Since Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy setting, you have magic in the same, I don’t think that’s a surprise to anyone. How much magic you have to vary a lot. Some worlds in D&D have a ton of magic with lots of people being able to use small spells and little things, like curing a small wound are going to be magically done or lighting a fire, magic might be faster. There are going to be other fantasy worlds where magic is extremely rare. If you have magic, you have way more value to the nations because of what you can do. In either of them, the PC’s (Player characters) who have magic are going to end up being more powerful than most other casters, because, otherwise, those characters would be saving the world, and you’d still be a farmer.

But within magic, there are a number of different ways that you can get magic or use magic. Which, mechanically speaking, are represented by the different classes you can be. A Cleric and Paladin get their magic from their gods whereas a Druid gets it through nature, a Sorcerer just has it, and a Wizard needs to learn it. That doesn’t even touch on the bard who signs theirs (but just kind of have it) and the Warlock who has made a deal for it. If you know you want to be a magic user, picking your class can help determine what sort of background you have because of how you got the magic.

Bard – This magical mischief maker generally gets their spells from their ability to weave word or song in such a way to alter the world around them either for attack or entertainment. A bard is generally going to be someone who has been trained, but not to improve their magic, but their performance ability. I think that the bard is a class that can be generally used for most backstories.

Cleric – The first of our magical classes that gets their magic from the divine. The god that they are worshiping is giving them the powers and has chosen them as special. In particular, they are giving them powers to help people, and while combat might not be their strong point, but healing and aiding other characters is what that character is going to be the best at. With a cleric, your backstory can be anything but you might want to focus more on a religious background and have it something you’ve been a part of for a while, not something that you just picked up.

Druid – The hippy of the magical classes, the druid is all about nature and their attunement to nature. In some ways, I would say that a Druid is a bit like the Cleric in that they get their magic from the divine, but for the Druid their divine is their connection to nature. The Druid is going to be the caster who has the most connections to nature and natural changes in the world. The outlander or hermit backgrounds actually make a lot of sense for a background for the Druid, because you need that strong connection with nature that makes most sense to be gotten on your own. The trick can be connecting back into the group.

Paladin – Our second divine caster, the Paladin is what is know as a half-caster. What that means is that they have a more limited spell selection and a smaller number of spell slots with which to cast spells. What the Paladin does get is some of the healing abilities of the Cleric but much better punching power with their ability to handle weapons. They also get the ability to channel their divine magic into even more damage, at the cost of casting spells, but I still feel like it’s a spell like affect and is part of their magic. For a Paladin, your background can be much more open, because while they do have that divine magic from a god, their devotion to their religion is less strictly guided like a Cleric’s feels, though, they do need to maintain that collection.

Ranger – Another and last half caster, the Ranger pulls a little bit like the Paladin does from the Cleric, but for the Ranger it’s from the Druid. They get some of the connections to nature that the Druid has, but also then gets more focus in their magic for hunting down their enemies. Unlike the Paladin who has extra abilities they can do with their magic, the Ranger is more focused on just using their spells as spells. Their background is generally going to be fairly open, being a scout in the military or being a hermit all make sense, and even some of the more scholarly ones can make sense.

Sorcerer – The natural of the magic world, the bard might just use music, but the Sorcerer just gets magic. And they get amazing control over their magic. The Sorcerer is an interesting class in that they get things called meta-magics and meta-magic points that they can use to improve their spells. This might mean that they can cast them farther or do so silently so it can’t be countered. This allows a player to specialize their character so that their Sorcerer feels different from others. The Sorcerer definitely can come from any sort of background since their magic can be something that just newly manifested. It’s the magic class that you do if you don’t want to be beholden to anyone or anything.

