The Dragon Prince – Plot Overview

Warning, if you haven’t watched the show at all, spoilers ahead for the whole series.

Season 1-3 Recap

Let’s recap everything to get to where we are. Rayla and the moon elves come to assassinate the King after he and Viren took down the dragon king and destroyed the Dragon Prince’s egg. However, that egg is found in the castle. And one of the moon elves, Rayla joins with Callum and Ezran to go on the run with the Dragon Prince’s egg to try and get him back to his mother. Things don’t always go smoothly but they work their way over there through the first three seasons.

Viren, meanwhile, is making a play for the throne which Ezran struggles to know what to do with. And he attempts to track down the boys and Rayla to get the egg back. Even sending his own children after them to get the egg and let a mysterious accident happen to them. But that doesn’t work and it culminates with Viren leading troops into Xadia, the elven lands, to get the egg back, all with a mysterious little voice Aaravos whispering in his ear, helping him along the way.

Season 4

We jump forward two years. Ezran has taken the thrown, Viren is back, after being thought to be dead, and now the threat is new. No longer are they trying to get the Dragon Prince, Zym, back to his mother, but now the threat is the return of Aaravos.

Season 4 brings the characters back together after having been apart. As well as gives us more of the history of Xadia and the lands and what Aaravos had done prior to being put into his prison. And without saying much more, that’s the basics of the story to avoid spoilers.

What Doesn’t Work?

The time jump makes sense, to some extent, and there is a story reason for it. But it also adds in some complications for everything. When you do a time jump you need to explain where characters have been and what they’ve been up to. I think it works for some of the characters pretty well, Claudia for example, but not for others as much, Rayla. However, you need Rayla’s story for some of the tension and development of everything.

And I think that a show like The Dragon Prince, with the actual time gap between seasons suffers a little bit. As the characters age up, you kind of expect the show to mature a little bit. And The Dragon Prince has never kept from dealing with tough topics. But some of the characters or situations are basically done for humor in ways where it cuts into heavier or more meaningful moments. Now, it is a kids show, so that is the reason, never let it to get too heavy in any moment, but it could have been handled better.

What Works?

I think the overall story is the right way to go. Aaravos needs to be the next big bad guy. There is not the pressure of getting Zym to his mother anymore. So some new bad guy needs to exist. And Viren could work for that, but it’d feel a lot like a retread. I believe it was smart for them to look to a new main villain.

Viren’s arc for this season I think worked really well. It was almost a passing of a torch early in the season and he returns to his power at the end. No details for you on how that works though as it is a spoiler. But his arc makes a lot of sense and I like that they given characters who are villains depth and arcs for what they are doing.

And finally, I really like the handling of the elf and human dynamic. It is two years later, but things aren’t perfect. In fact, a lot of times, things still struggle. And that is one thing that the Dragon Prince always does well. It tells a story where there are comparisons to the real world. But it shows light on things that are hard to see in real life. Mainly that real change, coming together, it takes time, it takes work, there are going to be differing opinions. But if it truly does matter, then the fight to make those changes happen does matter as well.

Final Thoughts on The Dragon Prince Season 4

Is this my favorite season, I don’t know that it is. There are elements that are great, though. And without getting into spoilers, it is hard to talk about them completely But there are elements that aren’t as fun. And some of that is the time jump and the need to explain it away. I wish they hadn’t done it in some way. But at the same time, it is needed.

One of my likes, how it handles the struggles of the elf and human dynamic is really good. And that is not as strong without that time jump. However, another element, that with Rayla, it feels like it’s tacked onto there for no amazing reason. They needed to explain it, they want more drama. But this show is better when it allows some things to work out just because they do. Overall, still a great show and still a really fun season.

Is this going to be a season that brings in new viewers or makes it worth pushing through? No, I don’t think it is. But if you like the show, it is reason to keep watching. Do you like like The Dragon Prince?

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Checkout 100 through 91 first here.

Top 100 Games 2022 Edition 90-81

90 – The Crew: Mission Deep Sea

I really enjoy trick taking games, though not a ton of them make the top of my list. The Crew: Mission Deep Sea makes the list for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it is a cooperative trick taking game. So everyone works together to complete certain objectives. That is fun, but it is also fun because I can play the same scenario over again and I’ll have different objectives. That’s something that made me like it better than The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine which was fixed.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

89 – Too Many Bones: Undertow

Too Many Bones, a bit game from Chip Theory Games, is one that I think will move up higher as I get more characters and get it to the table more. I like it every time I play, but it’s a beast and I need to relearn the rules. But Too Many Bones is generally a tactical fighting game where you level up characters as you go. Eventually you face off against a big boss. What you level up are stats but then also unlock new dice and abilities to use. And then I like that fact that the characters aren’t normal. The Gearlocs aren’t cute, but what they do is different than a lot of standard fantasy games.

