This is the first in a series of posts on designing dynamic and unique TTRPG boss fights for your campaigns.
Opening up this new series exploring how to design effective boss battles, we will talk about adding “minions” to the fight. No, not the little yellow guys or the fish from Megamind. We’re referring to allies that support the main boss. Here are some examples:
An army captain supported by foot soldiers.
A giant spider supported by offspring.
A dragon supported by elemental worshippers.
Minions can be the defining factor in how engaging and challenging TTRPG boss fights are. They give your players something else to have to worry about and focus on. They also help to flesh out the world and cement that your villain isn’t alone. Here are some of the reasons minions will help your TTRPG battles feel more epic:
Quick Rewards: It can take many turns for your party to take down the big boss. Being able to also defeat weaker enemies in the meantime keeps morale up.
Added Challenge: Depending on how many minions you add and how powerful they are, you can increase the difficulty of the fight.
More Dynamic Rounds: Let’s face it, it isn’t really fun to have all the heroes take a turn before your villain gets to, even if they get legendary actions. Minions add in more bad guy turns to keep up the intensity for everyone involved.
Prolonging the Fight: No one wants their villain to go down in one round. But if you have a very strong party that unleashes all their most powerful attacks in the first round, that is a possibility. Minions prolong the fight by adding in more targets and more overall HP.
If you want to add minions into your fight, consider who would support your villain. These could be fanatic supporters, simple servants following orders, or even monsters with little intelligence other than to kill.
Have fun in those fights! And stay tuned for more in this series.
There has been trend in our popular media over time. From movies, TV, games, comics, and books. It began as presenting our main characters as flawless good guys. They always did the right thing. They always had good manners. They were kind, but they weren’t realistic.
In rebellion against that, the anti-hero came out. The hero that still liked to murder. The criminal who would fight the bad guys as well as the good. A subsection even morphed into following villain stories altogether. While more realistic, they aren’t hero characters to be admired and modeled after. If taken too far, it glorifies violent behavior. (Note: these can be done right but often aren’t!)
But now we are seeing a shift to a more appropriate middle ground. A hero who is a good person, but also a flawed person. Not in the way that they will shoot someone in the face for crossing them, but flawed in the way that they make mistakes, struggle internally, and let down people who count on them. This is a much more relatable character because they are not perfect superhumans. But neither do they glorify the worst of humanity.
When I see inexperienced storytellers or TTRPG players want to play “murder hobos” or write about a “hardened mob boss” because they say it’s cool, I am left scratching my head. What is cool about that?
In fact, I think good characters are far more interesting than evil characters. And in my research on this topic, I found others that have summed up my whirlwind of thoughts quite well.
“I just think goodness is more interesting. Evil is constant. You can think of different ways to murder people, but you can do that at age five. But you have to be an adult to consciously, deliberately be good – and that’s complicated.” – Toni Morrison
I’d always found goodness to be more interesting than evil, though I was aware this wasn’t the most general view. To my mind, it took more work and more courage to be good, an opinion continually reinforced by my own shortcomings. ” – Dick Francis
The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist; a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain.” – Ursula K. LeGuin
I suppose that is why I like to write about, read about, watch, and play good characters. Far from perfect, certainly. Capable of violence, certainly. And tempted to do wrong while sometimes failing to win that battle. But also marked by compassion, by caring about others, by valuing life, and by still trying each morning to be better than they were the day before. To me, at least, those are the characters I love.
They also mark some of my favorite fictional characters.
The Doctor from Doctor Who, always wanting to understand and to help. But who is still flawed because he will cross the line in using his power.
Aragorn from Lord of the Rings, an advocate for peace and diplomacy. Who is flawed because he struggles with taking risks and accepting his bloodline.
Megamind from Megamind, a supervillain who didn’t want anyone to really get hurt. Who is flawed because he lies.
Danielle from Ever After, whose kindness and mercy persists even under the worst circumstances. But who is flawed because she carries on a deception for too long.
Luz from The Owl House, who never judged and always wanted to make friends. But who is flawed because she is too reckless.
We give our advice on how to get started with TTRPG homebrewing!
