There’s something about wizards that make Dorian and I seek out elegant music. It could be because our wizards all come from the Citadel, which is a very classic and refined place. Or it could also be Jasita Yolarin’s composed personality. Whatever the reason, these are our favorite tunes to inspire wizard storytelling!
Beethoven’s Silence by Ernesto Cortazar
This is one of the recent additions to a Jasita-themed playlist. It’s just so beautiful and pleasing. I think the historian in Jasita would appreciate an old song still being around and listened to today.
The French Library by Franz Gordon
Wizards like to read! They are intelligent people, and have dedicated their lives to learning about magic. This would probably be playing in the background of a magic library.
Thoughtful by Peter B. Helland
I do like longer tracks to listen to while I create. At nearly 12 minutes long, this is definitely one of my favorites to keep on my playlists. It’s very soothing, and has this magical quality that makes it so special.
Who doesn’t love pirate music? From sea shanties in Pillars of Eternity II, to the soundtrack of Pirates of the Caribbean, they put you in an adventurous mood! They are definitely helpful when we play or write sea-faring adventures for our pirate dragonborn, Captain Sen. Here are our favorite instrumentals to get us in the Sen and sea mood!
The Captain’s Dance by Marcus Warner
I’m a huge fan of Marcus Warner’s work. Both his instrumentals and his songs with lyrics move me. I love The Captain’s Dance. It makes me feel happy and energized and is great to create to.
Hymn of the High Seas by Antti Martikainen
This is a nice, long seven-minute track. I like the building intensity of it, starting out slower and softer and rising to a crescendo at the end.
Island Full of Dreams by delo cloonz
This is markedly different from the other tracks. It’s so soft and gentle. It makes me think of sailing under the stars, and everything at peace in the world.
High Seas by Pauli Hausmann
This is another adventurous tune. I really love the melody, it’s just so pretty and evokes this need to explore.
We didn’t get to buy Tears of the Kingdom when it first came out. We’ve both been lifelong players of The Legend of Zelda games. But, when TotK was released we were both unemployed. Dorian worked a temporary freelance job and got the game for free on his Nintendo Switch to review. But his job didn’t last long and so he never got far into the game.
Finally able to play the game all the way through together, here are our thoughts!
Overview
Tears of the Kingdom takes place directly after The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. There aren’t many Zelda games that do that. Even though Majora’s Mask was directly after Ocarina of Time, it still did not use the same world map and have the same repeat characters.
Ultimately, I think that is what we both loved and grew a bit tired of in this game. It was so much fun to meet the same characters again, but older and wiser. And it was fun to already feel familiar with the map and the towns. It was like coming home. But, there are some repetitive elements that the game could have gone without.
The Story
When you play a Zelda game, you expect an excellent story. This one was no different. The characters are well-rounded and the danger feels real. There are plenty of mysteries to explore, and you are invested in the world. This game keeps the focus on historical events and how they impact the present. That being said, while Zelda shook off most of the “damsel in need of rescuing” stereotype, we aren’t entirely free from it. That comes as a disappointment, since when news of the game first broke, fans rallied online to be able to play the game as Zelda, or at least back and forth between Zelda and Link. For those familiar with the plot of the game, playing between the two actually would have worked out seamlessly.
The Gameplay
Gameplay centers around learning to use special powers given to you via an attachment on your arm. Mastering these are central to overcoming obstacles and solving puzzles, though they don’t play a big role in combat. If you enjoy building and creating, then you will absolutely love this feature.
There are three maps to navigate across the game. The massive surface map of Hyrule is the same as in Breath of the Wild, though slightly altered due to events in the game. There are also sky islands to explore. While they are important in certain quest lines, we didn’t spend much time exploring them as navigating them proves to be extremely difficult and time consuming. The final map is the underground Depths. We stumbled upon this by accident, having not started the official quest that introduces you to this area. We were shocked! The Depths offers a fun, grueling adventure map where survival is your first priority. While it has a few key story points, the Depths are mainly used for finding really good loot.
The Side Quests
I have mixed feelings about the side quests in Tears of the Kingdom. Some are a great deal of fun. We especially enjoyed the quests with Penn at the stables as they often had a good deal of humor mixed in with them. The introduction of caves also allowed for some exploration side quests.
