Best of DMs Guild – December
Monsters! Fantasy Stock Art Vol 1. by Daniel Walthall
Daniel Walthall’s art is great. It’s got a lovely old school feel to it, and his creatures are full of character. This is a collection of stock art he’s making available for you to use in your own published adventures. Perhaps it isn’t of much use to players, but if you can make use of it you absolutely should. It’s available on DriveThru RPG for $7.95, but if you have a DM’s Guild account you’ve already got a DriveThru account.
Banquet of the Damned by Benoit de Bernardy
An interesting low-level adventure centered around a pie eating contest, in a town being slowly taken over by demons. There are some really gross monsters, and the possibility for some real stomach-churning encounters that will make your players feel very uneasy while thoroughly enjoying themselves. Very well written and beautifully presented, with gorgeous artwork and maps throughout. Well worth the $2.95 being asked for it. It was only released a few days ago and is already a Copper Bestseller, for very good reason.
Hex Witch by Phil Beckwith & Harrison O’Sullivan
I’ve been toying around with a class like this myself, but Phil and Harrison beat me to it – and they’ve done a wonderful job. Hags are, in my opinion, one of the most interesting creatures in the Monster Manual, and the Hex Witch takes that concept and turns it into a full caster class with three really interesting possible progressions. The invocations provided are really fun, too, and do more than simply mimic already-existing spells. It’s $0.99, and well worth checking out. I’m currently stating up a Hex Witch NPC, so keep an eye on Friday Fight Night if you want to see how that plays out.
Shops and Stores by David Dias
It’s easy to overlook things that aren’t ‘fun’ when compiling Best Of lists, but I think it’s just as important to point out products that are genuinely useful. How often have your group decided to go shopping, resulting in you spending a large chunk of the session flicking through books looking for equipment lists and prices? Dias has compiled everything into one place, giving you an easy reference sheet for the kinds of things players can buy. He’s even split it into different kinds of stores – Potion Shops, Blacksmiths, General Stores, and the like. There’s even a section on ‘Shady Dealers’. Print this out, pop it in with the stuff you take to every game, and never be caught flat-footed by a shopping trip again. As an added bonus, it’s Pay What You Want.
The Magic of Books by Mark A. Hart
I love books. Even imaginary ones. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you how much time I’ve spent in Skyrim wandering around, collecting books (especially the same books with different covers), and arranging them on the shelves in my fake Skyrim house. I used to work in a book shop. I love books.
This gives you a ton of tables that you can use to generate books that players might find while adventuring. It goes from the format – is it just some sheets bound together with twine, or is it something much more unusual? – through things like the cover material, size, and condition, to more unusual features; maybe it constantly leaks shadows, or slams shut without warning while being read. Things like this are a great way to get your players interested in loot that isn’t gold or weapons, and are also a fantastic worldbuilding tool. Why are all the books your players find in this one city carved on sheets of metal and padlocked shut?
It’s another Pay What You Want title, and you should definitely give it a look.
Encounters in the Savage Frontier by Jeff C. Stevens et al.
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that I’m including this book on the list, given that I wrote two of the encounters included in it. It really is a great book, though, and I’m already figuring out ways to include a lot of the encounters in my own game. You get 24 great, varied random adventures written by 9 writers, 7 of whom are DM’s Guild Bestsellers (and I’m in there, too). At $2.95, it’s a steal – and I’m sure Jeff is very happy that it’s already a Copper Best Seller!