Minimalistic D&D Setting

D&D is a neat system with too many things to keep in mind. Spells, legacies (also known as races), capabilities of people, monsters and their abilities... and that's just the rules. On top of all this, there's stuff like geography, history, and so much more. If you think all of this is easy to manage, bear in mind that you're probably still thinking only about the Material Plane, and not about all the other planes of existence. While I'd love to be a DM someday, I know that I would much rather work on Runehack than on whatever world I run my D&D campaign in. Running a game of D&D in Runehack would require me to drop the vast majority of classes, my own system for games in Runehack is being worked on (with heavy quotation marks, since I keep getting distracted), … Wouldn't it be nice to have a low maintenance world to run D&D games in?

I felt creatively drained when I started to write this, but it's a subject I've been thinking about for a long time. It only makes sense for me to post it here, hopefully I get some sort of response to see what I could improve on it.

The land of million possibilities. Except it's lands actually.
Storm Wars, by Elena Konstantinova

Minimalistic D&D Setting

During the war of gods, all of the planes of existence have crashed into one another, leaving only two: Material Plane, now made up of planar remnants shaped like flying islands, and the Ethereal Plane, which was untouched since it overlaps all of the planes according to its lore. Personal name for this world is "Vestigial Itonia", but that's just for the ease of personal use.

Each island is a closed system, unless it has a way of traveling to other flying islands. Islands flying in parallel trajectories are rare, but not unheard of. Each island is a microcosm of its own, taking on characteristics of a plane of your choice, or a combination of planes. All of this in mind, chances are this island hadn't been visited by anyone, or it was, or it was visited and colonized too. In order to navigate to a specific island, you need a compass made out of special rocks inside of the island the compass points to. Cardinal directions are determined solely by celestial things, like the Sun and stars.

People need to traverse the islands somehow, so there could be three broad ways of achieving that (plus combinations), consider which of these is the most commonly used one. Not all islands are guaranteed to have access to any of these. Listed in an order in which I would expect them to appear in the world history-wise, these are:

1. domesticated flying creatures,
2. magic,
3. technology.

I like for all the islands to have the same gravitational orientation (same "down"), and for the "bottom of the world" to be filled with a dark Void that the Sun goes beneath to create a day-night cycle. Since rich get richer, I'd assume there would be 1-3 big countries that are spread over many islands and try to colonize more at all times, so that could be a simple way to bring player characters together.

What do we achieve with a world like this? The lowest maintenance world I could think up.

• It's not necessary to figure out a big picture geography of the world, which makes it easier for the DM to draw maps of individual islands. No need to make the land fit a bigger environment.
• Each island can have its own history, and if it's a closed system, its history could reasonably be unaffected (and unaffecting) the world outside of the island.
• When the DM and players feel like it, they can visit all sorts of planes of existence, including nonexistent ones. Want a candy island? An island populated only by the bears? How about a mixture of Elemental plane of fire, Carceri, and Feywild? Whatever that would be like, you can just decide to have an island like that fly by, and give your players an offer to fly there. If they don't want to, you can also just... have the island never appear in the game again.
• This kind of world can support pretty much any player option that the player could want to pick. On one hand, plenty of uncommon species could be unfamiliar to the wider world, which could make general population suspicious of players who choose unusual races. On the other hand, with such a huge variety of races, they might also all be accepted equally. Both can work well, whether applied to the whole world or to the individual exceptions.
• Tying it to the previous two bullet points, does your player want to make up a corner of the world to call their own? Be it their birthplace, the island they wanted to visit all their life, or the isle where their mortal enemy sits upon their iron throne? All of this is very much doable!

… wait, is this all just One Piece but without water and with D&D's magic replacing all of the magics that are in the original story? Wait no, this world doesn't have a famous pirate announcing a race for the biggest treasure of the world that's located on an island which hasn't been finished by anyone but him and his crew for centuries. So of course this isn't One Piece!

Thank you for reading, and have a great day!

Encryption runes, Submemory, and Arunia

I've spent plenty of time pondering how the encryption runes should work. I think it's time I'll try to describe that, and while at it describe some related worldbuilding.

Encryption Runes

An encryption rune has three inputs: information, key, and mask. Its functionality is simple: If the observer holds the key in their memory or submemory, they will observe the information. Otherwise, they observe the mask. Out of these three components, key is mandatory, and while both information and mask are optional, the rune must contain at least one of these in order to make sense. While usage of either of those is relatively cheap though, combination of both is a lot more expensive, making encryption runes with all three components exceedingly rare.

Both mask and information are based on illusions created by the runes, using sight, hearing, smell and taste, touch, temperature, and northcall. You can't encrypt something that's already written down, though you could cover it up with a new encryption. If the encryption lacks a mask, someone who doesn't hold the key will perceive the rune's drawing, as well as whatever it's covering up as a white noise, or its equivalent in the senses that the information is conveyed in. If the encryption lacks an information, whoever doesn't possess the key won't perceive rune's drawing nor the effect it's supposed to present.

Key is an input written in the same format as a detection rune would be. It can be about any range or combination of physical sensations perceivable through sight, hearing, smell and taste, touch, northcall, and temperature. Time on its own doesn't work here, but it can be used to determine the durations of these sensations when combined with them. Understandably, if one wishes to make these sensations complex enough to be perceived by more than one person, they would have to cover a lot of wiggle room. But people have come up with a different way to do this too.

See, if two people look at a white piece of paper, what they'll see is slightly different. One could maybe have the Sun or other light source bounce off of it, while the other could be looking at its darker side. There's all sorts of factors that can skew our senses, which in the past required plenty of wiggle-rooms, making encryption runes so impractical they weren't used. That was until someone came up with a genius idea of using illusions as passwords. After all, illusions are easy to reproduce and convert into/from detection runes, so they make for ideal passwords. This discovery has revolutionized the encryption services ever since.

Finding an artwork depicting an encryption rune in action was hard. This should suffice.
Made by yours truly.

Submemory

People and machines can both memorize things. There's a strange advantage that people hold over machines when it comes to decryption. This trait came to be called by the scientific community as the "submemory", shortened version of subconscious memory. In layman terms, submemory is an inaccessible record of all experiences that the humanoid has ever experienced, including those that they do not remember. Machines do not seem to possess submemory, which means that they can decrypt only things, for which they hold a key in their memory.

The exact details of how a submemory works are unfamiliar even to the best of mindlore scientists. How the mind could increase its capacity in such a way, and keep it up all throughout an individual's life is seemingly impossible to comprehend. The best guess for an explanation is that the mind finds the most efficient way to encode memories all over the brain, although it's difficult to know how exactly it's doing this, if at all. A far easier (although more convoluted) explanation that they have formulated is that the brain is only a channel for something beyond the physical world. This "soul" of sorts could hold any number of memories, and be the actual source of the submemory. This explanation however opens a whole new can of worms and brings up more questions than it answers, so it's not generally accepted within the scientific society. For all they know, this theory could be completely false, but at the moment it is the best guess they have.

Arunia

Much like mutations happen in our world, something akin to this can happen in Runehack too. One mutation that's so wide-spread that it has its own name is called "arunia", and it's an inability to be affected by the runes. While the detection runes can detect things about them, these people are oblivious to the illusion runes, and in case someone would attempt to move them using the telekinesis runes, they would fail.

Due to the fact that an encryption rune becomes much more expensive if it were to contain both the information and a mask, and due to the fact that an encryption rune can be created on top of an already existing image, one easy way is to have someone who's not affected by the illusion runes (and thus also outputs of the encryption runes) present in a group of people to see if they spot something different. Arunic people are sought after by various governments worldwide, and accepted into jobs as law enforcers, intelligence agencies, investigators, as well as for the other jobs. However, such a life has its downsides, for it's impossible for the arunic people to ever experience the wonders of Mistweb, virtual realities, and other wonderful benefits bestowed by the illusions.

If two people are conceiving a child and at least one is not arunic, the child has only a 0.1% chance to be born arunic. If both parents are arunic, this probability increases to 99.9%. Due to this, the condition is quite rare, although not unheard of worldwide. This won't ever come up in any of my future articles, for sure. (It will.)

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

10 Guidelines to Moderating Magic

I think it's finally finished, or at least the first version of it is.

The 10 Guidelines to Moderating Magic is my document, in which I gathered all of the rules I came up with on the blog over time, added some things, edited others, and condensed them enough to put them onto a single page.

With that out of the way, here are the 10 condensed rules in text form, followed by the document itself. The document can also be found in my homebrew collection.

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

Cover art is Chef, by Stephen Stark.

