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The Island of Lost 5e Monsters: The Axebeak and The Catoblepas

Mark S. Cookman

Feb 3, 2016
3 min

The Island of Lost 5e Monsters: The Axebeak and The Catoblepas

A couple of weeks ago, I made a post here concerning some old school monsters that did not appear in the D&D 5e Monster Manual. I have decided to make this a semi-regular feature of the blog, so let us return to the misty shores of the Island of Lost 5e Monsters to see what we can find. Ah, look there, towards the swamp. Two perfect examples of lost monsters, the axebeak and the catoblepas. Let's row in a little closer to get a better look at them, but quietly. We wouldn't w

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A Collection of Pirate Treasures for All

Mark S. Cookman

Feb 2, 2016
4 min

A Collection of Pirate Treasures for All

I was recently asked about the books that I had read as inspiration and for information about the nautical and pirate stuff that I write. Here are some of the books and webpages that have led me to the twisted paths that I write upon. This is by no means a complete list and it doesn't even touch upon the wealth of material available in film. That's an entirely different post for a different day. There's a little in the way of fiction in the list below, most of what is below f

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Alternate Sailor Backgrounds for D&D 5e: The Fisherman / Whaler

Mark S. Cookman

Jan 27, 2016
4 min

Alternate Sailor Backgrounds for D&D 5e: The Fisherman / Whaler

For my own D&D 5e campaign, which is based mostly upon the high seas of various worlds, one background for a generic sailor just didn't work. On the coast, everyone sails. Because there are many different types of sailors and nautical personalities, I felt that there needed to be more variety than just one generic sailor so I created five additional nautical backgrounds to supplement the original sailor/pirate. They are the merchant sailor/smuggler, the marine, the fisherman/

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13 Pirate Hunting Ships Plus Their Captains and Crews

Mark S. Cookman

Jan 21, 2016
5 min

13 Pirate Hunting Ships Plus Their Captains and Crews

War is coming to the pirates. The powers that be, whether they are kings, elves, clerics, or colonial barons, can suffer these scalliwags' assaults upon civilization itself no more. Pirate hunters are to be dispatched to seek out these evil men and put an end to them either by bringing them to the noose or by putting them to the sword. The ships below alternate between the HMS designation and simply a name, but they were all once British warships patrolling the waters of the

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A Return to Things Piratical - 20 Prizes that Weren't Worth Winning

Mark S. Cookman

Jan 19, 2016
5 min

A Return to Things Piratical - 20 Prizes that Weren't Worth Winning

With the return this week of the Starz series Black Sails, I thought it best to return to this blog's true roots~desperate piracy. Being a pirate is very hard work and it's usually work done with little or no reward. The phrase "No prey - No pay" was common in the articles of those desperate enough to "go on the account". All pirates dream of the rich merchantman who gives over after they are shown the black flag, but such things are rare indeed. More likely is a costly figh

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With the Lurker Above and the Trapper Below, How's Anybody Supposed to Survive?

Mark S. Cookman

Jan 15, 2016
3 min

With the Lurker Above and the Trapper Below, How's Anybody Supposed to Survive?

After my post on Mimics, I was going to do another one detailing some Lurkers Above and Trappers. I began by searching through the 5th Edition Monster Manual to "get a baseline" on these tricky monsters, but was shocked to find them missing. So I pulled out my OG 1st Edition Monster Manual and looked them up to refresh my memory. A quick review of their statistics left little doubt as to why these creatures hadn't been included in the newest edition of Dungeons and Dragons --

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Mark S. Cookman

Jan 13, 2016
3 min

20 Mimics Ready to Eat Your PC's

Apologies to all for my long absense; I have been quite ill for some time, but have finally shaken the bug that I was sure was going to be my end. As a tribute to the illness that snuck up on me and then nearly killed me, I have decided to make my first post of 2016 about monsters that try to do the same thing to adventurers everywhere: Mimics. The Monster Manual describes mimics as shapeshifting predators able to take on the forms of inanimate objects to attract prey to them

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A Witch-y Double Feature: Ingredients and Curses

Mark S. Cookman

Oct 29, 2015
5 min

A Witch-y Double Feature: Ingredients and Curses

Another double-feature set for your halloween-themed games. Staying with the theme of witches, allow me to present for your enjoyment 20 Eerie Components for Witches Spells and 20 Dark Rites of the Coven. Witches always seem to be the most trouble either when they are brewing up evil in their cauldrons or when they gather together in numbers to perform dark rituals. This double-feature allows you to prepare for both. Witches can cast spells, make minor hexes, brew potions, an

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Gobbits - The Special Servants of Witches in October

Mark S. Cookman

Oct 23, 2015
3 min

Gobbits - The Special Servants of Witches in October

Halloween is a time for children and the young at heart to explore what frightens them. Keeping with this central core of Halloween is today's post. The idea behind the Gobbits is to create a small monster that is more disgusting than dangerous and more funny than horrible to help introduce younger players to the game. This is not to say that Gobbits are for novices only; a devious GM could easily wreak havoc with a few of them, even against experienced players. Without furth

