{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "title": "Forest Valley Games", "description": "", "home_page_url": "https://forestvalleygames.com", "feed_url": "https://forestvalleygames.com/feed.json", "user_comment": "", "icon": "https://forestvalleygames.com/media/website/ForestValleyLogo.png", "author": { "name": "Stephen Collins" }, "items": [ { "id": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/predators-on-land-and-in-the-water-thylacoleo-and-paludirex/", "url": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/predators-on-land-and-in-the-water-thylacoleo-and-paludirex/", "title": "Predators on land and in the water - Thylacoleo and Paludirex", "summary": "In today's bestiary entries, we have two powerful predators—Thylacoleo, the marsupial lion, and Paludirex, one of the largest crocodylians to…", "content_html": "

In today's bestiary entries, we have two powerful predators—Thylacoleo, the marsupial lion, and Paludirex, one of the largest crocodylians to ever exist. They represent the peak of their creature types in the Great Southern Land.

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5e and 5.5e stat blocks are shown, and as ever, should you want a Markdown file for use in Obsidian, or a text version, just contact me.

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Thylacoleo

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Image credit: Prehistoric Planet
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The largest of the marsupial lions, thylacoleo is both a pack hunter and ambush predator. It has a wide, heavy, short-snouted skull with enlarged cheek teeth (the third premolars) that form long shearing blades. Thylacoleo also has an enlarged thumb claw encased in a sheath (as in cats) that is used to disembowel its prey.

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Dwelling primarily in treed open plains, thylacoleo hunts by steadily running down prey, or by lying in wait for prey to pass beneath it where it pounces from a hidden position.

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Up to 2m (6'6\") from nose to tail, thylacoleo weigh from 90-160kg (198-350lb) and are built solidly. Their bite is the strongest of any mammal, pound-for-pound.

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5e stat block

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\"5e
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5.5e stat block

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\"5.5e
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Paludirex

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Image credit: Arjun Bharioke, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Known as the Swamp King, *Paludirex* is a huge crocodile-like creature up to 8m (26 ft.) long, weighing in excess of 1,500kg (3,300lb). It has a wide, flat head, proportionally shorter than more common crocodiles.

It is the apex waterway predator in its habitat and hunts by ambush from the water, or by taking unsuspecting grazing animals and those drinking.

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5e stat block

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\"5e
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5.5e stat block

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\"5.5e
", "image": "https://forestvalleygames.com/media/posts/25/Screenshot_2025-12-21_002243.webp", "author": { "name": "Stephen Collins" }, "tags": [ "monster", "Homebrew", "5e (system)" ], "date_published": "2026-08-16T15:37:42+10:00", "date_modified": "2026-08-16T15:37:42+10:00" }, { "id": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/the-giant-demon-duck/", "url": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/the-giant-demon-duck/", "title": "Mihirung - the giant demon-duck", "summary": "The next of my Australian cryptid and prehistoric creatures is the Dromornis, or Mihirung (after Mihirung paringmal, \"giant bird\" in…", "content_html": "

The next of my Australian cryptid and prehistoric creatures is the Dromornis, or Mihirung (after Mihirung paringmal, \"giant bird\" in the language of the Tjapwuring people of central Victoria).

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This bird may be the largest bird that has ever lived on Earth. There are stat blocks below for both 5e and 5.5e.

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Mihirung

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\"An\n
I like big birds and I cannot lie. Image by Daniel Goitom, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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The Mihirung is an enormous flightless bird standing over 3m (10') tall and weighing in excess of 500kg (1,100lb).

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Related more closely to ducks and other waterfowl than the other flightless birds it resembles, some also refer to it as the \"demon-duck\".

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Travelling in small flocks or family groups, the mihirung will vigourously protect chicks.

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Their diet consists of both plant material and small animals.

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Despite their enormous size, a mihirung is capable of rapid movement thanks to their powerful leg musculature.

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5e 2014 stat block

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5.5e 2024 stat block

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If you would like a plaintext or Markdown (suitable for importing into Obsidian and using with Fantasy Statblocks) version of this creature, please message me.

", "image": "https://forestvalleygames.com/media/posts/24/2016-06-10_Dromornis_640.jpg", "author": { "name": "Stephen Collins" }, "tags": [ "monster", "Homebrew", "5e (system)" ], "date_published": "2026-08-15T09:00:00+10:00", "date_modified": "2026-08-15T14:57:18+10:00" }, { "id": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/on-player-safety/", "url": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/on-player-safety/", "title": "On player safety", "summary": "On one of the Discord servers I'm on, there's been lengthy, insightful conversation over the past day on player safety…", "content_html": "

On one of the Discord servers I'm on, there's been lengthy, insightful conversation over the past day on player safety and how we each go about it.

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Let's start with an absolute: player safety is paramount.

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You do not know what lies within the psyche of your players, even if you know them well. It behooves you as GM to ensure that everyone gathered at your table feels safe and welcome. It is important to set a standard, make it crystal clear what your table rules are, and to ensure that not only are those rules understood, but that that should they be broken, that action is taken to repair and resolve issues.

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This is a big responsibility.

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Safety for your player community

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If your table or wider gaming community isn't a welcoming space for people of all sorts to visit and participate in, personally, I think you have a problem. You certainly won't attract the diversity of players that will enrich your game and your life.

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Ensuring that the people who are a part of your game understand the behaviours expected of them—even if they are your friends—means that you need to set some ground rules. Ideally, you can do this with your players, not to them.

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As most of my play is online, the Discord server we use has what I hope is a clear code of conduct, and everyone is expected to abide by it. It is an aggregation and adaption of codes of conduct on several other servers I spend time on. The entire text is shown below.

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Code of conduct

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Please treat this server as if it was a valued public space like a museum or gallery. It is a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation. These rules exist to set expectations rather than as a set of absolutes. We'll adopt and evolve better rules as needed. If you think a rule needs change, raise it with the group, or if you prefer, an admin first.

