30-Day Song Challenge: Tillinghast Edition

My wife has been posting answers to a 30-Day Song Challenge on her Facebook this month. It's been interesting seeing her answers, but it's not normally the kind of meme I join in on. However, after posting my "Trick's Picks" playlist earlier I this month, I thought it might be fun to try answering this challenge in character as Trick. To make it more interesting, I did not repeat any songs, and only repeated artists twice. With only a couple exceptions, these are all songs that would appear in regular rotation in Trick's own playlists. In fact, many appear on my "Trick's Picks," or have been added to it since that post.

[See Trick's Nightwatch Dossier for a complete list of past posts about her.]

30-Day Song Challenge

As answered by Patricia "Trick" Tillinghast

Day 1: A song you like with a color in the title: "Mr. Blue Sky," Electric Light Orchestra. Nobody's ever going to be able to hear this song again without seeing Baby Groot dancing to it, are they? The best part of Vol. 2!

Day 2: A song you like with a number in the title: "Seven Nation Army," The White Stripes. It's got a really fun drum line.

Day 3: A song that reminds you of summertime: "Love Shack," The B-52's. The video is sunny and bright, and the song is kind of all about about how hot it is around here...

Day 4: A song that reminds you of someone you'd rather forget: "Shut Up and Dance," Walk the Moon. The line "This woman is my destiny" always reminds me of one of my ex-girlfriends, who I was more crazy in love with than anyone else before or since. (And who I'm not going to name, in case she ever sees this.) We're still friendly, but we just couldn't make it work, and if I'm completely honest with myself, I've never really gotten over her. But I love this song too much to not listen to it.

Day 5: A song that needs to be played loud: "Thunderstruck," AC/DC. Because metal demands volume!

Day 6: A song that makes you want to dance: "Uptown Funk," Mark Ronson (ft. Bruno Mars). I can't hear this song without moving!

Day 7: A song to drive to: "Life is a Highway," Rascal Flatts. This has been on every driving mix I've made since Cars.

Day 8: A song about drugs or alcohol: "Tubthumping," Chumbawamba. I love the "you are never going to keep me down" chorus, but there's an awful lot of drinking in these lyrics.

Day 9: A song that makes you happy: "Happy," Pharrell Williams. OK, kind of an obvious answer, but I'm a naturally joyful person, and it's catchy. And the video is full of people who are dancing because it's just plain fun.

Day 10: A song that makes you sad: "She Used to be Mine," Sara Bareilles. This song is about a woman who is mourning how she lost touch with the person who she used to be.

Day 11: A song you never get tired of: "Shake It Off," Taylor Swift. It's fun, and catchy, and empowering all at the same time.

Day 12: A song from your preteen years: "A Thousand Miles," Vanessa Carlton. A new hit love ballad when I was in middle school? And by a woman? Yes, please.

Day 13: A song you like from the 70s: "Dancing Queen," ABBA. This is a lovely mellow classic to groove to in between the more energetic tracks that let me really show off my dancing chops.

Day 14: A song you'd love to be played at your wedding: "Eternal Flame," The Bangles. It's a sappy, romantic song...and I love it. Plus, between my visions and becoming a Thyrian, I've kind of acquired a thing about fire imagery.

Day 15: A song you like that's a cover by another artist: "Lady Marmalade," Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya, Pink. I almost used it for Day 6 because I recently competed in a dance battle to this track. But I put it here because the Moulin Rouge cover took a good song and turned it into one of my all-time faves.

Day 16: A song that's a classic favorite: "Imagine," John Lennon. My parents grew up listening to the Beatles and other classic bands of the 60's and '70s, so I was exposed to many of them as a kid as well. This is one of Mom's favorites, because it challenges us to imagine a better, more loving world.

Day 17: A song you'd sing a duet with on karaoke: "I Got You," Sonny & Cher. It's corny as hell, but I want to sing this with someone who will look at me in the same worshipful, sappy way that Sonny and Cher looked at each other whenever they performed this song back in the '60s.

Day 18: A song from the year you were born: "Simply Irresistible," Robert Palmer (1988). It's too bad that the video is so cheesy, and objectifying AF. It was the '80s, so I can't tell if that was meant ironically or not...but I doubt it.

Day 19: A song that makes you think about life: "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)," Kelly Clarkson. You'll have to pardon me for getting philosophic for a moment. Pain is the great teacher. If we forget the painful events in our life, then we forget the lessons they taught us. Those things don't have to define us, but they do inform who we become. To put it another way, I am the sum of all my choices and my experiences, both the good ones and the bad ones. Who I am today is a precious gift, and I must acknowledge the path I took to get here.

Day 20: A song that has many meanings to you: "We Are the Champions," Queen. At first, this song reads as a victory anthem by a weary hero. (And, in fact, my cousin Baz claims to have led a chorus of it at a victory party after the Ragnarok.) But sometimes the borderline-plaintive tone of the song leads me to wonder if it's merely the daydreaming wish of someone who feels like an underappreciated loser. I wouldn't put it past Freddie & co. to have intended both messages.

Day 21: A song you like with a person's name in the title: "Elvis is Everywhere," Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper. This song is ridiculous, and I only listen to it very occasionally, but still amuses me after all this time.

Day 22: A song that moves you forward: "Fight Song," Rachel Platten. This song was pretty much my personal anthem when I moved back to Shadowgard to teach in my hometown and reconcile with the Maddocks, and again a few years later when I applied to become a Thyrian initiate. Too many people in this town remembered me as the angry, self-absorbed brat that I had been in high school, so I had a lot to prove to them, and to myself.

Day 23: A song you think everyone should listen to: "Brave," Sara Bareilles. Be brave enough to speak up, and to show people who the authentic, amazing you really is! 

Day 24: A song by a band that you wish were still together: "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," The Eurythmics. I think Annie Lennox is a big part of the reason why I think tall chicks in suits are classy--and sexy. I've been known to rock the look myself from time to time.

Day 25: A song you like by an artist no longer living: "Ballroom Blitz," The Sweet. Two of the four original band members are dead, that's close enough.

Day 26: A song that makes you want to fall in love: "Somebody to Love," Queen. This song has been a prayer of mine far too many times...

Day 27: A song that breaks your heart: "Try," P!nk. I've had my heart broken more times than I can count, but I keep trying again.

Day 28: A song by an artist whose voice you love: "Bubbly," Colbie Caillat. I'm pretty sure this song is really just all about sex, and I could listen to that gentle, caressing voice sing about that all day long.

Day 29: A song you remember from your childhood: "The Little Drummer Boy." This is the one song on this list that I actively don't like. Mostly because I remember being horribly offended that the Rankin-Bass movie didn't use drums for the title song!

