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art of roman numerals is counting and subtracting but we only need one letter per gem code here s a table we only need to read once and never need to look at again numeral size reference default gem value v bead sized small 5 coins x pebble sized small 10 coins l marble sized med 50 coins c eyeball sized med 100 coins d egg sized large 500 coins m fist sized large 1000 coins reuse one thing i use a lot is a simple d6 table for adjusting values on just about anything d6 roll adjustment 1 move value down one 2 5 no adjustment 6 move value up one you don t even really need a table for this it s just lowest possible result down one highest possible result up one i also like to use dice positions reading left to right to roll multiple things at once i can reduce the number of rolls that way and speed things up immensely building the dungeon i suggested that gms creating a dungeon key should pick a small number of gem types for their entire dungeon specifically i suggest three or four gem types per dungeon with a color scheme that matches the dungeon s theme one gem will be the low value gem a second would be the middle value and the third would be the high value if necessary a fourth type matching either the low or middle value but with a different color opacity or additional feature like a glow can be added when it s thematically appropriate if you don t have an idea what color you want your gems to be just use the rainbow colors roy g biv start on yellow for the low value green for the mid value and blue for the high value roll 2d6 and read the dice individually left to right first d6 1 shift values left one color 6 shift values right one color second d6 1 shift low value gem down 6 shift high value gem up size the default gem size for a given dungeon is based on deepest dungeon level 2 level gem size 1 2 c 3 4 d 5 6 m 7 3m this is for the high value gems low value common gems will be two sizes smaller by default x to d mid value gems will be one size smaller values above m use an arabic numeral multiplier 3m 5m 10m 30m 50m roll 3d6 in order and read the dice individually left to right first d6 1 shift all sizes down one 6 shift sizes up one second d6 1 shift low value gem down one size 6 shift high value gem up one size third d6 opacity opacity opacity is recorded as an index value 9 90 opaque 5 50 opaque 0 less than 5 opaque the third d6 rolled is the base opacity for the high value gem treating a 6 as zero for mid value gems add 4 for low value gems add 8 opacity is capped at 10 which is completely opaque opaque gems are the listed size for their size value but murky translucent or transparent gems will appear smaller opacity 0 to 2 reduces apparent size down two steps without reducing the value opacity 3 to 7 reduces apparent size down one step opacity 8 is the listed size gem codes and names so let s say you re making a four level dungeon you start with the default gem colors of yellow green and blue from low value to high value you roll 3d6 and get 6 4 2 how do you write this in your notes the low value gem is cy10 an opaque yellow gem the size of an eyeball the mid value gem is dg6 a murky green gem of the same size despite being worth 500 times as much as the low value gem the high value gem is mb2 a translucent blue gem that s also the size of an eyeball but worth 1000 coins the actual values of the gems can vary up or down during both the next step stocking treasure in rooms and the final step getting the gem appraised but what about the names unless a particular gem sounds like a diamond sapphire or emerald to you i think you should stick to fantasy gem names specific to your world opaque yellow gems the size of an eyeball might be known as ra s eye gems murky green gems might be mossmist gems these names wouldn t be listed in the dungeon key but on a list of gems in this world which you would build as you expand your campaign when players discover these gems however they won t get the gem names or values immediately instead just say three small translucent blue gems a few small murky green gems plus a whole bunch of small yellow stones but more on that in a future post series index gems intro gems i types this post gems ii quantities gems iii assessments this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution noncommercial sharealike 4 0 international cc by nc sa 4 0 license at 6 30 am 0 comments labels dnd gm table treasure email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday september 22 2025 the lost series on gems good news everyone i was looking at my old posts to figure out all the times i said i have more to say and then never got around to saying it because i vanished from blogging the worst example of this was the first post in a series on gems that post even has a list of upcoming posts in the series none of which ever appeared the problem i was sure i started writing and maybe even finished the next post in the series but i couldn t find it anywhere that was because i was using stack edit as my editor and the draft was stored inside my browser and it appeared all those drafts and archive copies of old posts were gone and i had know idea where i was going with that series except now they seem to be back and i found the draft for part ii which might be done i ll look it over anyways it will be coming soon although i m not sure when part iii or iv will be ready at 6 30 am 0 comments labels general email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday september 17 2025 wednesday review i finished season 2 of the netflix series wednesday based on the addams family character then realized i never reviewed the first season so here we go wednesday rating ok standouts good performances story is a bit incoherent not really very addams family ish season 2 of wednesday came out three years after season 1 concluded i only remember two things about season 1 it s addams family but really harry potter that one dance it s not a bad show but obviously it s something you enjoy for a little while then literally forget about but why it s not the performances i liked most of the actor performances many stood out jenna ortega is good as wednesday addams catherine zeta jones is good as her mother morticia i liked luis guzman s gomez addams less but still liked him fred armisen is deranged as uncle fester i like it isaac ordonez as pugsley was the break out character of season 2 of the other teen actors emma myers as wednesday s roommate enid stood out and evie templeton s agnes was very creepy but the rest did a decent job too i just didn t care about their characters as for what s wrong well it s a tad long feeling more like a really long movie instead of a tv show but that s typical of tv shows made for streaming services and it s not as bad as other examples but the story feels a bit incoherent too many things that don t seem to have anything to do with the story i think this is why i couldn t remember much about the first season i just couldn t keep the story in my head another issue that might be a problem for some it doesn t really feel entirely like the addams family for one in the 60s tv series and the 90s movies mostly the family always felt like they really liked each other sure the kids torture each other but then they like torture so it s a sign of love in wednesday however wednesday is at odds with her parents especially her mother morticia s at odds with her own mother everyone treats thing as a