Thursday D&D is now my oldest campaign.  Running since my inception into the Questers' Way model, they've been fighting cultists, talking to dragons, crushing beholders, and squaring off against Ancient Ones riding gargantuan titans for nearly 3 years now.  And last Thursday marked the close of the final arc of the story.  
  We'll have one last dungeon crawl at level 20, 5 years later, as our epilogue next week.  After that, 150 years pass into the fourth age of Io, and we start anew at Level 2.  It's been quite a journey, and they're not the easiest group to run ;), but the lessons are real with this crew and I've changed a lot since we started.  
Here's what I picked up.

When I started the Thursday game, I was coming off a blend of 10 years running and teaching Pathfinder, and though I fell in love quickly with 5E, I had made some assumptions regarding its player options.
  The system is deceptively simple and highly accessible, but I had listened to the cry-babies online declaring it "D&D Basic," and decided to create specific Prestige Classes based around lore and player discovery.  It created a very special and unique option inside my custom world, where "secret" classes actually existed that could augment player builds, and could only upgrade through experimentation, player exploration, and discovery into the deep layers of the world's history.  I still think it was a great decision.  It adds a lot of rewards for players that invest of themselves in the history and machinations of this fantasy you've spent so much time on.
  But after two years of deep-diving mechanics, game mastering, game design, player-master interaction, social development, and the study of flow...  I realize I made a boo-boo.  Not a mistake in flavor, nor in reward, but in mechanics.
It's a little thing, and the more you do the more you realize that "it's the little things" that matter most.  In this case, my Prestige Class of the Aegis - a powerhouse of a Cleric that wields the souls of the dead to unleash fury upon her enemies - and the final form of a Ranger with a Legacy Bow - a weapon that levels up with you; semi-sentient and created by a god - created an issue with Action Economy and TMRPA (Too Much Rolling Per Action), respectively.  
  The Aegis's main mechanic involves gaining Furies - souls of dead warriors unwilling to pass on - and spending them like Ki Points to unleash powerful attacks, augment healing spells, and create more options.  Unfortunately, as long as you have Furies to burn, there's no limit to their use, and at high level in any class, you're already managing so much...  It eats up time easy when you're able to summon an Action Surge every turn AND cast AND fight.  On the other side of the table, the crazy-bow-now-living-winged-armor attached to the Ranger added an extra attack, but the main time suck is derived from two main extra elements in play: the bow requires a Con save when it hits or the target takes extra necrotic damage.  It's also got a crazy bonus (with a high level character with max Dex), so hitting is often, mean more rolls for me.  On top of this, IF she rolls a natural 20 on the bow, she rolls Constitution damage on the target, on top of everything else.  Moving forward, leveled up weapons will deal static numbers, instead of rolling more...  And in terms of time, it always feels more effective in flow and execution to have a power spike (the awesome power of rolling 8d6 for a Fireball) than many small spikes of damage, so if I can eliminate the parceled rolls where I can, everyone still feels effective, but turns take less time.

In the fourth age, Io-Shar, though it is a more industrial time period of naval exploration (after the world flooded), home-brew materials are much tighter and more balanced; action economy manipulations have higher costs, and there's less compounded rolling.  The bonuses are also much more subtle; there isn't a need to add a whole new system to track when it could be as simple as a palette swap in damage type.  New age, new prestige classes and custom feats open up (hello, Knife Expert), but this play test has heavily informed what special elements are extended to the player.  A little goes a long way - there is an elegance in that design, and it keeps the playing field even across the table.
  I look forward to the interesting things I can give them this time around.  :)

NPC's can be tricky business.  
  Introduce them as careful lore drops, powerful relationships, killer resources...but never have them solve a problem for the players.  Good gods.  Holy cows on toast with mayonnaise.  Don't do it.  
NPC ex machina is not the way to go if it comes out of nowhere.
  Well-established order of guards and officers?  Sure thing.  Sudden mass teleport wizard is sudden.  If it feels like a puzzle to the players and they're enjoying solving it, don't help them with an NPC.  Hints are fine, solutions can hurt the party.  
​...Unless they're utterly lost and confused.  Help them along, but don't do it for them.  EVER.  If you do, you run the risk of insulting them and equally "playing without them."  And that's just rude.  ;)