10 Guidelines to Moderating Magic

Rule 0: BGC

For the purposes of these guidelines, BGC stands for background character—a humanoid character that isn't important to the plot. DM can determine which of these guidelines to use and whether they apply to player characters, villains, other NPCs important to the plot, and to the non-humanoids.

Rule 1: Maximum Level

BGCs can't multiclass, and their character level can't surpass the lowest of the ability scores their class requires (as per the Multiclassing Prerequisites table) minus 10.

Rule 2: Knowledge of Magic

The highest level of magic that a BGC possesses detailed knowledge of is determined by the magics that they come into contact with frequently, as well as the community they live in.

Communities by Level:

1. Village
2. City
3. Magic School
4. Castle
5. Tower
6. —

Rule 3: Awareness of Magic

BGC's awareness of the magic's existence rises with the perceivability and frequency of its effects.

Rule 4: Training Duration

For a BGC, reaching a specific level requires training that lasts a number of months equal to twice the level they wish to learn. The DM can choose to extend this duration by a number of months equal to 5 minus the BGC's Intelligence modifier.

Rule 5: The Standard Spellcaster

The most frequent spellcaster in society would be the one that's reproducible in the most reliable and easily accessible way.

Rule 6: Magic Costs

The recommended cost of a spell provided by a spellcasting service equals 12 gp 5 sp × (2 to the power of spell's level), halved if the spell is cast as a ritual, plus the cost of a costly material component, halved if the material component is not consumed. For the costs of magic items, use the Sane Magic Item Prices.

Rule 7: Magic Item Crafting

With the exception of spell scrolls and potions, a BGC can start making common magic items if it's a 5th level spellcaster. Uncommon items require 2 more levels, and for each increase in rarity, this amount increases by 1.

Rule 8: Permanent Spells

A spell with permanent effects should be used more often the lower its level is. These spells include: find familiar, arcane lock, continual flame, magic mouth, Nystul's magic aura, glyph of warding, fabricate, Mordenkainen's private sanctum.

Rule 9: Illegal and Regulated Spells

The DM should carefully consider what magic is illegal and/or regulated.

Recommendations for Consideration: spells that cause harm, enchantment spells that manipulate others' actions, necromancy and conjuration spells with a chance for the raised/summoned creature to break from mage's control, wall spells, arcane lock, continual flame, control water, detect thoughts, dimension door, divination and spells of a similar character, enlarge/reduce, glyph of warding, knock, Leomund's tiny hut, magic mouth, modify memory*, Mordenkainen's private sanctum, reincarnate*, teleportation circle*.

* This spell is of 5th level, so unless it's public knowledge that it exists, it technically wouldn't be illegal.

Rule 10: Two Witnesses

For any important activity where the use of magic could prove to be a problem, a BGC should have at least two witnesses present. If the BGC can afford it, at least one of them should be able to cast counterspell/dispel magic.

Warlock Powers are Free*

While I was working on my 10 Rules, people kept having issues with rule #5. The rule is a claim that warlocks should be much more common in the world since the only requirement to become one is being capable of agreeing to a contract. I've talked about this matter once before, but due to all the arguments I've had over the last week on the topic, I was forced to reexamine my views. And my dear viewers, things can be so much worse than what I've envisioned back when I wrote a prequel to this article.

Let's begin with a question: Have you read all of the Terms and Conditions that you've agreed to in your entire life? Were all of these readings thorough enough to allow you to understand them all? If you haven't, do you have a friend who did? I personally will admit that I haven't. In fact, I have yet to meet a person who would with confidence tell me they did. We keep doing this so often without a second thought, but why? Because it would take too much effort, and because this way it's... much more convenient.

How to Be a Good Patron?

Let's do a thought experiment, and imagine that you are an otherworldly warlock patron. Let's imagine that making plenty of pacts is good for you. How do you get a lot of people to sign your deals?

Hint: The answer is not offering them a lot of power. In fact, too much power will make them even more suspicious. Even worse is the fact that not everyone is power-hungry. Some people are okay leading small, relatively insignificant, simple lives. And there's no shame in that.

First thing first, you should consider rebranding yourself. I mean, you can lie, right? If you can't, you'll have a harder time making lots of pacts (though it's not impossible). Instead of presenting yourself as Asmodeus, the lord of Nine Layers of Hells, maybe highlight your positive characteristics to those interested in serving you. Repeat after me: "I am a chief management officer of a multi-level organization localized on an outer plane, specializing in providing contractual services." It's all a matter of perspective, only extremely desperate would sign a contract with you if you introduced yourself as a lord of Nine Hells.

Similarly, present your personal values in a positive way. One of them should definitely be "making the world a better place". Other classical values can be any of the following: loyalty, expanding opportunities, progress, satisfaction, fulfillment of visions, etc. Feel free to be vague about these.

For the love of everything that's dear to you, don't intimidate them. That sort of reputation either spreads like a wildfire or keeps building up over the years until someone smears your public image with many witnesses you've wronged over the years. Intimidation might seem like a good thing at the moment, but trust me—it's not.

Can any of you tell me what he's doing wrong? It's multiple things. Present yourself in your best possible form to your warlocks, not just any old robe you find laying around in your home. Please, cover your chest if there's blood flowing out of it. And most importantly, please keep your contracts tidy. You can cast prestidigitation for a reason, it's not that hard, and a clean readable contract will make you seem much more trustworthy than a blood-oozing bunch of squiggles.
Jokes aside though, this is cool art. Art is for the Blood Scrivener MtG card by Peter Mohrbacher.

Make the cost of your powers something that's barely known to your warlocks. A traditional example is their soul, but if the public is too well informed about the details of that, this might prove to be a problem. Perhaps it could be perceiving the world through their senses or access to their thoughts and memories. Maybe an occasional "job opportunity", through which they could earn a small extra (for example a monetary reward) for performing a little service for you. 

Make sure that your contract is barely comprehensible to a mere mortal mind on a first read-through. Maybe show it to some acquaintances you trust, or try some A/B Testing until you nail down a contract that has the highest chance of being signed.

Present your powers as free. The only thing necessary to do is to sign a contract after all. You don't need to inform them of the details in the contract, you could just give them some legalese brief description of the cost that makes the contract seem like a good thing.

Make your powers seem like a convenience. Previously, I've said that not many people are power-hungry. Honestly, you don't want to even target that demographic in the first place, since they will sooner or later seek a way to overthrow and replace you. Instead, seek people motivated by comfort and ease of life. Convince them that they want these powers, because they'll make their lives so much easier. Why bother standing up and grabbing a mug of ale, when you could just mage hand it right to you? Make cleaning the floors, clothes, dishes, and anything else a breeze with prestidigitation, or automate it with an unseen servant. Get yourself a pair of the Eyes of the Runekeeper, and you will never need to bother studying different written languages ever again.

Building a community is a major step towards improving your approach. Let your warlocks recommend you to their friends, and encourage them to recommend you to their friends too! Who wouldn't want this community to grow, letting more folk join in and share their experiences, teaching each other how to grow and develop together?

Networking! What a buzzword to use, but it's so true. Get into deals with small villages, magic schools, noble families, guilds and so many more. Keeping up good relationships is a great boost for your public image too.

How to be a Great Patron?

You know, I feel like you already knew all of this. For all I know, you might be presenting yourself to the people as a non-divine saint with a small cult following that keeps bringing more and more people even after you've stopped contacting people on your own. "Yeah yeah, just sign this contract, it's all fine. I and all my buddies did, and that's how we got these cool powers!" But… I think you're looking for something more. You want to really step up your warlock-hiring game. Let me present you with the following mantra that I came up with.

"A good patron makes their powers seem free. A great patron makes their powers seem like a privilege."

If you wish to get people interested in your powers even if they don't need them, make them seem scarce. If too many people are asking for your powers, ask them to send you a resume with a brief description of their life history. Invite them over for an interview. Ask them all the classical stuff: strengths and weaknesses, expected uses of these powers, their personal values, etc. If you don't find them worthy, tell them so. If you wish to actually bestow them with warlock powers, privately send them tips on the areas they could improve in. Remember: you want this contract, but so do they if they go through all this work. They'll see the powers themselves as a reward, not as something they have to pay for.

As a final step, advertise yourself. Recall how I said that you should make them want these powers? Forget that. Convince them that they need these powers. If you're big enough, they'll see them all around themselves anyway. Highlight how these powers make your life easier, and the many benefits of their use. They can save your time, letting you spend more of it on things that matter to you: your family, your friends, the pursuit of your true passions, or even improving the world one small bit at a time.

