Glistening Forge - Goblin Shaman

Hello everyone!

Today I want to show you a new Monster for my expansion Glistening Forge: the Goblin Shaman.

Goblin Shaman 1

"While Goblin Shaman is alive, all Goblins regenerate 1 Hit Point each turn they are still alive (cannot go above their maximum Hit Points)."

Some time ago, when I was editing the template for Adventure maps for the manual of my incomming expansion, I found by chance one symbol I liked in the Vitriol font, which is the one this game uses for card titles: 

The copyright symbol"©" in the font Vitriol

I liked it so much that I tried to add it to the Monster symbol for goblins:

And in the end I have ended creating a new Monster card :)

What do you think about it?

Glistening Forge - Current Progress

Hi everyone!

Today I managed to get some free time to update this blog so I wanted to share with you the current progress of this project.

Done

• 81+ cards: 
• 11 Artefacts
• 20 Booby Traps
• 20 Gemstones
•   2 Potions
•   2 Aid cards (Charge y Kathra, the Paladin)
•   7+ Monsters
•   7 Spells
• 12 Weapons
• 3+1 Tiles
• 19 - Grass (made by Caelrinc)
• 20 - Cross (it was #19 before Grass was submitted)
• 21 - Zero
• 22 - Fungi
• 1 Kathra's death token

Doing

• Manual of the expansion:
• I already have the test I am going to use
• I already have the Paint.net template for the fornt and back covers
• I have the images for the manual's content
• I have to create the adventures yet
• Tile modifier tokens:
• 24 tokens 2x2
• 20 tokens 3x3
•   4 tokens 4x3
•   3 tokens 4x4
•   4 spiraling stairs 1x1
•   4 double doors 2x2
•   4 trapdoors 1x1
• Print tests and create the pdfs with everything ready to be pronted in color

Glistening Forge - New Booby Traps

 Hello everyone.

Thanks for reading this blog :)

Level 1: The Awakening of the Beast

Today I bring you 20 new Booby Traps, which belong to my expansion Glistening Forge.

After adding 20 Gems to my expansion, it was clear that I had to increase the dangers faced by the Heroes when they open a chest.

As you know, some time ago I published the template to create your own Booby Trap cards and I showed the Mimeto trap (https://danddgame.blogspot.com/2019/03/booby-traps-and-surprise.html).

Level 3: Mimic

I have now added 19 more cards. I have divided these cards into the usual three levels:

• 15 level 1 Booby Traps
• 2 level 2 Booby Traps
• 3 level 3 Booby Traps

Now, the dungeons will be more difficult and Lidda will not be a source of treasures thanks to her magical Artifacts.

Level 2: Acid

Here is a summary of what each Booby Trap card does:

• L1 - Alarm: The Monster closest to the Hero is placed on a space adjacent to him
• L1 - Baby Slime: Hero must discard current Weapon
• L1 - Ditch: Discard a Potion you possess
• L1 - Invigorating Roar: The AC of all Monsters increases by 1 until the Dungeon Master's next turn
• L1 - Malevolous Presence: All Monsters recover 2 Hit Points
• L1 - Paralyzing Darts: You cannot take the Movement Action in your next turn
• L1 - Rose of Forgetfulness: You cannot perform Special Actions on your next trun
• L1 - Sinister Darkness: Every Monster in the room may have one free movement
• L1 - Stunning Gas: Casting Spells costs you 1 more Spell Point on your next turn
• L1 - Teleportation: The Dungeon Master places the Hero in a normal space (without traps) of his choice from the previous room
• L1 - Terrifying Vision: The Dungeon Master chooses a Monster miniature; you cannot attack any Monster with the same type of miniature on your next turn
• L1 - The Awakening of the Beast: The Dungeon Master brings a Roaming Monster into play and places it as close as possible to the Hero
• L1 - Treacherous Attack: A Monster makes an attack inmediately (even if it isn't the Dungeon Master's trun)
• L1 - Ungodly Voices: All already 'turned' Undead Monsters return and do not miss their next turn
• L1 - Visions of Death: You can't attack or 'turn' Undead Monsters on your next turn
• L2 - Acid: Discard your current Artifact
• L2 - Temporary Weakness: Subtract 2 to attack score rolled in your next attack
• L3 - Curse of Forgetfulness: Discard your current Spell
• L3 - Mimic (https://danddgame.blogspot.com/2019/03/booby-traps-and-surprise.html)
• L3 - Vampiric Touch: Lose 2 Hit Points and a Monster of the Dungeon Master's choice gains 2 Hit Points