However, many are simply carried over from Breath of the Wild and we grew easily bored of them. For example, finding the korok seeds reappears, but we would have preferred a new system for expanding your weapon carrying capacity. The shrines make another appearance, key teleport points and opportunities to get more hearts and stamina. Again, we would have preferred something in the same spirit as the shrines but fresh and new.
Conclusion
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, is a fun adventure game full of heart. It’s three separate world maps, weapon fusion and building gameplay, and characters cement it as another fantastic title in this series. Honestly, the final section of the boss fight is one of the most cinematic of all Zelda games. Despite the repetitive feeling of some quests, we recommend it to any gamer who wants an immersive fantasy adventure.
We talk stereotypes on TTRPG players, and about who all played at our table.
It’s a tired stereotype that still hangs around in the media. The overweight role-player who lives with their parents, has no job, and can’t socialize. They can name stats for the most obscure monsters but can’t cook more than box mac and cheese. Even big companies in the TTRPG world (which shall rename nameless in this blog) said they are realizing they had a stereotypical idea of who plays their games and see now they were wrong.
So, who are the TTRPG players? Drawing only on our own personal experience, we’ll list who has played at our table across the years.
A rogue character was played by an x-ray technician who worked in the ER at a local hospital. She owned her own home on enough land to have a farm. She liked to sing, play instruments, and was actively involved in her church.
A fighter character was played by her husband, another x-ray technician. He enjoyed playing video games and going out in the evenings. He was also a cancer survivor.
A ranger character was played by a legal assistant who worked for the social security administration. She was a former high school athlete that continued to play rec sports as an adult, and enjoyed video games and board games.
A wizard character was played by her husband. He transitioned from marketing to healthcare administration in his career. He enjoyed social activities of all kinds. They had an apartment in the city before building a house.
A paladin character was played by a math teacher and baseball coach. He liked to collect comic books and still played rec baseball as a hobby. He rented a house along with a group of friends.
A barbarian character was played by a music teacher who had a Master of Music degree. He enjoyed pizza and composing and relaxing with friends. He owned a house with his wife.
Our ranger and wizard characters are played by Dorian, an executive producer in television and a business owner. He likes video games, editing videos, and traveling.
Our cleric and druid characters are played by me, Talia, a professional writer and a professor. I like drawing, traveling, and fashion.
If you’re a TTRPG player and feel comfortable sharing, let us know your profession and hobbies!
Our thoughts on the new Heroes’ Feast Flavors of the Multiverse official D&D Cookbook.
We received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. We make no money off of this productand are not affiliated with it.
The first D&D official cookbook, Heroes’ Feast, came out many years ago. A couple of the recipes we still use today, though we’ve done our own variations on them over time. Flavors of the Multiverse is a follow-up, providing more fantasy-based cuisine for you to try.
The book is quite pretty and quite hefty. There are 200+ pages of recipes, art, and short stories. It’s well thought out and well-composed, making cooking fun for those who are inexperienced at it.
Is it Healthy?
I wouldn’t consider the book as a whole to be a healthy cookbook. Most of the recipes require sugar and fats. Some of their healthier recipes, like the Chopforest salad, tend to be side dishes rather than full meals. It would be difficult to customize most of these meals to be healthier.
Is it Allergen or Diet-Friendly?
If you have allergies such as dairy or gluten, or follow a vegan or vegetarian diet, you won’t find much here. They stick with the stereotypical fantasy genre meal that more has roots in our own imagination of what medieval life is like rather than the reality. Such as the fact that almond milk was frequently used in the Middle Ages, and that meat was not eaten every day because of hunting variables. Of course, this is set in their own universe, so they have free reign over what they consider standard food.
Is There a Variety of Recipes?
No. As mentioned above, they stick with what stereotypical fantasy cultures should eat. It would be nice to see more dishes inspired by Asian, African, or Latino cuisine. What they do have is some side dishes, plenty of dinner dishes, various drinks, and desserts. Here’s some of what you can expect:
Goldenstars: baked pasty pockets filled with sausage, potato, and leeks. Contains: sugar, gluten, eggs, and dairy.
