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Just so you know baba yaga is actually an aincent slavic goddess of time death life fate knowledge and magic, she is no arbitrary hag, she (and her 2 sisters in some tales) are literally The Fates and Hecate Athena and Hades(and the entire pantheon of death including shepherding the dead on occasion even) and Chronos all in one she should be considered a greater diety actually
The item itself doesn’t have to be the problem, either. Maybe multiple powerful groups think _they_ should have the artifact because it’s a relic associated with someone in their organization’s history. In Drakkenheim, the relics of St. Vitruvio are like this, since Vitruvio was the patron saint of the now-ruined city and an important figure in the religion of the Sacred Flame. Any of the factions sending adventurers into the ruins might want the relics, and might be willing to take them by force or subterfuge.
You still get them occasionally. I was just looking at the Crook of Rao in Tasha's by coincidence, and that has one hell of a world-ending curse on it!
The concept was an okay one, however… the execution of it leaves much to be desired. Older cursed items (which were almost always stronger than the base item, just… far harder to use) from early versions or other old time games were a better version than the mostly random drawbacks of today, but yeah, its a good way to pass out potentially game breaking items, by making them potentially character breaking. Although, modern artifacts pale compared to most older versions.
@@ConnorSinclairCavin - For the Hexblade in my campaign, I made an intelligent weapon that grew in stages, but many abilities had drawbacks. She’d gain temporary HP equal to crit damage, but her hands were covered in blood while those temp HP remain (washing or gloves didn’t get rid of or hide it). Shadow of Moil could be applied, but it lasted until the next dawn and during that time, no one within 120 feet could sleep (or equivalent) without nightmares disturbing their rest. Stuff like that. It wasn’t _too_ terrible to deal with, but it was her pact weapon, so basically a class feature.
Baba Yaga’s Hut, appered as Baba Lysaga’s Creeping Hut in Curse of Strahd in chapter 10: The Ruins of Berez, described with stats on page 226, challenge rating: 11. Well it is not Baba Yaga, but Baba Lysaga, but they are pretty close.
The Quill in 1e is fantastic, as it enabled a Rogue to set it down on a sheet of parchment and then fully scout the dungeon. No game of telephone, no relying on the rogue to memorize details, just a perfect minimap and a full transcript of whatever was seen.
hahahah came here to say: excellent work growing embroidery floss as a moustache. I smell a profit in your future, the embroidering nerds among us have been waiting for such a stroke of genius!🤣
Gygax didn't stop there using real names. A family farm in Wisconsin has the then last names of the surrounding owners which happen to by variations of famous Greyhawk characters, mainly wizards. I discovered this while researching property information in the area and noticed the similar names.
These all sound like they're from specific games and perhaps meshed well in that setting, with those players but aren't so applicable games and players in general. I have a player or two I might consider giving a quill of twisted wishes...but others I definitely would not!
Yeah, the spirit of the game, and namely of magic loot, was different in to 70s-80s. The undercurrent was that magic items come with a price. Like, a third of the items we got were cursed in some way. Instead of having limited atonement slots for mostly-safe gear, we had OP gear that you paid for using with your hide. Like the Quill. They SAID it's supposed to twist the wishes, and make the results evil whenever possible, which was a recurring theme then.
The instant death of the earliest editions. I don't miss it. Not once do I remember anyone laughing or cheering it. I sometimes think Gygax made D&D for the DMs.
In 1e the ability to draw accurate maps was huge, making the quill a very powerful artifact. You could make maps to scale without lugging measuring rods and chains.
Time:1980 something... DM:In this cave, you find a rusted cutless. Players: The Car? DM:No, the sword. Players: Can we have the car? DM: (After a moment of thought), OK.
The 1st edition DMG artifacts & relics section is some of the best material ever made for the game. I still break it out for ideas and just fun reading at least once a year
Giving an artifact to players back in 1e was like dropping a live grenade into the party. So of course I used to do it all the time 🙂 That ex-wife insert was savage, I never realized the connection.
Honestly, more games should encourage coming up with your own magic items, monsters, etc (or at least their effects, special abilities, and the like) as hard as 'write in whatever you want here.' I know there are some with rules for making your own which encourages it, but not quite as hard as an equivalent of the 'notes' section of a video game manual. Yes, you can houserule anything, change statblocks, reflavour, follow the procedures for creating monsters and items outlined in the books and be reasonably confident your monster is on par with what's in the book at that level/CR, and so forth... ...But straight up "What do you think would be reasonable mechanical interpretation of this flavour/what did you randomly roll on the provided tables? Write it in here, and that's how this item will work in your games." goes so much harder, and so much cooler, for that. Not sure how that would really work in the PDF era, mind (I mean, form fillable PDFs exist, so... Maybe? Lacks some of the coolness factor of writing stuff in, though.)