Day 30: A song that reminds you of yourself: "Bitch," Meredith Brooks. I'm a passionate woman with a complicated history, who boldly wears her heart on her sleeve. I'm very aware that that can make me a right handful to deal with at times, even to--especially to?--my best friends. But those messy parts are part of who I am, too, for better or worse.

Trick's Picks

I have recreated my old "Trick's Picks" playlist on YouTube, and updated it for the 2020 reunion arc. This is a list of the favorite songs of Patricia "Trick" Tillinghast, my drummer/dancer/fencer/champion character from "Grey Angels," a Buffy/Angel RPG campaign. It's still very much a work in progress. (For additional context, see my past blog posts about Trick--particularly here and here.)

As of the time of this posting, the playlist includes (in no particular order):

Meredith Brooks - Bitch
P!nk - F**king Perfect
P!nk - Try
P!nk - Just Like Fire
P!nk - Raise Your Glass
Queen - Somebody to Love
Queen - We Are the Champions
The Bangles - Eternal Flame
Kelly Clarkson - Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)
Sara Bareilles - Brave
Colbie Caillat - Bubbly
Colbie Caillat - Fallin’ For You
Taylor Swift- Shake It Off
Taylor Swift - Delicate
Rachel Platten - Fight Song
The Sweet - Ballroom Blitz
Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya, Pink - Lady Marmalade
Mark Ronson (feat. Bruno Mars) - Uptown Funk
The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
Des’ree - You Gotta Be
Adele - Rolling in the Deep
Natasha Bedingfield - Unwritten
Walk the Moon - Shut Up and Dance
Lady Gaga - The Edge of Glory
Rush [Neil Peart solo] - Der Trommler

And yes, that's a lot of P!nk tracks! Patricia's romantic history has been a soap opera roller coaster, so P!nk's repertoire strikes a very deep chord with her, but I've strictly limited myself to a few of her more positive songs for this list. Trick is a hopeless romantic, but she's becoming more careful and deliberate about her relationships. What worked during her high school and college years is no longer cutting it now that she's hit her 30's and has a much better sense of who she is and what she actually wants out of life. Of course, her list of favorites still heavily features tracks chosen simply because they're fun.

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UPDATE 4/30/2020: The following tracks have been added to the playlist since the original list above was created:

Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice
The B-52’s - Love Shack
Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still
Sia - Cheap Thrills
Sia - Unstoppable
David Guetta, ft. Sia - Titanium
Pharrell Williams - Happy
The Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling
Lenny Kravitz - Fly Away
Vanessa Carlton - A Thousand Miles
Shania Twain - Man! I Feel Like a Woman
WAR*HALL - All This Power [theme song for Grey Angels Season 4]
Rachel Platten - Stand By You
HAIM - Little of Your Love

Smash Mouth - All Star

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UPDATE 6/9/2020: More new tracks since the last update:

Alicia Keys - Girl on Fire
k.d. lang - Constant Craving
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
ABBA - Dancing Queen
Jason Mraz - I'm Yours
Lenny Kravitz- Are You Gonna Go My Way
Colbie Caillat - Brighter Than the Sun
Journey - Don't Stop Believin'
Daft Punk - Get Lucky
Hayley Kiyoko - Girls Like Girls
The Greatest Showman Cast - This Is Me
Mary Lambert - She Keeps Me Warm
The Veronicas - Take Me On the Floor
Tegan and Sara - Closer
Savage Garden - I Want You
The Hu (feat. Lzzy Hale) - Song of Women
Sixpence None the Richer - There She Goes

Sixpence None the Richer - Kiss Me

Sara Bareilles - I Choose You

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UPDATE 8/11/2020: More new tracks since the last update (which brings the total to 70):

Sia - Alive

Journey - Any Way You Want It

Heart - Crazy on You

Janelle Monae - Make Me Feel

Clean Bandit (feat. Jess Glynne) - Rather Be

Ed Sheeran - Shape of You

Calvin Harris (feat. Rihanna) - This is What You Came For

Zara Larsson, MNEK - Never Forget You

Bruno Mars - Locked Out of Heaven

Lady Gaga - You and I

Evanescence - My Heart is Broken

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UPDATE 8/20/2020: This is a much longer update than most, because I found an older version of my "Trick's Picks" playlist, so have now added most of those songs here. Now up to 106!

Backstreet Boys - Larger Than Life

Taylor Swift - Blank Space

Adam Lambert - Better Than I Know Myself

Angel & The MamboKats - Black Mambo (Mambero Mix)

Blue Man Group - Drumbone

Christina Aguilera - Genie in a Bottle

Donna Summer - Hot Stuff (12" Version)

ES Posthumus - Unstoppable

Fine Young Cannibals - Good Thing

Franka Potente - Believe

George Michael - Faith

Hadouken! - Levitate

INXS - Need You Tonight

Jefferson Airplane - Somebody to Love

Jessie J - Domino

John Legend - All of Me

Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing

Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes

The Pussycat Dolls (feat. Snoop Dogg) - Buttons

Ricky Martin - She Bangs

Roisin Murphy - Ramalama (Bang Bang)

Roisin Murphy - Night of the Dancing Flame

Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2U

Sting - If I Ever Lose My Faith in You

They Might Be Giants - S-E-X-X-Y

Trinket - Boom

The Troggs - Wild Thing

Anna Kendrick - Cups

Survivor - Eye of the Tiger

The Wallflowers - Heroes

Eurythmics (feat. Aretha Franklin) - Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves

The Who - Who Are You

The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again

Natalie Cole - Wild Women Do

Bjork - Hunter

Sophie P. Hawkins - Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover

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UPDATE 2/12/2021: A new version of the playlist has been posted here, and will be updated there going forward.

Strongholds & Followers and Freeport

Last summer, I reviewed Matt Colville's Stronghold & Followers sourcebook for D&D 5E. This time, I'll be looking at how to use this new material in a Freeport campaign.

First of all, Freeport is a very highly detailed city that already contains many competing organizations with established strongholds. Any attempt to create a new stronghold in the Serpent's Teeth, much less within Freeport's own city walls, will be sure to experience resistance from the current powers that be. Players and DMs should not let that discourage them from using the stronghold rules--intrigue and political scheming are hallmarks of the City of Adventure, after all! And some bold adventurer is behind the founding of most of the city's iconic organizations, from the Syndicate to the Wizard's Guild to the office of Sea Lord itself. The PCs are just the latest in a long history of ambitious new arrivals, who lack the advantages jealously guarded by the members of the status quo.