Maybe even mention the potential of earning money using these powers. While the studied wizards and faithful clerics have more potential to use their spells instantaneously, your strength lies in this potential replenishing faster. You just need to keep yourself relaxed on your job all the time, and you'll get all of your potential back within an hour. I mean, would you rather spend years studying wizardry, and spend even more time afterward by hunting spells for your spellbook? That whole thing is awfully expensive. Imagine if your job was to literally stay relaxed until customers come in. Hey, maybe you could even manage to do this 8 hours a day, seven days a week, four weeks a month, twelve months a year.

Internet folks love lists, so here's everything compiled into two neat lists, free of charge!

Good Patron list:

• Rebrand yourself in a positive light
• Present your personal values positively
• Don't intimidate people interested in your offer
• Make the cost practically imperceptible
• Use legalese on your contract
• Present your powers as free
• Target the comfort-oriented demographic, not the power-hungry or a desperate one
• Build a community and network

Great Patron List

• Bestow your powers only upon those who deserve them
• Convince them they need the convenience of your powers
• Let them know of the money-making potential

Thank you for reading, have a nice day, and best of luck hiring your new warlocks and expanding your very own Eldritch Community.

P.S.: You can also choose not to follow any of this and be a bad patron. But beware, for that is a way to only get the most desperate and power-hungry of the warlocks to sign contracts with you, only to hate you for the rest of their lives.

Northcall

I've wanted to add a new sense to the folks of Runehack, for some time now. I've narrowed my options down to a single one and felt like writing about it.

"Ever felt that sensation of following the Still Star into the unknown? To see what's in there?"
"Haven't we all?"
A custom artwork drawn by Arell for this article.

Northcall

Due to traveling a lot in the older times, the humanoid species of Runehack have developed and retained a sense of magnetoreception. At all times, they can sense the direction of the true north. Think of it as an expansion of proprioception (the sense of where our body parts are relative to each other, to put it simply), except it's a position relative to the north, letting you know the direction to the north, and while close enough also a rough distance.

In the old times, people considered this sensation to be the call of the unmoving star in the north. Eventually, they came to call this sensation the northcall without realizing what exactly it is or how it works. Grammar-wise, think of it being used in the same way we use words like "sight" or "smell". While it was very useful for orientation and long-term travels, some have wondered what this sensation actually leads to. Early communities were, understandably, under-prepared for such journeys, which is why they always ended lethally. Thus, "reaching for the north" has become a phrase for hopeless journeys that would be deemed impossible, and/or perilous. One of the symbols associated with this sense is the Still Star, a star that's perfectly motionless in the night sky, right above the true north.

At a certain point in history, humanity has discovered a strange mineral that called for them too, though its call was much weaker. Many names have sprung for the lodestone depending on the cultures: from starstone or starmetal to northrock. The northcall of this rock was much shorter than the call of the true north, but they noticed a strange phenomenon through experimentation: The lodestone attracted itself, and its power grew stronger when more were brought together. This has been an origin to many legends of theirs, one being a legend of Mount Boreal. This mountain was supposedly entirely made out of lodestone, and in some versions of the myths even held a way to reach the Still Star itself. Even nowadays, lodestone is a cultural symbol for love and attraction and used in various gifts for the closest ones.

Another myth says that the Still Star is a heated loadstone, and that little stars are within all of us. Some people claim that their soulmate has a distinct northcall due to the attraction of starlets, but such claims were afterward disproven. While northcall can detect the presence of other people, its strength is so weak that it works only within a room and doesn't let you know where or how many people are in the room with you. You just feel a hunch that there probably are people with you there. According to some, the Still Star beckons all people to join it. When it comes to the afterlife, believers of these myths say that after the death, the little star within a person, too small to be seen by a naked eye, escapes, and flies to the North to finally join the greatest soulmate this world ever had. Understandably, a religion has sprung up around the Still Star, worshipping it as both a deity and an afterlife that one should strive to reach.

Debates have gone on for years whether the source of the true north is the Mount Boreal or the Still Star, so many expeditions have been made to see it in person. The Mount Boreal believers have presented themselves as rational, claiming that the mountain of lodestone is the most sensible explanation, while those who thought it's the Still Star used more spiritual reasoning, with less empirical evidence. After some time, society has grown competent enough to reach the true north of the world. Once they arrived close enough, the explorers made a bizarre discovery: there are two norths calling for them. One that points downwards, and one that points upwards, directly at the Still Star. As the news propagated all over the world, the religion that has grown around the Still Star has splintered. One major branch of this religion is a dualistic faith in two deities who represent different ideals of what the good is: one that claims that intentions are what makes a thing good and another that claims that the outcomes are what makes a thing good. It mirrors the duality of the origin of the earth, and the Still Star high above, and yet people feeling the call of both. Since this religion is one of the two biggest religions currently present in this world though, I think that it should get an article of its own, or at least a segment focused on it some other time.

Those who can't feel the northcall used to be called wayless, but over time this word came to be seen as offensive, so it has been replaced by the term "uncalled". Before the time of monsters, religious fanatics used to pursue the uncalled people, seeing them as people without a moral compass that would help them tell good from evil. It's not a thing that religious people in the present times are proud of, but it's undoubtedly a part of their history.

Lesser Norths

One of my rules for the Runehack's magic system is that the runes can detect and replicate (almost) anything the human senses can sense. This is why I wanted to make an extra sense, to begin with, so let's get to that.

Detection of northcall simply allows people to direct their machines much more easily in movement. It gives them an objective point that can serve as an anchoring point for them. After the runetech revolution, a scientific breakthrough has proven that the Moon does actually have a northcall of its own, although one that's so weak it can only be detected by machinery and not people. With a triplet of points (the north pole, the Still Star, and the Moon), it was only a matter of time before the Global Positioning System has been reinvented, working entirely on the base of runes.

When it comes to the northcall-based illusions, people have started to draw attention to their businesses by their use. These illusions came to be commonly called "lesser norths". But with the abundance of lesser norths and no way to tell them apart, the illusion became so overused it was obsolete. Soon enough, laws have been passed to ban the public use of northcall illusions, reserving them only for the places that can provide emergency assistance. When someone needs help due to a crime that has happened or a wound, they can simply follow one of the lesser norths they sense to get to safety and/or to get the help they need.

Understandably, as with any other illusion, northcall too can be made private, which is not covered by the law. The most common use for private northcalls is finding things when one needs them - stuff like one's phone, keys, car, the hidden box that nobody should ever find out about that's just buried someplace in the forest... you know, the usual.

---

That's it for today's article of mine. It feels refreshing to do this sort of worldbuilding again where I start off with an idea and try to grow it as much as I can. I've tried to finish the next article on a Runehack city, but while most of it is done, I'm stuck with the Elvish language at the moment. I'm still tinkering with it, trying to find a good sound for it, altering vocabulary here and there, and tired of rewriting the important words I need for that article. Soon I'll hopefully have the dictionary finished enough to actually finish the article, maybe edit some of the Elvish words in the New Prista article, and continue the series as I hoped I would.

Thank you for reading, hope you've enjoyed this article, and I wish you an awesome day!

Commoner Magic: Levels, Magic Items, and Training

Continuing my sort of series on the worldbuilding with the magic of 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons, I've decided to try tackling the magical items, levels, and the time it takes to train today.

I'd imagine someone with an inborn talent as described later in the article to be someone who people generally know about. They could achieve greatness with all of their potential, possibly even going slightly beyond.
Silverquill Apprentice, by Mike Bierek

Levels

In order to gauge how many people of certain levels there could be, I came up with a simple guideline to assume when worldbuilding.

The maximum level that a commoner can reach in a class is equal to the lowest ability score modifier that the class requires (as per Multiclassing Prerequisites) multiplied by 2.

Just for the sake of clarity, let's make an example. Let's say someone wishes to become a rogue. What level can they be at best, if their Dexterity modifier is +4? The answer is 8.

Now, the most obvious question would be "How come players can reach higher levels?" This is a general rule of thumb. Exceptions can exist. Alternatively, there could be an actual reason for this. Maybe the players are blessed by the god of adventure. Or maybe they actually need help from the magical items in order to progress further. That all I leave up to the DM, to each their own, I'm here to give advice on worldbuilding, not on managing the party.

One curious consequence of this is, that in order to reach a level of 10 in a class, the character will need to have a starting modifier of +3 or higher in that stats associated with their class. Upon reaching level 4, they can increase this modifier by 1, and they can do that again upon reaching level 8. There's a handful of exceptions, a good exception being Fighter who can afford to have a stat of +2 or higher in order to get to the 10th level (extra bonus: Fighter is the only class in the game that gets to choose which of the stats it tracks). On the other hand, someone with a +4 or higher modifier in their class' stat has one ability score improvement to spare, perhaps for a feat or into a different ability score.