Most of the people who play TTRPG’s are creatives. We love to build characters, to roleplay, and to imagine. So if you are a Game Master or even a player, you might find yourself interested in doing some homebrewing. After all, the rulebooks can feel limiting to those of us who think outside of the box.
Dorian and I got started in TTRPGs with many standard rulesets. Pathfinder, 5e, Forbidden Lands, Lord of the Rings, etc. As soon as we got the hang of how to play a TTRPG, we wanted to start homebrewing. That has evolved over the years into creating our own rule system, or own spells, monsters, classes, items, and world. But you don’t have to go all out like we did! Here are some of our tips to get started with TTRPG homebrewing.
Pull Inspiration From What You Like
We have found inspiration from many things we enjoy and converted them into the game. Here are some examples:
We converted Gandalf’s spells from Lord of the Rings into spells we can use.
We created a warlock subclass based on Talion and Celebrimbor from Shadow of Mordor.
We designed a region of our game inspired by the beauty of the Scottish Highlands.
We created dungeon traps inspired by the Indiana Jones movies.
All it takes is to think creatively about how such an item or place would exist in a TTRPG setting. From there, you can continue to test and tinker until you get it exactly how you want it.
What if I Don’t Know How to Balance Monster Stats?
We love to homebrew our own monsters and villains. But if you read a how-to guide from one of the core rulebooks, it will make it seem like an impossible task. But it doesn’t have to be! The key is to keep things flexible.
If this is your first time homebrewing a stat block, give yourself some flexibility once it comes into play. If your players are getting hurt much worse than you planned, reduce the hit points/life points or armor class of the opponent. Give them less advantages and less deadly attacks. You can do this in a subtle way so it won’t be noticeable. The opposite is also true if the monster is much weaker than you anticipated!
Here’s a tip to keep in mind for how powerful you want your monster/villain to be. Imagine they are the only monster fighting your party. Think about your party’s more powerful attacks and how much damage they can do in one round.
That dual-wielding ranger? She easily deals out 30 points.
That barbarian? 40 points.
The wizard will probably attempt to do a support spell to bolster the party.
The cleric could use his radiant strike spell for 25 points.
All together that’s 95 points if all of them hit. Will your creature get taken down in one round? If the answer is yes and you don’t want them to be, adjust accordingly.
How Do I Build a Believable Culture?
The best way to build a believable fantasy culture is to look at the world around you. Some curiosity about other places, religions, rituals, and holidays are great starting points. You can even be inspired by just the architecture of other places. Example:
The colorful Moroccan architecture could inspire a culture that is lively and full of festivities.
Mexico’s Day of the Dead practices could inspire a culture that focuses on honoring their ancestors and family ties.
The floating houseboats in Louisiana could inspire a culture that lives on the water and respects nature.
Here’s something not to do.
While you might be inspired by war, conflict, and political struggles in our real world, be careful what you carry into the game. Not everyone is comfortable indulging in a fantasy world that also has them deal with their real-life issues of racism, sexism, and homophobia. It is supposed to be escapism, after all. If you find yourself using logic such as, “Well, women are abused a lot because they’re weaker than the men here,” then stop yourself. No one likes those ideas in real life, and no one wants to play them, either. The only exception is if a player asks to explore these themes and everyone at the table agrees.
Players should feel empowered and confident at the table, not bullied and belittled.
General Tips for TTRPG Homebrewing
Don’t try to do it all at once! Start with just an item or just a spell. Once you get the hang of it, it’s easier to do a lot more.
Watch movies, read books, play games, and travel to get more inspiration!
Look at photos online of places around the world.
Use tools like Inkarnate to help with map-building.
Rules are made to be broken. Think outside of the ruleset when creating!
If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right.
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 about virtual or physical maps in TTRGs and the pros and cons of each.
You’ve seen the photos online. Elaborate TTRPG maps spread across a gaming table. Or perhaps you’ve built them yourself for your DnD, Pathfinder, Forbidden Lands, Call of Cthulhu, or other tabletop game. During the pandemic years, virtual games became more common, relying on digital maps for dungeon crawling and battles.
But is one better than the other?
