danielhkwan posts
Posts: 241
Files: 184
Daniel's Game Design Notebook: Wandering Blades #2
After watching wayyy too many HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) videos, I made some changes to how combat might flow in Wandering Blades. Of course, I wanted to give you folks an inside look into my notebook and my design thoughts! For this video, and possibly subsequent ones if you found this...
Daniel's Game Design Notebook: Wandering Blades #1
Here's a peek inside the new notebook I started to help with the process of designing Wandering Blades (and other projects)!
Wandering Blades Thoughts: Blade Binds
Sword of the Stranger is of my favourite animated movies. The story is interesting and the fight scenes are beautifully choreographed and animated. While not a wuxia movie, the way the action flows has very much been an influence on how I want Wandering Blades to play.In the final fight of the movie...
A couple of big updates!
The most important update: I've pretty much recovered from COVID! I still have a lingering cough that is really disruptive in my day to day, but my energy levels are getting back to normal!But here are the game-related updates I have for you: I've brought on a design partner for Wandering Bl...
Post-Big Bad Con Update
Hey everyone! I have some good and bad news.The good news? Wandering Blades and the campaign setting are progressing well!While I wasn't able to formally playtest Wandering Blades at Big Bad Con, I was able to get A LOT of feedback on the system that I can't wait to add into the next version...
Wandering Blades Updated Big Bad Playtest
Big Bad Con is around the corner, so here is an updated playtest document! This is the one that I'll be bringing to the con. My schedule is unfortunately too busy to run anything, but I'll be talking to members of the community about it and picking their brains!I hope you enjoy it! Once I re...
Wandering Blades (Big Bad Con Playtest) Update
Hey there! Here is an updated Wandering Blades playtest document leading up to Big Bad Con! I've modified the equipment section and added another class - the Bandit! While the youxia leverages qi to perform dramatic martial arts techniques, the bandit relies on their notoriety to get what they w...
Wandering Blades: System & Class Playtest
Here we go! Enjoy this first ever quickstart guide for the Wandering Blades RPG! This is the document that I'll be bringing to Big Bad Con and I wanted you folks to see it first!The quickstart will walk you through character creation, combat, and includes a starting class - the youxia.A couple o...
End of an Era
My home D&D game ended and honestly, I'm all up in my feelings about it. Our game went for two years (weekly until the last few months) and was set in the Land of Blades. Our game ended due to scheduling conflicts - we had a member of the party cancel a whole bunch of times and another had spora...
I tried the D&D Digital (VTT): Playtest First Impressions
I'm going to be publishing this to my Substack this week and wanted to give you early access (especially now that the embargo has lifted)!---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------OverviewOn May 18, 2023, I received an invitation from the D&D Cr...
I am REALLY liking how this looks!
More progress on my campaign setting! I'm experimenting with the information that I want to provide. Taking inspiration from the Perilous Wilds supplement for Dungeon World, I added tags at the region and location levels to provide you with quick context.
A Traveler's Guide to the Land of Blades: The Azure Lowlands | Preview
I've been slowly playing around with how I want to lay out my campaign setting and what kind of information is most relevant. Once I get the quick descriptive prompts written, I plan on writing random encounter tables for each region!This next zine will include a history, faction guide, and geog...
Inventing the Roleplaying Game (Part 1): The First "Game Master" | Preview
A while back, I sat down with a good friend of mine, Joe DeSimone, to learn about the history of the tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) genre and its origins in the 1960s American wargaming scene (this happened during an episode of Anything But D&D for long-time Patrons). While discussing the influen...
The Land of Blades Hex Map!
I have finally put together a proper hex map for the Land of Blades! Next week, I'm going to post a breakdown of the labeled locations!*I'm using Hex Kit to make the map!
New Content!
I've been having a lot of fun posting on Substack lately (I only use the free feature of that platform since I'm a casual writer there). It's been a great place for me to write about things unrelated to gaming. But that said, I've decided to write one article or post a month about ga...
D&D Creator Summit Recap
Hey everyone! I was just at the D&D Creator Summit (virtually) and have publicly shared my notes. I didn't want to do that via Patreon, because I didn't want to make people go to this page to read information that the community deserves for free.That said, the Substack I have is primarily fo...