A rather curious bad case of an exception is the trio of monk, paladin, and ranger. Each of these classes has two stat prerequisites, which means that by my own rules, the lower of their stat modifiers determines the maximum level. In order to become a level 10 monk, level 10 ranger, or level 10 paladin, a commoner would have to have a beginning modifier of +4 in Strength and Charisma for the paladin, or +4 in Dexterity and Wisdom for the other two.

There's another interesting consequence to take notice of. Some magic items exist that can help one increase their natural predispositions. These include but are not limited to:

• Gauntlets of Ogre Power and Belt of Hill Giant Strength, which replace the Strength modifier with +4 and +5 respectively.
• Headband of Intellect, which replaces the Intelligence modifier with +4.

I'm leaving out the items that increase the Constitution since that isn't on the Multiclassing Prerequisites table, as well as any consumable items and very rare or rarer items (the reason for the last will become apparent with the next rule). Understandably, there could be further items added to this list through homebrew, such as a cloak made out of a nymph's hair that replaces the wearer's Charisma modifier with +5, but that's up to the DM.

So, what worldbuilding consequences does that create within our world? Here's a handful in a neat bullet point list format:

• If you're not born with strong natural predispositions (+3 modifier) for anything, but you're somewhat strong or dexterous (+2 modifier), you may as well try your hand at being a Fighter.
• Unless you're predisposed to be excellent in whatever you wanted to be good at (+4 or higher), you should focus on improving what you're good at already instead of getting distracted along the way (feats). If you get distracted, you may never be able to reach your fullest potential.
• If the settlement has a magical item that could increase one's capabilities, they could be lent for training.
• Since only such items at the moment in the game increase Strength and Intelligence, such practices could lead to wizards who are capable of casting spells much more powerful than they could understand on their own, as well as barbarians and fighters who can seem rather weak.

Hey, I think I've mentioned magic items, so it's time to talk about those now.

Magic Items

This rule might be kind of controversial, but it's something at least I find somewhat reasonable, considering all of the previously established rules.

Commoners can at best create magic items of rare rarity.

Before you raise your pitchforks, let me show what happens when the commoners raise theirs. Xanathar's Guide to Everything states, that in order to craft a magic item, you'll need time, gold, formula, and most importantly an ingredient from a monster of some CR. I did some maths assuming the 5th edition's combat balancing is right. I don't know if it is, let's just go with it for now. I've considered two kinds of scenarios: One in which the commoners face a monster along with some "minions" of its own, and another in which the commoners lure such minions away, thus facing the monster on its own. I chose only the highest CRs in each of the ranges listed for the magic item crafting, and I made some CRs up for the minions that felt legit to me. I also assumed all of the commoners to be of the same level, and that they wouldn't go into a Deadly encounter (making these the hardest possible Hard encounters). Here's a nice table, displaying how many commoners would be needed for each of these encounters.

Level	Common (CR 3)	+2x CR 1/2	Uncommon (CR 8)	+4x CR 1	Rare (CR 12)	+8x CR 2
1	6	-	-	-	-	-
2	4	7	10	-	-	-
3	3	5	6	-	11	-
4	3	4	6	-	9	-
5	1	3	4	7	6	-
6	1	2	3	6	6	-
7	1	2	3	6	5	-
8	1	2	3	5	5	12
9	1	1	3	4	4	11
10	1	1	3	4	4	9

As you can see, Common items are something that even villagers could their hands on if enough of them got together. Uncommon items, on the other hand, could only be achieved by folks who live in communities that help them grow in their magic or martial capabilities, or by a large group of villagers who know how to distract the monster's assumed companions. Rare items would be restricted to city folks who know how to distract the minions or lure the monster away, or in case the monster's minions are not so easily swayed, ... only the most experienced of the commoners.

Very rare magic items, as well as magic items of higher rarities, are not in the table because even with just 8 minions, a CR 18 foe would be insurmountable even for twelve level 10's. If they were to distract them, it would still be somewhat feasible, but hardly so.

Since these two approaches were suggested to me by the community, I'd much rather just try combining the two in a way that makes sense to me, and translate it into the levels to keep it in theme with some of the previous rules.

• Common items could be crafted by commoners with a spellcaster level of 5 or higher.
• Uncommon items could be crafted by commoners with a spellcaster level of 7 or higher.
• Rare items could be crafted by commoners with a spellcaster level of 9 or higher.
• Unless we're talking about making a common item by a skillful 5th level commoner who knows how to split the target away from its minions or a 9th level commoner, making magic items is a group effort.

I know it's not exactly what the table above says, but this way it feels at least somewhat nice and authentic to me. You could change these levels as want. This is just a guideline for a minimum provided by me.

Sorcerer has wares if you have coin. Of course he knows what all of these things do, and he isn't just selling his experiments to find out when others try them, that's why his stock is full!
Ye Old Magic Shop, by jjpeabody

Training

I think I've finally sorted out a good way to determine how long it takes for a commoner to get levels. All you need to do is just to say it takes them a number of months equal to twice the level they wish to reach a worth of training. Reaching level 1 takes two months, reaching level 2 takes 4 months after level 1. Thus, the full journey from level 1 to 10 would take 110 months, which is 9 years and 2 months. These years assume 8 hours of daily training, weekends and some holidays off, etc. One could complicate this further by increasing the number by 5 minus the Intelligence modifier, but I feel like this is good enough for me.

If you're concerned that it might be too easy to become a master of your craft, just remember that it takes 10 years of not working in order to get this good. You would need money to cover your own expenses, as well as money to pay your trainer. Thus, for someone who has to work hard every single day, the process could take way, way, way longer.

Example

All of this sounds like it deserves some examples, so let's roll up stats for three siblings and see where their lives could take them. For this, I'll use an odd method of stat rolling I came up with just for this article (6 + 2d10 drop highest, they're commoners after all), and convert them to modifiers instead of bothering with ability scores.

• Aleya: Strength +2, Dexterity -1, Constitution +0, Intelligence -2, Wisdom -2, Charisma +2
• Barnsby: Strength -2, Dexterity +1, Constitution +0, Intelligence -1, Wisdom -1, Charisma +1
• Clayre: Strength -1, Dexterity +0, Constitution -1, Intelligence -1, Wisdom +3, Charisma +1

Aleya was strong and charming from a young age, though she was easy to fool and clumsy too. She has some potential for becoming a paladin, though the best she could achieve would be 4th level in almost 2 years of training. If she became a bard, shown some magical powers characteristic for a sorcerer, or made a deal with an otherworldly being, she could reach 6th level in that class, which would take her 3.5 years. The same goes if she tried to be a barbarian. However, she could reach 10th level if she trained to be a Fighter for more than 9 years.

Barnsby was never truly exceptional in anything, besides being rather weak. Even if he tried to be a charismatic mage or rogue, he'd at best reach his personal limit of level 2 in 6 months, unless someone would assist him with magic items.

Clayre however was always seen as an exceptionally wise individual. While she was not dexterous enough to become a monk or a ranger, she could still become a cleric or a druid. If she dedicated all of her focus to growing wiser, one day she could reach the 10th level in her class of choice too.

Not everyone has it in them to achieve greatness, and thus sadly Barnsby would be left behind by his sisters. While the game is trying to be fair to us, life is not fair to the commoners. If I were to assume the rolling method I made up on the spot for all of the villagers, only 1% could ever go beyond 8th level in a class that's not a Fighter, and even out of those some could stagnate due to diversion of focus on something else. And you know what? That sounds like a pretty good guesstimate to me. Ideally, I'd be able to count the number of 10th (or possibly even 9th) level characters in the whole world, minus players and story-important NPCs. People like Clayre, who reach their full potential and become 10th level, would be known about across the kingdom without a doubt, if not further.

When my burnout started, the magic system of Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition felt like a big intimidating body of water. An ocean that I would rather avoid if I could. The first article was testing the waters. The second was putting my whole leg in it. Right now, it feels like I'm standing in it up to my waist. When I get around to making the next article, it might finally be my full dip into the water. I'll try to rewrite the rules to be clearer and to work better together, I'll probably try to also reword them in order to allow the DMs to adjust them as they wish. Who knows, one day I might get back to actually DMing D&D instead of just talking about it. But it is not this day, these days I feel too overwhelmed with work to do that.

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

Accepting the 5e's Magic

Previously, you could have read an article of mine where I described my issues with D&D's worldbuilding, especially regarding its magic system. I've made some progress that I wanted to share with you. While to some these tips might seem obvious, I really hope that I'll help out anyone reading this who is still stuck where I was back when I wrote the October article. For those who like practical lists, here are all of my rules in an extremely brief format that you can take and run away with.