Halfling Game Birds: a chicken wing dish.
Fried Soy with Vegetables: a skillet tofu and veggie dish. Contains: soy and sugar.
Spiced Pork and Orange Peppers: baked pork on a bed of spicy peppers.
Fire-Wrapped Golden Fish: fried fish meal. Contains: gluten.
Undermountain Alurlyath: a sherry-based drink with lemon and cucumber.
Green Dragon Blackbread Muffins: a pumpernickel-like bread. Contains: gluten, dairy, sugar, and eggs.
Will TTRPG Players Like It?
I believe so. Anything that encourages more cooking at home is a useful tool and a great way to bring people together. There’s plenty of traditional and some more interesting recipes in the book to teach people new cooking skills. Whether you want to cook up a full meal for the game, snacks, or just whip up some drinks, there are so many recipes here to choose from. It has plenty of helpful tips and encourages the use of fresh ingredients. Despite the limitations of its breadth, it is still a fun book to have on hand for most D&D parties.
Happy holidays! We love this time of year so much. We watch holiday movies every Friday, and we do 12 Days of gifts to one another. As you know, we moved into a new place six months ago with pretty much nothing (not even a bed or a sofa), and it’s been great to see the new home finally take shape.
I drew four holiday cards this year featuring characters from our Thread of Souls series. We have Taliesin with “Merry & Bright”, Jade with “Oh Christmas Tree”, Jasita with “Let it Snow”, and Ruuda with “On an Open Fire”.
I’ve been playing a cleric (and writing a cleric) for many years now. Since then, instrumentals that have that cleric-esque vibe have stood out to me. Here are some of my favorite songs if you want some inspiration for your cleric!
Fight Song / Amazing Grace by The Piano Guys
I have listened to this one so many times. The combination of the two songs results in a very beautiful melody. It’s moving to listen to.
A Thousand Candles by Diane & David Arkenstone
The gentle singing in the background of this song has a very cleric-like vibe. It’s holy and sacred and moving all at the same time.
Be Thou My Vision by Sheldon Pickering
The melody of this piece just makes me feel calm and happy when I listen to it. It feels like the comfort a cleric would take when praying to their god.
Fate by Sean Gartner
Obviously as this is from our own soundtrack, it holds a special place in my heart! I really love Fate, as it has this deep, epic, and heavy feel. It reminds me of the weight of a god’s expectations of a cleric.
We take a look at our favorite free resources for creators we use in our projects.
Whether you are a writer, an artist, a TTRPG player or game master, or anything else in the wonderful world of creativity, having a good set of resources is a must. We’re talking about tools you use, software you rely on, and a go-to’s to generate ideas. This is a list of our favorite resources.
For Naming Characters
Sometimes you think for a long time to come up with the perfect character name. Other times, you just need something fast. Our free resource go-to is a site called Baby Names. The reason why we like this so much is its Advanced Search option. Here you can search for names on a global scale by letters, by syllables, and even by their meaning. I particularly love to look up meanings to get ideas. For example, I may want a name that means “hope” or “light” and I’ll get a huge list based off of only that.
For World-Building
Whether you need a battle map for a TTRPG game, a city map for reference, or an entire world map, we are big fans of Inkarnate. We use it both in our games and for our book series. Having a map to reference is invaluable, and even Inkarnate’s free option has a huge array of possibilities. We recently reviewed Inkarnate and its features.
Map of the Oasis in Berenzia created by us on Inkarnate
For Note Keeping
Note: as of December 2023 Evernote raised its price from $60 a year to $130. We no longer recommend this app given the value for the money and no longer use it ourselves.
We are in the middle of writing an eight-book epic fantasy series based off our TTRPG game. There is a lot to keep track of! What designs were in this god’s temples? Did that library have a name? Have these two crossed paths before? It can easily get overwhelming. Evernote has been a game-changer for us. It’s our top pick as a free resource for creators that need to keep track of details. It does have a free option, though we used paid so we can share it across two computers. You download it on your computer and can organize notes through tags and categories to make them more searchable.
