Mermaids Revisited: A PC Playable Race for D&D’s 5th Edition (Ver. 2.0)

We've been using these rules in our home game for months, but I've only just gotten around to writing them up for you. We see that you've been reading our original Mermaid article, so hopefully you'll like the revision.

Mermaids from ancient myth...

D&D Tab Revision

I edited and updated the blog's D&D Tab this morning.  I wanted to get everything collected in one place and organized at least somewhat logically.  It's all on one page now with the following sections:

• General Storytelling 
• Play Reports
• Wanderhaven: Our Campaign & Story Setting
• The Kingdom of the Western Isles
• Mythology, Religion, and the Known World
• The Wanderhaven Sourcebook
• Wanderhaven Adventures & Adventure Articles
• Travelogue
• Forgotten Realms Book Reviews
• D&D Next and the Playtest Process

I realized as I went through this that there's easily enough unpublished fiction here to put out a new short story collection for the Kindle, so that's my next project.  I may also (finally) collect a PDF of material for the so-called Wanderhaven Source Book, but that's kind of a longer undertaking.  Alas, half of these ideas have been overcome by officially published material.

Anyway, material from the reconfigured tab is reprinted below.  Let me know what you think!

D&D Travelogue: The Lonely Totem Pole

I’ve always felt that one of the biggest challenges of running a Dungeons & Dragons game is managing travel. On the one hand, no one wants to bog their game down in travel exposition that is essentially outside the story’s major narrative. On the other hand, one of the reasons folks enjoy fantasy is for its ability to get us outside the real world. Travel is a big part of that.

Not for nothing did J.R.R. Tolkien subtitle his first book There and Back Again. The travel is the story in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

D&D: Guinea Pigs & Were-Guinea Pigs

My daughter Hannah goes to an agricultural high school in Trumbull, and what with COVID-19 having shut down the planet, we’re currently hosting her class’s guinea pigs.  It turns out that they make good pets.  They’ve become family favorites, which means that it’s now time to figure out how to work them into our home Dungeons & Dragons campaign.

Yours truly with Giblet, the Lord of Guinea Pigs.

If you've never been around guinea pigs, then you might not realize how loud and distracting they can be.  My base theory is that they're mostly useless in combat save for this ability to serve as a distraction.  However, there are any number of ways that they might work in-game beyond simple combat.  Thinking through some of that has been an interesting exercise.

The Disappearance of Jaxon Carrows

Over the past several months, the port town of Breakwater Bay has lost a number of small fishing boats.  The disappearances have put the local fishermen on edge, so when Captain Jaxon Carrows and his boat Salty Dog go missing, the Breakwater Bay town council approaches the party to find out what’s happening.  Over the course of their investigation, the party discovers a sahuagin cult moving into the local waters, opposed by a tribe of lizardfolk.  The lizardfolk make good would-be allies if the party can convince them of the value of an alliance.

The Disappearance of Jaxon Carrows is designed for a party of four to five player-characters of 3rd or 4th level.  It’s meant as a one-shot, running from four to six hours depending on your pace of play.

Note.  This adventure is based loosely around the Ghosts of Saltmarsh adventure Danger at Dunwater.  The changes I’ve made change Dunwater’s overarching plot idea into a slow reveal mystery.

The Disappearance of Jaxon Carrows (PDF via Google Drive)

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I hope it's not too crass to casually remind you fine folks that I don't just write about West Point and the Army Football Team.  I also write fiction.

Start with Sneakatara Boatman & the Priest of Loki.  It's a novel in three parts, each a short story that I wrote for my kids for successive Christmases a few years ago.  For what it's worth, everyone who's read the book has liked it, despite the handful of typos that my humble editing skills left in the manuscript.