Some players want their background conflicts resolved in the grand arc of the story, while others use their backgrounds predominantly to inform their play style from session 1 and need it no longer.  
  Now, this group in particular was one where I didn't get that feel easy from most of them.  With a high mix reactive players with a few proactive ones, some offering extensive background information while others offered a few sentences explained away, the hindsight of the matter is obvious but the player execution and my observations were misunderstood often.  When you give a hook that to you is obvious, but the player misses completely, and therefore doesn't pursue it, one might assume that the view of their background fits into the former category.
  Compounding confusion, still, are those that feed very little into the overall narrative, but then wonder when "their story" will be featured, but say nothing - instead assuming they were forgotten.  Please talk to your DM; I won't be offended - it's much worse if you don't approach the issue until the end of the campaign and I wonder why NO ONE SAID ANYTHING.  :)
Like many GMs out there, I'm not a *dick*, but I can't read minds.  There are so many stories of a player misinterpreting a DM's intention, or of the GM making an assumption about a scenario that ended up being incorrect, or seeming to ignore obvious intentions.  In the same vein of: "if I knew it was a problem, I would have fixed it right away," though we can intuit quite a bit the longer we're at the table, our human nature begs us to err.  We miss things, we get caught up in the narrative, and we lose sight of players.  I am imperfect, as are we all, so open communication helps everyone.  Also, GMs, CHECK IN WITH YOUR PLAYERS MORE.  I picked this up as a requirement when I started Gray Owls and OH MY GOODNESS is it an essential element at every table.  I don't know how it took me that long to put in my workflow OMG.  
Moving forward, with each new campaign, I've started to put together a few questions for character creation; some fulfill the essential detail of world building, while others touch on player intentions - what do they want to get out of this experience?

1. Where was your character born?  Describe it as best you can; do you reflect on this place positively or negatively?  Would you ever want to return?  Why?  Do you have a family there?  How did they treat you?  Were there any important people in your life growing up?  Why did you leave?
2. What is your character's goal in life; what do you seek?  When did you "grow up" and start taking care of yourself?
3. What emotion best describes your character?  What emotion do you bring out in others?
4. How do you carry yourself?  What are your means/dress/attitude as you move through life?  What do find valuable?
5. What is your comfort zone?  What is your greatest fear?  Personal tastes, quirks, and opinions?
6. Player: What kind of story do you see your character fitting into?  What role do you see them filling?
7. Player: Please weigh (3 being most important to you, 1 being least important) the Three Pillars - Combat/Social/Exploration
8. Player: How do you interpret your play style?  What are your pet peeves?  What do you respond well to?
9. Player: How do you want your character to die? (this is more important than you think; it strikes at the heart of our own values - your story could end abruptly, and if it did, how would they meet that end do you think?)
10. Player: Do you want your background details to be referenced or hooked into the story?  You can always change your mind - just let me know.

Now, especially number 10 I can see a few of my fellow GMs hemming and hawing over.  "You mean we have to bend over backwards to make this character's weird backstory fit into OUR GRAND NARRATIVE???  How dare they assume they'd be so important - they should be happy just to be playing!"  ...Hmm.  
  This is a group game, and it's really important that everyone understands the type of experience they're getting into.  Clear expectations are a good thing; Trust and Empathy are two main factors to building a great table of play.  Now, do I have to make that character's stuff the most important element all the time?  No.  Absolutely not.  But I can give them sprinkles of content more directly spun into the story.  It won't happen all the time, and sometimes it might not even come up, but IF I KNOW going into this that there is a clear desire to wrap up a specific story thread, I can find more ORGANIC ways to weave and tie these disparate threads together.  It might even be a limiter of location; hints of the conflict in the north (echoes of another character's story), but we don't need to go there now.  It's just a sprinkle.  
Everyone's connected to something.  Everyone's from somewhere.  We don't know everything going in; the mystery is the fun part, and some players want their mystery.  Others don't care for it; I need to know which one you are.

And when they do, their real play styles come out.  It's amazing what comfort will do for the table, and how much it reveals what a comfortable player actually WANTS to play, and if that concept doesn't jive with how their current class works, there will undoubtedly be a desire to play something different. 
  The more this group learned about how the game works, the more effective they became, but also the more some of them drifted toward other builds, concepts, and ideas.  This type of momentum is helpful to notice; in a way, it reveals a player's true nature.  Like the first campaign was our test run.  The next one is where we're going to really shine; players and DM alike.  We take what we learned about the game, ourselves, our styles, and how to advocate for the experience we want...and finally, just PLAY.

See you at the table.
-Adamus

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​  I'm having trouble walking at the moment.  My whole body hurts.  I am currently lying on my back, pondering all the ways in which I have destroyed myself.  A beautiful boulder rests upon every fiber of my being, like some stone slab cut perfectly Looney-Tunes style into the shape of my prone body.  I am sore, bruised, and broken.

