Legacies carry weight in the expansive timeline of Io.  A name can be earned, or stolen, or bound, or lost, and all carry a legacy of rich history and meaning.  Much like the etymology of language, a name's path and purpose can change given their circumstances; heroes become villains, tyrants become priests, and thieves become nobles.
  Yet these developments benefit most from a structured timeline.  Instances and events of momentous growth and change powered by the metaphorical jet engine of past transgressions.  There is a line to follow in this madness.  

But.

What if the line were broken?  What if your name, your legacy, was taken from you; displaced somehow?  Without the benefit of a past to learn from, what new future does a creature forge?
  In today's Lore Drop, on November's theme of Legacy Names, let's take a look at one of the most curious of NPCs - the Va'Orodin.

In every Age of Io, a Va'Orodin has crossed the paths of the dozens of heroes ignited by furious purpose, but few gave their names.  Of the ones that did, even fewer stuck around.  
  Io-Shar: Ja'Naya Va'Orodin was discovered by a pirate crew under the leadership of a stalwart lizardfolk (Ricin) and a grumpy elf (Grim).  Ja'Naya was fiercely loyal to Captain Grim, devoting her life to his cause of vengeance and dominance over the flooded world.  An adept cleric of some ancient neutral angel, Ja'Naya entered hailed from Io-Sooth, the 2nd Age, and carried with her a terrible sacrifice.  The first keeper of the legendary Sunraker Gauntlet, she was surprised to find that when she would remove the item from her arm, her skin and muscle came with it.  At some point in her past life, she willingly or unwillingly traded the flesh of her right arm for a legendary item.  Whatever the case, though, the Gauntlet would leave her body at her passing nearly 20 years later, and serve the Valenwood family for nearly 100 years before passing into Loremaster care.
  Io-Ren / Io-Shar: Once a cleric of Istus, the deity of fate and chance, Straiga Va'Orodin was undeterred by his displacement.  An adept tactician and pole arm master, this red trifling would find rewarding work among others like him - the lost and forgotten.  He found this home through the mercenary band known as the Knight Owls, and would rise through its ranks to command his own team in the 4th Age (Knight Owls - Season 3).
   Io-Shar (Feywild): Yasha Va'Orodin is a creature of subtle, athletic frame, and stalwart reserve.  She is one of the Gatekeepers of the nexus city of Astrazalian.  Where and when she came from, no one really knows, but she holds great respect for the Fey Court, especially Lady Winter Sarissa.  Perhaps we'll see more of her...perhaps not.

And what say the Raven Queen, the one who holds memory and time and antiquity aloft to the thousands of souls that pass her bastion in the planes of shadow?  Or the Angels of the Sunrake?  Or the Valkyrum of the Evernight?  Powerful overlords and dissonant factions pull a curious lens over those in ages without belonging, so what purpose awaits creatures like this?

Well.

This old Loremaster is pulled to consider instead the Equation of Potential.  As long-lived as I am, I know not everything, nor did my past lives, but if you'll humor a fellow ancient for a moment, we may yet find common ground.  There are many across the Ages whose actions have sent ripples unknown; great things, terrible things, powerful things.  All without knowledge of the future.  Yet, we know there to be entities whose intelligence and memory are ageless; the mere concept of our mortality is a single drop in the river of their understanding.  Perhaps, say, they drop a pebble into that river.  Each ripple is a lifetime, and three lifetimes over, a ripple shifts a stone ever so slightly, and the river flows a different direction.  Such a tiny act can have a tremendous impact.  And if that pebble had free will?  Yes, I think we understand each other.
  So are the Storm-Touched spilled by design of some great entity, or are their fateful tempests random?  This one knows not.  Only time will tell.

Safe travels, Stormsinger.
-Loremaster Arteza Rainmaker

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

  Now, none of us are brand-spanking new, and we all follow a distinct mission here at Questers' Way Game On: to become our best selves through gaming.  So, I thought it fun to take a look at the standard of play that I hold my Game Mastering to, and how it changes and levels up when you bring it to the Livestreaming Stage.  ...Because it certainly changes things.

