Stranger Things Season 5: Part One

Hawkins residents assemble! The final season's first part starts off slow but delivers the goods in the form of more needle drops, more character transformations, and more killer '80s vibes. (Spoilers abound below.)

A lot has changed since Stranger Things first premiered back in 2016. America has had three different presidents. A worldwide pandemic happened. And all of these children have grown up. Before I dive into the details of this new season, I'll acknowledge that these kids are all in their early 20s and they look grown as hell. But hey! That's not their fault. And it's not entirely the Duffer brothers' fault either, given the complexities of scheduling shows in the modern age of pandemics, writers' strikes, and other obstacles. I personally think the age thing is easy to overlook if you love the show. If you can believe in demogorgons, you can believe that these grown folks are juniors in high school. 

A brief recap of where we left off in Hawkins in Season 4: Joyce and Murray have rescued Hopper from the Siberian prison, Max is in a coma after fighting Vecna, Eleven got her powers back, and Mike, Dustin and the gang are all back together in Hawkins, which is currently quarantined off from the world after being devastated by Vecna's final attack. 

Season 5 picks up a year later in November of 1987, and our team is still hunting Vecna, who seems to have gone dark. Hopper, with the help of everyone, ventures out occasionally into the Upside Down on military recon "crawls," but nothing seems to be turning up. Things are set into motion when a demogorgon breaks into the Wheeler's house and kidnaps Mike and Nancy's little sister, Holly. 

The first few episodes start off pretty slow, but the time spent with the characters isn't wasted. I'm a true believer in this season, and I've loved it so much. Here's what I think really works. 

The power of radio nostalgia via WSQK

Robin and Steve are working at the local radio station, and in between pop songs they're using a secret code to communicate to the others troop movements and scheduling crawls in the Upside Down. It's extremely clever, and as a former college radio DJ, it sparks all kinds of feels. The station is essentially a character this season, and it plays an important part in both the plots of episodes 1-4 and most likely in the final episodes that air later this year. 

Music and needle drops have always been a core part of Stranger Things, and having the characters literally take the helm at WSQK just feels right. It's hard to explain to younger people, but terrestrial radio used to play an important part in people's lives, and everyone listened to it. Having it be the lifeline for our heroes as well as a cultural touchstone just makes sense. Playing Diana Ross' "Upside Down" as part of their code is just brilliant, too.

As part of the promotion for Season 5, I've been listening to the online version of WSQK, not only for the '80s tunes but also because they have in-world ads for Scoops Ahoy, Palace arcade, and more. It's immersive, fun, and a great way to keep vibing in the ST world. Have I also bought a WSQK t-shirt? Absolutely. (This review has not been sponsored by Netflix, I'm just a real big nerd.)

The big reveal of Will's powers

I will admit that Noah Schnapp's acting hasn't been wonderful this season, but I think that's more a function of having a grown man say lines like "We have to stop Vecna!" over and over again. But I think what people forget (especially after how emo and laid by the wayside he was last season) is that Will is the heart of this show. It started with his abduction in Season 1, and ever since, he's been the emotional core of everything. So yeah, I'm willing to ignore some clunkily spoken lines. 

In the last ten minutes of episode 4, everything comes together truly magnificently for Will. He's been seeing through the eyes of Vecna and various demogorgons, paralyzed by fear and horror at what he's witnessing. Having him finally(!) get some agency and be able to fight back was so invigorating. I was jumping up and down and screaming at the screen. The Duffer brothers' decision to make Will the equal of Eleven, powers-wise, is a twist I didn't see coming, and honestly, the gang is going to need it if they're going to defeat Vecna. I'm so glad Will gets to take part instead of just cowering.

Rewriting queer representation in '80s film settings

As an avid fan of '80s teen movies who happens to be queer, watching them can be a little dicey. On the one hand, they're awesome, but on the other, the frequency with which gay slurs are used is mindblowing. The homophobia was rampant back then. To give you an example, in Teen Wolf, Michael J. Fox's best friend is more worried that he's gay than being a werewolf. Yeah.

The world is different today, thank God. And having fully fleshed out queer characters in the form of Robin and Will help rewrite that narrative in the modern age. Robin's speech in episode 4 to Will is a tear-jerker in the best possible way, allowing Will to know that he's okay just as he is. For five seasons he's been tortured, coddled, disregarded, and underestimated. Allowing him to come into his own is super powerful, and the Duffers have done something wonderful for a whole new generation of queer kids looking for representation in the media they love.

The Home Alone-inspired Demogorgon trap

This whole scene is just classic Stranger Things, and it's a perfect example of how they can bring levity to an objectively frightening situation. In order to implant the tracker in the demogorgon, the team sets up an elaborate scheme involving swing-down traps, a rug over a hole in the floor, and our gal Nancy Walk 'Em Down Wheeler doing what she does best — shoot baddies. 

The introduction of A Wrinkle in Time

The entirety of Stranger Things has revolved around metaphors from D&D, the game that Mike, Will, Dustin, and Lucas were obsessed with. When weird things started happening, it was that vernacular that helped them make sense of the world(s). With the introduction of Holly as a plot-important character, we're also getting language and ideas cribbed from her favorite book, A Wrinkle in Time. Even though we're just learning about Henry/Vecna as Mr. What's it, I think time travel is going to play a large role in the upcoming episodes. The Duffer brothers listed The Terminator and Back to the Future among the movies they recommend folks watch to prep for the finale.

Unanswered questions:

• What is Vecna’s end goal with Holly?
• Did Nancy graduate? Is she working? Robin?
• What is the wall of goo/demogorgon flesh?
• Why is Vecna afraid of the rocks?
• Will Robin get to go on that date with Vicki?

Overall, I think this first part of the last season did a good job of setting up what's promising to be an epic conclusion. Every season of Stranger Things improves upon a rewatch, and I watched these four episodes twice. It's different, in many ways, but it also holds up really well. Everyone's forecasting a major death (or even two!) toward the end but I'm hoping that doesn't end up happening. I love all these kids so dang much, and they all deserve the world.

Also, Linda Hamilton as Major General Kay was the icing on the cake these episodes —nobody cocks like a gun quite like her, even after all these years.

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The Math

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10.

POSTED BY: Haley Zapal, NoaF contributor and lawyer-turned-copywriter living in Atlanta, Georgia. A co-host of Hugo Award-winning podcast Hugo, Girl!, she posts on Instagram as @cestlahaley. She loves nautical fiction, growing corn and giving them pun names like Timothee Chalamaize, and thinking about fried chicken.

