Kobold Press heads to Gen Con 2026 with an unforgettable weekend of exclusive products, world premiere game experiences, and can’t-miss live events. From limited-edition print releases to the first public play opportunities for upcoming games, attendees will find something new around every corner at Booth #1909.

Whether you’re looking to expand your 5.5E Dungeons & Dragons campaign, explore the world of Tales of the Valiant, enjoy a cozy afternoon with RiverBank RPG, or brave the horrors of Night Hunters, Kobold Press invites players to discover what’s next.

Exclusive Products and Convention-Only Releases

Visitors to Booth #1909 will be among the first to pick up the newest additions to the Kobold Press library, including the highly anticipated Northlands Worldbook and Northlands Sagas, available for both 5.5E Dungeons & Dragons and Tales of the Valiant.

Monster lovers can also take advantage of a special Gen Con promotion—a free set of dice with every hardcover Monster book purchased, while supplies last. This includes the new Creature Codex Revised for 5.5e D&D and fan favorite Tome of Beasts 1.

Gen Con attendees also have access to two exclusive physical releases that won’t be available anywhere else.

The first is Court & Shadow, Kobold Press’ first-ever Daggerheart® product. Inspired by the fan-favorite Courts of the Shadow Fey, this campaign frame is ready to drop into your home games, offering intrigue, dangerous bargains, and dark fairy magic. Physical copies are extremely limited and available only during Gen Con! Once they’re gone, they’re GONE!

Also making its print debut is Hastening Doom, the acclaimed MegaDungeon Month adventure. After its successful digital release, fans will have their first opportunity to purchase a limited physical edition, available exclusively at Gen Con while supplies last.

Hundreds of Opportunities to Play

Kobold Press is bringing a packed Organized Play schedule featuring adventures for Tales of the Valiant, 5.5E Dungeons & Dragons, RiverBank RPG, and the fast-paced Necromancer Card Game.

Attendees can be among the very first players to experience adventures set in the upcoming Northlands setting and receive an early look at the gothic horror RPG Night Hunters before its official release.

For the first time ever, players can also experience the cozy charm of RiverBank RPG in its first public Organized Play sessions.

Looking for an adventure that lasts the whole weekend? Kobold Press is introducing a limited number of multi-day campaigns, allowing the same group of players to gather across three sessions and experience a continuous story together throughout Gen Con.

Players seeking a premium experience should also look for the Premiere GM Games, where industry-leading Game Masters host intimate four-hour adventures in private gaming spaces. These exclusive events consistently sell out quickly and offer an unforgettable opportunity to learn from and play alongside some of tabletop gaming’s best storytellers.

Panels, Design Discussions, and Live Shows

Beyond the gaming tables, Kobold Press is hosting a full lineup of events celebrating game design, storytelling, and community.

Let’s Make a Dread Villain

Join Night Hunters designer Sarah Madsen for an interactive design workshop where the audience helps build an entirely new horror villain from the ground up. Participants will contribute ideas, prompts, and inspirations as Sarah transforms them into compelling mechanics and unforgettable narrative, creating a brand-new Dread Villain ready for your next horror campaign.

Forging the Northlands

Go behind the scenes with Brian Suskind and Mike Welham, the designers behind Northlands, as they discuss adapting Norse mythology and history into memorable adventures, compelling settings, and engaging tabletop mechanics.

Oops! All Himbos Returns—Featuring Felicia Day

One of the weekend’s biggest highlights will be Oops! All Himbos Live: High Tea & Beefcakes, starring special guest Felicia Day.

The beloved comedy actual-play returns as Game Master Jay Foster leads Felicia Day, Omega Jones, Jesse Jerdak, Kyle Shire, Johnny Stanton IV, and Sandeep Parikh through the delightfully wholesome world of RiverBank RPG. Expect tea, animal antics, improvisational chaos, and plenty of laughs as this all-star cast explores Kobold Press’ newest cozy roleplaying game.

Visit Kobold Press at Booth #1909

Whether you’re hunting for convention exclusives, looking to experience the next generation of tabletop adventures before anyone else, or simply hoping to roll some dice with fellow fans, Kobold Press invites everyone to stop by Booth #1909 throughout Gen Con 2026.

For event schedules, Organized Play information, and the latest announcements, visit the main site at koboldpress.com. follow along on social media throughout the convention, and check back ere for updates!

The post Gen Con 2026 Exclusive Releases and First Looks – July 24, 2026 appeared first on Kobold Press.

Use the Beaufort Scale to help make wind and storm rulings easier. I grew up on a street called Beaufort Avenue. When we moved there, it had no curbs or sidewalks. And it dead-ended a few blocks down the road. And we had some fantastic wind storms. The walnut tree became weather’s weapon during gales. […]

The post Weaponize Encounter Weather With The Beaufort Scale appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

In the Hall of the Hill Troll Chief was interesting to bring into fruition. The inspiration for this adventure lay largely in exploring how it would go when outside forces force you to deal with those you´d rather not, and have you deal with them on their terms. A storm is perfect for this, as few can argue with or defeat a storm. It was interesting to work with the cold in this set up, as an obstacle that hounds them as they make their way through the storm, as well as the cold and dark tunnels that run under the mountain.

As far as unfriendly forces to deal with go, I found the trolls well suited. Trolls tend to be brutish, vicious, ill-tempered, and poor neighbors. That tends to be the case whether you’re in traditional fantasy or Icelandic folk tales. People often have to be clever in how they interact with trolls to escape unscathed, whether through trickery or dealing with the troll’s desires. In some ways, it’s not too different how you deal with the fey, except that trolls are more direct.