​And I wouldn't have it any other way.

  Motivation is something so many of us struggle with, and so many give up just when we start to reap the benefits.  A lot people think it comes down to convenience, but I think it more specifically defined to a lack of resistance.  We bring it up a lot in this blog and our podcast as a State of Flow in gaming, but flow can be achieved and maintained in all facets of our lives.  The key here is building in that lack of resistance.  
  We recently opened a gym in addition to other things we offer through my business at large, not just my Game On! stuff, and the impact is palpable.  I can now schedule my workout days around my work at the center, and already I can feel the shift in what has become possible for my training, my health, and my mental focus.  But with those gains, I can already feel the familiar pull away from it all.  
  We all get it sometimes.  The nagging, lazy bit of ourselves that manifests when we start making the most progress toward leaving it behind.  It is the tiny voice that tells us we'll never get there, the one that complains in the middle of your chest press, that hammers your legs with doubt, and that seeps pride into your skin so you avoid safety in favor of stubbornness.  
  This is not something that is given to you after a week of work.  Hell, you won't get it after a month, or maybe even a year.  Great progress will be made in this time, but it is not the result.  We will be shrouded in tiny victories; threads of hope bound together each day to form an unbreakable cord of resolve and perseverance.  
  Everything that I am and could be has been a product of my own choices.  I am not the victim of my own circumstance and I prove this every day that I rise from sleep and seek the greatest version of myself, and it is with this knowledge that I take hold of the tethers of my own destiny...and pull.  And I do this with the full knowledge that I am tearing down what I once was - the habits formed, the mistakes made, the lessons unlearned, and all the ugly bits.  This will be painful, and I accept this pain, for I will rise from it, building as I go.  I will sift through my own rubble, deciding what to keep and what burns.  

This is going to suck.  And here are some practical ways - mechanical habits, devoid of motivation, but full of functionality - that I'm going to do it.

Only key in on one rest day, never two in a row.  That's mine anyway.
This past week looked like this:
Monday - Gym after work - Chest and Legs
Tuesday - Rest Day 1
Wednesday - Gym before work - Back and Arms
Thursday - Rest Day 2
Friday - Home workout - Bodyweight Blitz
Saturday - Kickboxing, Karate, then Gym - Arms and Shoulders
Sunday - Home workout - Bodyweight and Cardio

This sort of works, but I'd like my Rest Days to be Thursdays and Sundays, instead opting for Tuesday as another "gym rat" day.  I think I'll get a better spread, and I'm working out consistently at 5x a week while avoiding a two-day rest period where I can fall into a slump.  DISCIPLINE is key here to build the better habit.

But DURING workouts, I find my biggest time suck is in resting.  My home gym workouts would take far too long due in no small part to the amount of time I was carelessly resting between sets.  In the gym, the focus is different.  I have taken the time out of my day to go to a space that is not my home to use equipment that isn't mine in order to build my best self.  There's an onus there.  Other people are here to do the same thing, so I'm not going to waste my time or theirs; the pressure's on.  
  So, I give 20-30 seconds between sets - sometimes I even count out loud, especially if I pushed hard enough to shatter my own metacognition.  It keeps me moving.  Instead of workouts taking 3 hours, I've knocked them down to 90 minutes for the same benefit.  Employing my next element, I've got 'em down to under that.  

Sometimes I get bored.  Sometimes I get distracted.  Sometimes I have a lot of workouts to get through and I feel pressed for time.  So I double them up.
  Single, focused sets are good.  Great, even, and certainly have their place.  But I'm always one to use Supersets and Triplesets to keep me moving and motivated on those days I have difficulty focusing.  
A Superset is when you take one exercise, perform one set of it, then immediately perform another set of another exercise without resting between.  For me, this practice serves two functions: 1) It's more efficient, and 2) for muscle growth and dynamic fatigue, it's amazing.  Instead of just extending an exercise, or performing another set on the same exercise, I'm still working but the muscle groups are different enough that the grouping of the previous exercise "rests" while another works.  That aspect of rest isn't actually true, mind you, but the difference in movement is the point here.  I do my 20-30 second rest after completing the second exercise.  
  And if a Superset is effective, then a Tripleset must be awesome, right?  Well, yeah, but we can also call that a Circuit.  A circuit is a set of 3 or more exercises performed one after the other, then resting.  I use Circuits to keep me moving (efficiency) and to pump (reach hypertrophy) faster, while maintaining strength training.  It also lets me check off more exercises in my book in bigger, more satisfying chunks.  :)