In a Freeport campaign, the stronghold rules can also be useful for detailing NPC organizations, from competing guilds to military schools to pirate fleets. Even if the PCs never establish a formal base of operations, NPCs with sufficient political clout will reap the benefits of maintaining their own strongholds: followers to pit against the PCs, easier access to low-level magic items, and improved class features. (On the other hand, when faced with such resourceful enemies, the PCs may eventually seek how to gain those rewards for themselves!)

Most of the rules in S&F can be used as-is in most campaigns, but a few options deserve specific call-outs for Freeport.

The Keep: The barbarian camp option is not appropriate within the Serpent's Teeth, except when they are invading one of the settlements here (as in the northern barbarian invasion during Black Sails Over Freeport). However, this stronghold type is the norm in the more savage parts of the Continent, such as Druzhdin and the Bone Lands.

In contrast, the pirate ship variant is perfectly suited to Freeport. The Mass Combat rules can be adapted for use for sea battles between enemy ships.

The Tower: The Wizard's Guild is the epitome of this type of stronghold, while Gitch's rickety tower in Bloodsalt represents the most humble possible version.

The Temple: Freeport is littered with this type of stronghold, but not every shrine in the Temple District qualifies. (The Fool's Market as a whole might--or it might count as an establishment?--but the individual spaces within it would not.) Naturally, any new temple established within Freeport will face intense scrutiny from other faiths, who may simply be jealous of competition or who might be on the watch for legitimate threats to crusade against.

The druid's grove alternate would be appropriate to establish outside the city, in the jungles of A'Val or elsewhere in the Serpent's Teeth.

The Establishment: This type of stronghold might be the easiest to establish within the city, because Freeport is a city that thrives on commerce and trade. The covert side of the organization will need to be wary of established criminal gangs, who have well-defined territories within the city's districts.

Followers: The stat blocks for retainers are highly abbreviated, since they have a reduced role in combat. However, they can be useful starting points for creating NPC allies and enemies for Freeport adventures, apart from the stronghold rules. Likewise, the sample artisan profiles can be used as-is or as inspiration for new background characters.

The Siege of Castle Rend: This adventure is clearly not appropriate for the Serpent's Teeth. However, it could be used more or less as written in many places on the Continent. The adventure also presents many new stat blocks for orcs, which could add some variety to the inhabitants of Bloodsalt.

New Monsters: This chapter is a rich resource for any 5E game. See below for further discussion.

New Items: The codices are thematically appropriate for Freeport, given the setting's strong Lovecraftian element. However, they require attunement within a stronghold, so should be ignored if the stronghold rules are not being used.

New Monsters

This chapter can be used with any 5E campaign, whether or not the GM includes the stronghold and concordance rules. These creatures are grouped into various extraplanar factions based on the beings' origins and agenda.

Demons and devils are well represented in the Monster Manual, so only a few new fiends are needed to round out the servitors chart in the temple rules.

The remaining factions include:

• The Celestial Court: Angelic beings who (in Freeport's default D&D cosmology, at least) hail from the outer planes of good. These beings are the natural allies of pure-hearted crusaders against demons, devils, and other evils.
• The Court of All Flesh: Chaotic aberrations. "Primordius" is roughly cognate to Limbo, but the Changing Ones are not affiliated with the slaadi or other denizens of that plane. (Slaadi have never been Open Game Content, so Colville had to invent new servitors for this niche.) In a Freeport campaign, this court might have ties to realms corrupted by the Unspeakable One, but are not inherently evil themselves.
• The Court of Arcadia: Chaotic fey (and one dragon), appropriate to the fairy realms (and some elven woods). These are likely to be popular among clerics from Rolland on the Continent, but apart from the oleander dragon, the Court of Arcadia are unlikely to have anything in common with the more reptilian fey native to the Serpent's Teeth.
• The Court of Elements: Neutral elementals, ruled by the Lady of Brass. In a Freeport campaign, may be the noble efreeti ruler of the City of Brass, or the sovereign over all of the ruling class of genies from all four elemental planes.
• Gemstone Dragons: These neutral dragons are the one group of new monsters that were not designed for use as extraplanar servitors. Instead, they form a third category of dragons between the more extreme alignments of the metallic and chromatic species. Gemstone dragons have psionic abilities rather than the usual magical powers of dragons. A limited, self-contained psionics system is presented to support these creatures. This section also includes a gemstone variant for dragonborn (who comprise the only method presented in this book for accessing those psionic powers as a PC). In a Freeport campaign, gemstone dragons might have connections to, or secret forgotten knowledge of, the ancient civilization of Valossa, or its serpent god Yig.
• The Inexorables: Lawful constructs that embody the plane of pure law (called "Axiom" here, which could be considered the same as Mechanus in the default D&D cosmology). They presumably operate independently from the modrons.

For my past columns about using D&D Fifth Edition sourcebooks with Freeport: The City of Adventure, see the Freeport 5E Index.

Unearthed Arcana and Freeport, Part 11: Artificer 4.0 plus Even More Subclasses

Welcome back to my ongoing series of capsule reviews of "Unearthed Arcana" with an eye for how to use them with the Freeport setting. This time, we'll take a look at articles released in May through September 2019.

Note that the publishing schedule for UA is far more irregular these days, with only one new article in 2019 before those below. That means that, going forward, these reviews will be fewer and far between, even if I only cover a couple at a time, as I did in Part 10. (The very recent introduction of some new subclasses only a month apart looks promising for a brief uptick in releases, however.)

For my past columns about using D&D Fifth Edition sourcebooks with Freeport: The City of Adventure, see the Freeport 5E Index.

Artificer [The Artificer Returns] (5/14/2019): This article is an expanded version of the new iteration of the class released in February, making it the fourth version of the class to appear in UA. Two new subclasses and a handful of new infusions have been added, and the spell list now includes spells from Xanathar's Guide to Everything. The two new subclasses are the Archivist, who specializes in spells involving thought and knowledge and creates an artificial intelligence as a helper, and the Battle Smith, who focuses on protective enchantments and crafts a defensive construct companion.

Barbarian and Monk (8/15/2019): This installment provides two new archetypes, for two very different classes: the barbarian and the monk. The Wild Soul is a barbarian who is saturated with powerful magic, over which they have little control until later levels. It's very much a martial sibling to the Wild Soul Sorcerer. (I'm not sure whether multiclassing between the two would be awesome or obnoxious--or both.)

The Way of the Astral Self provides a way for a monk to manifest their true form using their ki. This astral form is mastered a piece at a time, starting with arms that deal radiant or necrotic damage, then later a mask (visage) that enhances their senses. Later levels enhance both the astral self's offensive and defensive benefits. This subclass seems best suited for an exotic, possibly psionic-flavored, monastic order, perhaps one started by a planar-traveling race such as the githyanki or githzerai.

