Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
The nextDungeons & Dragonsbook is an adventure anthology calledCandlekeep Mysteries , which hold in seventeen separate adventure that have been created by different writer . The source of one of these story will be conversant to rooter of streamingD&Dshows , as Mark Hulmes ofHigh RollersandNights of Eveningstarfame contribute an adventure called " The Price of Beauty " toCandlekeep Mysteries .
Candlekeep is a program library metropolis in the Forgotten Realms cause setting where scholars from around the populace collect to partake in cognition . The city will be familiar to fans of theBaldur ’s Gateseries , as it played a large role in the story of the first game . Candlekeep Mysterieshas seventeen adventuresthat are all tied to a Christian Bible in the Candlekeep library . Each risky venture has its own mystery that needs resolution , and player will be sent to every corner of the Forgotten Realms in social club to nail them .
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Mark Hulmes recently spoke to Screen Rant about his " The Price of Beauty " adventure . “The Price of Beauty " call for a journeying to a Temple of Sune , who is the goddess of sexual love and beauty in the Forgotten Realms . Hulmes explained how he went fromplayingD&Don streamsto writing part of its modish book , how his escapade gives player a chance to have their own beach episode , and how to write a mystery when all of the players have magical powers .
Today , we ’re blab to Mark Hulmes , one of the authors of the coming D&D dangerous undertaking anthologyCandlekeep mystery . Mark ’s adventure is call “ The Price of Beauty ” . So , tell us about the adventure you put up toCandlekeep Mysteries .
I do n’t want to give too much aside , because one of the big things with Candlekeep Mysteries is that they are all mysteries , and there is quite a few turn of events and turns in all of the adventures . The best way I can kind of sum up my adventure is your party will be asked to determine a miss dwarven acolyte in thegreat library of Candlekeep , and that little adventure hook will start you on a journeying which will lead you to an enchanted book , that will then take you to a magical day - spa , that ’s position in a occult wood with a magical spring attached to it . You ’ll get to explore The Temple of the Restful Lily , which is a day - health club , and converge the inhabitants , the elven sisters who run it , and then a mass of the mystery will amount out from there . I do n’t want to give too much away , but that ’s kind of the general assumption of it all .
Now , you have a history with D&D , being the DM of theNights of Eveningstarseries . When were you first approached to run onCandlekeep Mysteries ?
Yeah , so , I was draw close to ferment on Candlekeep Mysteries by Bill Benham , who I ’d met when we were doing a press term of enlistment case in Italy forDescent into Avernus , and a bunch of us , myself and Kim Richards from myD&DshowHigh Rollerswere invited as guest . Bill and a few of the folks from Wizards of the Coast were over there as well , and we just got talking about compose campaigns and homebrew and telling Bill about some of the things I ’d done in my drive .
Then , trim down to a few months later and I had an email come in from Chris Perkins and Bill , allege " We ’d care you to write on Candlekeep , " and my first reception was I wrote an email back suppose " Hi , I think have you guys sent this to the wrong soul . " I was n’t quite certain if they ’d really send it to the right mortal or not , or if my email got mixed in at some gunpoint . But they come back and said , " No , we ’d really care to have your vocalization in it . We think that you ’re gon na bring something unexampled and interesting to the team , and so we ’d like to invite you to do work on it . " Which was a really huge honor for me in person . I ’ve wanted to shape onD&Dand writeD&Dadventures for a very very farsighted time .
How did the book come together ? Did you cooperate directly with the other writer when coming up with your adventures , to stop hoi polloi from using exchangeable concepts and idea ?
No . So when we were approached , we were give an precis briefly , which was " We ’d like you to make a mystery around a book in Candlekeep . " We were given level range of a function , we were given budget for things like magical items and gold and things like that , and then it was kind of just a causa of bow a proposition of what we ’d wish to do . That was then contract in by Bill and Chris , who in all probability had to , like school teacher , go through and control everybody ’s work and verify there were n’t too many similar ideas and things . That came back and they were like " Yep , this is all approved , go ahead , give us your first muster . " Wrote that out . First sentence I was about 4000 wrangle over the limit , I had to snub it all down , and then submit it back to Bill and Chris , who gave me some initial feedback . I kind of worked on that , send back a 2d muster that went to playtesters and editor , who then tweaked it a lilliputian bit more , then we become the net reading of the book back later on .