Anime Review: Delicious in Dungeon Series 1

Three different shows in a trenchcoat, masquerading as a fun, silly, traumatic adventure (and succeeding)

I don't think I have ever watched a show - any kind of show, not just anime - that careens so wildly and gloriously between absolute delightful nonsense and gut-wrenching, soul-crushing emotional darkness. Every single episode of Delicious in Dungeon (also know as Dungeon Meshi) is a rollercoaster and a surprise gift bag. Reach in your hand and what do you receive? A man with an almost sexually charged obsession/hobby interest in eating dungeon monsters. What next? The death of sibling and that same man's determination to save her from the longest of odds, knowing that even as they speak she's being digested in a dragon's stomach. And now? Up-skirt shots of a heavily bearded dwarf! And then? Dressing up in the partly-flensed skins of giant frogs! It's a RIDE.

You thought I was joking about the frogs? I was not

It shouldn't, by rights, work. It really shouldn't. But somehow it does. There's no real smoothness between those two moods, no attempt to reconcile the cheerful goofery of this band of adventurers clumsily pootling down the dungeon and the horrors they witness and perpetrate. You just have to sit with the whiplash of it all and... cope. But somehow, that's the best part.

To step back a little, Delicious in Dungeon is an anime (based very closely on an existing manga) that follows a D&D style party after their healer has been eaten by a dragon and, as her last act, sends them back to the surface and safety. Her brother, the human fighter of the group, is determined to go straight back in and save her, but not everyone is willing to join him, not least because they simply do not have the funds to correctly supply their return trip. Nonetheless determined, he, along with the elven mage and half-foot (clearly halfling) rogue head back in, and soon find themselves hungry enough to consider eating some of the more... food-adjacent-seeming entities that roam the dungeon. On their first attempt, they meet a dwarf who has been doing exactly that for some years and who, glad to find fellow enthusiasts, agrees to accompany them and help them eat and cook their way down into the depths to find and resurrect their fallen comrade.

Season 1 - we now have a confirmed second season, though not yet with a date attached - takes them right down into the depths, and some discoveries about the dungeon, its ecosystems, its magic and its origin that change the scope of their original quest somewhat, and take us into the territory of those bigger, darker, deeper themes. But every episode also includes interludes of finding edible monsters, plants or other dungeon detritus and turning it into deliciously drawn meals. This is a show that does spend time telling you exactly how to cut down that mushroom critter and fry it just right, or whether you should barbecue your dragon meat or cure it. It wants to make food a core part of the story - visually and thematically - and it does that in every single episode.

It is, however, also conscious, as I'm sure you've begun to be even just as you read this, that there are some definite grey areas of morality and mores that could easily be stumbled into on this journey. Where is the line of monsterhood between animal/plant and the more... peopley? What is ok to eat? It's a theme only touched on a few times explicitly, but it is something that runs through as an undercurrent throughout the show, and eventually links in to some of those bigger themes in some very interesting ways. We establish early on that humanoid creatures are a nono. But where's the line on humanoid? Fishman egg roe - yay or nay? It's never the biggest deal, never a big focus of long exposition, but it's constantly clear that, as well as being outrageously silly, this is also a show that is really thinking about its premises as well.

Whether it comes to any enormous conclusions? Well, that remains to be seen in season 2, as and when we get it. But the process of thinking about them is fun, especially as it blends together with all the other things it's doing.

As a D&D pastiche with a big sense of humour, it works wonderfully. The jokes and silliness are genuinely funny, and the characters are just the right amount of caricature to be enjoyable, relatable and well... people... while still being silly, funny characters. We also get to enjoy some well-worn and beloved silliness at various points, with a particular highlight being the episode where everyone swaps species, and our burly dwarf becomes the sparkliest twink elfboy who ever lived.

No, really.

The moments of sometimes quite horrific darkness also, somehow, are really well done. We spend enough time with the characters, even through the silliness, to get a sense of them as people, and so when horror comes their way it is impactful, even despite the quite dramatic tonal contrast. There are plenty of tragic backstories - because of course there are - but much of the darkness comes in the form of the imminent and the visceral. There are blood and guts very much splattered about on screen, and we do have to grapple with some really quite horrible things in the quest to find someone who's been digested by a dragon but can still be resurrected. Which shouldn't be a surprise, but a lot of shows would not be willing to fully go there.

If anything, it could possibly do with dwelling more on some of those aspects, but I feel like that's going to be something we cannot avoid by the time we get to season 2.

If it has a weakness, it's an unwillingness to spend more than a couple of minutes at any given time really establishing any sort of solidity of worldbuilding. By the end of the season, a lot has been built up, but it's definitely in little snippets and bursts, and what we get is interesting enough that I would definitely like to have got more. There's an absence of who and how about a lot of things that would really improve things. Equally, it's very slow about pulling in some of the characters who eventually end up being relevant, and there are plenty I would like to have spent a little more time getting to know, but who are clearly being signalled as important in... some way... to the events as they are going to unfold, or to events that happened before the start of the show. We get those answers, but predominantly in bare bones form, and I just would have liked a little bit more, a little bit extra, to really get things bedded in.

That being said, it's a case where it feels like the answers do exist, and we've just never had them on screen, rather than that if you asked, someone would have to hastily make something up and hope it didn't accidentally ruin some other bit of continuity. Which is better tv, but possibly less good D&D. There is a very strong sense that much of this is going to be developed further, and we're just not there yet, but it does feel somewhat endloaded with info and exposition compared to the norm, and to what I'd enjoy. I don't need a wizard to infodump everything in episode 1, but there's a happy medium that I think the show could have nudged its way a little closer to, at least for my liking.

But as weaknesses go? It's hardly the worst out there. And so much of the rest of the show is so charming, it more than makes up for it.

All in all, it's a bunch of chaotic muppets rattling their way down a dungeon, eating the monsters, yelling at each other and then occasionally being incredibly traumatised by events. If you're happy with that tonal cacophony - and it's very easy to be happy with it in context - then the show is a heck of a fun ride, and one I would wholeheartedly recommend. 

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The Math

Highlights: delightful characters, actually funny jokes, occasional bouts of philosophising on the boundaries of cannibalism

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10

POSTED BY: Roseanna Pendlebury, the humble servant of a very loud cat. @chloroformtea.bsky.social

Let's have a look at Tales of the Valiant, an alternative to D&D 5e

The rules of Tales of the Valiant are backwards-compatible with 5e, but include several improvements both in pure mechanics and in presentation of information

If the repeated blunders from Wizards of the Coast got you tired of Dungeons & Dragons, there are compatible options to pick from. On May 7th, news came out that Kobold Press had released the Reference Document for its upcoming TTRPG Tales of the Valiant (ToV), a backwards-compatible clone that aims to replace D&D 5e. Kobold Press has been working on this project since early last year, after the official D&D publisher, Wizards of the Coast, fired multiple shots at its own foot in its ill-advised attempt to change its licensing terms to gain more control over third-party creations. One consequence of that disaster was the drafting, at Paizo's initiative, of the Open RPG Creative (ORC) license, which is much less aggressive than Wizards of the Coast's own Open Game License (OGL). Another consequence is the ongoing emergence of 5e-compatible game materials by independent publishers. Kobold Press is just the latest publisher to launch its alternative to 5e, so this is a good moment to compare editions and see what new ideas are to be found in ToV and other similar games. As can be expected from a Reference Document, the one just published by Kobold Press contains only the minimal rules to play ToV. But it's detailed enough for the reader to get an idea of what the game is like.