Buy on Chip Theory Games

88 – Downforce

Downforce is an interesting light and quick betting game. In this game you buy a car, race that car, and then get your points, or money, for who you place a bet on, where they finish, and where you vehicle finishes. There is one thing, there are more, but one in particular, that is so clever though. As the cars race along, that is done by people playing down cards. The cards have a list of car colors and how far they move. If you plan it well you can get a car trapped and slow it down, which offers more strategy than you’d expect from the game.

Buy on Miniature Market

87 – Fruit Picking

Another one that has been on the list before and another lighter game like Downforce that way. But otherwise it is more like Mancala with set collection. You move seeds around, figuring out how to land on spots where you can either get a lot more seeds or you can buy different fruit. All you are trying to do is figure out that puzzle as quickly as possible. And of course, to land in the right spot to get those fruit and collect your sets.

Buy on Amazon

86 – Atlantis Rising

Atlantis Rising is new to the list, and a very good cooperative game. As I say in the video, it’s almost an introductory or welcoming cooperative game. In this game you are trying not to keep Atlantis afloat, but as it sinks, get off the island by making technology and end up in another realm. What I like is how the board shrinks as you play, parts sink and you lose some of the better options for going out. Of course, if you want to more likely get what you need, you go out to the end of an peninsula, but there is also a great chance it’ll sink and you get nothing.

Buy on Miniature Market

85 – Flamecraft

Flamecraft is one of the prettiest games out there with all the cute dragons. But it’s a fun light game to play as well. It is a very good welcoming game because of the artwork, but because there isn’t too much going on as well. You are either adding dragons to shops to get resources on your turn, and use powers of the dragons or shop. Or you are completing goals and gaining points. It’s such a friendly game that is a lot of fun to play and look at.

Pre-Order on Miniature Market

84 – Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Arkham Horror: The Card Game has fallen for me a lot. Mainly because I just don’t play it or have someone to play it with consistently. For me, it is a fine solo game, but I like it better multiplayer. In this game you are an investigator looking into some strange mystery, probably dealing with an elder god or some great old one. Of course, that means weird things can happen, and Fantasy Flight Games has done a great job of putting something together that uses the cards to create really unique experiences.

Buy on Miniature Market

83 – Village Rails

Village Rails replaces Village Green for me on the list. So another new game. It is still laying out things in a 3×3 grid, but now you’re trying to connect routes and score points that way. Plus playing out train engines to get even more scoring opportunities. What I like about it though is that the route building is a bit simpler to grasp than how the greens work. It’s a solid filler style game, I’d say, where it offers good decisions but not that long a game play time.

Not Out Yet

82 – Isle of Cats

The Isle of Cats from City of Games, is a great big polyomino game where you are rescuing cats. The same for the Explore and Draw which I’d maybe rate higher but hadn’t rated yet by the time I did my list. In both you are filling up a boat with cats, trying to get families – colors of cats- next to each other on the boat. And then there are objective cards as well that you can draft and give you more end of the game scoring. There is a lot to the game but it’s a fun one to play both versions of it.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

81 – The Lost Expedition

The Lost Expedition is another one that has been on my list for a long time and has dropped some lately. Mainly because it got played a lot and there is less to see. But I still enjoy The Lost Expedition a lot. Mainly because it’s a cooperative game that is hard or even impossible for one player to really run for everyone. You’re trying to find the lost city of Z and explore along different paths every day. When making that path, each person needs to make the decision themselves and can’t discuss with other players. Eventually you make it, or often times you run out of food and your guides all perish.

Buy on Miniature Market

Upcoming Streams

Next Monday the Top 100 Games 2022 Edition continues. You can find the video below for that one. If you want to join live, it’ll be at 8:30 PM Central on Monday. Only week where it might not happen at that time is October 31st as it’s Halloween.

Then on Wednesday, it is time for more Stars of Akarios. This is assuming my internet is back by then. If not, I’ll tweet it out. But you can find that link here. The following week I will be out of town so no Stars of Akarios. But hopefully you are still having fun, and most likely there is a fair amount to catch up on after seven games.

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Pros

• Page Is Good
• Epic Adventure Game
• Price Point
• True Solo

Cons

• Price Point
• Aesthetic (possibly)

The Page

This is an interesting page for me. I put in my cons the aesthetic, and I think it might be the aesthetic of the page more so than the aesthetic of the game itself. The game looks different than most fantasy big box games. While it has dragons and monsters, it feels almost more grounded and more medieval in nature.