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Mark S. Cookman

Oct 22, 2015
3 min

20 Tools of the Prepared Witch Hunter

Witches are a problem no matter what time of year it is, but they always seem to get thicker in number as Halloween grows closer. Today's post explores what tools the prepared witch hunter keeps close at hand in order to triumph over all of the various forces of darkness that the great adversary unleashes upon the righteous. Whether the items listed below are advice from an experienced hunter to novice one, seeds for artifacts to be located by your PC's, or just something one

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20 Ways to Scare with Skulls and Skeletons

Mark S. Cookman

Oct 21, 2015
3 min

20 Ways to Scare with Skulls and Skeletons

Here's more halloween fun for you RPG GM's, this time in the form of skulls and skeletons. Here are 20 different ways that you can use skulls and/or skeletons to scare your players -- or at least dress up your adventure a bit, even if you don't scare them. Be warned that some might find this list to be graphic because it deals with parts of dead people. Knowing that you have been duly warned that horrifying elements could await you, I humbly present one of my smaller closets.

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Mark S. Cookman

Oct 20, 2015
3 min

20 Ghosts to Haunt Your Castle

In my quest to make certain that you have as many items as possible to help you create a better Halloween adventure for yourself and your players, I considered that you might need some ghosts to haunt your castle, manor house, sage's mansion, and/or haunted house. Here are 20 spooky encounters with spirits to dress up your haunt. Most of these are just servants or side-line spooks for whatever your main event is, but hopefully they will give you a good idea or two. As always,

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Mark S. Cookman

Oct 17, 2015
4 min

A Library for Your Haunted Castle

We're here again to discuss more scary things to use for your own horror games in whatever setting they might be in. The usual number of items for these posts is 20, but because I have been so lax in posting lately I thought you deserved more, so I decided to give you a library of spooky tomes. If you mix and match the elements below, you will be able to create a wall full of interesting books to be found in a spooky old manor, alchemist's lab, or wizard's tower in nearly no

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Mark S. Cookman

Oct 8, 2015
3 min

20 Grisly Scenes of Murder

Sometimes an excellent horror story must start with (or will enventually involve) a horrifying crime scene. Below are 20 scenes of murder most foul for you to use in your rpg's or horror stories. Be warned that these descriptions are NOT meant for minors and might be upsetting to you. Now that you have been duly warned, here are 20 Grisly Scenes of Murder. Enjoy! Something took a very large bite out of this streetwalker. Large as in half of her chest is gone. All that remains

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20 Different Types of Ghosts to Tell Stories About

Mark S. Cookman

Oct 6, 2015
5 min

20 Different Types of Ghosts to Tell Stories About

What would October be without ghost stories? I don't even want to know. I grew up on ghost stories and I love them. Don't get me wrong though, I don't want to talk about religion or life after death. I certainly don't want to get into any kind of scientific/religious/philosophical debate about whether or not ghosts really exist. I just want to talk about ghosts like those that appear in ghost stories or rpg's. Researchers of paranormal phenomena (again, remember that we are h

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An October Double-Feature: 20 Haunted House Dressings & 13 Devils for Dancing

Mark S. Cookman

Oct 5, 2015
7 min

An October Double-Feature: 20 Haunted House Dressings & 13 Devils for Dancing

I love october. I love fall, halloween, and scary movies. Today, you get a double-feature. Two tables instead of just one. The first is a collection of haunted furnishings for a haunted house. The second is a list of 13 Devils, with a short description about each one, that you might find useful for your horror games, if you do that sort of thing. If not, then hopefully you will just enjoy the read. Haunted houses are creepy because bizarre things happen inside them. In any go

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Mark S. Cookman

Oct 2, 2015
3 min

20 Things in the Lair of the Mummy King

For the past few blog posts we have been exploring the desert, but as that old song says "all good things must come to an end" and so it must be with our exploration of the desert. With the beginning of October upon us, we will move our focus to monsters and their lairs. The mysterious Mummy King, rumored to entombed in the deep desert, and his lair seems the perfect way both to close out the desert tables and to bring in the monster tables. The caravan master doesn't know w

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Mark S. Cookman

Sep 29, 2015
1 min

20 Desert Terrain Features

As we learned in a previous post, caravan masters make the big bucks because they can successfully navigate the desert and its numerous hazards. If you think that a desert is nothing but a bunch of shifting sand, then prepare to be enlightened. Deserts are complex places, often with multiple types of terrain. Truly, the desert is the "first step" of a desert-based campaign. While no desert may contain all of the geographic features listed below, all deserts have more than one

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Mark S. Cookman

Sep 27, 2015
3 min

The Build-A-Caravan Workshop

It would be extremely foolish to take thousands of gold pieces worth of trade goods out into the desert and lose them. We must assume therefore that caravan masters know their job and how to accomplish it. In today's blog post, we will examine some of the different elements that the GM must consider when creating a desert caravan. Specifically, we will examine the five major questions that must be answered and review some possible answers to those questions. Let's start with

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Mark S. Cookman

Sep 24, 2015
2 min

20 Trade Goods in the Desert Caravan

Last time we learned about some of the animals that might await the PC's in the desert. This time we will examine the trade goods that might be carried by a desert trade caravan. Next time we will examine the elements that make up a trade caravan. Until then, make sure your PC's keep their grubby paws off the merchandise, as most likely they are caravan guards, not rich merchants who own the merchandise. It might be funny for them to learn that the merchants believe that losi

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BLACK SHARK ENTERPRISES