The core mechanic has undergone no change from D&D: characters have the usual six ability scores and modifiers. Rolls can be improved by Luck, which is this game's version of D&D's Inspiration mechanic. In addition to PCs earning Luck points for good ideas or good roleplaying, they also gain a Luck point on any turn in which they fail an attack or save roll. While D&D only lets PCs have one Inspiration at a time, ToV lets PCs accumulate up to 5 Luck points. In D&D, a PC spends their Inspiration to gain advantage on a roll. In ToV, that effect costs 3 Luck points. ToV also lets PCs use fewer (or more) Luck points to instead add a bonus to their roll equal to the number of Luck points spent.

For character creation, ToV introduces a system of Lineages and Heritages instead of D&D's races and subraces. According to the ToV conversion guide, a Lineage refers to biological traits (such as size, speed, and senses) and a Heritage refers to cultural learning (such as languages and proficiencies). In addition to this system, ToV has Backgrounds, which, as in D&D, correspond roughly to the occupation that the PC had before taking up the adventuring life.

• The Lineages listed in the ToV Reference Document are: Beastkin, Dwarf, Elf, Human, Orc, and Halfling Smallfolk. Alignments no longer exist, and choice of Lineage has no effect on starting ability scores.
• The Heritages, which, again, must be understood as the circumstances of a character's upbringing, include: Cosmopolitan, Cottage, Diaspora, Grove, Nomadic, Slayer, Stone, Supplicant, and Wildlands.
• The Reference Document only lists Criminal, Scholar, and Soldier among the available Backgrounds.

Character classes are the area where changes from D&D are most noticeable. Subclass features now have a uniform progression: all characters get them at 3rd, 7th, 11th, and 15th levels.

