6 Full-Length DnD Campaign Ideas for Your Next Ongoing Adventure

Interested in unique and fun D&D campaign ideas for your next epic set of adventures? I've got you covered with 3 full-length ideas that you can take and run as-is, or use as a starting place to get your creativity rolling.


These D&D campaign ideas are not paragraph-long reads. No. Each of these ideas is nearly 3,000 words in length, providing you enough in-depth material to build an entire D&D campaign. So, I hope you're ready for some reading! I hope that you find something in this article that you can add to your next game.


It's worth noting, however, that since they are ideas for entire D&D campaigns, even at nearly 3,000 words each, they still cover just enough information to help you fill in the gaps. That being said, you'll still have to do some prep work to make these ideas fly. If you do though, you should have at least 20-30 gaming sessions for your group, if not more, from each of these D&D campaign ideas.


If you're still not 100% sure how utilize all of these great campaign ideas for your own game, take a look at my article on How to Start a DnD Campaign, which should fill in any gaps for you.

Uncovering the Ancient Kingstones

  • Discover powerful artifacts made by the gods
  • Unlock other planes of existence and magical lands
  • Face terrible elemental powers


7 Pools of the Necromantic Being

  • This is the "origin story" of necromancy
  • Fight hordes of undead and their lich masters
  • Dive deep underground to stop an ancient evil

Bloodlines of Power

  • The party gains mysterious abilities
  • Ominous "Bloodlines" appear, calling for war
  • End the 1,000-year cycle of arcane power


D&D Creative Campaign Ideas

  • Lords of the Realm
  • A Lineage of Characters
  • Multiple Characters Per Player

Some of these D&D campaign ideas are best used as entire campaigns, while others are best used as pieces in your own

pre-made or custom-build campaigns. Adjust them as needed to your particular story or series of adventures. You can also use these campaigns specifically with D&D, of course, or really with any TTRPG of your choice.


If you love these DnD campaign ideas but want something that's a shorter read and easier to implement into a single session, take a look at 20 Amazing DnD Quest Ideas and DnD Side Quests or the Ultimate Free DnD One Shots Guide. Finally, before getting started, if you don't have one already, I highly recommend that you get yourself a campaign journal to track all the important notes for your ongoing adventures.

D&D campaign ideas

D&D Campaign Ideas: Uncovering the Ancient Kingstones

Thousands of years ago, the gods forged the “Kingstones." These artifacts allow their holder to travel to the various realms of existence by opening otherwise-hidden arcane doorways. The various realms of existence are other “worlds,” often inhabited and forged by primal elemental beings. Within such realms, adventurers may find powerful artifacts created at the beginning of the world, answers to age-old mysteries, and even entire lands that can be conquered or ruled. No one knows exactly how many kingstones exist. 

 

1. Campaign Hook – Kingstone News, or Finding a Kingstone

The uncovering of all kingstones is - clearly - meant to be achieved at the end of the campaign, for high-level characters. However, news of the kingstones and the lore behind them should be presented to the PCs right away by a high-level wizard or someone else of substantial status. In effect, you're providing the characters with a clear goal of what the campaign will be "about," though it's going to take many twists along the way.

 

If you’re really interested in the idea of the kingstones and think your players might be as well, you can, alternatively, start the campaign by allowing them to “find” one in a sort of mundane way that may not suggest the item’s power. For instance, whatever job one of the players usually performs in their daily life (blacksmithing, acting as a guard, etc.), they could simply find the kingstone while “at work,” and it could be half-covered in mud or something. Make the kingstone appear sort of worthless, but still interesting enough to hold onto it.



2. Intro Adventure – The Local Lord

Whether the players heard about the power and glory of the kingstones from a trusted advisor, or “found” one without realizing its value, the first adventure takes off when an armed group of soldiers finds the adventuring group, in search of kingstones. The local lord knows a little about the stones, and has hired warriors to gather them.

 

If the party has heard of the kingstones or wants some extra money, the band of warriors are looking for more hands to help in their search. If, however, the warriors discover that one of the adventurers holds a kingstone, they’ll offer to pay for it. The amount is handsom enough to make the deal worthwhile, but not so much so as to arouse too much suspicion in case the party does not understand the stone’s true worth. If the party refuses, the warriors will attempt to take the stone by force, though they will not kill the party. All they want is the stone, after all, not "too much" trouble.

 

Whatever route you go with this first adventure, you should aim to:

  1. Tip the party off to the value of the kingstones.
  2. Show the party that the campaign is going to be about these vastly powerful artifacts.
  3. Include some degree of danger in acquiring the stones, either by fighting the warriors or joining them to search local caves/ dungeon where they’re rumored to be found.
  4. Show that people in this campaign are willing to betray others in order to acquire kingstones.


3. Rising Action – Developing Player Attachment to Kingstones

As the story develops, the party comes to learn just how many kingstones still remain in existence. The local lord from the intro adventure either comes to be a great ally and quest-giver to the party, rewarding them with each newly-acquired stone. Or, that same lord becomes the group’s first enemy, as the groups compete to acquire the kingstones before the other.

 

As the story develops, do your best to increase the players’ ties to the kingstones. Here are some ideas to help:

  • Do the players want power?
  • How about wealth?
  • Do they want to rule lands in the future?
  • Did one of their ancestors seek the kingstones, only to fail?
  • Are the kingstones also sought by the paladin order, wizard's tower, or assassin's guild the player belongs to?

 

As player ties and interest to the kingstones develops, they’ll begin to see collecting them (and learning to use them) as their main priority for the campaign. The more resistance you throw in the way of acquiring the stones, the more the group will want them.

Quick Tip: Get Yourself a Campaign Journal

As a quick aside, if you're going to run any ongoing DnD campaign, I highly recommend that you purchase a campaign journal for yourself. I can't overstate the important of keeping great notes for yourself, especially when you're running a quest or series of adventures that's going to last more than a few game sessions.


Check out this awesome campaign journal on Amazon. Really, you can use any notebook, or even a word doc. on your computer. But I love to run games out of decorative journals like this because I feel that it adds to the game's mystique. When sitting down at the gaming table, I want my group to really "feel" the adventure that's unfolding, and anything with dragon or fantasy aesthetics really helps with that. If you end up getting this or something like it, enjoy!


4. Quests to Overcome the Challenges of Collecting/ Using the Kingstones

Basically, there are difficulties to acquiring kingstones that generate rising action:

  1. They’re hard to acquire. Lots of people want them, especially as word gets out. Powerful organizations may even already hold them.
  2. They’re hard to find, in general.
  3. No one really knows how to use them.
  4. If these really are ancient artifacts, why is everyone suddenly searching for them now?

 

The players should be able to find answers to these questions by going on quests into ancient dungeons, ruins, by finding magical tomes, or even by seeking answers from deities. Each problem above should take at least one gaming session to overcome, but realistically could stretch into a dozen or so sessions in total.

Playing the D&D campaign ideas Kingstone Setup

5. False Summit – Things Aren’t as they Seem

At some point along the journey of seeking answers to the questions above, the party will find at least one kingstone for themselves, along with answers on how to use the stone. When they apply the answers they’ve found, however, they realize that things aren’t quite as they seem.

 

Kingstones can in fact be used to travel to other realms, and do provide access to immeasurable treasures. The catch is that kingstones have a will of their own. This will inside each stone is an elemental being who inhabits it.


6. True Nature of the Kingstones

When the kingstones were originally forged, they were made by infusing the spirit of a powerful elemental into the crystal stone. The crystals cannot speak or telepathically communicate, but they have “awakened” over time, which explains why they’ve suddenly began appearing. Basically, these stones want to be found.

 

The kingstones are also, in fact, locks that prevent other elemental beings from entering into the mortal realm. The kingstones aren’t doorways. Instead, they prevent dangerous doorways from being opened.


As the kingstones “awaken,” and the elemental spirits within once again become conscious, they want those that hold them to open the locks. That way, these bound elemental spirits can return to the elemental planes from which they were taken when the gods made the stones. Also, their elemental brethren can then enter the mortal realm.

 

When the players “unlock” the kingstone(s) after discovering how to do so (which should involve a magical ritual), they are prevented from entering into whichever realm(s) they desired by a powerful elemental who instead enters into the mortal realm.


If the players use the magical ritual to unlock multiple kingstones at a time, they open one doorway for each. Thus, more success in the early part of the campaign actually creates more problems for the players at this stage in the adventure.

Taking Your Campaign Elsewhere?

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As an experienced dungeon master, I know how many tools and trinkets you probably bring to your game sessions. If you're like me, you probably find that it's often the small details that really make your game come alive and that keep your players coming back. Gift yourself something that will make a huge difference in your ongoing campaigns with this top-end DM bag.


7. The Various Kingstones and What they Unlock

Each kingstone is slightly different.


Lava Core Kingstone: a gleaming red stone, hot to the touch, that appears to have lava flowing within. Unlocking this stone opens the doorway to the elemental plane of fire. Once opened, a fire elemental appears, blocking the doorway. So long as the doorway remains open, increasing numbers of fire elementals pour through, lighting fire to mortal settlements and causing mayhem.

 

Glacial Core Kingstone: a stone that appears and feels to be made of liquid in the sunlight, but that retains its shape. During night time, the stone solidifies into a never-melting chunk of ice. Unlocking this stone opens the doorway to the elemental plane of water. Once opened, a water elemental appears, blocking the doorway. So long as the doorway remains open, increasing numbers of water elementals pour through, flooding the countryside and freezing over mortal settlements.

 

Zanar Core Kingstone: a “stone” that actually appears to be more of an outline than anything, with the center part of it being partially invisible. In the “center” of the stone is a swirling mass of wind. Unlocking this stone opens the doorway to the elemental plane of air. Once opened, an air elemental appears, blocking the doorway. So long as the doorway remains open, increasing numbers of air elementals pour through, causing tornadoes and storms around mortal settlements.

 

Terra Core Kingstone: a “rock” that continually grows moss over it, and pulsates with green, life-like energies. Unlocking this stone opens the doorway to the elemental plane of earth. Once opened, an earth elemental appears, blocking the doorway. So long as the doorway remains open, increasing numbers of earth elementals pour through, causing earthquakes and overgrowth around mortal settlements.

 

Mystic Kingstone: this “stone” cannot be held, as it has no physical structure. Instead, it can only be “held” by a wizard, who controls the swirling mists of blue-ish arcane powers. Unlocking this stone opens the doorway to the elemental plane of magic. Once opened, an arcane elemental appears, blocking the doorway. So long as the doorway remains open, increasing numbers of arcane elementals pour through, attacking mortal settlements, and distorting the way magic is used in the mortal realm.

 

Shadow Kingstone: this “stone” cannot be held, as it has no physical structure. Instead, it can only be “held” by a wizard, who controls what appears to be only a 2-dimensional shadow. Unlocking this stone opens the doorway to the elemental plane of shadow. Once opened, a shadow elemental appears, blocking the doorway. So long as the doorway remains open, increasing numbers of shadow elementals pour through, blocking all light, and causing terror to mortal settlements.


DnD Campaign Ideas collecting the Kingstones

8. More Rising Action – Defending the Mortal Realm and Entering into the Elements

Obviously, at this point, the players are faced with a large dilemma. They not only have to fight for their lives after opening the doorway, but they now face the prospects of leaving doorways open to elementals coming in. They must choose to either close the doorways, focus on stopping incoming elementals, or continue pursuing their original goals of exploring elemental realms. In any case, the stakes have increased.

 

If the players choose to leave doorways open, elementals will devastate the local landscape and all who live there, over time. The elementals won’t venture too far from the portals (yet), but untold damage will ensue.

 

If, or when, the party decides to enter into the elemental planes, they will find that the environment - no matter which plane they go to - is entirely inhospitable. Mortals can only survive in the elemental planes with strong magical help. They do, however, find that the promises that they came to expect about the elemental planes are all true, and that powerful artifacts, vast wealth, answers to age-old mysteries, and more are all to be found.

 

The next series of adventures should focus on closing the elemental doorways, or at least preventing elementals from coming through (if the players care about the mortal realm at all). They should also focus on acquiring elemental artifacts and powers that the players have wanted all campaign. There should, additionally, be long dungeons to go through, as well as powerful enemies to face, who actually wield the objects, have the answers, etc.

Eternity TTRPG Article Shop

9. Climax – Awakening of the Elemental Kings/ Queens

Once they players acquire all that they’ve wanted within the elemental realms (which could take 10 sessions or more) and they’ve stopped elementals from flooding through the doorways, they realize that the kingstones are now “fully awakening.”


In my experience, once the players unlock the kingstones, they often tend to forget about them, in a sense. They may come to think of the kingstones as simply a key to a portal, and nothing else. They may not consider the fact that the kingstone awakening is a continual process, and that opening the doorway to an elemental plane was not the end of their transformation.

 

10. Why They're Called Kingstones

The kingstones are called kingstones because the gods actually put the kings of each elemental realm into stones (see ideas for what these elementals might be). Simple enough, right? Well, once the kingstones fully awaken, the king/ queen within the stone breaks free of their imprisonment within the stone. At this time, any kingstones that the party either hadn’t found or unlocked suddenly open portals to their corresponding elemental realms. At the same time, all kingstones - found or not, unlocked or not - release the elemental king/ queen within the stone, each of which is a vastly powerful elemental being, set on destroying the mortal realm.

 

The kings/ queens rally all elementals of their kind from any doorways not yet fully dealt with, and begin an all-out assault on the mortal realm. After being imprisoned for thousands of years, they want revenge, and they want to claim the mortal realm as part of their own elemental plane.

 

In this stage of the campaign, all hell breaks loose. Instantly, every nation is at war with the elementals. Some may try to side with the elementals in hope of gaining favor. You can decide if the elementals are accepting help, or if it’s all about total annihilation following the kings’/ queens’ long imprisonment.

