von Ziegler – who produces generally short 3-5 theme music which can be very useful for fleshing out a new location or event.
The Guild of Ambience – The Guild specialises in the production of themed location music. Need a library, tavern, sewer, or campsite this is the place. Compositions last 1 to 2 hours which is sufficient for most sessions and location encounters.
An online music player performs the same same as you essentially play a composed piece of music from the website.
The most popular of these is Tabletop Audio (which is supported by direct donations and Patreon donations).
Tabletop Audio
3. Sound Engines
The final common option is to use a Sound Engine. The two most prominent sound engines are MyNoise.net and Syrinscape.
MyNoise.net
Less well known is MyNoise.net. Although it is designed to create background white noise for people to help them relax its catalogue include sounds suitable for role-playing games including Dungeons, Medieval Villages, Temples, Space-ship Engine Rooms, or a Minstrel Playing for Coin on a street. MyNoise allows you to adjust the volume or silence each component allowing you a degree of customisation.
A once-time (as little at US$5) or regular donation (your choice) helps fund MyNoise operations and provides you with a range of additional benefits includes:
easy access to all generators (for the regular visitor, the main index page only lists a selection of sounds)
bonus features, such as Animation Control, Random Slider setting and the amazing Tape Speed Control (pitch transposition)
the Super Generators and their ability to play multiple sounds simultaneously or sequentially, in a sleek window.
the ability to tag favorites generators
and mp3 downloads
If you are interested in trying to add a little sound to your game MyNoise.net is a great choice along with the demo version of the following sound engine – Syrinscape.
Syrinscape
Syrinscape is a Unity based software package developed by an Australian firm (orginally donation-ware) that has now secured licences with both Wizards of the Coast Dungeons and Dragons and Paizo Pathfinder to produce sounds for their respective adventures.
There are three Syrinscape players – fantasy, science-fiction, and board games to choose from with fantasy being the most popular.
Syrinscape Interface for Dungeons and Dragons Descent into Avernus
The software’s basic building blocks are music tracks and sound samples.
The software’s basic building blocks are music tracks and sound samples. The music is played in a traditional manner but the sound samples are categorised by theme and then played at random internals. The effect of this is that you can play the same track for several hours and not have the feeling of constant repetition (it is also easy for the sounds to be adjusted slightly on the fly to change the mix a bit more or as events unfold).
Syrinscape Player Demo
There are various customisation options and the Fantasy Grounds community has developed a module that allows Syrinscape sounds to be automatically triggered by Game Master or player action (for example when a spell is cast).
Regardless of the subscription options you choose you are granted access to the full catalogue of sounds while your subscription is active and lifetime access (whether subscribed or not) to these sounds that were released whilst your subscription was active. In a year you should have permanent access to around 30-40 sound sets plus the sounds that accessible to all users for free.
Summary
Regardless of budget access to sounds to enhance your role playing experience is accessible at zero cost. Our suggestion is to try all options and see what works for you and your gaming group.
Kobold Press LLC a 5e Dungeons and Dragons third-party publisher commenced release of it Deep Magic Kickstarter to backers today. The distribution to backers is limited to digital release (Fantasy Grounds, Roll 20, and PDF) due to problems publishing hard copies because of the impact COVID-19 is having on physical businesses.
The $240,373 – 4,465 person backed project brings more than 600 new 5e spells to the table along with a plethora of new sub-classes and domains for Wizards, Clerics, Paladins, Druids, Sorcerers, and Warlocks. For Clerics the Beer domain is now an option.
Content designed by authors including Jeff Lee, Wolfgang Baur, Matt Corley, Kelly Pawlik, Shawn Merwin, Steve Winter and numerous backers for the project who submitted their ideas for new spells for the book.
In their 16th July 2020 developers update the development team provided an insight into the popularity of classes and sub classes.
The table provides an insight into what people prefer to play.
Much of the focus was on the fighter retaining the crown as the most popular class at 13%.
More is interesting to note is that 70% of all characters made do not fall into the classic dungeons and dragons classes (fighter, cleric, wizard, rogue). It highlights that adventure designers need to be cautious when building adventures that suit the classic party. Assumptions like access to dispel magic, knock, and comprehend languages to pass through encounter may not hold.
Undoubtabley someone will take fireball so designers can rest assured of that.
Paizo publisher of Pathfinder and Starfinder have partnered with Humble Bundle to raise money for three charities.
Paizo isn’t holding back making both electronic and physical copies of the second edition core rulebook of available to donate for (although delivery of the physical book from their US warehouse is at an additional cost).
A total of 36 products including the core rulebook, adventures, guides, bestiary, and maps are available.
You have until the 5th of August 2020 to make a purchase.
Fantasy Grounds Classic is the first generation virtual table top (VTT) produced by Smiteworks LLC. It is capable of being used to play any of the following role playing game rulesets: 5th, 4th, 2nd, 1st/AD&D edition Dungeons and Dragons, W.O.I.N, Rolemaster, Vampire – The Masquerade, Savage Worlds, Deadlands, Mutants and Masterminds, Fifth Edition Fantasy, Call of Cthulu, Castles and Crusades, 13th Age, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Barbarians of Lemuria, 1st and 2nd edition Pathfinder, Starfinder, and Traveller.