For Designs & Mood Boards
I always love Pinterest when it comes to mood boards and ideas, however, if you want to customize things, we love to use Canva. The one drawback is that its free version is limited in options. We pay for it simply because we use it for so many things. But for a long time, we only used free and still enjoyed it. You can do graphic design, choose from photos, search gifs and videos, and much more! We’ve used it to design city symbols and banners, to create pantheon sigils, and for in-game digital handouts.
Symbol of Sunspire created by us on Canva
Do you have any free resources for creators that aren’t on this list? Share below!
We give our thoughts on Inkarnate, a digital map-building software!
Inkarnate is popular in the world of online content creators. It boasts a digital map-building software with a particular focus on fantasy. You can create massive world maps, or highly detailed maps of building interiors. With various styles, effects, and features, Inkarnate continues to grow and expand every year.
Note that every map in this article was built by us in Inkarnate so you can see first-hand what an average person (and not a paid map designer) can create.
Made with Inkarnate.com
What Are the Features?
When you begin to create a new map, you already get many options to choose from. A Fantasy World Map, a Parchment World Map, a Fantasy Regional Map, a Watercolor Battlemap, and a Watercolor City Map. Of course, no matter what you choose when you actually get into the editing stage, you can do whatever you want. But this helps streamline the process if you have a particular project in mind.
After that, you can choose the size of map you want based on how many tiles it has. This can be customized to your exact dimensions. Once you enter the creation mode, the choices feel endless! Here is just an overview of what you can add:
A backdrop effect such as water, snow, tile, or lava.
The ability to shape your terrain with a variety of brushes.
“Stamps” that let you fill it in that are both 2D, 3D, or old-school map icons.
Stamps include mountains, hills, rivers, ground cracks, furniture, gravestones, lights, buildings, boats, plants, monsters, people, ruins, crops, weapons, and much more!
You can add Text and stylize it.
You can draw paths on your map.
You can add, remove, and alter grids.
You can add special overlays and effects.
Is it User-Friendly?
There is definitely a learning curve with Inkarnate. It was more difficult in the past, but it’s become much more user-friendly across the years. That being said, some patience is involved as you figure out how to fill in your map. Once you learn it, though, it feels very easy and simple.
How Much Does it Cost?
The awesome thing is Inkarnate is free! Anyone can sit down and use it. You can also pay for Inkarnate Pro which is $25 a year. Pro gives you more robust options for map creation, but most importantly it allows you commercial use of the maps you create.
Why Do I Need Inkarnate?
Almost any fantasy-fan creator can get good use from Inkarnate. We use it for maps that we publish in our books. We also use it for our own TTRPG game. If you enjoy playing digitally and don’t want to build a hands-on map, or if you just want a map to reference, Inkarnate has just what you need.
Conclusion
Inkarnate is a fun, fantasy-centered map creator that is perfect for TTRPG roleplayers, authors, and anyone that needs to bring their fantasy world to life. Despite the learning curve, Inkarnate really is versatile and you can easily spend hours entertaining yourself with it. And you don’t often find that with free programs!
We take a look at the Magic: The Gathering Tales of Middle-earth holiday card set!
Magic: The Gathering released a set of Lord of the Rings-themed cards earlier this year. They have been a lot of fun to look at and play in the game. But this November they have released what they are calling the “Tales of Middle-earth Holiday Set”. We got to take an early look at it, and it is currently available to buy.
The box it comes in is very beautiful, and all the art on the cards and display sets shows a real love and care. The box comes with a really fun feature: two large display stands. On one side is epic Lord of the Rings art, and on the other are slots to showcase your favorite cards.
For the fans of the traditional Hildebrandt art, we have Greg and Tim Hildebrandt classic The Lord of the Rings art paired with existing Magic card reprints. Twenty in total, they feature a suite of cards chosen specifically for this treatment.”
Wizards of the Coast press release
Some of the art on the cards are our favorite we’ve come across. There’s memorable characters, locations, and situations. Many of the cards are paired with quotes directly from the books, so you get to enjoy the beautiful writing of Tolkien.
We do enjoy playing Magic games. We have decks inspired by Taliesin, Ruuda, Jade, Jasita, and more Thread of Souls characters. These cards will make really fun additions to update our decks!