 

11. Final Confrontations with the Kings/ Queens

At some point, every king/ queen must either be slain, re-imprisoned, bought off somehow, or otherwise stopped. Use your imagination for how to end this all-encompassing conflict, making a unique tie-off point for each individual king/ queen. If your party loves combat, make them kill every single one of the 6 kings/ queens. If, however, you don’t want your campaign to end in 6 large-scale boss battles, come up with a few ways for the players to deal with the kings/ queens without combat for every single one.

 

The best way to wrap up these final confrontations is to allow the players to make use of the magical artifacts, unique powers, and ancient knowledge they acquired within the elemental realms to seal away or help them destroy the kings/ queens. Play up all the effort they put into their grand quests, allow them to utilize their new stuff, and let them really shine in these final conflicts. The confrontations can be immensely difficult, but allow the players an edge for all their hard work up until now.

 

12. Ending the Campaign

Is any end to a campaign really ever the end? Well, at the conclusion to this campaign, the players are left with a devastated world. Even in the best of cases, where the original flow of elementals was stopped from all portals, the kings/ queens have still dealt near-immeasurable damage. Though the player’s characters have become very powerful at this stage, they may consider hanging up their adventuring career to instead begin a new life as lords and ladies of the realm, set on rebuilding peoples’ lives following the terrible wars. There are many options, and it's all up to your group.

D&D campaign ideas 7 Pools of the necromantic being

D&D Campaign Books

Before jumping into the other 2 full-length campaign ideas I have for you, I wanted to share a few of my favorite published D&D campaign books. These books are awesome, and if you haven't played them before, this shot list will help you pick what I think provide some of the best value in terms of gameplay and storytelling for what you spend.


If nothing else, you can use these campaign books as inspiration to mix and match with the other full-length campaign ideas I provide in this post, or you can simply take some inspiration from them into your own campaign designs.

Tomb of Annihilation Campaign Book

You're probably seen this campaign book at your local gaming store, as it's based on one of the most iconic and incredible D&D adventures of all time: the Tomb of Horrors. The Tomb of Horrors was widely viewed as both the most deadly and most difficult D&D dungeon of all time. It took players through the tomb of the evil lich Acecerak, where virtually every room had something that could one-shot a player or two.


If you're wondering, yes, I've run my gaming group through the Tomb of Horrors. Of course - I mean, as a D&D enthusiast, it is an absolute must to experience. Now, the Tomb of Annihilation is available for you, and it's both an updated version for D&D 5e, but also basically an entire campaign. Players start out on their adventure well in advance of the actual tomb, and face off against many dangerous encounters along the way, which still culminates with a terrifying battle against the campaign's famous lich. I highly recommend.


Tyranny of Dragons Campaign Book

You may have read other posts of mine that talk about what a great adventure the "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" can be, and how I use it in my own games for inspiration pretty often. Well, this Tyranny of Dragons campaign book is actually a combined campaign that features both the "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" and "The Rise of Tiamat," altogether. Best of all, this campaign book is roughly the same price as any other published D&D 5e book, just with double the adventure material.


The 5-headed dragon Tiamat is - I would say - almost on the same level of fame as the dreaded lich Acecerak from the Tomb of Horrors. It's an incredibly powerful beast that every D&D group has to have the experience of slaying. If you're a true D&D enthusiast, I definitely recommend this campaign as a way to round out your overall gaming experience.


Storm King's Thunder Campaign Book

The Storm King's Thunder is another one of D&D 5th edition's iconic campaign books. I don't know if you've ever had the pleasure of playing Majesty: the Fantasy Kingdom Sim, but in that old school but delightful computer game - in the first version - one of the last missions had you survive with your kingdom against 7-waves of enemies. They were really strong enemies, and would occasionally show up in your realm from all sides, to terrorize and destroy everything you had created.


Well, the Storm King's Thunder loosely reminds me of that scenario, which I loved so much as a kid. In this adventure, the players are a bit more active at thwarting the awakening giant's plans, but maybe you could still throw in some impromptu giant waves attacking villages, of your own. That's what I'd do, anyway!


D&D Campaign Ideas: 7 Pools of the Necromantic Being

Ok, now back to the D&D campaign ideas I've custom-created for you myself, from the campaign's I've run for my own group in the past.


Long ago, a god was slain. Or at least, the warriors that fought him had thought that they had killed him. He was known to some as the holy god, Vesth, but to those who had killed him, he was called Elmran, the Corrupted. In their eyes, a holy god was only holy to those he favored.

 

Unfortunately, a god is difficult to kill. And many eras after his “death,” a piece of Vesth re-animated within the caverns of Mount Cyrum. In order to save himself, he had to utilize magic in a way that it never had been used before. His holy powers weakened so, it was all he could do to give himself life again. This is the story of how necromantic magic, along with the rebirth of an old god, came to be.


You should note that this RPG campaign is really unlike any other you've probably ever played. The reason is that by the end of this campaign, if you use this idea as-written, the heroes do not achieve victory. Instead, they only serve to bolster the undead forces of the Necromantic Being.

 

1. Campaign Hook – The Destruction of Cyrum

At the start of this campaign, no one has ever heard of an “undead” before. There simply is no such thing as walking skeletons, zombies, vampires, lich, or anything else related. Therefore, when the small, peaceful mountain town of Cyrum is suddenly overrun by undead of all kinds, it comes as a complete shock. The village of Cyrum quickly becomes a battle zone where many perish. The town is also quickly lost.

 

The players are then thrown immediately into a world of undead, based in the typical fantasy setting of DnD. Player characters do not understand why the dead are suddenly coming back to life, what may have caused such a tragedy, or even how there are so many. After all, Cyrum was a small town, with but a small population and graveyard.

 

The village elders call a meeting, and with unanimous vote, agree that all villages nearby must be warned, armed, and gathered in opposition to the looming threat. 

DnD dice

Just an example of the number of d20's you'll need when attacking your party with the undead horde in Cyrum.

2. Intro Adventure – Terror of the Undead

The adventuring group is called to join the resistance against the horde of risen dead. Every living body is needed in the task. The village elders from Cyrum (who survived) are concerned that the destruction of Cyrum is not the end, and that all nearby towns, or perhaps all of the world, is in danger. They fear also that some terrible magical presence has taken hold in the mountain next to Cyrum, and is driving undead from ages past to the surface. So, who knows how powerful such a being could be, or how many forgotten graveyards could be within the mountain?

 

You can task the players in the intro adventure with any or all of the following:

  • Warning nearby towns
  • Aiding escaped Cyrum villagers
  • Helping to build a resistance force
  • Actively striking back into the waves undead now wandering at the edges of Cyrum

 

Throughout the adventure, the following facts should also be stressed to the group:

  • Things look very bleak.
  • Even with all of the nearby villages united there probably isn’t much hope.
  • Dark magic is almost certainly at play.Terror strikes these normal villagers at even the thought of an undead.
  • Many people are either talking about, or actively setting out in search of different lands.


Cyrum is a small town, so the party members should have a reason to be here in the first place. For example, no one really just travels to Cyrum for no reason. It’s a mountain town that’s very hard to reach, very small (perhaps a couple hundred people), and that very few people from the broader world would even know about. So, the impact of recent events to each party member should be related to their character’s goals, backstory, or important people in their life, directly.

 

3. Rising Action – The Resistance

Remember that in this setting, no one knows anything about undead. Since no one’s ever fought undead before, it’s not widely known that typical undead are often very weak, even when compared to the typical fighter that a village could produce.

 

As events develop, however, the local villages band together to retake Cyrum. Obviously, this is not an easy task, despite the relative weakness of individual undead. Though Cyrum is literally built near the peak of the Talon Mountain range, and the main bulk of undead appeared there, many other streams of undead have appeared around other villages. Basically, everyone has their own problems to deal with in addition to their commitment to stem the main tide. There are also far superior numbers on the side of the undead.

 

As the story develops around the retaking of Cyrum, the already-close ties that the player characters have to what is possibly their homeland (or at least the homeland of a dear friend of theirs, etc.) becomes pressed as tragedy ensues:


  • A family member, perhaps even sibling, dies in the assault of Cyrum’s main gates.
  • A close, childhood friend gets cut off from the main force and himself becomes an undead.
  • A beloved mentor grows ill and perishes from lack of proper nutrition and clean water due to a lack of supplies.
  • Nightmares begin haunting one of the players of an ancient evil deep in the mountain.

 

One of the greatest (and most terrifying) anomalies of raiding Cyrum and the risen dead is that some (but not all) of those that perish fighting are raised back to life as undead. Warriors are then forced to again slay their fallen comrades, hoping that their own fates won't be as gruesome.

Undead DnD Campaign ideas

4. The Retaking of Cyrum

In order to retake Cyrum, characters need to accomplish the following tasks, which can each form the foundation for an entire gaming session (or more):


  1. Convince the disparate villages to band together, despite that fact that each is under siege by their own (smaller) force of undead. 
  2. To make the main task of retaking Cyrum more feasible, stem the tide of each smaller wave of undead hitting the other villages. 
  3. Figure out if there are specific ways to kill each type of undead. For example, perhaps zombies can only die from being beheaded, vampires can only die with a stake/ sword through the heart, lich can only be killed with divine magic, and skeletons are resistant to any kind of piercing attack. This can make the near-endless line of battles in this campaign far more interesting, if you'd like.
  4. Create a battle strategy that utilizes terrain, time of day, and more to give an advantage against overwhelming numbers.
  5. Find a way to seal the main entrance – which is a large break in the mountain – against the undead. 
  6. Defeat the lich of Cyrum, who the players discover near the middle of town, and seems to be more or less “leading” the undead horde.

 

5. False Summit – Cyrum is only the Beginning

The heroes retake Cyrum against overwhelming odds, superior numbers, and the powerful undead lich who seemed to be leading the horde. They also managed to seal the breach in the Talon Mountain peak through which the undead were coming out. All is well!

 

Actually, no. All is not well. At least not according the village elders. In general, people are worried that despite the recent victory, perhaps sealing off Talon Mountain was not enough. The general fear is that until more information is gathered and more action taken, there are no guarantees that the same tragedy wouldn’t happen again in the future.

6. The Darkness of Asa

The villagers are concerned about some powerful dark magic stirring up the souls of the dead to again, mindlessly inhabit their bodies. They’re right about that. However, what no one yet realizes is that the remains of Vesth, the long-dead god, have converged into 7 pools deep within the Talon Mountains. The 7 pools are literally 7 underground springs that contain the remains of Vesth, which has become concentrated dark magic. Vesth is only partially conscious, and the dark magic pouring out from the once-holy god is simply his effort to remain alive. He is using necromancy to reanimate himself.

 

The undead pouring out from deep within Mount Cyrum are the remains of the ancient and very large civilization known as Asa, which used to reside within the Talon Mountain range thousands of years ago. Vesth attacked the apostate kingdom of Asa and died there upon its very peak. However, except for the warriors who defeated him, the kingdom was largely destroyed, and the dead left where they lie. Now that Vesth is reawakening, his necromantic powers are raising those fallen warriors and civilians as undead beings.

 

There are many, many more undead yet to be raised, deep within the mountain. Until the 7 pools of the necromantic being are destroyed, the hordes of undead will never cease.

7 Pools Campaign Idea Lich

7. What Lies Within the Talon Mountains?

When Vesth’s necromantic magic touches what were once powerful magic-users from Asa, they reanimate as a lich. The lich are sentient, can organize hordes of undead, and act as lieutenants for the 7 Pools of the Necromantic Being. At this time, the 7 Pools and his lieutenants don’t really “want” anything, except to live again. However, some of the lich are powerful enough to break free from the 7 Pools and pursue their own goals.

 

Cennrietta: an up-and-coming mage of Asa at the time of its destruction at the hands of Vesth. Cennrietta was a child prodigy when it came to spellcasting, and was still only a teenager when death found her. Though she was talented, she was also young, and perished in obscurity. Raised as a lich, she is struggling to find a new purpose. She is entirely free from the control of the 7 Pools of the Necromantic Being. She seeks to find a place of importance among her new kind – the undead of Asa.

 

Gabronc: brother to Sabranth, Gabronc was one of Asa’s most powerful mages. He was a master at Asa’s arcane sanctum, where he taught the next generation of wizards. Gabronc cared for Sabranth, his own family, his students, and the ethical use of magic. He could not understand why Vesth would turn on his beloved lands, and tried all he could to save those that he loved. In undeath, Gabronc uses his magic as a lich to discern the fate of his family, of Sabranth, and to see how he can still benefit humanity.

 

Ilraid: the arch mage of Asa at the time of its destruction. Ilraid was very old at the time of his death, and very powerful. He fought with the warriors who killed Vesth, though was defeated before he saw the end to his nemesis. In undeath, the lich Ilraid seeks to destroy the 7 Pools of the Necromantic Being, though he wishes to first acquire the true power of necromancy for himself. In that way, he may have vengeance upon his greatest enemy, and yet still continue living as a lich.

 

Remnant: a child of the kingdom of Asa, at the time of its destruction. Remnant was the subject of dark magical experiments, and housed immense dark magical powers as a result. He became, in effect, a fallen paladin. It was in part due to these types of dark magical experiments that Asa wizards were conducting that led Vesth to judge the kingdom of Asa in the first place. Remnant does not remember who he is, but only that he at one time had loving parents. Even as a lich, he seeks to find adults who could love him and give him the childhood he never got to experience.

 

Sabranth: sister to Gabronc, Sabranth was one of Asa’s most powerful mages. Sabranth used her powers at the behest of Ilraid to experiment with dark magic. Promised limitless resources, wealth, fame, and more, Sabranth experimented on the child that came to be known as Remnant, infusing terrific power into his little body. Returned to life as a lich, she does not wish to see her brother Gabronc, fears Remant, hates Ilraid, and kills any living creature on-site, out of envy.  

 

8. More Rising Action – Dungeon Delve, Cyrum’s Defense, Liches of the Talon Mountains

If the players take no action at this point, the legions of undead will only come back, but with greater numbers. Clearly, someone has to delve into the depths of the Talon Mountain range, discover what’s going on, and put a stop to the dark magic. The other problem is that the defense of Cyrum and its neighboring towns/ villages must also be given attention, just in case more undead pour through the breach while the party’s inside the mountain.

