Finally Back Into It

It's been a while since I updated this blog, but honestly it's been a while since I made any progress on my Spelljammer D&D Next conversion! The issue was one of time and patience. Patience in this case meant I wanted to wait for the core books to come out so that I could work with final game information for D&D 5E.

The Player's Handbook and Monster Manual are both out, which sets up the game very nicely. I've got a bit of conversion to work on - mainly in the form of adjusting/updating the backgrounds I came up with. I'll post more of that when I complete it.

Race Write Up: The Minotaur

I wanted to add in a new race to the campaign roster and felt that it was a good time to dust off the Minotaur and see what it looked like. I liked the idea of their enslavement by the neogi for a racial background.

MINOTAURS

Minotaurs are large humanoids, standing between 7 feet and 8 1/2 feet tall. Their bodies are covered with long, matted fur that hangs from their bodies. They have hoofed feet and strong, clawed hands. Their heads have both bovine and humanoid qualities, and wide horns extend horizontally from their temples.  Minotaur fur colors ranges from rust-colored to dark brown, and black-furred minotaurs are very rare. Their eyes are red and seem to glow in moonlight, and they sniff and snort as they walk along the streets and roads of settlements.

Slaves to the Wolf Spiders

In wildspace, minotaurs were introduced as slaves of the neogi. Serving aboard their vessels, these were chained beasts, lower than the valued umber hulks and allowed little latitude. Over the years, the minotaurs began to gather in numbers and threw many rebellions against their neogi masters. Some of these were successful, but just as many resulted in terrible atrocities being committed upon the survivors.

Duty and Honor

Minotaurs keep a code of honor that others find difficult to understand. Even enslaved, they kept many of their own traditions as their neogi masters were not interested in their personal activities. This code of honor applies strongest to the duty of the individual minotaur to their family and race.

Tradition of Combat

One of the traditions of the minotaus relates to personal combat and ritualistic dueling. If two minotaurs wish to fight, tradition holds that they must declare a duel. Outnumbering an opponent is considered dishonorable, so each side must have an equal number of combatants. Larger brawls are less common than one-on-one duels, only because it is rare to find a large number of minotaurs together in one place. This tradition allows the minotaurs to remain true to their nature without pushing their race further toward extinction.

Cultural Details

    Alignment: Minotaurs have an inclination towards law, a fact that the neogi used to exploit them as slaves under a never-ending contract.

    Religion: There are few known minotaur gods, though some wicked minotaurs venerate Baphomet, demon lord of beasts.

    Language: The minotaur language is rough and has a very strange concept for past tense.

    Names: Despite being enslaved, minotaurs carry a proud tradition in their names. Traditional minotaurs have a family name prefixed by de- or es- followed by the name of their most noteworthy ancestor. The prefix represents “male ancestor” (de-) and “female ancestor” (es-). It is possible for a minotaur to start his or her own family with their family name as their first name with the appropriate prefix in front of it (Darot de-Darot for example).

    Male Adult Names: Darot, Gaerth, Hybos, Ilionus, Nolhan, Polik, Quan, Rajan

    Female Adult Names: Ayasha, Calina, Jarisi, Kyri, Mogara, Resdia, Tariki, Veria

    Family Names: de-Goltyn, de-Kalgor, de-Neros, es-Broga, es-Cura, es-Hestos, es-Kalin, es-Teskosa

Traits

As a minotaur, you have the following racial traits.

    Ability Score Adjustment: Your Strength score increases by 1 and your Wisdom score increases by 1.

    Size: Medium.

    Speed: 30 feet.

    Minotaur Weapon Training: You are proficient with axes.

    Illusion Resistant: You have advantage on any saving throw against illusion effects.

    Darkvision: You can see in darkness within 60 feet of you as if it were dim light. When you do so, your vision is in black and white.

    Cunning: You have advantage on any Wisdom (Survival) check made to track an opponent.

    Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and Minotaur.

Race Write Up: The Lizardfolk

Lizardfolk are a major spelljamming race in the setting, so they deserve the D&D Next treatment as well. Enjoy!

LIZARDFOLK

Lizardfolk are tall humanoids whose powerful bodies are covered with armored scales that range in color from gray to green. They have extended jaws filled with razor-sharp teeth, and each has a unique set of fins that runs from his skull to his upper back. All lizardfolk have ridged tails that range from four to six feet long that help them swim and with which they can deliver powerful blows.

Strong Emotions

Lizardfolk are short-tempered and emotional, but not overly bright. They are well known for their tempers, and lizardfolk seem to find most human and demihuman species particularly frustrating. Dealing with a lizardfolk is a constant process of moving fast enough to keep the lizardfolk from getting bored without going so fast the lizardfolk cannot keep up.

Quiet Watchers

Most lizardfolk tend to be quiet, letting their actions speak for them, though when one does speak it is usually wise to listen. Most people take them to be dumb brutes, a fatal mistake.

Proud Heritage

They do not take insults lightly. Lizardfolk society has a great number of rules and rituals that help them survive and thrive in the spacelanes while also keeping order. Because of this many lizardfolk tend to observe strict adherence to rules, although it can also cause those in lizardfolk society who do not like rules to abandon their tribes. Many tribal leaders tend to feel they are better off.

Cultural Details

    Alignment: Lizardfolk have a natural inclination towards chaos, owing to their general preference towards nature versus civilization, but this is not a rule. Lizardfolk of all alignments can be found in the spacelanes.

    Religion: Most lizardfolk venerate some version of Semuanya who appears in most pantheons as the creator of the race.