This was an interesting video. I think it would be fun to Adapt/Customize these items for 5e. To me for example: I would remove the Negatives and Change the features of them. With "Baba Yaga's Hut", I think it would be cool if a Warlock's Patron was Baba Yaga and she gave the Warlock a Smaller Personal Version of the Hut. With the "Throne of the Gods", I think it would be fun if you found the Throne and could achieve "Apotheosis/Lesser Deitification" through the use of the Throne. You have to sit in it then Answer Questions asked by the Deities, if you pass that test you then must Challenge a Lesser Deity in some way while still sitting in the Throne, then if you pass that test you then must Meditate for 3 Days & 3 Nights without food and water and not sleeping while sitting on the throne. If you pass that final test then you become a Lesser Deity on the same power level as Myrkul or other Mortals that become Deities. The only item that wouldn't need too much changing is the Quill. I like it when Wishing is involved and you have to be careful what you wish for & be very clear about it.
@@eewweeppkk Each their own opinions. I personally like games to be fun, escapism, and not too difficult. Sure some drawbacks are ok, AS LONG AS THEY AREN'T TOO HARSH! For example: I created a "Homebrew" Item called 'The Pendant of Divinity'. Only Good or Neutral Aligned Clerics or Paladins can use it. It grants you Immunity to: Charmed, Staggered, Paralyzed, Stunned, Fear, Sleep, Necrotic Damage, and Radiant Damage. However, you take twice as much damage from Psychic Damage and when you encounter Fey Creatures you must pass a CR 10 Charisma Check or become "Enamoured" by them which makes it so you can't move and all attacks against them by you are Half-Damage. You of course at the end of each turn make another attempt to break the "Enamoured Condition" and when you succeed then you can move again & your attacks return to normal.
Ran DHoBY a few years ago using AD&D 2e rules (heavily customized.. no THAC0 😲 and high ascending AC) and the players loved the challenge. It was tied into a campaign which included Against the Giants (AD&D) and The Rod of Seven Parts (AD&D). The same players are soon to conclude CoS (5e) and I'm curious to know their opinions on the pros and cons between the two D&D systems.
thanks, Bob! In the early 80s my 23rd Bard and his friends had the Hut of Baba Yaga and we had so many magic items we turned it into a traveling store. Yeah... we were teens
The Throne of the Gods would definitely have a settlement around it. Imagine a Lich sending minions to sit on the throne consistently. Or a human kingdom that allows sitting on the throne as a reward for good merits/corrupt bribes. The government would remain even if someone got teleported away, in fact might be a 'good' thing, imagine being forced to do it multiple times until you were teleported [Ignoring the risk of an absolute unit being created].
When I was younger, we ran a campaign in college where we came across that chair. Everyone got something good like a stat buff or an item. I got my lv10 Dwarf Artificer dropped in front of Lolth, who was not open to a discussion on me opening up a shop to peddle my wears.
So the quill in 1e could instantly transcribe infinite spellscrolls, maps (those were a Big thing), info books (also big), portraits (huge), artworks and other forgeries… it was… very powerful. In 2nd they actually remarked on this because of a notable person using it to basically deck themselves out in the “wanna buy a watch” jacket, but scrolls of wish version.
Wow; when that sponsor message started, with “Have your players gotten too cocky [in their explorations]?” I thought “This could be a lead up to that old Grimtooth book I’ve got on my RPG shelf.” Grimtooth is awesome; glad to hear it’s still around!
The pen caught my attention because I am already using a similar pen in my campaign inspired by Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge. The quil has the power to rewrite the fabric of reality!
I wonder if Wizardry's creator took inspiration directly from Kuroth's Quill. There's precedent, with the Bard's Tale series having the Wand of Peace (which is pretty blatantly based on the Rod of Seven Parts).
I love magic items that can't be moved. Stone circles, altars holding the relics of multiple saints, ley-line junctions, these are all lots of fun to build plots around, and can send the PCs running hither-and-yon to take advantage of them.
I actually love the 2e concept of Queen Ehlissa's Marvelous Nightmare after learning the lore of 1e. Imagine an extremely powerful sorceress in line to inherit the throne who is coerced to keep the Nightingale for sentimental value, who is slowly made essentially powerless by its possession, allowing someone who sees themselves as more suitable to rise in the ranks or to rule in her stead as she remains a figurehead. The regime changes hands and "her rule" is made increasingly cruel under the guise of a utopia.