 

A new entrance must be carved into the mountain’s interior, through which the party can begin their cavernous delve. Meanwhile, the party must figure out how to provide for the villages’ defenses in their absence. This could be a situation where each player creates another character whose job becomes defense on the surface. This situation could also result in a series of adventures before the party even dives into the mountain, where they focus on creating defenses for various towns.

 

The main thing to remember is that at some point, the party is going to have to deal with each of the main liches mentioned above. Not all of those liches need to be defeated in combat (and several may not want to fight at all in the first place), but they do pose a substantial threat to Cyrum. If the party does not confront them within the caverns of the Talon Mountains, then they will eventually find their way to the surface, along with their undead servants.

 

9. Undead Legions

Throughout all of the adventures both on the surface and in the caverns of the Talon Mountains, the party will face legions of undead. They should barely ever get a break from their battles. It should be difficult for the party to gain ground, keep track of their location amidst mazelike tunnels, and difficult to rest or recover resources. In reality, the party will probably be underground for a month, or even months of in-game time. They may occasionally return to Cyrum for supplies, to upgrade their equipment, and to help with the continued fortification of local towns.

 

As the party levels, they’ll have to face off against the most powerful of the lich (mentioned above), along with their undead servants. They’ll have to either slay those liches or find a way to join forces (however that may be). During all of this time, the 7 Pools of the Necromantic Being, the lich, and the undead that surround them all grow in power.

 

With each mile marker attained within the caverns of the Talon Mountains, the party also learns more about the 7 Pools of the Necromantic Being:

  • They learn that he was once known as Vesth, the holy god.
  • He tried to punish the ancient kingdom of Asa.
  • He is now reanimating himself as an undead.
  • All undead come from this same power.
  • Weapons and armor infused with divine powers have extra effect against undead.
  • Resources for such weapons and armor could be outfitted to Cyrum and the surrounding villages to make an ongoing defense highly possible.
  • In order to stop the undead, they have to deal with the 7 Pools.
Dungeon A Day Article

10. Climax – The New Masters of Undeath

Once the players have fought with each of the major liches, or at least circumvented them in some way (which could easily take 3 sessions or more per lich), it’s time for the party to begin facing off against the 7 Pools of the Necromantic Being, directly.

 

You can, of course, take this campaign in any direction you’d like. Your players have likely poured in countless hours to roleplaying their characters, optimizing their builds, and developing an in-depth story. However, remember that the party is probably from Cyrum or nearby villages. That being the case, they are heroes, but they probably don’t have the power to kill the remains of a god. Cyrum is a very small town, after all, and what are the chances that multiple god-level heroes come from a place like that, all in one given time?


If the party has been using divine weapons and armor to cut through swaths of undead, they’ll also be shocked and dismayed when they combat the remains of Vesth, only to find that he is both immune to divine weapons, and that he and slices through divine armor with ease.

 

So, what are the players to do? Well, in this suggestion for the story, the party finds the 7 Pools, believes they have a chance to end Vesth for all time since he’s in a weakened state, and they attack. During the epic battle, they become trapped in the cavern where the 7 Pools reside, via hordes of undead. At that time, the players can’t escape, they fight valiantly to the last man, and eventually die. The reasoning is that even in his weakened state, Vesth is still a god, has a near-limitless health pool, and can’t be killed by the humble, yet heroic party from Cyrum.

 

Upon the heroes’ deaths (a true TPK DnD), they are however resurrected by the 7 Pools, given immense power as liches, and set to lead Vesth’s undead armies against the world. So, did the party really lose? Or did the campaign simply take a different turn from what they'd expected.

 

11. Ending the Campaign – An Invitation to a Necromantic Being Campaign Part 2

The end of this campaign is actually an invitation for a much larger continued campaign, where undead attack not only Cyrum, but the world at-large. Think of it like a "Campaign Part 2."


In this continued world, the village of Cyrum is the best-equipped to deal with the undead in all of the realms, thanks to the efforts of the original party. Cyrum has since forged the strongest divine weapons, the most enduring divine armor, and practice divine magic at the highest level. The small, backcountry village has become a bastion of hope for the world. Warriors, wizards, nobles, and commoners from the world over travel to Cyrum to train so that the powers of necromancy can be put to an end.

 

What of the players? Well, you can take them in one of two different directions:

  1. The players continue this campaign part 2 as the leaders of the undead legions, but in lich form. Their task becomes to destroy all who would harm the Necromantic Being, and defeat endless waves of would-be heroes. This campaign could end up as something like how Malin Keshar's story ends in the final stage of his story in Wesnoth.
  2. Alternatively, the party should create new characters. These new characters could be either the same level as their previous characters, or entirely fresh. The idea is that these are the characters who will ultimately stop the undead hordes. To do so, they'll defeat the original characters and free them from their lich forms. They'll then move on to destroy the 7 Pools of the Necromantic Being, forever. It is up to you, however, if they manage to destroy necromancy for all time, or if the dark magic has already spread too far and into too many wizard’s hands to be contained...
great D&D campaign ideas bloodlines of power

What if there was monstrous blood coursing through the players veins that gave them incredible abilities and unique magical effects?

DnD Campaign Ideas: Bloodlines of Power

If you’ve been playing DnD for some time, chances are high that you and your players have pretty much experienced just about every main race and class that the game has to offer. Part of what makes this campaign unique is that your players get to explore unique races and even classes that they never have before.

 

The “Bloodlines of Power” are the name given to a series of demi-god-like beings. These beings are the ones who created races such as the fey, celestials, beings of the void, giants, elementals, and even dragons. In their quest for dominion, they have infused their powers into mortal races, calling upon them to act as their warriors.

 

1. Campaign Hook – Unexpected Powers

Imagine a world where suddenly, normal people have uncommon “powers.” A village woman gains the strength of a giant. A young boy can fly. The village elder can turn invisible. It doesn’t all happen at once, but quiet murmurs of interesting powers turn into widely-known facts that no can ignore.

 

These powers are not “magic,” per-se, but rather spell-like powers granted to families through their bloodline. If one person can summon dark portals, so too can their parents or children, most likely. However, only 1/20 families seem to have a power of this kind. Still, that’s 5% of the population, which is plenty to cause a stir. 

 

2. Intro Adventure – The Heroes have a "Bloodline"

Naturally, the player’s characters are all part of this 1/20 bloodline phenomenon. Their powers should awaken during normal quests or adventures. You can start the campaign with barely a whisper of what’s really happening. Probably, your players should think the campaign is headed in an entirely different direction as they go off to fight the typical goblin clan, or to protect a caravan from orcs, etc. Once the story seems to be pretty settled, you completely change it by inviting the players a racial power from any race in DnD that they'd like, along with a unique spell, ability, or feat entirely different to their current class.

 

Let your gaming group play around with their new powers. Have them interact with other amazed NPCs who both have similar gifts, and who do not. Take the players to town meetings, invitations to wizard’s guilds, and to requests for an audience from the king, to demonstrate their powers. Play up the bloodline effects.

 

The intro adventure should hit the following key points in order to set up the campaign properly:

  1. Start out very mundane. Not slow or boring, just very unique.
  2. Include whispers of unique powers that some random villagers seems to have.
  3. A party member gains powers, followed shortly by the rest of the party. Each gets to choose a unique racial power and is given some related spell, ability, or feat to complement the new “bloodline.”
  4. The uniqueness of these bloodlines gets played up at social gatherings.
bloodlines in action

2. Rising Action – The Call to a New Life

The campaign takes a sudden leap forward into what things are really “about” when the “Bloodlines of Power” – the demi-gods who granted bloodline powers – suddenly emerge, stating their claim to the realm. They call upon all of their “loyal subjects” – that is, those to whom they each have gifted their bloodline powers – to join their cause.

 

  • The bloodline powers were given as a gift, to show the rewards for following a “Bloodlines of Power.”
  • Anyone who does not heed the call will not lose their bloodline power, though they will face punishment (likely, death) should that faction take control. This is obviously a large concern for anyone thinking of not heeding the call.
  • Each of the “Bloodlines of Power” is a separate faction, and each is vying for dominance, so with rare exceptions, they do not work together.
  • Each faction’s leader – the demi-god who granted their faction’s bloodline power – is calling their faction to gather in a unique location in the realm.

 

Of course, this event is both jarring and strange. Many people will  not heed the call of their patron Bloodline. In other cases, families will split apart as one member leaves to join a “Bloodline of Power,” while the rest of their family stays. At this time, no one really understands what this is all about. However, kingdoms go on high alert as a small number of their subjects leave to join the unknown beings clearly bent on accumulating power.

 

As the story develops, kingdoms of the realm decide if they should declare war. It’s clear that the “Bloodlines of Power” want to take over. Many kingdoms fear, however, that other lands will side with the “Bloodlines,” and that declaring war prematurely could present a disadvantage when the first strike falls.

 

Wizards from all of the lands are also called to answer the question of: what exactly is going on with these “Bloodlines” and what powers can we expect to face if war does occur?

 

3. The Players’ Role

In this campaign, there are very large and powerful forces at work in the world, even while the player characters are low-level. This gives them some options as those forces develop:


  • Split off into whatever factions the “Bloodlines of Power” sorted the characters into, joining those respective forces.
  • Join up with their existing kingdom in defense against the “Bloodlines of Power.”
  • Set off on their own to explore their newfound powers and find their own answers.

 

The players can also choose to ignore what’s happening in the world if they like. They find that over time, regardless of their decisions, their unique powers keep growing.


Alternatively, should the players desire, they can find at least some of the answers they’re seeking by traveling from one faction to another, where they can run into all kinds of emissaries, merchants, and mercenaries who are willing to share what intel they’ve respectively gathered, such as:


  • The Bloodlines of Power are entering into negotiations with the kingdoms of the realm, but seem to only accept total submission as a way of avoiding war.
  • It is possible to kill the Bloodlines of Power, though doing so would not be easy.
  • There are as many Bloodlines of Power as there are races (in your DnD campaign – up to you).
  • The reason the party’s powers are growing with time is that some people are especially adaptive to the Bloodline’s unique effects. These highly-adapted people seem to be gaining places of great status within the Bloodlines.
  • The party’s powers will continue to grow with time (giving them even more unique racial effects, spells, abilities, feats, etc.) that will raise their effective level.
  • The kingdoms of men are about to be immersed in war.
Eternity TTRPG campaign map

4. False Summit – War of the Bloodlines

The false summit of this campaign should last quite a while - maybe 10 session or more, depending on the total length of your campaign. During this time, players can be involved in helping forge political alliances, or break them. War breaks out. Rare individuals begin searching for solutions to this conundrum, amidst the burning landscape.


The Bloodlines of Power are very strong beings, and their warriors are strong, but they have far fewer warriors than the army of each mortal kingdom around them. Nonetheless, large battles break out across the land, changing the way life unfolds for average people.

 

During the wars, large-scale power and magic is utilized by each Bloodline of Power, which drastically changes the world (ideas of how are given, below). It isn’t easy for any side to gain an advantage, really, and the side that eventually does should be based on whatever political maneuvering the players either undertake, or based on your own choices as a dungeon master.

 

5. Example Bloodlines and their Effects

The actual Bloodlines present in your campaign should reflect the powers that your players select from their own racial bloodlines. Here are some broad faction ideas for you to implement in your game:

 

Beings of the Void: Voidling. Being a member of this bloodline gives your player the aberration creature type. They also cast dispel magic as a unique racial power and gain the Void Strike spell as an innate power.

 

The Bloodline of the Void summons portals into the void during battles. These portals allow more void creatures to enter the battle on his side, and tears holes in the fabric of the world, devastating the landscape.

 

Celestials: Angel. Being a member of this bloodline could gives your player a Protective Aura for all allies. They also cast dispel magic as a unique racial power and gain the Sacred Flame spell as an innate power.

 

The Bloodline of Celestials casts radiant light and fire magic during battles. The fire causes immense destruction. The radiant is simply too much for this plane of existence, creating pockets of never-ending light where neither shadows nor nightfall can ever appear. 

 

Fey: Fairy. Being a member of this bloodline gives your player access to the Fey Passage ability. They also cast dispel magic as a unique racial power and gain the Summon Fey spell as an innate power.

 

The Bloodline of Fey uses druidic and witch-like magic during battles. If possible, however, they prefer to rely on trickery and subterfuge rather than taking direct fights. Wherever Fey go, they seek to change the landscape to their bidding. Fey lands become dense with foliage and thorns, and are impossible to navigate without magic.  

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6. More Rising Action – Defending the Mortal Realm and Entering into the Elements

The longer the war goes, the more of the world gets destroyed. Then, the more poverty, famine, sickness, and otherwise terrible living situations abound. Somehow, the Bloodlines of Power must be stopped. Most likely, though - at least at this time - the party is not strong enough to directly confront the demi-gods. However, solutions begin to present themselves:


  • The Bloodlines of Power emerge in this location every 1,000 years, but only last for 10 years before they are again banished from this realm, by an ancient spell.
  • The Bloodlines emerged by means of divine artifacts that call them each forth. These artifacts are the Bloodlines' connection to this world, and can be broken.
  • If an artifact is broken while the Bloodline is present in the world, they can no longer be banished at the end of 10 years. Conversely, if an artifact is broken while the Bloodline is banished, they can never return to the world.
  • The locations of each artifact are extraordinarily difficult to find, as each Bloodline seeks to keep theirs hidden.
  • If one of the Bloodlines of Power manages to gain absolute dominance over the other Bloodlines during their time in the world, then they will not be banished with the others, and will rule for 990 years.
  • A Bloodline “gains dominance” over the other Bloodlines by acquiring the artifact which belongs to that other Bloodline.

 

Destroying artifacts isn't really an option since doing so while the Bloodline is present in the world will prevent them from ever being banished. Thus, finding the artifacts isn't a direct means to victory. However, the players could attempt to gather artifacts on behalf of one Bloodline that they wanted to be victorious. Alternatively, they could gather artifacts and use them as bargaining chips with the Bloodlines for some other form of negotiation. Of course, Bloodlines of Power want to keep their respective artifacts safe, so acquiring them often involves going through elaborate quests to discover where they’re hidden, followed by difficult dungeons to actually gain them.