Rules for 5th Edition Magic-related Worldbuilding

1. Spell levels correlate how public of a knowledge they are, and spells above the 5th level are only known by players and NPCs who need such knowledge.
2. Warlocks should be common and socially accepted unless your setting is built around saying otherwise.
3. You should have two witnesses with you for anything important. At least one should be able to cast counterspell/dispel magic if you can afford it.
4. Spells with permanent effects should be used as often as their spell level suggests.
5. Some magic, such as majority of enchantment spells or all harmful illusions, should be illegal.

There we go! Hopefully, this quick reference of rules should be good for anyone else who struggled like I did. Now then, the rest of the article is just elaborating on what do they mean and why.

Giving wonder back to magic one step at a time.
Art by Karen Holmes

Rule #1: Spell Levels

It takes dedication to get good at something. If we think of the magical expertise as a bell curve, we can expect its mean to represent either people with no knowledge of magic, or people who know a very basic level of magic depending on how high of a magical setting you want to go with. The further away from this mean you go to the right, the more magically competent people we'll see. But at the same time, their numbers will go lower drastically. We can represent this sort of thing using the spell levels:

• 0th and 1st Level: Commoner* magic. It doesn't take too much effort to get started. These should be fairly common knowledge in 5e's settings unless it's something very low magic (like Adventures in Middle-Earth). People would likely find ways to use this magic for things they do in their common lives. Why sweep your porch, when you could cast an arcane ritual and get it swept for you by an invisible specter? Your neighbors do that, so with little book-keeping, you can too.
• 2nd Level: This is still commoner-level magic, although in this case, it takes a bit more effort to actually learn it and get good at it. You don't need to be an expert or study in some school for this (although the school can help you out). This level of magic is common knowledge within cities, and to those who visit cities.
• 3rd Level: At this point, the untrained mind starts to struggle and usually requires guidance. This level of magic would be common knowledge within magic schools, druidic groves, temples, and any other place where plenty of spellcasters would gather to share their knowledge.
• 4th Level: Spells of this level are above common folk, and oftentimes even above those who study the magic. These spells are reserved only to the experts within the field, as well as important people like the rulers of lands. Understandably, for those who can't cast them themselves, these spells would be either unknown, fairy tales, or very costly.
• 5th Level: The most sacred level of magic known only by the greatest of the mages. Such mages would keep this magic hidden even from important people or other mages because it is too dangerous to be shared without any limits. There could be a handful of exceptions here, like spells that resurrect people from being dead or teleportation circle, but I would say that knowledge of these could change depending on the setting.

*When I refer to "commoner" in this article, I do not mean a CR 0 creature listed in the Monster Manual. I mean an average NPC who isn't of great importance.

Anything below one's location within this hierarchy is usually common knowledge, and anything above is either unknown by them or a fairy tale. Of course fantasy worlds would have legends and tales of people who could stop time, or resurrect those who have been dead for years, create magical portals, or zap their enemies into dust. But it would be extremely difficult for them to prove such magics to be real. Sure one could in theory find a spell scroll, but there are many magic items out there that can do things no spell can, so they may as well believe it's an ability unique to them.

I should also add, that while I made this article all about magic and spells, this may as well apply to player levels overall, except the barrier is at the 10th level. A reasonable enough barrier to place if I say so myself. While I'm doing side notes, I should mention that this doesn't apply to the racial magic. If the Player's Handbook tells me that a high elf knows one wizard cantrip, that means to me that they know one cantrip.

And don't worry about the players or your villains. The DM is always allowed to make an exception for this rule, and players who manage to go above 10th level are assumed to be one such exception. As for the villains, if you know me you know that I like villains who are powerful and interesting. So they should absolutely be an exception if you want them to be one.

Rule #2: Warlocks

Warlocks get a bad reputation, and for an obvious reason. In our world, it's extremely shady to say that you've sold your soul for anything. Most people bring the opinions and views from our world into the fantasy one and thus come to a conclusion that warlocks are rather sketchy.

Thing is, it's the easiest and most reliable way to access magic for an average person. You can imagine a reason or more for each of the classes, be it studying that costs plenty of money, approval of deities, or bonding with nature. The warlock only needs to make a deal with an otherworldly being, and they get their magical power. I already wrote an article on that in the past, so there isn't much else I can say on the topic.

Rule #3: Two Witnesses

There are some nasty spells within the world of D&D. Luckily, most of the nasty spells affect only one person at a time. Unfortunately, there are sorcerers within the world of D&D who can twin these spells, targeting two people at once. This is why I would suggest that for anything important, a person should have at least two witnesses near them at a time. This way, even if an evil sorcerer casts suggestion and twins it to target both you and one of your witnesses, there's still one more who can see what's going on and attempt to prevent it, or report it.

Ideally, you should have at least one person capable of casting counterspell, or possibly even dispel magic with you. It could be one of these 2+ witnesses. The more of these you have, the better off you'll be, but someone willing to accompany you for the sole purpose of witnessing and removing magic would likely be expensive. Also, these spells are of 3rd level, so refer to Rule #1 to see who could access them.

So whether it's a small shop, a prison cell, audience with the king, or a trial, there should be witnesses. Optimally ones that can stop magic from happening.

Rule #4: Permanent Spells

There's a handful of spells that can have permanent effects, and thus they could be very useful to people. Specifically, it's the following spells:

• arcane lock,
• continual flame,
• find familiar,
• magic mouth,
• Mordenkainen's private sanctum,
• and Nystul's magic aura.

While one of them is a 4th level spell (and thus by Rule #1 available only to mages and very important people), the rest is all 2nd level spells or lower that should be accessible by anyone in cities.

Ever had a moment when you couldn't find your keys to the house? Wouldn't it be lovely if you never had to keep them in the first place? Sure 25 gold pieces isn't cheap, but a regular lock costs 10 gold pieces. No need to worry about thieves' tools silently opening your door, if anyone wants to go inside they'll need to be loud - either break the door down, or cast knock.

Find familiar is awesome if you can cast it. For a fairly low price, you get a magical companion that can serve as another pair of eyes for you. You can talk to them telepathically too, so that's great.

The continual flame spell is very expensive, but it pays off in the long run. Once again, 50 gold pieces is a hefty price, especially considering you could get a lantern along with 5 pints of oil that could last you for a total of 30 hours for measely 1 gold piece. In other words, if you were to buy oil worth 50 gold pieces, you could have it last 3000 hours, which is 125 days. However, in long term (that being, more than a year), it pays off to get a smoke-less heat-less continual flame that you don't need to refill, and you could toss a blanket over without fearing it would burn. It's a luxury, but it's something that those who want to save money in long term would get, despite their neighbors making fun of them. Then again, light could replace both, but it's a much shorter-term (albeit free) solution.

Mordenkainen's private sanctum (upper planes bless Mordenkainen) is a spell perfect for kings and similar important folk who wish to make a private area for themselves. Be it soundproof one, teleportation-proof, divination-proof, and more. Best part is, this spell is free. If you have a court magician who has 8 fullcaster levels, you could have them cast it once on an area that you want to be permanently affected by the spell, and still have another cast for wherever you'll need it. This spell is also useful in prisons, courts, and other places of great importance.

The Nystul's magic aura spell allows you to, among other things, hide your magical item's true nature. If you're afraid of the local paladin finding out you have a familiar, you could cover up its creature type to match its appearance too!

Finally, there's the ever-so-lovely spell that could revolutionize the world if used to its full potential, magic mouth. This silly-sounding spell is actually so useful for common folk, it's hard to believe. One cast of it costs 10 gold pieces. Seriously? That's as cheap as the lock I've mentioned earlier! With its input being anything visual or auditory, you could do plenty of things with it.

• Alarm system that warns the shopkeeper and their witnesses about any of their goods turning invisible or leaving the building without the customer paying sufficient amount for them.
• Notify the warden of a prisoner leaving their prison cell (or becoming invisible and inaudible inside of it).
• Informing a homeowner of someone standing at the door. Or windows. Or the entrance to the cellar, depending on how paranoid they are.
• Informing everyone when a spell is cast, and depending on how much money the person is willing to pay what kind of spell has been cast too (narrowing it down to a single school of magic, or even to a specific spell).

For 10 gold pieces of material components, this thing is a steal, and this is just the beginning. Imagine all of the possibilities, the conditions can be as complicated as you want them to be because the spell says so! In order to use this spell, you'll need enough jade dust, but judging by the price there likely isn't a shortage of it.

"Hey, you know how you told me there are these things called invocations that I could learn?"
"Of course I do! What about them?"
"I figured since I've gained a familiar from my pact, I may as well try to... enhance it."
"Oh no, what did you do this time?"
"Well,… let's just say I learned why cats don't have wings."