Warlock – If the Sorcerer isn’t beholden to anyone or anything, the Warlock 100% is. They’ve made a pact with some powerful being, fey, elder god, or demon that is giving them their powers. And the Warlocks magic works differently than everyone else’s. They aren’t a half caster, but they aren’t really a full caster. They get invocations that can really make their cantrips much better so they don’t need as many high level spells, which is good, because they don’t get many spell slots. But when they cast a spell it’s always at the highest spot possible. I don’t know that they are that much harder to play than other casters, but how they work makes less sense. They, because they can have just gotten their magic, do have it in common with the Sorcerer that most any background works.

Wizard – Final one and definitely the most iconic. The Wizard has learned magic. You could say that Bard might be considered a bit of that if you consider them learning their craft of storytelling and performance, but for a Wizard, there are Wizard schools and you study and you need a spellbook to be able to prepare spells for the day. But, as a Wizard, you have access to more spells than any other class. Their specializations also makes it easier for them to learn more spells in certain areas, and while other classes can be capped on how spells they know, a Wizard can always add in more spells if they have the time and money to transcribe them into their spell book. A wizard, the Sage background makes the most sense because they’ve spent at least some of their life in school, but that might not be the defining feature for them.

That’s a lot just looking at the classes and how they use magic, I’m going to spend some time coming up here going into more topics on magic such as spell slots and spells known or high or low magic worlds that I touched on that the top of the article. Some of them will be more player focused and others more dungeon master focused. Is there a certain type of caster that you gravitate to?

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Tieflings, for those not familiar, are tainted in their bloodline somehow by demons. Mainly, the lord of the nine hells. In the players handbook you get the rules for creating a character who has some influence of Asmodeus in their bloodline. In Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, you get it for the rest of the Lords and Ladies of the nine hells. All Tieflings are generally charismatic as they all get an improvement to that stat, that generally makes them good at being Warlocks which makes a ton of sense. However, Bard and Sorcerer are also Charisma casting races. Most interestingly, the Paladin is also Charisma based, so that could make a really interesting role playing experience. As you’d expect, the main feature for a Tiefling is that they are resistant to fire.

Now, how that infernal influence gets into your bloodline is going to be up to you as a player. You could have had a relative that screwed one of the Lord of Hell, but that isn’t the only way. If your family worshiped one of the Lords of Ladies of Hell for a long time, it’s possible that they just became tainted through that and spawned the PC. I think that either of them provide some interesting role playing opportunities, but the biggest thing that the Tiefling provides for role playing is the fact you look different and that tells people that somehow your family consorted with someone evil.

Tieflings, themselves, don’t have to be evil, but might lean towards that alignment. And even if you don’t, again, people aren’t going to trust you, because you are very different. In the PHB (players handbook), you feel like most likely a Tiefling came from a human line, but there is no reason that your Tiefling couldn’t be based size wise off of some other race. But, back to my main point, the distrust of your character is going to be something that you are going to have to role play out with your DM. Maybe even your party doesn’t fully trust you because you are a Tiefling, and I find this interesting, because as a charismatic humanoid, you are not just naturally magnetic. It’s more of a situation that you can just sit down and win people over if they give you the time and aren’t running screaming when they see your horns and tail.

So what are some backstory ideas for playing a Tiefling?

When you were born, there was a lot of shock in your community, and you were tossed aside and left to die. However, the old Priestess in your town wouldn’t allow that to happen and went and took you from the woods where you had been left. She, in secret for several years, raised you and taught you the ways of the church. When you reached the age of ten, a new priest came to town as the priestess was getting old and frail. He didn’t treat you as well, but he promised the priestess he wouldn’t kick you out or abandon you. When you were old enough, he told you it was time to go on a mission and spread the word of your god to others and help where you could. So you went out and found a group that seemed to be doing good.
Class: Paladin
Alignment: Neutral Good
Background: Acolyte
Note: I would play some into the tension between the infernal and the divine.