Hey @BobWorldBuilder I just came off a conversation on your post yesterday with @andrewtomlinson5237 where we were discussing the AD&D 2nd edition Encyclopedia Magica. And it happens that I found 4 of 6 items in your video today in them (hut, quill, nightinggale, throne) 😊 There are a lot of old nice treasures in them!
Campaign idea: The PC's are investigating a fallen kingdom the downfall of which was precipitated by the ruler's attempt to usurp an existing god's portfolio with themed consequences for the ruler and their nation, but part of the divine privilege is bound to the throne (think Karsus' folly mixed with The Golden Throne from 40K). The throne is a conduit through which this divinity flows, but it's unguided without a wielder and most tend to die trying. Could be fun to explore different gods and the pros & cons of the domains
I was going to mentioned the Baba Yaga’s hut adventure until you did haha it was a awesome adventure and probably my favourite in all of 2e just because it was out there and fun. It’s just weird lol
I'm enjoying this sort of love/hate relationship you're developing with Gary Gygax as you delve more into 1st edition lore. :D There was another version of Baba Yaga's Hut that appeared in Dragon Magazine #83 (1984), written by Roger Moore -- it was basically a "funhouse dungeon" full of random crazy stuff, including a WWII Russian tank(!). They also gave stats for Baba herself -- a 25th level Magic-User/15th level Illusionist/14th level Druid with various other abilities and resistances.
honestly I juat ignore gygax if he didn't straight up rip off some already existing folklore all his ideas were horrible. *just motions towards the mess that is drow* also man had the audacity to say "girls aren't smart enough to be interested in my game" when he gave all women negative stats in 1st edition. no i think they were smarter than to fall for your misogyny gygax lmao
the group I play with has this gag where we sing "Fireball" everytime the spell comes up, which is a lot even though none of the players have access to it yet, lol 🤣 But that bit with the horn made me cackle
I actually used the throne of the gods in a 2e AD&D adventure, though I was referencing the 1e DMG. The players were attempting to keep its location hidden from a party aligned with a nefarious organization they'd already made enemies of. One PC kender nudged his pet gerbil through a prismatic barrier trap, resulting in the gerbil's instant death. When he sat up on the throne, he was instantly able to commune with a distant power who opted to grant him one wish as a reward for keeping the throne safe. He wished for his gerbil back.
OMG! A Battle for control of the Throne of Gods just became the end goal for the faction based campaign I just started! It's based on a celestial alignment that only happens once every one thousand years and each faction is trying to position itself to take advantage of what happens during the said alignment. My problem was i still hadn't figured out exactly WHAT was going to happen. Throw a few WISH spells in with the throne's powers and make it so it only activates during the alignment. Each faction is trying to make sure that they are the ones in control of the throne when the alignment starts, giving them the power to shape the next age. Of course, the throne has to be found first. This is PERFECT! Thanks!
Not only did I get and play that module when it first came out, I was already a DM who loved putting Baba Yaga’s hut in my campaigns. It became sort of the medieval equivalent of The Tardis. 😃
15:10 Definitely, ever hear of Iggwilv? The demon lord Graz'zt's lover, mother of Iuz the Old, who while calling herself "Tasha" invented the spell Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter? Baba Yaga was her adoptive mother and mentor, who taught her wizardry. Yeah, that probably counts for something there. 16:48 Pretty sure neither the Machine of Lum the Mad and Heward's Mystic Organ are portable either. Though I would love to see an updated version of both.
While Heward's Organ isn't literally portable, the place you go to get to it does change every so often. I think it's supposed to be in a pocket dimension or something like that.
I modified it into a traveling adventurers’ guild of sorts. Baba yaga may or may not be the guild master in disguise prioritizing certain quests to obtain ingredients for spellcrafting.