But on the flip side that same more simplistic aesthetic on the page itself, it seems a bit too much like it was done in paint. Now, they lay out things well on their page. I get an idea of what the game is about immediately, but at the same time, I also feel like if this was a new company, I’d be knocking them on it hard for not being polished enough.

The section that really stands out to me with this is the stretch goals or daily unlocks. Parts of the artwork look great. Other parts look unpolished, I guess that is what it comes down to for me. And like I said, I think it works for the game. It isn’t the flashiest, but it makes the game feel different. For the page, it just lacks the selling itself I’d expect.

The Game

The game itself does a lot of things that I like. Good character progression, from the looks of it. And while it’s not something that I seek out, I really like the idea that a character improves as things get worse. Cthulhu: Death May Die, I believe, does the same thing where you can unlock more abilities as you go more insane. So instead of feeling every hit as much, you fight harder for your life as the hits keep coming.

I also like that you make permanent changes to the world. This is basically a legacy element of the game but it isn’t a true legacy, I’d say. Basic idea is that as you play through the campaign and survive, your knights will influence the world, leave a mark on it. If and when you come back now what you’ve done before will make a difference on what happens next.

Also, for me, true solo is a huge add to the game. Just to clarify what that means, it means as a solo player I don’t need to control multiple characters. The game might be meant for 4 knights to go through it, but I can play it with one. It adds in squires as support, but the overall bookkeeping of all the knights versus some automated squires will make the game simpler to play.

As they say, the true solo helps you focus on the story. And I think that’s what interests me most is the story of the game. You’re going out as a knight, not as wizard, warlock, even a rogue or a fighter. You fight for your kingdom(s) and try and stop the monsters that are coming after you. That is pretty normal dungeon crawler, but it’s less an adventuring party, and more knights sent out on a quest.

Back or Brick

This one is a tough one for me. I definitely want to back it and right now I am for the $12 US no reward but access to pledge manager and early bird, if I decide to go in for more on it. So technically it is a Brick for me right now. I’m trying to convince myself with the pledge with no reward that I might play it later, I have room with the campaign games I own and have coming in, since I’m sure this will take a bit to deliver.

But in reality, I probably have enough to last me another five years or more, plus some on the way. So I likely won’t back this just because I don’t need another campaign game. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want this. And I think with Aeon’s Trespass coming out soon, we’ll get a better idea of what the company does. But I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you back it.

So is this a Back or Brick for you?

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Pros

• Theme
• Artwork
• Price Point
• Developer/Design team of Dwellings of Eldervale

Cons

• FOMO on Fancy Version
• Game Play On the Page

The Page

This is a great page but with my common complaint. This page doesn’t have nearly enough game play information on it. Now the game might be as simple as what it shows, but when you have a playthrough the rule book link, I’d love to see a bit more of how the game actually works. In particular the “How To Play” section doesn’t have how you win on it. That likely doesn’t have a fancy gif you can make for it, but it is important to know.

Otherwise, they do what they should, they highlight the amazing artwork. The Artwork of Sandara Tang is just amazing. The dragons are adorable and I think really all of it sets the theme of the board game so well. And little dragons helping around a town is completely adorable.

The Game

The game itself looks like it should be fun. However, I can’t speak to that too much because as I said in the section about the page, there just isn’t enough information on this page. So normally I’d write up a whole lot more on this. I could have watched the how to play video(s) or game play, and I might later. But if I can’t tell how the game works or how to win the game by looking at the “How to Play” section, that probably isn’t ideal.

To go further on that, I’m in the hobby. I spend a lot of time, maybe too much, looking at Kickstarters and Gamefounds. When I do this post though, I want to not dive exceedingly deep in. Why, because most people won’t. So I want to give you my first impressions. And that is that the game looks amazing, but the game play, I don’t know.

Back or Brick

This one, will it be a Back or Brick? For me this is going to be a Brick. I actually really want to play this game. However, this game is going to go to retail, so the only reason I’d back it right now to help the company fund the game, it’s already funded, or get the deluxe version. Now the deluxe version looks cool, but for a lighter game, which this looks like, do I need all the fancy plastic. How much is a Game Trayz insert going to improve my enjoyment of the game? I’m not sure this game has enough stuff to warrant getting the fancy version.

How about for you is this a Back or Brick?