The Adventures of Sneax & Elaina Emboo (Part 19)

Our Story So Far:
Sneax and Elaina went to collect on a debt for Draks, but found more than they bargained for.  Luckily for them, they met Nathaniel, a half-fire elf mercenary, and his companion Maleeka, a giantess of unknown origin.  But it turns out that Nathaniel works for Draks as well, and that he's in Wanderhaven to take Sneax to Ellesburg, a tiny timber town lost in the hinterlands of the Kingdom's northern frontier.  Sneax soon finds herself on a ship with her new companions, her friend Elaina far behind.

But that's only the beginnings of Sneax's problems.  Soon she and Nathaniel realize that the so-called "deal" Draks worked out is really more of a rescue mission.  They and their companions soon find themselves heading north, into the trackless wilderness in search of the goblin bands who've been raiding the local logging settlements, cutting off the flow of valuable timber to the heart of the Kingdom far away.  

Sneax is nearly killed in her very first battle, and that's only the beginning.  Trekking north, they find an abandoned logging camp and a pack of worgs stalking their trail...

If you're wondering, this chapter is my favorite part of this particular story.  All things considered, that almost certainly means that everyone one Earth who's not me will find it utterly indecipherable.

The Adventures of Sneax & Elaina Emboo (Part 18)

Our Story So Far:
Sneax and Elaina went to collect on a debt for Draks, but found more than they bargained for.  Luckily for them, they met Nathaniel, a half-fire elf mercenary, and his companion Maleeka, a giantess of unknown origin.  But it turns out that Nathaniel works for Draks as well, and that he's in Wanderhaven to take Sneax to Ellesburg, a tiny timber town lost in the hinterlands of the Kingdom's northern frontier.  Sneax soon finds herself on a ship with her new companions, her friend Elaina far behind.

But that's only the beginnings of Sneax's problems.  Soon she and Nathaniel realize that the so-called "deal" Draks worked out is really more of a rescue mission.  They and their companions soon find themselves heading north, into the trackless wilderness in search of the goblin bands who've been raiding the local logging settlements, cutting off the flow of valuable timber to the heart of the Kingdom far away.  

Sneax is nearly killed in her very first battle, and that's only the beginning.  Trekking north, they find an abandoned logging camp and a pack of worgs stalking their trail...

These next two chapters are my favorites, for whatever that's worth.

The Adventures of Sneax & Elaina Emboo (Part 17)

Our Story So Far:
Sneax and Elaina went to collect on a debt for Draks, but found more than they bargained for.  Luckily for them, they met Nathaniel, a half-fire elf mercenary, and his companion Maleeka, a giantess of unknown origin.  But it turns out that Nathaniel works for Draks as well, and that he's in Wanderhaven to take Sneax to Ellesburg, a tiny timber town lost in the hinterlands of the Kingdom's northern frontier.  Sneax soon finds herself on a ship with her new companions, her friend Elaina far behind.

But that's only the beginnings of Sneax's problems.  Soon she and Nathaniel realize that the so-called "deal" Draks worked out is really more of a rescue mission.  They and their companions soon find themselves heading north, into the wilderness in search of the goblin bands who've been raiding the local logging settlements, cutting off the flow of valuable timber to the heart of the Kingdom far away.  

To say the least, their first battle doesn't go to plan...

The Adventures of Sneax & Elaina Emboo (Part 16)

Our Story So Far:
Sneax and Elaina went to collect on a debt for Draks, but found more than they bargained for.  Luckily for them, they met Nathaniel, a half-fire elf mercenary, and his companion Maleeka, a giantess of unknown origin.  But it turns out that Nathaniel works for Draks as well, and that he's in Wanderhaven to take Sneax to Ellesburg, a tiny timber town lost in the hinterlands of the Kingdom's northern frontier.  Sneax soon finds herself on a ship with her new companions, her friend Elaina far behind.

But that's only the beginnings of Sneax's problems.  Soon she and Nathaniel realize that the so-called "deal" Draks worked out is really more of a rescue mission.  They and their companions soon find themselves heading north, into the wilderness in search of the goblin bands who've been raiding the local logging settlements, cutting off the flow of valuable timber to the heart of the Kingdom far away.  