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Respect and equality

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We will treat community members fairly and with respect. We will respect every community member’s gender identity, race, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, and religion or absence thereof.

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No harassment

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This community is an environment free from physical, verbal, emotional, or sexual harassment. Demeaning, discriminatory, abusive, or harassing behaviour will not be tolerated.

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Boundaries

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Individuals have the right to set boundaries for behaviour. If someone tells us something we are doing or saying is problematic, we will immediately stop (and edit or delete posts as needed).

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PG and sensitive topics

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This server aims to be a PG environment. We will strive to use appropriate language. We will be careful with sensitive or uncomfortable topics and avoid them when possible. Individuals have the right to express discomfort or sensitivity to topics and to request that the topics no longer be presented to them or that a post be edited or deleted.

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Be agreeable, even when you disagree

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You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing. That’s fine. But remember to criticise ideas, not people. Please avoid:

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  • name-calling
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  • ad hominem attacks
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  • responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content
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  • knee-jerk contradiction
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Instead, provide thoughtful insights that improve the conversation.

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Reporting incidents and moderation

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If an incident takes place, please do the following:

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  1. Speak up against the behaviour as it’s happening, if you feel comfortable doing so, especially if it is directed at someone else. Ask the person(s) to cease the problematic behaviour and remind them of this Code of Conduct. Remain calm and professional. Seek a resolution without involving an admin if possible.
    2. \n
  2. Document what took place with screen captures and first-hand accounts when possible. Note the date and time when it took place, the person who did the wrong thing, anyone else present, what was said, and whether this is an ongoing or repeat situation.
    3. \n
  3. Report what took place to an admin either by Discord private message or via email.
    4. \n
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Receiving feedback that your behaviour is problematic

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If anyone says you have violated the Code of Conduct or your behaviour is problematic:

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    \n
  1. Stop the behaviour. If necessary, take a break to think clearly.
    2. \n
  2. Listen to the person reporting the issue.
    3. \n
  3. Be self-critical and take the time to understand how your behaviour could have been problematic. Try to understand the perspective of the person reporting the problem.
    4. \n
  4. Accept your actions may not be viewed the same by everybody. Take responsibility for what took place, even if it was not your intent. Apologise unconditionally and propose solutions.
    5. \n
  5. Do not argue the wrong or right of your actions or attempt to garner support for your actions. Do not retaliate in any way against involved parties or any other community members.
    6. \n
  6. Understand that for severe or repeated issues, you can be suspended or removed from the server.
    7. \n
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Resolving incidents

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Any incident will be reviewed with any involved parties and with the responsible party. A decision will be made by the server owner as to whether a warning, suspension, or removal should take place.

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No GenAI. Ever.

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Generative AI is an unethical technology that creates immense harm in the world generally, in the TTRPG industry, and in our lives specifically.

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Please do not:

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  • post on this server using GenAI tools
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  • post GenAI-generated content including images, character images, maps, visual aids, and text
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  • use AI aids to play games via this server.
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Note that machine-learning tools, such as grammar checkers and photo editing tools, do not fall under the generative AI banner. There is no restriction on how tools like that are used, though there is a preference for learning the skills these tools help with so that you don't need them.

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In-game safety

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Players should be encouraged to privately let the DM know any lines or veils that will bother them, especially any triggering or upsetting activities, monsters, or situations. If you run a game that takes normal human emotions into account, it is unlikely that most troubling human issues will be crossed, but it's best to be aware. And it's critical to ask.

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There are a range of tools available to do this, mentioned at the end of this post.

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As a part of my campaign introduction documents I include the following text. It's not wholly my original work, but adapted from several sources.

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Table safety

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The typical game will probably be somewhere between PG and MA15+. It might get a little violent, bawdy, or sweary, but only in the interest of the story and only in context. Consider those around you and moderate yourself accordingly.

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The campaign may feature themes, incidents, or creatures that cause personal discomfort. We will deal with these as sensitively as possible.

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Lines

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This game will not contain instances of physical violence towards children, unwanted sexual contact, animal abuse or cruelty, party-initiated torture, intra-party violence, or intra-party betrayal.

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Veils

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Cannibalism, mental assault, ritual sacrifice, kidnapping, consensual sex, enemy-initiated torture, extreme gore, or parasitic invasion will be “veiled” off-screen.

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If at any time you don’t feel comfortable with the content or direction of the game, say “pause for a second” and we will stop the game and address your concerns.

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I also include some directives in my character creation guidelines.

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Your character

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  1. You may not play an evil character. Alignment is governed by the determined by actions model, i.e. what you do defines your alignment.
    2. \n
  2. Violence is fine, but cruelty is not (especially towards innocents and animals). Generally, you should only be attacking things in self-defence or that are irredeemably evil.
    3. \n
  3. Player vs. player action is always acceptable if it meets the purpose of driving the story forward, but it never should escalate to violence against each other.
    4. \n
  4. In-character roleplay is encouraged but not required. Play the way you feel comfortable. Game tone should be serious, but enjoyable. Dumb jokes are expected.
    5. \n
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Playing TTRPGs with young people

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There is a much longer conversation to be had here, and I am not the expert. So just a brief comment from me.

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Younger players, under 13-16 years, may need additional guidance on what is acceptable at the table. You must ensure that you have parental consent to provide social guidance to children of other people.

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Here in Australia, especially if you are volunteering for a kid's gaming group in any capacity, you may be required to obtain a Working with Children or Working with Vulnerable People check. These are managed at state government level.

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Tools you can use

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There are many tools available to help you with player safety. Using them will only help you improve your game.

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\"The
I use and recommend:

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I hope this look into how player safety is managed for my group is useful. I value your input and would welcome comments.