The Letter of the Law

I needed something equally direct that PCs could use in dealing with these trolls. Most of the northlands have some sort of hospitality traditions to make sure everyone could shelter from the storm as needed.  Not everyone would follow this tradition of course, but it felt apt that any troll chief powerful and worldly enough would have reason to adapt one. To that end I needed something concrete that both the trolls and the players could follow. Which is how i developed Bjalka’s law as a set of six commandments that bound both parties:

Bjalka´s Law

1) A free person in need of shelter can request shelter from a Herra to become their guest.
2) A guest is under the protection of the Herra during the stay.
3) The Herra is to be a good host to the guest.
4) A guest is not to break the peace while sheltered.
5) A guest is to repay the Herra for the hospitality.
6) A guest is not to disrespect the Herra.

These rules let me build intrigue in the hall, as it created ways for the two parties to honorably interact while binding them to certain terms they could pull on in regards to each other if they wanted to get what they want and grow their names.

After all, your name is one of the most precious things out there in any society focused on honor and your legacy after death. But with it also comes a sense of lingering tension, as it feels like those trolls are practically salivating over the chance for the adventurers to misstep and become their next meal.

This budding tension is mirrored by the orchestral piece, ’’In the Hall of the Mountain King’’ which was made to accompany the play, Peer Grynt. Peer Grynt is walking into the Troll King´s hall, whose court is angry with him for seducing the king´s daughter. Tension escalates as the piece goes on before reaching a frantic flow as Peer Grynt runs to escape their wrath.

Norse Myth Inspiration

I also took heavy inspiration from the Norse myth, ‘’Thor’s travel to Utgard-Loki’’, where Thor, Loki, and two human children travel the realm of the Jotun, Utgard-Loki. The best-known part of that tale is how Utgard-Loki presented them with a set of challenges to prove themselves worthy and capable. Of course, these challenges were not made in good faith! And, they fail each challenge miserably due to the Jotun tricking them into taking on much more then they could handle (A drinking horn connected to the entire ocean, an eating competition with the very embodiment of fire, and a wrestling match with the very embodiment of old age are tough to beat.)

Though I didn’t design my challenges quite as harshly, I liked the idea of these challenges as well as the dynamic of PCs taking up challenges not in their favor, in an environment where they are expected to fail.  It served as something they could use to endear them to the trolls in a social setting.

Even then though, heroes need a conflict to tackle and to that end, few conflicts are as destructive and personal as a feud. A good feud in my mind should not serve to paint either side in a flattering way, and the main motivation for anyone not directly tied to it should be to prevent it from growing out of bounds. That made it a good fit to tie it to the storm as a direct result of the feud, something that snares the adventurers as an unintended side-effect to it. As such, the adventurers in turn have a certain stake in it and are entitled to their feelings on how they want it to end.

 There are consequences for every choice, but in the end, they are meant to inform on who the characters are and what they believe in as they build their saga.  Which is also why this adventure is rather open ended in how it can go. I hope you enjoy playing or running it, and discovering who your characters are in the process.

And, check out Northlands Saga for more Northlands adventures!

The post In the Hall of the Hill Troll Chief design diary – July 22, 2026 appeared first on Kobold Press.

Hola Game Master! GM’s Log #9: How to Build Legendary Magic Items was just published, and it cloaks my atomic unit of prep in the guise of juicy loot. What started as a quick way to outline NPCs in the 2010s has become my universal GM tool for instantiating any kind of game piece: NPCs, […]

The post Crafting Legendary Magic Items appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

Many of us who choose to run roleplaying games do so because we fell in love with the genre through books, movies, and video games. These imaginative works captured our minds and interests, and we want to create stories of our own using these fantastical elements.

Conjuring vivid and exciting imagery for our players and audiences sets good GMs apart from great ones. I’m going to talk about two main ways to hone this skill. First, I’ll talk about strategies for empowering your narration, and second, I’ll talk about how to enlist your players to evoke incredible imagery.

Read all the Beyond the Audience articles!

Empower Your Narration

A debate rages in tabletop RPG design about “what is the ideal amount of description?” Some camps want to trash box text read-aloud descriptions, while others rally for making your read-aloud descriptions more effective.

On either side of this argument, there’s a simple truth to telling great stories: keep it simple with a few powerful details. Long monologues describing a single room won’t be any better received than describing nothing about the room. Your job is to give the players the facts they need, and one thing to get them invested in your description.

This extra investment often comes from a single simple detail that illuminates a sensory aspect about the room. “You step into a small stone room” is nowhere near as exciting as “You step into a small stone room that reeks of garlic.” With that detail, the room has a story , a quirk, something interesting to grip your players and make the audience pay attention.

It’s the same with monsters: saying “a troll stomps into the room” is not nearly as fun as describing the troll without ever using the word troll. It drives me bonkers when GMs use monster names, assuming the players, the characters, and the audience knows what the monster looks like without any cause.

Learning to sprinkle in these details is an exercise in becoming more creative. And like anything else, there are helpful things you can do to practice. The best advice I have is to consume as much media as possible in the genre your games explore. If you are running a science fiction RPG, read and watch sci-fi to give you tools and examples of excellent details to incorporate into your games. The things that frighten and excite you in movies are likely to do the same for your table.

Empower Your Players

The next descriptive favor you can do for yourself is train your players to pick up some of the work for you. To get your players to narrate exciting combat, to tell fantastic descriptions of themselves and their actions, invite them in. Furthermore, you need to offer these invitations a lot and in different ways.

Some of my easy favorites are asking players to describe how casting their spells looks, asking players what their killing blow looks like, and asking them to describe details about monsters that set them apart from one another.