I've been holding a list of cantrip based RODS for a couple of years. One of our players passed away before we (Co-DMs) could introduce them to the game world. Most of them we debated over on being overpowering. There were to be high and low rod of each cantrip. For example with the clean cantrip taken to archmagi levels. The Lower Rod of Cleaning could (for one) clean a 20x20 meter floor (or the remainder up the walls etc) with a brace of tiny (1ft) Fairies wielding brooms and giving a "Ting!" at the start and end of the spell taking effect. If outside it refreshes 15x15m of ground (or 10x10 garden), clearing twigs, rocks, dust and clutter. Both types moved "pests" aside for three meter's height. However a Greater Rod of Cleaning could, to the sound of harps, clean fifty meters square and, if enclosed in a smaller place exceed the walls of where it has been used, making visual but not actual repairs lasting a day. Both, if cast upon a person, would make them clean of debris and contaminants. The High Rod (or greater) makes one clean of body, clothes and worn gear, bug free, hair quaffed, plus up to three more people if within two meters (and if riding, their mounts) at a time. Downsides: Takes half a turn while Annoying Peals of Fairy Chime Music plays and, per person, a two foot tall, blue winged fluttering Fairy holds his nose and taps HIS wand "in places" (smile, lift arms, Oh Myyy...). Save VS Giggles (females save at -2) The Low Rod (or lesser) cleaned the body and hair to their natural state and half of any pests, or cleaned clothes and gear of dirt and debris. Both High an Low Rods had an affinity to Dwarves. Polishing all metals on them. Well, there's the concept. Run with it! What would you do with Message? Rod of Coordination? Message up to five at once! (200ft )How about Shocking Grasp? Rod of the thunder sheath? (Shocking body?)
I'd love to see the Throne of the Gods and Baba Yaga's Hut make a return, but Kuroth's Quill is probably overpowered. The Horn of Change... hmm, I could see that being either fun but underpowered (blow it, and get a roll on a Wild Magic table), or horribly overpowered (each blast casting Polymorph/True Polymorph on a random target within range, with the result being also random, and the Horn being considered to be the caster. Granted, this is taking some inspiration from the Wabbajack from the Elder Scrolls series, but it might be fun. Once).
Just so you know baba yaga is actually an aincent slavic goddess of time death life fate knowledge and magic, she is no arbitrary hag, she (and her 2 sisters in some tales) are literally The Fates and Hecate Athena and Hades(and the entire pantheon of death including shepherding the dead on occasion even) and Chronos all in one she should be considered a greater diety actually Makes the power level on the hut make more sense
@@ConstantChaos1While true in some versions, there are also versions which have it as a title/honorific for a powerful female magic user (in which interpretation, every instance of Baba Yaga is a different entity, for an inversion of the theory that all the Jacks in folklore are the same person. It still weirdly fits with the trope of Ye Olde Florida Man). Personally, I'd say the power level of the Hut is way too low for the interpretation you're citing, but somewhat high for the interpretation I've just mentioned. Stories vary, and mythology gets complicated.
@@ala5530 I'm talking about the original baba yaga, sure other interpretations have her as weaker but the actual original was a goddess not just a hag The reason it has things like vision is because it will not allow anyone who is not welcome even see the door to the house and stuff like that, older editions relied on more broad knowledge instead of expressly stating it, and with the dynamics of 1st and 2nd it would be quite powerful but to not give it more abilities in even 3.5, let alone 5e would definitely leave it too weak.
being someone who started in 1st edition I actually remember all of these. I never used any because of the legendary status but hmmm I wonder if I could use any now.
Great Video Bob. I was thinking that quill's power level could hinge on the type of ink used. Gathering the ingredients for a certain type of normal to magical ink could be a whole story to itself.
The hut of Baba Lysaga also appeared in a novel called Daughter of the Drow. It comes up in Chapter 3 along with a Rhyme you have to say to get it to let you in. One of my favorite parts of that book. "While the mistress is asleep, Chicken-legs a watch will keep. When the mistress wanders off, Chicken-legs will stand aloft. When the mistress comes again, Chicken-legs will let her in. Stara Baba casts this spell, Listen, hut, and hearken well."
I am running my own campaign for the Rod of Seven Parts (it has gone on more than 2 years now and I had to write a supplement for Epic levels because they will likely make it past level 20 lol) and part of the adventure took them to the Feywild where the resident Fey Lady wanted the party to get rid of a hag that had parked her hut in a nearby shroom forest that was part of the Fey's domain. The group ventured to and into the hut, I had random rooms behind each door so they never saw all the rooms (I had a certain number before they face off with Baba Yaga). This was before one of my players purchased Foundry for me so I was still using Roll20 but had all the rooms ready and I made Baba Yaga a mythical creature before I knew what the Mythic trait did (She changed shape three times during the battle depending on her hit points!). In the end they convinced the witch to return the young fey she had imprisoned and pressed into servitude and got her a meeting with the fey Lady of the realm before the party moved on themselves. It remains one of my group's favorite part of the adventure (along with an ancient white dracolish they fought in a 12 hour session in Stygia).