Yes, the name of this week's blog is Embrace The Suck.  And I mean it.  Embrace it.  
  Accept that this is going to be uncomfortable.  Anything worth it will reach a point of discomfort.  This is mine.
There will be days that I will crave the things I don't need.  Days I don't want to work out.  Days I want to lay in bed and avoid the challenges my life will bring.  And those days will SUCK.
  But those days won't stop me.  Because I know they're coming (a few have happened already, and I've crushed them).  I know the feeling of doing pushups and your body lazily prodding you with "you don't need to do any more, that's enough," and the feeling of pushing through that to get one more rep.  I know the feeling of pushing to failure, even when one more rep feels like miles away, and you have to fight against your own doubt and pride and hunger just to push through.
But I will.  And it's going to suck.  This is going to hurt.  This is going to challenge every fiber of me.  But I will become stronger; I will become better.  And it will be that one more rep that is the difference between raw willpower and falling off this wagon.  And to the latter: I REFUSE.  
BEAST MODE ENGAGED.  
  I'll see you at the gym.
​-Adamus

  Though I am pleased as punch to be in the position I am, there are inherent stresses to game mastering.  
​How do I craft a collaborative story that stays exciting and engaging for my players?
How do I invigorate and incorporate their backstories in organic and powerful ways?
How do I challenge them without luring them into a TPK scenario?

  These are GM focuses 101, but the major stressor for me is in running high-level encounters.  Put yourself in my shoes: these players are level 16.  They've been building these characters up for literally years by now.  Huge in-world connections, businesses, kingdoms...they've made quite a name for themselves.  And now, they're challenging the old world - ancient beings that have awoken and now threaten their home and maybe even the fabric of reality itself.
When you stand against something like that - when you crash against it - not everyone comes out alive.  And we, at the table, need to be OKAY with that.  And here's why.

  No character is awarded plot armor in an adventure. 
When I started this gig two years ago, this was a mantra I had to remember, and a lesson for all of my players at some point or another.  Make a bad choice?  You might be dead.  You don't get to do whatever you want just because "you're the hero."  Now, I've never been a vengeful GM - "rocks fall, everyone dies" - but there are Natural Consequences to poor decisions, and my fellow GMs and I like to allow a 3-step failure so the player can try to right their course before falling over the proverbial cliff.
  However, as you continue to learn a game system and triumph over the initial hurdles of misunderstanding, problem-solving, and tactical awareness, there comes a time when you realize that you were never actually safe.  That no hero of any level is immune to the vast dangers of a tabletop world, and that surviving such dangers nets you some tremendous rewards.
  But no triumph is without risk, and as we level up, our adversaries scale WITH US.  At low levels, we might be challenged by a troll - a large creature of great strength that regenerates (our first real puzzle, solved by the use of fire, that halts said regeneration), but as we get stronger, we become aware of the greater dangers existing in the world.  They've always been there, but we wouldn't have had reason to bump elbows with these entities unless we were seeking our own deaths!
  By the time we reach double digits, and are well on our way to levels 17 or 18 (the capstones of many class archetypes, but not the level capstone of 5E at level 20), we'll be interacting with literal gods, demons, devils, fey lords, great mages, liches (undead mages), ANCIENT DRAGONS...  There's a bunch we can play around with, and some things in that iconic Monster Manual are downright scary (and that's not even scraping the surface of all the custom monsters and ancient beings older than time that I've constructed in the last year).  Woof.
  But for each massive threat in scale and scope, each victory garners immense reward.  Sometimes you walk away with your lives and a ton of experience, other times a hoard and a few magic items, and maybe even a powerful ally or two - but it's all on a grander stage.  
Hope you were ready to become superheroes, because it's time to save the world.