We have done both in our eight years of playing. And we give our thoughts to help you determine what is best for you.
The Physical TTRPG Map
We started out our game with just a graph paper and some lego characters. But we fell so in love with the game that we kept pushing the boundaries of physical map-building. We bought and painted miniatures and set pieces. We spent way too much money on Dwarven Forge. We bought LED pieces, speakers, ambient lighting, and scented candles to set the mood.
It really was something special. It pulled you right into the world and gave you something tangible to interact with. One of my favorite builds required us to bring along a tiny lit lantern and we had to stay in the light and not cross into the shadows.
Pros:
Allows you to feel a part of the world with touchable elements.
Allows for fun effects such as flickering lights, traps, and multi-level builds.
It is fun to setup.
Cons:
It can become extremely expensive to collect enough pieces.
You are limited to builds based on what you have on hand.
You need a large enough space for your builds.
The Virtual TTPRG Map
When we traveled out of a campervan for awhile, we donated all of our TTRPG items to a local library that wanted to start its own program. We’re talking thousands of dollars worth of books, miniatures, and set pieces. It is both a happy and sad memory at the same time. We spent so many years and so many dollars collecting those. But we are happy that they went to a good cause, to bring others joy like they brought us.
The need to travel more easily made us switch to virtual maps. We built through Inkarnate, one of our favorite systems, and then used the maps on online gaming platforms like Roll20.
Pros:
You can create anything. You aren’t limited by pieces.
It doesn’t matter where you are, you can always play virtually.
It is free. Or at least cheaper if you end up paying for a subscription or a premium version of software.
Cons:
It lacks the personal touch. You can’t interact with it.
You need to find a good online system that allows you to move your characters and bad guys around easily.
It requires some technology and artistic understanding to build these sets and create characters the way you envision them.
The Verdict
So, which one is best? Both of them. We’ve enjoyed both for different reasons. We loved the full sets we used that were so immersive and sprawling. But we also like the cost effectiveness and portability of virtual sets. Perhaps in the future, we will buy set pieces again. And then we can vary between physical or virtual TTRPG builds depending on what we need in the moment.
This is an autobiographical post. The names of people and places may be changed.
We decided to write autobiographical posts about the colorful life we have lived. There will be tales of sleeping in a campervan on the beach, of defending a bird’s nest from a snake, and of running away from wolves while sick with bronchitis. There will be tales of diagnosis with PTSD and ADHD and how it changed our lives, of meeting biological family, and of job loss. It’s a tale of overcoming challenges, of finding out who we are, of love, hope, cats, and of a marriage that’s gotten stronger through it all.
Autobiography Post 15
Discovering TTRPGs changed our lives. Ever since 2015, it has impacted our hobbies, our interests, and led to the launch of our book series. There is no way to minimize how it has shaped our future.
But it had very modest beginnings.
Critical Role
Dorian watched Critical Role long before I ever did. He would tell me about the stories and the characters. Seeing the rules played out before him made him want to learn how to play the 5th edition of D&D. He bought a rulebook and would read it frequently, learning the game. He invited me to learn but I was hesitant. It was so confusing to me when he would explain it. I didn’t understand how it was played.
Ending Up Involved
Once Dorian felt confident with the rules, he met up with his friends to have them make characters. He met with five different people and they scheduled a time to all play their first game together. But the week of, only two of them said they would show up.
“It would really be better with three players,” Dorian sighed. “I don’t know who else to ask.”
I hesitated, then offered, “I could play. It’ll be fun.”
He brightened and helped me through making a character. A chose a druid because I could do elemental spells and have an animal companion. That was when I made Jade and Foxy. I still didn’t understand, but I was willing to give it a try to support my then-fiance.
During the first game two of Dorian’s friends showed up. It was the person who played Brother Zok, and the person who played Sen. About an hour before the game Dorian encouraged me to call my adoptive sister to see if she’d be interested in joining us.
“You know, I’ve always wanted to learn how to play DnD,” she admitted. “I can’t tonight, but I might be able to join another week.”
So the three of us playing Jade, Sen, and Brother Zok sat down at the table. We had an incredible time playing through what’s ended up being the first two chapters (not including the prologue) of Phantom Five.