I love creating magic items. Just for fun I created a whole set of them for a specific crazy cat wizardess. I took normal magic items and put my own silly twist on them. Necklace of Furballs. The golden orbs become cats when thrown. Wand of Minty Freshness. It looks like a Wand of Frost, but cleans your teeth. Broom of Sweeping. It cleans the house of dust. Unfortunately, I don't remember more and I have misplaced my notebook. I think there was a magic bottle of spices for making the bowl of everlasting porridge taste good. I also created magic items that were crafted for a specific player's character in mind. In one campaign, there was a guy who played a Kenku who loved digging. I never found out why his character liked to dig, but I created him a Shovel of the Resurrection Man. It had the spell Move Earth permanently cast on it, but it only dug holes. And you could cast the spell Resurrection once per day by hitting your target with the flat of the shovel.
I saw the Throne of the Gods used quite creatively: all it provides is knowledge (at great cost) and can be used repeatedly but the downside is that every time it is used by a new person it teleports itself and the person seated (and only them) to somewhere new and dangerous.
This is an entirely random thought that just popped into my head, but if I were to remake the Throne of the Gods for a modern game, I'd make its power be that when you sit in the throne you are overwhelmed with the sensation that you ARE a god, and you begin having visions of a world of your own creation. The player is encouraged to describe this world to the table. Said world then pops into existence somewhere in the multiverse, and if the players want to go explore it, the player who was sitting on the throne becomes the DM for adventures that take place there. Maybe the throne also produces a more portable way to access that new realm. Maybe like, a book... with a moving image of the world on the inside or something. :P
In the first set of D&D games I played in the mid-late 70s, one person's dungeon (everyone had a dungeon) had a room near the entrance filled with unique magical doodads. It was represented by a drawing of a large cabinet filled with stuff, and every PC got to select an item from the cabinet. They were all interesting and lent a bit of extra fun to every adventure. Let's see what I can remember... * A jar of ointment. When rubbed on a limb that limb can be removed, still function normally, and then later re-attached. * A box of dark powder. When a pinch is thrown into the air the room is thrown into magical darkness that only the holder of the box can see through. * A steel bladed oriental fighting fan, +3 berzerker. * An ornate box. When opened a golden butterfly darts out and affixes itself to your helm. Eventually discovered to prevent death three times, turning silver, than copper, then falling off. There were a lot of pretty random things. None of them overtly evil, but all reasonably... odd. Good times.
i played in homebrew-ish game that took place in "Brorovia". shortly after we pulled a magic axe out of a vampire tree, we encountered what was essentially baba yaga's hut, we didn't go in because we were sketched out. but we found a hut with chicken legs "sitting" there
When several members of the design team at TSR Hobbies (before the WotC buyout) were asked their favorite D&D campaign setting, Roger E. Moore answered "Baba Yaga's Hut."
7:38 This horn side effect reminds me of a character from the Wheel of time series. He also gets a magic horn and a magic gambling curse. I wonder if one thing inspired the other or it was just some coincidence.
Fun fact about Baba Yaga's hut: These days, it's apparently a construct, and not immune to spells like, oh, Otto's Irresistible Dance, as far as I can find - so if Baba Yaga is home at the time, you'd best teleport out and hope she can't track you when she comes to... :D
That Kuroth's Quill reminds me of a similar item in a webcomic called The Watch. It was a quill that had the power to Rewrite a person's story, mostly serving as a Spell of True Resurrection but what ever the wielder wrote down the victim became. The only stipulation of the Quill was a person's name on a sheet of paper and it was off, anything else the Quill wrote on that paper that person became. It's in the hands of the Ultimate Evil's secretary, who uses it to keep the Villainous Hordes inline or to punish beings for not serving her Dark Master properly. She also has a thing about turning the most Powerful Brutes into cute powerless little girls, all the while having a air of a Disgruntled HR Representative.
As you probably remember, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden also has a throne that works as a magic wand but can't be brought along. However, it works better for a specific campaign than in the DMG magic items section so I understand it was discontinued.
It's always been my thought that the Deck of Many Things is a device used by DMs toward the end of a campaign that no one wants to end yet and the DM can't think of anything else.
I have a "Hag-Like" NPC(Giant Eldritch Fey/Horror) that I think would have an interesting interaction with Baba Yaga. "Oh, your hut? I kept it clean for your return. Found your mortar too, but not the Pestle. Such a friendly hut, I will miss the little ankle biter..."