  The internet can be an unforgiving place.  I've had my fair share of trolls on the internet, but D&D fans can be a little...possessive of the thing that they love so much.  Critical Role isn't perfect on rulings, and they even bring it up as a defense: they're far from paragon players, and part of the fun is making mistakes.  
  For me especially, with custom rulesets for airship combat, special weapons, home-brewed monsters, whatever thing I bring up - I'm keen to explain my reasoning for its existence, and then play it through.  In that case, if I reflect and find something does not work the way I wanted it to, I have to let my players know AND my audience online know if I change it and why.  Now, upon writing this practice down, my brain screams: "Well, DUH" and this is because ANY campaign benefits from this practice, online or off, but online it is an absolute necessity.  Rule and mechanic transparency is essential to keep the audience in the loop; in a way, they're playing too.  :)

  Pacing can sometimes be tricky, regardless of the campaign.  No person can be on-point all the time, and no party will be pushing for plot every session...and that's a great thing.  Action can happen without "action."  Character development is just as powerful and entertaining (sometimes moreso) than any fight.  Sometimes the audience needs rest, too, and these key moments of "still movement" keep the characters growing and the audience involved.  As a DM, don't be afraid of them.  This is a group story, and few stories are one fight all the way through (and still entertaining).

  We started the Livestream utilizing an online tabletop music resource called tabletopaudio.com.  This is a copyright-free audio site where each audio segment lasts ten minutes and can be pieced together into a pretty solid playlist.  ...However, with enough technical elements through the iPad (my main interface to save space in our setup), we had to abandon it.  Still a great resource that you can find HERE.
  Moving forward, we're hitting this on three fronts.  
  1) I've returned to Syrinscape.  This an app available on mac or pc systems that is chock full of sound sets, music, and sound effects to help with your overall atmosphere and immersion.  I did a review awhile back about how I found their music to be less than satisfactory, and opted out.  I have since grown up a bit and I love that it's all copyright free.  That's the big deal here.  Plus, the interface doesn't take much to get used to, so I'm pretty pleased overall.
  2) I'm writing music for this campaign.  No joke.  I write music, I've published two albums, had works premiered with live orchestras - I got this.  It's a bit of work, but it's going to add something truly special to Cloudsinger that sets it apart from the rest of our weekly campaigns.  If you care to take a look at my old stuff.
  3) Cross-chatter needs to be at an absolute minimum.  This is a theater thing: if everyone is mic'ed, then everyone can hear EVERYTHING you are saying, even if it's a funny joke you just thought of.  Sharing is okay, but the timing needs to be clear.  We're not going to talk over each other because A) that's rude, and B) it overloads the recording with essentially white noise.  The dudes on Critical Role are respectful because they're good people, but also because it serves the recording tech tremendously.

  No one wants a stilted performance.  Not from the DM, not from the players.  It's our game, first and foremost, so we're going to play the way we want to play.  The audience will comment, but I don't really watch the chat during the stream, and that is so I can give my whole self over to the players I'm playing with.  By keeping myself centered on them, and not on external hardware, I can be my best self. 
  In addition, peripherals are great tools.  DnD Beyond comes up quite a bit and we decided to give it a go as a group to help ourselves get organized.  Unfortunately, technical difficulties, connection issues, and the product of staring at a screen all the time just to check your abilities has started to pull people out of the action, or at least made it a little inconsistent.  So, back to pencil and paper, dude.  DnD Beyond is a great resource, and I still use it often to build out and test characters, but for OUR live show, we operate better without more tech at the table to look things up.  It makes everything smoother, focused, and more intimate.  ;)

  This one is a standard I always hold myself to.  I am a professional, of course.  ;)  But this stretches beyond the DM.  

When you're in front of others, like a performance, a certain level of preparation goes a long way in helping the audience become immersed, the players staying engaged, and story flowing well.  Players that do their homework on their abilities, clarify understanding before and after the game, and think critically about the feelings, motivations, and personal stories of their characters will sync up to the world with alarming speed and precision.  The less you have to guess about how your character would act, the better you can ACT, and therefore play.
  The times that I have prepared my character - just got myself more organized, put myself into their headspace prior to the session - the more fun I would have, and I'd avoid those little hiccups of second-guessing.  Subtle moments of pause when I didn't know what to do...disappeared.  And I'm not the only one to put in some extra prep.
  John, for example, runs a "test Solomon" in another campaign to help flesh out how THIS Solomon acts.  This way, Cloudsinger Solomon is the strongest iteration of the character, and John clearly has a ton of fun playing him.  Jenn and I have meetings every so often to chat about her backstory and where her character's motivations lie.  Lisa is very up front about how Spifi acts, and Spark...well, remains a mystery, but in a good way (Adam B.'s on point as a cat-person).
  We're eager to play, but we have an external responsibility to do so in the first place, so that little extra pressure is enough to warrant bringing our A-game every time.  And that little bit of extra responsibility brings nautical tons of fun to the table.