Learning More
Not long after that, I started watching Critical Role with Dorian. Seeing a game played out helped me learn and realize what a TTRPG could become. Though we started out with D&D 5e, over the course of the years we learned many other systems and ultimately forged a game more homebrewed than anything else. That’s our creative minds at work!
Back then, we only used graph paper for a map and some lego pieces for characters. Years later it led to a huge Dwarven Forge collection and an entire bookshelf worth of miniatures. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of the first games, but you get an idea of what we created in the following years!
We became so invested that it changed the course of our lives forever. And over the next couple of autobiographical posts, I am happy to share with you how it evolved and how it turned into Thread of Souls.
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.
As someone who has roleplayed a druid for eight years, and has written a druid character for five years, I definitely am familiar with all things TTRPG druidic. Here are some of my favorite druid spells that I always keep prepared when I play Jade (in no particular order).
Healing Word
This is something I always have on hand in case of an emergency. With a fully healing focused cleric in the party, there is rarely a need for my druid to need to heal anybody. With this spell, I can deliver life-saving healing at a distance. When playing a TTRPG, crisis situations always happen. This is my “just in case everyone is dying” spell.
Hold Person
This paralysis spell extremely useful both in and out of combat. There’s been a handful of times when I’ve needed to stop someone from escaping, running away, or killing another party member and Hold Person provided that opportunity. It’s another spell that doesn’t get used every game, but is crucial in clutch moments.
Conjure Animals
Not only is this spell useful, it’s just plain fun! I usually end up conjuring a group of large birds to carry party members when we are escaping a dangerous situation, but I’ve also conjured horses to carry civilians, and a rhino to cause a distraction. This spell does get used quite a bit and I make sure it is always prepared.
Commune With Nature
This is a great spell when you’re lost or confused and need some guidance on what to do next. I like that it can be ritually cast, as well, if you are short on spell slots. You sit in one spot and get to learn about the environment around you, including the populace, plants, and passages. I’ve used it to help find the path and to learn more about new areas we’ve entered. It’s a really fun way to roleplay as a druid, too.
Wind Walk
This is one of the beautiful benefits of being an upper-level druid. Travel is now much faster! Slipping into wind, you can lead your whole party across vast distances very quickly. We’ve also used it to sneak through places (mostly) successfully. I never wake up in the morning without this spell ready to go!
Do you have a favorite druid spell that isn’t on this list? Share below!
We give our recommendations for the best gifts for the TTRPG players in your life!
As TTRPG players ourselves and people who have friends that enjoy these role-playing games, we thought it fitting to write a gift guide. Whether you play D&D, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, the Lord of the Rings RPG, or indie games, there is something for everyone who enjoys rolling dice.
The Dice Dragon
It’s hard to find a TTRPG player that will turn down a new set of dice. But if they already have so many sets, what do you get them? A typical game store in town won’t be the place to go. We recommend going online to Etsy and finding dice makers. These creators have a variety of interesting, unique, and whimsical products in their shops. Some even give you the option to customize, adding personalization to your gift.
The Cosplayer
By asking some questions, you can get to know about the character your friend plays. While you don’t need to buy them a full cosplay set, there are some things you can do to let them wear their character while playing their game.
A customized t-shirt with their character name on it
A necklace with a symbol related to their character (if their character wields a war hammer have it be a war hammer)
A hat that their character wears (if they play a pirate, get them a pirate hat)
An accessory that their character wears (a pair of white gloves, a flower crown, a red scarf, steampunk goggles)
A customized dice mat or box with colors or designs related to their character
The Game Master
Most Game Master’s always have need of fun, new accessories for their games. Be mindful how big of a playing space your friend has. If they have an entire room and storage devoted to gaming, you can go big. But if they just have a re-purposed small space, give them something easy to store away.
High-quality terrain from Dwarven Forge
“Condition” rings that show if characters are currently Paralyzed, Poisoned, Charmed, etc
A set of dry erase 2D maps for a variety of locations
A Bluetooth speaker to play music through
A fun dice tower to roll large amounts of dice with
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!