Players who aren’t used to storytelling might not know how to respond to these questions initially, but with patience and practice, they’ll get better at it. Your job is to look for these openings to invite their participation. Let them describe the magic sword they find, or maybe their keen nose picks up a particular sent in the room, or let them decide the subject of a bard’s bawdy song. Once you start looking for these moments to hand off, you’ll be shocked how many there are. The best part is that having multiple imaginations yields a more exciting result than just one.

In Conclusion

Like becoming a great novelist, becoming a gifted descriptive storyteller takes practice. Draw from the inspiration of the media and the people around you to spice up your narrative. Once you notice how others set the stages of their tales, yours will begin to shine.

The post Run your best actual play | Paint Me a Picture – July 20, 2026 appeared first on Kobold Press.

Dear Osvaud,

This is Osvaud. You can be sure it is me because I’m the only one who knows about our phylactery’s super-secret hiding place. Keep reading, and you’ll see I’m telling the absolute truth.

For any sneaky protagonists taking a gander at my private thoughts, I’d say it is a bad idea to sneak a peek at an ancient lich’s diary. You never know when he might throw an explosive runes in the middle of a paragraph to teach you a valuable lesson about etiquette.

Hah! Did I get you…? I suppose if that did work as planned, you aren’t reading this now because both you and this diary are on fire.

I’m going to take a moment to bask in the mental image.

And you can be quite sure I’m not going to write down where my phylactery is! Yeesh. What sort of idiot leaves a trail of clues to his only weakness? Not to mention one easy enough for any semi-literate numskull to follow.

That brings me to today’s topic—arrogance.

Here’s the big secret to not ending up un-undead: don’t actually get overconfident. Its fine to think we are awesome (especially since it is so darn true in our case), but never really let yourself get conceited.

You probably don’t remember this, but we spent about a decade testing out a theory about “lucky shots” after we got beaned once too often. As it turns out, about 5% of the time, even the most incompetent doofus farmer in the land gets a hit past the thickest armor and stoutest spells. When you apply those odds to someone with actual skill, magic, and training, it means sooner or later, we get smacked upside the skull. On a long enough timeline, we’ll have a really unlucky day, and suddenly, whatever we were planning gets ruined.

The thing that gets most unholy abominations is after murdering a couple hundred paladins over an eon or two, we start thinking that it’ll always go our way. We’re immortal, command vast arcane power, and can turn great heroes into lawn ornaments with a touch. Maybe one day we neglect to cast all of our defensive spells, decide to mix it up in melee, or even make a stupid tactical decision because we think it’ll be more dramatic.

I get it… stuff happens. You get caught up in the moment or bored and think, eh, why not. The key is not letting it become a bad habit that you start slipping down the slope into carelessness. Always have an exit strategy, never stick out a losing situation, and make sure you’ve got minions around to absorb the punishment.

Also, magically bury your phylactery in a random unimportant location, deep beneath the earth, in an airless, ten-foot-cube room with permanent wards against scrying. Then forget where it is exactly. The only thing we ever need to do to find it is jump in a volcano or something.

 

 

The post Memoirs of a Lich: Arrogance – July 17, 2026 appeared first on Kobold Press.

“Close the shutters, grotesquelet. I have it on good authority we’re in for a stormy night.”

“With pleasure, oh Round One. Hail?”

“Don’t grovel. My dear friend Ragwort the Amaranth Wizard tells me he’s expecting toads.”

“Please, proffer him my congratulations master.”

“Don’t be impertinent. And get that cat oiled.”

 

Storms occasionally grace any fantasy game table. However, our precipitation is more outré than standard. Fantasy weather can be strange, which makes a great way to threaten or indulge in moments of import or in prophecies about to come to fruition.

Each suggestion comes with a short description of events. As always, feel free to vary, expand, and ignore these as you feel. 

Raining Toads or Frogs

“The boiling clouds have been hanging low for some time now. They’re almost touching your surroundings in places, as though they wish to rest on the earth and snooze—or perhaps devour. Suddenly, they burst, their bloated gray forms vomiting out something far worse than heaving rain: toads, great distended black and ochre toads. Many die as they hit the ground, their bodies burst on impact. Yet many more live, and as the torrent continues, the ground is deep in slithering toads and their dead kin.”

Let’s start with the most obvious: such rain has been alleged over the centuries and is a good—if basic—twisted weather phenomenon to throw at your group. It’s an easy way to spice up your evening’s play with some outdoor carnage. This could directly or indirectly affect play. Perhaps events outside are mere fluff, the pounding bodies adding (literal) weight to momentous occurrences within temples, dungeons or other settings.

Those caught outside suffer the following potential effects: increase the DCs or risk as you wish to reflect just how bloated this storm becomes. All characters caught in the storm suffer similar effects as though obscured by fog. The rain obscures all sight beyond 15 feet, including darkvision. Creatures 15 feet away have concealment. All Perception checks are made with disadvantage. Ranged weapon attacks are impossible beyond 15 feet. The ground is coated with slime and carcasses and becomes difficult terrain.

Characters under the open sky must make a DEX save every minute or take 1d6 bludgeoning damage. A creature casting any spell in the rain requires concentration (DC 13).

The rain of amphibians leaves a carpet of horror in its wake. You might decide that this affects movement further, perhaps requiring DEX (Acrobatics) checks to remain standing or perform complex actions. In urban settings, creatures may begin to block vents and chimneys, or gather at gutters, threatening minor structural damage: gutters may bloat and collapse, injuring those below. As drains become engorged with gore, these begin to block.. Deeper gatherings of frogs and toads must be swum through to access chases or places of interest.

The Storm of Fishes

“A sudden, palpable salt taste fills the air as the engorged clouds hang over your heads. The clouds are suddenly alive with gulls and other birds, the creatures swooping through the steaming mass of mist as though feasting. Then you see why: the clouds are bloated with fish, tens of thousands of tiny black fish that begin to pour down upon you in a rain of brine and death.”

