#dnd tip for parents/teachers: mapping is another great way to get younger people involved in the hobby. Younger kids love to make them just to draw, and older kids can think about things like appropriate scale and features. My daughter got into the hobby drawing maps for me.
— Shawn Merwin, incorporating aquisitions (@shawnmerwin) May 23, 2019
D&D’s Essentials Kit: Everything You Need To Know!
The #dnd essentials kit is out! @WhittersRichard and I did a pile of b/w sketches for the included rules. I'll be posting some that are in the book and some that we ran out of room for as well. Here is a couple to get started. #WOTCstaff pic.twitter.com/PmGMqGiRLN
— Shawn G. Wood (@thesgw) June 24, 2019
Dungeons and Dragons Essentials Kit opening day speed unboxing. Today’s experiment: see if I can run it straight out of the box for the Kutalik spawn and step-spawn. pic.twitter.com/Xl3hjtTd7f
— Chris Kutalik (@ChrisKutalik) June 24, 2019
Who did this spectacular art on the #DnD Essentials Kit DM screen? @mikemearls @JeremyECrawford @NathanBStewart @Wizards_DnD
🖼️ via u/Freedomprime1987 on r/dnd pic.twitter.com/ZCq98nAZmD
— ThinkDM (@ThinkingDM) June 21, 2019
Got the #dnd essentials kit and ooh. Can’t wait to run it. pic.twitter.com/GS6twyHMQL
— mlem (@witchlamb) June 24, 2019
Out in the wild today and packed with everything you need to start your adventures! Including a new adventure "Dragon of Icespire Peak" and a 1-on-1 rules variant. Who's snagging the #DnD Essentials Kit exclusive to Target now? #DungeonsAndDragons pic.twitter.com/j4apXjcDYY
— Dungeons & Dragons (@Wizards_DnD) June 24, 2019
Is one able to harness the essence of schools of magic and bind them to stones using mutilpe forms of magic?
Dear Master Eliminster, long has this question plauged me since it came to me in a vision. Is one able to harness the essence of the individual schools of magic and bind them to stones using mutilpe forms of magic? Then bind these stones to a crown? #AskElminster Oh, yes. It's not easy, it's not quick, and it's not safe. And one must be a very powerful master of magic. But it can be done. Larloch and other liches wear such crowns.#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 26, 2019
“Is this the place?” the elf asked the dwarf
1)
“Is this the place?” the elf asked the dwarf
As they stopped at the rune-graven door
And listened to the silence listening to them
Across a vast, dust-cloaked floor— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 28, 2019
And out of the dark came a long chuckle
Then the same voice: “Could be,” it said
But the dwarf merely gnawed at his axe-hand’s nearest knuckle
It was the elf who whispered, “We’re being answered by the dead.” 3)
“Come in,” the ghostly voice murmured, “and you’ll have treasure more!”
But the dwarf stirred not from the sill
And thrust out his axe to keep the elf behind it and still
Adding to it the words: “I think we’ll try another door.”— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 28, 2019
Is there coffee in Eberron?
Random question:Iis there coffee in Eberron? I can’t find any mention in any of the books, aside from the 4e’s passing mention of ‘coffee houses’ but I wanna know if it’s a thing my character can drink. There can be if you want there to be. However, the only stuff-put-in-hot-water beverage that’s been mentioned in canon (that I’m aware of) is called tal. In my novels, the artificer Lei drinks blackroot tal with honey.
— Keith Baker (@HellcowKeith) June 7, 2019
Here’s a summary someone made: https://t.co/tcnED9XJp6
— Keith Baker (@HellcowKeith) June 7, 2019
Tip for parents/teachers: the various dice used in RPGs are a great tool for teaching math
#dnd tip for parents/teachers: the various dice used in RPGs are a great tool for teaching math. Rolling 2d4 and adding them together are great for lower-level addition. Multiplying 2d10 are brilliant multiplication practice. How have you used dice to teach?
— Shawn Merwin, incorporating aquisitions (@shawnmerwin) May 22, 2019
If you can dodge a bag of dice, you can dodge a ball. Cruel, but effective.
— Shawn Merwin, incorporating aquisitions (@shawnmerwin) May 22, 2019
I have been doing multiplication of 2d12 with some of the students I work with lately. I am also looking at running a mini adventure with maths and spelling problems to unlock doors and chests
— Lyle Goodbarrel (@LGoodbarrel) May 23, 2019
d12s and d20s as well as any of the nonstandard shaped dice are usually great for doing density labs as the plastic is pretty durable but the shapes (with rounded edges) make solving the problem with a ruler, instead of volume displacement, difficult.
— Greg Marks 🐈 (@Skerrit7h3green) May 22, 2019
What being in Forgotten Realm is *in charge* of making sure gunpowder doesn’t work?
1)
A few days back, Void_Null @VoidNull6 tweeted:
Alright, let's offer an alternative.
What being in FR is *in charge* of making sure gunpowder doesn't work?
If it's an existing god, I should be able to convince it to cancel the "gunpowder ban"…— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 30, 2019
3)
…doesn't fulfill its purpose?
2)
…just for me, right? And what about nitroglycerin? Is it banned as well?
So, lemme get this straight. Gunpowder exists in Faerun. But it does not burn.