If nothing else, gaining artifacts could buy the party time to grow in strength so that they could someday kill Bloodlines of Power in direct combat. Such a thing is definitely possible, after all.

 

7. A Possible Route to Peace

Instead of going after artifacts, you could alternatively introduce an elder to the group who acts as a kind of mentor. Through their adventures, the party comes across this rare individual, who has acquired powers from not one, but from all Bloodlines. Furthermore, he can pass on those powers to the entire party.

 

He tells the party that he believes the various Bloodlines of Power could come to peace. The Bloodlines have always been at war, and so are fighting only because they have always fought. They played games at negotiation before the war started, but never attempted to find a real solution. However, he thinks that with your newfound powers, all of you could set out to unify the Bloodlines and end the war for all time.

Bloodline dnd campaign end boss

This picture doesn't do this "end boss" mini justice, but it is incredibly detailed, and gigantic. Perfect for an end-of-campaign battle to make the stakes seem as high as possible.

8. Climax – An End to 1,000 Year Cycles

As with all long campaigns, I like to leave the end sort of ambiguous as to what exactly happens. The point is that in a complex situation, there are often multiple ways things could turn out.

 

  1. The players could collect all of the artifacts and give them to one Bloodline who then dominates the others for the next 1,000-year cycle.
  2. The players could collect the artifacts and use them to negotiate peace with the Bloodlines.
  3. Perhaps some powerful wizard (in the party even?) learns to control the same spell that originally banished the Bloodlines into the crystals. You could then perhaps banish them again.
  4. Unify the Bloodlines through talks of peace.
  5. Decide that killing the Bloodlines, after gaining a lot of levels, is the only way.
  6. Anything else you come up with.

 

9. Finale of the Bloodlines' Power

I find that most gaming groups opt for death of the Bloodlines, no matter what it takes to make that a possibility. If the players gain a mentor who can teach them the ways of all Bloodlines, perhaps they can avoid his message of peace, and instead use the powers to go after the crystals and demi-gods. Whatever you want, really.

 

Whatever your group decides though, you should have some finale to the campaign that involves directly facing off with at least one of the Bloodlines. The most fun one to face would naturally be a Bloodlines that the party originally chose for their own racial powers and innate spells/ abilities. That way, there’s a strong sense of conclusion to the story when that Bloodline is slain, or at least persuaded into giving up their murderous onslaught.

 

There’s also plenty that can be done with the artifacts and banishment. It can be satisfying to banish great beings, with the ominous thought that in another 1,000-years, they’ll simply return. A little bitter-sweet end for the story, perhaps.

 

10. Finishing the Campaign

In this campaign, the world is left as a shadow of its former self. However, it could be interesting if even when the Bloodlines disappear, the people who formerly served them retained their innate powers. Even more so, what if those most loyal servants attempted to:


  • Resummon their masters – if they were banished
  • Avenge the Bloodlines – if they were slain
  • Carry on the great work of dominance – if the Bloodlines were persuaded away from war

 

An entire campaign could follow from what the world turns into with so many people left over with tremendous innate powers. Entire kingdoms could collapse, with others taking their place. The entire balance of power could shift for the good... or for the worse. It’s up to you and your group to decide the realm’s fate, either way.

d&d creative campaign ideas

D&D Creative Campaign Ideas

To accompany the major D&D campaign ideas presented above, I’ve created a short list of D&D creative campaign ideas that are meant to supplement your existing game. This creative list is designed to help you approach your DnD sessions with a bit of new flavor that changes the fundamental way the campaign is played.


Also, f you're looking for other great ways to improve your overall gaming experience, as well, take a look at my Ultimate Dungeon Master Tools Guide. This guide provides all the basics for you to make the most of your game, from top to bottom. I also now have an entire guide on how to write a D&D campaign that you may find very useful, even if you plan to implement one of the campaign ideas I've listed, above.

 

D&D Campaign Ideas: Lords of the Realm

Have you ever considered that instead of roleplaying heroes in your campaign, your group could roleplay lords of the realm? They could send heroes out on missions, build their kingdom, create alliances, wage war, discover ancient magical secrets, and more. I often find that experienced DnD players love to mix up their usual style of RPG campaigns by throwing in something that’s still DnD, yet comes from a completely different angle.

 

D&D Campaign Ideas: A Lineage of Characters

If you like the idea of exploring a kingdom’s story, rather than just seeing things through one character, why not play an ongoing campaign where your group tells the story of an entire family’s lineage? In this 40-year-long D&D campaign, for example, the dungeon master had his players do exactly that.


If a player’s character dies, it’s really no problem – just pick up with someone else in the family tree. Similarly, if you’re looking to build a truly epic campaign, there’s nothing quite like creating a new character who comes from an incredible line of heroes. Talk about instant character connection and a sense of heightened drama.

 

DnD Campaign Ideas: Multiple Characters Per Player

It can also be really fun to start a campaign with the idea that each player is going to have a cast of characters. Not only do players feel like they get to explore many options that DnD presents (since it is a class based RPG), but they also feel that their characters are more expendable – which of course, they are. In this type of campaign, I often find that players make riskier decisions, engage in more daring plots, and generally go out in brilliant flashes of fire.


If you’re looking for a creative D&D campaign idea to mix things up, multiple characters is an easy way to go that often produces fantastic results.


Dungeon a Day

Another great way to add some unique dimensions to your game is to check out my Dungeon a Day series. Dungeon a Day features a unique dungeon room every day (that we're running the event) where you can check out the Eternity TTRPG site to find a new, custom-built dungeon room. At the end of every month, the 30 or so rooms all complete a single dungeon level.


Try throwing in some of the Dungeon a Day dungeon levels or individual dungeon rooms as traps, battles, or encounters to your campaign. They're an especially great resource for whenever you need a quick supplemental encounter.


D&D Specific Spells & Topics

Finally, as an additional resource for you if you're planning to specifically play D&D 5th edition, it helps to have some strategy guides for yourself and your players at your fingertips when it comes to any length of campaign. Check out the following ideas to implement for these iconic D&D spells and topics in your next ongoing adventure:



Play a Campaign Where Everyone Helps Game Master

If you weren't aware, there are many tabletop Games like DnD available to play nowadays. When it comes to your next campaign, you may try playing a TTRPG campaign where every player helps game master. Instead of a single dungeon master, each person helps contribute to the game world, the storyline, the major plot points, villains, unique magic items, and more. You will be amazed at how creative your gaming group can be when it comes to world-building.


A lot of hardcore, long-time DMs are often worries that a GM-less game can ruin the experience. After all, what if one person decides to take the storyline in a terrible direction, or just keeps making lame jokes with all of their plot points, etc?


Well, what I've found is that so long as you have a kind of contract with the group that outlines campaign expectations (genre, overall game vibe, use of humor, what the campaign's going to be "about," etc.) then things often easily stay on track. It's more about the setup and preparations than it is the actual game.


If you want to get an idea of how a GM-less game works, take a look at the Eternity TTRPG shop. My tabletop RPG is made for group game mastering, and provides all the tools you need to tap into your group's incredible creativity, while still keeping the game on track for entire campaigns.

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Jacob Tegtman Eternity TTRPG Creator

Author - Jacob Tegtman

Dear reader, I hope you enjoyed this article. Tabletop gaming has been a passion of mine since I was 6 years old. I've played just about every game from Dungeons and Dragons to video games like Final Fantasy. These games have inspired me, made me laugh, made me cry, and brought me endless hours of enjoyment.


I started Eternity TTRPG - and the indie tabletop game that goes along with it (Eternity Shop) - to share my love of gaming with others. I believe that in our technology-driven age, tabletop games help bring a sense of magic and community back into our world.


If you love the site, please share it with others! I have lots of gaming-related material for you to peruse and use in your own gaming sessions. If you have any questions about the site or want to contribute, just send me a message using the "Contact" page, which you can find in the site's footer.