In many ways, the rain of fish—if you apply it simply as that—is similar to the frogstorm above. If you wish, modify the description to fit the rules accordingly. 

However, this storm is far greater than that. It tears the very harvest of the sea and hurls it onto land, bringing with it fish from the deep, including those of great size.

Larger fish are hurled from the clouds on a semi-regular basis; use them to shock players into understanding the gravity (pardon the pun) of the event taking place. The bigger creatures hurtle into the PCs’ area. For simplicity, assign 1d4 for every scene the PCs pass through outdoors—perhaps, a courtyard or town square or dash across farmland. (It doesn’t really matter, the effect is what is important.)

Assign the fishes to target characters randomly. Avoiding a fish requires a successful DC 12 DEX save. On a failure, a creature takes 1d6 bludgeoning, piercing, damage, depending on the fish that strikes it. Consider increasing the save DC and damage in increments of 1 as the storm strengthens.

In depicting this fantasy storm, make it epic: if you want a whale tossed onto a town square, have one. It’s great for drama, and in many ways, the more outlandish the event, the more memorable it will be.

Bear in mind not to overuse the mechanic, though. Dodging a couple of storms of fish that have sharks and maybe the odd giant octopus tossed up is great, but avoiding random effects by saving throws is not roleplaying. You’re after drama, not fatigue. Use it to its greatest effect.

The post Your Whispering Homunculus: For One Night Only… Funny Weather – July 15, 2026 appeared first on Kobold Press.

Today, I’m going to talk about ways to punch up the pacing in your game to make your shows thrilling for both your audience and your players. I’ll talk about two general types of strategies: strategies you can employ while broadcasting live and strategies you can use when you have an edited show.

Read all the Beyond the Audience articles!

Exciting pacing keeps us hungry to consume a show. Dramatic cliffhangers, exciting action, and rapidly evolving narratives make serial television thrilling. But then, most shows made for TV or streaming have hundreds of hours to craft a final product. How do you capture that constant action when you’re the main driver, streaming a TTRPG game live?

A lot of that magic comes from the topics we’ve already covered in this series, but there are formulas you can follow that help set your show up for success.

Play the Short Game

First, structure your live recordings to mimic an episodic show. If you keep your broadcasts under two hours and reoccurring on a weekly or biweekly schedule, you make your content easy to digest.

Too often, streamers commit to three- or four-hour games. You can see the energy of the cast and the chat dying with each passing minute. Train your cast to play for less than two hours at a time, and you’ll be amazed at how they pick up the narrative pacing (way fewer off-topic conversations, I promise).

Keeping to a regular schedule is also vital to punch up pacing. If players go more than two weeks between recordings, they tend to forget what’s happening. It’s not easy to hold onto an emotional investment in a fictional character that you haven’t visited in a month. So play frequently and in shorter bursts.

That said, too much gets tiresome. If you streaming multiple episodes in a week, new audience won’t be able to catch up on your backlog. The best way I’ve seen to strike the perfect balance is scheduling seasons of play, so you can release a story in bursts over a period of time and then be done with it.

Edit Your Work

If you are one of the lucky shows who can edit your content before publishing, you have many tools at your disposal to give your show thrilling pacing.

The goal of editing is to step away from your content and objectively figure some things out. Ask yourself, “If I were a total stranger listening to this, would I enjoy it?” If the answer is, “No,” cut it out.

We aren’t making content for our friends and families; we are producing content for a hungry audience, most of whom we’ll never meet. The biggest culprits for what to cut are in-jokes the audience isn’t in on, rules discussions, and indecision in combat. If you only cut those things, your show will be miles above many others.

Recording TTRPG games can be tricky; people often feel that it’s important to preserve the “integrity” of the gameplay. It’s not. Entertainment value is much more important than making sure you account for every hit point in that dragon fight. Sometimes I cut out entire rounds of combat in an edit. I do that because listening to people add numbers is boring.

Your audience waits through that for descriptions of the cool actions the characters are doing. Very few people out there (if any) sit with monster statistics in their laps, waiting for you to get it wrong. Cut combat to the vital bits. Do the same for scenes or interactions that don’t go anywhere. If a moment doesn’t add to your story or communicate something important about the characters, you likely don’t need it.

In Closing

There’s no cure-all to cultivate great pacing in your show, but these practices will set you on the path. As with most things, if your players see you make an attempt to pick up the pacing, they will notice and begin to reflect your efforts. Make the commitment, shake up your format, and you’ll have a punchy product in no time!

The post Run your best actual play | 2 ways to punch up the pacing! – July 13, 2026 appeared first on Kobold Press.

A constant throughout history is the knowledge that where mortals go, dogs follow. This relationship between humans and dogs is a fascinating story. It’s believed that prehistoric humans formed a symbiotic link with gray wolves of mutual dependence and acceptance.

In our world, dogs are soldiers, hunters, guardians, and companions. So surely they serve those same roles in fantasy worlds, right?

See all the Dungeons & Doggos articles!

Next up on our examination of fantasy dogs are esmallfolk: halflings and gnomes! Saddle up your dog and charge into the cuteness.

Smallfolk Dogs

It’s not easy being a Small creature in a world where ogres, giants, and humans galumph around with their huge, crushing feet. It takes a combination of cleverness and community spirit to survive the larger threats facing someone of diminutive height.

The two major groups of smallfolk differ especially in their chosen habitats. Gnomes build their communities almost entirely underground, while halflings remain on the surface to build farming communities. Regardless of where they live, smallfolk share an affinity for the earth. Perhaps logically, this affinity extends to their dogs. Smallfolk and dogs go together like frosting on cake.