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The Session

We start with them finishing their search of the half-orcs room after the latest dragon attack. But people are starting to show up, so they realize that it’s a bit suspicious with what they are doing and they decide to pursue other means of investigating this latest dragon attack and not really where the missing scarab from the first attack is. It makes sense to them because this dragon attack was also caused by a scarab.

They talk quickly with a few towns folk seeing if they can figure out if this is something that’s happened before. A few of the old timers tell Thrain a tale about how there was, about 60 years ago, a large dragon that came out and it was killed. That is corrected on them though as it turns out unlike this ancient black dragon, that was a young dragon. So Thrain doesn’t really think that there’s much of a connection.

The rest of the first year students are now out of the cellar and are looking around as well. The group spots that both Addrus and Dorin are missing from the group. Considering how suspicious Dorin has been acting, they decide to check up on him and see where he might be off to. Barrai finds him in his barracks hurriedly packing a steamer trunk and talking to himself about how everyone is out to get him. He tells Barrai about the threatening and disturbing notes that he’s been finding. Barrai feels a bit bad about it as he watches Dorin climb into the steamer trunk and close it while giving Barrai instructions as to where to ship him so he gets home safely.

Barrai messages every basically saying that Dorin probably isn’t their guy. Bokken heads to the meeting location but everyone else goes to where Barrai is. They decide that they’ll help Dorin get sent where he wants to go later, but right now they need to continue their investigation. They give Dorin some more food so that he’ll be slightly more comfortable and then go down into the tunnels where they are hoping to catch someone after the fact. They consider going down the the the direction that leads to the tower, but Kip is able to investigate and figure out that no one has gone down there in a long time.

At this point in time, they start piecing together some of the odd things that have happened in the past with the tunnel. How Barrai tried to put Sanphire to sleep but got someone else in the tunnel instead the first day they’d found the tunnel. How there had been someone skulking around in the shadows by the tunnel. How Sanphire had told them that Addrus and Parag were the only two first years he’d seen the day before. The group splits up with Barrai and Kip going to find Castillia and Thrain and Bokken going to find Parrag in hopes that they will know where Addrus is. Neither of them do, but Parrag wants to ask Addrus some questions. In particular he wants to know why he borrowed his shirt, but also with both of them being spies, why it appears that Addrus did another mission. Parrag completed all four of his and had four keys from each mission, but Addrus had five keys. Castillia, on the other hand, doesn’t know anything about what’s going on or where Addrus is.

Grabbing the steamer trunk with Dorin in it, they set off into town to go to the bank. Kip tries to get information or access to Addrus’s account and find out information on the account. He learns that isn’t that easy to do, and casts friends in order to make it easier. He claims that he is a joint on the account and he needs to get access. He finds out about the documentation for a joint account and is disappointed that he likely won’t be able to forge it as there is a magical element to it and it requires blood from both people on the account. Kip does find out that Addrus was last there two days ago. They go to the bar again to get some late lunch and ask around if anyone has seen Addrus there. No one has seen him there recently as he hasn’t been in, in three days.

And at this point in time they decide to fill in Assendial on everything that they know. Instead of doing that this session, we’re giving them a little bit of time forget everything and see what they find as useful information for Assendial. Oh, and Bokken is still carrying around a steamer trunk with Dorin in it. They do feel slightly bad about making his life so hard.

Behind the DM Screen

***** PLAYERS DO NOT READ *****

So, I had plans for this session that generally went according to what they should have. I’ve been laying hints for quite a while that Addrus is up to more than previously thought. At the original dragon attack he was talking to someone in the shadows and then unseen by the players made it to the cellar before them. He also was in the second interrogation that Barrai was in for people who lied or misled in the Zone of Truth. The additional key also was called out before by Parrag when they accused him of being a spy and found the ring of keys in his stuff. And most recently, Addrus was back before everyone else was back from the Tower the day that the scarab went missing. Did he steal the Scarab, who knows, but the players should figure that out soon and definitely now realize that he’s been acting suspicious.

I had to give some prompts to the players to move them along in the right direction right now. They caught onto the fact that Addrus and Dorin were missing and hence suspicious, but they really like Dorin was someone who is trouble, whether or not that makes that much sense. They definitely should know that they have broken Dorin with everything that Barrai has done at this point in time, it’s certainly been implied enough times.

Do you like sessions without combat, we’ve had a few of those recently? If you’re the DM, how to you run investigations, do you just sit back and see where there players go, or do you have planned clues?

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In Dragonlance, you have a lot of stories and games that are going to be focused around the deities or dragons. Which is classic fantasy and classic Dungeons and Dragons. The deities are active in the world and are regularly fighting each other which of course is going to cause problems in the world that the adventurers are going to need to take care. The world where the characters join in is already going to be at the point where things have gone poorly and they are going to be fighting to bring things back to some level of good, or at least to keep the world from ending.