That Throne sounds like a great goal for a campaign. Make every pc with a specific problem they can't solve on their own, get to the Throne... only one gets to make a request
The Recorder of Ye'Cind appeared in the Reverse Dungeon adventure, in the possession of a mindflayer who was deafened by it. I ported the dungeon, monsters, magic and all, to my last campaign, and the party was happy to have lived and gotten ahold of the Recorder
Throne of the Gods is a great artifact for a fallen paladin's quest to get back on track. Send him out on a solo, have him sit in the throne, and let him see the price of pride and hubris; i.e. lower stats et al. If he follows his teachings for X amount of time, return his abilities and give him a boost to a stat, if he fails, give him a penalty to his stats. What I really miss is people trying to craft their own magic items. (Gary wasn't a fan of wizards being too broken as they got to higher levels so you had to give up XP and that meant levels to craft magic items.)
Dungeon Magazine #83 (March 1984) had a full High level adventure titled, "The Dancing Hut". It had maps of the hut's interior that included a museum which had a WW2 era Soviet tank! It also had a stat block for Baba Yaga.
8:02 hosting a one shot with a character that is basically straight out of the binding of isaac. they decided to start with a homebrew item in which you get an actual bible, flip open to a random page, read a random verse and the DM decides an effect based on what the verse it and its context. It has 1 charge that recharges every month, but im hoping it has funny effects
I have a character that has Kuroths Quill. He used it to great effect for copying maps and anything else he wanted to make a copy of. And being that he is a fighter/thief, he also used it for nefarious things. He had a Manual of Pursuant Skill At Arms and A Manual of Stealthy Pilfering that he collected. So he decided to read them but had another plan. He had 2 books made of fine quality. And when he read each Manual he had Kuroths Quill copy the Manual into the book. I had no illusions that they would be magical but they would be perfect copies. Then I had a mage cast Nystuls Magic Aura on them and sold them for some big coin. He also did the same thing with scrolls. Getting some good parchment and making copies of the scrolls he had. Putting them in scroll tubes with mystic runes on them for greater authenticity. And of course having that mage cast Nystuls Magic Aura on them. Worked like a charm.
Cool video Bob. I love the idea of magic items that can't be moved. They could lead to ancient rulers or civilizations building their keeps on them, or the party trying to do the same.
One thing to remember about the 1E version of Kuroth's Quill, is that it accurately draws maps, a major necessity in old school games, where an accurate map could make the difference between life and death in a dungeon.
Babba Yagga's hut is very important in the Pathfinder Adventure Path "Reign of Winter". My party didn't end up in Toyko but did land some strange places.
I play 5 torches deep with my kids. Yr 10&7. They needed to search through the hut, but not until after one of the funnest chase scenes I have ever played. Then after they left the hut with what they needed my youngest was determined that she will steal the hut lol so they came back and stole the hut. But not before an encounter with baba yaga
Oh, I am totally using Baba Yaga's hut in an adventure, but I think she might be home...😈 I remember her from the fairytales. I loved that this scary, powerful woman would help out a girl who was polite and kind. Most scary characters in fairytales were dangerous and had to be run from or defeated. Not Baba Yaga. She acted more like a mentor if you behaved yourself.
Ive owned, dungeon mastered, and played the dancing hut a multitude of times. It was a ridiculous surreal module with outrageously difficult encounters (several minor deaths, baba yaga herself, and a trap she had set up to cheat death and make all dying on earth cease for her own vengeful purposes. The players enter another dimension inside the hut and experience multiple realities in its many layers. In a dozen playthroughs i believe we beat the adventure maybe once or twice. Without coaching most parties wont make it. Its literally a death trap. Lol Such an amazing fun time was had repeatedly trying not to be unalived in that mess of crazy. 😊🎉 I highly recommend you take a big party of strong players and expect it to end poorly going into it. Have fun!
I like the Head of Vecna. It's a mummified head and the magical tome/instructions that go with it say that you need to cut off your head and quickly place the head of Vecna in it's place to gain the benefits. Essentially the characters all kill themselves trying to place some old mummifed had on a fresh corpse. Good family fun!
I did an Alan Wake style campaign once upon a time using Kuroth's Quill so the bard, who had made himself into something of an author and chronicler of adventures, could really shine in a campaign that he inadvertently wrote the party into a horror story. As a campaign hook/mcguffin it's fine.