", "image": "https://forestvalleygames.com/media/posts/23/Screenshot-2026-08-11-at-3.44.18-am.png", "author": { "name": "Stephen Collins" }, "tags": [ "safety", "inclusion", "community", "Ethics" ], "date_published": "2026-08-10T17:36:41+10:00", "date_modified": "2026-08-11T12:19:53+10:00" }, { "id": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/look-up-in-the-forest-the-dropbear/", "url": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/look-up-in-the-forest-the-dropbear/", "title": "Look up in the forest - the Dropbear", "summary": "Based on a recent poll on my Patreon, I've decided to do a series of 5e/5.5e monsters based on Australian…", "content_html": "

Based on a recent poll on my Patreon, I've decided to do a series of 5e/5.5e monsters based on Australian prehistoric animals, contemporary fauna, and a few well-known mythical beasts. Entries will be posted here and on Patreon.

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Inspired by Dr. Dhrolin's Dictionary of Dinosaurs from PalaeoGames, I've adopted their presentation style with descriptions, ecological information, and more. There are stat blocks for both 5e and 5.5e as well as optional high-magic campaign additions for each creature. Ultimately, they will be compiled into a small book.

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This first creature is the infamous Dropbear; nemesis of bushwalkers everywhere and frequently used to baffle unsuspecting tourists. 

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If you'd like a Markdown file for Dropbear, please message me on Mastodon or email me.

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Dropbear

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\"A\n
The deadly dropbear.  Image by Yamavu, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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We were told by the locals to \"look up\" as we tracked through the bush. Somewhat surprisingly in hindsight, we paid too little attention to the warnings, and Arkenstone was ambushed by a yowling, fearsome hurricane of fur and teeth, dropping from a tall eucalypt onto him. We were able to fight off the beast, but not before Arkenstone had suffered terrible injuries. Lesson learned, I suppose.

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A member of the small, but deadly, group of carnivorous marsupials to be found in the Great Southern Land, Dropbear is a large, koala-like creature adapted for ambush hunting and deadly force.

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Ecology

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Closely related to the more docile koala, and the prehistoric Thylacoleo, Dropbear is one of the most deadly marsupial creatures. Infrequently encountered in modern times, largely due to tourists being warned of the danger and the reduction in extent of their favoured open eucalypt forest, Dropbears were a regular, though infrequent, cause of colonial invader deaths.

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Around the size of a leopard or very large dog with coarse orange or grey fur with some darker mottled patterning (as seen in most koalas). Dropbear is a heavily built animal, around 80-120kg, with powerful forearms for climbing and holding on to prey. It lacks canines, using broad premolars as biting tools instead.

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Behaviour

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Hunting by ambushing ground dwelling creatures from above, they will lie in wait up to as much as four hours to make a surprise kill. Once prey is within view, Dropbear will fall as many as 8 metres to pounce on top of an unsuspecting victim. The initial impact often stuns the prey, knocking it prone, allowing it to be bitten on the neck and quickly subdued.

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Phylogeny

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The carnivorous marsupials of the Great Southern Land are a small, but keenly adapted, group of creatures filling the ecological niches taken by bears, great cats, and canids in other lands. Dropbear remains an extant, but rarely seen, example of the type, with the first fossil examples dating back almost 2 million years. New reports of attacks emerge every few years.

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References

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The Australian Museum. (2026, April 1). Drop Bear. The Australian Museum. https://australian.museum/learn/animals/mammals/drop-bear/
Janssen, V. (2012). Indirect tracking of drop bears using GNSS technology (Version 2). University of Tasmania. https://hdl.handle.net/102.100.100/546566

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5e 2014 stat block

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\"A

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5.5e 2024 stat block

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\"A

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Optional rules

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If you choose to use the optional rules listed below for a high heroic or high magic campaign, change Dropbear's CR to 1 and increase its XP to 200 accordingly.

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Traits

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Envenomation. Dropbear's Bite attack gains the following effect when it hits: Constitution Saving Throw: DC 14. Failure: 1d6+1 Poison damage, the Poisoned condition, and one level of Exhaustion (to a maximum of four). Success: The Poisoned condition and one level of Exhaustion (to a maximum of four).

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Actions

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Replace the Drop attack with:
Drop and Stun. Melee Attack Roll: +4 (15), reach 5 ft. Hit: 2d8+2 (17) Slashing damage. The dropbear leaps from a hidden height onto its victim. Dropbear's Drop attack causes the prey to have the Stunned condition on a successful hit.

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\n

 

", "image": "https://forestvalleygames.com/media/posts/21/aris-cologon-ZBVCXG2y008-unsplash.jpg", "author": { "name": "Stephen Collins" }, "tags": [ "monster", "Homebrew", "5e (system)" ], "date_published": "2026-08-09T16:14:17+10:00", "date_modified": "2026-08-19T13:36:25+10:00" }, { "id": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/new-patreon-who-dis/", "url": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/new-patreon-who-dis/", "title": "New Patreon. Who dis?", "summary": "I'm spending more of my spare time writing material for TTRPGs, and the words and ideas are beginning to flow.", "content_html": "

I'm spending more of my spare time writing material for TTRPGs, and the words and ideas are beginning to flow. 

In the interests of trying to do this in a more professional way, I've launched a little Patreon that will showcase that game development work (and the occasional diversion into life in the bush). There's also a link in the menu bar (up there ⬆️).

I'd be delighted if any of you chose to follow my efforts.