Dragonlance, being that it’s an earlier world doesn’t have the fully fleshed out set of races. While you’re going to have your classic races, Elves, Dwarves, and Humans, some of the other ones such as gnomes, halflings, tieflings, etc. aren’t going to be in this world. Much of this comes, again, from the time when this was created. Those other races were added onto Dungeons and Dragons at a later time. However, with that, because it’s been around so long, there are some well known NPC’s that you can interact with in the world. Raistlin is probably the most well known. He’s an extremely powerful mage, probably the most powerful in the land, so while he’s dealing with the bigger things, it would make sense then for the players to deal with smaller things that aren’t worth Raistlin’s notice.

So why would you play in this world? It’s fairly generic, and you don’t have the options that would be there in The Forgotten Realms which is also generic. I think that the reason you’d play here is that it’s going to have that grittier feel. If you wanted to play in a more generic settings but one that is darker and grittier, The Forgotten Realms is about being heroic, and while Dragonlance can have that feeling as well, it’s not going to be handed to you as much. Your characters will have to fight their way for it keeping track of everything. Now, that isn’t going to be for a lot of people. I would say that this is for the people who care more for the simulation piece of Dungeons and Dragons and a little bit less about the role playing piece. Not to say that you couldn’t play that more heroic style of game in Dragonlance, but what can set it apart is going less that direction and delving more into the darker and grittier side of fantasy.

As for the sort of games, it’s going to be the big epics. Eventually, your characters will be up there fighting with Raistlin against some deity or taking care of some dragon that he doesn’t have time for. It’s a world that is on the swords edge of falling into just complete war and chaos, which is what one of the gods wants, and the players will need to fight back those forces. You can do more stories in the world as well, but with the history and lore that is in place, that’s going to be a common style of game, is keeping Dragonlance and the lands of Krynn from falling into chaos and destruction that they can’t come back from. Again, leaning towards more of that fight for survival in a world that’s falling apart versus a grand heroic adventure.

So, would I play a game in Dragonlance? I’d play a game in any D&D setting, but I really don’t care to play in Dragonlance. Because it’s older, it would feel like an older setting with more constraints on what I can play and do. And this idea that it’s this darker and grittier world, just make something really bad happen in the Forgotten Realms or Eberron and you can gain that same survivalist feeling. So if I want this generic fantasy feel and to have that survival and darker setting, I can do that, I can even make it more unique in some other settings, so for me Dragonlance is a setting that’s had it’s moment and I really don’t care if I’d play in it.

Would you play or run a game in Dragonlance? Have you played a game in that setting before?

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Dice Set – Now, I am going to primarily suggest that you get the normal 7 dice set which has a D20, D12, D10, D10 Percentile, D8, D6, and D4. These are the most common, and for games like D&D and Pathfinder. If you play other systems, you need to look at what dice those games use. The Fantasy Flight Star Wars RPG and Genesys use specific dice that you can use normal dice for, but having a couple of sets of those dice make the game easier for everyone as well.

Dice Tray/Dice Tower – These are not something that you need for playing an RPG, but they can be useful. Both of them are basically something that can add for rolling dice. It’s nice if you have a wood table or something like that to use a dice tray as they are often padded so it makes rolling dice less noisy. It also keeps an enthusiastic roller from rolling them off of the table. A dice tower doesn’t make it any quieter, but it does the rolling for you. And it’s kind of fun to hear or see it bonk down the dice tower until it’s rolled.

The Core D&D Books – This is for someone who is getting into RPG’s and wants to run a game, the core D&D books are going to be great for getting them up and running. You get the Players Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master’s Guide. That’s enough to run as many games of D&D as you want. It’s possible that they already have some of them, but you can buy them separately or as a bundle. If they don’t have them, the bundles sometimes have cool covers. I wouldn’t spring this on someone who hasn’t expressed any interest in DM’ing though, because they might feel like you’re pressuring them into DM’ing.

Adventure Modules – Now, it might be that you have someone who likes D&D plays, as a player, fairly often, but is intimidated by running their own game from scratch. This is where you can use the adventure modules. The starter kit would be a great one to get them, but there are a lot of other adventures. Curse of Strahd is generally the best received one, and while I didn’t have the best time running it, I think that it is put together well and that my issue was more the group than it was the module itself. But you have a ton to choose from, so if you want dragons, you can get that, demons you can get that, or giants, that’s out there as well. This is where I’d encourage someone who likes D&D a lot to maybe thing about DM’ing by giving them an adventure module.