And here is the download link so you can see them in detail.

What do you think?

Glistening Forge: Gemstones

Hello everyone.

Thanks for reading this blog :)

Today I bring you a new type of Item card for my expansion Glistening Forge: Gemstones.

Level 3 - Ruby Skull

People who have played a lot of this wonderful game will have noticed that in the end there are many Weapons that get boring or repetitive. There are always going to be certain Weapons that are better than others for certain Heroes.

Gemstones have been created to make players more hesitant about replacing their existing Weapon with a new one that has appeared in a chest.

Sometimes, playing this game you get the feeling that Heroes are limited to level 3 and that you are not going to be able to create more difficult adventures without having to add a lot of homebrew rules.

When I started thinking about how to make my expansion, Glistening Forge, I had the question of how to make the Heroes seem more powerful without changing the Hero cards and without including new levels. The obvious thing to do was to include better Weapons and Spells but this had the problem of needing new dice and I wanted to use only the original components so no one would have to buy custom dice. What if I could use black dice?

So I came up with the concept of Gemstones (inspired by the Diablo II video game). Gemstones are magical stones that can be applied to Weapons to make them more powerful.

How do they work?

Player aid card about Gemstones 

 

• Gemstones are a new type of Item that you can find inside Treasure Chests.
• A Hero can apply a Gemstone to a Weapon as an action.
• When applied to a Weapon, they do not count toward the maximum number of Items a Hero may possess.
• A Hero can only apply a Gemstone to a Weapon that uses no black die or that uses a different type of black die.
• A Hero cannot apply more than one Gemstone to a Weapon.
• A Hero can only apply a Gemstone to a Weapon of the same or inferior level.
• Once applied, a Gemstone cannot be separated from a Weapon and, if the Weapon is discarded, the Gemstone will be discarted too.
• As they are a new type of Item, a Hero can give a Gemstone to another Hero using one of the Hero's two actions per turn.
• If a Hero uses one of his actions to give a Weapon already paired with a Gemstone to another Hero, the Gemstone goes with the Weapon.

Example of using a Gemstone applied to a Weapon

In the example in the image above, you can see how a player has used one of his Hero's two actions to apply the Gemstone “Eye of the Abyss” (Level 2) to the Weapon “Resolution Crossbow” (also Level 2). Now, every time he uses this weapon, the hero will roll 1 yellow die, 1 blue die, the Special die and the Disarm Traps die... and the result of the four dice will be applied.

That is, this weapon now does 2 to 4 Hit Points, has a 50% chance of recovering 1 Spell Point and an 83% chance of 'Expelling' the impacted Monster if it is an Undead, BUT it also has a 16.6% chance of reviving the last Monster that died.

If later the Hero opens a chest and finds a new Weapon, will it be so easy to decide which Weapon to keep?

Example of an incorrect use: an attempt has been made to apply a Level 1 Gemstone into a Level 2 Weapon.

In the example in the picture above, you see how a player has tried to use one of the two actions of his Hero to apply the “Wishing Star” Gemstone (Level 1) to the Weapon “Resolution Crossbow” (Level 2). This is not allowed. The gemstone will still count towards the maximum limit of Items that Hero can have.

What types of Gemstones are there?

