5e Grognard

I apologize for the lack of updates. I work for UPS, and with the Christmas season, had little time and even less energy to devote to gaming. I wanted to do the goblins last time, but wasn't feeling the inspiration, so I worked up the obsidian giants . Decided to go back to the goblins and it turned out I had them about 80% written already! A Christmas miracle! There are a few goblin as playable races for 5e already written that I liked, but that weren't really fitting my vision for Eska's goblins. I did borrow pieces and combined them into my version. Thanks to Wrath of Zombie and his blog, TheHobgoblin on EnWorld, and Samuel Van Der Wall at RPG Alchemy . The grey goblin subrace is my own. I do like the Bug Collector and Fire Breath subraces from Wrath of Zombie , and the Forest and Hill goblins from TheHobgoblin . I plan on offering these as options on Eska, with most of the wild tribes being a mix of these (and possibly other) subraces. Goblins of Eska Th...

I would like to first give out a big thanks to everyone that reads these posts.  Looking at my blog statistics, out of my top ten viewed posts, 7 of them have come in the last two months.  I'm excited about this expanded audience.  If you like what you see, consider supporting my Patreon ! It's been pointed out to me a while back that it seems that they could very well be no humans on Eska, that it seemed very elf-centric.  That couldn't be further from the truth.  I felt that recent events (if you could call a 1000-year elf war recent), formed the core of what is going on in Eska, and that the elves story needed told first.  Actually, human mercanaries formed the bulk of most of the elvish armies.  The elves viewed human lives as more disposable than the elves, and often it was cheaper to pay for mercenary companies then to use their magic to create the hobgoblins and huan'apanonar. The history and core of Eska does revolve around elves, but their...

I was starting to put the dark elves of Eska together next, but the story behind the Kinslayer War took center stage instead.  Without shame I stole most of the inspiration from two message board threads, even copy and pasting (and then editing) whole paragraphs. I will note that in the world of Eska, Araushnee was not banished to the Abyss to become a demon lord, merely exiled from Arborea.  The transformation into Lolth has not, but may yet still, happen. To give credit where credit is due, they are: Corellon Larethian Must Be Stopped Why Did Araushnee/Lolth try to Kill Corellon? Kinslayer War The elves have ruled Eska for as long as anyone, including them, can remember.  Legend tells that when they first came to these shores, it was a land teeming with orcs and goblins.  A series of bloody wars lead to the complete annihilation of the orcs, and subjugation of the goblins.   After the elven nations had settled in and began to lead the idyllic ...

I'm wanting to get the different races of Eska done first, before moving on to classes.  My next in line was going to be dwarves, but they weren't coming together the way I wanted to.  Since the three subraces of elves formed the dominant power before the Kinslayer Wars, I'm going to finish them out before moving on to the other races.  Most of the lore of Eska is only a rough outline I have typed out as well as some nebulous ideas floating in my head, and seems to change and take shape as I write it.  Wanting to provide pictures to go along with my ideas, things get changed depending on what I can find with a Google image search as well, since I have no artistic talent. I've noticed a linguistic shift recently as well, though not as much noticeable in what I've posted.  I've been using this English to Elvish translator to come up with many names so far.  Before the Kinslayer Wars, the elves were the rulers of Eska, and many place names and other "older...

Moved to my new blog here .

To show you how I'm imagining Eska, I'm going to share with you the inspirationl sources that sparked this whole thing. Mad Max: Fury Road.  I had wanted to see it, but I rarely go to the movies.  I usually catch them later and watch at home.  My wife wasn't interested in seeing it, so I went and saw it, alone...  I had forgotten how fond I was of the Mad Max world.  Things have gone to hell, and we have no idea how it got that way.  Different roving bands and petty warlords all have a "unique look". Building on unique look, you can't help but love 1979's The Warriors.  One of my all time favorites movies. That, but turned up to 11. A healthy dose of Thundarr the Barbarian, He-Man and Blackstarr. All that got thoughts swirling in my head, and I binge-read some Hill Cantons and other stuff about D&D's implied world. Jurassic World has me replacing all the standard Earth beasts with dinosaurs, giant lizards, giant insects, monstrositi...

Eska, "home" in the elven tongue  is a land in turmoil. Until recently, the high elves, wood elves and drow lived in peace and harmony, ruling the small continent of Eska until Lolth split the drow elf away in an act of rebellion.  This sparked off a terrible war that lasted nearly two centuries and has left its mark on all the races of Eska. Click to embiggen. There was no winner in this war.  The land is left scarred and its people scattered.  What was so recently thriving cities, towns, and ports are now just huddled masses hoping to survive. The high elves, once the ruling class on Eska, have retreated into domed mountaintop cities.  During the war, their masters of wizardry used strange magics to transform their goblin servants into hobgoblin troopers, and armed them with shocklances.   Dome City by   Ishutani Wood elves once roamed the northern forests and plains have now retreated into treetop cities.  Using sorcery to aw...

So this thread over at EnWorld got me remembering a campaign that I was thinking about running at some point, but never got out of my head and onto the screen.  It would be heavy into resource management, which is a departure for me. I tend to run my games more "heroic" and usually handwave resource management.  Spellcasters usually have the light cantrip, so no need for torches and lanterns.  After about 3rd level or so, I declare that the party is experienced adventurers, so any mundane equipment (within reason) that they want to pull out of their backpack is there, without having to have specifically purchased it before hand.  I do charge higher monthly upkeep costs to reflect this, though. Back to the 4x strategy game aspect, though.  For those not familiar with the term, " 4X  is a  genre  of  strategy-based  video and board games in which players control an  empire  and "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate"....

World's Coolest Picture by Chris Scaturo  I love the internet. Okay, it may not be the coolest picture but it might be top eight, no more than ten, twelve max.   Anyway, I often spend hours looking at pictures on google (no, not those pictures) trying to create a vivid setting for my D&D games.   This beauty is the result of the search "ancient fishing village". You might use this as a pirate cove or home to a neolithic society but in my world, this is an old fishing village that met an unpleasent demise.    Home to twentyish humans, the village thrived on the fruits of the sea until they came.   They are a set of twin elves with a little bit of power in necromatic and enchanting spells and a lotta bit of a bad attitude.   The brother and sister charmed, and de facto enslaved the native people.  In time, the villagers rebelled against their new masters and in the fight for control of the village everyone perished. The pair of elves r...