  There is sometimes an idea that circulates arguing that combat in D&D becomes a game of attrition.  Mountains of hit points smacking into other mountains of hit points until one reaches zero.  If a combat devolves to this scenario, we as GMs, are DOING SOMETHING UNEQUIVOCALLY WRONG.  
   1) An Ancient Freaking Dragon has been alive as long as they have been for a reason; they will use cunning, tactics, and their breath to easily end confrontations.  They WILL NOT simply land and do hand-to-hand combat with the plucky adventurers when their breath can MELT ARMIES.  This is why 9th level spells exist.  If you have access to Meteor Swarm and you are beset upon by a band of seven creatures hell-bent on axing you a question...THEN YOU LEAD WITH METEOR SWARM.  Because why wouldn't you?  You're a smart creature.  
   2) Taking massive damage should have consequences.  This is a variant rule, mind you, but one can get pretty creative when dealing with acid or lava, and sometimes I rule circumstances if you just took more than half your hit points in damage.  It's gonna' take you some time to recover from that; maybe your movement suffers, maybe one of your attributes is in trouble (because, you know, you're MELTING), maybe your action economy takes a hit until you can overcome some of that damage threshold.  ONLY EMPLOY THIS APPROACH after discussing and clearing it with the group, but such things can remove quite effectively the idea that you are "fine" until you're unconscious.
   3) High-powered attacks and spells can deal a great range of damage.  This is a game with a hard and fast luck element.  Sometimes the dice are in your favor...sometimes they are not.  So if an attack rolls 14d10 for damage, the full range of this is literally 14-140 hit points.  Depending on class and Constitution scores, that can drop a high-level hero; but if I roll the average (about 84), I've dramatically hurt everyone, but probably haven't TPK'ed the party.  Similarly, players can nail their saves and take half damage (or none at all - bloody EVASION).  Also, player characters should be dealing tremendous damage, bringing all of their abilities, items, and strategy to bear.  This could all end very quickly - it just feels longer because we're managing a lot more abilities, options, and possible outcomes.  In real time, epic fights are over pretty fast.

I didn't kill your character...  The DRAGON killed your character.
  The GM is NOT there to try and kill you maliciously.  She's going to play each creature accurately and strategically as appropriate to their abilities, tactics, and personality.  Ancient beings are such for a reason; they ain't stupid - if they notice that the obvious cleric is obviously healing everyone, well, then they might attack the cleric.  This will never become a GM vs. the players kind of game; those are mean and we need to quit them.  The GM should revel in the victory just as much as the player-characters; it's a group game, and their triumph is celebrated, but as enemies become smarter, the battles become tougher.
  Yet when a character dies, many players take it personally.  Like they were attacked somehow (outside of the game).  Some even go so far as to blame the GM; accuse them of acting in a certain way out of spite.  But the thing to recognize, that I feel I MUST SAY, is that "sometimes, a character's story just ends."  
  It isn't heroic.  It isn't pretty.  It can be sudden and horrible and unfair.  And with the number of friends whose stories have ended this past year...  How I wish I could have rolled them up a new character.  But that's not how life works, and if we believe ourselves immortal, what is the point in struggling to live in the first place?  In the words of Gandalf the Gray, "All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you."
  When we suffer in a game, it offers us an opportunity to learn; to rise, and to learn.  Sometimes that lesson is a product of a great loss - like the loss of a character you have spent years cultivating.  But that's the game, and that's the risk, especially with high-level play.  Sometimes heroes die when they challenge Olympus.  But, at least for us, this is a game.  You can always make another character.  But don't hate the DM; we're not pulling our punches at this tier - you've earned the high-level play so when you win, you FEEL that triumph.  
You wanted to fight gods?  Well.  Welcome to the Jungle.

See you at the table.
​-Adamus

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  Recently I had the honor to play in a new event type we're offering at the center: Modular Madness.  
Now, witty title aside, the event structure is certainly no One-Shot scenario (though we did have a character death in the first combat - curse those Nat 20's), and not as grand long-form as a Knight Owls or Gray Owls.  What it is is a set of 4-6 sessions planned over roughly 4-6 months.  We meet and play for approximately six hours each sitting with 2-3 breaks between the action.  We do this to experience and play through an actual module inside the given game system.  
  This time around?  We're playing Dragon Heist.
Run by John, with a strict party of 6 adventurers at maximum, and no clue of each other's complete intentions, we muddled our way through chapter 1 of the adventure at our first session about a week ago.  IT WAS A BLAST AND A HALF, and I've done some thinking on the experience.