Sorcerer and Warlock (9/5/2019): This month's article introduces the Aberrant Mind origin for sorcerers, and The Lurker in the Deep, a new patron for warlocks. The Aberrant Mind sorcerer has had an alien experience that warped their mind and body. This subclass gives them limited telepathy, psionic-flavored additional spells known, and (at higher levels) resistance to psychic damage. The physical changes provide some armor at early levels, and the ability to gain new movement modes or senses later on by expending sorcery points.

The Lurker in the Deep is an evolution of the kraken patron warlock that was designed during the debut episode of The Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour many moons ago. The concept has been expanded to apply to other powerful ocean or elemental entities. In addition to an expanding spell list with water and weather-themed spells, this patron grants the ability to create spectral tentacles to attack your enemies. At higher levels, these appendages can help defend the warlock, and she can conjure more deadly manifestations of her patron's power. The warlock eventually gains some class features that make it easier to move through and survive in her master's watery domain.

Finally, this installment offers a new offensive cantrip, mind sliver, for psionic-themed sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards. Unsurprisingly, the entire article begs to be used in a Freeport campaign, where encounters with weird alien powers are distressingly common. The Lurker in the Deep is perfectly suited to Yarash and Dagon's cults, while an Aberrant Mind might have acquired her powers through an encounter with the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign or other eldritch horrors.

Strongholds & Followers

Strongholds & Followers is the primary physical reward from the wildly successful Strongholds & Streaming Kickstarter by MCDM Productions. This book for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition presents Matt Colville's rules for mid- to high-level heroes building strongholds, recruiting followers, and using those resources to wage war, indulge in intrigue, and improve their heroes' personal abilities.

Previous editions of D&D assumed that most of the wealth that adventurers collect will be spent on magic items to boost their own power. However, such items are much rarer in 5E, and the default assumption is that characters cannot simply buy, sell, or craft magic items at will. Colville's solution is to give characters the option of using that money to build a stronghold, which allows them to attract followers and gain other tangible benefits. It also gives them more motivation to get involved in the politics and intrigue of the region around their new base, which can lead to new kinds of adventures.

The book is divided into six parts (three main chapters, plus substantial appendices which make up 40% of the book):

• Strongholds: Rules for building a stronghold, and the benefits characters gain from that investment.
• Followers: Details on the army units, retainers, and other followers a character can attract to their service, as well as special allies who help out from time to time.
• The Siege of Castle Rend: An adventure designed to introduce players to many of the new rules in this book.
• New Monsters: A bestiary of new extraplanar and draconic servitors that can be summoned by characters with a temple stronghold, and a few other methods. 
• Warfare: Rules for mass combat, using army units gained as followers and/or hired with gold.
• New Items: New magic items referenced elsewhere in the book, or that use the new rules presented here (such as battle magic or new monsters).

Strongholds

A stronghold is a structure that provides a base of operations, a home for followers and allies, and enhanced personal abilities to its master. There are four basic types: a keep allows you to raise an army and defend the local populace; a tower helps with spell research and learning battle magic; a temple allows the summoning of divine servitors and learning battle magic; and an establishment allows you to perform espionage and generate income. A castle combines more than one type of stronghold, allowing a larger complex to be built and run by multiple characters. A stronghold's size (1-5 levels) is a measure of both its cost to build and the benefits received.

In addition, the leader's class determines a number of the stronghold's features. Each class's entry lists a few possible demesne effects (ways in which the leader's power manifests in the local area) and stronghold actions (special abilities that the leader can use in combat). The leader also gets an improved class feature, which they can use a number of times equal to their stronghold's level before needing to take an extended rest (a week spent at the stronghold, re-attuning oneself to the site and recharging one's influence).

These abilities are typically very powerful, in order to make building a stronghold more attractive to players. They are not designed to be "balanced" (an overrated idea, in Colville's philosophy), but to give a cool reward to players who invest time and effort in this part of the game. In effect, the land responds to the leader's influence by granting them these special abilities, but they require the leader to periodically return to renew that bond.

Colville never says this explicitly, but the demesne effects and stronghold actions are an obvious parallel to the regional effects and lair actions associated with a powerful monster's lair. Once a player character has the resources to build and maintain a stronghold (at least 5th-7th level), they have arguably become powerful enough to manifest similar effects in their own "lair." Because the game is focused on the PCs, these stronghold actions and related effects will likely see more use than any NPC monster's lair would, so DMs will want to think about whether to use them and how often. The improved class features, on the other hand, have a built-in limit, and seem much more reasonable in their scope when you consider what a character could accomplish in a campaign that allowed them to invest the same amount of gold in portable magic items.

Followers

The leader's class determines what table to roll on for followers, which fall into five categories:

• Units are military forces that can be used to defend the stronghold or wage war against enemies. They have special stat blocks used in the warfare rules.
• Retainers are lower-level adventurers who help the leader in their adventures, and can serve as lieutenants in the leader's absence. They use simplified stat blocks that give them a few cool powers but make them easy to run in combat.
• Artisans attach a shop to the stronghold, and can provide benefits such as reduced construction costs (carpenter, mason), magic item production (alchemist, scribe), training of troops (captain), or specialized knowledge (sage, spy). 
• Ambassadors are members of local nonhuman tribes who act as liaisons between their people and the stronghold's leader. They allow the recruitment of army units from their ancestry. 
• Allies are powerful local monsters who are impressed by the leader. They do not take orders, but can provide special help from time to time. 

The Siege of Castle Rend

This 5th-level adventure is designed to introduce players to many of the new rules in this book: seizing and restoring a stronghold, attracting followers to serve there, and a mass combat battle to defend it. The adventure has several tough encounters, but there are also opportunities to resolve a couple of them through clever play rather than violence.

New Monsters

The new rules for temples involve tracking concordance, a measure of how pleased the character's god is with them. A god's favorites can call upon divine aid, which can take the form of an extraplanar servitor arriving to aid the petitioner. The Monster Manual provides numerous examples of fiends that can fit this role, but far fewer celestials and elementals, and not many extraplanar creatures of other origins. Therefore, as a stretch goal, Colville created over 30 new monsters, grouped into several planar factions in the unique cosmology he has created for his own campaigns. Each faction contains creatures of Challenge ratings 5-10, providing a good spread of foes and allies over several levels' worth of play (much as the MM's demons and devils do).

While all of Stronghold & Followers is lavishly filled with gorgeous artwork, this chapter shines brightest of all. Almost every new monster gets it own illustration, many of them full-paged pieces.

The largest section of this appendix is devoted to a new category of dragons, the gemstone dragons. Unlike metallic or chromatic dragons, these creatures are at least partially neutral in alignment, and wield psionic rather than magical powers. Of the handful of short fiction pieces in this book, the gemstone dragons get the two longest, to help convey the author's intent for how to use them in game.