Smallfolk dogs differ depending on the group they cohabitate with. Gnomish dogs are suited to the underground habitat of their owners, while halfling dogs are more suited to the surface world.

   Presented below are the most common breeds found in gnomish and halfling communities among the widespread smallfolk of the Labyrinth.

Storgin, “Stone Eaters”

This rugged canine is a hard-jawed, short-legged hound with a wiry coat. They don’t actually eat rocks, but their deep chests, thick necks, and short muzzle suggest that they could!

Stubborn and fierce, storgin are often found in gnomish tunnels hunting for vermin, scouting for their owners, or hauling cargo. Most storgin are trained to accept packs and even pull wagons like a horse. Gnomish miners prefer storgin to help them haul their ore from mine to furnace.

Most storgin have gray, brown, or black coats with patches of one of those colors someplace on their bodies. They stand about 20 inches at the shoulder (around the same size as a husky) and weigh about 75 pounds. They get their interesting name from an old legend about a gnome who was trapped behind a cave-in. According to the tale, the miner’s trusty storgin could not dig to his owner, so he consumed the stones one by one until he could be reunited with his chosen person. These days, most believe storgin got their names because of their powerful jaws.

Real World Notes: Imagine a cross between a St. Bernard and a bulldog.

STORGIN CR 1/4

Medium Beast

Armor Class 12 (natural armor)
Hit Points 15
Speed 40 ft., climb 15 ft.
Perception 13                         Stealth 12
Senses —
Languages —

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
+2	+2	+2	−4	+1	−2

Beast of Burden. The storgin is considered to be Large for the purpose of determining its carrying capacity.

Heightened Hearing and Smell. The storgin’s Perception is 18 when perceiving by hearing or smell.

Sunlight Sensitivity. While in sunlight, a storgin has disadvantage on attack rolls, and its Perception is 8 when perceiving by sight.

ACTIONS

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage and the target is grappled (escape DC 12), if it is a Medium or smaller creature. Until this grapple ends, the storgin can’t use its Bite on another target.

REACTIONS

Crushing Jaws. When the storgin is hit by a creature it is currently grappling, it can use its reaction to squeeze with its jaws. The grappled target takes 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage. 

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Pennig, Riding Hound

Common mounts like horses and camels are not sized for halflings. They are uncomfortable to ride for those of diminutive height, and it can be awkward to climb into and out of the saddle. This is perhaps why the halflings long ago turned to a different sort of mount, the riding dog.

Pennigs are tall, rangy canines with long legs, broad backs, deep chests, and a dense double coat of thick fur. Their tails are curled or plumed, and they have a long rough muzzle. Their coloration varies between grey-white, red-white, or sable. Pennigs stand around 30 to 45 inches at the shoulder and weigh around 120 pounds.

All pennigs are trained to carry riders in and out of combat. They are very loyal to their riders and defend them in battle, fighting alongside them against any threat.

Real World Notes: Imagine a cross between a Siberian husky and a wolfhound.

PENNIG                     CR 1/2

Medium Beast

Armor Class 12 (15 with scale mail barding)
Hit Points 22
Speed 50 ft.
Perception 11                         Stealth 12
Senses —
Languages —

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
+3	+2	+2	−3	+1	−2

Heightened Hearing and Smell. The pennig’s Perception is 16 when perceiving by hearing or smell.

Pack Tactics. The pennig has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of the pennig’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.

ACTIONS

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 13 STR save or be knocked prone.

REACTIONS

Trained Shift. If the pennig’s rider is subjected to an effect that would knock it prone or dismount it, the dog can shift its body to assist the rider. The rider has advantage on the check or save to avoid the effect.

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Come to the land of ice and snow, where the gods pull the strings of mortal heroes, and glory is won by axe and song. Now available for Tales of the Valiant!

The post Dungeons & Doggos | loyal dogs of the halflings and gnomes – July 10, 2026 appeared first on Kobold Press.

Earlier this year, Kobold Press held a Q&A for the release of our Northlands Worldbook on the D&D Discord server. Here’s a lightly edited transcript!

Q from RisingDusk: If you had to pick only one monster from the Worldbook to sell DMs on buying the book, what monster would you pick and what makes it so special?

A: Dang, that’s hard . . . my favorite is probably the thrudgelmir giant. Who doesn’t want to have a six headed giant smashing up your PCs? It really embodies this epic, North vibe that we were striving to convey in the books. Also the roleplay potential alone is amazing, and possibly hilarious.

Q from 4k31gv: Will there be more books available on D&D Beyond in the future, such as Tome of Beasts 2 and Tome of Beasts 3?

A: We are hoping to have more on D&D Beyond! The more people clamor for them, the better the chances, I’d think.

Q from Zan: What is the difference between Northlands Worldbook and Northlands Sagas that makes them worth the same amount of money?

A: So the Northlands Worldbook is a campaign-overlay, which means it is something you can use on its own OR put into your own campaign, regardless of the setting. The Worldbook has lore, and regions, and player options (subclasses, species, spells, items, feats….etc.), as well as new monsters and new mechanics.

Northlands Sagas, on the other hand, is a full adventure path taking PCs from levels 1 to 13 and involves working with Loki to stop Ragnarok. They are both amazing (though I might be a bit biased), and are designed to work together to give you all of the North-themed adventuring you could want.

Q from SodaPopBarbecue: Did the Kickstarter not meet its stretch goals? There’s no Ratatosk species updates in here . . . I like those playable squirrel people so much!

A: Yeah, we didn’t quite reach the stretch goal for the Ratatosk and Ravenfolk. We had some cool stuff planned for those little squirrel guys. Maybe someday . . .