", "image": "https://forestvalleygames.com/media/posts/20/craftingoriginalcontentfor5egamesmostlydd-preview.png", "author": { "name": "Stephen Collins" }, "tags": [ "writing", "TTRPG", "Patreon" ], "date_published": "2026-08-07T10:22:47+10:00", "date_modified": "2026-08-07T10:22:47+10:00" }, { "id": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/on-cultural-language-and-practices-some-ideas-for-dandd-55e-that-might-be-useful/", "url": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/on-cultural-language-and-practices-some-ideas-for-dandd-55e-that-might-be-useful/", "title": "On cultural language and practices—some ideas for D&D 5.5e that might be useful", "summary": "Out in the TTRPG blogosphere, Dave Clark (bedirthan) back in 2021 and Ian Brockbank (Melestrua) just this week, have been…", "content_html": "

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Out in the TTRPG blogosphere, Dave Clark (bedirthan) back in 2021 and Ian Brockbank (Melestrua) just this week, have been musing about language in D&D and how it's a pretty unwieldy club that gets deliberately ignored more often than not in the form of \"Fred the Dwarf can understand Quentin the Elf because they speak both Dwarvish and Elvish and Common\".

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Dave and Ian have both taken a pass at some homebrew that introduces cultural knowledge as a replacement for languages.

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It's an interesting idea, and it set me to thinking about the same problem. I figured I would take a pass at this quandary as well, so here's my thinking, expressed as a new general feat, with some context first. The context is founded in my long-ago studies in English Literature, and subsequent reading often about language formation, etymology, and dialect, and my career in design because I'm that kind of nerd.

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On cultural language and practices

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Despite seeing many examples of it in fantasy and science fiction, it would be foolish to assume that any large world speaks a universal commonly (wordplay intended) comprehensible tongue. Even if there is some form of shared language like the ubiquitous Common in Dungeons and Dragons, or Galactic Basic in the Star Wars universe, if you’re aiming for some semblance of verisimilitude then regional variation, accents, local names and usage, and the intrusion of foreign words unfamiliar elsewhere, ought to occur in a fictional world, just as they do here IRL.

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Common is, but it also isn’t

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In D&D, using Faerûn as our example, there are some important things to note about Common that are frequently hand-waved off.

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First, Common is a trade language, as noted in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting for 3rd edition D&D and several other publications back as far as the original Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (the famed grey box), published in 1987.

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As described in source materials, Common exists to facilitate simple communication, particularly transactions between local merchants, wherever they may be, and the caravans and the traders travelling to markets and caravanserai; that is, it was not useful for complicated topics. By implication, it would not have been spoken around the family table, or in temples, and certainly not at court.

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\"The\n
A bustling souq in medieval Baghdad (Artist: Janice Leng for Ubisoft)
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Second, nearly everyone on Faerûn speaks Common as a second language, that is, they speak something else as their first language. That would be their cultural language. Cultural languages present a more complex challenge (see Player’s Handbook 2024, p.37 and Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûn p.49) than comprehending Common as spoken by someone from a distant place.

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The Forgotten Realms Wiki goes so far as to state that Common itself has regional dialects such that, for example, someone from Icewind Dale will have a challenging time (DC10 makes sense) understanding and speaking with someone from Calimport, or even Baldur's Gate. 

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Regional dialects of Common and cultural languages

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Cultural languages would be spoken by PCs for their place of birth, everyone in native NPC populations in a region or nation, and by anyone meeting the Cultural Affinity feat requirements for Integration as described below. On page 49 of FRHoF, the Standard Languages of Faerûn table lists a wide range of possible cultural languages a PC or NPC might speak, based on their place of origin.

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Cultural regions for Faerûn are shown in broad terms on the map on page 50 of FRHoF. More detailed language regions for Faerûn align to the various nations detailed in pages 49-92 of FRHoF and chapters 2 through 6 of Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerûn. The Forgotten Realms Wiki also has a Political Map of Faerun (correct for 1372 DR), shown below, that indicates the nations of western Faerûn.

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\"Political\n
Where are you from?
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Just as they do here IRL, cultural languages would merge and blend at the edges, such that permanent residents of a region within 10 miles of a national, regional, or city state border will be able to speak enough of a neighbouring place’s language and understand as much of the culture as necessary to get by in everyday society without committing grievous cultural faux pas, though they may be somewhat clumsy in their execution, e.g. Chessentan citizens resident near the borders of Chessenta and Unther would speak their own language natively, enough Untheric to be understood by nearby Unther residents, and the local Common dialect well enough to conduct trade at regional markets.

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Cultural languages can be assumed as an additional language to any others taken by starting characters and as the default language for any NPC. Any player character or NPC can also be expected to speak the local dialect of Common well enough to conduct mundane life matters, particularly trade, with:

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Comprehension of and conversation in cultural languages, on the other hand, take time and immersion to learn, and dedicated downtime effort needs to be undertaken by player characters in order to learn such things.

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The section in XGtE on Training during downtime notes that learning a new language takes at least 10 work weeks, modified by the character's Intelligence and costs 25gp/week.

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Cultural expectations and practices

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The combination of what must be said, and particularly, how it should be said and the behaviours and rituals that accompany the conversation in a given situation represent the cultural expectations or cultural practices in a given place. For example, bartering with a merchant is expected in some places and offence will be caused if one does not participate in the expected back and forth, resulting in the purchase not being possible at that time. In other places, barter is considered offensive, and the price is the price. What goes in the markets of Neverwinter does not necessarily hold in the forges and smithies of Melvaunt, and may even cause terrible offence.

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Regional cultural practice in matters such as festivals, courtship and marriage, dealing with the local watch, engaging with bureaucrats and nobles, and conducting trade with vendors, shopkeepers, market holders, or any other individual making or selling a product or service will differ from place to place. Do not go offering a herd of goats as bride price to the father of the young woman you are courting if she comes from a society where she is considered her own person at adulthood.

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The Cultural Affinity feat, described below, offers a way to address these matters in D&D 5.5e that players and DMs may wish to include as homebrew for their campaigns.

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\n

Cultural Affinity

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General Feat (Prerequisite: Level 4+, Intelligence and Wisdom 13+)

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You gain the following benefits.

