Later this yr, we’ll be introducing our new hardcover guide, Secrets and techniques of the Tome. Right here’s a take a look at the guide’s introduction.
Introduction: Misplaced Secrets and techniques
In the most effective role-playing periods—those that turn into gaming group legends—what you keep in mind finest is the story. Who betrayed whom? What villain stood on the edge of victory earlier than that final, determined gamble?
That story wouldn’t be half so efficient with out the sport’s mechanics—the principles that convey the story to life. The principles act as a scaffolding that lets the story climb larger and better. In any case, that last-minute twist wouldn’t have been attainable if somebody hadn’t rolled that pure 20!
Secrets and techniques of the Tome (SotT) is a sourcebook for Degree Up: Superior fifth Version and D&D fifth Version. We hope that this guide follows within the footsteps of these nice periods. We’ve obtained a whole lot of new mechanics on your 5E or A5E recreation—subclasses, spells, and magic gadgets—however it all begins with the story.
Outdated Worlds to Discover
It is a guide about forgotten secrets and techniques: spells, magic treasures, and historic magical traditions all misplaced to time. A few of these secrets and techniques had been the keystones of a previous golden age. And a few of them… properly, some issues are higher off staying misplaced.
When one thing has vanished from our world, the place does it go? In Chapter 1 of Secrets and techniques of the Tome, we discover a land of unrecoverable ruins; forgotten gods and heroes; misplaced works of literature; and left socks that unaccountably went lacking within the wash. All of those discover their strategy to the Wasteland, a cosmic rubbish dump between the planes. And there these forgotten relics stay, changing into much less and fewer actual as reminiscences fade, till they tumble into the Gyre, time’s hungry maw from which nothing can return.
However the place there’s misplaced treasure, there are treasure hunters. A number of mortal adventurers go to the Wasteland, braving annihilation within the hope of retrieving highly effective secrets and techniques. In Chapters 2 and three, we meet a few of these iconic heroes: a scholarly lich, a druid of the Outdated Methods, a sorcerer from past the celebrities, and extra. Every of those heroes (or antiheroes) represents a distinct magical custom, and every is an NPC that your heroes might meet, make offers with, and even battle. They could carry secrets and techniques (uncommon spells from chapter 4? Magic traditions from chapter 2 and three? Misplaced tomes from chapter 5?) that tempt your characters to go to the Wasteland. However beware: discovering your approach into the Wasteland could also be easy, however it’s not such a simple place to depart.
The secrets and techniques discovered within the Wasteland could also be world-shattering. In Chapter 5: Magic Objects, we introduce a brand new class of magic merchandise: the tome. (In a guide referred to as Secrets and techniques of the Tome, we’d higher have just a few of these!) Tomes are repositories by which are written secret, world-altering rites. Extra highly effective than rituals, these are the sorts of spell-like formulae that require amassing unique substances, hordes of chanting cultists, and the like. When it comes to energy, they’re a step above most spells: a single ceremony can completely alter your world’s story, both for good (you would possibly introduce common literacy throughout a whole kingdom) or ailing (you would possibly fail to cease the evil cultists as they create a everlasting gate to Hell). In some methods, a tome is just like an artifact: though it’s a magic merchandise, greater than that it’s part of the marketing campaign’s story. And like artifacts, tomes are distinctive magic gadgets that may’t be made or purchased: their entry into the marketing campaign is fully within the Narrator’s arms.
New Toys to Play With
This guide is constructed for the first spellcasting courses: the artificer, bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, and wizard (and one new class: extra on that later!). Chapter 2 of Secrets and techniques of the Tome introduces a brand new subclass for every of those pre-existing courses. Every subclass is tied to the guide’s theme of misplaced lore. These are the vanished magical traditions: forgotten, saved secret, and even forcefully suppressed. Few know of those magical orders, and as for becoming a member of one? That will require analysis in misplaced libraries, bargains with spirits, or a harmful quest past the bounds of actuality.
Whereas we’re speaking about bargains with spirits: Chapter 3 introduces a brand new Superior 5E class, the pactweaver! One in every of our most wealthy and complicated courses ever, the pactweaver deserves a chapter all to itself.
The pactweaver features magical energy by negotiating with mysterious powers. Not like a warlock or a cleric, a pactweaver could make or break bargains with a number of entities, drastically reworking their very own magical talents as they accomplish that. Because the pactweaver features ranges, they will deal with with godlike entities often known as arch spirits – however such offers all the time include a worth. In chapter 3, you’ll discover properly over 100 spirits able to bind and discount with, every with completely different items to supply.
Chapter 4, Spells, is by far the longest chapter within the guide. In any case, what are spellcasters with out spells to forged? Chapter 4 incorporates a plethora of new spells. All these spells allow us to assist our new courses and subclasses with thematic spells, plus introduce a wide range of new spells with the intention to dream up your personal spellcaster themes. (“I need to be an acid injury specialist” has by no means been extra attainable!) On prime of that, we threw in a whole lot of off-the-wall spells simply to see what you’d do with them. For those who’ve by no means imagined conjuring an enormous toadstool, turning your spellbook right into a magic carpet, or making the furnishings dance to your music—properly, now you could have.
Apart from brand-new spells, Chapter 4 has obtained a ridiculous variety of uncommon spells: over 500 of them, the truth is. In Degree Up: Superior fifth Version, uncommon spells allow you to ”stage up” your favourite spell, giving them everlasting new capabilities. For example, your draconic sorcerer would possibly forged Eridna’s burning breath as an alternative of burning arms, respiration on enemies with a blue dragon’s lightning breath, a inexperienced dragon’s poison breath, and so forth. Uncommon spells are extra highly effective than their widespread counterparts, and that enhance in energy should be earned. You don’t simply pick a uncommon spell if you stage up: they’re treasures to be present in musty prayerbooks, realized from mentors, or researched throughout downtime.
Talking of treasures, Chapter 5 is a treasure trove of magic gadgets! With tons of recent magic gadgets, there’s loads of goodies for Narrators to offer away (and for formidable characters to assemble).
Secrets and techniques of the Tome might be coming to Kickstarter later this yr.
