warhammer art show the cultists in a way that its so obvious that they are cultists, how would an actual cultist of each chaos god behave if they are trying to keep the cult a secret ? how would they convince people to join them without being so obviously a chaos plot ? you know like how a real cult behave
Hello i'm a ancient dm of the old order of dms from long ago. I being dming since gay gaygax was a little boy in his craddle being nurtured by the rpg tree and the old rpg empire was rising. We had a saying back in those more civilized times "combat is a fail state" all the old sages agreed and danced for we were so enlighted. As the choosen one (gay gaygax) grew up and learned swordsmanship, horsemanship, leadership and statecraft we watched in wonder as he mastered all arts so whimsically a king who could be gentle and tought a man in which we could follow into the glory of our empire, the borders grew, trade flourished and the people of the shires and farms were prosperous and fat. Our life was peaceful and happy, the cities bloomed with the hammers of artisan and the fair sailors brought fishes and riches from land beyond.
Many still wonder what happend from those glorious days of peace and wonder ? how could times have gotten so bad so quickly but we didn't realize the problem was within, our hearts grew with discontent and the young desired for war, an evil order of wizards from a coast have plagued us slowly and deep, they told tales of riches and glory on the ancient burial tumbs of our people, the people started wandering far and wide from the safety of our city blinded by greed. Althrought the riches were real and the powerful treasures were wonderous so many of them perished on the journey and make you wonder, is this worth it ? not only that so many of those treasures were cursed but the worst curse of them all was the curse of inflation. So many adventurers and so much gold so quickly made our coin lose its value and soon the entire economy colapsed, the trade was the first to stop flowing, them the artisan and finally the humble farmers. Desperate the king gaygax had lost all the kingdom riches and we were broken so we made a deal with the devil, in exchange for a fix to our economy the wizards in the coast would have ownership of our kingdom. We accept with great sorrow and planned on how to save our people but the wizards in their infinite greed stroke the king down and depose of him, we the ancient sages watched in horror and marked this as the end of the first age.
some hundred years had passed and many of us had scattered but some still remained. The evil wizards have turned our once beloved cities into hubs of industry and war, our beloved artisans didn't make toys and tools anymore, instead their forges have turned into malicious built of jagged weapons and armor, their scholars wrote so many hundreds magic books with doors to different worlds, one where the deserts were wide because of wizards greed, another were a gay vampire locked everyone inside a fogwall or smt, and the eviliest of them all, a place where the realms were forgotten, where the humans elfs and dwarfs no long reside as the only species but evil twisted creatures lived among them on the great cities we watched in horror as our world was morphed and changed with barelly anything we could do.
The worst of it was yet to come, we thought the wizards were the greediest of them all but they were just the tip of the iceberg, a great monster beyond the comprehesion pierced our tiny veiled skies "Ha'sbruh" it chanted and demanded the powerful magic cards that the wizard held in exchange of not being completely destroyed. We who were once dominated saw our dominators being conquered, we couldn't do anything but watch in horror, what would be of us ? We watched in horror as this monster twisted and change our bodies and world even more, our industries of war were turned into complex machines of infinite bodies and weapons production, millions of weapons were produced for to wage eternal war beyond the skies, our once simple and weak bodies were turned into super soldiers that could defeat entire armies by ourselfs, our simple minded wizards that could only have a few spells now could cast dozens and be ready for more after a simple "long rest" we watched in horror our bodies and world was no longer the same, our friends were long gone and the adventures lost, for 2 eras we waged untold and inomerable wars against enemies of different dimensions in the name of the "Ha'sbruh".
Ha'sbruh seemed interested in the old times on the 5th era, we thought maybe just maybe we would get a tiny pocket of peace for our people but them in a twisted taste of irony it was just a plow, Ha'sbruh loves to consume hopes and dreams of the people and turn it into paste for his power, the 5th era was marked by even more changes to our bodies and mind, even more powers, even more twisted creatures. But some adventurers that found the ruins and relics of old time shouted NO MORE, NO MORE PAIN NO MORE DEATH NO MORE RUIN !!!. They gathered so many of us from the ancient times and even some newborns that were interested in a more simpler life and opened a portal first we had to venture throught the shadowdark and beyond but once we reached a promised land we knew we could rebuilt, we didn't have much, just the essentials to rebuild our old school times.