There are as many types of Gemstones as there are black dice in the base game. That is, there are 4 types of Gems and I have created 20 new cards:

• Gemstones that use the Search die: 2
• Gemstones using the Disarm die: 7
• Gemstones using the Special die: 10
• Gemstones that use the 'Expel' die: 1

The best ones are the ones that use the Special die and, precisely for that reason, they will not be usable on many Weapons, since only one Gemstone can be apply to a Weapon that does not already use a black die or uses a black die of a different type. I hope this will improve the variability of Weapons used by the Heroes. 

About the Gemstone level restriction

As a Level 1 Gemstone can only be applied to Level 1 Weapons, it may happen that, after playing many games with the Gemstones, I decide to increase the level of some Gemstone card so that this rule is not so restrictive.

Download

Here you can download the template to create your own Gemstones.

Here you can download the 20 Gemstones I have created for Glistening Forge.

What is your opinion about the Gemstones?

Kathra - Hero Board

Hi everyone,

    After restoring the Hero card, my next step was going to be restoring the Hero board.

    Here you can see the Hero board for Kathra, a dwarf female paladin.

The board for Kathra, a Shield of Moradin

     This board is useful for the player to take into account how many Spell Points or Hit Points are left, what items are in use or in their kanpsack. On top of that, this board shows the Hero's movement, Armour Class and Knapsack size. Moreover, it reminds the player which special actions the Hero can take.

    I based my restoration in a scann of a Hero board for Orwick, the Druid. Using that image I was able to find how to recreate each part. For example, the background noise is the same for the Dungeon Master's Guide or the Player's Guide.

    Here you can find the template to create your own Heroes: Download.

Thank you for still reading this blog.

Kathra - Hero card

Hi everyone,

    Today I present you Kathra's Hero card. Kathra is the new Hero for my expansion pack Glistening Forge, a dwarf female paladin.

    Hero cards are a short reminder of every Hero abilities for the players as normally the Hero board contains few words.

    This type of card is also used as a reminder for new actions available to all Heroes, as in the case of the action Charge from the expansion pack Forbidden Forest.

    In the specific case of Kathra's, this card is a reminder of Kathra being:

• an expert on inspiring other Heroes and herself thanks to her devotion.
• as able as Jozan or Orwick to Heal Hit Points.
• as able as Jozan to use Spells, although she still can not resurrect Heroes.

    To create this card, the Charge reminder card, from the expansion pack Forbidden Forest, was used as example. This card, as an exception to the rest of reminder cards, has a clearer background free of shadows. This template is the same size of other card templates.

    The symbol of Moradin, the Dwarven god has been used for Kathra Hero symbol as she is one of his Shields. This symbol has also been used as Fallen Hero Token in case she falls during combat, as you can see:

Fallen Hero token for Kathra surrounded by a red square to mark where to cut

Fallen Hero token for Kathra

    Here you can find the link to download the Hero card template: Download

    Here you can find the link to the Fallen Hero token template: Download

Please use them for your own creations for this game.

Thank you once more for still reading this blog.

General progress update and Tile Templates

Hi everyone!

    Thank you for still reading this blog :)

     I have currently finished all the cards and tiles for the Gistening Forge Expansion Pack:

• 19 - A cross corridor
• 21 - A bunch of little rooms
• 20 - A green grass tile with 3 little rooms
• 22 - A maze with fungi

     I have also done few more tiles just for fun:

• 23 - A dwarven tomb with floor square triggers :)
• 24 - A cloisters

     Here you can find the basic template I am using for creating these tiles: Download

 Thanks again for your continous support :)

Bow of fortune and Resolution crossbow

Hi everyone,

Thank you once more for still reading this blog.

I am still working on the tiles for my expansion Glistening Forge but today I have taken some time to remake two very special cards from the oficial expansions: the Bow of Fortune and the Resolution Crossbow.

These two weapons were firstly introduced in the Eternal Winter expansion and appeared again in the Forbidden Forest expansion. These cards are totally necessary as basic equipement for level 3 for the Heroes Mialee and Jozan.