• Barbarians get proficiency with herbalism tools. Barbarian Unarmored Defense gives an AC of 13 + Con regardless of Dex. The Fast Movement feature lets Barbarians automatically move up to half their speed upon rolling initiative. Feral Instinct has been moved from 7th to 6th level. Brutal Critical also applies to a natural 19 on the attack roll. Relentless Rage has been moved from 11th to 14th level and is a little riskier to use. Persistent Rage has been moved from 15th to 10th level as an optional feature; 10th-level Barbarians can choose to instead rage instantly when rolling initiative. Indomitable Might has been replaced with a feature that improves Str and Con saves and grants extra damage against objects and structures. In the Berserker subclass, Frenzy no longer causes exhaustion; in fact, 7th-level Berserkers can ignore any exhaustion while raging. Berserkers get proficiency with Intimidation for free. Intimidating Presence is now a bonus action and is harder to resist; it also grants extra damage against frightened enemies. Retaliation can now be used in response to any type of attack, regardless of distance, and even if the enemy misses.
• Bards lose proficiency with hand crossbows and gain it with all Finesse martial weapons. Tool proficiency has become a little more flexible. Starting equipment no longer includes the option of a longsword, but has wider tool options. Bards know one more cantrip than D&D Bards of equivalent level. The Bardic Inspiration die now increases to a d12 at 14th level instead of 15th. Bard Expertise has been moved from 3rd to 2nd level, and its expansion to more Skills has been moved from 10th to 6th level. The Song of Rest Celebrate Life ability can be used at any time as an action, but heals fewer hit points and has a limit of daily uses. Cutting Words is now a standard feature of all Bards, while Jack of All Trades is exclusive to the Lore subclass. The Countercharm Clarity of Thought ability grants temporary immunity to becoming charmed, but has a limit of daily uses. Font of Inspiration has a new power that lets Bards grant an Inspiration die as a reaction to a failed roll. Magical Secrets has been moved from 10th to 9th level and from 14th to 13th level. At 10th level, Bards get the option to let allies either recycle a failed Inspiration die for later use or apply their Inspiration die to alter damage dealt or received. At 20th level, Bards can regain a few more uses of Bardic Inspiration than in D&D, and this ability can be used on any turn. In the Lore subclass, Bards can grant allies advantage on specific ability checks, have a wider selection of Feats Talents, learn more Rituals and can cast them faster, and keep successful Inspiration die from Peerless Skill.
• Clerics get the choice at 1st level to either gain one more weapon proficiency or learn one more cantrip; either choice deals extra damage. Channel Divinity gets one extra use at 13th level. Turn Undead Turn the Profane now works against Fiends too. The chance of success of Divine Intervention now progresses more slowly per level. At 10th level, Clerics get the option to get either immunity to disease and poison or resistance to radiant or necrotic damage. At 20th level, Divine Intervention can be used once per day instead of once per week. The list of domain spells for the Life subclass is now even more focused on healing effects. Divine Strike has been removed, but the Life subclass has a new power at 11th level that lets the Preserve Life ability remove diseases, poisons, and some conditions. The War subclass also has a more focused domain spell list. It offers a wider selection of Feats Talents and, instead of adding bonuses to attack rolls, as in D&D, it has powers that give advantage on attacks and increase rolled damage.
• Druids are no longer forbidden from wearing metal, and their weapon proficiency is expanded to all simple weapons. They know one more cantrip than D&D Druids of equivalent level. They also get a 1st-level healing power and, at 10th level, the choice to either speak with animals permanently or regain a use of Wild Shape once per day. Timeless Body Nature's Grace has been moved from 18th to 17th level and lets Druids survive without food or water. Druids start with fewer uses of Wild Shape than in D&D, but go on to gradually get many more. Wild Shape is limited to a number of known animal forms equal to the Druid's proficiency bonus, and the progression of allowed animal CRs is slower, but at 14th level, animals with a CR of 2 become available. Wild Shape also lets Druids regain expended spell slots instead of transforming. There's no direct analogue to D&D's Moon subclass, but the new Shifter subclass lets Druids choose stronger forms at earlier levels, speak while transformed, make extra unarmed attacks, and gain some elemental powers.
• Fighters get Second Wind Last Stand at 1st level instead of 2nd. It heals more hit points and can be used more often, but only as a reaction. Fighting Style has been removed. The new Martial Action ability gives Fighters a bonus action in every turn to execute one from a list of combat maneuvers. Action Surge gets more uses at a faster rate than in D&D. Fighters get a third attack at 9th level instead of 11th, and a fourth attack at 17th level instead of 20th. The Indomitable Defiant ability has been moved from 9th to 10th level and no longer needs a reroll; 10th-level Fighters can choose between having this ability or being able to end a condition on themselves. At 20th level, Fighters gain a power that increases damage once per turn. There's no direct analogue to the Battle Master subclass, but the new Weapon Master subclass lets Fighters reroll damage once per turn, execute specialized maneuvers, and score critical hits on natural 19 rolls.
• Mechanists are a new, non-spellcasting class that resembles the D&D 5e Artificer and the PF 2e Inventor. They get 10 hit points per level (more than either Artificers or Inventors), proficiency with medium armor and martial weapons, and Con and Int saves. They can learn an object's magical properties by touch. With the Shard of Creation ability, they can craft a permanent, transformable piece of magical matter that can turn into a weapon, a shield, or any object of comparable size (the allowed size increases at higher levels). Similar to the D&D Artificer's Infuse Item ability, the Mechanist's Augment ability can be used to add magical effects to objects. Mechanists know fewer effects than Artificers of equivalent level, but can have more enchanted objects at a time. At 10th level, Mechanists get the choice to either make a touched target vulnerable to all damage or heal a touched target; either ability is usable once per day. Similar to the PF Inventor's Armor subclass, the Mechanist's Metallurgist subclass grants the power to create a unique suit of armor with enhanced properties.
• Monks lose the option of a shortsword as part of their starting equipment, but gain the option of a sling. Unlike Barbarians, Monk Unarmored Defense remains unchanged from D&D. Deflect Missiles has been moved from 3rd to 1st level. Monks start with more Ki Technique Points than in D&D, but the progression slows down to become identical after 9th level. Flurry of Blows allows one attack with a monk weapon in addition to the usual choice of two unarmed attacks. Slow Fall has been moved from 4th to 9th level. Evasion has been moved from 7th to 6th level. Stillness Purity of Mind is now a bonus action and has been moved from 7th to 10th level; Monks can choose between this ability or the standard Purity of Body. Tongue of the Sun and Moon Astral Teachings now costs Ki Technique Points to use. Perfect Self Boundless Technique can now restore Ki Technique Points in any turn. In the Open Hand subclass, the new Focus Intent ability lets Monks alter rolls made by creatures nearby. Wholeness of Body heals fewer hit points, but can be used more often. Tranquility Tranquil Soul now costs Ki Technique Points to use. Quivering Palm costs 4 Ki Technique Points instead of 3 and is less lethal.
• Paladins no longer prepare spells; now they have a repertoire of known spells with the same progression as Rangers. Divine Sense can be activated more often, without spending any action, and lasts for one minute instead of one round. Lay on Hands is a bonus action if the Paladin uses it on themself. Fighting Style has been removed, but Paladins get a smaller version of Fighters' Martial Action ability. Channel Divinity can be used more often at higher levels. Aura of Courage has been moved from 10th to 9th level. The expansion of Paladin auras has been moved from 18th to 17th level. The Improved Divine Smite Radiant Strikes ability has been moved from 11th to 10th level; Paladins can choose between this ability or using Lay on Hands to let an ally spend a hit dice. At 20th level, Paladins gain a 30-ft aura, usable once per day, that grants resistance to nonmagical damage and automatic success on death saves. In the Devotion subclass, Turn the Unholy Sanctifying Light also works against Aberrations and Fey, is resisted with Charisma instead of Wisdom, and causes blindness instead of fear. The oath spells of this subclass are more focused on protective effects and fewer in number than in D&D. Purity of Spirit has been moved from 15th to 11th level. Holy Nimbus has been moved from 20th to 15th level, now grants advantage on all saves, and deals more damage.
• Rangers get an option of tool proficiency. Instead of the Favored Enemy, Natural Explorer, and Land's Stride abilities, 1st-level Rangers gain a mode of movement (climbing or swimming) and advantage on all checks to track, and unreduced speed in difficult terrain. Similar to the PF 2e version, ToV Rangers get a 1st-level power that increases damage against an enemy that the Ranger has magically marked as their prey. Fighting Style has been removed, but Rangers get a smaller version of Fighters' Martial Action ability. Primeval Awareness Empowered Mark has been moved from 3rd to 6th level, no longer costs a spell slot to use, has a range of only 60 feet, and can only be used against a marked enemy, but now reveals the enemy's exact location. Instead of an improved mundane hiding ability, Rangers can turn invisible. Feral Senses Keensense has been moved from 18th to 14th level.
• Rogues have their weapon proficiency redefined as all simple weapons and martial Finesse weapons. At 10th level, Rogues have the choice to either receive even less damage on saves or get a wider selection of Feats Talents. Critical damage increases at 13th and 17th levels. Slippery Mind has been removed. In the Thief subclass, the Supreme Sneak ability has been replaced with Appraising Eye, which lets the Rogue discern the properties of magical items at a glance. With the new Trap Specialist ability, 11th-level Rogues can attempt to disarm a trap (even a magical trap) as a reaction when it's activated.
• Sorcerers have their weapon proficiency expanded to all simple weapons. They know one fewer cantrip than D&D Sorcerers of equivalent level, but end up with one more spell slot for 6th- and 7th-level spells. Font of Magic has been moved from 2nd to 1st level. Sorcerers learn one more Metamagic option. Careful Spell can now protect more targets. Distant Spell has a longer range. Twinned Spell costs 1 more Sorcery Point. New Metamagic options let the Sorcerer increase a spell's area of effect, change a spell's damage type, cause half damage on a successful save, improve a spell attack roll, avoid losing concentration, or gain temporary hit points. Sorcerous Restoration Sorcerous Renewal has been moved from 20th to 5th level as a scaling ability. At 10th level, Sorcerers get the choice to either add a bonus to ability checks or learn a spell from another spell list. A 14th-level power lets Sorcerers absorb the energy from incoming spell attacks to regain Sorcery Points. At 20th level, Sorcerers can share the effect of ongoing spells with another creature. In the Draconic subclass, a few combat spells are added to the Sorcerer's repertoire depending on the selected lineage. Dragon Wings has been moved from 14th to 11th level. Draconic Presence has been replaced with Draconian Vengeance, a power that makes a target vulnerable to one type of energy damage.
• Warlocks gain proficiency with medium armor and shields. Warlocks now have a repertoire of known spells with the same progression as Rangers, and regain their spell slots only with a long rest. All Warlocks get Eldritch Blast by default, and its damage progression is faster. The progression of known Invocations is also faster at higher levels. Attack and damage rolls made with Pact of the Blade can use the Warlock's Charisma. The options for Pact of the Chain replace the sprite with the blink dog. At 3rd level, the redesigned Pact Magic ability lets the Warlock cast a few spells per day without expending spell slots. Later abilities include choices to add more known spells beyond the standard number. Mystic Arcanum is now an Invocation that must be selected. Eldritch Master can now be used during a turn of combat without expending an action. In the Fiend subclass, the extra known spells are mostly fire-themed. Dark One's Blessing grants more temporary hit points.
• Wizards have their weapon proficiency expanded to all simple weapons. Arcane Recovery no longer restricts higher spell slots. The new Magic Sense ability detects magical creatures, items, and effects within 30 feet. Signature Spells Rote Spells has been moved from 20th to 5th level. At 6th level, Wizards can swap some prepared spells with other spells from their spellbook. At 10th level, they can choose to learn either Rituals from other spell lists or spells from other spell lists. The new Spellguard ability grants advantage on saves against spells and resistance against spell damage. Spell Mastery can now be used only once per short rest, and only works with the spells selected as Rote Spells. The new Archmage ability gives Wizards a way to regain expended spell slots. Wizard subclasses don't seem to be tied to the traditional eight schools of magic. The one listed in the Reference Document is the Battle Mage tradition, which is similar to the way the Remaster version of PF 2e themes its Wizard subclasses. However, whereas the PF Battle Magic school just grants some extra known spells per level, the ToV Battle Mage offers a wider selection of Feats Talents, a power to create a magical shield around the Wizard, the option to exclude allies from the area of damaging spells, an ability that redirects the Wizard's failed spell attacks, and improved damage with spells.