July 24, 2026
Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RnO-Se1ols Transcription [00:00:00] Hey everyone, welcome back to Eternity TTRPG. It's been a little bit since I've been on with you as, uh... But today we have back Mildred the Monk, who is a friend of the channel. Uh, we had a great conversation last time. I have reviewed Final Fantasy Legends Edition, and you guys really liked it. Those are some of our most viewed videos, and we just wanted to bring you back on today. Thanks for coming on. Excited to talk. Thank you for having me. I enjoy being had So we're gonna be talking a- about a couple different things today, but let's start with, I think, the thing that the most number of people will be interested in who follow your work, at least as of recently as well, but jobs and classes for Final Fantasy Legend Edition. Do you wanna give people, like, a quick intro for those who don't know about this edition? So Legend Edition I started about [00:01:00] five years ago as originally it was an idea that kind of up, that kind of showed up in my head and wouldn't leave. Um, that idea of, um, taking Legend System, which was a three, a D&D 3.5 hack, um, that was part of the Test of Spite Arena Challenge on Giant in the Playground years and years ago, taking its track system that I thought was very interesting and applying the job system to, that's in Final Fantasy to it. That was the, that was a two-part stream that I did, that I did five years ago. had to be two parts because midway through, um, Mother Nature intervened we said, "All right, we'll do part two when, when, when things clear up tomorrow." Oh gosh. And when we-- And after that, the idea wouldn't leave my head, and I started working on it and working on it, [00:02:00] uh, until Legend Edition formed, which very much is its own beast. Um, there's been a few people who've looked at the fact that I use six ability scores and a D20 as a, as a core mechanic and say, "Oh, this is a D&D derivative." Um, it isn't... It's only that if you look at the barest surface, but looking at the surface is also very, um, shallow. I mean, by... I mean, if you're gonna g- if you're gonna go that low, then, um S- than say the Black Hack is a, is no different than playing D&D even though one's a, one's an aim high, one's an aim low. a better example is, and I've brought this up in the past, that'd be like saying Fading Suns is no different from D&D because they both use a D20. Even though Fading Suns is what I, is what I like to call D20 blackjack because it's about aiming high but also [00:03:00] aiming low Like you're trying I think un- you're trying to get under a threshold, but you're trying to get as close to it as you can Gotcha. Sure. I mean, yeah. I mean, people call tissue paper Kleenex, right? Like, that's just kind of, it's like the shorthand so that people know what there's talking about. But when you dive into it, every TTRPG is different, and Mm-hmm. this is the best version of Final Fantasy TTRPGs that's out there. So for players who wanna play Final Fantasy, yeah that was to estab- that was to establish a, that was to address a pet peeve that I had. And I, Oh? this the last time we talked about, but I have covered multiple Final Fantasy TTRPG projects, it Mmhmm games in all but name like Fabula Ult- like Fabula or Aegis, or direct fan projects like The Returners series of projects and the things that spun from them. And a pet [00:04:00] peeve that I had was a lot of them entirely on the SNES era. Now, don't get it wrong, like four, five, and six. A little bit mixed on Mystic Quest, but that's another story. But I know there's whole generations for whom they have more of an attachment to the PS1 era or the PS2 era. There's a whole generation for who- for whom 13 was their entry point. They speak on that as fondly as you or I might speak on six. There's gonna be a whole generation for whom 14, 15, and 16 have been their entry points. And those people, "Just house rule it," didn't sit with me. So I wanted Legend Edition to be a agnostic affair that draws upon the recurring mythos of Final Fantasy. Um, the exact kind of thing that MJ Gallagher has written several books about. [00:05:00] if you don't know, MJ Gallagher has written books on the mythological ties to multiple Final Fantasy entries. done two on seven, one on 16, and he's currently writing one for Tactics. Oh, nice uh, one on Tactics is going into, is going into things that I think even a lot of Tactics fans have overlooked. Things like ear- things like early Gnosticism, the c- the, um, idea of medieval demonology, and a lo- and a lot of, um, a lot of mythos about Be- about the story of Beowulf and story of the Knights Templar Mm-hmm. As well as the church relationships between Eng- between England and France and, of course, the Hundred Years' War. Taktics is a great game. There's a lot packed into it There's a lot packed into it. A lot Yeah especially the more [00:06:00] Shakespearean parts, is directly Matsuno's doing. And I've had a bit of a theory that the Cid in that one, Cidolfus Orlando, meant to be a nod to, um, um, El Cid, AKA El Campeador, the pr- the Prince of Valencia, who is kind of a national hero in Spain Okay. Yeah, I'm not familiar Mm-hmm. Oh. He was somebody who f- who fought on the side both Christians and Muslims during hi- during his time. Oh. Interesting especially in Valencia, kinda has this, kinda has the same heroic figure status that you'd see of a l- a lot of other medieval legends Mm-hmm. Uh, know if that's actually the case, but when I look at the position of that character, um, I can see the parallels[00:07:00] Sure But I wa- but the idea was I wanted something that was just as viable if someone was doing the high f- the, um, fantasy approach like in, um, like in the ori- like in the original or in three, the steam- the steampunk approach like in six, uh, or the futuristic approach like in eight or 13. Sure There's gonna be some house ruling, but minimal house ruling. Um, I've always held the belief that house ruling should be a spice and not the main dish Yeah, I mean, it's nice for people to be able to play the games the way they want to play. I think that's one of the main pillars of TTRPG is giving people the ability to customize, but also enough here that they can take something and work with it as is. [00:08:00] Uh, 'cause I, I don't wanna customize everything. That's why you're buying the game, right? So should we dive in maybe for some examples? Like, you- there's... What, what was it? Is it 56 classes? Jobs, I should say? around com- combining these, combining the ones from the, um, core book and the Ultima expansion, Yeah about jobs and four classes. Four pluses, right? Okay I do have to... Now, a lot of times job and class are interchangeable. In Yeah, I like the way you did this. Go ahead. Yeah things, and this is somewhat of a nod to the, to the delineation of jobs from the old Returners project that started in the mid-'90s. But it comes, it comes down to there are only four classes, and your class is basically a chassis. This is [00:09:00] what determines how well you develop HP and MP, what stats you're gonna be using for physical and magical combat, and how many skills that you have trained. Um, there are four of them. There are four classes as mentioned. Each of them corresponds to one of the original four crystals. Um, corresponds to the earth crystal, which is basically the per- basically everything physical combat is under that. Um, expert is kind of the skill monkey and corresponds with the wind crystal. Mage is self-explanatory and corresponds with the fire crystal, and adept, which is often the in-betweener, corresponds with the water crystal. There are also there are also a dozen or so jobs that are independent. These are jobs that are not associated with any of the four classes because when you're building a character, you're picking three [00:10:00] tracks. one that has fast progression, one that has medium progression, one that has slow progression. Any of the jobs are available. The only rule is at least one of them has to be associated with your class, and each, um, each class has about 11 or so jobs that are associated with it It doesn't have to be the first pick, it just has to be one of them. Oh. For ex- for example, um, the jobs associated with warrior are berserker, dervish, dragoon, fencer, fighter, knight, monk, samurai, sentinel, sniper, and weapon master. Oh. So if you take warrior, you gotta have one of them And this also means that you can't build a character out of nothing but independent jobs Hmm. I see Oh. Independent jobs are, I guess that, I guess I put them in the same category [00:11:00] as, like, prestige classes because they do re- they do re- not in the sense of you need to a bunch of stuff in order to qualify for them like you did with prestige classes back in the day. knows I'm not doing that. I did, I didn't like how some of those prereqs worked. more that th- they, the kit that they have demands a slightly higher system mastery, like a slightly hi- a slightly higher understanding of the way the mechanics work. And within the book, I have a disclaimer say basically saying, "You can pick th- you can pick these as your first character if you want to, but we do not recommend it." I see. Sure Of course, if you do do it and then you complain that it's too hard, don't come crying to me about it because you were given fair warning I love how when we were playing, [00:12:00] um, there are so many options. Mm-hmm. I think the replayability factor is gigantic with this game, 'cause even I hadn't thought about it too until you just mentioned it, but like I could be a warrior and then have the same three classes, but then I could play a different, um... Or, I'm sorry, the same three jobs, right? So I, I could have like a warrior class and then three jobs, change my class to something else with those same three jobs, and my play experience could be s- substantially different just based on my hit points, mana difference, skill difference. Not even to mention... um, weapons Yeah, and, and limit break. So the way that you play even the same three combination of jobs could be completely different. And I mean, not to mention the fact that you already mentioned there are 60, six- like a big, 6- 60 of them, right? So [00:13:00] I mean, it, it's, it was cra- it was... One of the hardest things was choosing what I actually wanted to play. Yeah also love that because it's like if you don't like it, just, you know, next time you create a character just build something different. Like I consider this the better form of analysis paralysis. Like a lot of Yeah, sure is in a game, it's more of wanting to pick a dis- to make a pick that's going to screw you over two or three sessions down, Mm-hmm. uh, or having to pre-plan your idea multiple levels in advance, which just creates false choice, which is also not ideal. Yep it's there are so... Instead, there are so many really good options that you could do that Right. is a good problem to have. That's a great problem to have a lot of the jobs are gonna be very familiar to people who have seen the job system as it's been presented over the years. Mm-hmm.[00:14:00] there are a few that aren't n- there are a few that are from adjacent games like Bravely Default, and there were a few that aren't in any of the video games, but I wanted to fill certain niches or certain motifs that I felt didn't quite fit any of the existing jobs Yeah Oh. And some of them are, the name is there where, where that name has been in past games, but the way it's executed is different to give it its own identity. Oh An example that comes to mind is the Arcanist. Um, I think one of the, one of the, of, one of the cases where Arcanist showed up is in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. But ultimately it was just a black mage with a couple extra tricks, I Sure. Mm-hmm Then I looked [00:15:00] at the, um, Japanese version of the Arcanist job and it, and the translation for that is basically witch. Um, and I thought, "You know what? Let's build one around curses." So we Yeah, that's cool Um, and since you mentioned limit break, I will touch on that. Yeah conscious choice to not have limit break be some sort of uber attack Yeah I know that those w- I know that those kind of things are a staple Final Fantasy ever since VI. Um, VI technically first introduced it, VII obviously popularized it with a limit break gauge instead of it being a hidden mechanic. But at the end of the day, those are just jumped up versions of attacks, and for a tabletop system where you don't have the flashy effect to give a, Yeah signpost, that's not all that interesting[00:16:00] Not really. Yeah Especially since if I were to do it as a gauge, I would have to calculate out how the rate of gain for that gauge for any potential kind of attack. And to reference Batman Forever, it just raises too many questions Yeah, that's a dark hole of game design for sure. Mm-hmm. It's easy to miss something. You're dealing with a lot of interchanging pieces here with all the different jobs you can combine. I see the problem. Yeah So instead, I took inspiration from the game breaker rule that Fantasy Craft has. Fantasy Craft is one of the games I've listed as inspiration. It's one of... It is my favorite take on the 3.5, um, of the D20 system. I put it even above Pathfinder, that's how much I like Fantasy Craft in terms of sheer volume of flexibility. [00:17:00] But At a certain level, in- classes in Fantasy Craft have what is in turn, what is called by a lot of the homebrew community a game breaker, something that the class can already do just at a hi- just at a higher level. Sure Um, you sort of have something like this in video game form with the two-hour ability that was in Final Fantasy XI, which was this, um, improved version of what that job could already do. You just couldn't, you just could only do it once every two hours. Not once every two hours, it would've had a two-hour cool down. And the approach with this is you can activate a limit break when you're below half health. It lasts until the rest of the encounter, and is essentially an improved version of what that class already does. Uh And the catch is you have four limit breaks, three from your jobs and one from your class[00:18:00] Yeah Each of the... And when you activate one of them, you are locked off for the rest of the encounter from the other four, or from the other three, I should say So to use warriors as example, their limit break is action surge, which lets you make a weapon attack without using your action. You just can only do it once per round. Could you do this to do two attacks in the same round? Yes. You could also do other combinations if you want to as well Oh. You're just getting one weapon attack for free for the rest of the encounter, but some of the other stuff from your, from your job combinations you won't be able to do Uh, and I do wanna, I do want to touch on a moment for, um, the design philosophy we had when it came to feats Because one of the things that I tried my absolute best to avoid when introducing feats was feats that were just number go up[00:19:00] Sure The... There are a couple that are like that, but not in the same, but not exactly. A lot of times it was built on feats are little tricks that you can do to fur- to further personalize the character, and said tricks don't necessarily fit into any one existing Mm-hmm. And I f- I always felt that was the intent with feats when it was introduced in third edition D&D, of little tricks to personalize. somewhere along the l- line, the memo got lost or was put into forms I don't think it was designed for. You know, the whole feat chain problem or the feat tax problem as has been discussed plenty of spaces elsewhere. Um Yeah And to, and to that end, I don't really have a extensive amount of [00:20:00] prerequisites when it comes to feats. of times it's ju- it's just on three feat chains. Usually those ones have some kind of Roman numeral attachment I think a lot of what we're kind of talking about too, back to sort of the d- overall design of things, is that for almost every game out there, there's like ... I don't know if it's just the advent of the internet or now that, you know, all of us who grew up playing games are now adults and we kind of get games more, but there ends up being like the meta builds, right? And so you talk about like D&D and Mm-hmm. there's like this huge problem of like you can't play a rogue anymore in D&D 5.5E 'cause it's just terrible compared to the damage output of so many other classes. Oh, And a lot of people- on rangers. Yeah. Right. Right. And then a lot of people play as if combat or damage per turn or whatever is like the key factor, and if you aren't pumping out damage, then you aren't having [00:21:00] fun, right? But I, I think it's interesting that you've taken this approach with feats where it's like it's about things that you can do for your character. It's about the, the role play and the character building more than just the optimization. But I also think that just the sheer s- way that you've made this game makes it really hard to create any kind of like meta build. Like, maybe if, you know, a hundred thousand people were playing this game every week, there would start to be some patterns emerge, but it seems to me as if you've gone to really great lengths to give every class its own personality, Mm-hmm. I think that y- people would have a very hard time finding anything that's gonna be like super busted basically. It's more about having the fun playing the character you wanna play instead of optimizing every little thing. Yeah. Now, there's a, there's a couple things I can say on that. One,[00:22:00] Sure I will be flat out honest, whether it be in tabletop games, in video games, in war games, in board games, in card games, any kind of game period, loathe meta Me too. Because Me too I am, and I s- I have done my fair share of t- of tournaments, whether it be in, um, card, whether it be in card games. I w- I, I'm not great at it , but I did dabble in tournament scenes in, um, fighting games growing up. Cool I certainly don't do it as, as much these days, but I... But something I did. the reason I hate meta so much is I'm, I grew, I grew up ar- I grew up around a lot of, a lot of freestyle artistry. You know, whether it be Hmm import, the, um, the whole import tuner craze of the early [00:23:00] 2000s, the go- or listening to, listening to early hip hop in the golden age of sampling, j- or just remix culture with, um, music. Or j- or just the idea of freestyling when it came to building, um, stuff with Lego as a little kid. That's awesome. Yeah that idea of expression of building the style that, that fits y- that fits you, not necessarily is the best numbers. And Yeah what really helped hammer this home for me was when I was spending a bit of time revisiting, um, various shooters. And especially re- especially, um, getting