Your parents told you that the village you had been born in burned when you were young, and that’s why you lived all alone with only a few close family friends who had been able to survive. You found out later that might have been the case. As you grew to know more, you found out that your parents and their friends were worshiping a devil. And it turned out, as you overheard, that the village had burned because the village hadn’t wanted your family there when you were born, and your family and their friends had burned it to the ground while everyone was trapped in the temple. That didn’t sit well with you, so when you were a teen, you escaped and started wandering the woods, hunting and gathering as you needed. Then, one day, there was a tug on your heart and you went into a village, in disguise to see the humans as thralls and your family and their friends controlling them. You knew they had to be stopped.
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Background: Outlander
Class: Ranger

Being a Tiefling is generally looked down upon, but you were bred to be that way. Your kingdom is very pragmatic living in the shadows of a Red Dragon. Tieflings really make good firefighters being able to handle the heat and flames better than any humans. So each generation, a few women are selected to be part of the ritual and give birth to Tiefling children. However, your mother had told you that when she was carrying you a seer had told her that you were going to be important at a time when the world was in flames and that you could bring on the end of the world. You didn’t want to do that, but as compared to other Tieflings, it quickly became obvious that you had more power and that whichever Lord of the Nine Hells had sired you was helping keep you alive. Now you’re running, hoping that will protect you from what the seer foretold.
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Background: Haunted(?)/Soldier(?)
Class: Warlock
Note: What I like about this idea is that your character has a different feeling Warlock patron because they were given it as a way to defend themselves and stay alive, not because they made a deal, could offer some interesting role playing options.

So, what about you? Have you played a Tiefling before? How easy are they to play in your opinion? How hard are they to fit into the group?

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If I do use it, for potential players who might read it, things will be tweaked, so you can’t count on everything.

The First Question?

Do I build this as an epic adventure game or a smaller more focused game?
I wrote an article on this recently, and the basic idea, just to recap fast, is that some games take place over a whole continent or planet or even planets and planes. Think Lord of the Rings which was spread out over so much area. Other games focus on a much smaller area, think Dresden Files, sure there is a whole world, but it takes place in the Fae realms and Chicago, with minor excursions elsewhere, but that’s in the later books.

For this game, I want to try a smaller focused game that’s going to primarily take place in a trade port, I think. Or some trading hub. I don’t want it to be the biggest trading hub though, so probably something that is set off in a further province of a kingdom that sends something important out, versus bringing a ton into the town.

The advantage of having it be a town that size is that it’s still manageable and there are still going to be interesting characters and shops around. I think I want it to be that they are one of the spots that granite or some other type of fancy stone is sent out from in this world. Gold or any type of metal would draw too much attention, but something like granite would be something that the rich want, but wars aren’t always being fought over. But it’s still a good money making opportunity for people, because the granite will sell for a pretty penny.

There’s another advantage to having it be something like a stone or a metal, and that is that you can have a wide variety of races around. Dwarves would be around to help mine. It’s a remote area so you’d likely have elves around. Gnomes often have an artisan sort of background, so they could be making trinkets and what not from the granite. But it most certainly gives you options. You’d have just background wise, sailors who would be transporting the granite on the river who might retire there. Soldiers and mercenaries who guard the granite. Artisans who sculpt but also artisans who write up the contracts and things like that. A town like this would have a heavy religious influence of probably a couple of gods. You’re remote enough that an outlander character could easily come wandering into town.

Next question I’m going to ask, which is going to be the next article, is what about magic in this town. You can see how deciding on the scope of your game really allows you to decide on what is important to the story. And you can see some of my thought process to end up with a town that can basically be described as the following:

A remote trade town that provides most of the granite for the Kingdom of the Sevens.

I could certainly say more about it than that, which I did, but that gives me a starting place for my game. You could also see people starting with the big plot idea, but I have a few floating around in my head that I’ll come to eventually.