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Cultural knowledge

\n

You are familiar with and natively functional in the culture of a region:

\n\n

You gain +2 on checks for History, Insight, and Religion in those places. You know and understand local customs and mores, ways of negotiation, festivals, and trade and market practices.

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Integration

\n

\n

After spending more than 1 continuous month in a place, you are able to speak the local Common dialect proficiently enough to conduct normal conversation with native locals provided you use a day of downtime each week in that month to spend time studying with a teacher and in a place of gathering such as a tavern, town hall, or marketplace observing the flow of society.

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You may optionally spend an additional day each week during a continuous 3 month period in downtime studying with a teacher and observing society, which will allow you to develop basic proficiency in understanding the local cultural language (this is not proficiency in the language, which requires separate training) and understanding the regional culture. You get Advantage on any check involving Cultural knowledge (above).

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Learning with the teacher costs 10gp/week.

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Wayfinding

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In populated places within your Cultural knowledge of village size or greater, you cannot become lost. You have a working sense of how such populated places operate and are planned and are always able to find the local market square, best (or least reputable) inn, watch house, temple to the main local deity, and town hall or administrative building. 

\n

Provided you have taken the time to learn the local Common dialect or cultural language, you are also able to find and converse with the appropriate person to glean a basic level of the information you need in those places, subject to a Persuasion (DC10) check.

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I hope readers find my thinking and proposed solution useful. Please let me know in the comments whether you use this in your game, and any mechanical alterations you might make if my ideas seem off to you.

", "image": "https://forestvalleygames.com/media/posts/19/Turku_Medieval_Market_market_booths.jpg", "author": { "name": "Stephen Collins" }, "tags": [ "language", "game mechanics", "feats", "culture", "5e (system)" ], "date_published": "2026-08-04T11:51:17+10:00", "date_modified": "2026-08-15T07:08:02+10:00" }, { "id": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/building-an-online-ttrpg-toolkit-part-5-sound-and-fury/", "url": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/building-an-online-ttrpg-toolkit-part-5-sound-and-fury/", "title": "Building an online TTRPG toolkit - Part 5: Sound and fury", "summary": "Long ago, adding atmospheric sound to my TTRPGs for my group involved choosing a vinyl LP and putting it on…", "content_html": "

\n

Long ago, adding atmospheric sound to my TTRPGs for my group involved choosing a vinyl LP and putting it on the record player. There's 30-40 minutes at most in that. These days, we have the almost bottomless resource of the several streaming music suppliers (don't choose Spotify, their CEO invests in arms manufacturers and they pay among the lowest royalty rates to artists) as well as specialist sites like Tabletop Audio and applications like Pocket Bard (a 2026 ENNIE nominee).

\n
\"A\n
Human-made free fantasy audio, 10 minutes at a time. Thanks Tim!
\n
\n

If you can juggle all the balls needed to have atmospheric music and SFX in your game, it can make a positive difference to the mood around the table (or on the call). It is, however, another thing to keep your head wrapped around and you should look to strike a balance between scene-specific music and effects (heavy attention required), broader adventure-relevant tracks (some attention needed), and a soundtrack of generally thematic music (much less onerous).

\n

If you're doing this around a physical table, it's pretty straightforward: set up a playlist and a Bluetooth speaker and hit Play whenever the right moment comes. Doing this in an online session is a bit more involved. Here's how I'm doing it.

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Sourcing music

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One way or another, your music is probably not coming for free. You're paying for a streaming service where you can pick from hundreds of thousands of tracks written for non-TTRPG reasons, but that fit your game. You've bought a commercial product or backed a crowdfunded project that includes music (hopefully not AI-generated). Or, you've chosen to use a tool like the abovementioned Tabletop Audio or Pocket Bard (there are others, but these are the ones I know and work with). Honestly, it doesn't matter where the SFX and music comes from. What matters is that you get it to the table.

\n

I get my music for the table from:

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\"A\n
More sound and music made by actual humans and not error-ridden theft bots
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\n

Getting music into Kenku.fm

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Kenku.fm, from the same team that makes the Owlbear Rodeo VTT, offers a complete audio setup including local music sharing, streaming from the web, and hookup to the Elgato Stream Deck. It's also open source software, which I'm very much in favour of.

\n

You'll need to do a little bit of legwork to get Kenku wired to Discord and your various music sources. It's fully documented on their website, with clear step-by-step instructions. You will create a bot that can be connected to a Discord voice channel.

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One of the easiest parts of your setup will be adding music to Kenku.fm. Once this is done, any service recognised by Kenku as a provider can be piped into the Discord channel. This works out of the box for playlists created within Kenku itself, and for web-based providers.You have a bunch of options, including:

\n\n
\"A\n
Where's the music coming from? Where's it going to?
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\n

Once you have a selection of providers in Kenku.fm, you can route music to Discord via the bot you set up when installing. We're going to go an additional step down this rabbit hole and (virtually) wire an additional provider into Kenku.fm.

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Getting Pocket Bard into Kenku as a provider

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If you're a Pocket Bard user as I am, this will require the most effort from you, though I believe the end result is worth it. The same process will work for any standalone app such as Apple Music.

\n

First, install the Pocket Bard app and a virtual cable utility such as VB Cable. Both are paid applications, so this will cost you a little bit; Pocket Bard is US$49.99/year. Yes, it's subscription pricing, which is somewhat irksome, but you get everything in the app, and any new soundscapes they release. VB Cable is US$5.00. Cheap.

\n

Next, install a utility that allows you to send Pocket Bard's audio to a secondary output (the virtual cable) because this functionality is not available in macOS. I can't speak to how this will work on Windows, because I am not running that trash in my network.