Warfare

Colville's rules for large battles are a highly abstracted system, with stats based on ancestry, experience, equipment, and type of unit. It isn't a wargame, but a simplified system to run in parallel with the heroes fighting enemy leaders while their armies clash around them. And for DMs who want resolve battles even faster, there is an even simpler option presented at the end of the chapter.

MCDM's next book will be Kingdoms & Warfare, which will expand on the mass combat rules presented here. Colville makes a number of references to that book throughout Followers & Strongholds--to battle magic, provinces, etc.--but because he doesn't want to overwhelm the reader with two books' worth of new rules at once, he keeps them to a minimum. For example, there is very little battle magic available in this first book, with most of it being provided by codices.

New Items

This chapter presents several new magic items, including objects that can be installed in a stronghold to gain various benefits; artifact-level, reality-bending books of battle magic known as codices; and powerful weapons capable of summoning many of the new servitors introduced in this book.

My Conclusions

I have a few quibbles with Colville's writing style, which tends towards an overly conversational tone for a gaming rules supplement, with far too many "Gee, ain't this cool?" asides for my taste. (And smiley-face emoticons in a professional book, Matt? Really?!) But that's my personal opinion, and I have to admit that, like it or not, that choice does set his brand apart from other RPG books.

That said, Strongholds & Followers is a very useful book for 5E DMs who want to include some of the fun of earlier editions' "name levels," when PCs were assumed to have acquired enough wealth and renown to build strongholds and attract followers. Colville presents a fairly cohesive system for players to invest in such projects and reap in-game rewards for their efforts. The time that he and his team put into play-testing those rules shows--they cover a great deal of material and options in an easy to understand way, and there is ample advice for tweaking things to suit your own game.

This system isn't for every campaign--it requires a game where characters will be regularly returning to a home base, and a GM and players who want to explore political and military challenges. But there is material here that will be useful even if you don't use the strongholds and warfare rules on a regular basis. The appendix of new monsters is a lovely addition to any 5E library by itself, and will help immensely in fleshing out a campaign's cosmology outside of the lower outer planes.

Unearthed Arcana and Freeport, Part 10

Welcome back to my ongoing series of capsule reviews of "Unearthed Arcana" with an eye for how to use them with the Freeport setting. This time, we'll take a look at articles released in December 2018 and February 2019.

For my past columns about using D&D Fifth Edition sourcebooks with Freeport: The City of Adventure, see the Freeport 5E Index.

Sidekicks (12/17/2018): This article provides rules for sidekicks--creatures befriended by a PC who accompany them on adventures--who improve by gaining levels alongside their PC friends. The sidekick must be CR 1 or less, but gains levels in one of three sidekick classes (warrior, expert, or spellcaster). Most of the class abilities are borrowed from PC classes, but are simplified. A few seem very powerful, and hard for even a PC to qualify for (such as the warrior's Improved Critical), but in general they seem to be in line with characters of their level. But note that even with this system, sidekicks only start gaining levels when they join their heroic friends on adventures, so will almost always be some number of levels behind the PCs; they will frequently need those strong class features just to survive.

I'm not certain how adding sidekicks will affect the PCs' own rate of advancement, as the sidekick rules don't explicitly address their effects on encounter Challenges and rewards. (Sidekicks simply gain a level whenever their friend does.) And the rules seem overly extensive for someone who is essentially a henchman or follower. But these rules could be very helpful in providing stats to a knight's retainers, or a more robust animal companion for a druid or ranger. (5E druids do not get companions unless you introduce the Circle of the Beast from DM's Guild, and many players find the Beastmaster ranger's companion to be underwhelming, especially in light of its poor action economy.)

The urban setting of Freeport: The City of Adventure makes acquiring townsfolk as sidekicks rather easy to justify. (In some cases, perhaps too much so, if a new friend embodies the label "follower" too literally!) These rules could also be useful at sea, to detail a friendly ship's captain who helps the heroes out from time to time, or important NPC officers if the PCs have their own ship.

(Nitpicky rules note, because I'm "the errata guy": Creatures of CR 1 or less already have a proficiency bonus of +2, so that bonus will not improve until they reach 5th level in their sidekick class. That should be stated more explicitly in the article.)

January 2019 had no "Unearthed Arcana" article, and February did not until its very last day. Wizards has announced a more "flexible" schedule for the column going forward, without a set date for each installment to be posted. 

On a related note, the Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour seems to have ended in December, or at least no new episodes have been posted on YouTube since then.

The Artificer Revisited (2/28/2019): This is the third iteration of the artificer in the pages of "Unearthed Arcana," following its appearance as a wizard subclass ("Eberron," 2/2/15) then as a base class ("Artificer," 1/9/17). This new version gives the class spellcasting from 1st level (rather than 3rd) and adds cantrips, but delays the specialization (subclass) to 3rd. The class's magical crafting abilities are recast to be rather more flexible, which fits its constantly-tinkering nature.

The two artificer specializations presented here are the Alchemist and Artillerist. Both grant additional spells known, and give the artificer a powerful magical assistant. The alchemist is fully revamped from the previous version, and now gives the character an alchemical homunculus servant. Not all worlds with artificers have guns, so the previous version's Gunsmith has been replaced with the Artillerist, which is accompanied by a turret--a machine that provides both ranged attacks as well as some protection for those adjacent to it.

The article ends with a new spell, arcane weapon (which imbues a weapon with a small amount of energy damage) and information for using the optional multiclassing rules with the artificer.

As I said the last time this class appeared in UA, artificers work very well with Freeport's unusual mix of eldritch magic and experimental technology.

Kickstarter and Me: 2019 Update

I backed a number of new Kickstarters in 2017-2018, all for D&D Fifth Edition products. I have received my rewards for most of them over the past couple of months, so it seems high time to give an update. Here are links to my earlier columns about projects I've backed:

• Kickstarter and Me (5/25/2016)
• Kickstarter and Me, Revisited (9/6/2017)

First, here are a few quick updates on some of the projects listed in those previous columns:

Fate Core: The last remaining stretch goal reward, Shadow of the Century, was delivered to backers in January 2019. I haven't read through all of the most recent digital stretch goals, but the core rulebook and first few supplements were solid work.

Freeport: The City of Adventure for the Pathfinder RPG: The sixth and final part of Return in Freeport was released in late 2018. The collected edition is available in PDF now, with the print version coming very soon (it's currently available to preorder). I provided feedback and errata for each installment as they came out, so earned a proofreading credit in the final book. 

Just last month, Green Ronin announced to backers that the long-promised Freeport Companion for Fantasy AGE will finally be released later in 2019. That will be the last promised reward for this 2013 Kickstarter.