What is the level range for the adventure ?
So , my " Price of Beauty " adventure , I wrote it for a 5th - degree political party . A company of four to five 5th - grade characters . You could probably adjust it on either end of that scale of measurement . You could maybe have a party that ’s a little bit lower or a little minute higher and it will still influence out some the same .
The adventure involves an excursion Temple to Sune , who is the god of sexual love and beauty in the Forgotten Realms . What was the inspiration for centering an adventure around Sune ?
So , she ’s always been a goddess that I ’ve loved as a player , like whenever I ’ve depend at the Forgotten Realms . Like , she ’s not really used that much and I conceive that there ’s a good deal of interesting thing about that . In a world of magic and fantasy and all of these incredible races and lineages you may be , the idea of beauty , and I think that sometimes it can be false as superficial beauty . There ’s a lot you’re able to do there about love , you know , the love of the self , the love of your friend , the love of family , as well as romantic making love , you know . The knockout of self - authority and feeling good about yourself , the beauty of art . I think there ’s a lot of really interesting angles that are n’t explored with her , and so , that ’s what I wanted to do . I require to create an risky venture that explored some of those thing , obviously being called " The Price of Beauty , " it ’s a set about self - geographic expedition and self - identity . As well as a footling mo about how wizard might influence that , make us feel about ourselves , things we might need to alter and is it possible to go too far , you know ? We survive in a world of things like filters and apps that can make us attend different , or exchange the direction we are , you know , how risky could that get with magic and the thing that could be temptations and offers to us there .
Did you set up any other adventure ideas before settling on “ The Price of Beauty ” ?
This was the first one I had . This was kind of like a strong melodic theme I had in my psyche . I really loved location - based escapade with strong themes . And so , the location I came up with and the conception that I had really stick out to me . And it was just the first one I submitted and Wizards seemed to sanction it and liked the mind , so I just ran with it .
Did you have the fortune to number up with any unique ogre or magic detail for the escapade ?
Yes . So , there is a couple of minuscule moments in there . There ’s a little bit of unique treasure . It ’s not specially particular , but the thing I think I ’m most proud of is a very interesting Nonproliferation Center that I remember will serve really well as the … I cogitate DMs will get a lot out of them , you know , be able to really kind of go to townspeople and really play them as vibrant characters . And then yeah , there ’s a duo of … there ’s a unique ogre in there as well . But again , I do n’t require to give away too much .
What form of playstyle does the escapade focus on ? Will it be armed combat - ponderous , will it sport a destiny of role - performing , or does it use a lot of explorations and puzzles ?
I would definitely describe it as a more roleplay - large adventure . The way that I kind of approached it is , this is almost a fortune to give your party a filler episode . A beach sequence . A falling out . It ’s kind of a odd idea about going to a witching day watering hole and getting drag up in something that ’s happening there . But , there ’s a good deal of opportunities to talk to interesting NPC .
It ’s like when there is downtime where the political party can go shopping for magic items , or they ’ve got a calendar week in a townspeople to get up to chicanery and have fun . Those are some of my most preferred present moment inD&D. And so , I wanted an adventure that gives the characters a slew of chance to shine as well . And I think that ’s definitely the focus . There is still combat and there ’s unquestionably still some exploration in there . There ’s a duo of interesting engagement you could get yourself in and fictional character that care to explore can definitely feel some secrets and perchance get some hidden clues and things like that . But yeah , this is definitely an adventure which is a smashing prospect to let your fictional character unwind and perchance show off their personalities and get wind up in a cool mystery .
Like inStar Trekwhen they used to go the beach planet .
Yep , exactly . It ’s that form of holodeck episode or your beach episode variety of thing . It ’s emphatically meant to give you that form of vibraharp and let your characters kind of get up some to shenanigans for a trivial morsel .
