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I don't like the term multiverse because at this point it feels like a marketing buzzword, like open world, live service, or cozy. It reminds me that I'm being marketed to as a consumer, and that feels kind of gross. They way they use it also gives off the vibe that they see all homebrew...

I would actually love that. My ideal Monster Manual (especially if it was vaguely timed with the game's 50th anniversary) would go full maximalist and have every iconic monster from every setting as a love letter to the game and its worlds. As for the Drow Priests, I agree that their statblocks...

The word multiverse gives me kidney stones. I hate it so much. Menzoberranzan drow statblocks being in the Forgotten Realms book is fine, but to me it further illustrates how convoluted and messy this multiversal approach is. Antagonistic drow (and drow as a concept) originate in Greyhawk...

I don't feel like they are either of these things. I haven't pored over every page of the PBH or Monster Manual, so maybe I missed something, but 5.5 Orcs seem to be less a "good" entity and more a nonentity. There isn't nuance so much as there is "Orcs are totally non-controversial now, we...

I’m very much not an evil Orc person, but I do think there is something to the (for lack of a better term) Tolkeineqsue Orc Archetype. So here goes my attempt: Born from slaughter, the Orc is not a creature of flesh and spirit, but of blood-soaked memory and ceaseless violence. It manifests...

All playable species should be in the Monster Manual, with at least one or two statblocks. I thinks orcs especially needed to be in there. It would have been a great opportunity to show orcs in a different light, more in keeping with the new direction they seem to want take them in. But that...

Why is having good/non-evil/nuanced orcs moral navel gazing? To me, its just the default. There is no deep thought behind it. My navel remains ungazed. I guess I just find it very effortless to see "monsters" as people. Maybe I got too into X-Men as kid or something, idk.

I think it feels that way because it might be true? It feels to me like orcs were put in the 2024 PH specifically to dodge the orc racism issue. But two paragraphs isn't enough space to rehabilitate 50 years of orcs as monsters, not people. They mention Gruumsh for some reason, which is weirdly...

I watched it, and did not really enjoy it. He says: In previous editions, orcs were pure evil monsters that exist to be killed. He does a little skit about it. Playable orcs can't be monsters, just variant humans with a different coat of paint. Playable orcs are part of a corporate ploy to...

I went with a modified (i.e. overcomplicated) World Axis. I brought the Ethereal Plane back as the Ethereal Void, mostly so the Radiant Citadel could have a home. I envision it as the Ginnungagap-esque space between the Astral Sea and Elemental Chaos, where the primordials crafted the world...

Recallers Recallers are granted the ability to immediately return to any place they have been to in the past, provided they have an emotional connection. They can extend this effect to the people and things around them, transporting whole groups through the ether. Most Recallers do this for a...

Millennia of exposure to the psi-magical radiation of the auroras have made the polar Gears strange, surreal places, stalked by dweomer phantoms and monsters from the id. Memory and nightmare manifest upon the ice, and the howling of the wind forms wild, unceasing spells. Bereft of the lunar...

There is so much math and geography in this thread. I don’t understand a lick of it, but I’m happy it's here 😅 In the Equatorial Islands is found Port Alimang, a city built on the back of a titanic crab of the same name. “Old Ali”, as he is loving called by the citizens, is one of the last of...

The pastoral culture of the halflings is tied to the cycles of nature, and their major festivals mark the seasons. The greatest of these is Maidenfair, a week-long celebration of the first days of spring, and the start of the halfling new year. While Maidenfair traditions vary across the...

As a Known World (and Greyhawk and Eberron) fan, I was actually really looking forward to this. I saw it at Barnes & Noble, cracked it open, and...are there really no maps? Those are the funnest part of a setting! Bewildering and disappointing. I put it back on the shelf and got some Dungeon...

The Argent Spire, known as Sikhara Uolan in the lizardfolk tongue, is an ancient Sun Builder arcology-ship. A mile high tower of silver and crystal, it contains artificial ecosystems resembling distant worlds. It serves as the anchor of a space elevator that connects to the ruins of an orbital...

Xandahaal, the second largest continent, is slightly smaller than Australia with an almost perfectly circular coastline. The coast is sparsely populated by human and halfling settlers, with a few larger dwarven colonies situated at strategic points. The dense jungle interior hides ancient ruins...

Crossing the Straits of Vaeron from Vae Kolos, you will find the Kakistocracy of Ghace: a city-state of thieves, smugglers, and pirates, where anything and everything can be bought and sold. The plundering Ghacians are kept in check by the naval might of Vae Kolos. Their maritime battles are the...

The sun (called Uol when people have a need to call it anything other than “the sun”) should have burnt out eons ago. It is kept alive by a massive complex of magic and machinery that thrums at its core. Uol is worshiped by the lizardfolk, who in ages long past were uplifted by the Sun Builders.