Dawnfist Newsletter - Axes, Hags, and an Unstable Concoction

Every month we bring you 5 community gems, GM advice and a new shiny thing!

Author

Sebastian Grabne
October 27, 2024

Welcome to the monthly Dawnfist Newsletter where we share community gems, helpful advice and always bring you a new creation of our own! If you aren’t already subscribed, use the form below.

Our 5 Favorite Community Gems

Every month, we sift through all the goodness from the TTRPG community and handpick our five favorites — the ones we believe are the most useful and valuable.

  1. Aelwine, by Castlegrief, is a small hexcrawl region designed to be a creative spark for your next campaign. It’s free on itch.io and features fantastic art that really sparks the imagination. It also has random encounter and weather tables, as well as four factions outlined in a minimalistic style. What makes it special? Aelwine leaves plenty of blanks for you to fill in, so you can make it your own without starting from scratch. Personally, I love it! It’s the perfect ‘box’ to work within — something we emphasize a lot on the Dawnfist blog.

  2. D100 magical axes from D4 Caltrops is just as impressive as their other tables. Just wow, how do they come up with so many highly unique effects and special abilities? Here are two examples: “Tap a Padlock gently with the Butt: 2-in-6 it opens undamaged (1/week)” and “Makes an oddly efficient Oar, and any Boat paddled with it travels 3x faster”. These aren’t just useful for when you need a magical axe; this table can be mined for high quality magic effects that have a lot of use-cases. Here’s the full table.

  3. Adventure Site Contest II went live on October 1st, and while it’s not done yet, it still qualifies as one of the best things from the community in the past month, since the output from Adventure Site Contest I was so great! A goldmine of content to use and be inspired by. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the contestants conjure up in the contest’s second edition.

  4. A Reddit post asking for tips on how to get better at improv turned into a treasure trove of advice. This quote from Smart_Ass-Dave will live rent free in my brain forever: “You can walk back mistakes, but you can't walk forward silence”. The stuff of legends! Read the full post here.

  5. Yum/DM shared a fully fleshed out Hags Coven on their blog. Complete with three hags, their goals and their lair: The Heartwood Hollow, described in an evocative but still efficient way.

Monthly Dawnfist advice

Most GMs struggle to describe scenes that are both memorable and efficient — I know I do. That’s why I stick to ‘The Rule of Three.’ By focusing on three key details, I know when I’ve done enough, making the process quicker and easier. Read the full post below.

How to describe a scene? The rule of 3 makes it easy!

In this post you will learn how to use the Rule Of 3 to learn how to describe a scene in the most efficient way possible!

www.dawnfist.com/blog/gm-advice/how-to-describe-a-scene-the-rule-of-3

The new thing - an Unstable Concoction

An alchemist possessing more enthusiasm than skill has managed to brew a potion, or perhaps a whole crate of potions? This concoction is as unpredictable as its creator, with both strange benefits and curious side effects.

Whenever someone drinks a potion, roll 2D6 on the table below, one for each effect column. The PC is affected by both, all effects last until you rest for the night.

D6

First effect

Second effect

1

You can smell gold from 60m / 200 ft away

But your skin changes color to an intense blue hue

2

Your wounds close (recover 2D6 HP)

But you can only speak in a whisper

3

Your legs feel strong and you gain the benefit of the Jump spell

But your movement speed is equal to that of a turtle

4

You are filled with a strange confidence and gain Advantage on CHA checks

But you laugh uncontrollably whenever asked a question

5

Your vision sharpens, allowing you to see in complete darkness

But you become obsessed with fish!

6

You feel your muscles swell and gain Advantage on STR checks

But your footsteps sound like thunder, alerting everyone nearby

Thank you for reading and don’t forget to explore our games, modules and supplements on DriveThruRPG. See you next month!

///Sebastian Grabne - Dawnfist Games