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One of the most common pitfalls, though, with playing an Outlander is placing them outside of society. That is really more the role of a hermit, while an outlander generally has some connection back to the world, and while their being on the fringes of the world, they are going to know how to interact with the normal society better than a hermit would. As I talked about in the hermit background, having a lone ranger character is far from ideal for a game that is a cooperative storytelling game where players are all part of a group. So when building an outlander, think of why they would be connected into the party, what they might want from the party, or why they would change from being a homesteader to being an adventurer.

The Outlander background also gets the skills of survival and athletics, which make a lot of sense. You have to be strong and smart at survival to live on your own or with very few around you out in the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons. The amount of random encounters and monsters that are roaming around would require you to be knowledgeable  on survival. One interesting thing that the outlander gets is a language of the players choice. This goes against the loan wolf idea, this background gives a nice tie in to some other race that isn’t your own. Why would your High-Elf outlander known dwarven? Why would your halfling guide know undercommon? There’s a story that is built in for you, in some ways, with the language.

So what are some different backstories for the Outlander background?

There is much disappointment in life. Mine was not an exception to that, my parents were killed when I was young, my aunt who took me in soon abandoned me, and I was an outcast in the small town that I grew up in. Things became better when a traveling missionary came through the town preaching about their deity. They took me along with them and gave me a spot to live. All of this happened before I was ten years old. Now a lot of time has passed and it is my turn to spread the word. Things have gone well for the most part, but now I’ve started to hear rumors of issues coming out of my order. That there are those who are subverting it and turning it against everything I was taught. I’ve tried to reach my old teacher to find out more information, but I haven’t been able to get a hold of them. I know that they were off looking for a relic, and their party hasn’t been heard of now in two months. I’m worried that the issues in the order might have set them up for failure, and I need help finding them.

Class: Cleric
Alignment: Neutral Good

A lot of kids see a man putting out a fire, a woman arresting a criminal, or a doctor saving a life and they decide to go into one of those noble professions. I’m less interested in those professions. What peeked my interest as just a small one, was seeing a dragonborn being dragged out of the inn across the street from my parents house. “Savan” was really friendly with us kids and very helpful in the inn and around town. What we didn’t know was that he was actually a pirate known as Estevan Clawfist who was one of the most brutal pirates of all time, and that the crown wanted to capture him. The idea of a double life intrigued me, and he towering half-Goliath who had caught him became someone I idolized. That was the only childish game that I wanted to play, I was the bounty hunter and my friends would be criminals who I brought in. It led to some scuffed knees and a black eye or two, but my desire to become a bounty hunter never changed. When I grew older, I found out how to be one, it was a less glamorous life than it had seemed as a child, but I love the work. Now I have a large bounty, but this gang might be too much for me to bring in by myself.

Class: Fighter/Rogue
Alignment: Lawful Neutral

I was raised as part of a nomadic tribe. We wandered around and were friends with dwarves, humans, and elves alike. Our business was our own until one day a conquering force came in and subjugated us. We were forced to go live in a town and many of the older people just seemed to stop caring and did nothing. Our situation had become dire when I decided to run away. I knew that I could avoid the soldiers and live like I was meant to live roaming in the wilds. I became a guide to smugglers who were helping my people as well as a small uprising against the conquering forces. Some day I hope that what I will do will help my people be able to wander again. Then the soldiers found out where the smugglers were going, and I was on the run again. I’ve found a group to catch on with and now I hope to convince them to help me make a difference.

Class: Ranger/Druid
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

The rich spend money on stupid things. I saw that while growing up. Our village was in the middle of nowhere, but notables would still show up every summer to hunt in our forests. It was good business for the town, otherwise the only other option would have been to move. I met a lot of interesting folks and I saw how they lived and I wanted to live like that. I’d sneak off into the woods while I wasn’t helping at my parents armory and pretend to be a great hunter. On one of those excursions where I had been gone for a few days, it wasn’t that odd for me and it annoyed my parents, I came across a valley that I didn’t know was there. It wasn’t on the normal hunting route or, when I came back into town and looked, on the maps. I’d find somewhere new to hunt, and I quickly went back there again and again. I mapped it out in my head and studied the creatures in there. There were so many exciting creatures there, and as I listened to what the rich were talking about, I realized that I had found a way to make my fortune. I convinced one rich person to hire myself as a guide for a new hunting grounds, and soon my fame spread and I was making good money, but then other hunting guides found my spot. I got mad and left town with my money and realized how quickly money spent. Now I’m on the search for the new best hunting spot so that I can make my money back again.