The Bloodstone of Fistandantilus in the hardback Dragonlance adventures, pg 97 was insanely powered...you pretty much turned to evil but if you succeded you sucked the soul out of your victim...plus you you replace any attribute score of yours with the victims if it was higher than yours...so if your strength was an 8 and the victim had a 20..pow you now have a 20. Oh...and you also automatically became the same level as the victim if they were higher...so if a 1st lev character got it and used it on say a 26th level archmage...congratulations you are now a 26th level character... All this was dependent on a contested roll....but still...absolutely insane...its how Rasitlin was able to challenge Takhisis
that flute is actually like a magic item i made. though mine is also sentient but mine is a siren witch (basically just a siren mage) that was extracted and fused in full essence to a flute blade (its a blade that was crafted to function as a flute also). she teaches you how to play the flute in a manner to cast spells and give the blade special effects and the more you bond and aid her the stronger the effects and spells it teaches you are. i actually like to create a unique magic item that fits each person in a dnd group that is unique to them because i actually like to do more personal touches on alot of things for the group
The evolution of this channel is amazing and something to behold! 👏🏻 Awesome job, Bob! If I am not mistaken there might be a hut on chicken legs in one of the monster manuals for 5e.
I think Baba Yaga's Hut first showed up as a "dungeon crawl" in Dragon #83 as an adventure in there (by Roger Moore I think). Had great fun running that with friends in middle school.
I just had a thought concerning the use of The Throne of the Gods. In a historical/semi-historical campaign, you could say there are in fact 3 (possibly more, dependant upon how many pantheons you need) such throne’s throughout Europe. One in Norway, one in Greece and one in Rome(?). Sitting in the each throne grants they who sit upon it, abilities similar to what is said the throne of that particular king god (in this case, Odin, Zeus or Jupiter).
in fact, I used my own version of the hut in a custom rpg system about a year ago, it was not babayaga's hut to say, but it was part of a bossfight after chassing my players through the blue pines forest of siniygrad, the city cursed to live in everlasting night
Two more artifacts that can't be taken with the party ( @16:45 ) included - Heward's Mystical Organ and the Machine of Lum the Mad. The first being a literal pipe organ with all the bits and pieces, and the second weighing in at 5500 pounds and delicate to the point of breaking if moved (as stated: any serious jolt will set it off and destroy 1-4 functions of the artifact which can never be restored.)
I like the Throne of the Gods, conceptually. A thing you can journey to, *proabbly* receive a boon, but not abuse or take with you to give to all your friends.
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Have they confirmed that Bill Webb isn't working on this? I really want to support it, but he keeps popping up on DCC stuff.
Just so you know baba yaga is actually an aincent slavic goddess of time death life fate knowledge and magic, she is no arbitrary hag, she (and her 2 sisters in some tales) are literally The Fates and Hecate Athena and Hades(and the entire pantheon of death including shepherding the dead on occasion even) and Chronos all in one she should be considered a greater diety actually
Artifacts having serious complications was a great way to balance their power level.
It's good design!
The item itself doesn’t have to be the problem, either. Maybe multiple powerful groups think _they_ should have the artifact because it’s a relic associated with someone in their organization’s history. In Drakkenheim, the relics of St. Vitruvio are like this, since Vitruvio was the patron saint of the now-ruined city and an important figure in the religion of the Sacred Flame. Any of the factions sending adventurers into the ruins might want the relics, and might be willing to take them by force or subterfuge.
You still get them occasionally. I was just looking at the Crook of Rao in Tasha's by coincidence, and that has one hell of a world-ending curse on it!
The concept was an okay one, however… the execution of it leaves much to be desired. Older cursed items (which were almost always stronger than the base item, just… far harder to use) from early versions or other old time games were a better version than the mostly random drawbacks of today, but yeah, its a good way to pass out potentially game breaking items, by making them potentially character breaking. Although, modern artifacts pale compared to most older versions.
@@ConnorSinclairCavin - For the Hexblade in my campaign, I made an intelligent weapon that grew in stages, but many abilities had drawbacks. She’d gain temporary HP equal to crit damage, but her hands were covered in blood while those temp HP remain (washing or gloves didn’t get rid of or hide it). Shadow of Moil could be applied, but it lasted until the next dawn and during that time, no one within 120 feet could sleep (or equivalent) without nightmares disturbing their rest. Stuff like that. It wasn’t _too_ terrible to deal with, but it was her pact weapon, so basically a class feature.
Baba Yaga’s Hut, appered as Baba Lysaga’s Creeping Hut in Curse of Strahd in chapter 10: The Ruins of Berez, described with stats on page 226, challenge rating: 11.
Well it is not Baba Yaga, but Baba Lysaga, but they are pretty close.
Ahh that's why it didn't show up in any of my searches!
Keep up the good work 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
to be fair, Baba Yaga mother of Tasha is a separate and much more powerful character in D&D canon that the Baba Yaga folklore inspired Baba Lysaga.
Baba Yaga's Hut also shows up in Pathfinder's Artifacts and Legends. There's also an entire adventure set inside it called The Witch Queen's Revenge.