Arcane Flight, by Steve Prescott

Rule #5: Illegal Magic

Like with all the tools, some of them could be used to harm others. I've decided to compile two lists of spells and spell categories that you should consider making illegal within your world. Bear in mind, I've omitted spells of 6th level and higher for the sake of my own brevity.

• Enchantment spells that manipulate one's actions. While this seems like pointing out the obvious, there are spells that don't force a mind to do anything that it doesn't want to do, such as zone of truth. Sure you can't speak a lie, but you can choose to not speak up too.
• Illusion spells that cause harm. This includes things like phantasmal killer.
• Knock allows you to unlock a locked door without needing a key or a password. Self-explanatory.
• Modify memory** could fit under the first bullet point in this list in theory, but I'll write it out as a separate spell to make sure it's clear. Even if it doesn't directly make you do something, this spell should be seen as immoral.
• Necromancy that raises undead. When used on a corpse, it prevents such corpse from even a possibility of being resurrected. (Sidenote: If it's known either by the person before they die or by those who have to deal with its body that there is no chance for this person to be raised, its body should be probably cremated or disposed of in another way to prevent them from turning them undead anyway.)
• Summoning spells with a chance for the summoned creature to get out of summoner's control.

Here's another list, this time of spells that should be legal only under the supervision of the local government representatives:

• Arcane lock, continual flame, and magic mouth. With great power comes great responsibility. You better not lock someone out of their own house, or traumatize a person with everpresent whispers.
• Control water could be used to cause great harm to the ships.
• Dimension door allows you to teleport anywhere within 400 feet as long as you can describe it. As you can imagine, it could be used for plenty of illegal things, such as accessing places where only special personnel is allowed.
• Divination and spells of similar character can be a pretty big deal.
• Enlarge/reduce could be used to reduce/enlarge supporting pillars of a building, destabilizing it.
• Heat metal is just an immoral spell to use generally on people. It could be fine for smiths, but not seen as good when used in battle.
• Leomund's tiny hut could be used to block critical pathways, entrances to buildings, and other places with a barrier that one can't pass through.
• Mordenkainen's private sanctum could be used harmfully to mask areas from being observed, prevent teleportation to/from critical places, and do other kinds of harm.
• Reincarnate** is a spell that could give a completely new face and identity to someone who's a searched-for criminal.
• Teleportation circle** could be used by spies for illegal passage of large quantities of people, especially if the teleportation circle is made permanent.
• Wall of stone** can be used for creation of new buildings, as well as barring critical pathways.

** This spell is of 5th level, so unless it's public knowledge that it exists, it technically wouldn't be illegal.

---

Does this mean I'm done with 5th edition's issues completely, and ready to start a new campaign? Not really. I still see many problems in it. More importantly, these days I feel too occupied with my job and all sorts of other things to be able to reliably plan and play D&D games. But this is a step in the right direction for me, because now I know how to deal with at least some of its magic.

Thank you for reading, hope this helped you like it helped me, and have a nice day!

Divtech, Faith-Powered Technology

The other day, I've had a casual chat on the discord with Klaustrix and multiple other people about a magic system. He was looking for inspiration regarding divine magical technology, so we worked something out. I thought you might enjoy reading it, so here is my version of that.

This isn't related to Runehack, I could see it maybe growing into a world of its own though. I'll just have to feel inspired enough to develop this further.

The look of the future. LI's ABSTRACT - Cube Tiles, by Laticis Imagery 

Divtech

If you have some surface-level knowledge about quantum theory, you might have heard of superpositions, true randomness, and possibly some stuff to do with light. I don't know what exactly all of that is about, since I'm not a quantum physicist, but I can surely borrow some of it as a source of inspiration.

Constructing the most basic component of divtech is fairly common knowledge. It's a specific scheme of mirrors made out of a special material, that fairly randomly determines whether it reflects light, or lets it pass through it. All of this is enclosed within a cube, half of its neighboring sides is painted black (for the receivers), and the other half white (for the emitters), with the receivers/emitters in the center of each side. These components are called "faith cubes", and they are the most basic component of the divtech. How big are the faith cubes depends on how far the technology has developed - originally each cube could maybe be held in the palm of a hand on its own, but maybe as the divtech develops better and better methods of making smaller faith cubes, they could go below the size of 1 inch. I'm thinking they'd have magnets at their corners so that they could stick to one another, and so that you could only attach a receiver to an emitter instead of receiver/receiver or emitter/emitter.

You see, what people don't know is that the mirrors are not completely random. They work based on faith. Visualize it as each faith cube containing every possible arrangement of logical gates, that could be based on the three inputs output any possible combination of outputs determined by which mirrors do/don't let the light through. They could serve as simple carriers of signals, negating gates, AND gates, OR gates, and anything else, depending on what's needed.

In order to filter the device from outputting random noise, there are "focus filter" cubes between the faith cubes and output components. These function basically as an AND gate, giving output only when they're receiving an input from one direction, and at the same time when someone is focusing on the device.

How is such a device used and constructed? Well, you just stack as many of these cubes together as you can, and then focus on the device, thinking of the problem you wish to resolve, and you'll receive an answer if you believe you will get the answer. These devices are usually constructed by either studying the problem you're trying to solve a lot and meticulously putting together cubes in a perfect arrangement, testing it until you get the right answer, or by putting as many of these cubes together as possible and removing them bit by bit until you're left with only the necessary cubes for getting an answer. Once the proper structure is figured out, maybe one could make a more permanent version of the device by removing the sides of cubes that are attached to each other and welding the overall structure together instead of relying on magnets.

When it comes to the output devices, there could be literally anything. Rotors, light emitters, hard light 3D printers, and quite possibly more. Maybe you could even put the device into a chassis of sorts and have it move around on its own, however, you will it to move.

How the faith cube could in theory look on the inside. Just imagine the red lights to be centered on each side. Panopticum, by Michail Mavronas

Why Cubes?

No, it's not because of Minecraft. Long story short, it's the only way to perfectly "tile" a 3D space using one regular 3D. For more information on that, check out this article.

If you don't want to use cubes, truncated octahedrons can be used to tile the 3D space too, and each of them has 14 faces, which means it could receive 7 possible inputs and emit 7 possible outputs for each shape. I just made it cubes in this article, because it was the original shape, and it's the easiest one to imagine.

Divtech Art

Of course, there's some skill to constructing the divtech, so there's definitely some art based on it. Something that's not practical but a show of art or skill is flat divtech devices, with cubes arranged into a 2D shape. Another possibility is making screens that display anything one believes they should display using layers of faith cubes, filters, and display cubes.

Weaknesses

One important condition for the faith cubes to work is to keep them closed. If you know all of the facts, you can't have faith. Thus, each of the faith cubes is a closed system that can't be reverse-engineered when used in practice. That's what the biggest weakness of the divtech is - you will get your answer, but you must know how to formulate your question, and you can never use it to tell you how it gave you this answer. Kinda like asking your nerdy classmate for the homework solution without asking them for the process.

The next major factor is that these devices are rather inflexible. In our world, we use electricity that can be run through a flexible wire. But these cubes are not flexible. They must stick to each other in order to work. At least, until someone would create something that could bend the light. Maybe optic wires? Either way, the components themselves would be inflexible.

Of course, there's the factor of how much "special material" is there for the creation of faith cubes' mirrors. But material requirements are a part of all technology.

The greatest downside I can think of is the user's own bias. If you use a divtech calculator to, for example, "calculate 2+2 because I think it's 5", the device will find a way to calculate 2+2 in a way that results in 5. In order to use the divtech properly, one must clear their mind of any preconceptions of the possible answers. Afterall, these devices are black boxes, that will give you the answer you want.

---

Anyway, that's about it for today. Just a little neat idea I had that I wanted to share. I could maybe try to develop it further in the future, but for now I think it's cool enough to share.

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

Runehack: World Primer

I'm afraid I'm burned out on tabletop RPGs in general at the moment. I've tried multiple things, but nothing really satisfies me at the moment. That's why I think I'll change the pace a little bit for the near future: I'll try to keep up the Villainous Cookbooks and maybe work on one other RPG idea I had, but at the same time, I've decided I'll write up further details on my setting of Runehack. If it sounds familiar, that's because more than a year ago, I've made the first concept of it public by writing an article about it. It's time for me to start combing through my ideas and making a more unified image of that world.

Font name: Black and White

Premise

I should begin with a starting premise of this setting for a clear vision of what I go for.