I play a Yuan-Ti Wizard named Soren Finranda.  He's a little creepy, keeps to himself, but is generous and cunning when he needs to be.  Now, I've played wizards before, but I wanted to take a specific approach when it came to Soren.  
  This Yuan-Ti is not strong, nor is he dextrous in any way.  My Constitution gives me +1 HP per level, and with 6+1 HP at first level...yeah, I have 7 hit points walking into this.  With no armor and barely a dagger to my name, I have no business being a damage dealer.  And, dare I say, until higher levels, nor does ANY WIZARD, and here's why.
Soren's spells are not built for dealing damage.  Sure, the Yuan-Ti race feature gives him Poison Spray, and he grabbed Toll The Dead like a boss, but the rest is rounded out with Mold Earth and Minor Illusion.  Yes, I skipped Prestidigitation this time.  All of his level 1 spells?  Grease, Shield, Sleep, Silent Image, Unseen Servant, Magic Missile.
  Soren's whole schtick is to wait and plan, and in a system where I often play Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, Monk, Sorlock...this was old school D&D.  There's a rite of passage that follows the low-level wizard; the knowledge that all it takes is one errant arrow and a failed saving throw versus halitosis and BAM you're dead.  You have to be careful, smart, and save your VERY limited spell slots for the most opportune moment.
  And Arcane Recovery...  Well, Arcane Recovery at level 1 allows you to "recover" one level 1 spell slot (1/2 of the two you have at the get-go) during a Short Rest.  Over the course of chapter 1, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE, so no long rests, meaning all I've got is one Arcane Recovery to recover ONE SPELL SLOT.  Make 'em count, gents.
So I did.
  Grease the troll so my melee buddy has advantage, and keep my distance.  Arcane Recovery.  Sleep the ambushing archers because they're close together and I rolled high on the 5d8 Hit Point pool (I'll at least drop one of them).  One slot down.  Summon Silent Image to confuse the heck out of a major foe and SKIP that combat altogether.  By now, I'm tapped out.  Just cantrips to go on.  Use Minor Illusion to cover the mishaps of my allies and divert attention - fail a stealth check and nearly die from one arrow to the chest - then Poison Spray for max damage because why not?
  I had to be quiet, careful, and cunning.  Especially with average damage working out the way it does, and with a module setting with a high emphasis on laws, stealth, and cloak and dagger, my job is better served as a controller, not a blaster.  

The wizard spell list is extensive.  The biggest one in the game.  And though there are some spells that we'll never get (lookin' at you, Eldritch Blast), what we do get can alter time and space.  It's hard to argue with a well-placed Fireball, but I beg you to consider the less obvious options.  Options like Charm Person - which can end a combat if you're on point, later following the Dominate Person and Dominate Monster train; Detect Magic and Identify keep you knowledgable of the arcana that surrounds you (not to mention spell traps around your allies); Disguise Self; Feather Fall has saved many lives in MANY campaigns; Flaming Sphere coupled with Pyrotechnics (flaming marble madness in a smoke cloud of chaos); Suggestion, to really drive a point home.  
  And most of those I just listed are lower leveled spells, so you'll have more opportunities to use them.  An expanded spell list offers you options, and each spell has a reason to exist; I urge you to collect as many spells as you can into your spell book and entertain the option of each - play through the mental landscape of its use, usefulness, and level of control on the social, exploration, or combat fields.  The rest is up to how patient you are with your tactics and how creative you can be with its use (but always have a backup plan ready in case it goes sideways).
  You have the resources to be smart, and a wizard is a great class to practice playing smart.

The first time I played in 5th Edition I chose a wizard, and picked as many damage-oriented evocations as possible.  Through playing, however, I began to understand more of the game's mechanics; not only my own, but how other players and enemies navigated all the pillars of play...and how magic can infiltrate, manipulate, augment, and dilute these mechanics.
  And after 2 and a half years of teaching the game, talking the game, designing the game, plus over 10 years in other systems...  I get it.  My knowledge of how the game works, action economy, and how each spell functions makes me finally work like a wizard.  Knowledge is power.
  I understand how powerful prone is, so Grease is obvious.  Silent Image is confusing and powerful to less inquisitive creatures, so of course I have it.  As AC continues to rise, and I don't want to be seen as a combatant, then spells like Toll The Dead and Poison Spray, that require saves, are very advantageous early on...and will continue to be as I try to be secretive.  On top of this, as my options continue to increase (the most expansive list in the game), I can continually adjust my focus each long rest, making me extremely flexible day to day.

Returning to the wizard allows me superstar moments.  Time to wait, watch, and listen...then throw out a clutch spell that's going to change the landscape of the encounter.  I have the power to alter time and space; you can bet your butt I'm going to wield that power with Intelligence to maximize its effectiveness, no matter what.

Knowledge is power.
See you at the table.
-Adamus

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Every Game Master has their fair share of custom content and home-brew incorporation.  We add a mundane item here, a magic item there, pull from previous editions, or adapt from other mediums.  Hell, maybe we'll change the setting altogether; flip the script and play in the whimsical alternate dimension of: Milwaukee.

Whatever the case, each Game Master has their own house rules and a whole bevy of alternative items, mechanics, and elements ready to be created, discovered, and reinforced by their players...  
So I thought I'd talk about mine.