Spirit Island: This boardgame's Kickstarter is long over, but it recently had a follow-up campaign for an expansion, Spirit Island: Jagged Earth (which I believe we backed through my wife's KS account).

Book of the Righteous for Fifth Edition: I had just received this book before my last update, and--like every other Green Ronin book I've funded--it has proved to be one of my better investments on Kickstarter. The book contains a great amount of detail about its unique pantheon of gods, some solid new crunch for 5E games, and lovely full-color art throughout. Since then, I have written two blog posts about using this book with the Freeport setting (here and here). 

Next, here are details on the four projects I have backed since my last update, and their status:

Mini-Dungeon Tome for 5th Edition or Pathfinder RPG, by AAW Games (September 2017): I only backed this for a PDF of the 5E version, which was delivered last year. A few bonus mini-dungeons, including a half-dozen holiday-themed adventures, have been released since then. Because I only got the PDF, I haven't yet read the entire book; in retrospect, I should have sprung for a print copy so that I could browse it more comfortably. 

A larger obstacle to me getting full use of the book is that many adventures use monsters from third-party sources that I don't own (such as Open Design's Tome of Beasts). The book contains an index with highly-abbreviated stat blocks, but that's not nearly enough information for a GM unfamiliar with the source.

Tome of Horrors: Reborn for Fifth Edition, by Frog God Games (November 2017): The original Tome of Horrors (by Necromancer Games, the precursor to FGG) was a ground-breaking work that converted hundreds of monsters from previous editions of D&D to the v.3.0 rules set. The later Tome of Horrors Revised updated it to v.3.5, then the Tome of Horrors Complete did the same for Pathfinder, and the book also spawned a couple of sequels of all-original monsters. The Reborn version offers a selection of monsters from all of those previous Tomes, updated to the 5E rules. I owned the v.3.0 edition in print, and the v.3.5 in PDF, so only backed the Kickstarter at the PDF level. That delivered this past fall, and I'm still making my way through it. (The parts that I've most read most carefully are the handful of entries that converted monsters from Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, which I hope to run using 5E someday.)

Strongholds & Streaming, by Matt Colville (February 2018): Colville's "Running the Game" series, which strives to demystify the experience of becoming a good DM, quickly became a runaway hit on YouTube. This allowed him to take a pet project and spin it into a full-fledged book, Strongholds & Followers. The Kickstarter also funded the creation of a studio setting for livestreaming his next D&D campaign--in fact, the Kickstarter was so overwhelmingly successful that Colville has formed his own company, MCDM Productions, and quit his former day job. The book is complete, backers have received the PDF, the print version is in production, and Colville has started planning his next book (for 5E mass combat rules). His D&D campaign, "The Chain," streamed its first episode in January 2019.

I backed this project for both the PDF and print book. I won't be reading the book in great detail until I receive the hard copy, which is still a few months away. (When I do, expect to see a review here, slanted as usual towards how useful it would be for a Freeport game.) I still haven't decided whether I'll be watching any of the streamed game yet, because I have many other ways that I'd rather spend my free time (like playing games myself). But I backed the project because people like Colville, who has many great ideas to share with the RPG community, deserve to be supported and encouraged in what they do. Even if I never watch the streamed game or use any of the material in the book, I'll be satisfied in having backed his Kickstarter.

Pirate Campaign Compendium for 5E and Pathfinder RPG, by Legendary Games (February 2018): I backed this project for the 5E version, and have recently received both the PDF and the print copies. I've only read about half of this book so far, but am already more disappointed than thrilled with the result. While the book does update a huge amount of existing nautical-themed material for Pathfinder into 5E mechanics, the published text seems rushed and in dire need of extensive editing. After creating and maintaining my unofficial RPG errata archive for most of two decades, I find it very hard to shut off my "editor mode" and ignore grammatical errors, sloppy implementation of rules language, and incomplete conversions. When I feel compelled to correct the text multiple times per page, as I have for many chapters, reading a book like this one becomes far more exhausting than fun. This book has put me off of buying any future Legendary Games products--in fact, at the moment, I'm rather dubious about whether I'd ever want to try to use anything from this title in my future campaigns. Which is a damn shame, because this book should have been a go-to reference for anyone who, like me, is thinking about running a 5E Freeport campaign. But, to put it very bluntly, if this book had been produced by a company with more rigorous standards, such as Green Ronin, Paizo, or Wizards of the Coast*, it would never have been allowed to go to print in the form we received it.

On the plus side, the company promptly sent me a replacement copy when I discovered that one of the signatures (16-page sections) of my book was missing, and the previous signature duplicated instead. But that's small consolation for the other issues.

-----

This past year's Kickstarters have rather polarized me regarding future campaigns. I'll gladly back interesting projects by companies that I already know well and trust to deliver high-quality products (like Green Ronin, Greater Than Games, and potentially MCDM), but I've grown more and more leery of projects by companies I've never bought anything from before.

* Just yesterday, I heard that Wizards has revealed that its next D&D hardcover, Ghosts of Saltmarsh, will include rules for ships and related nautical subjects. That's sure to be a better investment by a long shot.

The Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour: Monsters and Playtesting

Mike Mearls
(by Tim Emrick)

For most of July, the focus of the "The Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour" was designing a number of new monsters. Mearls' personal goal in this was to produce some new monsters for his home campaign, which is set in Nentir Vale. That was the default setting for 4E, so this was the perfect opportunity for him to update some of his favorite undead from that edition to the current rules.

As August began, Mearls shifted gears to talk about the playtesting process and how that drives the design process.

7/10/2018: Mearls goes over Wizards' in-house process for designing a new monster, from the "white page" that sketches out the creature's core concepts before any game mechanics are assigned, through the creation of a first draft of the actual stat block. Along the way, he stresses frequent comparison to other monsters, both to set appropriate stats for a creature of the intended type and Challenge Rating, and to avoid designing something too close to an already existing stat block.

7/17/2018: Mearls reviews the stat block for the CR 1 blazing skeleton he designed last time, with a few tweaks he's made in the intervening week. He also introduces a spreadsheet that is used in-house at Wizards to calculate Challenge Ratings. He will be looking into the possibility of releasing this spreadsheet through DM's Guild, but stresses that this is only a tool, not a magic solution to determining CR. Comparison to other creatures of similar level, and playtesting the new creature, are still essential.

He then sketches out stats for two legendary creatures--monsters with legendary actions they can use at the end of another character's turn. The game includes very few such creatures at lower levels, so Mearls creates a four-armed guardian skeleton (CR 3) and the vassal of Orcus, an undead monster created from a demon's corpse (CR 6). These two examples provide some useful insight into how legendary abilities factor into a creature's CR. They also show how the monster's back story (in this case, servants created for Orcus's cult) can influence the design of the creature's game mechanics.