ToV has taken several cues from how magic works in Pathfinder 2e. There are now just four spell lists: Arcane (Bards, Sorcerers, Wizards), Divine (Clerics, Paladins), Primordial (Druids, Rangers), and Wyrd (Warlocks). To avoid confusion between character levels and spell levels, the latter have been renamed spell circles. Rituals are now their own category of magic, counted separately from a PC's known spells.

An interesting new system in ToV is Weapon Options. These are combat maneuvers that can be performed with certain weapons. For example, the Hamstring maneuver is available with the sickle and the handaxe, while the Ricochet Shot maneuver is available with the sling. Many of these maneuvers exist in D&D 5e as class options for Fighters, but in ToV they're open to all characters.

Other noteworthy changes from D&D 5e include:

• The options for light armor add brigandine, described as made of metal-reinforced cloth. Armors are tagged with properties, such as Noisy, which gives Disadvantage on Stealth rolls, or Cumbersome, which require a minimum Strength to wear.
• The list of tools has been condensed. For example, what D&D classifies as carpenter's tools, mason's tools and woodcarver's tools is handled in ToV as a single set of construction tools.
• The limit of magic items that can be attuned to a character is now their proficiency bonus instead of a fixed number.
• ToV adds meticulously detailed rules for PCs who want to socialize, craft, research, train, or work. These rules are more generous than the much briefer ones in D&D 5e; for example, crafting progresses at a rate of 10 instead of 5 gold pieces per day, and training costs 1 gold piece per week instead of per day.

The last area where ToV improves upon D&D is in graphic design. The Conversion Guide mentions monster entries as a topic where special care was put into ease of readability, but the change can be felt all through the Reference Document. Even in the sections where the mechanics of the game remain the same as in D&D, the rules have been reworded for clarity and precision, the formatting of the text helps the eye catch the dependencies between sections and subsections, and the order in which topics are presented follows a more logical criterion of relevance. This is in marked contrast with D&D 5e's notoriously convoluted prose.

As I said above, Tales of the Valiant is not the only creation born from this movement to break away from the restraints of both the official Dungeons & Dragons rules and the licensing ambitions of Wizards of the Coast. Other 5e clones worth checking out are Level Up: Advanced 5e by EN Publishing, Iskandar by M.T. Black Games, and the upcoming project codenamed C7d20 by Cubicle Seven.

POSTED BY: Arturo Serrano, multiclass Trekkie/Whovian/Moonie/Miraculer, accumulating experience points for still more obsessions.

Baldur's Gate 3

A game with heart, soul and um... well definitely some other body parts too. It may be horny but there's plenty of good story underneath all the outrageous flirting.

Unless you've been living under a rock (in the metaphorical online sense), you've probably heard of Baldur's Gate 3 by now. It has been everywhere online. Inescapable. Especially if you're trying to avoid spoilers for it. It's won a plethora of awards, induced obsession in a mighty contingent of fans and got its studio banned on TikTok for a rather surprising romance scene with a shapeshifting druid. No, really.

Like many other internet goblins, I am absolutely feral for it, and so I'm going to use this review to tell you why that is. I could talk about gameplay (mostly fun, occasional blips), interface (don't talk to me about radials or inventory management), art (beautiful, consistent, thoughtful) or worldbuilding (necessarily shackled to D&D 5e IP, for good and for ill), but by the time I got to the end of working through every part of all that worth talking about, both you and I would have lost the will to live, and you'd be no closer to knowing if it's a game you might want to play, because you'd have been bored out of the ability to have opinions anymore. But I'll spare you that fate (I'm very kind), and instead focus down onto the core part of what makes this game sing for me, and why I think that might have worked for so many other people, especially people who are SFF readers generally, even if only casual gamers.

But before we get to that, a brief overview of what it is, for those who may not be in the know.

Effectively a D&D 5e simulator, the game has you either play through some predefined origin characters' story, or create your own character, and follow them as they wake up trapped on a mind-flayer ship (brain-eating floaty squid people), being infected with a parasite, and have to fight their way free and figure out what has happened to them and the others they find on the ship or in the crashsite who suffered the same fate, all while the threat of being turned into a mindflayer themselves hangs over the group. This of course leads to exploring various locations, meeting a bunch of people who give you information on what's going on, or just about themselves, offer you quests to follow or just decide to fight you. 

It fills that lovely niche of RPG that sits in between your full railroaded story, with a single pre-existing character you follow through a very set series of events, and the total open world chaos of something like Skyrim. Yes, there's a storyline to follow, and some points along the way are non-negotiable, but how you get there and how you handle those plot waypoints come with a fair degree of freedom of choice. You can be good, or evil, or somewhere in between, and there are paths available to you to get the job done in all ways (if the dice are kind).