My setting of Io enjoys seven distinct settings, or Ages, in its interwoven timeline.  I did this originally to be able to offer an abundant mix of games inside the same system but with a progressive timeline.  What this created was a beast of internal consistency, where the actions of a party of adventurers on Tuesday could potentially affect the world experienced on Wednesdays, and the actions of the Knight Owls could have echoes in the Gray Owls campaign.  I was careful to allow a large enough passage of time to avoid any weirdness, but the extra-meta knowledge of players in multiple campaigns has been pretty cool.  
  What it's also done is allowed me to create a literal progression of industry from age to age, unlocking special race, class, and item options setting to setting - all of which have lore and reasoning implications.  ...Like how the heck Illithids (literal Mind Flayers) became a playable race in the 6th age of Io-Firma (the Gray Owls setting).  So here's a quick overview of how each Age functions and what type of setting it offers.

The NEXUS: where all creation began - the world and its gods came into being in the Nexus, where the raw energy found in its core flowed through the planet and forged the elemental forces.  Many believe it still exists to this day, somewhere far beyond the planar circle yet intimately close - like a door waiting to be opened.  The details of its location have been lost to antiquity, a single remnant referred to only as The Song Of The Ancients.
Io-Temm: The Worldshaping - The first age of Io, where the Seven Wings birthed the now known pantheon and their inevitable war that shaped the main continent of Erena, the disparate islands of Abaddon, and the kingdoms beyond the Aether.  
Io-Sooth: Mortal's Edge - Classic D&D fantasy setting; the second age entertains the birth of the mortal races, created by the first known pantheon.  Tiamat and Bahamut - Dragonborn; Pelor - Humans; Morahdin - Dwarves; Corellon - Elves; you get the idea... 
Io-Ren: Balance and Ruin - The flames of industry have begun to burn and the mortal races try to harness the power of the gods, ushering in an age of demigods, exploration, and tempting fate.  Campaigns: Tuesdays, Thursdays, Knight Owls Season 1
Io-Shar: The Broken Seas - After a cataclysmic event involving an ancient being ripping a hole in the plane of Water, the world has flooded and expanded into an age of naval piracy, massive sea creatures, and temporal storms.  Campaigns: Wednesdays, Knight Owls Season 2, Knight Owls Season 3.
Io-Empyr: Cloudsinger - After a sky pirate and his merry band pierced the Veil Of Heaven, cities rose into the sky, forming Clusters of new nations and expanding the world further.  Steampunk airships, sky pirates, and tears in the threads of the Feywild and Shadowfell summon a whole new caste of creatures and entities that threaten to take the sky for their own.  Campaigns: Cloudsinger (YouTube)
Io-Firma: The Reclamation - Magic is broken.  A Prime God is dead.  The world is dark and deadly and cold.  Shattered psions, enlightened gnolls, ancient detectives, hired guns, and mature themes, this is not an age of heroes.  No, this world is just a tad...gray.  Campaigns: Gray Owls (21+)
Io-Nixx: The Sundering - Not much is known of this age, as only one adventuring party has caught a glimpse of it.  It is a battle; constant and enormous, where literal gods clash in the skies.  It may even mark the end of the world as we know it.

So, depending on the age, we can assume that certain gear is available as industry increases.  Sooth and Ren are pretty similar, but Ren's adventurers begin to discover the powerful Legacy Weapons from Temm (the first age), tapping into the power of the gods before the turn of the age.  Cataclysm changes things in Shar, and the world adapts; ships, naval warfare, cannons, spell cannons, automated ships, subs - Outlaw Star style ship combat.  Empire allows more steampunk gunslinging, taking the naval concepts to the air at the peak of an industrial revolution.  Then Firma comes along and everything breaks, and it breaks hard; whole classes are gone, or changed dramatically; races disappear, others resurface with new abilities, and no one truly knows how the world works anymore - with magic mostly illegal for the lower class, now we've got to find other ways to get it (drugs, I'm talking about magic drugs).
  So without going into too much detail with the various Ages, the following are *mostly* available in all of my games.

  I like to employ all that the Player's Handbook has to offer for 5E, but sometimes I draw some extra inspiration from my Pathfinder days (extensive weapon lists), and add on a little extra blades for good measure.  None of these are Masterwork (so no +1's, or cutting through resistances), but there might be some other cool perks.  I've always been a fan of incorporating more martial arts weaponry (given my own background), and like utilizing die steps to help illustrate a power increase.  Also-also, not everything is available at every shop.  These custom mundane items, along with other items, might fluctuate depending on supply, demand, harvest, and other such factors age to age.  Again, lore and reasoning for the world.  The mass production of Duskweave in the third age led to a near extinction of the Displacer Beast packs, and no one's heard of a Pack Lord in eons.  Whoops.