It should be noted that this software can be used in person and it is significantly reduces the workload and and increased speed at which a game master can run a game. It can alternatively be used on a local area network and an internet connection is not required when you are not running an online session.
Although the term classic indicates it is perhaps old don’t let this monika fool you Fantasy Grounds Classic is a fully featured virtual table top with all the mechanical tools of the (at time of writing) beta version of Fantasy Grounds Unity. If you do decide to purchase Classic you can rest assured that any purchases made from the Smiteworks store will work on Fantasy Grounds Unity should you choose to upgrade in future.
Smiteworks have also said they will continue to support Classic for several more years at which time they expect the community to have moved to the Unity version so if you purchase now you are sure to get full value from it.
There are three options when it comes to purchase:
Demo: (Free) You can play in any game if the game master has an ultimate licence. You can’t connect to anyone with a demo or standard licence, and you can’t share any of your purchased content with another player. You can however test all the other features of the software including generating a character and rolling dice. If you are so inclined. It comes with the standard reference document for 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons which is enough for a Dungeon Master to use it at a normal table game to run the Lost Mines of Phandelver if you purchased the physical boxed set.
Standard:(Paid) You can connect to any player with a standard or ultimate licence. If you are the game master you can share any content you own with other players.
Ultimate:(Paid) You can invite any player to play with you (Demo or Standard licence). If you are the game master you can share any content you own with the connecting players.
In all cases the payment is a one-off cost. For those people who intend to play for a long-time the higher upfront cost will be lower than paying the monthly subscription model common to other VTT platforms.
Smiteworks does offer a monthly subscription but with a now reduced price due to Fantasy Ground Unity being released we don’t think many would take up this option. Indeed Smiteworks its-self actively encourages everyone to purchase a licence outright as they see it as better value.
Fantasy Grounds Classic Game Master Interface Showing Player Map, Combat Tracker and Location Information from the 5e Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Storm King’s Thunder
The most complex component of Fantasy Grounds Classic is setting up to host a game (as the game master). To run a game a game master must perform an adjustment known as port forwarding on their modem to allow others to connect. Its relatively easy to do for someone very comfortable with technology but its not for the average Joe or Jane. In addition, if you are reliant upon a satellite modem or tethering to a mobile phone you will likely not be able to do this so you will have to be content to be a player and not a game master. Fantasy Grounds Unity users a third party server lobby to connect players and game masters and eliminates this process entirely.
No such complexity for someone who isn’t hosting a game.
Once connected the process of creating and running games is straight forward and indeed easier, quicker and more efficient than other VTT platforms, or when using books. Encounters take seconds to plan, maps are simple to setup, and combats are a breeze to run even with a dozen enemy combatants in play. The Fantasy Ground interface places the information you need as a player or game master right at your fingertips at the the time you need it.
Dreaded tasks such as encumbrance, and maths literally disappear as tasks which means the game runs far more efficiently and you can play more in the time that you have.
“Dreaded tasks such as encumbrance, and maths literally disappear”
One of the really nice features permitted by Smiteworks is that they allow users of the Fantasy Grounds software to create their own modules and extensions for functionality they don’t provide. Fantasy Grounds community content is available for purchase on DMsGuild and DriveThruRPG with Smiteworks not taking an additional cut.
Smiteworks also supports Fantasy Grounds College which is a dedicated volunteer community of gamers to help bring new game masters up to speed with the VTT and organises virtual events. At least twice a year Smitworks provides Ultimate Licence capability to all users to enable the running of virtual gaming events – these are a great time to check out the full potential of the software.
In summary Fantasy Grounds Classic is the best VTT in the market barring the recently released Fantasy Grounds Unity VTT. Sure there are other competitors and pretty gaming table software but if you are looking form the best value fully functional VTT this is it. Oh – any any software purchased for classic will work on Unity so you can start cheap and work your way up.
Fantasy Grounds Classic is no longer receiving updates as of June 2021. The software will continue to operate but will received no updates and new and existing products won’t be be updated to ensure compatibility. It is recommended that you purchase the Fantasy Grounds Unity version instead.
With the first virtual GenCon Online inbound and the events stating in less than two weeks now is the time to start booking your events.
Many GenCon events are free but we would like to highlight one event now that everyone is playing virtual games being the seminar on how to use Syrinscape, an online music player which is extremely effective for creating suspension and tension in your gaming group.
The session is titled “The Power of Sound at the Gaming Table”.
Creative Director, Ben Loomes will demonstrate how to create potent narratives and immersive encounters using the power of music & sound in your games. He will also show off some tricks, and the pitfalls to avoid!
Session Time: Friday 31st July New York Friday, 11:00 PM EDT Los Angeles Friday 8:00 PM PDT Sydney, Saturday 1:00 PM AEST London, Saturday 4:00 AM BST