In the base game, the default weapon for level 3 for Mialee was the Longbow of the Elven Lords, which only makes Miale to recover 1 Spell Point when a star appears in the Special Die. Regarding Jozan, his basic weapon for level 3 was the Sacred Crossbow of Pelor, which makes Jozan to recover 1 Spell Point when a star appears in the Special Die too.

This was discovered to be not enough for fighting the expansion's Monsters so in this expansions both Heroes received a new weapon almost exact to the one they already had but which make them recover 2 Spell Points instead on 1 when a star appears in the Special Die.

This upgrade was very necessary for Mialee, as her Armour Class depends on her Spell Points, but also for Jozan, who needs more Spell Points in level 3 to heal his comrades.

In my expansion Glistening Forge I wanted to include these two weapons too and now I have already managed to finish remaking them.

I hope you like them:

Thanks again for reading this blog. Stay tunned for more content in the following weeks :)

Booby Traps and a surprise

Hi everyone.

It is a pleasure to be back.

Just to recap, I stopped writting this blog meanwhile I was searching for good D&D images that matched the look and feel of the original game for my already designed cards.

Some weeks ago, some users from the Board Game Geek web page encouraged me to go on with this blog and I have decided to come back with a new template for you (thanks everybody for your support).

Today I introduce you to my new Booby Trap card template:

These Booby Trap cards were shuffled with all the rest of treasure cards and the Heroes could have enough bad luck to draw one of them and suffer a trap or a curse.

As you may know, this kind of cards only came with the base game and there were only 7 cards of this type. If we choose to play with an expansion set, the probability of drawing one of these Booby Trap cards goes down.

It is time for making opening chests even more exciting... Let me introduce you the Mimic:

The Mimic is one of the most classical monsters from D&D and it is also one of the most dreaded among the Heroes.

Note: I have been unable to do a print test for this card template yet so I still don't know is the card color matches the one from the Booby Traps from the base game. Print it at your own risk :)

Here you can download it: Booby Trap template


Thanks a lot for still coming to this blog.

Glistening forge: Hammer of sacrifice

Hello everyone,

Today I want to show you Kathra's weapon for level 2: the Hammer of sacrifice.

Hooked Hammer of the Hearthfire by Wayne England

As Glistening forge is an expansion focused on a dwarven settlement, I think making the majority of weapons the heroes encounter to be made by dwarves is pure logic.

The Hammer of sacrifice can make from 1 up to 4 Hit Points of damage with the possibility to recover up to 1 Spell Point. You can notice that this weapon is slightly more powerful than the Blessed bow of the elves or the Mace of faith. Moreover, it is as powerful as Regdar's Double-handed broadsword. This has been done to make it clear that the paladin will be more focussed on weapons than on spells.

What do you think about it? Do you like it? Would you change anything?

Glistening forge: Throwing axe

Hello everyone,

Now that I have some weapon cards almost already done I am going to show you the first one: Throwing Axe.

Lorestealer by Wayne England

This card will be Kathra's weapon for her first level. Mialee and Jozan had the Shortbow of the Ancients and the Crossbow of Faith. These weapons allowed them to recover Spell Points. I have tried to use these cards as models for Kathra's initial weapon.

Finding the perfect image has been very difficult. In the end I have adapted an image by Wayne England: Lorestealer.

What do you think about it? Do you like it? Would you change anything? 

Glistening forge: Zombie Leader

Hi all,

There were some readers who commented in my blog post about the Zombie that the Zombie was too powerful compared to the common idea we all have about zombies. They were right. I had commited a mistake with the card stats and I had changed the ones from the Zombie with the ones from the Zombie Leader.

I have already corrected it and I will update the blog post as soon as I can.

The good news are that yesterday I decided to finish that last monster so...

Today I show you a new card from my expansion pack called Glistening forge: The Zombie Leader.