Runehack is a fantasy cyberpunk/post-cyberpunk world filled with technology, city-states, and massive monsters. What was originally a classical fantasy world has been one day invaded by the Apex Predators — massive monstrosities with an unknown origin. Due to the mortal threats outside, the civilizations were forced to create walled-off city-states, and to invent solutions for their problems using the power of runes. Centuries later, they came up with intricate rune-powered mechanisms that allow them to communicate, travel, and do many other things. The two richest corporations have bought small companies, big companies, and eventually even the whole city-states. Only a few independent kingdoms remain, and it's only the kingdoms that have a resource that lets them generate enough income to be able to refuse being bought. But a new problem is brewing out of the public eye: great evils are making their way into the world, bestowing people with magic that works mysteriously without runes.

 

Possible and Unknown

Due to the runes powering the world, it's worth listing things they're capable of. I'll add to this list the one made-up ore present in this world.

• Detection: detecting inputs perceivable by humanoid senses* (and detecting the state of other detection runes),
• Illusions: producing illusory sensations perceivable by humanoid senses*, either on an individual basis or everyone and everything equally,
• Telekinesis: moving matter,
• Encryption: concealing information from anyone who hasn't read, heard, or spoken the password,
• and volerite, an ore that's not powered or related in any way to runes, and it's known for its property of falling upwards.

* The humanoid senses are the following: sight, hearing, smell and taste, temperature, touch, and time. Smell and taste, due to how interconnected they are, are treated as one and the same within this system. Time is at the moment known only for the purposes of detection.

What's been made using the above principles:

• Runebooks and runecards, which are basically computers and smartphones respectively, except the interfaces are illusory and no extra hardware is necessary. Runecards have smaller memory and slightly worse components. One doesn't even need to interact with it by opening or holding it, since the illusion of an interface is not restricted in any way to the surface of the device, which is why it usually surrounds the person. They can be controlled to an extent with gestures and voice commands too.
• Volerite vehicles. Friction is a mess that slows things down, so the engineers have figured out a way to make vehicles that are not restricted to moving on the ground. In combination with the telekinesis runes, the vehicle can keep a constant altitude up to a certain carrying capacity, and within those boundaries, it can also move up and down, as well as be driven like a regular vehicle. However, riding too high up without a proper license is considered a crime in most cities.
• Mistweb and wireless communication. Pretty much the internet of the world thanks to the fact that an illusion from one rune could be detected by another, and there's virtually no maximum distance to them. The domain names are stored within the Tower present in each city.
• Runebots. A fully mechanical humanoid that's one of the races present in the world. Some of them barely register as sentient, others are fully self-aware. The exact process in which they have been created as they are is unknown to most.
• Nexus. Pretty much the default virtual reality within the world. 

What's not widely known but possible:

• Electric machinery. The people of this world are aware of the bolts of lightning, and roughly how they work, but they never saw the need to develop the technology based on them.
• Mind-reading. Runes that detect touch can detect electricity, and since the brain sends electrical signals around, someone who develops algorithms for learning how to understand humanoid thoughts could in fact read minds when calibrated.
• Time illusions. The biggest issue with the time illusions is that they share little similarity to the time detection runes and that they only change how you perceive time. Unless you employ the use of telekinetic runes, you would also move slower, think slower, etc. There is a way to speed up your body to apparently not change in relation to the illusion of slower time you're experiencing, but it will put a huge strain on your muscles and mind, likely causing harm.
• Eldritch magic. One example of the power provided by the great evils from beyond this world is shapeshifting. One would suspect it's an illusion, but it's actual reality. Even after the shapeshifter dies, the new form persists, and it holds up to any physical inspections in any regard other than the brain. Any other kinds of magic are for now not fully defined, so I'll keep them to myself.
• Runetech implants. Due to the electricity and mind-reading being largely unknown, any implants at the moment would have to be controlled with voice commands, gestures, or different means, being thus rather impractical. Once the mind-reading technology would get good enough though, the biotechnological revolution could begin.

The races of humanoids present in this world are dwarf, elf, fairy, goblin, human, orc, and previously mentioned inorganic runebot. I'll be honest, at the moment I don't know how many differences will there be between these races when it comes to their biology, with the exception of fairy (minuscule winged humanoid) and runebot for obvious reasons.

So, what do I need to do next? Before I start rewriting my novel, I should figure out some more details of the world itself. At the moment, I don't have a world map. I only have a couple of city-state names, the megacorporations, some smaller factions present in one way or another in the city-states, I've got some inventions and a bigger threat that comes from outside the world. I think it would be best to write out stuff I make up here on my blog as I keep on going, and once I think I've dealt with all of the shortcomings of Runehack, I can rewrite the draft, and possibly start my search for a publisher.

I hope you've enjoyed reading all of this, and that you find Runehack interesting. Thank you, and I wish you a very nice day!

Commoner Magic: Of Saints and Grimms

Last time, I was burned out on the D&D due to its magic and trying to figure out how to resolve my problems with it all. Maybe the solution to the madness is to just... embrace it all. And make the world saturated with magic. And yet to make the magic rarer. So let's try out an experiment and see where this goes!

Note: Don't take any of this as a thing written in stone. This is me speculating on a setting from the ground up, figuring out what would it take to make a sensible high magic world. Of course, your world can and probably is different from any of the following.

Note 2: Whenever I speak "commoner" in this article, I don't necessarily mean the CR 0 creature. It can be any humanoid who is not an adventurer or related to an adventure. A city guard, a local priest, a traveling merchant, etc.

Edit: One last important detail I forgot to mention, a lot of these options come from the Compendium of Forgotten Secrets: Awakening. Thanks once again to Genuine Believer for awesome work that keeps inspiring me!

On the Magical Frequency

It takes a lot of effort to become most of the classes. Adventurers have a drive for this, but commoners, for the most part, don't. Barbarians, monks, fighters, and rogues all require some sort of training that could take up a long time. As for the spellcasters:

• Artificer and Wizard require some level of intelligence and large amounts of time to study and memorize everything necessary to perform your magic (or invent things, in the case of an artificer).
• Bard learn their magical arts by trial and error in guesswork.
• Cleric is someone chosen by a deity.
• Druid and Rangers share a connection with nature itself and are thus bestowed with its magic.
• Paladin requires martial training and eventually an oath they make, whether it's made with a deity in mind or not.
• Sorcerer has a magical ancestry of some kind that can manifest randomly.
• And a Warlock, ... well, they make a deal with some otherworldly patron.

In the end, I think it's fair to say that the easiest class to become is a warlock. All it takes is to give up something for power. You don't have to be born into some powerful family, chosen by a deity, go through rigorous training or study, or do anything else intensive. With that being said, it's fair to assume that a majority of ordinary people who want some magical advantage would seek a way of becoming a warlock.

Yes, even you can be a warlock for a low-low price of your soul!
Serf Token for Magic: the Gathering, by AaronMiller

Culture of Warlockhood

Warlocks are part of public knowledge, possibly even more widespread than being a wizard or a sorcerer. It can be socially acceptable or unacceptable, depending on the culture you're in, and your patron choice.

People of this world split the otherworldly patrons into two groups generally: Saints and Grimms. The difference between them is quite simply seeing which of them is perceived as benevolent, and which is malevolent. Bear in mind, this is not about their actual nature, but perception. This allows for the same patron to be seen as a Saint in one culture and a Grimm in another. The patrons themselves can still be morally ambiguous if the DM wishes so.

I should emphasize that not everyone will become a warlock. Some just don't like the idea of relying on magic in their everyday lives. Of course, that kind of limits them in what they can do and how fast/well they can do it. Besides, soul is a rather low price. To quote one of the Saints:

"Ownership of your soul is not important if you can't be expected to receive a resurrection. And that's an expensive thing to arrange too! You have to get an expensive material, someone powerful enough to resurrect you, possibly your body too. If you'll be willing to give me your soul, I'll make it worth your time."
—Saint of Services 

Following are the saints I came up with so far, along with the professions they look after and some of their abilities. They're usually roughly 2-3 levels of warlock, but don't expect them to be perfect player characters: worldbuilding here takes priority for me over mechanics, so rarely I added an extra invocation, considered some spell to be a warlock spell, or broke the rules in another way. For now I decided to keep the original names for the clarity of the reader, but each of these could be flavored in a positive way. The Experienced section describes the abilities of those who have practiced their profession for very long and shared their experiences with others. Such individuals could usually be found in bigger cities where guilds are. Finally, I don't think listing Grimms is necessary, since those tend to work like regular warlock patrons one might expect.

Saints

Saint of Communication

Patron of: couriers, criers, heralds, messengers

• At-will: blade ward, magic stone; silent image
• Leveled (2 slots): comprehend languages, expeditious retreat, illusory script
• Awakened Mind. You can communicate telepathically with any creature you can see within 30 feet of you. You don't need to share a language with the creature for it to understand your telepathic utterances, but the creature must be able to understand at least one language.
• Devil's Sight. You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet.
• Experienced
• Pact of the Tome: guidance, light, resistance
• Aspect of the Moon. You no longer need to sleep and can't be forced to sleep by any means. To gain the benefits of a long rest, you can spend all 8 hours doing light activity, such as keeping watch.