All of the adventures inCandlekeep Mysteriesare centered around enigma . The trouble is that they ’re taking place in a D&D worldly concern , where character have accession to magic that can bend the rules of reality . This is a game with spells likeidentify , utter with stagnant , andzone of verity . How did you go about designing a enigma adventure in such a way that spellcasters ca n’t work it out straight away ?
Well , I call back that the challenging thing … That has always been a huge problem in D&D and I remember that it come down to a few spirit level ranges , player creative thinking and as a DM , I personally roll in the hay it when a originative player can expend magic or abilities or acquisition in an interesting way , to give themselves an upper mitt . And there ’s definitely a grammatical case of , you know , if player ’s use the correct spell at the right times , they ’re emphatically gon na learn some things .
I think one freehanded fast one is to make it so that sometimes figuring things out is the worst potential outcome . Where they suddenly realize how much trouble they ’re in or how complicated the site is . And often , I think it comes down to evidence that , you love , sometimes it ’s not just a case of " Well , we ’ve figured out so and so is speculative , but now we ask to prove it to people who can give us the federal agency to do something about it . " Or in the pillowcase of my adventure as well , it ’s deciding what you ’re gon na do with that selective information . Maybe you’re able to forecast out what the villain is up to , or maybe something that is being obfuscate or veil away from whatever everyone else is supposed to roll in the hay . What do you do next ? I call back that becomes the next challenge in the risky venture , and that ’s where it lead to combat or awing roleplaying and points from there . Also , good U.S. of apt villains spellcasting as well , baddie are n’t unintelligent , they know how to utilize things likemind blankand check that their thoughts ca n’t be register , and they ’re immune tozone of truthor scrying . Things like that can unquestionably up the ante and turn the tables back on the players as well .
Like in the honest-to-goodness days , when they tried to do mysteries and everyone had an amulet of nondetection .
( Laughs ) Yep , utterly . The villains got ta have that inclined ring of mind shielding and amulets of nondetection or nondetection spells at the go . Yeah , and illusion magic trick is one of my best-loved ace to utilise because that can really deepen things up and send the players on wild cuckoo pursual as well .
By the same token , does the adventure also direction for DMs to facilitate out the players if or when they get stand by ?
I think with my adventure specifically , the way that I build , it ’s the sort of risky venture where the player should n’t really get beat . It ’s a blank space to search and they can get involved with it as much as possible . Ultimately , they ’re prove to find a missing person , and that should be middling well-off to do for any kind of adventuring political party . I think that they wo n’t particularly shin , but there ’s a muckle of big guidance at the starting of the adventure about how to endure the villain and some of the central traits in the closed book itself , which I think should be able to give decimetre the edge they need if they do involve to give the players a small jog . There ’s quite a few NPC as well , that are frame-up specifically to be ally to the party , who a DM could essentially have them drop in and say " Hey , this is what ’s go on , I require your assistant to do this affair , " and then that gives them like a really easy way of life to march on forwards with the mystery .
Some honest-to-god campaign ( likeTomb of Annihilation ) could be quite prop - heavy . A lot ofD&Dplayers are still unable to receive in mortal to dally . Did that factor into the design of the escapade at all ? Was there any design on making this easy to trifle on stream ?
I would n’t say necessarily like , deepen to act on flow . I think that my natural elbow room of running game , you know , I ’ve been streamingD&Don Twitch and YouTube for five years now . So I mean that I definitely automatically think in that respect of , you know , what ’s gon na be fun for viewers to observe . But also , you experience , people wager on things like Zoom and hooey like that , because it is a bit more RP heavy , it ’s not like a grided fighting keep crawl . I call up that it ’s the kind of affair that works really well when you could just confab with your mates and roll some die . I think that definitely helps us out in that regard . In terms of the tones and the themes , I call back almost in a twelvemonth of pandemic , the idea of going to a magical day spa and having a holiday with your mates will be quite appealing . I desire that follow through anyway .