  Any campaign can benefit from these elements - I wouldn't save them for online-only experiences.  I've been using music sets, sound sets, and mixes for a LONG time in my regular games, and I'm often recording the sessions for my own internal consistency.  I do my homework every time, but any good DM should.  Great players prep themselves before a session to ensure smooth play and fast fun.  It's a great way to upgrade your gaming experience.
  However, these elements I find to be absolutely necessary if you're running something online.  The addition of an external, broad audience adds another layer to your game, and it puts some onus on you and your players to literally be entertaining...but don't add pressure that sacrifices fun.  With so many people on the planet, if you're having fun, there are bound to be more peeps out there that like your play style.  So, keep things moving, sure, but PLAY YOUR GAME.  It's your time to have your fun - we're just along for the ride.  :)

See you at the table.
-Adamus

  So.  There's a thing that happened on the stream.  
The characters are Level 2 at the moment - very close to their next milestone - trudging through the sewer system under a reservoir, when they happened upon a dangerous creature.  
This creature is pretty nasty, and going toe-to-toe with it in such a tight space proved to be devastating in regard to hit points, especially when it rolled a natural 20 and hit the mage for well over her maximum hit points...

The PHB is very clear on how instant death works, and I admit that in my 3+ years of professional DMing...it has NEVER come up.  So of course, online, in front of a live audience, it does.

MY RULE for insta-death is as follows: a character is instantly killed is they are pushed to negative twice their maximum hit points in a single attack.  This means that a character with 14 hit points as their maximum has to be hit into the negative by 28 or more hit points in order to die instantly.  This ruling has always been there, but this was the first time it came into effect, and though it SAVED the mage, it still left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

  The reason I altered things was to help safeguard early characters, but I try to balance it with my death DCs rising and requiring rolls and skill tests in order to resurrect a character (it gets harder every time).  BUT maybe it was the live show that brought it all into perspective.
  The player was alright with it (her dying, that is), but it was going against my original ruling - that no one was actually aware of in the first place.  Revealing it looks like a cop-out, even though it's always been that way, but now that it's out there...  I am taking a hard look at it.

After contemplating and discussing this topic with several parties, and thinking on it myself - especially after learning so much about game systems over the last 7 years - I see no real need to hold onto that rule.  So to be clear, this will be how I rule Instant Death, and how I always rule anything that resurrects characters.

DEATH MATTERS 
Save DC Increase: Each time you die (three saves failed or instantly killed), and are successfully brought back to life, there is a consequence.  This is represented by an increase in your Death Save DC.  It increases by 1 every time you die and come back (this includes the spell Reincarnate, btw).  So, a character that has been killed and brought back successfully must now roll an 11 or higher on their death saves for a success, as opposed to the standard 10 or higher.  Die twice?  12 or higher.  And so on.  There is a consequence to you dying; it is now harder to cling to life.

Resurrection Skill Challenge: bringing a character's soul back to their body is an involved and powerful process.  As such, I require a Skill Challenge for a Resurrection spell.  The bigger the spell, the more involved the challenge.  A spell like Revivify requires only one roll with a DC equal to the character's current Death DC.  
​  A spell like Resurrection is an hour-long process with characters finding ways to pull their friend back to the land of the living.  It's an opportunity to immerse yourself in the relationships in your party, and find meaning in bringing them back.  I ask for three "offerings."  These are creative interactions; whatever the player character deems as a way to usher the entity back to the land of the living.  Players have prepared poems, potions, offered a childhood toy, grown a tree - whatever you like.  How you present it can help a lot.  Then I pick an appropriate attribute or skill and you roll against that same Death DC.  A success brings down the final roll (me) DC by 1.  A critical success drops it by 2.  Conversely, failures and critical failures increase the DC by the same amounts.  When all three offerings are finished, I do a straight roll against the adjusted DC (based on the offerings' successes or failures) and we see if the soul was ushered back to the body.  So far, I have run 8 total rituals in this way, and 3 Revivify quick rolls.  Only 1 has been unsuccessful, but 2 others were within 2 points of failure.  It's great role-playing; and sometimes, creatures just die, and that's okay.

DEATH CAN COME AT ANY TIME
Moving forward, you're dead outright if you are pushed to negative your maximum hit points, just like in the PHB.

As for our little gnome friend in Cloudsinger...she's still alive.  But her Death DC just went up by 1.  That's the balance.  :)

Happy gaming.
I'll see you at the table.
-Adamus