This is... an almost distressingly underfilled niche, in my opinion. There are plenty of the more open-world style, freedom of play ones, that clearly appeal to many, but do not offer the same level of over-achieving school kid gold star and merit badge endorphins for doing the plot well that a more story-focussed game provides... but without feeling like you're just turning the pages of a slightly interactive novel. There needs to be some element of choice, some way to put your personal stamp on how events unfold, and variance in the endings that might come out of your choices, on both the macro and the personal scale. It's something that Bioware, for instance, has always done well, but isn't as common amongst the big hitter games as I would like it to be, so I'm very glad that Larian is here and doing us all a massive, Game Awards-winning favour. 

So, what is it that makes this one sing then? Why does it have its grubby little fingers hooked right into my brain holes?

It's the characters. Of course it's the characters.

Getting this bit out of the way first lest anyone think I'm burying the lede - yes, you can romance them, yes some of them are quite hot, yes there are spicy scenes... it's exactly that kind of RPG. And that's great! Romance is a really useful tool for character building, in my opinion, and one that is used to excellent effect here. But it's only subservient to the greater whole of the character building, progression and depth that the story offers you. Because the whole game is one big character thesis, when you look at it on the macro scale - how do people cope when someone or something in whom they put their faith, who had great power over them, chooses to misuse that faith of that power? It is, at its core, a story about a group of different people who have all lost some part of themselves to a cruel world, and are fighting to get it back, to avenge themselves and their lost self against the unfairness of it all, or simply make sure it never happens to another person in the same situation.

But because we have a wide range of characters from different backgrounds, with different skillsets and personalities, the way those different stories resolve can go in very different directions... and that's before the player comes in and starts tinkering with things.

You as the player character can have a huge amount of influence on these people who surround you, if you make the decisions that lead them to trust you, to value your opinion and your advice. And so you sit and the crux of all these stories, shifting them here and there to try to find the best possible outcome for everyone involved. What's "best"? Well, you have to decide that. And some of those decisions are deliciously difficult, weighted with consequences on both sides and unknown futures. The game has been very well created to be full of truly meaningful choices, where you only have partial information and have to go on hope and good faith, or be determined you'll make a game state where your good intentions bear fruit.

And, pleasingly, the game lets you deliver that, for the most part. If you promise your companion you will find a way to save them, the game will let you do that. There just may be a cost to it you hadn't forseen - for them, for you, or for those around you.

Which is all very well and good - who doesn't like playing god like that - but does the game do the work to make you care? To make you want to invest that time to give them all the resolutions they desperately need? You know I'm going to say "yes", but a thousand times yes. The characters are instantly... if not always likeable, relatable or sympathetic, then graspable. There's an imminent quality to all of them, something that leaps out of the screen and grabs you. Of course, this means some of them are annoying - what I love in a character does not appeal to the next man - but there are enough of them, and all well enough done, that there's someone for every taste there to be glommed onto. And, travelling through, the process of learning more about the characters you don't like reveals enough about them, their backgrounds, their reasons for being who and how they are, that it becomes increasingly difficult not to sympathise with them, just a little.

Some of this is down to the frankly gorgeous voice acting. BG3 cleared up at the Game Awards, but one of its most deserved wins was Neil Newbon, voice actor for the companion Astarion, getting Best Performance. The character has been the darling of the budding online fandom since early access, and it's hard not to see why, even if it's not a character type you tend to enjoy (a category I count myself very much in). But he's instantly characterful on screen, from the moment you meet him, a sassy, snarky, slightly power hungry and definitely amoral pointy bastard... easy to love or to hate... and then you start to get his backstory develop, little morsels and tidbits slowly doled out whether in conversation or passive dialogue or moments of revelation as you uncover information throughout the game, and you are steadily devastated by what you begin to see under the surface. There are some moments of powerful rawness in his dialogue as the game progresses, and so however annoying he is, at times (often deliberately), the damned actor makes him impossible to actually dislike over the long term. It's incredibly rude.

Much the same can be said for the majority of the companions, with hilarious, heart-warming, and horrifying performances also available from a host of villains, NPCs and minor characters you meet throughout the game. Because there are so! many! good! ones! There's Dammon, a tiefling weaponsmith currently having to make do without a forge but who really wants to help your friend with her infernal engine problem (he's a sweetie and I love him). There's Devella, a rather harried investigator in the city who would really like to just be allowed to solve the damn crimes. There's that mysterious ox who- wait... did he just say "moo"? There's a juvenile crime gang who would be very happy to have your investment. There's a cat who wonders if you have time to hear about our lord and saviour Sharess. At every point in the game there are characters given a genuine and thoughtful presence and strong voice work, and they make the game feel truly and utterly peopled in a meaningful way.

Because it is, fundamentally, a game about people. It is not one single narrative, but a woven set of them, flowing in and out of each other and the vast many surrounding ones, that the player controls and shapes to make, hopefully, the finished tapestry they want at the end. If you care about people, about characters, then this may well be a game for you.

And I think this is exactly why it has had such instant and thorough appeal, especially in the SFF space more broadly - that appeal to character rather than the focus on gameplay makes it instantly accessible even outside of a gaming-specific sphere. And with D&D many years into a popular resurgence, and in a space full of D&D adjacent media, it's a very easy setting to be willing to get sucked into for the sake of those character stories. Add to that the turn-based combat that, while not easy (and indeed at some points incredibly tricky and tactical), takes out some of the anxiety-inducing learning curve horror out of picking up the game when it might not be something you'd normally take to, and I think it's clear why this has been such a wide-reaching hit.

And don't get me wrong, if you're more of a gamer there's plenty here to love too. One of the highlights of the gameplay for me were a few specific scenarios with their own amended rules - save people from a burning building before it collapses, for instance, or defend a portal against all comers long enough for your ally to go in and return - that mixed up the rules you're used to and give you something new to chew on. There are some well-constructed puzzles, some truly challenging boss fights and some fun ways to solve problems in interesting ways (the number of videos online of people blowing everything up with barrels of smokepowder is a testament to the ingenuity and patience of players, if not always their good sense).

The broader storyline, too, is pretty compelling, and manages a very very well-paced progression through its three acts, with nary a lagging section of grinding to be found, and a very satisfying ending, at least since patch 5 gave us the epilogue we really deserved.

This is not an inventory, this is a MESS

There are problems with it, I am forced to admit. It isn't a perfect game. Inventory management, especially on console, is a chore and worse, and by the time you get to the higher levels, scrolling through all of your available actions, spells and things you might want to throw at someone in combat takes a heck of a time. There are also some issues in terms of whose stories get told, and how much - if we could all stop making games where the black character gets less screen time than the others that would be grand please and thank - as well as issues with the 5e IP behind it all - goblins and drow, need I say more? I am not saying it will be a perfect experience for every player, with no moments of unwarranted frustration or irritation, because that would be a lie. And, if you play a paladin, be prepared to save scum like you've never save scummed before because you will break your oath and you will have absolutely no bloody clue how you managed it half the time.