Mauglurien, the Black Dragon by DaveAllsop

I have found this image in the  Dragon Magazine #364 (page 43), in an article about a character called Mauglurien. This character is a Death Knight Dwarf Warlord. This image is clearly D&D 4 Ed. style so it is not like the ones used in the original board game (from the 3.5 Ed.) but it is a great draw and I think it will improve my expansion' story

The Zombie Leader has 7 Hit Points (instead of 5 Hit Points the usual Zombie has) and while he is alive, allows all zombies to make 1 more yellow die of damage when they perform the Death Burst ability.

What do you think about it? Do you like it? Would you change anything?

Glistening forge: Scroll of monster knowledge

Hi everyone,

I am really sorry for not posting in a long time.

Today I want to show you a new artifact for my expansion Glistening forge: the Scroll of monster knowledge.

Scroll of Monster Knowledge

This card is still to be tested and I think that I will modify it as I believe the card text is not so helpful.

The text says: "Choose a monster type. Gain +1 in attack against monsters of that type. ★ DISCARD CARD".

When the card says "type" I mean the monster's name. That means that a goblin and an orc will be of different type regardless of being goblinoids in D&D 3.5. Without this restriction, this card would be extremely powerful as goblins, hobgoblins, orcs and bugbears are considered to be goblinoids.

I really like the idea of a player throwing the special dice each time her character has to look at the Scroll of monster knowledge as the scroll seems to be really ancient and could get distroyed in the middle of a battle.

What do you think about it? Do you like it? Do you have some critics?

Glistening forge: Shield of mercy

Hi everybody,

Today I release one of the few Artifacts still to be shown: the Shield of mercy.

Shield of Mercy by David Griffith

In the Glistening Forge expansion there will be a lot of monsters with an Armour Class value of 3, like Hobgoblins, Orcs, or the Beholder itself. As I pretend to make this expansion a challenge but not an impossible burden, there must be also some good protection against the evil for the heroes.

What do you think about it? Do you like it? Do you have some critics?

Glistening forge: Medallion of the Dragon

Hi everyone,

Today I want to show you a new artifact: the Medallion of the Dragon.

Holy Symbol of Aesterinian by Wayne England

It can be very helpful for characters with Spell Points as in higher levels , spells tend to be more powerful and cost much more.

What do you think about it? Do you like it? Do you have some critics?

Glistening forge: Protective circle

Hi everybody,

Today I show you two new spells: Lesser protective circle and Protective Circle. Both are the special spells for Kathra, the dwarven paladin.

Healing Domain by Howard Lyon

These two spells have been designed to give bonuses to the heroes team's Armour Class. They can only be used by Kathra as she is a Moradin Shieldmaiden.

What do you think about them? Do you like them? Do you have some critics?

Glistening forge: Censer of the Last Breath

Hi everybody,

Here you have a new card from my expansion pack Glistening forge: the Censer of the Last Breath.

Censer of the Last Breath by Wayne England

To our adventurers, Jozan is an essential team member as he is not only capable of heal combat wounds but,  he is the only one who can resucitate a dead companion.

Thanks to the Censer of the Last Breath, Jozan can now spell the Great Restoration spell with much more power than before.

What do you think about it? Do you like it? Do you have some critics?

Charge!

Hi everyone again,

As one of this blog's readers have asked me about it, I will explain how it works the Charge special attack that appeared the first time in the Forbidden forest expansion pack and that the heroes will be able to use in the Glistening forge expansion pack too.

Let me quote first the Forbidden forest's rulebook:

"

CHARGE

All Heroes and Razor Boars may make a charge attack. This special attack is a combination of both movement and attack.

To charge, declare the action by shouting "Charge!" and indicating your target. The path to the target must be clear (nothing on the spaces) and in a straight line. A figure may charge from one room into another through an open door.

Roll the Charge die and move the charging figure the number of spaces shown on the die towards their target. Place a yellow attack die on the starting space of the charging figure. Roll the Charge die again. Move the charging figure forward, and place another yellow attack die on the space the charging figure was on.

Continue rolling the Charge die and placing an attack die on the charge path in the following order: yellow, yellow, red, orange, orange, blue.