Saint of Crafts

Patron of: alchemists, architects, artisans (leatherworkers, masons, potters, smiths, tailors, ...), miners, woodcutters

• At-will: mending, prestidigitation; silent image
• Leveled (2 slots): feather fall, unseen servant
• Secrets of the Lost. Whenever you finish a long rest, you gain proficiency in two skills, languages, or tools of your choice. You remain proficient in these until you finish another long rest, at which point you can choose new ones to replace them.
• Additionally, you gain a swimming speed equal to your walking speed.
• Devil's Sight. You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet.
• Experienced
• Pact of the Chain: wandering stranger**
• Awestruck Awakening. Whenever you finish a long rest, your mind overflows with the terrible secrets of your patron. You can speak to one allied creature over the course of 10 minutes, filling its mind with what you’ve learned. That creature can add your proficiency bonus to one skill or tool of your choice that it is not already proficient in until its next long rest. 

Saint of Education

Patron of: calligraphers, cartographers, librarians, printers, scholars, scribes, tutors

• At-will: mage hand, prestidigitation
• Leveled (2 slots): comprehend languages, unseen servant
• Recovered Memories (1/long rest). As an action while standing adjacent to a corpse, you can produce an iridescent acid that consumes the corpse over the course of 1 minute. Once the process has finished, you can reabsorb the acid to access the creature’s memories. You gain information about the creature’s last 48 hours alive and the most important memories from their final year of life.
• Eyes of the Rune Keeper. You can read all writing.
• Experienced
• Pact of the Tome: mending, message, seek phrase*
• Catalogue of Experiences. Whenever you use your Recovered Memories feature to absorb the knowledge of a creature, you can store the experience in your Book of Shadows, and make it come to life upon the pages of the book. You can copy and transfer any memories within your Book to another creature by touching them with the Book as an action.

Saint of Joy

Patron of: artists, jesters, minstrels, performers, street magicians

• At-will: minor illusion, prestidigitation; disguise self, silent image
• Leveled (2 slots): charm person, unseen servant
• Seeker of the Sound. You gain proficiency in the Performance skill and with all musical instruments. You can use a musical instrument as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells, and can play it in place of using a verbal spellcasting component. When you cast a spell that has only a verbal and somatic component, you can choose to cast it as though it only had a verbal component.
• Experienced
• Pact of the Tome: dancing lights, thaumaturgy, one of the following: control flames, gust, mold earth, shape water
• Scroll of Imperial Authority. Whenever you can see a creature charmed by you, you can use your bonus action to cause it to speak any phrase you wish. The creature thinks that it chose to say those words of its own volition, though they may not believe them to be true.

Saint of Lawkeeping

Patron of: Baron; Count; Detective; Duke; Inquisitor; Judge; Knight; Lawyer; Marshal; Priest (Canon); Reeve; Sexton; Sheriff; Taxer; Theologian; Warden

• At-will: blade ward, prestidigitation
• Leveled (2 slots): hex, illusory script, sanctuary
• Bound to the Portrait. You create and magically bind yourself to your Gray Portrait. The Gray Portrait is a Small or Medium object that weighs at least 15 pounds, has AC 15, 10 hit points, resistance to all damage, and uses your statistics for saving throws. It can be repaired at a rate of 1 hit point per minute. You can choose to see through the Portrait’s eyes at any time and are always aware of its current state. If your portrait is destroyed, you tirelessly construct another during your next long rest, and you gain no benefit from that long rest.
• If a spell has the sole effect of restoring you to life, such as revivify, the caster can cast the spell on the portrait as though it were your whole corpse without using material components, causing you to step forth from your portrait. However, if your portrait is destroyed and you are dead, you can’t be revived without the use of the wish spell.
• You can use your action to cure yourself of any effect that is causing you to be poisoned, diseased, cursed, blinded, or deafened, sending the affliction to appear on your portrait. You can’t do this if it is destroyed.
• Experienced
• Pact of the Tome: dancing lights, guidance, message
• Ledger of the Deceased. Whenever a creature that you can see within 120 feet of you dies or you touch a corpse, you can choose to have their name be magically inscribed in your Book of Shadows. That creature’s corpse is always considered to be present and whole within your Book. If your Book of Shadows is destroyed, all the names within are lost.
• Preserved Document. You are instantly aware of any attempt by the other parties to break the terms of any contract or written agreement signed by you. If the contract is broken, you become aware of it.
• Scripture of Natural Law. You can cast zone of truth once without expending a spell slot. This use recovers when you finish a short or long rest. You automatically succeed on saving throws against this spell.

Saint of Prosperity

Patron of: bakers, brewers, butchers, distillers, falconers, farmers, farriers, fishermen, fruit pickers, gamekeepers, gatherers, gardeners, grocers, grooms, houndsmen, millers, physicians, shamans, shepherds, smokers, soothsayers, surgeons

• At-will: light, magic stone, prestidigitation, sacred flame; speak with animals
• Leveled (2 slots): cure wounds, unseen servant
• Healing Light (3d6/long rest). As a bonus action, you can heal one creature you can see within 60 feet of you, spending up to 2 dice from the pool. Roll the dice you spend, add them together, and restore a number of hit points equal to the total.
• Experienced
• Pact of the Tome: control flames, druidcraft, spare the dying
• Leveled: lesser restoration
• Book of Ancient Secrets (ritual only): augury, ceremony, gentle repose, skywrite
• Grimoire of the Endless Rain. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can perform a percussive ritual over the course of 10 minutes to change the weather. When you finish, an unnatural storm with a 1-mile radius rolls in and follows you, gently raining and occasionally flashing with lightning.

Saint of Protection

Patron of: archers, executioners, guards, hunters, mercenaries

• At-will: blade ward, booming blade; mage armor
• Leveled (2 slots): expeditious retreat, hex
• Hexblade's Curse (1/short rest). As a bonus action, choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you. The target is cursed for 1 minute. The curse ends early if the target dies, you die, or you are incapacitated. Until the curse ends, you gain the following benefits:
  • You gain a bonus to damage rolls against the cursed target. The bonus equals your proficiency bonus.
  • Any attack roll you make against the cursed target is a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20 on the d20.
  • If the cursed target dies, you regain 5 hit points.
• Hex Warrior. You gain proficiency with medium armor, shields, and martial weapons. The influence of your patron also allows you to mystically channel your will through a particular weapon. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the two-handed property. When you attack with that weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls. This benefit lasts until you finish a long rest. If you later gain the Pact of the Blade feature, this benefit extends to every pact weapon you conjure with that feature, no matter the weapon's type.
• Experienced
• Pact of the Blade.
• Aspect of the Moon. You no longer need to sleep and can't be forced to sleep by any means. To gain the benefits of a long rest, you can spend all 8 hours doing light activity, such as keeping watch.

Saint of Services

Patron of: bankers, chefs, cooks, innkeepers, merchants, servants

• At-will: prestidigitation; detect magic
• Leveled (2 slots): identify, illusory script, unseen servant
• Weight of Gilt. You have a single coin known as a Gilded Coin. You can summon the coin to your hand or dismiss this coin as a bonus action regardless of its location. Other creatures see this coin as 1 gp or other appropriate currency of equivalent value. You are always aware of who is in possession of your Gilded Coin.
• As an action, you can choose to convert all currency you have in your possession into an equivalent value in any other denomination or currency. For example, you can convert gold coins into an equivalent value of silver or copper pieces, or change them into other currencies you’ve seen before. Additionally, you can choose to conceal currency you possess in a pocket dimension, which you can access using a bonus action. If you die, the currency reappears on your corpse.
• Beguiling Influence. You gain proficiency in the Deception and Persuasion skills.
• Experienced
• Pact of the Chain: sprite

* found in The Compendium of Forgotten Secrets: Awakening

** found in The Compendium of Soulforged Artifacts. If it's not available, feel free to use a CR<=1 humanoid statblock without spellcasting instead

Final Notes

I'm afraid that these all feel same-y, with stuff like prestidigitation and unseen servant repeated too many times, but then again the pool of options useful for ordinary villagers in the warlock class is rather small. If you're a DM who wishes to use these, you can adjust these as you want: add or remove spells or features, change specifics of how these features work, etc. So far I didn't make up any lore or names for the Saints, because I wanted to present this idea and gather feedback on it before investing more time into this. If I receive enough suggestions, requests, or inspiration, I could make a continuation and/or update. Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!