7/24/2018, 7/31/2018: Mearls returns to an idea he conceived during the shows on psionics. The Shaper Psion's signature trick involved summoning astral constructs, which required development of a new spell to provide rules for the summoned creature. He uses the Spell Damage table from the DMG to provide a baseline for the hit points and damage for a summon monster spell. Ideally, this new spell could be used by many spellcasting classes, perhaps with a different creature type for each (such as beasts for druids, elementals for wizards and sorcerers, and constructs for shapers). It could also provide a much more systematic way of handling summoned creatures in the game. However, Mearls stresses that this basic framework will need rigorous playtesting to prove that the core idea is sound before he's willing to start adding a lot of potential options to the mix.

8/7/2018: This week, Mearls begins to talk more directly about the playtesting process. He breaks down the steps of the process, and strategies for getting the information you need to refine your design. He then shows some playtest survey results for the Brute fighter subclass, which appeared in Unearthed Arcana but did not get good enough ratings from playtesters to appear in an official release. In the last few minutes of the episode, Mearls starts to sketch out an alternative subclass to replace it.

8/14/2018: Mearls presents a first partial draft of his new Weapon Master fighter subclass. His discussion of the subclass and its features is strongly geared towards how it would be presented to playtesters, and specific questions that he might highlight in the feedback survey. For now, he is focused on the first five or so levels of the subclass, because he needs proof that the core pillars of the subclass work before proceeding with later, second-tier abilities.

***

My past columns about this series include:

• The Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour (1/30/18-4/17/18) 
• The Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour: Psionics! (4/24/18-7/3/18)

This is likely to be my last review of the "Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour" in this level of detail. The show does not really need an exhaustive episode guide, and I feel that I've discussed the series enough by now to let others decide whether they would be interested in watching it. I do plan to continue following the show for my own enjoyment (and contining education as a game designer), and I may occasionally comment on it in my "Unearthed Arcana and Freeport" series when those releases include material first shown on the "Happy Fun Hour."

I also anticipate needing a bit more space here at the blog for my "Time of the Tarrasque" campaign when that finally starts up again soon--hopefully next month!

The Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour, Part 2: Psionics!

Mike Mearls 
(by Tim Emrick)

Back in May, I did a review of the first dozen episodes of The Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour, in which one of the co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition shows his process for designing new material for the game. That introduction covered January through most of April 2018; this installment will take a look at episodes from April to early July.

4/24/18: Mearls' discussion of the Disaster Barbarian continues, sketching out the remainder of its subclass abilities. After covering so many subclasses, he feels it's time to take the next step of designing a new class, and wishes to tackle psionics. However, as an exercise in the limited time he has left in this episode, he first tries to create a Psion subclass for the wizard. He uses this as an example of a concept that really needs to be designed as a full new class, because it's too hard to pin down the feel within the limits of a subclass.

The Warlord, which he did back in March, was complicated in execution, but that concept fit better as a fighter subclass than as a new class of its own. (Among other things, the warlord concept didn't seem robust enough to support multiple subclasses over years of play.) Here, the Psion clearly needs a better way to distinguish itself from other spellcasters than cherry-picking psychic-flavored spells from the wizard list.

5/1/18: After further exploration of the Psion/Mind Mage wizard, Mearls feels that it actually fills a niche for DMs who want some of the flavor of psionics in their game without needing to learn the rules for an entirely new class. This basically gives three possible settings for psionics in D&D games:

1. Strictly by the Player's Handbook: No psionic classes or subclasses. The only psionic creatures are rare monsters with psionic spellcasting.
2. The mystic: A new psionic class that requires DMs and players to learn a lot of new rules and options, roughly as extensive as a new spell list.
3. Psionic subclasses that largely use existing spells and class abilities to provide psychic flavor.

5/8/18: Mearls develops a Psychic Warrior subclass for the fighter, using the Eldritch Knight subclass as a starting point for spellcasting. As with the Psion, the spells that seem most appropriate for the class don't fit neatly into a couple of schools (as they do for the Eldritch Knight), so this subclass will probably require a bespoke spell list.

(5/15/2018: No episode due to illness.)

5/22/18: Next up is the Soulknife as a subclass for monk, which is a class that Mearls has not addressed up to this point in the show. The Soulknife is an interesting choice, because it has no spellcasting powers, only its signature weapon.

5/29/18: Mearls reviews more polished versions of the Psychic Warrior and Soulknife. He suggests two possible ways that psionic classes or subclasses might eventually enter the game: either as a chapter in the setting book for Dark Sun (a classic setting that showcased psionics) or as part of a second Xanathar's-style book. Neither is happening right away, but I expect that feedback on his show and on the Unearthed Arcana articles that come out of it will help shape that decision. In fact, he does mention that a new satisfaction survey about 5E as a whole is in the works, and that definitely will influence future design on the game.

6/5/18, 6/12/18: Mearls takes a look at the Mystic class as it last appeared in Unearthed Arcana. That version was not completely satisfactory because it was trying to do too much. However, the past few weeks' work on psionic subclasses have moved enough archetypes to other classes that the Mystic--renamed the Psion--now has a much more obvious focus. In the second of these two episodes, Mearls ruthlessly prunes away at the Mystic class and its orders (subclasses) in order to determine which abilities should reside in the core Psion class, which in the subclasses, which should be made into spells, and which should be dropped entirely.

Mearls' new design makes psionic powers work like spells, using spell slots, despite previous editions giving psionic characters power points to fuel their abilities. The 5E Dungeon Master's Guide has optional rules for running magic with spell points, so that option is available for psionics, if the GM allows.

6/19/18: Mearls delves into the design of new psionic cantrips to support his current ideas for the Psion class, focusing primarily on the teleportation-based Nomad subclass.

6/26/18: This episode is largely devoted to a tangent suggested by someone in the show's chat channel: How to design spells that make minor time travel effects easy to implement during combat.

7/3/18: Mearls works on one more Psion subclass, the Shaper, which is defined by its at-will summoning power. Most of the rest of this subclass, and the Psion class as a whole, will occur off-camera, then Mearls will come back in a few months to present a more fully-fleshed out class--perhaps in the form of an Unearthed Arcana article.

The Happy Fun Hour has exclusively covered classes and subclasses up to now, so Mearls has decided that the next several weeks will involve designing new monsters for the Nentir Vale campaign he's running.

The Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour

Mike Mearls
(by Tim Emrick)

I've recently started watching some of the short videos that D&D Beyond has posted on YouTube. These are mostly short interviews with the designers of Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition, in which they plug the latest "Unearthed Arcana" article, share some teasers about upcoming products (such as bits of lore from the upcoming Mordenkainen's Book of Foes), or give nuggets of advice on various subjects (such as running one-shots or making memorable villains).