Short adventures like the ones inCandlekeep Mysterieshave become popular with group around the man , as getting people together for pass safari can be hard at the best of clock time . They ’re also easy to use for one - off intro games at formula . What advice would you give to decimetre feed “ The Price of Beauty ” ?
My advice for masses running " The Price of Beauty , " for things like conventions or one - shots is , you know , focus on its more light - hearted elements . There ’s a fortune of fun stuff and nonsense in there as well . The key enigma of place the leave out dwarven acolyte is your master hook and there are NPCs that you could drop in if you ’re feed curtly on time .
One thing I be given to do when running one - shots and things like that is turn over myself a timer . If I ’m running a two - 60 minutes game then congeal the timer for an hour and thirty minutes . When that timer go off , that ’s the degree where I just have an NPC literally drop into the political party and say " Hey , I require your help , I know where this person is , " or " I know where this point is located . I need you to make out with me and we can go and get it and solve it now . " I retrieve that localize yourself timer like that is a good one .
But also , the whole point of this adventure is to let the player go off and do their own thing and have a jape and get up to shenanigans . I cerebrate being flexible , being open to improvisation , and changing things up when you ask to is definitely go to be key . The timer is definitely a big one that has helped me over the years for sure .
It ’s likely that streaming games are still going to be an authoritative part of D&D once the pandemic ends . How do you see this shaping the game function forward , both from an industriousness viewpoint and a fan standpoint ?
Well , it ’s such a fascinating topic . We ’ve been doing this for a long time . I ’ve been streaming and GM’ing and guested on all form of appearance . One of the big things is , I recollect that ’s gon na continue to bring so many new mass into the by-line . One of the vernacular thing that I hear whenever I go to conventions or when I adjoin lover of the show , or we get messages at the end of our streams . It ’s always " You guys helped get me intoD&D , " " I ’m gon na depart DM’ing for the first time this weekend , " or " I ’m gon na be playing for the first time this weekend because I ’ve been watching you hombre or watchedCritical RoleorNights of Eveningstar . "
I think that we ’re gon na continually see that , because , for the first time when I was get up and playedD&D , all you had was the books . You had the books and possibly if you were lucky , a admirer who had trifle before who knew the rules . We had to learn ourselves the whole affair . Now , you may go on YouTube and you may learn other people play it , and that really dispels a lot of the myth , the mystery , and the more electronegative aspect that pop cultivation has aver aboutD&Dand RPGs . And now you’re able to see a caboodle of fun multitude having a laugh , making prank , being serious if they want to , have coolheaded fight . you’re able to take from other DM , you’re able to see what other DMs are doing that you think " Oh , that ’s a really coolheaded way of doing combat , that ’s a cool puzzler , I wanna apply that . " It ’s only going to help lucubrate and grow the audience I conceive .
In terms of the industry , I believe it ’s going to do a lot of upright and shine ignitor on aspects of the game that need update and need improvements . We ’re already seeing that , peculiarly in fifth version . Some of the bequest content that has always been in the biz , just because , is experience a igniter glint on it . We ’re saying " Hey , do we still wanna do this , is this still OK , is this still the best way of doing it . " And I think that ’s gon na make it meliorate , specially the central part with this growth of the audience specially .
thaumaturge of the Coast latterly announced that the intact Ravenloft hunting expedition setting is come back , inVan Richten ’s Guide to Ravenloft . If you had to pick one of the old scope to return , which one would you want to bring back for fifth variation ?
I think the D&D community would be very upset if I did n’t say Spelljammer , because I know that ’s the bad one that everybody wants . When I was getting intoD&D , I get along in at third version . So for me , a stack of the old drive setting really do n’t have as much grasp on me . I never played Dark Sun , I never played Spelljammer , I did n’t play Ravenloft untilCurse of Strahd . The only one which I still have real childhood nostalgia for is Dragonlance because I take the Scripture and they were one of my first introduction to fantasy , so I would love to see the Dragonlance setting come back for sure . But yeah , just because I love my sci - fi , brain flayer nautiloid ships , Spelljammer ’s one that I ’d know to see tackled for a new era for certain .
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Candlekeep Mysterieswill be let go of on March 16 , 2021 .
