House Rules Compendium

One of my favourite things about reading other people's D&D experiences on the internet is hearing all of their house rules.  No two D&D games are alike, and house rules are one of the ways GMs can customize their game to fit their own needs and play styles.  I myself have picked up a number of house rules from the GMs I have played under, from the tales people tell on the web, and from my own imagination.  For your convenience (and mine), I will be compiling all of my house rules right here on this page.

I hope you find it interesting, and just maybe you'll steal one or two for your own home game.  I'll keep this updated with new house rules as they spring into existence.

PC Race - Perinin: Cunning Warrior Hares

Last week d20 Despot brought you togbins, a fierce race of cold-dwelling tortoise-men who love to hunt.  This week, continuing my collaboration with Kent Hamilton in celebration of his graduation from concept design school, we bring you perinin, the brave and cunning race of hares that are the togbins' favorite prey.

Kent Hamilton Concepts

Well, as you can see from the above picture, perinin are clearly not the timid prey that togbins wish they were.  Perinin are agile and cunning, and they use their natural knack for tactics to outsmart and overwhelm their physically superior adversaries.

Read on for more information about this Pathfinder-compatible playable race.

PC Race - Togbins: Tortoise-Men of the Wild North

Sorry for the late update; we've got something kinda big today.  Remember in my 2013 year-in-review column when I mentioned that I might start having professional illustrations on my site?  Well, here we go:

Kent Hamilton Concepts

Alright, this may require some explanation.  My supremely-talented friend Kent Hamilton is a concept artist.  For his final project at Art Center, he is looking back on some very old drawings he made when he and I used to run around in the back yard fighting orcs and dragons, and he's redesigning them with his honed and practiced skills.  Here at d20 Despot, I'll be bringing you two of these creatures statted up as playable PC races.  Today, we have the hardy, tortoise-like togbins.  Next week, we'll have the clever, hare-like perinin.

So what are togbins?

Monster Monday: The d20 Despot Aviary

Hello, dear readers. I hope you like birds!  For today's Monster Monday entry, I'm bringing you five species of birds, four of which make suitable familiars for your more wizardly characters.  So strap in for excitement as I present: a cassowary, a heron, a chicken, a duck, and a hummingbird.

Keep in mind that all of these are dinosaurs          (c)d20 despot

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is (C)2014 Jonah Bomgaars.

April Fools: GMing for your Significant Other

Edit: Hopefully it was obvious, but yes, this was an April Fool's joke.

I don't usually do two posts in one week these days, but the first of April happens to by d20 Despot's one year anniversary!  So to commemorate this auspicious occasion, I'm writing on an important topic that I see pop up pretty frequently on internet discussions of GMing: how to GM with your significant other in the group.

The general sense I get from these anecdotes and horror stories is that GMs tend to give preferential treatment to their boyfriends or girlfriends, and let them get away with anything, to the point where it harms the experience of the other players.  This is really bad practice and it can lead to the disintegration of your gaming group.

To demonstrate how to do this right, I'll run through my girlfriend's character sheet from our last campaign and pull out some examples.  And be on the lookout for some of my signature homebrewed magic items!