DM Screen – This one is definitely for the person who is the DM in you game, otherwise there’s no real need for it, but if they have a makeshift DM screen, get them an official one or a cool one off of Etsy. The basic one from Dungeons and Dragons/Wizards of the Coast is fine, and I have it and I like it, but there are some custom CNC cut wood ones that are amazing out there and if you want to bling out your game, a custom DM screen, some with built in dice towers, but those tend to be a bunch spendier.

Adventure Zone Comic Books – What, this isn’t an RPG, no, but it’s RPG related, and with all the RPG podcast information out there, and all the people who are doing them, even me for a while. But this takes one of the actual play podcasts that is extremely popular and turns it into a comic. Definitely good for someone who likes the podcast and got into D&D because of the podcast, or just loves the podcast. I’ve looked a little bit at the books, but the artwork is nice, and definitely looks like a fun time.

Legacy of Dragonholt – This is often put into an area between choose your own adventure and RPG and board game, but I think that it’d scratch the itch for people who like the ideas of RPG’s but aren’t ready to make the leap. The character creation is simple, the role playing piece is low in it, but it’s story driven, and you have a character that can do things. It works simply on you either being able to do something or not. It is also a game that can be played solo, so if there is someone in your life who doesn’t have a group or who can’t play as often as they would want, this would be a solid option as well, though, a serious min/maxing player will find this way to light.

There’s so much more out there. There are a lot of indie RPG’s that people can check out as well that give you more specific settings than fantasy. And I talked only about the basic Dungeons and Dragons books and adventures, but there are other books that add in more monsters, more character options and many other things. Overall, there is a ton out there for RPG’s right now, and it’s a hobby that is growing still, which is cool. If you have someone who you think might like an RPG, you can also just give the gift of running a game for them, maybe you have a relative who they are their friends want to try and RPG, but none of them want to run it, you can give the gift of running a few sessions.

What would you want for your pen and paper RPG collection? Is there something on the list that looks really cool?

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In the Marvel comics, the Secret Invasion happens as super heroes are replaced slowly by the Skrull in a secret plan to take over the world. In Dungeons and Dragons, we have different monsters who can shape shift. These monsters are going to be the focal point of the story as they try and take over the world. This even includes some ancient dragons who might be leading the charge, if you want to go big at the end.

So, how do you make this work as a game?

For me, this campaign opens at some royal event that the players are at. I’d say start the players at third level, so that they have already been doing a little adventuring and might be a folk hero or something like that. I’d then go one of two ways, and maybe even both of the ways. But I’d have some sort of attack happen at this royal event, some sort of assassination attempt or something like that, and someone dies and is revealed as a shifter. Along with that, I’d have, in the panic, someone find a dead noble, who looks like they’ve been dead for a while, but someone the players will know was at the party.

Now, this could go one of several ways, but the the big focus of the adventuring party should be finding out who are the shifters and taking them out. It might turn into the players just killing everyone to see if they are a shifter. If that happens, throw the characters in prison, it’s pretty simple, to show that you can’t just kill a noble or someone because you think that they might be a shifter or a prove that they aren’t a shifter.

When and if that happens, I’d have the players be recruited by a secret organization within the kingdom. Some sort of SHIELD type agency, but that is way more hush hush than SHIELD actually is. The characters would have to sign something, most likely in blood with the characters knowing that just randomly murdering people will end up with them dying in their sleep.

From there, investigating would take place as the characters need to trace the money and figure out who might be a shifter as well. I think it should come out at some point in time that not even all the shifters know who the other shifters are, and that there might besome infighting or at least different factions in there. But I’d have it come out that there are a lot more shifters in the government than they might have guessed.

Now, the players might have the characters just start killing randomly again, but I’d do some sort of subtle reminder, have a contact in SHIELD come to them to see what they have, something like that, and I’d have some sort of arranged meetings with SHIELD so the players are used to it. SHIELD shouldn’t trust the players themselves, we’re going a bit Suicide Squad here (also was done to Venom) with the do what we want or you die.

Eventually, the players should have to fight there way through a bunch of shifters, following the money trail back up high enough to find that there are people in SHIELD who have been compromised and replaced and that someone who is a regular contact also has been taken out. While they’ve been tracking down information, that information has been going into the hands of a shifter who is trying to tie up loose ends after what happened with the noble at the beginning.