\n

I use SoundSource, also a paid app. It's quality kit, so the US$49 one-time price is not a massive outlay. You'll end up using it for more than this use case, for sure, as you can configure and then save things like gaming audio setups, our your setup for streaming or podcasting. Once SoundScape is up and running, route Pocket Bard's output to the virtual cable in the app.

\n
\"A\n
Pocket Bard sending to the virtual cable, allowing it to be a provider in Kenku.fm
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\n
\"\"\n
External inputs allowed!
\n
\n

Next, hop over to Kenku and click the settings icon. Turn on 'External inputs' and click DONE. The virtual cable you installed will now be an input source for Kenku to use. Select it to use it. It will change colour. At this point, you should be able to hear Pocket Bard playing locally on your computer, assuming you have kicked off a soundscape there.

\n

Final step now...

\n

In Kenku, change the output from \"This Computer\" to a voice channel on your Discord server. Because the bot you made earlier in connected to your server, all your Discord voice channels should be displayed already.

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Kenku will be added to your Discord voice channel as a participant and the sound from Pocket Bard should now be playing in that channel's audio, and Kenku will appear as a participant in the call.

At this point, you're all go. It's up to you to cue up and control those sounds in Pocket Bard and make them part of your play!

\n
\"A\n
Who's that little purple raven guy/gal?
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\n

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Is this really necessary?

\n

By no means. But, Pocket Bard has some excellent soundscapes and drop-in SFX available in its catalog, and if it's the lkind of thing you want in your game, either around a table or online, then it's worth testing out. Like many of these tools, it has a free test option so you can try it out.

\n

So, that's it for my online play toolkit series. I do hope it's been interesting to the dozen or so of you reading.

\n

I'm planning some game mechanical things next, so it might be a couple of weeks before I post again.

", "image": "https://forestvalleygames.com/media/posts/18/rob-e-rUz9uQh0q4k-unsplash.jpg", "author": { "name": "Stephen Collins" }, "tags": [ "tools", "TTRPG", "Music" ], "date_published": "2026-08-03T12:04:31+10:00", "date_modified": "2026-08-03T12:04:31+10:00" }, { "id": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/building-an-online-ttrpg-toolkit-part-4-campaign-management-scheduling-economy-and-notes-and-a-review/", "url": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/building-an-online-ttrpg-toolkit-part-4-campaign-management-scheduling-economy-and-notes-and-a-review/", "title": "Building an online TTRPG toolkit - Part 4: Campaign management, scheduling, economy, and notes (and a review)", "summary": "The three previous posts in this series addressed necessary parts of the play toolkit: campaign preparation and record-keeping, group communication,…", "content_html": "

\n

The three previous posts in this series addressed necessary parts of the play toolkit: campaign preparation and record-keeping, group communication, and a place to play. The first two, I consider necessary but not sufficient parts of any campaign; you could use them for any group playing any TTRPG in any context. With a VTT and all the character, visualisation, and encounter management that hangs off it, you can certainly use such a thing around a physical table (as shown frequently in D&D's official actual play, Dungeon Masters), but a nice Chessex wet-erase mat and some minis will also do the job.

\n

Today, we're going to look at something quite new—the 2026 ENNIE Best Aid/Accessory - Digital-nominated West Marches—that you could choose to use as a supplement to what you do in Discord, and the features it offers. This post is a summary of how our group is using it, and also a review of the product. I've seen a few of the D&D influencer types do brief commentary on it, but I don't think I've seen anyone do a full review.

\n

So, what is West Marches? In their own words, it's a tool that meshes with your group's Discord server for \"[s]cheduling, progression, rewards, wiki\". That's accurate. But where's the value? Can't you do all this just with Discord? Well, sure, you can. But West Marches, at least on the use we're getting, offers a few extra benefits. Let's enumerate them.

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Getting started

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To start, you create a Community; give it a name, a short description, pick your game system from the 22 (!) available (plus a generic option), your base language for users, your timezones (yes, multiple, if you want), whether the community is public and therefore open to player and additional GM signups, and your Discord invite link. Then you add the bot to your Discord, choose your scheduling mode (GM scheduling and add players, or Player scheduling and a GM picks it up), and permissions for adding and changing things on your site based on roles within your Discord (so, we have GM and Player roles). From there, you're good to start and you're walked through a few additional steps such as which Discord channels West Marches will post to and for what kinds of messages.

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\"A\n
Well met, Adventurers!
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It's worth noting at this point that there are a significant number of additional features available. Many of these are available on the free tier, and certainly enough to prove the usefulness of West Marches at that tier, but some quite useful features are locked behind one of the three paid tiers, including character inventory management linked to the economy you build in West Marches, adventure tiering and level settings, community statistics, some wiki functions, themes, travel configuration, additional storage, inventory management linked to in-game marketplace and economy, and a calendar of player availability. None of these are critical for a small, single group of players and GM. The only one I wish was in the base tier right now is inventory management; it is potentially very useful.

\n

If you're running a large, persistent world with many players, GMs, and adventures, these features would become increasingly useful. The paid tiers aren't cheap—anything from AU$10-AU$40 per month—so you definitely need a use for those extra features to commit. For our group of 5, they aren't necessary. West Marches is clearly designed to allow for that large, persistent world with characters dropping in and out as their IRL humans run their mundane lives and aren't always available for a regular Friday night session.

\n

Who's who?

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Once you've completed basic setup, you can begin using West Marches for session scheduling. You'll need to add (or better, have your players add) characters. The character adder allows you to specify a URL from somewhere like D&D Beyond and will then import base character details. There's also a useful Player's notes to GM section where things like player safety notes can go. I have a couple of players that have used this to let me know some of the things they can't deal with in games. The West Marches character sheet isn't designed to replace Beyond and similar platforms, rather, it allows for the marketplace, inventory, and reward systems to interact with the characters and your Discord server.

