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  1. Hriston

    D&D 5E (2024) The Elven languages

    I don't play 5.2, but, in my 5.0 games, the Elvish languages have a common root in the language the elves invented for themselves to speak in the home of their origin on the Material Plane as an expression of their intrinsic ability to do so. Over tens of millennia, it has evolved into a number...
  2. Hriston

    On Gnomes, Elementals, and Archaic Humans

    It isn't my intention to force a strict alignment between the <ahem> elements I've brought up, but I can see how my post might have given that impression, which is unfortunate. The reason I made the post, given the four Middle Pleistocene hominin groups mentioned (if the "Neander-sovans" are...
  3. Hriston

    IN REMEMBRANCE--2025

    Rubby Pérez, beloved merengue singer, and Octavio Dotel and Tony Blanco, two former Major League Baseball players, were among the victims of a Santo Domingo nightclub roof collapse in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday.
  4. Hriston

    D&D General What races/species populate your DnD world?

    My group and I started with the premise that the setting is a medievalistic fantasy world, so assuming things like dragons existing is considered fair game.
  5. Hriston

    D&D General What races/species populate your DnD world?

    For me, it's whatever the players choose to play and whatever monsters I roll up as random encounters. For example, in my current game, the PCs are a group of humans with an elf and a tiefling. So far, they've encountered halflings, large spiders, other humans, and orcs, so we know those species...
  6. Hriston

    On Gnomes, Elementals, and Archaic Humans

    This post is to share the current state of some ongoing light research I've been doing into some of the more common peoples of fantasy and folklore. For some time now, I've had an ongoing project to identify and pin down some of the real-world equivalents of certain setting elements of JRR...
  7. Hriston

    IN REMEMBRANCE--2025

    Mario Joseph, prominent Haitian human rights lawyer, has died in a car accident at the age of 62.
  8. Hriston

    Triple Feature (+)

    German expressionist cinema: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), dir. Robert Wiene Nosferatu (1922), dir. F. W. Murnau Metropolis (1927), dir. Fritz Lang
  9. Hriston

    What are you reading in 2025?

    Yup, it's given me some great insight into LotR, D&D, and fantasy in general. I also really enjoyed hearing the voice of this rather curious individual from the sixteenth century. This wasn't published during his lifetime, so I imagine he wrote it just to put his thoughts down on the subject.
  10. Hriston

    What are you reading in 2025?

    I'm reading A Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and on the Other Spirits by Paracelsus.
  11. Hriston

    IN REMEMBRANCE--2025

    Robert McChesney, co-founder of the advocacy group Free Press and a tireless defender of media and democracy, has died at the age of 72.
  12. Hriston

    (IC) Against the Giants PBP Group 1

    ::Yes, speak with Thane Arnak,:: Bible continues, ::and let him know the Clouds have indeed abandoned the alliansk. I bear the giant-slaying sword Waythe, the Chief-killer, as a token from their Prinsk this is so.:: Bible briefly displays the sword to the giants as proof. ::And although I'd...
  13. Hriston

    IN REMEMBRANCE--2025

    Seventeen-year-old Walid Khaled Abdullah Ahmad, the first Palestinian child to die while detained by Israel, has died in an Israeli prison.
  14. Hriston

    IN REMEMBRANCE--2025

    Hossam Shabat, noted Al Jazeera journalist, was killed Monday by an Israeli strike on Beit Lahia.
  15. Hriston

    D&D General Should Gnomes be Tiny

    Gnomes is about the Kabouter of Dutch folklore, a different creature from Paracelsus's gnome which was derived from the German Bergmännlein or Kobel. The English translation of the book translates Kabouter as gnome, but I think it might have been more accurate to use hob or brownie. As in the...
  16. Hriston

    D&D General Languages suck in D&D.

    Yes, which further reinforces the value of knowing a variety of languages. I recently revised my encounter procedure for my 5E game by reexamining the relevant rules from OD&D and AD&D, and in the resulting system not having a shared language to use (ETA: or being able to communicate in some...
  17. Hriston

    D&D General Languages suck in D&D.

    Common is a regional language. From Dungeons & Dragons (1974), Vol. 1, p. 12: LANGUAGES: The “common tongue” spoken throughout the “continent” is known by most humans. All other creatures and monsters which can speak have their own language, although some (20%) also know the common one. From...
  18. Hriston

    GM fiat - an illustration

    I agree. @Manbearcat, you are on fire today!
  19. Hriston

    (IC) Against the Giants PBP Group 1

    Bible shoulders Waythe and looks up at the stone giant. ::I propose the giank raids cease and desisk,:: she says boldly, ::and the gianks enter into good faith negoshkiations with a represen'akive of the smalls, appointed by Lord Falldur, and find an amicable reskolution so that everyone can...
  20. Hriston

    D&D General What is your personal Appendix N?

    I'm not widely read in 20th century or any other era of fantasy, but, when I run D&D, I try to maintain a certain amount of fidelity to what I perceive as the spirit of the original game coupled with some of my own aesthetic preferences. So my personal Appendix N looks like a truncated version...
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