Just after this, I’d have the players find out information that shows where the shifters are keeping the people whom they have swapped with. Most of those people should still be alive including a surprise. This will be for you to judge as the DM, but if you think there is a player you can get on your side, reveal them as a shifter with them having been replaced some time in the adventure. Again, showing that the shifters aren’t the most organized. But this will require some buy-in from that player. So figure out who in your group might be up for that, and let them know when the swap takes place, but skills shouldn’t change, personality shouldn’t change much. Or do it as a surprise, to show how good the shifters are and give the player a chance to fight themselves.

Now the players should have a force from the camp of people who have been swapped out. Once they are freed, they can generally arm themselves, and I’d have some sort of confrontation. I’d probably do this as the ancient dragon who is pulling the strings, players should have figured this out by now, if they haven’t, a NPC from the camp can tell them, is walking up to the castle or wherever the noble lived to face off with him and tell him that there are now more shifters in his court than people and that the ancient dragon will now to be ruling. The players will have to take on the ancient dragon, while the other people who were freed are going to take out the copies of themselves.

That’s how I’d run a secret Invasion. I am not sure how you’d want to level this, and I feel like you’d need to flesh out some lower and mid level encounters to bring the players up to a level where they can fight an ancient dragon. I’d maybe even start them at level five so that they can get higher faster. This is also a game that is fairly light on combat, so I’d probably have some distraction missions that the shifters send the adventuring party on. Deal with some orcs, search for clues in some spot where they are going to have to fight.

What do you think of this idea? Does it sound like a game that you’d want to run or play in?

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So how do you go about updating a monster to make it more thematic for your game? There are a number of things that you can do, the first being look at the damage that the creature does or the weapons that the monster uses. If you’re going for a super hero type of monster where they have everything with fire damage, start with a monster that has spell casting and then focus in on fire damage spells. Dragons are a great spot to pull these spell type focused monsters from. They have a variety of challenge levels and you have builds that already focus in on a certain type of damage. Beyond that, you can look at resistance or weaknesses to damage types. If you’re trying to build a vampire because you need a specific type, you will need to consider the weaknesses that a vampire should have, or resistances, and that way you can make your creature more unique. Finally, it’s your chance to take a monster and make them unique. With the example of a vampire, maybe it doesn’t have a specific weakness, but it has another one instead. For example, in the Dresden Files, there are three different types of vampires, each which have different powers and do things slightly differently. So this is your chance to build that out.

In this case we are doing an update to the Black Bear. It’s a pretty simple update, this half CR bear is going to probably become what would be around a 1 CR (CR is challenge rating) with just a few small updates.

Baseline, it’s a pretty good build. But for our bear, we want to give them some resistances that will make sense. You can see what we’re building off of in the link above. The two types of damage that make a lot of sense for this bear to resist are bludgeoning and piercing. Now, it won’t be immune to them, they’ll still take damage, but they’ll take half damage instead. Since I’m trying to increase the challenge rating for this creature, and it’s still going to be one that faces off against pretty low level parties, I’m not going to give it any weaknesses to damage types as well.

Next, looking at it’s stats, I don’t think there is anything that I’m going to change. Since this is for theme and theme wise it wouldn’t make sense for it to be smarter or more charismatic. The physical stats are plenty good already, so need to update them.

The biggest change though will come from the action section of the Black Bear. We’re removing the piercing damage type from both the bite and the claw attacks. Instead it’s going to be bludgeoning damage. Now, what type of bear could I be creating by taking away the claws, literally from a bear?

Description of the bear would be that it is brightly colored and moves with a bit of a wobble. That is right, this bear won’t bite you to kill you, it’ll gum you to death.

Yes, I’ve created the Gummy Bear.

So, now, this is where the real fun is going to happen. I’m going to come up with a way that you could use a gummy bear in a game.

A gummy bear is clearly not a natural bear, they would melt in the rain or just generally erode over time. So someone must have created a gummy bear, unless you’re playing on the plane of eternal sugar, then they might be naturally occurring there. So if someone has created them, who has done so? It could be a minor deity who loves to play jokes on people. However, I like the idea that it’s a wizard who has been conjuring up these gummy bears.

So my idea is that you have a high wizard that you’ve been working with. She has been very helpful and while you don’t go and meet with her in person, she’s been sending you letter and couriers with information you need. All of a sudden that information dries up. And beyond that, the party starts to hear about strange goings on from where they were getting the information, about crazy beasts that have been roaming and gumming people to death. Now clearly your party is going to head out and try and figure out what is going on because the information has been very useful to them. They get there to find that the high wizard has snapped. She delved into some divination magic that she shouldn’t have, saw something so horrible that is coming down the line for your characters that she couldn’t deal with reality anymore. Her mind reverted back to the point where she was a kid and she remembered these treats that she used to get as a kid, aka gummy bears. So she decided, since they made her feel safe and her brother would march them around making them roar, that she’d create an army of them to protect herself. However, as a childlike mind, she wasn’t able to control them, and now they are terrorizing the country side.