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\"A\n
Who will you be today?
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Your character is then added to West Marches and as you participate in adventures, receive GM rewards, and engage in the in-game economy, your sheet is updated. All those things also get posted in-context to your Discord server.

\n
\"A\n
Who is this handsome fellow?
\n
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For example, when one of your players adds their character to West Marches, a message is sent to your Discord server, potentially for GM approval of the character if you have that turned on. You can then have a full-fledged discussion on Discord about the character if you wish.

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\"A\n
Yes, my character has my name.
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So, when are we playing?

\n

Good question! The Adventures tab of West Marches is where all your scheduling happens. Someone (in our case a GM: me) creates an adventure item with date and time details and can add images, text details, minimum and maximum levels, the number of players needed, whether signups are automatically approved, and which Discord roles are notified. As part of your general management, you can also decide whether the item gets added to your Discord server as an event.

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\"A\n
Who's coming?
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In West Marches' model, a session is an adventure, so if you're planning to run adventures that will span more than one session of play, you'll need to break it up into multiple events. That's a very West Marches (the thing vs. the tool) way of thinking about play. It's not a hassle, though I would like to see a way to schedule a multi-session event.

\n
\"A\n
Put these in your diary!
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Once a session is saved, it is posted to the nominated channel on your Discord server and your players can click a link to see session details and sign up to play.

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\"A\n
Bot-post goodness in Discord.
\n
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From here, it's up to you.

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At the end of a session, a GM can hand out monetary and item rewards. And again, details are posted to a nominated channel in your Discord. West Marches recommends XP based advancement rather than milestones for this purpose. So long as you can manage it in your group, I don't think it matters. If you're using West Marches for a large, persistent campaign, it would come in very handy.

\n

At the end of a session, a GM can also make notes about the adventure; in effect a session summary. That session summary becomes an adventure recap in the campaign wiki (\"Nice\"). Once again, that session summary gets posted to the specific adventure thread in Discord for everyone to read. It's really quite a neat system.

\n

What happens when...?

\n

The wiki component of West Marches is very handy for making your hard-written lore and homebrew available to your players. This kind of information management would previously have been done with handouts, bodged in Discord, or managed in a shared drive nobody loves. Now you have a pretty decent option.

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\"A\n
What lore-freak nerdery is this!?
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As you can see, while our wiki is still small (we've only had one session so far), some useful things are there including our Session 0 information, a campaign guide (thanks, Mike Shea, for your guidance here), character creation guidance, and some homebrew and in-game information for the GM and players. As you write wiki pages, you can create connections between them and you will end up with a relationship map of your campaign, not unlike the one Obsidian creates.

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You can create several kinds of content in the wiki including general content, maps, timelines, and hexcrawl maps. There is a built in hex map editor you can use if you're homebrewing your world (I suppose you could also recreate an existing map for somewhere like Faerun or anywhere else).

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\"A\n
Downtime. Because it's MIA from 5.5e.
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The free mode of West Marches only allows you 10Mb of image storage, which is a bit of a pain. The editor will let you nominate a URL for inline images within a page, but not for maps or content feature images. Storage isn't cheap, so I do understand this. Blame the AI techbros. The paid tiers offer a lot more storage.

\n

\"Do you need me to get milk at the shops?\"

\n

One of the least expected features of West Marches is the existence of an in-world marketplace and economy as an included, optional feature. You don't need to use it, but it's kind of cool. There are built-in base markets for various item types that you can add, and if you have your world's price information in a spreadsheet, you can literally paste additional data straight in when you turn on edit mode.

\n
\"A\n
Any self-respecting adventurer clearly needs an airship (at least until Spelljammer is updated for 5.5e).
\n
\n

This is absolutely not a feature you need, but I suspect we'll make good use of it as time goes on. The default markets I've added don't have the range of things I want available, so I have a pretty hefty task ahead of me to flesh them out, based on the well-known D&D Shop Catalog document to be found on Reddit.

\n

Player transactions on the marketplace are posted to Discord in the channel you nominate for economic activity. Useful! What's missing here is full inventory management and in-game trade for characters using the marketplace. That's a paid-tier feature that comes with the AU$20/month tier. Again, if you're running a big, persistent world, that's something you might want.

\n

Do I really need this?

\n

Nope. But is it going to smooth out some of the bumps and make your campaign management life a hair easier? Absolutely. On that basis, and because the free tier has most features turned on, I recommend you at least take a look to see if it's for you. I estimate somewhere between 1 and 5 hours of prep before you loose it on your players.

\n

So that's it for campaign management with West Marches. This is the second-last of my TTRPG toolkit posts. Tomorrow, a bit of sound and fury.

", "image": "https://forestvalleygames.com/media/posts/17/anton-tseiko-RcwcLat-OBE-unsplash.jpg", "author": { "name": "Stephen Collins" }, "tags": [ "tools", "review", "campaign management", "West Marches", "TTRPG" ], "date_published": "2026-07-30T14:15:36+10:00", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T17:45:06+10:00" }, { "id": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/building-an-online-ttrpg-toolkit-part-3-play-visualisation/", "url": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/building-an-online-ttrpg-toolkit-part-3-play-visualisation/", "title": "Building an online TTRPG toolkit - Part 3: Online character sheets, tabletop visualisation, and content sharing", "summary": "This is the third part of my series detailing the tools I have assembled to play TTRPGs, and how I…", "content_html": "

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This is the third part of my series detailing the tools I have assembled to play TTRPGs, and how I use them. You can also read the previous entries on record-keeping and writing and communication. This post will detail the choices we've made around our virtual tabletop and integration with character building and game rules and resources.

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While neither the most full-featured or most versatile VTT around, because this is largely a new group, and presently playing only D&D and using and sharing the digital content I have as DM, D&D Beyond and the Maps VTT seems the logical initial choice. This may change if we switch to another RPG system, or decide a different VTT provides us with the range of tools we need. I have a license for Foundry, for example, but right now buying content for a second VTT isn't an enticing choice.