  WEAPONS
Claymore - adapted greatsword; 2d8 Slashing - Two-Handed, Heavy
Katana - adapted longsword; 1d8/1d10 Slashing - Versatile, Finesse, Monk
Wakizashi - reskinned Scimiar; 1d6 Slashing - Finesse, Monk, Light
Chain Maul - 2d6 bludgeoning - reach, thrown, grapple from 10 feet
Chakram - 1d6 slashing - thrown (10/30)
Gauntlet Blade, Retractable -  1d8 slashing - 4 lbs. - concealed, retractable (Shar+)
Monolith - 1d12/2d6 slashing - Versatile 
Naginata - 1d8 slashing - reach, heavy, two-handed, brace
Tonfa - 1d6 bludgeoning - AC +1, Light, Monk
Sai - 1d4 bludgeoning - Light, Monk, Disarm on critical 
​Nunchaku - 1d6 bludgeoning - Light, Monk, x3 on critical

  ARMOR
Plated Robes (not armor) - AC = 11 + Dex Modifier
Duskweave Leather - AC = 13 + Dex Modifier, Light Armor
Ironwood Scale Mail - AC = 14 + Dex Modifier (max 2) - Disadvantage Stealth - 35 lbs.
Elderwood Scale Mail - AC = 15 + Dex Modifier (max 2), Medium Armor
Ballistic Duskweave Doublet - AC = 14 + Dex Modifier, Medium Armor
Dragon Plate (specific materials required - AC = 18 w/resistance to the element associated with the dragon scales used

  SHIELDS (I treat shields as weapons.  Direct reference to my Pathfinder sword and boarding, so there you go)
Buckler - 5 gp - AC +1 - 3 lbs.
Constructivist Shield - 65 gp - AC +1 - 4 lbs. - Can be used as a reaction to raise your AC.  Does not occupy a hand.
Round Shield, Light - 15 gp - AC +2 - 6 lbs. - Bash 1d4
Round Shield, Heavy - 30 gp - AC +2 - 10 lbs. - Bash 1d6
Tower Shield - 100 gp - AC +3 - STR 17 required - Disadvantage Stealth - 20 lbs. - Bash 1d8

  Duskweave = made from Displacer Beast pelts, and thus has a smoky dispersal that shifts and moves as the armor moves.

  Now, many of these additions are lifted from my Knight Owls Armory, but if you don't normally venture over there, you'd never see them.  So here they are anyway for your consideration.

Alchemy and Herbalism, especially as it pertains to potion making as a pursuit, has really come to fruition in Io-Shar, where my industry-heavy players reside.  They crave that personal control of their universe, and I LOVE IT.

So, potion-making in Io borrows from Skyrim, The Witcher, and my own head, as well as a blend of other home-brew resources dotting the landscape of Reddit, DM's Guild, and the Open-Gaming License.  All that being said, let's run it down a bit.

In Io, there are a large number of known ingredients that create specific effects in the brewing process, while others might augment or dilute others.  Bloodgrass, for example, can be used to add an additional 1d4 to the healing amount for a healing potion you are brewing, but Rubygrass (grown in the Feywild), will actually REMOVE a d4 from the healing (the taste is sharp and difficult to swallow).  So we use Herbalism to "enhance" the potion.  We call them Enhancements.  Some can cancel each other out, while others augment the effects.
  Then, there are ingredients that we actually derive the Enchantment from.  We treat them as our Core.  The intended potion effect.  Like using Void Root to brew a Potion of Flying.  
  Finally, we need a Base.  The liquid that we'll be using.  Some potions can be brewed in water, while others require Holy Water as their Base, or Salt Water, or Liquor.  Specific liquids may also imbue the potion with specific properties.  
So, if I want to brew a Healing Potion, I need at least a Base and a Core.  
Base: Water.  Core: Cherrymoss Extract.  Then 3 hours.  
If we want, we can mix in some Ground Ephedrana to increase the die step of the healing potion from 2d4 to 2d6.  Finish the brew and you've got a "boosted" healing potion that heals 2d6+2 hit points.

And that's one potion.  Booyah.
....Experimenting with all of this is going to be A LOT of FUN.

So there's a lot going on, and I haven't even talked about the Prestige Classes or the Legacy Weapons (they're coming, don't worry), but this post has gone on long enough, and hopefully it clears up any confusion from looking at the lists from the Knight Owls armory moving forward.  :)

See you at the table.
-Adamus