The beginning of each new year is like the start of a new adventure campaign. So much hope and promise. We know there will be obstacles along the way, but we have every confidence that we will overcome them, be triumphant in the end, and have an amazing time along the way.
2023 was a campaign dedicated to finding my Ikigai. This is a Japanese concept that roughly translates as finding your purpose. It is the center of this Venn diagram.
Throughout the year, I experimented with different things to try to zero in on my Ikigai as it relates to my efforts in the D&D space. There were a ton of things that satisfied some of the circles, but not others.
I love drawing encounter maps. I tried many times to make videos about this. They all failed because even though I love drawing them, not a lot of people cared to watch me do so.
My videos on the Open Game License fiasco were extremely successful. It seems the world needed them and I earned money from them, but they were not what I loved. To me, those videos were about focusing on something negative and that did not interest me.
Around that same time, I started making videos about Pathfinder and was even close to shifting my support entirely over to Paizo. Again, this seemed to be what the world needed and I was able to get paid for it, but I quickly realized this was a mistake. This content brought out some of the worst elements of the D&D community. And they were very vocal.
I found that if I ever said anything remotely negative about Pathfinder or in any way positive about D&D, I would be bombarded with some truly awful comments attacking me and anyone that agreed with me. It was definitely not something I loved.
By the spring, I had started my rediscovery of 4e. And it was here that things started to align. I love D&D 4e. I love talking about it. I love playing it. I love just sitting back and looking through the products. I discovered that there was an entire community out there that also loved this edition. And this audience seemed to be growing.
This was something I loved, it seemed that the community enjoyed, there was some market for it, and I had some measure of skill at it.
I found my Ikigai. And 2024 will be all about building on this.
The first change for 2024 that you may notice is the new title for this publication. I always struggle with naming things. I was never crazy about the ‘Treasure Hoard’ name, but it just stuck. For 2024, I will use the simpler title of OldeGreybeard’s Journal, which I think better aligns with the content of the newsletter.
But the big news is the new monthly publication called Dungeon Lore. It will be available from DriveThruRPG and free for paid newsletter subscribers. In this magazine I will publish my thoughts about different D&D topics, talk about how we can use D&D 4e to spice up our D&D 5e games, share an ongoing dungeon crawl with at least 3 new encounters each month, and more.
Look for the first issue on January 8, 2024. I hope to release each issue on the second Monday of each month.
I have a few other things in motion and I will talk more about those as they come closer to fruition.
But for now, let’s kick off this new campaign called 2024.
Monster Monday
This week’s featured monster is the stirge. These are just about the worst mosquitoes you will ever encounter.
Stirge encounter idea…
Medium encounter for five 3rd-level characters (1050 XP)
The party stumbles upon a small farming village at the edge of a dense forest. The villagers are terrified and request the adventurers’ help in dealing with a stirge infestation that has gotten out of control.
The villagers have been able to identify the direction where all the stirges seem to be coming from, but they have not explored the area themselves. They offer a reward to the party if they deal with the problem.
After following the directions provided by the villagers, the party arrives at a bog with several pools of rancid water. A druid in a dark robe stands watch over the pools while a few full-grown stirges patrol the area.
Pools
These pools are filled with stirge eggs. Any character that touches a pool must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 1d4 poison damage.
Vines
A small patch of vines grows beside the first pool. Any creature coming into contact with these vines must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution save or be poisoned until the end of their next turn.
Tactics
Druid The druid first uses its action to cast speak with animals to convince the stirges to defend the pools. It speaks with stirge #1 who then communicates the message to the others. The druid uses entangle to entice the vines to trap the party. It then casts shillelagh and attacks with its quarterstaff.
Stirges Each stirge attacks the nearest enemy with blood drain.
All monsters fight to the death
🎲Roll initiative!! 🎲
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Coming This Week…
I will be easing into the new year as I focus on a lot of behind the scenes stuff for the new journal and getting other things staged.
But the best news for this week is that we will resume playing through the D&D 4e adventure, Keep on the Shadowfell. Live Thursday at 6pm ET.
Thank you everyone for all your support.
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