To say the least, their first battle doesn't go to plan...

The Adventures of Sneax & Elaina Emboo (Part 15)

Our Story So Far:
Sneax and Elaina went to collect on a debt for Draks, but found more than they bargained for.  Luckily for them, they met Nathaniel, a half-fire elf mercenary, and his companion Maleeka, a giantess of unknown origin.  But it turns out that Nathaniel works for Draks as well, and that he's here to take Sneax to Ellesburg, a tiny timber town lost in the hinterlands of the Kingdom's northern frontier.  Sneax soon finds herself on a ship with her new companions, her friend Elaina far behind.

But, of course, that's only the beginnings of Sneax's problems.  Soon she and Nathaniel realize that the deal Draks worked out is really more of a rescue mission.  They and their companions Zelda and Maleeka soon find themselves heading into the wilderness in search of the goblin bands who've been raiding the local logging settlements, cutting off the flow of valuable timber to the heart of the Kingdom far away...

The Adventures of Sneax & Elaina Emboo (Part 14)

Our Story So Far:
Sneax and Elaina went to collect on a debt for Draks, but found more than they bargained for.  Luckily for them, they met Nathaniel, a half-fire elf mercenary, and his companion Maleeka, a giantess of unknown origin.  But it turns out that Nathaniel works for Draks as well, and that he's here to take Sneax to Ellesburg, a tiny timber town lost in the hinterlands of the Kingdom's northern frontier.  Sneax soon finds herself on a ship with her new companions, her friend Elaina far behind.

But, of course, that's only the beginnings of Sneax's problems...

The Adventures of Sneax & Elaina Emboo (Part 13)

Our Story So Far:
Sneax and Elaina went to collect on a debt for Draks, but found more than they bargained for.  Luckily for them, they met Nathaniel, a half-fire elf mercenary, and his companion Maleeka, a giantess of unknown origin.  But it turns out that Nathaniel works for Draks as well, and that he's here to take Sneax to the hinterlands of the Kingdom's northern frontier.  Thus, Sneax finds herself alone on a ship with her friend Elaina far behind...

The Adventures of Sneax & Elaina Emboo (Part 11)

Our Story So Far:
Sneax and Elaina are off to collect on a debt for Draks, and already there's trouble.  Now we meet Nathaniel, a half-fire elf mercenary, and his companion Maleeka, a giantess of unknown origin...

The Adventures of Sneax & Elaina Emboo (Part 10)

This week we open the second act of The Adventures of Sneax & Elaina Emboo and with it we transition into a completely new phase of the story.  This piece, "The Priest of Loki," takes place between six to eight months after the close of "Fire Elf," which is why it appears after "The Caravan" in this collection--to give a sense of the passage of time between the story elements.

I wrote "Fire Elf" when my girls were eight and ten.  It's definitely a kids' story for a kiddo audience.  However, almost a year had passed before I sat down to work on "Priest of Loki," and by that time my girls had grown quite a lot.  They'd seen the movie The Avengers and begun developing wholly different interests in terms of entertainment.  I even taught them to play Dungeons and Dragons, using the playtest version of the new 5th Edition ruleset.  For this reason, the next phase of this story reads quite differently from that first part.  It's aimed at the same audience, but the audience itself was changing even as I started writing the story.

I tried to change with them.  You'll have to judge for yourself how successful I was.

The Adventures of Sneax & Elaina Emboo (Part 9)

We finished the first part of my book last week with the final chapter of "Sneax & Elaina and the Fire Elf".  This week we move on to Part 2, "The Caravan".

I've run this part of the story before, but I keep going back to it and making little changes to it, so I honestly have no idea whether or not I've ever published the "final" version here.  Regardless, this is one of my oldest fantasy stories.  I wrote the first draft while I was still on terminal leave from the Army way back in 2000 and decided to include it in this particular collection back when the book itself was designed to be an anthology of disconnected stories.

