All of Encoded Design’s updates and latest information.
For an imaginative young DM growing up in the heyday of AD&D in the 1980s, the hours and days and weeks spent creating fantasy worlds was anything but wasted time. Starting with the expansive creation stories for your home-brewed gaming world (a staple for excited young—and old—DMs), you inevitably had to focus on the adventures—the places where your players would actually interact with your world. And for me, at least, one piece of adventure design...
We continue our discussion about the Reign of the Demon King. In our last lecture, we talked about the fate of the Kingdoms, during this thirty year period. This week, we look at some of the major organizations in Elhal, and how they fared under the rule of the Demon King. The Organizations In all the Demon King, and by extension, the Demons were mostly hostile to any organized group of humans. As a student of humanity,...
Greetings once again, students. Today’s lecture covers the thirty-year span in Elhal’s history where the Demon King ruled over Elhal. There is no darker time for humans than this period of time. All that was built in the thousand years of the Empire would erode under the dark presence of the Demon King. Left unchecked, it is possible that humanity and all of Elhal would have perished. Today, we will cover what happened to each...
Welcome back, students. I hope you enjoyed your time off as much as I did mine. In our last lecture we discussed the state of Elhal in 1024, after the Demons solidified their hold on Arelean. In that lecture we talked about King Therion's plan to rebel against the Demons. Today, we will look more into Therion's plan, and his foresight. The Quiet Before the Storm For six years, from 1024 to 1030, Kotkala prepared for a war...
We are now a few weeks into Quarter 3 of 2015, and I wanted to updated everyone on what Encoded has been doing and how things are going. While we are still building our team and our products, this past Quarter marks our first major project going out the door. The most exciting news we have this Quarter is the addition of a new member to the Encoded Team, Tim Jones. Tim is a graphic artist...
This past weekend the Encoded Designs team finished the manuscript for our Fate version of the Third Eye Games RPG Part-Time Gods. (The Kickstarter for Part-Time Gods of Fate continues apace.) The final push included a fairly intense round of editing and proofreading by the entire staff, with a particular weight of that falling on Encoded’s own Bob “THE EYES” Everson. The proofing round just completed got me thinking about editing in general. One of the...
In today’s lecture we return to the discussion of our history, and we look at the early reign of the Demon King. We will start by looking at how each of the human kingdoms dealt with the Demon Kingdom, and then how one human kingdom was moved to action. This was a trying time where the fate of humanity was uncertain. The Early Reign By 1024, after the crushing defeat at Nendar Moor, the military might of the...
Today, we talk about one of the more controversial factions who were present during the Reign of the Demon King: the Brotherhood of Steel. To some they were a band of vigilantes, exacting a harsh justice in the lands outside of the control of the Demons. To others, they were a noble line of soldiers who refused to lay down their arms and give in to the Demon King. As with all contrasting views, the truth...
Welcome back, students. We have recently completed our review of the castes of Demons. Before that, we discussed Elhal’s ancient history, the rise of the Empire, and its Fall to the Demons. Before we get into the next major era, The Reign and Fall of the Demon King, I want to spend the next few lectures discussing the major groups and institutions which will play a pivotal role during the Reign of the Demon King...
Last week I looked at the recent D&D Adventurers League article “State of Mulmaster", which revealed that the casting of unsanctioned arcane magic within the city of Mulmaster would be punished harshly. The comments on my blog and elsewhere on the Interwebz were (generally) thoughtful and helpful in creating a dialogue to explain the various effects of the ruling and minimize the problems that the ruling might cause at the table. Many of the commenters here,...
The Fiendish are the half-demon corruption of different living creatures. Created for different purposes, they all have common traits and represent a hybrid between the un-living Demons and the natural forms of life on Elhal. Fiendish creatures are not necessarily evil, but they are not natural either. As we conclude our discussions on the tiers of Demons, I thought it would be worthwhile to discuss the half-demons, as they form their own tier; not quite a Demon and...
An intriguing discussion popped up last week in the D&D Adventurers League world. The administrators of the large and popular Organized Play campaign released a document called State of Mulmaster. The first part of this very interesting article highlighted the city of Mulmaster, where the second season of the D&D Expeditions adventures—in the Elemental Evil storyline—is taking place. Mulmaster is a highly volatile setting for a campaign, and is thus a very interesting one. The controversy...
The last caste of Demons are the Demon Princes. These creatures are the apex of Demons, possessing the physical and martial capabilities of the Demon Knight, with the intellect and arcane abilities of the Demon Lord. Yet none of that makes them the most terrifying caste of Demons. It is their ability to reproduce that is far more insidious. Creation A Demon Prince is created in a special ritual, different than the previous three castes of Demons:...
With a background in creative writing and English academia, I’ve read a lot about creating and understanding stories. And while it is debatable if I actually learned much from all that reading, I cannot deny that I have picked up a few things. And one of those things is directly applicable to storytelling in D&D. In a set of famous lectures given by acclaimed writer E. M. Forster, he answered a question often posed to him...
We now have reached the Demon Lord, the last of the forged Demons. This final forged caste sacrifices martial prowess for intellect and arcane ability. They are the juxtaposition of great abilities and limitations, which we will explore during this lecture. Despite these challenges, the Demon Lord plays a vital role in Demon society. Let us start as we have in the past by returning to the Demon Forge, and discuss the Demon Lord's creation… Creation As with the...
In the last installment of this column, I fretted over the question, “Is D&D a Storytelling Game?” I looked at that question in terms of establishing semantics and defining terms. Now I have to start to work on answering those questions. For the seminar I will be presenting at Origins and Gen Con, the main question is going to be this: How can the Dungeon Master (DM) manage the narrative when running a game of...
Now that we are a few weeks into Quarter 2 of 2015, I wanted to go over what Encoded has been doing, and how things are going. Overall, things have been busy and focused for the team. We are still in the building phase, with most of our projects still in development, some approaching publication. I have a certain anxiety of wanting to get things published to prove that we are doing things, but we...
One of my many freelancing gigs is to act as the DM Training Seminar Coordinator for the Herald’s Guild of DMs. We are in the process of creating content to help DMs get better at the craft of running D&D games. One seminar that I am responsible for personally creating, in preparation for presentation at Origins and Gen Con, has to do with “Storytelling in D&D.” I’ve written a couple different drafts of the seminar,...
Today’s lecture focuses on the Demon Knight, the most critical Demon in terms of military might. Each Demon Knight is both a formidable warrior in their own right, as well as a critical factor in the effectiveness of the Demon army. During the Reign of the Demon King, it was common to see Demon Knights in most occupied areas carrying out the will of the higher castes. If the Soldier is the laborer of the Demons,...
Today we continue on where we last left off , and now focus on the Demon Solider. Of all the Demons, the solider is the most iconic, because of their sheer numbers. Every person who lived during the reign of the Demon King has encountered a Demon Soldier. Today, we will take a closer look at the origins and some of the more unique aspects of the Demon Solider. Demonization As we have talked about in the...