Class: Rogue/Ranger
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Have you used the Outlander background before? If so, what was your characters story?

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And like Peder, I primarily watch TV when I want some escapist fun, and that comes in many different forms that are hard to even really compare. I mean, one day I might be in the mood for a fantastical show; another day I might want to watch sci-fi; and at another time, I might want to watch a few episodes of a drama. I enjoy all those (extremely different) things about equally; it just depends on what sort of mood I’m in.

All that is to say that the rankings in this list are somewhat arbitrary, and might change depending on the day you ask me. Regardless, these are the five TV series that rise to the top of my list:

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To finish things off, I have to include some honorable mentions that were *this* close to making it on the list: Pushing Daisies (an absolute delight that ended way too soon), Firefly (the best space cowboy show ever), Outlander (three words: ALL THE FEELS), Community (just stupid-hilarious), Silicon Valley (the most fun I’ve ever had being stressed out and having secondhand embarrassment), Bob’s Burgers (way better than it has any right to be), and Sherlock (smart, sexy, and absolutely legendary).

Do any of your favorites overlap with mine? What TV shows would make it into your top 5?

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As any book-lover knows, narrowing your favorites down to a small list is HARD. I think I’ve managed it, but just as Peder did, I’ve included a couple of series rather than just single books. I agree with his opinion that some series are just too good to separate out, and that it generally makes more sense to look at them as a single unit rather than individual books.

So without further ado–here are my top 5!

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Like Peder, I couldn’t quite narrow my list down to five — so, a few honorable mentions: Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Impossible by Nancy Werlin, Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen

So which of these have you read? Did you love them as much as I did? What are some other books you’ve read and loved?

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Does thinking of what I can’t get in the midst of all I can get make me a selfish, gluttonous TV-watcher? Definitely. However, I have a feeling I’m not alone in this sentiment. For every show we love that faithfully turns out fresh episodes every season, there’s one that takes two or three years to release anything new (I’m looking at you, BBC…).

So what’s a fan to do during these new-episode droughts? Well, as someone who’s experienced that pain many times over at the hands of shows like Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Outlander, I have a few ideas up my sleeve. Such as…

Rewatch favorite episodes

This one is obvious, but a tried-and-true choice. When your craving for that one great show just can’t be satisfied by anything else, find a way to get a hold of some previous episodes (via on-demand, reruns [if they even do those anymore??], your DVD collection, library copies, etc.) and set up a little “greatest hits” marathon for yourself. Though there may be nothing new to take in, you’ll always enjoy revisiting your favorites, and might even catch something new the second (or third…or fourth…or…who’s counting??) time around. You want to be a bit careful with this one, as it can be a bit of a slippery slope, but it’s a good method to use in moderation.

Try new shows similar to the one you’re waiting for

Unlike my first suggestion, this one allows you to both enjoy the kind of feels you get from the show you can’t watch while getting to branch out and take in something new by watching the ones you can. There are lots of ways to do this — you can use sites like this one that suggest new shows based on ones you’ve seen, you can ask friends who also like the stalled show if they know of any other good ones like it, or you can take the super easy (and somewhat risky) route of watching what Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime/etc. suggests based on your previously watched shows. You’ll likely find this method to be a bit hit-and-miss, but you never know — you just might find a new favorite along the way.