So if all you want is sheer technical perfection, then it may not be for you, but this game has heart, soul and er... some other body parts too. But if you're prepared to buy into those character arcs, and if you want to spend time with a raggedy bunch of misfits who will absolutely steal your heart along with your wallet? Then those niggles may well be worth the cost. They certainly were for me, no matter how many bad words were uttered throughout the course of trying to figure out where that one scroll I absolutely knew I had was, or having to reload several hours of play time back because of that bloody oath and not having quicksaved like it was going out of fashion. Because I did love the characters. I loved them all, by the end. And when I finished, I immediately fired up the character creator again, because I wanted nothing more than to go back, and find all the myriad little bits of game I inevitably missed in this rich, chaotic web of glorious nonsense I had found myself in.

It's a hard one to put numbers on, but since it's how we roll here, I shall do my best to oblige. I can see the problems that do exist in it, and I recognise them, making it an 8/10 with the head... but a 10/10 with the heart, enamoured as she is of sad fuck-wizards, warlocks with daddy issues, cinnamon-roll barbarians, angry lizard-women and bitchy amnesiac goth-girls. So it gets a 9/10 in the compromise, and a definite endorsement to give it a go if you've been wondering what all the fuss is about.

Microreview[Graphic Novel]: Real Hero Shit by Kendra Wells

 A genuinely funny romp through an RPG-style world, with enough meat under the comedy to be a really substantial read.

Real Hero Shit follows a fairly standard RPG style group on a mission to investigate shady goings on, while we explore the group dynamics and get to know (and love) the characters along the way. We have the mysterious elven rogue leader of the group, who is quiet and determined to get the mission done. We have the badass cleric with a massive hammer who seems nice... right up until e sees someone doing a Bad, and then we see es angry, disappointed and well armed side come through. We have the extremely grompy sorceror who is done with everyone's shit. And we have... Eugene, the inexplicably purple and horned prince of the realm who's bored of fucking around in the literal sense, so is trying it in the metaphorical one for a nice change of pace.

It's very much the introductory volume of the story - we follow Eugene getting to know the rest of the party and exploring the world, while they undertake a relatively simple quest to see why people are going missing in a nearby town. And purely in terms of the story any worldbuilding, it's nothing stunningly original. We seem to be in approximately fantasy pseudo-medieval Europe for our tech level, fashion and general vibes, with modern vernacular, modern attitudes to sex (and the casual having thereof) and modern gender and sexual mores.

The latter point is one of the things that really makes this book stand out for me.

D&D has got quite queer recently. I've only been playing for six or so years, and the shift has been visible even in the time I've been involved in it. It is really enjoyable then to see stories written in D&D style worlds and modes that really reflect what the hobby is for many players. Real Hero Shit is precisely that. We have bi characters, gay characters, characters whose gender is not confined to the male/female binary, without any of it feeling like it's a big deal. It's a story where it feels like... well it's D&D, of course it's queer as heck.

Which isn't to say it's alone in this - it's something plenty of D&D/RPG inspired stories are doing at the moment, as the literature around the hobby catches up to much of the playerbase - but it's still not the dominant mode enough, at least in what I'm seeing, that it remains refreshing. 

Likewise, it's a story willing to put its politics front and centre. This is not a party full of murder-hobos, or people whose moralities wander hither and thither depending what the story needs. We start out with a clear mandate to find the missing villagers, and that's the driving narrative and moral tone that carries us through. This is particularly useful for making the cleric character, Hocus, feel like a bedded in member of the party. So often, paladin and clerics are odd ones out, either slightly compromised (or maybe simply non-standard) in their portrayal of their character archetypes, or else constantly at low key odds with the rest of the party who want to do crimes have adventures. But because we come in with this clear mandate that we are, indeed, doing real hero shit, Hocus feels truly part of the group, and we never have reason to doubt em and es cohesion with everyone else.

But the thing that really makes it stand out is the humour - it is, while being at points serious, absolutely laugh out loud funny. And almost all of that humour is down to Eugene. Eugene is a horny, low attention span, well-meaning yet utterly spoilt lovable idiot. Eugene flirts with everyone. Eugene has no filter. Eugene will piss everyone off and apparently not notice. And it makes for great comedy that isn't complicated or particularly clever, but is hitting the mark time after time. Some of its success is simply that it is willing to acknowledge that the story, the setting and the characters are inherently ridiculous and just... embrace it. And some of it is leaning into the ridiculousness super hard with a knowing wink to the reader and a vibe of "I know your mind went there too". It feels like the author is colluding with you while reading, in the way of good D&D parties everywhere with players who make each other cackle and escalate their shenanigans.

It's not perfect though; there are some weaknesses. Critically, the worldbuilding feels somewhat underdone, and relies heavily on giving you the broad strokes (are we in typical D&D fantasy medieval land? Yes we are!) and then letting you assume the rest from this shorthand. And obviously that does work - medieval fantasyland has been so thoroughly done and done and done that you don't need to spell it out for the reader to get the gist. But it's nice if you do. When so much of what you're doing just rests on those familiar tropes, except in the moment where you're doing something different, the worldbuilding does start to feel somewhat low effort. It's not nothing, and we do begin to see peeks here and there of details of what Wells' world has to offer, but it's always a light touch rather than anything approaching a deep dive, and it does feel at times like it would benefit from a bit more exposition and originality, just to flesh things out a bit.

Of course, this is only the first book in what feels inevitably likely to be a series, so we can't expect to have everything spelled out straight off the bat. But at the same time, there has to be enough to pull you in, to make you want to learn more about the world, and it does feel like Wells has barely got us there while they focussed on other things, with a few tidbits at the end dangled as a hook to lead us into volume two. It's a very slim volume, and I think we could have stood a little slow down on the pace to do the grounding now, rather than the risk of crowding in exposition later when it will, hopefully inevitably, be needed for events to be fully embedded in the world, or worse, risk that it never comes through as fully as we need, and the story fizzles out after the excitement of volume one.

That being said, there was enough that I want to read volume 2 - enthusiastically so - so for all my grumbling, they did clearly do enough for it to work, just about.

In the same vein, while I have no real complaints about the art style, which is absolutely fine for the story it's telling and the characters it's building, neither do I have any real praises to sing either. It's perfectly cute, functional and dynamic, but it's not going to stick with me for years to come, and nor is it going to be the reason I push this into someone else's hands.