One of these videos plugged "The Mike Mearls' Happy Fun Hour," a weekly Twitch stream by one of the co-creators of of D&D 5E. In these streams (which are later posted on YouTube), Mearls shows how he goes about designing new content for the game. For these first few months of the show, he has presented new subclasses for the Player's Handbook classes. He goes into some depth about how each class works, and the space that a subclass fills within it. For example, the warlock and sorcerer gain their subclass at 1st level, so those abilities pull more game-mechanical weight, and are more central to the character's core identity, than they would be in a class like the rogue, which doesn't pick a subclass until 3rd level. In the latter case, the subclass tends to be more about offering new ways to exploit the class features that defined the character at those first few levels.

The Happy Fun Hour will not, obviously, be everyone's cup of tea, as Mearls regularly gets very technical about game mechanics (though he does so in a way that's easy to follow if you're reasonably familiar with the rules). Watching Mearls' process can give insight into the rules that will be invaluable to anyone who wishes to design their own new material for the game, whether for publication or just for a home campaign. His design philosophy includes a few key tenets that he returns to frequently, and that all 5E GMs and designers would do well to keep in mind:

• Refer back to the rules frequently while you are creating. Don't assume that you remember everything about how a given piece of the game works, because nobody has a perfect memory.
• All new material must be balanced against the core rules, not against supplements alone. Forgetting to compare your creation to that baseline can lead to broken rules and power creep.
• The designers don't assume that players own more than the Player's Handbook. They want new players to be able to get started playing without feeling like they need to buy yet another book in order to have a viable character.
• They also don't assume that players use any of the optional rules (like feats and multiclassing) in their game.

For example, a subclass that grants access to new spells will draw them only from the Player's Handbook. (If a spell from Xanathar's Guide to Everything is truly necessary for the subclass, then they'll reprint that spell in a sidebar.) And when creating a new subclass, you have to be careful to not make it so good that it becomes the only option worth taking. That's a sure sign that something's broken.

Mearls has promised that some of the new material he produces in his show will eventually see print in "Unearthed Arcana," after he polishes it further and has a chance to get the other 5E designers to vet it, too. (One of his new subclasses had already appeared there by the time I starting watching.)

The episodes that I've watched so far cover January-April 2018:

1/30/2018: In this debut episode, Mearls creates a Kraken patron for warlocks. (I'm looking forward to seeing this in UA, and trying it out in a Freeport game!)

2/6/2018: Mearls starts with a recap of the previous episode, with notes on what he's done to flesh out the subclass since then. This will be standard format for the show, with some weeks getting more discussion of past work, and others glossing over it if he's not happy with his progress. This week's new subclass is the Acrobat, for rogues.

2/13/2018 and 2/20/2018: The Giant Soul subclass for sorcerers draws power from the character's giantish heritage. This subclass offers a variety of options based on the different types of giants (stone, fire, and frost, for now), so serves as an example of a subclass that (like the Draconic sorcerer) is effectively several related subclasses bundled together. As such, it takes more time to design, so Mearls takes two episodes to cover everything. One key point of the discussion is his comparison of the sorcerer and wizard classes, and their access to spells--and what can be reasonably done about the sorcerer's very limited spell selection at low levels, without going too far.

2/27/2018: Next up is the cleric, and the Order Domain. Mearls talks about how domains have changed since 3E, and states that clerics' abilities are not defined by their alignment so much as by their god's theme or portfolio. Therefore, alignment domains were not a priority for 5E; a god of chaos might grant Trickery, while a god of good might embody Light or Life. In contrast, the Order Domain is a deliberate attempt to create a "lawful" domain, but still grounding it in more flavorful concepts (civilization and leadership, in this case).

This subclass is the first from this series to see publication in "Unearthed Arcana" (in April). I will revisit it when I do my next "Unearthed Arcana and Freeport" column. (I anticipate referencing The Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour quite often in those columns from now on, assuming the show continues to hold my interest.)

3/6/2018, 3/13/2018, 3/20/2018, 3/27/2018: Mearls tackles a much more complicated concept--a Warlord subclass for fighters--so he needs a few weeks to develop the idea properly. Among the topics that he touches on are the pitfalls of calling any class a "leader," determining whether a character concept should be a new class vs. a new subclass, and using the spell creation tables in the Dungeon Master's Guide as a benchmark for how good new class features should be. He also expresses his belief that challenging yourself and learning from failure are important to one's growth as a designer (or in any other career), and confesses that this is probably the most complicated subclass he's designed for 5E to date. In the fourth episode, Mearls finally has a first complete draft of the Warlord subclass, and he goes over its tactics and gambits abilities in detail.

4/4/2018: Mearls revisits the Acrobat, finishing off its higher-level abilities. He then begins design on a new barbarian subclass, the Marauder, discussing the fine details of the class's rage ability, and how concerns about multiclassing inform design choices in 5E.

4/10/2018, 4/17/2018: Development of the new barbarian subclass continues. It goes through a couple of name changes (from Marauder to Volcano Barbarian to Disaster Barbarian) as Mearls' core concept morphs. The primary inspiration for these later changes is the 4E warden class, which is not yet represented in 5E. Trying to model that class, in which the character partially transforms during combat, has to be considered carefully in order to avoid copying too closely certain abilities of the Totem Warrior (PH) and Storm Lord (Xanathar's).

(I'm curious about how much this wealth of new elemental-themed subclasses--this one, the giant soul sorcerer from earlier episodes, and the elemental sorcerers from UA--would affect the tone and outcome of adventures such as Princes of the Apocalypse, Storm King's Thunder, and "Against the Giants" in Tales from the Yawning Portal.)

Going Forward: I haven't yet watched the last few videos (4/24/2018, 5/1/2018, 5/8/2018), which according to their blurbs on YouTube, dive into psionics (which have already seen a few iterations in past UA columns). But a dozen episodes is more than enough to share with you for now. I'm not sure yet whether I'll try another review of the Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour after a few months' more episodes, but (as I mentioned above) you can expect some references to it in my future "UA and Freeport" reviews.

Counterpoint!: While finishing up this column today, I discovered that D&D Beyond has also uploaded Designing D&D Subclasses with Jeremy Crawford Part 1 (5/10/2018). This video hits many of the same points that Mearls regularly returns to on his show, but from a slightly different perspective. If your time is short and you just want a high-level overview of game design, this first part is only about 14 minutes long. (The initial video doesn't indicate how many more parts there will be, or how frequently they will appear.) If you are willing to invest more time in witnessing the full process, then the Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour is the better choice--and yes, the more fun one.