Q from SodaPopBarbecue: If you were given access to the Artificer kit, what kind of Artificer would you be interested in designing?

A: I think it might be interesting to see a biomechanical Artificer—someone “crafting” in flesh, able to physically boost or alter themselves or their companions.

Q from SodaPopBarbecue: Trickster Warlock, as written, allows for Minor Illusion to deal 4d10 Psychic damage and be stunned when a creature interacts with a sound. Is this not broken beyond reasonability for a Cantrip? (Likewise, Context Switch & Distant Switch can, as written, cause an opponent to attack themselves if they fail the save.)

A: On the Trickster Warlock question, by the time you hit 10th level a lot of cantrips are doing nearly this much damage on a successful hit. And this one only works if they fail the save (half if they succeed). So the math means it’s only slightly more powerful than, say, Firebolt.

Q from RisingDusk: What motivated creating Giantkin when Goliath are a PHB and SRD species now?

A: We had two reasons for creating the Giantkin:

1. Giantkin sounds more North-y to me than “Goliath” (not that I’m knocking Goliaths).

2. We also wanted to publish this for our own Tales of the Valiant system too, so we wouldn’t be allowed to use Goliaths for that. For the sake of design continuity we decided to create Giantkin.

Q from 4k31gv: For the spells, Glimpse the Wyrd and Pawn of the Wyrd in Northlands Worldbook, since the range is listed as “Self” but the spells modify another creature’s action, how far away can that creature be? Is the intent “any creature you can see,” or is a range missing from the spell text?

A: Man, you folks are making me flip through the books! Lol. So for Glimpse the Wyrd and Pawn of the Wyrd, as written, there is no range. I suspect that might get errata’d at some point. I would say that the range should be listed in the reaction requirements as “a creature within 60 feet.” I’m gonna throw this one to our errata file.

Q from ShankMugen: What is the reasoning behind using the “Wotan” spelling instead of the more common “Odin” for the pantheon?

A: We based Northlands vaguely on the Northlands of our own Midgard setting, but with the serial numbers scrubbed off and used as a campaign overlay. The original Northlands material from Kobold Press way way back used Wotan, so we continued to use it to maintain continuity of design. Technically, Odin is the Scandinavian name and Wotan is the Old High German name. Midgard was originally a grim-dark setting with heavy German influence so, there you go.

Q from LaTiaJacquise: can you clarify what you mean by “campaign overlay” as relates to worldbooks?

A: Sure thing! A campaign-overlay basically means that it is a product that is as rich and deep as possible in terms of setting, but it’s designed so GMs can drop it whole into whatever setting they are using, OR use it as its own setting. So if you were playing Eberron, for example, you could place the Northlands out in the ocean between Khorvaire and Everice/Wayfinder Tundra.

Q from Skye: What’s your favorite spell in the book, why, and what class/subclass would you build around it first?

A: Anytime someone asks me about my favorite things, my mind usually turns to the ones I find amusing or hit on a theme that I find interesting.

In the case of the Northlands, I like the spells that touch on the Norns. The idea of divination or fate in TTRPGs has always been interesting on a design level. How do you make rules for someone who can know the future, especially when there is really nothing predetermined at the game table? You can cast Augury and stuff, but it’s always non-combat related.

So spells like Bound Fortunes are cool to me because they provide “combat” ways to use fate and fortune. Beseech the Norns hits on that same theme. In terms of a subclass designed around that, I think a Fate-based warlock who did combat divination would be awesome!

Q from ShankMugen: I was wondering which subclass would fit best for an Einherjar character, both as NPC as well as a PC, according to you.

A: Ooooo, an Einherjar character would be pretty cool. So the Einherjar are spirts of warriors who were chosen by the Valkyries to go to Valhalla. The easy choice would be the Paladin Oath of Valhalla subclass. But I could also see an interesting combination with the Skald Bard or the Circle of Fenris Druid, although that last one might be a bit of an outcast.

Q from Halloween: How do you get into working for publishers like Kobold Press? What do you usually look for?

A: Well, my process was a bit uncommon. Back in the depths of time, I signed on to a LiveJournal (for those of you old enough to remember LJ) where Wolfgang Baur was hosting a patron-system where you paid him a small amount of money and you got to sort of look over his shoulder as he designed things.

That morphed into the Open Game days which later became Kobold Press. I freelanced with various TTRPG companies for about 35 years before getting a full time gig with Kobold Press. Though I always wanted to be a full-time designer for KP. Getting into the design business these days is a lot about making contacts, doing smaller jobs and open calls.

What I personally look for in a designer are a few key things:

● Know the material, and especially know the format of what you are being asked to write. This includes how the company’s products are written. You need to be able to follow that format because if you don’t, you are only making more work for the editing team.

● Be creative with an eye toward playability. Writing for your home group is much different than writing for publication. You need to think about how GMs and players will handle things if you aren’t there to explain it.

● Hit your deadlines and word count goals.

● Communicate, communicate, communicate. There is nothing a publisher hates more than when a designer goes silent. You may not want to contact whomever has given you a job to say you are going to miss a deadline, but they would MUCH rather hear that you’re going to be late than to hear nothing. Life happens and people are understanding if you give them the heads up.

Q from LostNord: Question: who would I have to bribe to get all the Tome of Beasts books updated to 5.5 and in dnd beyond? Or are there plans to do that?

A: Who to bribe? Hmmmm . . . I don’t know if D&D Beyond takes bribes but it couldn’t hurt? We’d love to update all of our monster books to 5.5. It’s a question of time and schedule mostly.

Q from JasonCitron: Are Giantkin and Goliaths the same species in D&D? If different publishers keep using different names for the same creatures? Does this redundancy create confusion for players over time?