That would probably be a short side quest that I’d throw in for the characters at some point in time, then it could also lead to a larger quest to find someone who can either get the information from her as to what she saw or found out, or they could try and find someone who can just heal her mind for her as well, probably the better thing to do. But I’d probably give the players both options, make the one where they just get the information quick and dirty versus the other one being a larger quest, probably with multiple smaller quests built into it, fetch quests basically.

How dumb is the idea of a gummy bear, very. But could it be funny to have in a game, absolutely.

UPDATE: Shane from Total Party Thrill gave me a suggestion for this. Since the bear is a gummy bear, give them a gelatinous cube type of ability. On the bite attack, you make a DC10 strength saving throw. If you fail, you are grappled, and at the start of your turn, you are restrained and take 1D6 sugar damage. Acid sugar!

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So, how do you pick what you want to use in a way that doesn’t make it seem like you’re just picking from the book at random or what looks like it’s the coolest?

One helpful tool is that in the Dungeon Master’s Guide they have different monsters and creatures split out by habitat, so you can go ahead and pick out what works for the area that you are in. If you are in the jungle, you’re probably not going to see a frost giant, if you are in a freezing cold mountain and there’s a dragon, it’s probably a white dragon. That’s one way to help keep things focused in, but what if you really want to pick crazy monsters from the book?

My suggestion there would be, instead of having an obvious story reaching over everything, be a group of big game hunters who are paid to go around and find these wild and exotic creatures. You could need to bring them back alive, or maybe someone really want to have the horns of a minitaur, the shell of a flail snail and the beak of a owlbear for their collection. It would be an interesting game to play, and if you have a group where sometimes people miss, it would be easy because you don’t need everyone there to play, you just need enough people to kill the beast (hopefully) and birng it back.

But what if you’re already in a game and you’ve bounced around the world and you have a big story going, but you want to bring in something that wouldn’t make sense?

You have a few options, maybe you have the creature get loose form a cargo ship or a zoo. You can try and fit the monster into your story some way, there are a ton of different options. For example, in Dungeons and Flagons, the group has faced off against human pirates, Yuan-Ti, goblins, hobgoblins, a red dragon, elementals, devils and/or demons, and are now facing off against a beholder. They’ve been hopping somewhat all over the globe, but each of the monsters had their part to play, including the hobgoblins who were mainly there to be a distraction.

Finally, what do you do but the monster is too powerful or too weak?

Goblins are puny, if any of the characters in Dungeons and Flagons were to attack a goblin, it would either be killed a single sho or they would use their second attack on a turn ot kill it. How do you make your goblins scarier? You bring them in large numbers. When each player has four goblins attacking them, that is scary, even if they can dispatch one per turn, they’ll still get attacked a minimum of six times. Or maybe you don’t think that would be that much fun, well, maybe you have the goblins be a scouting party and signal another group of goblins who are a distance away, after the adventuring party has finished off that first group and is starting to think about looting the goblins bodies, you bring in that second group.

But sometimes you really want them to face off against that one really strong boss, and that boss is supposed to be a goblin, but the toughest goblin in the book isn’t tough enough. My first option would be to have other goblins with him, but sometimes that doens’t work or that isn’t what makes sense for your story. The second option would be to find a creature that makes more sense to face off against the characters (aka. is stronger) and call it a goblin. They have, in the back of both monster books NPC stat blocks for different types of people. There is a necromancer back there, it doesn’t say that it’s a goblin necromancer, but you’re in charge of your game, so you get to decide. Grab that harder bad guy and pu them in front of the players. Then instead of describing your necromancer as a pale human with a guant face who is wearing dark robes, describe it as a goblin who has a staff and who has raised the zombie horde that you saw in the courtyard. He has dark tattoos of demonic symbols across his body, roll initiative. And there you have two characters who would be the same stat block, have the same skills, and might even have the same evil plan, but ones a goblin.

That’s an easy conversion, but sometimes conversions make less sense. You want a really strong brawler to come up and challenge your group of adventurers and take a swing at them in a bar but you don’t like any of the options in the back of the book. Well, depending on what level they are, look at an owlbear or bugbear or some other creature. Sure an Owlbear is a bear body with an owl head and has a bite attack, but just don’t use the bite attack, use the claw attack and call it punches. Simply by reflavoring the attacks and calling them something different, you can take on creature and make it into another.