That anthology--Tales from Danno's Lair, or whatever I wind up calling it--is still sitting in outline in my notebook.  I still want to do it.  But this book became something different about midway through.  I finished Part 3 of the book, "The Priest of Loki," realized that I'd written two parts of a three-act play, and redesigned the book as a whole to accommodate a new, more coherent single-story structure.

"The Caravan" is the only piece of the original design that remains, and I had to leave it in because I wound up making further use of our heroes, Tand'lion and especially Vedra, later in the story.

The Adventures of Sneax & Elaina Emboo (Part 8)

Our Story So Far:

Sneakatara Boatman was abandoned as a child by parents she never knew.  Life in the orphanage was tough for a tiny girl with few ways to defend herself, so she lit out as soon as she was able.  But the streets of Docks District are no safer than life was at the orphanage, and now the loathsome street criminal Russitan Lassiter has Sneax at his mercy.

Elaina Emboo is a rich girl from a merchant family, but her controlling father already has her entire life mapped out.  Elaina envies Sneax's freedom without truly understanding its costs.  Still, she agree to help when Sneax asks her to head up to the Old Church to meet with Lassiter.  

Sneax and Elaina get the scare of their lives when they realize that Lassiter has an appointment with Draks, the fire elf, that he and Draks are working to import an illegal shipment of DISTILLED TIGER ESSENCE into Wanderhaven.  But when that shipment goes missing?

That's when things start getting crazy...

The Adventures of Sneax & Elaina Emboo (Part 7)

Our Story So Far:

Sneakatara Boatman was abandoned as a child by parents she never knew.  Life in the orphanage was tough for a tiny girl with few ways to defend herself, so she lit out as soon as she was able.  But the streets of Docks District are no safer than life was at the orphanage, and now the loathsome street criminal Russitan Lassiter has Sneax at his mercy.

Elaina Emboo is a rich girl from a merchant family, but her controlling father already has her entire life mapped out.  Elaina envies Sneax's freedom without truly understanding its costs.  Still, she agree to help when Sneax asks her to head up to the Old Church to meet with Lassiter.  

Sneax and Elaina get the scare of their lives when they realize that Lassiter has an appointment with Draks, the fire elf, that he and Draks are working to import an illegal shipment of DISTILLED TIGER ESSENCE into Wanderhaven.  But when that shipment goes missing?

That's when things start getting crazy...

The Adventures of Sneax & Elaina Emboo (Part 6)

Our Story So Far:
Sneakatara Boatman was abandoned as a child by parents she never knew.  Life in the orphanage was tough for a tiny girl with few ways to defend herself, so she lit out as soon as she was able.  But the streets of Docks District are no safer than life was at the orphanage, and now the loathsome street criminal Russitan Lassiter has Sneax at his mercy.

Elaina Emboo is a rich girl from a merchant family, but her controlling father already has her entire life mapped out.  Elaina envies Sneax's freedom without truly understanding its costs.  Still, she agree to help when Sneax asks her to head up to the Old Church to meet with Lassiter.  

Sneax and Elaina get the scare of their lives when they realize that Lassiter has an appointment with Draks, the fire elf.  

Then things start getting crazy...

The Adventures of Sneax & Elaina Emboo (Part 5)

Our Story So Far:
Sneakatara Boatman was abandoned as a child by parents she never knew.  Life in the orphanage was tough for a tiny girl with few ways to defend herself, so she lit out as soon as she was able.  But the streets of Docks District are no safer than life was at the orphanage, and now the loathsome street criminal Russitan Lassiter has Sneax at his mercy.

Elaina Emboo is a rich girl from a merchant family, but her controlling father already has her entire life mapped out.  Elaina envies Sneax's freedom without truly understanding its costs.  Still, she agree to help when Sneax asks her to head up to the Old Church to meet with Lassiter.  

Sneax and Elaina get the scare of their lives when they realize that Lassiter has an appointment with Draks, the fire elf.  

Then things start getting crazy...