A: That’s a tricky question. Are they the same? Not technically. We didn’t use Goliaths for the reasons I mentioned above, but they do fill the same niche.

If I was running a campaign that had both Giantkin and Goliath, I would probably treat them as the same species. Just off-shoots of each other.

It can be confusing as you mentioned but the realities of TTRPG publishing is that sometimes companies put out things that are the same. If I’m remembering correctly, Kobold Press came out with “dragonkin” before WotC came out with dragonborn. Over time, we changed the name over to dragonborn to match WotC and avoid confusion.

Q from RisingDusk: Have you given any thought to how the adventure path in the Sagas book might fit into the official D&D settings? For example, could you run it in Icewind Dale? Any suggestions or ideas for how to do that?

A: You could certainly run it in Icewind Dale. Or in the Everice region of Eberron. This question also applies to using the Worldbook in WotC settings.

The “easiest” way to do that is to place a narrow body of water between your established setting map and the Northlands and drop it in there. By making that separation, it enforces the idea that this is another country. I’d play up that they have different names for the gods (though many might be just the same deity with different names) and different cultures, etc.

For Sagas you’d have a choice. Either treat the regions covered by the Sagas adventures as a separate country as I mentioned above, or you could try to integrate it. Integrating Sagas would be a bit more complex. To do it, you would have to take the set locations of the adventures and find places to stick them in your setting. For example, the Fortress of Birgkrona in Adventure 9 of the path could be placed in the giant controlled regions of Icewind Dale.

You probably could also swap in the gods of whatever setting you are using (Forgotten Realms, Eberron, etc.) for the North-themed gods in Sagas. But if you did, you’d miss out on all the sweet sweet interactions with Loki.

Q from Jay: During Koboldcon, I believe I saw you playing Loki as the DM. What did you find fun about playing that NPC and do you have a memorable NPC you’ve played in an adventure?

A: I’m not going to say that Tom Hiddleston didn’t influence how I played Loki as a GM. Lol That said, I always love tricksters as NPCs. They can be allies, they can be foes, they can float between them over the course of a campaign.

I ran a weekly Eberron game for about seven years. During the campaign the PCs were guided by a seer who showed up from time to time. Originally, this NPC had a bit role, but the players found her very very annoying. Okay, well one specific player found her annoying. So I kept bringing her back. She’d show up and give some super vague prophesy (vague enough where almost anything could be said to fulfill it) and then wander away. The groans around the table when she appeared were totally worth it.

I also ran Wild Beyond the Witchlight for a game group of kids (my son’s friends). The kids group has been going strong ever since 2020. Anyway, when Will of the Feywild showed up, I gave him a slacker surfer accent. The kids loved him so much that he appeared almost continually though that campaign and the next.

Q from Halloween: What are the better places for getting into the design business aka where to make contacts, do smaller jobs and open-calls?

A: These days its hard to say. I think DMsGuild is a solid place to start because you are basically given all the pieces you need. Publishing some strong work there and accruing sales numbers can be something to show other companies.

As with almost any job, a lot of this is contacts. Go to conventions, talk to designers. Interact with them online. Some companies will put out open calls for pitches. Other times you can send inquiry letters to a company along with samples of your work to see if they would consider you.

I’m not gonna lie. It’s not easy, and its very very hard to make a living doing this. I’ve been doing this for a long time both as a freelancer and now as a full-time designer, and I don’t think my name is something that falls from the lips of TTRPG fans everywhere. But its what I love!

Q from Jay: With respect to Northlands, do you feel like the setting sometimes influences the amount of a certain pillar in adventures? As an example, with Northlands being very much akin to Vikings, does it lend itself more to combat than roleplaying?

A: I don’t think it does lean more toward combat than roleplaying exactly. A lot of that depends on your game group and GM. I mean, I could roleplay a phonebook. But I’m that kind of player.

That said, the themes of the Northlands (much like the Norse mythology its drawn from) does gravitate toward “earning” a place in Valhalla. By that metric, combat gets a bit more weight.

We stress in the book that earning a place in Valhalla isn’t limited to dying well in battle. That’s just the easiest way. Fame and renown can come from excelling as a bard or as a healer.

I’m known in certain circles as being a bit obsessed with mimics. I’m currently forbidden from making more mimics by my boss. You make one mimic moon and they get really twitchy. But I managed to get a mimic into the last adventure of Sagas, which made me happy.

Q from Jay: Speaking of mimics, can you weigh in on a philosophical question my table brought up? Is a mimic mimic just a normal object (i.e. a mimic mimic chair is just a chair) or is it something more sinister?

A: I created a stat block for a Faux-Mimic once. It’s just a wooden chest carved to look like a mimic. I’d say a Mimic-mimic might be like the old Gas Spores. Those floating gas fungus that look like Beholders? When you go to attack them they explode? So a Mimic-mimic could be a creature pretending to be a mimic who is pretending to be a chest. It’s like a turducken.

The thing about Mimics is that they are kind of ridiculous. They always were. I mean, just how often do adventurers go into dungeons that a creature could survive just sitting around as a chest waiting for someone to come along?

Now, a creature who can disguise itself as mundane objects in order to hunt—that’s a scary creature. When I design mimics, I always try to make them as active as possible, because otherwise your paranoid players are going to have their PCs just smash every piece of furniture they see.

The post Northlands Q&A with lead designer Brian Suskind – July 8, 2026 appeared first on Kobold Press.

So I’m a cheap bastard. That’s number ten on The Gamemaster’s Hall Of Shame: Monty Haul’s Top Ten Cousins all the way back to Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #3: 10 Minnie Haul Players in previous campaigns joke about it. I like to pretend there’s no treasure chapter at all. Mice must’ve eaten those pages. But the […]

The post The Minnie Haul GM appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

Today I want to talk about something fundamental to starting a successful actual play show: selecting a cast.