slave the other reason it doesn t feel like the addams family is because of the harry potter influence they wanted magical kids at a magical kid school but the joke of the addams family has always been that the family thinks of themselves and their lifestyle as normal while their neighbors and other people they encounter are weirded out that s the opposite of the harry potter series where the students all think weird is normal and only harry is baffled because he grew up isolated from the wizarding world wednesday can t decide which way to go so it oscillates back and forth wednesday s schoolmates sometimes act like she s weird even though they are gorgons werewolves vampires and the like and then suddenly they all think wednesday s perfectly normal meanwhile there s a normie town nearby you d think that the townies would be the ones baffled by wednesday and the students of nevermore but no they are hostile towards outcasts but know all the lore so i can t recommend wednesday to the general public in other words it s not great it s ok but i also can t necessarily recommend it to addams family fans if you just want a goth girl mystery comedy or a replacement for harry potter because of the politics of the author this might fit your needs this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution noncommercial sharealike 4 0 international cc by nc sa 4 0 license at 6 30 am 4 comments labels review email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday september 15 2025 non human pc races previously i wrote about non human fantasy races although my main point there was that many if not most of the fantasy races we think of as non human are really just variant humans in disguise bur whether they are really non human or human variants the question to ask is when should a fantasy race become a player character race when should a fantasy race remain exclusively for npcs i have some thoughts races relevant to the story let s ignore the trivial case of unique monsters or npcs that aren t races at all for now and focus instead on the obvious cases where a fantasy race should not be available to players mystery races unknown or nearly unknown races that players can choose to investigate the pnume from jack vance s planet of adventure series would be one example villain races mystery races that are secretly behind multiple evil schemes the drow dero and mind flayers were probably all originally used this way secret ally races mystery races that are either currently helping the pcs secretly or could be asked for help the arisians from doc smith s lensman series and the priest kings from the gor series would count here the common theme here is that these races are somehow tied to the goal of a potential adventure they have information artifacts or raw power that the players want naturally if a player were allowed to begin the game as one of these races it would short circuit the mystery mentors or macguffins that trivial case i mentioned where a monster or npc is unique perhaps the last or first of its kind or the sole current visitor from an inaccessible world or dimension is pretty much disqualified for the same reasons you as gm may have notes on an npc s innate talents or skills knowledge and technology available to their race but the race itself technically does not exist these unique beings typically exist as story or plot elements in much the same way as the mystery villain ally races if the pcs contact the last known atlantean who becomes their mentor they may gain a significant advantage but the gm may want to supply information or assistance when needed rather than grant them unlimited access it s hard to justify why a pc atlantean wouldn t have access to the same secrets as their mentor so it may be better to simply not allow atlanteans as a pc race overpowered fantasy races related to the villain and ally fantasy races mentioned above are high powered fantasy races in general it s not completely out of the question for a player to have an angel character or a djinn or a godling of some sort depending on the intended beginning power level of the game but if other players have all created standard human warriors dwarves and elves one player demanding that they be allowed to play q from star trek is generally considered to be a warning sign there shouldn t be an enormous disparity between character power levels a pc that begins as a member of a standard race who is later polymorphed into a member of another race even one not normally allowed as a beginning pc race is not subject to the same restrictions for two reasons polymorph spells don t alter the pc s skills or cultural knowledge it s basically just a really good disguise the pc may not be able to use that race s innate abilities at first especially abilities the player has not yet seen used the pc may have to train for a while before achieving the full power of that race surprise it s a fantasy race other fantasy races may be added as minor mysteries to solve not full blown plot devices but more like little surprises to keep exploration exciting such a fantasy race would be unavailable as pc races at first but once they have been encountered and their culture or other unique features have been discovered there s no harm in allowing players to make new characters from that race a slightly similar idea is a reasonably balanced fantasy race made up by a player or borrowed from a fantasy novel the gm has no intention to adapt in full i feel that this kind of custom fantasy race fits in with that well known section on other character types in the original booklets there is no reason that players cannot be allowed to play as virtually anything provided they begin relatively weak and work up to the top i e a player wishing to be a dragon would have to begin as let us say a young one and progress upwards in the usual manner steps being predetermined by the campaign referee od d vol i men magic p 8 if the race is player created especially if the race s culture and history are being improvised during play that player should have the same kind of control over whether other players are allowed to play characters from that race in summary i think all of the above could be boiled down to just a few rules keep fantasy races npc only if finding out more about the race is the whole point unique monsters or npcs are races in name only otherwise if there s no longer any surprise factor and the race is reasonably balanced compared to other beginning pc race go for it there s no real harm this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution noncommercial sharealike 4 0 international cc by nc sa 4 0 license at 6 30 am 1 comments labels dnd race email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest older posts home subscribe to comments atom pages home about maps lmgm liber zero links resources creative content on this blog 10x10 dungeon geomorphs also available in dave s mapper and one page dungeons on the maps page the last minute gm a set of tools and techniques for improvising or prepping material at the last minute monsters npcs and magic items many created with either the 20 sided quickies or more advanced quickie dice tool tables development posts for the liber zero old school retro clone project top 5 popular posts this week downtime clerics without spells non human races in fantasy lit roleplaying not rulesplaying community vs conformity subscribe to posts atom posts 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