Keep rolling the Charge die until your movement takes you onto the target space or you have placed all six attck dice onto the charge path but have not reached the target figure, or you roll a blank on the Charge die.

If a Heor or Monster rolls a blank on the Charge die, his charge action has failed, his move action is over and he must reduce his Hit Points by 1.

A SUCCESSFUL CHARGE

If the charger reaches the target's space or all six attack dice have been placed on the charge path, the charge is a success. Do the following in a successful charge:

1. Move the charger onto the target's space and move the target figure onto any adjacent space, even diagonally. If the charger or target steps into a trap space at any point during the charge, the trap is set off.
2. Roll all the attack dice that are on the charge path, plus the Special die and Skull die (the 'turn undead' die).

Add up the swords and substract the target's Armour Class to determine the damage. Fighters get their normal +1 attack bonus.

The number of Skulls rolled is the number of Hit Points the charger loses (not affected by Armour Class).

If you roll a star on the Special die, the target loses his next turn."



Moreover, I am going to quote the Charge Action reminder card:

"

CHARGE

All Heores and some Monsters may charge instead of their normal movement action.

The rules for charging can be found on page 6 of the rulebook.

The order of combat dice rolled is...

[yellow][yellow][red][orange][orange][blue]

If a Hero or Monster rolls a blank on the Charge die, the charge has failed, his move action is over and he must reduce his Hit Points by 1.

If the charge is successful, roll the following die:

[Special] Star = target loses his next turn.
[Skulls] For each skull rolled reduce the charger's Hit Points by 1 (Armour Class has no effect)."



From these two texts I extract some conclusions:

1. The charge action counts as a movement action so it is posible to charge agains a target and, if you have manage to reach it, use an attack action agains it as long as you have put its figure in an adjacent no diagonal space or you have a druid staff as a weapon.
2. Although the charge action is a movement action, Lidda can NOT use her Sneak ability in order to pass through monsters in her charge path to her target because the charge rules say clearly: "The path to the target must be clear (nothing on the spaces) and in a straight line". On the other hand, it says nothing about not using Sneak in her first move action in order to pass through some monster close to her which could be in her straight charge path and then, use her second action as a charge attack. Of course, She would not be able to make a second attack after reaching her target as she would have used her two actions per turn.
3. Druids can make charge attacks diagonally when outside and pass through trees and bushes while charging.
4. Some artifacts can have an influence on the charge attack like, for example:

• Bracers of speed: "Hero may move an additional 2 squares when taking a movement action." (Although the hero's movement doesn't count when making a charge attack - as the Charge die shows how much spaces a hero moves - the hero could move 2 spaces previous to make the charge attack if he thinks he is too much far away from his target ad doesn't want to risk rolling a blanck in the attack dice.)
• Ring of Ehlonna: "When outside, the Hero mat re-roll any single die once per turn." (In case you roll a blanck in the attack or Charge dice)
• Belt of the champion (Glistening forge): "While charging, the wearer may reroll one die (even the special or 'turn undead' dice)."  (In case you roll a blanck in the attack or Charge dice)

What do you think? Do you consider other cards have influence in the Charge attack?

Glistening forge: Moradin's blessing

Hi everybody,

Here you have a new card from my expansion pack Glistening forge: the spell Moradin's blessing.

Everybody needs from time to time some help and if that help comes from a god, much better. Only the most pure adventurers who are loyal to Moradin's principles receive his favour. Moradin helps them by making their melée attacks much more accurate and harmful.

What do you think about it? Do you like it? Do you have some critics?

Glistening forge: Map bit

Hi everyone,

After almost 3 months of absence, here I bring you a new card from my expansion pack Glistening forge. Here you have the Map bit.

Map bit

Having a map is of great help when accomplishing a mission inside a dungeon. Unfortunately, our heroes have only a portion and not the complete map so they don't know the type of traps they will face but the position of them.

No map is equal to other. Sometimes they show the entire dungeon and sometimes only a room.

What do you think about it? Do you like it? Do you have some critics? Did you miss my blog :D?