Gathering a diverse and complementary group of players is vital to producing an experience that people love to watch or listen to. Check out my ways to ensure your cast meets both of these qualities.

Read all the Beyond the Audience articles!

Let’s poke that bear and talk about diversity.

Assembling a diverse team for your show is vital to garnering an audience. The world of tabletop games is expanding rapidly, and people who previously felt unwelcome at the gaming table are becoming the new normal. Producing an actual play show for the public means you’re offering this show to everyone.

Consequently, the biggest favor you can do for yourself is to have your cast reflect this audience of everyone. If your cast list doesn’t include any women, people of color, or queer players, go back to the drawing board.

Going to the Drawing Board

The social media community surrounding tabletop games makes it easier than ever to meet new people and play games with them. There’s a large group of people looking to get involved in streaming and podcasts. Connecting with these folks on various social media platforms servers is the first step to building a fantastic cast for your show.

Tracking variety shows that cycling in new cast members every few games is a phenomenal way to keep an eye out for new talent. Twitch channels like Scratticus Academy run multiple shows a week that feature new cast members and often players new to the world of streaming.

There are also streams like the Big Dun Jen Show on the VVSPA Twitch channel, which features a new cast and new tabletop system every couple of weeks. Keeping up with channels like these is an easy way to learn about prospective cast members and gives you an entry point to start a conversation.

When the Going Gets Weird . . .

So you’ve done it: you have a diverse list of potential players. What next? When you have a group of potential cast members in mind, consider building a team that works well.

The important thing here is that you are casting a group of professionals to ensure the success of your product. All too often, I see shows fall apart because the cast wasn’t ready to commit to the amount of work that goes into a show. Before recording a single thing, every member of the team must be aware of their obligations and expectations.

If you are casting from people used to streaming and podcasting, this is not usually a problem. But trying to rally your friends to make a show frequently ends in disaster. So ultimately, the most essential quality in a prospective cast member is that they are willing to show up and always put in the work.

If you’re lucky enough to have many people who meet this qualification, you can start to consider a balance of other traits to assemble your team. Consider what type of player works best for your show’s genre. If you plan to run a grimdark setting full of challenging themes, choosing a group of comedy-minded players isn’t going to work. If you plan to run a high-level game in a rules-heavy system, you likely want more experienced gamers.

If you aren’t sure if a specific player fits your genre, the best thing to do is to ask them. Players have an excellent idea of what type of systems they enjoy. Better yet, they might be able to recommend people who are a better fit than themselves.

Once you have a cast in mind, schedule a test game to see if your prospective group plays well together. Invite them to play in a casual offscreen game, and you can to figure out pretty quickly if this is the dream team or not. When scheduling audition games, always be upfront and honest about your intentions to protect everyone’s interests.

In Conclusion

At the end of the day, if you have built a cast of diverse people ready to do the work, you are setting up your show for success before you even hit record. So take to the social community online and find your band of heroes!

The post Run your best actual play | Looking for group – July 6, 2026 appeared first on Kobold Press.

July 4th is the day in the United States when we celebrate our independence as a nation. Despite all the stuff going on, it’s still a great place.

This year, we’re taking July 3rd off as a company holiday.

The Kobold offices are closed today, but we’ll be back on Monday with more awesome stuff for your game!

The post Independence Day! – July 3, 2026 appeared first on Kobold Press.

Happy Canada Day! While swatting mosquitoes and sipping cool bevvies, let’s look at a dilemma that community member Sir Tainley poses about explaining the strength of commoners in certain game systems: I’m designing a world for a D&D 5e clone. I want magic to be reasonably common, and taught in the universities. But, powerful enough spells […]

The post Balancing Magic, Bears & Hit Points appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

On the Roleplaying Tips Discord, @Kodia Tomekeeper reminded me about the fantastic template Pixar used for story spines. It works well for our own adventure, campaign, and even world seeds: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___. Let’s […]

The post Try This Fantastic Adventure Mad Lib appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

Here’s a tip for new GMs or those new to point crawls. What’s a point crawl? I don’t know the official definition, but mine is an adventure you make based on story gates characters must get through. When the final obstacle’s been beaten and that gate traversed, the party’s won. Creating a point crawl confused […]

The post What’s the Point (Crawl)? appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

GM’s Log #7 went out to CampaignCraft members yesterday, and it teaches my 5 Actions Framework that anticipates 90% of encounter derailments and broken adventures. After you complete the tutorial’s six steps, players can still surprise you, but they’re much less likely to break your encounters. One of my favourite examples of players ruining my […]

The post When Players Derail Our Prep appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

Happy Monday, Game Master! Friday’s tip about using flashbacks for backstories garnered a great response from the community. You sent in several fantastic ideas on how to take this mechanic even further. Today, let’s look at a great breakdown from GM Allen (pictured here with his Magic 8 Ball USB button) on how to use […]

The post Retroactive Clues appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

The first time I encountered a flashback mechanic was at Intrigue Con here in town in a Night’s Black Agents game. The second time was the following morning playing Blades in the Dark. The cool thing about flashbacks is you can add them to any game system. I’m doing it right now for my Lost […]

The post Try Flashbacks For Backstories appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.

A Brief Word From Johnn Hola Game Master! First, a quick note to say that yesterday I fixed the broken video links in the 7-Day GM Organization Challenge. To get the fresh links, you can re-join the challenge or feel free to email me and I will send you the link list directly. Today’s tip […]

The post How to Create Non-Combat Encounters appeared first on Roleplaying Tips.