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00:00:00 – 00:47:22
Monty Martin and Kelly McLin from Dungeon Dudes discuss creating a new crafting system for their book, Monsters of Dremin, adding over 150 new monsters. They aim for an intuitive crafting system allowing custom magic items using parts from defeated monsters. The system emphasizes storytelling and player engagement, not economic simulation. Players collect monster parts, create animus-infused items, with workshops facilitating crafting. They stress the unique, personal aspect of crafting, drawing inspiration from video games to make crafting meaningful and special. The system disallows excessive item farming and encourages storytelling through crafted items reflecting the monsters overcome. The creators are eager to involve viewers and Kickstarter backers in the crafting system, offering exclusive previews and rewards.
00:00:00
In this segment of the video, Monty Martin and Kelly McLin from Dungeon Dudes discuss the importance of crafting systems in DND games and their plans to create a new crafting system for their upcoming book, Monsters of Dremin. They mention how they will introduce over 150 new monsters inspired by dark fantasy and cosmic horror for their book. The new crafting system aims to be more intuitive and engaging, offering players the opportunity to create bespoke magic items using accumulated downtime and gold. They emphasize the need for crafting systems that go beyond basic hit points, providing lore and personality traits for monsters that can enhance storytelling and gameplay. Additionally, they share details about their upcoming Kickstarter campaign for Monsters of Dremin, which includes previews of monsters and magic items, as well as special perks for early backers.
00:05:00
In this segment of the video, the speaker discusses the problems with magic item crafting in tabletop role-playing games, particularly in DND, highlighting the arduous and abstract nature of many crafting systems. They emphasize the desire for crafting to feel special and personal, allowing players to create custom items instead of relying solely on purchasing or finding them randomly. The speaker draws inspiration from video games like Valheim, The Witcher 3, and Legend of Zelda for crafting ideas. They propose a crafting system without downtime or gold piece costs, focusing on having cool parts to make cool items and infusing items with significance based on the monsters defeated. The speaker advocates against incorporating grindy video game-style crafting in a tabletop RPG setting and underscores the importance of crafting feeling special and unique to the player characters.
00:10:00
In this segment of the video, the speaker discusses crafting systems in gameplay, emphasizing that crafting should focus on the sense of accomplishment rather than economic simulation. The crafting system described is player-focused for adventurers, not for profiting from item sales. The goal is to create a system that inspires adventures, tells stories, and rewards characters with a sense of accomplishment. The core premise is to fight monsters, collect parts, and craft items that narratively reflect the process rather than relying on gold, downtime, or skill checks. Recipes for magic items involve collecting parts from monsters, with varying levels of rarity and specificity dictating the complexity of the creations.
00:15:00
In this segment of the video, the discussion revolves around creating special and unique magical items in a Dungeons and Dragons game. The focus is on the concept of recipes for these items, where players need to collect specific parts from monsters, such as bones, organs, blood, hide, natural weapons, ash, and more. The rarity and power of the items depend on the monster’s challenge rating, with higher-rated monsters yielding rarer parts. Players can obtain recipes by purchasing them from shops, completing quests for craftsmen, or through special encounters, adding depth to the game’s economy and quest system. The idea of researching potential item creations is also touched upon, incorporating a mechanic that does not rely on dice rolls. The system emphasizes the need to acquire between four and ten parts to craft different items, with more bespoke items requiring unique and specific components.
00:20:00
In this segment of the video, the discussion focuses on a crafting system where players can harvest parts from monsters they defeat. Each character can harvest one part within a 10-minute time limit to prevent magical potency loss. The DM can decide if multiple players want the same part. This system aims to prevent excessive item farming by limiting the number of parts players can collect per monster. The system encourages crafting potions and scrolls frequently, while more unique magic items like swords and armor may require multiple adventures to craft. The focus is on looting monster parts specifically, not humanoid enemies, to maintain the system’s theme. Different categories of parts, including specific and general components, are highlighted to give players crafting options.
00:25:00
In this segment of the video, the focus is on a crafting system involving the concept of “animus.” Animus serves as the magical essence that empowers items to be magical by capturing the essence of dead creatures in delirium crystals. The crafting system balances by requiring larger crystals for more powerful monsters. Players can collect rare gemstones like a vampire’s animus and a specific gemstone that corresponds to the creature. The number of magic items a party gets is limited by how many vessels containing animus and recipes they find. Delirium, a valuable and dangerous resource, can be sold for gold or used in crafting. Players are expected to craft a new magic item every level, corresponding to the appropriate tier of monsters. A mechanic for disenchanting and upgrading items is mentioned. “Trophies” from high CR monsters act as unique components for legendary items, creating an Adventure requirement. The crafting process requires players to bring components to an appropriate workshop for assembly, similar to mechanics in games like Valheim and World of Warcraft.
00:30:00
In this part of the video, the speaker discusses the concept of workshops for crafting items of different rarities in the game. They suggest having workshops like forges or laboratories that allow players to build items of a specific rarity or lower. Common and uncommon workshops could be found in most towns, while rare workshops might be in special locations like a mag’s tower or a Dwarven city. Legendary items could be crafted in extraordinary places like a wizard’s workshop in The Space Between Worlds or in a planar rift on the moon, with the idea of a combat encounter during crafting. The speaker mentions the importance of not making the crafting process too grindy by abstracting the gathering of materials and incorporating adventure hooks to unlock workshops. Ultimately, the process involves obtaining the recipe, gathering components from monsters, visiting a cool workshop, and creating a unique item through a relatively short duration, potentially even during a long rest.
00:35:00
In this part of the video, the creators discuss how they developed a system for creating magic items that involves collecting specific components from various creatures. They provide examples of unique magic items, such as a bow made from banshee hair, fairy bones, vampire blood, and an ectoplasm core. They also explore the idea of crafting musical instruments using monster parts, like a harp made from fay hair and Minotaur ivory. Additionally, they explain the process of designing a generic plus one weapon requiring an animus, bones, natural weapons, hide, and a magical fluid. They suggest potential variations for creating rare or very rare magic items by adding elements like Elemental dust. This system allows Dungeon Masters to easily create custom magic items for their campaigns.
00:40:00
In this segment of the video, the speaker discusses crafting elemental weapons like potions, scrolls, and items using monster parts. They mention the concept of health potions having personalized recipes, spell scrolls being inscribed on monster skin, and harvesting monster parts for crafting. The system ties monster challenge ratings to item rarity, with player characters harvesting one part per encounter. The crafting system is seen as story-driven, intuitive, and engaging for players, allowing for customized adventures and item creation within the campaign. The speaker emphasizes the interactive nature of this system compared to traditional downtime-based crafting in D&D. The segment concludes with excitement over potential endgame scenarios where characters are outfitted with unique, crafted gear like the cloak of a harpy or the helm of a beholder.
00:45:00
In this part of the video, the creators discuss the importance of the crafting system in their game Monsters of Drenim. They mention that the crafting system is about showcasing the adventures players have been on and the monsters they have defeated. They emphasize that their system is not an economic simulator and is designed for adventuring parties. They encourage viewers to provide feedback on the system and to join their VIP Discord for sneak peeks of the book. Additionally, early backers on Kickstarter can receive a free set of dice. The creators invite viewers to share their thoughts on the system and any cool items they have created using monster parts. They also mention their DND actual play Campaign on YouTube and other videos discussing home brewing in D&D and TTRPGs.