Denizens of Mountains & Seas Vol. 3: The Sapphire Flame Cult (Preview)
Here we go! The first draft of Denizens of Mountains & Season vol 3: The Sapphire Flame!The Sapphire Flame serve as the main antagonists of my home D&D game. They operate from the shadows and have had numerous violent encounters with the party. One of the things I've been trying to do is show ho...
Post-Breakout Con Recap
The first playtest of Wandering Blades went so well! I got a lot of feedback from the playtesters and friends, and can't wait to work on those edits and revisions!Moving forward, I'll be uploading each new version of the playtest materials here!
Wandering Blades Dev Diary: Playtest materials!
IT IS COMPLETE. Well, the first batch of complete playtest materials for Wandering Blades!I'm going to be running a one shot at Breakout Con this weekend set in the Land of Blades. In these playtest documents, you'll find a rudimentary character sheet and a handy reference document with brea...
Wandering Blades Dev Diary: Class Basics & the Youxia
As Breakout Con approaches, I've completed working drafts of 3 core classes for Wandering Blades: the Youxia, Vagabond, and Bandit! My design partner, Liana, is working on a magic user at the moment!Here is a breakdown of the class system and the Youxia. You'll notice that the Youxia is fair...
Wandering Blades Dev Diary: Character Fundamentals
Leading up to Breakout Con, I've been trying to clear up character fundamentals. Here are the core aspects of each Wandering Blades character. Or should I say, "each wandering blade"?---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------AttributesIn...
Wandering Blades Dev Diary: Hit Points & Wounds
I've been thinking a lot about hit points in TTRPGs a lot. One of the things I've loved about the OSR design and play styles are the very different approaches to character "health". "Hit protection" is a term I've encountered a lot, and that's a concept I've taken...
Qi rules for 5th edition D&D!
I'm currently working on these rules with Emma Yasui, Drew Quon, and Liana Mackenzie! As always, you'll be the first to receive a free copy when they are completed! A variation of this ruleset will be a part of Wandering Blades!That said, I'd love any feedback you folks have on these!---...
Well, this was unexpected.
The D&D 5.1 SRD is now under the CC 4.0 international license. From what I understand, this is the best case scenario for the community and creators. I promptly switch the licensing on Blades of the Lunar Kingdom to the new license to protect my work indefinitely.Will I still be working on Wandering...
This year's projects
As you folks know, I had a whole bunch of projects planned for this year including: Denizens of Mountains & Seas vol 3: The Sapphire Flame Cult, Denizens of Mountains & Seas vol 4: The Yue Dynasty, and the Youxia Class. All but denizens vol 4 are planned to be 5e compatible.With the OGL situation cu...
Future D&D Content? Introducing, Wandering Blades!
It's been a wild week for the TTRPG industry with the leak of the 1.1 OGL. Since them, I've been carefully evaluating how I want to change the direction of my content. At the moment, it doesn't seem like making 5th edition supplements is in my best interest as Wizards may be able to just...
New Year Discounts!
I'm planning on running Lunar New Year sales on my DriveThruRPG and Itch.io stores at the end of the month. Ahead of that, I wanted to provide patrons that are not in the PDF tier something special - the Lunar New Year sale links 20 days early!Paradise Mountain (my wuxia micro setting) is 88% of...
Blades of the Lunar Kingdom (Patron Access)
Blades of the Lunar Kingdom is now available! To claim your copy on my Itch.io store, click the embedded link!
My FREE #Dungeon23 Organizer!
Enjoy this free template for digitally tracking your Dungeon23 journey!I have a hard time keeping track of my work with a physical notebook. Digital tools work much better for me, so in anticipation for #Dungeon23, I made a quick spreadsheet (via Google Sheets) to help me track of my daily work in o...
In 2023, I'm writing every day.
I'm going to try to participate in the Dungeon23 challenge next year. I'll be trying to write a dungeon room every day for a year - consolidating them on a weekly basis into levels! My plan is to digitize everything into a Miro board so that you folks can see what I come up with!