Then what is it used *for*? What is the point in making a compound that… If gunpowder doesn't combust, then what is it even used for? Why do gnomes make it?
The only logical explanation I can think of is "Some Elder God got pranked with a firecracker, so he\she\it forbade gunpowder…— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 30, 2019
5)
5) What kind of force prevents people from combining all these?
[[enter Ed, putting on sage hat]]
All good questions. Right then, some lore answers:
4)
…to work, ever”.
That begs much more important questions about FR:
1) Does charcoal work the same in FR?
2) Does sulfur work the same in FR?
3) Does saltpeter work the same in FR?
4) Does deflagration work the same in FR? Gond is the being who banned gunpowder from EXPLODING (burning very rapidly) and igniting (burning with an open flame).
…— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 30, 2019
6)
He did this because of many deaths among his clergy and most devout lay worshippers, when they experimented with gunpowder whilst creating new mechanisms for the greater glory of Gond. The deity feared he would lose too many followers, … 7)
…too fast, and frighten all other mortals into shunning his worship. So he tinkered with gunpowder (and later, several other compounds—including nitroglycerin, or “halamda” as it’s known in the Realms to the gnomes who devised it) to…— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 30, 2019
8)
…prevent them from being explosive. Smokepowder is the Realms equivalent of gunpowder; it ignites and explodes because of a magical ingredient that circumvents Gond’s prohibition (and this is acceptable to Gond because the magic is a… 9)
…NOT-widely-known “secret” and the proportions of ingredients must be precise to make smokepowder that works, so the substance remains rare and expensive and not easily made by “just anyone,” and the manufacture and sale of smokepowder…— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 30, 2019
10)
…by devout of Gond is something Gond can control by holy decrees, protecting most of his clergy while at the same time generating temple income).
So, why do gunpowder and halamda exist in the Realms? They both have other uses in the… 11)
…Realms different from their real-world ones.
Gunpowder, applied as a powder (like dry “meal powder”) polishes all ferrous metals by removing ALL rust from their surfaces. Wetted gunpowder, applied as a paste (usually metal items are…— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 30, 2019
12)
…encased in it; it’s put in a dish or bucket or even a larger cask and the item or items are buried in the paste, so “all sides” are in contact) for a sufficient time, permeates ferrous items to banish all corrosion, no matter how deep, 3)
…so an item removed from the paste is rust free (at that moment, not forever).
Halamda, a clear jelly, permeates living flesh and tissue, and removes all infection/stops rot/neutralizes acids as it is/they are at the moment of contact, …— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 30, 2019
14)
…so it halts flesh-eating diseases and decay. It is itself harmlessly edible, and doesn’t “taint” what it’s applied to for human consumption, and so can be used as a preservative for meat and fish being transported long distances to… 16)
4. It does.
5. Nothing, but if combined in the wrong proportions, they won’t work for much of anything except scorching (as in the real world), and if mixed in the “right” proportions, won’t ignite/explode in the Realms as they do in the… 15)
…serve as food, and to keep viable severed body parts for later surgery, and to preserve evidence/unfamiliar corpses for examination.
1. Yes, charcoal works the same in FR as our world.
2. Yes, so does sulfur.
3. Yes, saltpeter ditto.— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 30, 2019
17)
…real world, thanks to Gond’s power. And Mystra’s cooperation; she subsumed his meta-spell shifting what gunpowder does into the Weave, so it now permeates Toril. As does the magic that makes smokepowder work.
To confuse matters further, …— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 30, 2019
18)
…“gunpowder” has come into use in language in the Realms as another name for smokepowder. Most folk of the Realms have no idea that anything called “gunpowder” explodes and so has weaponized uses in any place called “Earth,” remember, … 19)
…but there’s just enough covert travel between the Realms and Earth that words can make the trip.
Clearer, I hope. This was a fun trip down Memory Lane, because all of this was covered years and years ago at Milwaukee-era GenCon official…— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 30, 2019
20)
…TSR panels; gamers who’d read my gunpowder-related articles in The Dragon always wanted to discuss why they couldn’t have blunderbuss-armed forces making war in the Realms. :}
Clearer? I hope. ;}— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 30, 2019
Interesting.
So were the claims that Kossuth was behind gunpowder not working in the Realms just 4E era propaganda from his clergy, trying to take credit from a weakened Gond while the primary center of his worship (Lantan) was in another world and believed destroyed? Yep. :}
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 31, 2019
So Gond is Alfred Nobel with foreknowledge?
He knows what terrible destruction and death explosives will cause if they are easily mass produced, so he prevented that? Smokepowder is magical, so can’t be industrialized (can it?), so firearms and explosives can’t become ubiquitous I see Gond as not wanting to lose his priesthood and lay worshippers to explosions (and fear among the survivors) as everyone went wild experimenting with gunpowder at the same time. Thereafter, he had a situation where rarer, more expensive "smokepowder" becomes a big temple…
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 31, 2019
…income stream. Yes, smokepowder COULD become industrialized, but at prohibitive prices for most, because of the mage-work. (I.e. instead of going on a dangerous adventuring career, a wizard could choose drudgery but relative safety and high income by churning out smokepowder.)
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 31, 2019