an understanding for what the intent of the perk system in, say, early Call of Duty was Mm-hmm Because if you look at the perk list in say Modern Warfare or Mo- or Modern Warfare [00:24:00] 2 or Black Ops or whatnot, it's not about raw numbers. It is about, it is about picking ones that best fit a certain play style that you're trying to go for. Yeah Uh, like for example, somebody who picks scavenger probably gonna be using a light machine gun, because scavenger lets you get more ammo on ammo pickups so that, so you have more bull- you have more bullet per bullet. And if you're using an LMG, you're gonna be eating through that ammo pretty fast Oh. It's not really, it's not really about the numbers per se. And I've s- a similar thing to an extent with some of the unlocks in games like Team Fortress 2, where not picking them for numbers or percentages, you're picking them for a certain style. Uh, like a common build when I would play Pyro in was [00:25:00] having things like the flare gun and the Axtinguisher. The flare gun is a secondary, lets you set people on fire at range. It's just on an arc so it is a little bit tricky to use. And the Axtinguisher auto- always does critical hits if you're hitting somebody while they're on fire. So you can see how they feed into each other. And there were certain combinations that we saw where we thought this could be a particular annoyance or this could be a particular pest in combat, but it was funny so we kept it. one of the early examples of that that we've brought up and that we've brought up plenty of times over the years is somebody doing Arcanist and Fencer. Because Arcanist is all about incubating a curse within themself and then transferring that curse as a debuff to the next person who hits them. Fencer is all about taunting an enemy to force th- to force them in a duel where both sides get bonuses to hitting each other and penalties to [00:26:00] hitting anybody else There's good synergies for sure Mm-hmm. when it comes to the... There's been no end of arguments about game balance. seen, I've seen it talked Sure f- back and forth. I've seen people talk about balancing issues with this game back and forth. A Yeah me to, a lot of the balance arguments puts me to sleep for the same reason the, um, math breakdowns of classes back when I would follow the brilliant GameZologist forums put me to sleep. Even if I did rip off the whole Godzilla thing as a this is what I don't want. But The, but the, To bo- to dial myself back a bit, um We take an, we take a policy called Brawl Minus when it comes to game balance. The attitude being if everyone's potentially broken on all sides of the fence, no one is. So for a bit of context, Brawl [00:27:00] Minus was a response mod, some say a meme mod, to a mod for Smash Brothers Brawl called Brawl Plus. The intent with Brawl Plus was to nerf a lot of the overpowered elements in Brawl. Um, Meta Knight, I'm looking right at you. know what you did. Brawl Minus took the opposite approach of instead of nerfing the overpowered stuff, just make everybody ridiculously overpowered That sounds like a lot of fun Like, like a fully charged warlock punch from Ganondorf in Bro- in Brawl Minus could be a one-hit, um, knockout. And as ridiculous as that is, still the signposting and still the tells that can be punished if someone knows what they're doing. So as, as overpowered as everything is, there is still an internal logic of if you got hit by something like that, you were ignoring the very obvious tells and that, and [00:28:00] you're getting punished for that. Mm-hmm. you know, in the s- in the same way that I remember when I would, when I would play a lot of Halo 2, and a lot of people hated the glitch, um, BXR. And I had defended it because I, because at the time I had said the timing window for it is very specific, and if you don't get it right, you are going to get punished you just left yourself wide open and you can't hit back Yeah. Things that are strong come with a downside or they're projected so it's defendable against it Mm-hmm. And there is the concept in game design called signposting, where this is where you have those very obvious tells about what you should stay away from or what you should be wary about 'cause something's gonna come. Uh, and when you have the, when you have th- when you have that particular signpost and then you [00:29:00] ignore it, then it becomes your own fault, and you gotta deal with the consequences of that. Uh, think of any video game RPG where you've seen where the, where the game is telling you the enemy's preparing for a large attack, then you don't shore up your defenses and you get wiped Oh, it's the, it's the same principle. And I never want... I, be- I remember being so annoyed when I would see certain game developers take combinations that the community had discovered on their own that were, that added to the fun factor of creatively overcoming obstacles and take that away from them. Uh Yeah, it's kind of a lame approach for sure It's not only a lame approach, but I feel like it sends the wrong message. To me, it sends the message of don't bother getting better at the game because we're just gonna take away your tools. Yeah. Don't be creative yeah, [00:30:00] a big example of this would be Mercy hopping exploit that was found early on in Overwatch, where people figured out that with the right timing using Mercy's movement mechanics, they could clear a lot of ground very quickly. About less than a week after that was discovered, it got patched out Sure. Yeah, I, I, uh, it's a tough thing as a game designer too, because I do also feel you have a vision Mm-hmm. how you want the game to be played, and there are just some things where you didn't imagine it being used in a certain way, and it wasn't intended. And if it does become the situation where it's like, now that we know this exists, Mm-hmm. who does wanna play for the optimal meta build now must do this. Yeah That can take away from the fun as well, but I, I think it depends on, like, your priorities as a game designer. Like, is it is it around the fun? Is it around the [00:31:00] creativity? Is it around your original vision? And y- I often find you have to balance all of those things actually, so th- there have been some times where I've taken away toys from other people as well. Um, but yeah Legend Edition, because it's built around being, being a sandbox, having whatever my specific vision is, is not as important. The only time that I've really modified something so that it ta- so to take away certain tools that I f- I felt were, um, stepping over the line is if, is if I felt it was undermining other things. Um, the, the, um, benchmark that I use for this sort of thing is I don't want a knock spell. Um, I was never a big fan of spells like knock or teleport Hmm or oth- other games. I wasn't a fan of knock because I f- because I [00:32:00] felt it completely undermined the presence of having a rogue in the party. Like, Yeah, sure. why have Right all the time rolling to pick a, to pick a lock when you, when the wizard can cast knock and the lock is no longer a problem? Have the wizard be a rogue, yeah And I didn't like spells like teleport 'cause that, 'cause I felt that r- that took away from the narrative control of the Sure GM. Um, especially if you can tel- especially if you can just teleport right to where the dungeon is instead of having to Sure. thing of fi- of trying to find out where it is. Yeah and in the same vein, I also wanted to avoid things like CODZilla. Uh, CODZilla is something that came out of the tier sys- the tier system of effectiveness that the Brilliant Gamesologist forums, um, devised, where somebody re- the COD is short for cleric or druid, and it was a reflection Okay that somebody who [00:33:00] knows what they're doing with either of those classes is an entire party by themself. Yeah and to that end, when it came to designing the jobs, something that I tried to avoid was the idea of a single job being multi-role. Um, Yeah. I was impressed by that really quick as well. You know, when I was reading through the first time, and I mean, every time I go into it, Mm-hmm. it is very crystal clear what each class does. Mm-hmm. it, it, it's so focused that if it was only one... You could only play one class at a time, it may feel a little narrow, but I actually love that because you're mixing. Mm-hmm. think you, you really lasered in on what each job does and what they're about Yeah. Like for, for example, um, I had, I had gotten a bit of pushback over the fact that with the paladin, unlike s- [00:34:00] unlike plenty of the games, I did not give the paladin access to white magic. Um, part of that was had to answer the question, well, what do, what do you do if you have a paladin and white mage as part of your job trio? now Sure. things that would overlap. You're both... Yeah two, I felt pal- I felt the identity of paladin more centered around covering allies and taking the hits for them rather than white magic. Plus, I've never been a fan of, um, of half casters Interesting. Yeah. 'Cause they end up doing both things poorly in most games. Yes. Yeah. Oh Yeah, they're like half people basically. Yeah, the, the big pr- the big problem with, the big problem with it is doing that s- doing that sort of multi-role is gonna run into conflict when y- when class systems in general are about [00:35:00] specialization. Having a generalist in a b- in a game built around specializations has an inherent contradiction. feel like this is Sure why in D&D, um, the ranger has been cursed since the days of AD&D. Yeah, th- there's no identity there. I mean, I, there's no identity, and I, I think that's probably another big thing, right? Like, they, they don't know what they want ranger to be. You're just like a ranged fighter, but then you're not. But the things that you can do, anybody can do. It's not really that interesting. Yeah, I had... The funny thing is the one edition that I'm supposed to hate but I don't because the check bounced actually solved that issue Um, the fourth edition ranger, I don't have that problem with Oh yeah, I actually like fourth edition. Mm-hmm. It's kind of a bum that nobody else did I, I've, I've been a fan of fourth edition since it started out in 2008, and I have routinely taken the piss out of people [00:36:00] who go with that MMO argument, and I basically tell them, have no idea how MMOs actually work if that's your, um, main ar- if that's your main argument." Um, and Especially s-since, um When it comes to, when it comes to the po- when it comes to the power setup, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that, that so many of us had reference index cards And nowadays you can get whole spell decks for casters Sure But I r- but the Ranger in fourth was one of the premier, one of the premier examples of the striker. real problem that it had was one infamous daily power that got, um, errated out that led to the meme of Kenshiro Orcaslayer, because if you hit, you could keep hitting until you missed. Oh. Um It's like [00:37:00] Thunderfury weapon or whatever it's called in WoW. Mm-hmm. The first- Yeah Yeah, and Orcus was one of the big high-level monsters in the, in Wind theory. Manual. Got it somebody who had the l- had the luck of the dice gods on their side could ju- Yep. keep Just one shot it. Yeah. he runs out. So Yep the And becau- because of that I w- I wanted... Now, with a lot of games, they can have multi-role effects with their classes because you're only picking that one class for the most part. Here, the multi-roleness comes from the combination of your class and jobs, also Yeah the fact that there's plenty of characters throughout Final Fantasy that don't quite fit one particular job exclusively Also because jobs changed between iterations. So, I mean, your solution makes a world of sense Yeah, like the, the knight in the original [00:38:00] Final Yeah. Right ultimately a proto-paladin. Right. Yeah. When you mentioned cover, that was the first thing I thought of Yeah, I th- I think the, when people think of the paladin in the classic sense, the first version they're gonna think of is Cecil in IV. Um, and in that s- in, in that same vein, there were s- there were some casting lists that were easy to design for. The hardest one was Blue Magic because, um, Blue Magic goes literally all over the place in every iteration, and when I That's like the point of it, yeah. Yeah a specific thing was important Right Ah. And I will, I will note that, um, with the ones that I took liberties with, those ones still that rule of I need to answer what exa- what exactly its [00:39:00] big, for lack of a better term, gimmick is. Um, now some got r- some were under other names but got renamed because of things I wanted to avoid. Dynamo was Gunner originally, um, meant to be a bit of a nod to the g- to the Gunner dressphere in X-2. Um, Mm-hmm. that and I said I wanted a John Woo-like, um, job. But of the fact that the job system is divorced from required weapons, which was something I wanted to do from the word go, um, I felt that calling it Gunner or calling the sniper, it was originally Archer, would Hmm Yeah from that So I went with names that were a little bit broader in that sense. and the other reason One of the things I'm obviously the most proud of is the weapon system and the fact that it is divorced from your choice [00:40:00] of job. So you could play a bl- you could have Black Mage as part of your combo and use a long sword, um, and still make it work because in addition to that whole not m- not fitting thing, there's If I were to do a standard weapon list that you see in a lot of fantasy games, there are so many weapons within Final Fantasy that don't fit that Yeah. Yeah, there's so many, yeah. Um, whether it the pinwheel for Noah, yeah yeah, the weird pinwheel thing that Rinoa has, Yeah um the, over- the oversized, um, shurikens that Yuffie has, the fact that hair accessories are the weapon of choice for Red XIII. Um, the Plus the, plus, um, I'd, I would, I'd think of certain unorthodox weapons that I would always pick in [00:41:00] other fantasy games. like I was I think I was m- I think once I was, um, like I was playing a character in an Eberron campaign that involved the desert elves, which are an interesting beast in and of themselves. I said, "You know what? It would fit that, it would fit that my character uses a khopesh instead of a long sword." Um- And isn't anything in the rule set for a khopesh, obviously, so we had to make that up Yeah And I've also mentioned that no matter what, there's gonna be some that has some weapon that ha- that has the same cool factor as when people first saw the Buster Sword back in 1997. Mmhmm instead of telling them, "Just house rule it," which is like pushing them off the deep end and saying, "Swim, damn it." Uh, I w- I wanted to, I wanted to provide a framework where people could make those unorthodox weapons[00:42:00] That's awesome instead, instead of just being Sisyphus having to constantly make new and bigger weapon lists. Uh, and again, for example, I, I know that the... There's the, um, common motif of the monk uses unarmed weapons, except when it doesn't. But I remember in the past pitching, "Okay, instead of, instead of using unarm- instead of using just bare hands, um, why, why not use a... why not use something like, say, a rope dart or a, um, sansetsukon?" Uh, a sansetsukon is a three-section staff Hmm. Okay. Yeah And obviously a rope dart is, well, exactly what you think it is. And I have, I have plenty of players who are firearm enthusiasts, much like me, and I know that they would come up with some unorthodox suggestions, [00:43:00] and I'm like, "Go, go right ahead with it." Um, I know one It's awesome who, who was playing this giant character, he said, "I wanna lug, I wanna lug around a m- a slightly miniaturized version of a punt gun." I'm like, "I'll let you do it, but, but you're... But, um, you can only fire it every other round because it's a punt gun. Those things weren't meant to be carried." Like, for context, a punt gun was a type of ridiculously oversized shotgun for m- for commercial duck hunting that was supposed to be mounted on a small boat, a punt They eventually Yeah, players won't do that good at their job Players will do that. They'll try to do the things that they shouldn't be doing. And, We-- I was gonna say we, we have a little bit of time left. I don't mean to cut you off on that thought, but, uh, once you finish that thought, I would love to go through some more of the classes and like just the, the most broken or [00:44:00] insane or fun stuff that people have come up with so far Um, I will note that from a design perspective, I like giving players powerful but unsafe equipment. benchmark for that kind of thing is if you remember the Noisy Cricket from Men in Black, that, Oh yeah, that was... I love that. Yeah. Oh. You know, That's awesome a hell of a lot of damage, but every time you fire the thing, you get sent flying Mm-hmm. Yeah. Why not? oh, this As far as cl- as far as some of the individual class, some of the individual classes and jobs, as far as some of the ideas, um, I remember being really proud of the way, um, fighter turned out. So a lot of times the fighter has the selling point of, "Oh, you can equip any weapon." But most people are gonna pick one way they equip their character and stick to it Yeah And I, I built [00:45:00] the fighter based on Firion's appearance in the Dissidia games, he's carrying around 10 different types of weapons That's awesome using all, and using all of them in his combos. So like, all right, the fight- the fighter is the walking arsenal. The weapon master is the opposite end. Um- Ah There was also the f- there's also, um, I think there's, there's some jobs that I think got slept on, that get slept on by people. Um, one of them that especially comes to mind is the Spiritmaster. Um, Spiritmaster is a def- is a defensive favoring support, um, But their Spiritism ability is, for those, those of, those who have used it properly, um, have caused a lot of salt because it doesn't remove debuffs, it moves them. It moves buffs as well from any Nice to another participant[00:46:00] That's awesome So it's a really great way to screw over the, B-beg that just put a bunch of buffs on th- that just put a few buffs on themselves. You know, you can have the B-beg go, "I'm, I'm conflicting, I'm inflicting paralyze on one of your a- on one of your allies," and somebody who's got Spirit Master can say, no you don't, and congratulations, now you're paralyzed." Sure. Yeah, it's really incredible Mm-hmm. Uh, and the l- something I tried to av- I tried to avoid was giving h- was giving whole new s- there's plenty of, there's plenty of, um, charac- there's plenty of characters and builds that have some sort of sub mechanic, like some sort of resource or the like, which Mmhmm reason I avoided doing the whole limit gauge thing because that'd be one more thing to track. Uh, but I wanted [00:47:00] to avo- I wanted to avoid, um, a setup that might pigeonhole a particular build or a particular, um, job. Um, like for, for example, somebody wants to just slightly dip into magic, you have multiple ways to do it. You could do it through a spell casting enhantment- enhancement from a magic weapon. could do it by get- by getting scrolls and be- because of the way consumables work, you are gonna be able to use that spell for the rest of the in- for the rest of the in- of, um, that adventure until you hit downtime again. But you do have access to it. just... And that can pair very well with something like ma- with something like Magic Knight, which has more in common with the Magus class in Pathfinder than a lot Hmm the traditional ma- a lot of the traditional Magic Knight approaches. Uh, and [00:48:00] it wasn't long before, it wasn't long before that came up that the idea of a caster build out of Outlaw Star came to be. Um, there's... I've s- I have seen pe- I've seen people, um- Go com- go completely s- go completely support based using c- using a combination of general and, um, and squire. So that they, Yeah able to do a lot of attacks, but if they're patient, they're let, they're gonna let their, um, party do a lot of attacks, especially with things like blade work. Um really liked the looks of Squire. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it, in fact. Squire was a hard one to write for because I bet it was couldn't use a lot of the t- I couldn't use the techniques as is for Squire in tactics because it's meant to be your starter. Um, and instead I built it around the idea that it is this, this ultimate [00:49:00] pocket pick. And think... I will note that th- that, um, a lot of the design with the classes and jobs starts to click if you look at them like you would look at positions on a team sport Yeah, I agree with that Because any team sport, whether it be hockey, whether it be, whether it be rugby, whether it be football or other football, you don't really have a jack-of-all-trades position You have several multi-role positions and usually a, a secondary role as a backup for when the play breaks down, and it will. But you don't have somebody who's supposed to be good at everything Oh. And that was, that was how, that was that was a design, uh, goal that I, that I had. Um, I think you hit that. and- Yeah, it, it's fun too. I'll just interject really quick because I think a lot of modern game design is [00:50:00] about being able to do everything, and every class starts to feel the exact same. Mm-hmm. Um, I've even, you know, played a lot of different games out there that are classless and messed around with them myself with my own design in the past, and I find that people tend to gravitate towards the same things. They're like, "I wanna be able to fly and have invisibility and invincibility." And I actually like it a lot more when you're like, "Look, this is what I do, and then everything else I suck at," because it gives specific spotlights for everybody in the party to be able to jump in and do their thing. You're not always good, and that's part of, I think, the fun Mm-hmm. Ah. And for, for me, I wa- I always saw the high skill floor when it came to people really being able to explore the [00:51:00] potential customizations with s- with job design, and also Yeah of that, that sameyness in some of the more freeform ones. And Yeah. Yeah. games, pe- the selling point that people give me is, "Oh, you can build just about anything." The problem is a Not really. And Yeah. one th- And, And, meta builds. to mind yeah. to go for it especially with, um, false choice as I call it, is Shadowrun agree with it. Yeah, yeah, the idea of false choice is a big one, and I think people who aren't game designers often overlook that. But there's a lot of things out there, it's like, "Oh, you have 1,000 choices," but really it's like, yeah, but do you... Like, do you really? No. It's usually only a few things that are, like, the best. And oftentimes too, if you take something, it's either actively bad or it's so much worse than something else that you actually can't choose it, so it's, it's not a real choice [00:52:00] And I think of, um, I think of Sha- I think of Shadowrun where it ends up having a class system while trying to pretend it doesn't Sure. Sure, sure. Oh. Yeah. Yeah, so I un- I understand exactly what you're saying. Mm-hmm. And on, on the other Yeah um, you know, some g- some designers try to build these traps for some reason. Um Yeah To tr- to try and encourage system mastery. But the pro- I've always ha- I've always had an issue when games have the, try to have this hard divide between the people just learning the system and the people who've been at it for years, with not an Yeah pathway from one to the other I agree And whenever I've talked about that, s- some have con- have equate- have equated that to wanting ha- wanting the handheld, [00:53:00] and that's not the case. it's more, it's more about establishing where, where the li- where the lines are. Um, Mm-hmm. and I feel like what I've tried to do with Legend Edition is those lines end up being created organically because instead, instead of looking at character creation of, in the sense of, "Oh, we, we need a bl- we need a black mage for the party, so who's g- who's gonna be that?" It's more about I have a character concept in mind, and I'm using the tool set to try and get as close to that concept as I can It's awesome Uh, and there's nothing wrong with the idea of, oh, you're building a c- you're building a character class first and then going around it. That's how early D&D works, in a sense. Sure it's not something I think is compatible with f- with, um, Final Fantasy as s- as the series progressed[00:54:00] Yeah Because there are plenty of characters, even in games that are explicitly class-leaning, like say, IX, where they end up fit- they end up fitting the niche of multiple jobs instead of just one. Uh, at, say, um, Amarant in Final Fantasy IX I was thinking of him as well He's basically a hybrid between monk and ninja. Or in Final Fantasy X, look at the territory of, um, say Tidus on the, um, lic- on, not on the license grid, in the, um, sphere grid. Mmhmm a lot of it leans into time mage and squire-like effects. Uh And you have that, you have that sort of asterisk where in a lot of class-based games you're picking this one thing and that's it. But a lot of Final Fantasy characters, [00:55:00] you can't really fit them into that one thing And that's not even getting into the idea that some people might wanna go off the beaten path Right? For sure So with wrapping up, I have a couple more things to cover. Um, one class, for example, that I really wanna play some point coming up for a very specific reason is the Oracle, and that reason is because I can self and-- self-damage myself to get myself to a limit break faster. Are there other classes that, that use self-damage for a bonus of some kind so that, you know, somebody wants to, like, limit break as often as possible? So Lim- because limit break is a bu- is a buff, um, and the f- and the fact that between, that you do full heal between encounters, um, trying to, trying to race to limit [00:56:00] break all the time isn't as beneficial as it may sound. Um, I just wanted to try it at least one time And any sort of... There are some ef- there are some effects that, aside from Oracle, that let you do that kind of, um, that kind of risk thing. Um, obviously one of the big examples is gonna be Dark Knight, who Okay when they're using Soul Eater, they can add a die of any size, aside from D20, their d- to their damage. However, whatever that additional die rolled, they ta- they take in direct HP reduction Yeah, I love it Oh In the s- in the same... There's a similar thing that works for, um, paladin when it comes to cover. Or not when it Right when it comes to paladin's oath. They can add that Oh, okay to their defenses, but the next t- but the next time they're targeted with an attack and that [00:57:00] attack is a miss, whatever that bonus they got from that die was, they take in, um, reduction Which I felt the theme of sacrifice that's a, that is key to the paladin identity I think so too. I also like that it's a foil, in a sense, for Dark Knight. There's a lot of threads in these classes that are really fun to pull at when you start getting into it. I can tell a lot of heart and passion has gone into making this. Mm-hmm. So I guess the next question with that, this is probably my last question, or it's like a little series of questions. But have you thought... Because Final Fantasy, like when we played, the story was great, and the adventure was super fun, and everything that you made I really loved. Also, though, Final Fantasy is like often thought of as a very combat-heavy series. Have you thought about [00:58:00] doing some kind of like PVP tournament where it's just like build your biggest, baddest team and fight against people online? And, you know, you've, you have, you have like a tournament series that's, you know, like you schedule once a week to you and your party fight somebody else. Or having that kind of thing, but then like for bosses, where it's like you and your friends build a team, you know, once a week you fight against some mega boss. You're not really intended to win, but, you know, it can be like a little bit of a competition thing for the community sort of thing. Just curious if you thought about these kind of things. I have given them some thought, and the idea of, of, um, PVP I, I would not advise because it really is built with the idea of the party has its own particular set of mechanics and the NPCs and their, Got it have their own particular set of mechanics opposite them. It's... I've, I [00:59:00] remember, I remember going through a bunch of, a bunch of games in the mid-2000s that ha- that did the whole PCs and NPCs are built the same way, and I, I don't wanna do that, um, Sure, sure becau- because it... I feel like it would fall back into that same n- into that sameness that we talked about earlier. Mm-hmm. Mmhmm on the other hand, the i- the idea of competitively going up, going up against a certain boss, um, that I'd be a, that'd be a little bit more willing to go with. Um, it would certainly, it would certainly fit alongside some of the um, style video games that we, that we've seen over the last few years, stuff like, um, stuff like Dead by Daylight or the Friday the 13th game, for example. Or even the battle mode, uh, multiplayer entry that was in Doom Eternal. [01:00:00] Uh This i- this idea of asynchronous play. And the approach that I'd probably do is not a, "Oh, this is a, this is a, um, this is a near impossible bo- because I don't wanna revisit the trauma that people have had to deal with with certain hidden bosses in RPGs, Sure. every Tri-Ace game I've ever played. Or the, um... Are you familiar with, are you familiar with the infamy that was Absolute Virtue in Final Fantasy XI? No. No, I'm not familiar on record as one of the mo- as one of the hardest raid bosses of all time. Uh, like, it, it's just a long, long slog. Got it. I mean, that's no fun either. Yeah of course when people figured out how to beat, how to do exploits to beat it, they're like, "All right, we're gonna make him even harder." Got it. I have a special level of [01:01:00] hatred towards, Ozma as a hidden boss, mostly because he cheats. that's not Yep that's not me exaggerating. There's parts in his AI where you can completely jump his, um, ATB gauge depending I see. which is Yeah, I'm not surprised. why I Yeah the same way AI in, um, some RTS campaigns cheat Sure In, mostly in the they have unlimited resources and you don't kind of way Yeah, that's a pretty big cheat Oh. But what I'd prob- what I'd probably end up d- what I'd probably end up doing is some sort of, some sort of raid boss like enc- like encounter where beat, where, um, it's not just be- it's not just about beating the opponent, but also beating the opponent, surviving, and d- doing certain additional challenges Yeah[01:02:00] There's, I like there lot. Um, Yeah obvious- so think, think less of a raid boss in WoW and think more of, um, say a mission in Monster Hunter Yep, I'm tracking Oh. And 'cause I f- 'cause I f- I feel like doing a, doing a PVP thing is something that doesn't... It, it's certainly there in PVP. It has been in FF XI and XIV. But I feel like getting the coliseum part of the identity, you know, the coliseum mini-game that's been in multiple games, uh, the way to go about that would be to would be, would be to do something beyond just PVP, whether it be escalating monster types or, um, something that I just came up on the fly, a wager [01:03:00] system like you see in some ARPGs, where you can intentionally nerf yourself to potentially get better loot Yeah, yeah. It just comes to mind, I, and I think maybe you're totally right about this too, I mean, PVP can kinda be a feel bad thing sometimes as well. Mm-hmm. Whereas if you are even loosely competing against somebody, or maybe not even competing, but just, you know, competing against yourself to try and do X, Y, Z thing, fighting, like, a boss. I personally like competition a little bit, so maybe that could be fun. But, um, yeah, I hope you try something like that, 'cause I would, I would be in for it. I could get, I could get three other guys together, to be and we would, you yeah. see me build a s- build a separate, um, say c- say card game or s- or skirmish war Sure lean in- to lean into that instead Sure, sure Um, 'cause I feel like that would be- that would better f- fit that since [01:04:00] obviously I, even in those ca- even in, um, something like that, I still don't wanna have to deal with meta. I, Sure if you, I want, I would want to, um, I would wanna have it le- less akin to the flag or team deathmatch, and more akin to, like, big team battle in H- in Halo, for example. Sure a way, a way to experiment with the sa- with the sandb- with given sandbox, but not necessarily building it arou- around one, around one particular meta. Yeah. as I get it as- a bit of an aside, there wa- there was a incident at a, um, Yu-Gi-Oh tournament years ago where somebody in with a random ass deck and completely embarrassed everybody, and it was his first tournament. Because Oh, that's awesome. for, they were all planning for this very, very specific meta at that [01:05:00] tournament, and he wasn't playing that, so they ha- so they were basically coming in completely blind and had , and had no I love that no strategy at first to prepare for, and only got one as they adapted ov- over the, over subsequent rounds. Mm-hmm Um, it's ... Imagine, imagine a football coach spending hours watching film, only to realize he's watching film for the wrong team he's playing against Yeah, totally Oh. And I've I think that kind of thing's hilarious. I love that. yeah, I've always appreciated, um, I've always appreciated people pulling dumb stuff in games I agree. Yeah, I think it's part of the creativity and the fun and that, that's what we're talking about, right? Like, that's-- it's a role-playing game, so you can role play a character you want, not to optimize. But, Yeah um, yeah, I th- I guess we should probably wrap up here, Mm-hmm.[01:06:00] but I feel like we'll have more conversations coming up in the future. Is there anything else you want to wrap up with? Um, Or final things you wanna say, I, I should say? I will note that while it is gonna be a slow process, I am in the early stages of writing world books for Legend Edition. Cool. Um, Good to know been working on a, in a, um, not necessarily a default campaign setting, but a potential campaign setting, um, that I've codenamed Project Gaia. Um, which is do- is doing th- is doing a bit of, um, of steam pu- of steampunk with magic. It was my answer to the question of the magic versus technology motif that's often in steampunk and other speculative fiction. The answer I give is and technology are two sides of the same whole and feed into each other So, Well, that's great. mm-hmm Yeah, I'm [01:07:00] looking forward to that Oh yeah And, Well, thank you so much for coming on today then, Mildreth. It's always a pleasure. Oh, yeah I hope everybody, if you haven't tried out Legends Edition yet, you really need to. Um, I'll make sure to include a link. It is a free download for anybody who's been listening in and, you know, doesn't know anything about the project yet. Uh, it's a great game. I think you should take a look, find what class and jobs you wanna try, and, uh, yeah, let us know what you're having the most fun with with your group Mm-hmm. Oh otherwise, we will catch everybody later then Stay frosty Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's funny you said w- um, 45 minutes. We ended up going an hour and seven. Uh
July 19, 2026
Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnvXjloeTQY Transcription [00:00:00] we are back with the Eternity TTRPG YouTube channel, and this time around, I wanted to c- pick up where we left off with our races of Eternity. Um, so we've already covered our Eteri/Empyrean humans, and then we did our Jadori and our Treant. This time, we're gonna cover the Croar and the Ezark. So I'm gonna start off with the Croar. The Kror isn't necessarily a, like, race on its own. It's actually created from other races with the help of a formula, the Kror formula. So a Kror can be a human or an Etarian, Empyrean, Jadori, Treant, so on and so forth, right? Because these beings are drinking this Kror formula, and what this Kror formula [00:01:00] does is it instills these beings with chaos, and from that chaos, they become, like, monstrous beasts. So with Kror, you will see humans with horns or with multiple eyes or in one of our images, we have a Kror that has, um, a mouth on its gut and teeth and extra tongues and all these different things to make it look really monstrous. The way that Core Formula came about is that when a star fell, it created these different chaos wastes, and the chaos waste infected, um, these different streams, and from these streams, these animals, of course, drank and started taking on these monstrous appearances. [00:02:00] So different beings in eternity decided that if these animals could drink this and turn into that, what would happen to humans? It was like a science experiment gone wrong, in a sense. And, you know, for some beings it went right because they wanted to take on these monstrous, um, features and be able to better, you know, combat their foes. Um, some kroor are very proud of this, and some kroor are very ashamed. So you'll see in some images where they're trying to cut off their horns, or they just no longer wanted to be monstrous, but there is no reversal. When you're looking at playing a Korred and trying to match it up to a class, they do best with fighter classes. So that's gonna be your judge, your thief, your assassin. Um, they have a high hit chance and low faith, [00:03:00] right? They are not good at casting spells, so I really don't recommend that they go into those races Real quick to interrupt. Eternity TTRPG is releasing a card game battler which emulates combat from the D&D tabletop role-playing genre. Sparks of Eternity: Emanation is fast-paced, easy to learn, and features six classes from your favorite TTRPGs. Each class deck comes with its own set of unique abilities which everyone plays at the same time, so there's never any downtime at your table. Each turn, everyone's characters levels up, giving players access to even more options. If you're interested in taking a look, we have our pre-sales page live now, packed with details. No payment info needed. Just let us know if you want an email when the product becomes available. Now, back to your video let's switch gears a bit and go into the Yzarc. So the Yzarc [00:04:00] has a bit of what I would say a complicated beginning that reminds me of Greek mythology in a sense, where you have all of these gods kind of vying for power. So to start off, the Aes Ark was created by the World Gods. The World Gods decided that they would create an angelic spirit and a demonic spirit. And then from these spirits, they decided to combine them and the Aes Ark was created, the first Aes Arks. Now, the reason the Aes Arks were created was to show the beginnings of the world, the first races, the humans, how to live, how to survive. And with that, right, with teaching all of these beings how to live, they're gonna start out in ways of squabble and very [00:05:00] run-down places. While these first Aes Arks that were just created by the gods know everything, they're gonna live in wealth and have these amazing things for them because they already know, and they're trying to teach these humans who have to, you know, learn. So it's not very good. So because these humans were upset that they were living in shambles while the Aes Arks were living in riches, a war started. Because the World gods saw that there was conflict between the humans and the Ezarks, the humans of course did what they could to end the Ezarks, but the World gods ultimately decided that it wasn't good for the Ezarks to be around anymore. So they destroyed them. They left all these other races be, and then the second Aezerk ended up coming around. The second Ezarks happened because the eternal gods [00:06:00] decided to go at war with each other, and from this war, the angelic and demonic spirits that we originally talked about were pushed out of where this eternal god was keeping them. And these pushed out spirits, the angelic and demonic spirits, became the second Ezark, and they took on a mortal form and now walk among all the other races of eternity. So these Ezarks, they typically... Now they take on a mortal form. However, You know they're an aezerk because they have bony wings as well as a tail. This depicts their demonic and angelic spirits within them. So now that is the second Ezarks, and that is where they are in the world, is that they're here, they take on the mortal form, and now that they take on the mortal form, they do take on different classes and roles in the Eternity world. Now, with Ezarks [00:07:00] being created from the gods, right, they don't take on the idea of they're best as a fighter or a mixed class or a caster. Because they are close to the gods, They take on a well-rounded form similar to that of the human. In fact, they have higher hit chance than humans because with being created by gods, they should be able to take care of everything, and because of that, they also have lower defenses. So if you're looking for a well-rounded race other than humans, it's gonna be your Ezark, and your Ezark can play just about any class effectively. With that in mind, I think Ezarks are really good for your mixed classes more than anything, which is gonna be your classes that do casting magic along with melee fighter sort of stuff So that's gonna cover our races for this go around. We do have [00:08:00] two more races left that we're gonna cover before we jump into our classes. The upcoming races are gonna be your Stoneborn and your Esper, my personal favorites for myself to play, not just as a getting started. So join us next time we do that, and we'll catch y'all next time. Make sure that you like, comment, subscribe, ask your questions, let us know how we're doing, and we'll see ya. Bye.
By Shawna Tegtman July 15, 2026
Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmN4njpT3BQ Transcription [00:00:00] Hey, adventurers. We're back, and we are with the creator of Eternity and the page that we started, right? Um, this is my husband, Jacob, and I got dragged onto this- Thankfully, yeah. I got dragged onto this adventure about five years ago- Mm ... when we met, and just been with it ever since, but obviously he's been with it a lot longer. So where did Eternity start? Well, first off, thank you for helping with the channel so much. As we've been growing, it's been really nice actually to be able to focus more on the gaming stuff- Mm ... and have you handle a lot of this, so. Mm-hmm. I'm glad I can. Yeah. So you're asking how did it start? Yes. Where did Eternity start? Yes, like way, way back. Where did it start? Um, I've been making games since I was probably six years old as just a way to fill time and spend, you know- Mm-hmm ... fun afternoons with friends growing up. [00:01:00] Uh, so I think the first version of creating some kind of tabletop role play game, I was probably 12. Goodness. Yeah. So 20-ish years. Yeah. Yeah, like 25 years. Yeah. Yeah. So it was really just everybody gets a notebook and some, you know, pens and different colors to highlight or whatever- ... draw on, stuff like that. Nothing was really formalized. Anything I did have was just printed off my parents' computer. And, uh, mostly we used Legos, so. Oh, for, like, the terrain and stuff? Yeah, the terrain and your characters, and if your character got a new sword, you'd actually switch out their, what they were wielding, you know. That's fun. Um, it was really fun, and we'd build castles, and it was less about having a TTRPG system that was mathematically right or that made sense from a storytelling perspective. It was just playing with friends. And whatever you want your [00:02:00] character to wear, they wear, and then you update your stats based on what you thought was cool to add to your Lego character, so. That's awesome. It was really fun. Yeah. Yeah. So 25 years, 30 years of making games, right? And now we're at the point of not just Eternity but Sparks of Eternity. So where did the idea of the Sparks of Eternity come from when you had, like, Eternity going from 25, 30 years ago? So what does the Sparks mean? Yeah. S- Sparks of Eternity was really actually your idea- ... at Gen Con last year. And basically- You went with it. Yeah. Well, it was a- You at least went with it ... it's a great-- You have great ideas. Mm. And basically what happened is we were, as visitors to the convention, walking around the aisles, looking at all the great games- Mm ... seeing everything from board games to card games to tabletop role-playing games. It became apparent to us that it wasn't the [00:03:00] easiest for the tabletop role-play game vendors to show off their products. Mm-hmm. Uh, we'll talk about that a little bit more later, I'm sure. But- Yeah ... basically everybody else can game demo, but it's not very easy to game demo in about 15 minutes for a tabletop RPG. Yeah, because you need, like, a character, right? Usually you wanna show people through, like, a series of encounters or do a quick adventure or something. Yeah. And that can take 45 minutes. You're talking about having a whole event with ticketing and stuff like that to- Yeah ... run at a convention. And so we wanted a way to be able to show off our game very quickly and get people into the world of Eternity, see if they like the races, the classes, the unique ideas that we have, uh, without needing more than five minutes, because, you know, you just don't have a lot of time at conventions like that. And I also think it's important if we're gonna share the game with a lot of people, and the really, I think, great [00:04:00] ideas that we've come up with, um, not just at conventions, but if you're gonna share it with your friends or your family or- Mm ... you know, you wanna be able to show them something in just a couple minutes that either catches their attention or at least they know that it's not for them right away. Mm-hmm. So you went to Gen Con, you had this happen, and then we had that car ride back, right? Yeah. And we were brainstorming how can we make a TTRPG accessible at this con. Mm-hmm. And that's where Emanation was created, right? Mm-hmm. What, what is Emanation? Yeah. So we're still probably figuring out the right way to say this, but Sparks of Eternity: Emanation is one of the games in the Eternity world, and it's supposed to be the introductory game. So it's a card game battler, is the name that we've come up with at this time. And really what it takes is six of the game's classes, [00:05:00] puts them into a card game that each class has its own deck of about 15 cards. Mm-hmm. And those are just all the unique abilities for that class. So what you can do is pick a class, um, pull out some dice, pull out some trackers for hit points, that kind of thing, and you just start playing. So I might attack, you might defend. Mm-hmm. And then after that round, which could literally take that fa- that fast, it might be a couple seconds- Mm-hmm ... our characters level up, and so we take the next card off our deck And then we have one more option to play that turn. So now I have maybe a more specific berserker ability, whereas you have a cryomancer ability. Mm-hmm. And every round your characters level up until you've picked up your whole deck. And, uh, you just kinda battle each other until there's one left standing or the, the rounds run out. 'Cause we want [00:06:00] it- Yeah ... to be a fast game, so it's not necessarily about, you know, defeating your opponents. Maybe at the end you just have more hit points left than they do. Yeah. But the whole game can be played a- anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, depending on how well you know the characters. Mm. Yeah. I think you and I are easily have our five-minute games now- Mm-hmm ... because we've been play testing so much. Yeah, we've tested a lot. But I know when we had both of our mothers try this game, and they're- Right in their 50s and 60s, and they were able to pick up the game, and we went through two or three different rounds of games in a matter of 30, 40 minutes. Mm-hmm. So it wasn't just us as young people and the creators being able to play this game, it was our elderly family- Yeah ... could pick it up. So it was just showing like- Mm-hmm hey, you can do this when you're young, you can do it when you're old. And, and it was a family game. It was nice. Mm-hmm. Um, you touched on it for a second, but what are the six classes in the, in like game that's being printed right [00:07:00] now? Well, I thought I'd touch really quick too on, on your point there as well. That was the whole point is we wanted to be able to play with anybody. Mm-hmm. So my family- Yeah ... my parents have actually never played the tabletop role play game that we're- Same with mine ... generating, and they never would- Yeah ... because it's a tabletop role play game. My mom's not gonna play D&D. Yeah. She's just not. But she was interested and able to play this card game. Mm-hmm. And she picked it up in a, just a couple minutes. And, you know, she didn't make the best choices every round. She didn't optimize, but she had fun, and that was the whole goal. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I think mission accomplished. Um- Yeah. But the six classes, so I, I mentioned one, and then I've actually mentioned an expansion class. So berserker is one of the base game classes. There's assassin Druid, Judge, Oracle, and Summoner What's your favorite out of those six? I was gonna say really quick, Cryomancer, which I mentioned, is an expansion class. And that's the only one we're gonna talk about because we wanna keep those a secret for a little bit. So we have a lot more coming. Yes. So [00:08:00] the, the plan with this is it is a base game, very easy entry point, not a whole lot of options. But if you like the game, there's a lot more that we have planned and, and it's already done, so. Uh, my favorite out of those first six? Mm-hmm. So I would say that a few of those are kind of fantasy staples: Assassin, Berserker, Druid. Mm-hmm. Uh, and then a few you've probably heard of a couple times, Summoner, Oracle. I think one of the ones out of this base game that's most unique to Eternity is the Judge. Mm-hmm. Uh, so I guess for that reason I'll g- I'll say Judge is my favorite at this moment. It changes. Yeah. So out of those six, I, because we played it so much, I would say the Druid is the most fun to play because I can have like damage plus an additional turn during the round. Mm-hmm. Um, so it's very fun to be able to hit someone multiple times and Yeah, the, the game i- is very simple to learn and pick up and play- Mm-hmm ... but they have very distinct [00:09:00] play styles. I think we've- Mm-hmm ... we've hit a good balance point of- There is some complexity if you wanna dive into it, but also at a face value, all the cards are very simple to read and- Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, we have spent countless nights over the last year at this point- Yeah, it's been a full year. Yeah. Yeah. I can't believe it. I know. Um, but we've been play testing all of these cards, right? And making sure the wording matters 'cause like- Mm-hmm ... I mean, you've been in this for 30 years, as we've just pointed out, making all these adjustments, and I come in and play and I've only been in this for five years, had no tabletop role playing, D&D, any of that beforehand. Mm-hmm. So I can help you with the wording for someone that's- Yeah ... you know, not used to it. And that's really helpful actually. Sometimes for me, having played so many of these games, it's easy for me to look at something and say, "This makes sense." Mm-hmm. But then having you read it or our parents read it- Yeah and they go, "I don't understand this," that's actually the best feedback. Mm-hmm. So. Yeah. [00:10:00] So to wrap things up a little bit, this game, Emanation, is... It's on a boat from China right now. Yeah. Right? Yeah. It, it's finished. It's gonna be... It's coming to the US. It's finished. Mm-hmm. It's in production. We have the box showcasing it, the videos anyway, right? And we've been waiting for this since December, I think, is how quickly we got it to production. Um, kind of. The- Roughly. The, the whole production thing is its whole own story. This was our first time having a game professionally produced. Yeah. And so we had a lot to learn about file types- ... and even silly things like sizing and, uh... Yeah, there was a lot of back and forth with the manufacturer. But it is all done and it is on the way. Yeah. So. So with it being on the way, we've created a pre-order page. Now, this page is not accepting payment at this time. It is just collecting- That's right ... your email, right? Mm-hmm. [00:11:00] And once we get it in and we're happy with it, we're gonna send out an email to you saying, "Hey, it's ready now. If you wanna buy it, you can." So this one is just a notification pre-order, right? Mm-hmm. So. Yep, that's right. So, uh, we'll share the link to that page, but it's ettrpg.com/game, and all it does on that whole page is tell you everything you might wanna know. So maybe you're a big TTRPG fan, and you're looking for ways to get more of your friends involved, your family, show off sort of what the genre's about You can play Eternity Emanation and then get somebody to play D&D with you off that. If they like Emanation, they're likely to enjoy D&D, and that was kind of the point. We don't just wanna get people into our world of games. We wanna have an easy access point to tabletop role play games in general. Mm-hmm. So yeah, go take a look at it. Uh, learn more about the game. See if you [00:12:00] like the idea of the classes. Uh, we even have an About section for Shauna and myself- ... uh, John, who does the marketing. All of the art is human-made. It's beautiful. It's am- you know, we're really- It looks incredible ... happy with everything that's come together. Yeah. A lot of really amazing people, a lot of amazing skillsets involved to make this happen. Uh, but yeah, you're right that, uh, if you want to get notified about when we have the product in hand, we are not accepting any payment info, any payment commitments at all until we actually have the products at our house ready to ship to you. So everything- Yeah ... at this point is just, you know, if you wanna know when that's up, then, um, just, yeah, drop us a line there. Absolutely. Um, and just to wrap it up, if you have any further questions about the game, the world of Eternity, or even just our different takes on tabletop role playing and D&D related things, please drop it below, um, because we're always here, always watching. [00:13:00] And we, we enjoy this kind of stuff, so. Yeah. For me, I'm, I'm sort of obsessed with it really. Um- Oh, you are obsessed with it. Yeah. So like- Like I... Go ahead ... the la- the last thing I was gonna say is that we do have the tabletop role play game version coming out as well. Mm-hmm. And that will expand a lot, and you'll actually be able to use the card game Battler Emanation as the combat system within that full tabletop role play game. So you'll have options. You'll be able to do kind of the, uh, the battle grid style that you've seen from D&D and probably have always loved. But, uh, I always think that some combat is, is worth that, and then some combat maybe is a, a l- you just want to fight some- Something quick ... goblins really quick. Yeah. Yeah. And so you just pull out the card game, and that can be a much faster system for your, your group. Mm-hmm. So when we have that available, we will be sharing that as well. But we're excited that this is the, uh, first step for this whole Sparks of Eternity world- ... we've been planning for [00:14:00] a very long time. Yeah. It's just so exciting, and it's amazing seeing it come together. I mean, this is your life's work. Yeah, yeah. And I get to be along for the ride with it, and it's just so fun, you know? Well, at this point, you're doing more than just being along for the ride. I- At this point, you're, you're in it. You're making the videos. You're- That's- Yeah ... it's not my creative mind at work here. But anyway- I don't know about that ... as always- Like, subscribe, comment, let us know what y'all think, and we will catch you next time. Thanks for watching. Bye.
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