    Language: Lizardfolk have their own language, consisting of growling vowels and sharp consonants. Tonal qualities as well as simple sound convey meaning.

    Names: Lizardfolk names tend to be sibilant, with many S sounds. Male names tend to have harder sounds and more syllables, female names are generally shorter and roll off the tongue easily.

    Male Adult Names: Meerltul, Germanides, Veen, Peerei, Usheltul, Okaneen, Utasithik, Tun-Tah, Gin-Ra, Beem-Ja

    Female Adult Names: Drujeva, Pashtvee, Skalz, Deeseidutsei, Nusei, Ahash, Akisalg, Thari-Sa, El-Ei, Jid-Eji

Traits

As a lizardfolk, you have the following racial traits.

    Ability Score Adjustment: Your Dexterity and Constitution scores increase by 1.

    Size: Medium.

    Speed: 30 feet.

    Darkvision: You can see in darkness within 60 feet of you as if it were dim light. When you do so, your vision is in black and white.

    Athletic: You have proficiency in Athletics (Strength) and have advantage on any Athletics (Strength) check you make.

    Lizardfolk Weapon Training: You have proficiency in polearms and shields.

    Natural Weapons: Your claws can be used as weapons in melee combat. You deal 1d4 points of slashing damage with your natural attack (which you are considered to be proficient in). Your natural attack is considered a light weapon.

    Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and Lizardfolk.

Race Write Up: The Giff

Let's start with my write-up for the Giff, the quintessential Spelljammer race - gun-loving hippo people. Enjoy!

GIFF

Giff are powerfully muscled, 9’-tall mercenaries. They have stocky, flat, cylindrical legs, barrel-shaped torsos, broad chests, humanoid arms and fingers, and heads like those of a hippopotamus. Giff skin is black, gray or gold, and often covered in brightly colored tattoos.

Structure is Everything

The giff live structured, organized lives centered on their obligations in a race-wide chain of command. They are proud of their strength and skill as warriors, and view all of lie as pursuit of glory and rank. Their pride in their won strength makes them nervous around truly strong creatures (like giants), but they view most humans and demihumans as too fragile.

Rough and Tumble

Giff enjoy fighting. They will brawl for the sheer fun of it, battling all corners in a friendly test of strength, granting quarter to any who ask for it. Giff view weapons as a sign that the battle is serious,   however, and will fight to the death against anyone who draws a weapon on them.

Natural Wanderers

Giff have wandered the spaceways for so long that they no longer know where their own homeworld is. They tell stories of a jungle world where weapon caches lie beneath every tree, and smoke powder flows like the milk and honey of some humans’ vision of paradise.

Platoons

Giff platoons (the major form of societal organization) serve other spacefaring races. They wander from sphere to sphere, fighting in battles and conquering their employer’s enemies, but they are at the   mercy of their employers, as the giff cannot operate spelljammer helms.

Cultural Details

Alignment: Giff value order and structure in their lives, and thus strongly lean towards the lawful end of the alignment spectrum. Chaotic giff are nearly unheard of in the spacelanes, and rare do they even view neutrality as a viable option.

Religion: Giff have no racial religion and as a whole view the whole concept of gods and goddesses slightly absurd. Faith is an alien concept to most giff, or at least faith in a deity.

Language: The Giff language is harsh and resembles a series of burps and gas exhalations. Few people outside of their race bother to learn it as the complex set of grammatical regulations keep all but the most dedicated of linguists at bay.

Names: Giff are brought up in platoons that work as families, with both male and female members raising children in a military fashion. The young giff are usually named after their parents, and it’s not uncommon for them to carry a lineage identifier with their name (the Third, the Seventh, etc.). The name of their home platoon becomes their surname which they carry throughout their lives; if they join another platoon they take that as an additional surname.

Male Adult Names: Adolf, Alistair, Basil, Edmund, Gordon, Graham, Horatio, Humphrey, Jude, Lesley, Malcolm, Mycroft, Nigel, Rowland, Rupert, Stratford, Trevor, Victor, Willoughby

Female Adult Names: Adelaide, Agnes, Beatrice, Charlotte, Daphne, Dolores, Elspeth, Gabrielle, Henrietta, Isabel, Lucinda, Marilla, Olivia, Polly, Serena, Susannah, Valerie, Zoe

Platoon Names: Black Sabers, Demon Stars, Dragon Hoard, Gold Swords, Howling Gates, Red Horror, Storm Serpents, Wandering Skulls, White Tridents, Wolf Cannons

Traits

As a giff, you have the following racial traits:

Ability Score Adjustment: Your Strength score increases by 2.

Size: Medium.

Speed: 30 feet.

Low-Light Vision: You can see in dim light as well as you do in bright light.

Giff Weapon Training: You have proficiency with firearms and swords.

Thick Hide: You receive a +2 bonus to your Armor Class from your naturally thick skin.

Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and Giff.

Adapting Spelljammer to D&D Next

Welcome to the Spelljammer D&D Next Adaptation project! I've decided to start up a D&D Next campaign using the last publicly available set of playtest rules and adapt them to the Spelljammer setting. This is a labor of love - Spelljammer was the first setting for AD&D that really caught my eye as "wow anything is truly possible with this game."

I'm going to be working up rough rules for spelljammer helms, tactical combat between ships, crystal sphere generation, travel speeds, and write ups for the various races specific to the Spelljammer setting, including giff. Also included are going to be new backgrounds, new organizations, and some notes on my campaign as they develop. Exciting stuff!

See you in the stars!