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StartPlaying has a big list of VTT options, though it was published 3 years ago now, so is somewhat out of date. The usual suspects are on there, including Fantasy Grounds, Foundry, Roll20, Owlbear Rodeo, and Shard, all of which I hear good things about. Pick the VTT that most suits you, your group, and the kind of games you plan to play. There's not right choice, just the right choice for you and your group.

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Player and DM resources

\n

So, what are we getting with D&D Beyond that's useful to us? If you're buying digital versions of D&D publications from the source, here's where your digital library lives. Searchable (though it could be improved with some better filtering and metadata on content), readable anywhere you have web (or official app) access, and hooked into play tools as well. If you've ever looked at the free Basic Rules for 5th Edition (both 2014 and 2024 variants), you know what you're getting.

\n
\"A\n
So many books! If only I had the physical shelf space...
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\n

Character creation and management

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The starting point for many Beyond users is the Character Creator. With the free Basic Rules wired in, there's no barrier to new players getting their hands dirty. As you or your DM builds a collection of digital content, those supplemental materials can be added to the character builder to allow more character variants across classes, subclasses, backgrounds, and more.

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\"A\n
Always(ish) a half-elf ranger
\n
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Campaign information and content sharing

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Once players are equipped with characters, they can join their DM's campaign. This is just the beginning, as any rulebooks, adventures, and extras the DM might have purchased can be shared with players. For the players in my group, that's books with additional character and world information, and when adventuring, maps, encounters and the like. Of course, I still need to run the game.

\n

The home for that is the Campaign page, where I can coordinate content sharing, edit the campaign, see the characters from other players, and a log of rolls and actions from past activity. I can add notes for myself as GM as well as public notes for everyone, though for our purposes they exist in other places. I can also launch the Maps VTT from here.

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\"A\n
LFG?
\n
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Gameplay visualisation

\n

So, now we're in the VTT. By all accounts, Maps has matured significantly over the past year, and now has a range of useful features. Certainly, D&D are keen on keeping fans updated as to what's going on as new features and improvements happen. Maps is deeply enmeshed with D&D's other products under the Beyond banner, so any content you own, whether that's published adventures, sourcebooks, maps, encounters, or any other material, can be visualised here and used in play. You can also upload your own maps for play. Unfortunately, right now, you can't upload your own tokens to play with unless you build a monster in the Homebrew section, so you're somewhat limited to officially published foes and allies. Nor can you upload your own images for display to players in what Maps refers to as Reveals. This feature and your own custom tokens needs some work as features go.

\n

However, you can pretty quickly spin up an encounter. Initiative, conditions, dice rolling, are all managed on screen. The one thing that I feel is missing here, and it's very picky, is that if I'm a player or DM who likes rolling physical dice, there's not a quick and easy way (that I can find) of dropping those rolls into the VTT. I'd like to see that as a thing if possible; I'm sure it's doable.

\n
\"A\n
Two of the players in my group just after taking on an Animated Armor in last week's session. The map is a custom upload from the adventure we were playing.
\n
\n

That's about it for everything D&D Beyond is giving us. Tomorrow or maybe Friday—I have timber harvesting to do on the property tomorrow, and maybe I'll blog about that—I'll post about the extra bits and pieces we're running to complete our tool kit.

", "image": "https://forestvalleygames.com/media/posts/16/timothy-dykes-woE5Fc1HF1o-unsplash.jpg", "author": { "name": "Stephen Collins" }, "tags": [ "tools", "VTT", "D&D Beyond" ], "date_published": "2026-07-29T13:11:51+10:00", "date_modified": "2026-07-29T16:18:22+10:00" }, { "id": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/building-an-online-ttrpg-toolkit-part-2-group-communication/", "url": "https://forestvalleygames.com/posts/building-an-online-ttrpg-toolkit-part-2-group-communication/", "title": "Building an online TTRPG toolkit - Part 2: Group communication", "summary": "Hello again! If you're here, you probably know I'm doing a series of posts on the toolkit I've woven together…", "content_html": "

Hello again! If you're here, you probably know I'm doing a series of posts on the toolkit I've woven together for running my D&D campaign online. This is the second of those posts.

\n

Day-to-day (well, most days) communication with my group happens through Discord. Until coming back to TTRPGs, I'd never been a member of more than a couple of Discord servers (mostly for playing WoW years ago). Now I'm on several for various things including gaming, solar energy independence, software support, and a couple of other interests.

\n

My group has its own instance where we share gaming content, as well as a bunch of more social things. Even if we were playing together physically, Discord offers useful ways to record and maintain information, so long as you have something like Obsidian as your source of truth. After all we're here in Brogo, and in four other locations. Playing around a table is going to be infrequent at best.

\n

\n
\"A\n
Channels for all the things!
\n
\n

What you can see here is the channel list on our Discord server; they are chat channels unless noted otherwise. Here's what's going on in them:

\n\n

While this quite extensive and certainly far more than is needed, I'm trying to think ahead to possible growth. The current list can change if needed, but for the foreseeable future, it's probably about right.

\n

If you've used Discord, you've probably encountered a Discord bot. These tools provide additional functionality within Discord, and I have a small set enabled:

\n\n

For Discord, that's about it. There are no secrets. It's not fancy. It does the job.

\n

Tomorrow, we'll look at VTTs and the choices we've made for our campaign.

", "image": "https://forestvalleygames.com/media/posts/15/player-guide-table-game.png", "author": { "name": "Stephen Collins" }, "tags": [ "tools", "TTRPG", "Discord" ], "date_published": "2026-07-28T13:01:42+10:00", "date_modified": "2026-07-28T13:01:42+10:00" } ] }