But I am going to be pushing it into people's hands. And that's because the combination of the characters, the humour and just feeling incredibly reflective of D&D as it is now was a joy to read. It has flaws, it's not perfect, but the core of what it was doing was so wonderful, I'm entirely happy excusing them for the time spent with these people. They made me laugh, time and again, and they made me sad that the book was only as small as it was, because I just wanted to spend more time getting to know them and seeing their dynamics. And it's that chemistry, the spark between characters, that really grabs you while reading. Like a good D&D session, one that really sticks with you, it's a story full of people who just vibe with each other, in different ways, and that's what makes it all work out.

--

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 6/10

Bonuses: +2 amazing characters that make you want to spend time with them, +1 laugh out loud funny

Penalties: -1 not enough worldbuilding to tell me why this isn't just off the shelf medieval fantasy Europe

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10

Reference:  Kendra Wells, Real Hero Shit [Iron Circus Comics, 2022]

POSTED BY: Roseanna Pendlebury, the humble servant of a very loud cat. @chloroform_tea

A look back at Ancestry & Culture, an Alternative to Race in 5e

OneD&D still doesn't know how to fix the game's long-standing racism problem, but an independent publisher already offered a solution two years ago

Must all elves know how to shoot bows? Must all dwarves be talented at masonry? Must all halfings have a knack for sneaking where they're not supposed to?

All these are more learned than inherited traits, yet Dungeons & Dragons has consistently failed to acknowledge the difference. It was Tolkien who first popularized the image of elves as ethereal paragons of beauty and orcs as savages basically made of evil, but in the decades since Tolkien, Dungeons & Dragons has reinforced and cemented that bioessentialist paradigm in the popular consciousness.

The current owner of the D&D brand, Wizards of the Coast, has been taking tiny steps toward removing the problematic implications of bioessentialist descriptions of fantasy creatures. Last year, errata files were published that removed default moral alignments from playable characters and some monsters. This change aims to do away with the decades-long trope that certain populations of intelligent beings are innately evil. Of course, attributing one single moral stance to an entire people is not only lazy storytelling, but also an extremely dangerous mindset with real historical consequences. So, for example, sending the heroes to raid an orc encampment just because they're orcs and they must be killed on sight is no longer an acceptable plot point. It's bad enough that Tolkien reinvented orcs as the incarnation of a plethora of Orientalist clichés; we don't need to add on top of it the idea that there's a group of people whom it's always OK to kill.

However, this update to the rules did little to correct the fundamental problem, which is linking behavior to lineage. In the Fifth Edition Player's Handbook, the description of elves still says they "love nature and magic, art and artistry, music and poetry, and the good things of the world," while halflings "are easily moved to pity and hate to see any living thing suffer," and half-orcs "are not evil by nature, but evil does lurk within them." You'd think these behaviors must have a cultural origin, which would make them contingent and malleable, but the manual treats them as fixed elements of their respective heritages.

In a further attempt to separate characters' cultural and biological traits, Wizards of the Coast has recently released playtest material for an overhaul of the Fifth Edition rules. This new project, called OneD&D, consists so far in a revision of the steps for character creation. The proposed update would take into account a character's background in addition to their ancestry (an approach that competitor game Pathfinder has been using since 2019). For example, a character with the Cleric class and the Acolyte background would begin play with different skills and proficiencies compared to another Cleric with the Pilgrim background.

While this system is a move in the right direction, it's definitely not enough, and in some respects it goes backwards. The OneD&D playtest links languages to backgrounds, resulting in absurd assumptions such as all characters with the Farmer background speaking Halfling, or all Hermits speaking Sylvan. It still carries heavy bioessentialist baggage to designate Draconic as the language of nobility or Goblin as the language of warfare. And the core ancestries of the game keep much of the original problem: dwarves are still assumed to be trained in forge tools (presumably from birth), gnomes instinctively know how to magically create a tiny machine, and halflings are born with Stealth proficiency. And when it comes to characters of mixed heritage, the suggested mechanics make no sense, and the text reaches a degree of exoticization you'd expect from a 1980s game.

D&D has a lot of catching up to do. Strangely, it still uses the term "race" to refer to Tolkien's canonical humanoid species. Replacing "race" with literally any other descriptor should be the very first step to keep D&D relevant to future generations of players, and the immediate next step should be to pay attention to the inexcusable missteps that keep occurring and keep damaging the good faith the game has cultivated.

This discussion is by no means new, and fans have been thinking of alternatives faster than Wizards of the Coast can make up its mind. In 2020, independent publisher Arcanist Press saw the problem with D&D "races" and launched an unofficial supplement: Ancestry & Culture, which contains a clearer, more practical set of rules for character creation. The approach is, in a nutshell, what it says in the book's title: each character is born from a certain lineage and is raised in a certain culture, and the two can be freely chosen in any combination. Biological traits are limited to lifespan, size, speed, senses, monstrous body parts, and when aplicable, physical resistance to damage. Cultural traits refer to everything that comes from education and training: languages, weapon proficiencies, ability score increases, and starting cantrips. So, if you want, you can have an elf raised by tieflings, a dragonborn raised by humans, an orc raised by gnomes, and so on. Notably (and rightly), alignment is neither an inherited nor a learned trait. Alignment is a strictly individual matter, unrelated to whichever society your character comes from.

Furthermore, Ancestry & Culture contains remarkably sensible (and sensitive) rules for creating characters born with mixed lineage and/or raised in a multicultural environment. If you've ever wanted to roleplay the child of a halfling and an orc who grew up near a dwarf-gnome border, this supplement is exactly what you need. For an even more granular method of character creation, there's an appendix for you to build your own combination of cultural traits. As unofficial material, it only includes the ancestries enumerated in the Open Gaming License, but, anticipating the players' understandable wish to adapt other ancestries to this system, the author explains how to generalize the application of these principles.

The standard of quality of this supplement received the highest endorsement when it won two ENNIE awards: Best Electronic Book and Best Supplement, in addition to a nomination for Product of the Year. Since the publication of Ancestry & Culture, Arcanist Press has gone on to launch half a dozen other similar rulesets, with a total of over a hundred alternative ancestries to choose from. As a final treat, Ancestry & Culture includes two playable adventures, one centered on protecting a multicultural city, and one about convincing various peoples to cooperate.

So we don't need to wait for Wizards of the Coast to learn its lesson. We're living in the middle of an explosion of creativity in the roleplaying community, and it's evident that players and independent creators have moved on from the outdated mindset the game was created with.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 8/10.

Bonuses: +1 for beautiful character illustrations that show precisely how the various combinations of bloodline and upbringing can produce wonderfully unique stories.

Nerd Coefficient: 9/10.

POSTED BY: Arturo Serrano, multiclass Trekkie/Whovian/Moonie/Miraculer, accumulating experience points for still more obsessions.

Reference: Marshall, Gwendolyn. Ancestry & Culture: an Alternative to Race in 5e [Arcanist Press, 2020].