Visit fan forums and sites

With any show hiatus comes a legion of fans who are at turns excited for the new episodes to arrive and outraged that time isn’t passing more quickly until that day comes. And thanks to the internet, it’s easier than ever to find those legions and have a good venting/reminiscing/speculating session with them. Search for forums and fan pages for the show in question, jump in, and get talking! Besides being a great way to let off some steam, this is also a chance to make friends (even though they’re usually long-distance ones) with people who share your interests. I’ll spare you the obligatory “be careful giving out your info on the internet” speech, as it feels much too 2002-suburban-mom for my taste, but just use a little common sense and go to it!

Write some fan fiction (or do some fan art)!

I can practically see you guys rolling your eyes at me, but hear me out. While this solution may seem to be one for the truly desperate, it’s a really fun and — unlike most other methods — productive way to revisit your favorite show while you’re waiting for new stuff. If you’re artistically or linguistically inclined, try your hand at a little AU fan fiction, draw your interpretation of your favorite scene, or write a story based on what you think is going to happen next in the show (or, better yet, what you wish would happen but know will never actually take place). If the idea of putting pen to paper makes you cringe, search DeviantArt.com or any number of the endless fan fiction sites out there for the great stuff (or not-so-great stuff…hey, we don’t judge) that others are creating. These things may not fill the Game of Thrones-shaped hole in your heart, but they’ll be entertaining at the very least, and could even lead you to generate some great new ideas of your own.

These are a few ideas for things to do while waiting for new seasons of your favorite shows to come out, but I’m sure there are lots of others! What’s your favorite way to combat the show hiatus blues? Tell us about it in the comments!

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But what do you do when you’re a fandom of one?

It’s pretty inevitable that this will happen at some point (or even several times) for most nerds. As we discover more things we love, and delve deeper into them, and seek out other, new things that spark our interest along the way, our paths will eventually diverge and lead us to other new things, and before we know it, we’ve fallen in love with something no one else is interested in — maybe even something that no one else we know has even heard of.

So what’s a lonesome nerd to do? That nerdy energy has to go somewhere, after all. You can nerd out about something by yourself by writing a blog or some fanfiction or creating fan art (all things I’ve done to cope in the past), but ultimately, that will never be quite as fun as it is to talk over the finer points of the story, discuss theories about what will happen in the next installment, or geek out about the latest plot twist with someone else who loves the new thing you’ve found.

Fortunately, there are a couple of good ways to solve this problem. The first stems from the fact that, while you personally may not know anyone else who loves your new nerdy interest, there are almost definitely other people out there somewhere who already love it, and thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can find whole forums full of them. In bygone days, nerds had to join fan clubs to find others with the same interests, and frequently had to communicate with other members of those clubs primarily by mail, but these days, if it exists and it’s nerdy, there’s most likely an online forum for it, or at the very least, someone on Tumblr who has gif-ed it to perfection. I myself am part of a forum centered around historical/period films and books, and despite the fact that I now know more people IRL who enjoy such things than I did back when I joined the forum, it’s still one of my favorite places to fangirl about Jane Austen and Shakespeare and suchlike.

Another great way to assuage your loneliness is to bring more nerds along with you for the ride. You may be the first among your friends to discover this great new thing, but you certainly don’t have to be the last! If your new thing is similar to other things you know a friend already likes (or even if it’s not, and your friend is game for trying something new), go ahead and recommend it to them so that they can share in the joy (and pain, if your fandoms are anything like mine…)! You’ll want to proceed with a little caution here — as you’re already super excited about this thing and really invested in it, it’ll be hard not to make your recommendation of it a little…overwhelming.

I can attest to this fact — those of you who have been on the receiving end of my evangelical zeal for books like the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon and the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor know that this sort of thing can get a little intense. But if you can curb your enthusiasm just enough (but not too much, mind) to make a good pitch, pretty soon you just might have another friend who’s joined the fandom train right along with you. Ah, sweet victory.

These are just a couple of ways to handle being the single member of a fandom — what’s your preferred approach? Have you tried these strategies, or something else altogether? Tell us about it in the comments!

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