I look down from my wizard tower, with a smile in my face i watch as the kids play, the farmers plant and the artisans work. This was worth it, this is our Renaiscence but still some dark reside in the new kids and refugee from the portals, they wonder where is the combat ? where is the character builds ? where is the epic items ? but we calm them down and teach them the way of the land and commerce and to not be too greedy or venture too far always have the essentials only. This time we will do things right, this time we will have our dungeon and dragon.
art is from mercenary camp youtube channel and warband if anyone is interested.
some times there is no solution and you just sink.
Pov: a wotcian wanders far from the coasts protected by the powerful but evil wizards, the wotcian is looking for more nourshinment since his tribe is slowly running out of content and teh masters are going away and not coming back, he finds the monster that is taking away the masters and it tries to convince him to join him but the wotcian is scared and flee away. he didn't notice that the monster followed him to his hidden lair and the monster start eating all of his tribe of wotcian and they are forced to flee, they find a old cave that smells weird but sem safe but he didn't notice the monster followed him there he has no escape and is scared this is the end but from the bottom of the cave a old and powerful commanding voice comes and instally kills the mathfinder monster the unc goes and offer the wotcian a strange but familiar soup, its his usual food of 5e table but modified in a strange way that tastes different but feels more nourshing, this old wizard start teaching the fleeing tribe with the way of the grognard, some of the tribesman can't survive this new diet and persih but the one that survive are teached the way of the grognard and becomes the next generation of what this unc call the "old school renaiscence" you them all go forth and build your own "man caves" as he calls it and find new lost wotcians to be saved teached and nourished on the way of the grognard.
Curiosity:
Mathfinders feed on lost wotcians but that wander far from the coast of wizards but occasionaly allow wotcians to live to find a wotcian lair
Grognards are an ancient order of wizards that used to rule the world but now only ruins remain of their ancient empire, a few old wizards from this era still live and protect fleeing wotcians and teach them on the way of the grognard, but a few evil Grognards attack the wotcians feeling they are superior to them and somehow they are infected with a virus that affect the wotcian mind called "woke" but most grognards denounce those evil grognards knowing the "woke" virus is a lie that caused their old empire to fall due to the division it caused.
Wotcians are long descendents of the old grognard empire, they are weak and lack the knowledge of the ancient library. Some wotcians are stuck on their tribal ways and refuse to go to new pastures for better nourshiment but the curious types either perish on their exploration or find the ancient grognard empire library and become powerful, somehow the "woke" virus lie persisted even after the empire had fallen and some wotcians even acuse their fellow wotcians of being infected, barelly understanding what it even means.
Joe is a younger but powerful grognard, he is one of the members of a ancient surviving grognards that teach fleeing wotcians their ways. The order of the tavern, joe is one of the few grognard wizards that experiment using 5e magic and other grognards (specially the evil ones) find this disturbing but some understand he is trying to restore the empire trying to mix both the good things the tribal wotcians discovered while using the powerful grognard knowledge.
The Tenkar order is made of 3 powerful wizards, Joe the sigma, greyhawk the lost and tenkar the wise. Little is know from Greyhawk since he went on a adventure across a different reality trying to restore the empire. Tenkar is the older wizard that brings knowledge to other converted wotcians and survivng grognards but his age makes him meaner, he cares little for the wotcian but doesn't deny knowledge for those who seek. Joe is the younger wizard and he goes on many different adventures talking to lost grognards
thats right! don't railroad your player !if they roll nat20 to do ANYTHING they immidiatly succeed. Roll for attack on a elder dragon ? nat20 he immediatly decapitates the dragon even at level 1, if you say no you are a bad dm that railroad your players and limit creativity. Roll to seduce the queen that has being loyal to his husband for her entire life ? nat20 and he is on your bed oclock !!!! actually if you player roll ANY natural 20 at all just pack up and say that your player write the ending of the campaign to whatever he wants !