That hut successfully separating my characters soul from their body instantaneously
The Quill in 1e is fantastic, as it enabled a Rogue to set it down on a sheet of parchment and then fully scout the dungeon. No game of telephone, no relying on the rogue to memorize details, just a perfect minimap and a full transcript of whatever was seen.
“The floor you just sat on breathes”
“What?”
•rolls percentile•
“It does not reply, roll for initiative”
There was a Baba Yaga Hut adventure in Dragon MagazIne. I DM’ed it in the aeons long gone…
Bob... you're my favorite person with shoelaces stuck to his face.
It's crafting thread but I'll take it
hahahah came here to say: excellent work growing embroidery floss as a moustache. I smell a profit in your future, the embroidering nerds among us have been waiting for such a stroke of genius!🤣
Long list?
Gygax didn't stop there using real names. A family farm in Wisconsin has the then last names of the surrounding owners which happen to by variations of famous Greyhawk characters, mainly wizards. I discovered this while researching property information in the area and noticed the similar names.
Keoghtom's Ointment is named after a childhood friend of Gygax who unfortunately died young
These all sound like they're from specific games and perhaps meshed well in that setting, with those players but aren't so applicable games and players in general.
I have a player or two I might consider giving a quill of twisted wishes...but others I definitely would not!
Yeah, the spirit of the game, and namely of magic loot, was different in to 70s-80s. The undercurrent was that magic items come with a price. Like, a third of the items we got were cursed in some way. Instead of having limited atonement slots for mostly-safe gear, we had OP gear that you paid for using with your hide. Like the Quill. They SAID it's supposed to twist the wishes, and make the results evil whenever possible, which was a recurring theme then.
Bob as Gary gygax is my new favorite thing
That recorder of Ye Cind should be an item to find in Candlekeep to give some backstory to a character
That's a great idea. Candlekeep would have been a good place to seed lore about any of these lost items
I'd make the deafness temporary 5e is much less harsh than earlier editions, hell even 3.5 is way more fatal
The instant death of the earliest editions. I don't miss it. Not once do I remember anyone laughing or cheering it. I sometimes think Gygax made D&D for the DMs.
In 1e the ability to draw accurate maps was huge, making the quill a very powerful artifact. You could make maps to scale without lugging measuring rods and chains.
Time:1980 something... DM:In this cave, you find a rusted cutless. Players: The Car? DM:No, the sword. Players: Can we have the car? DM: (After a moment of thought), OK.
The 1st edition DMG artifacts & relics section is some of the best material ever made for the game. I still break it out for ideas and just fun reading at least once a year
Giving an artifact to players back in 1e was like dropping a live grenade into the party. So of course I used to do it all the time 🙂
That ex-wife insert was savage, I never realized the connection.
Honestly, more games should encourage coming up with your own magic items, monsters, etc (or at least their effects, special abilities, and the like) as hard as 'write in whatever you want here.' I know there are some with rules for making your own which encourages it, but not quite as hard as an equivalent of the 'notes' section of a video game manual.
Yes, you can houserule anything, change statblocks, reflavour, follow the procedures for creating monsters and items outlined in the books and be reasonably confident your monster is on par with what's in the book at that level/CR, and so forth...
...But straight up "What do you think would be reasonable mechanical interpretation of this flavour/what did you randomly roll on the provided tables? Write it in here, and that's how this item will work in your games." goes so much harder, and so much cooler, for that. Not sure how that would really work in the PDF era, mind (I mean, form fillable PDFs exist, so... Maybe? Lacks some of the coolness factor of writing stuff in, though.)
This was an interesting video. I think it would be fun to Adapt/Customize these items for 5e.
To me for example: I would remove the Negatives and Change the features of them.
With "Baba Yaga's Hut", I think it would be cool if a Warlock's Patron was Baba Yaga and she gave the Warlock a Smaller Personal Version of the Hut.
With the "Throne of the Gods", I think it would be fun if you found the Throne and could achieve "Apotheosis/Lesser Deitification" through the use of the Throne. You have to sit in it then Answer Questions asked by the Deities, if you pass that test you then must Challenge a Lesser Deity in some way while still sitting in the Throne, then if you pass that test you then must Meditate for 3 Days & 3 Nights without food and water and not sleeping while sitting on the throne. If you pass that final test then you become a Lesser Deity on the same power level as Myrkul or other Mortals that become Deities.
The only item that wouldn't need too much changing is the Quill. I like it when Wishing is involved and you have to be careful what you wish for & be very clear about it.
Magical items need more cool drawbacks and not fewer, in my opinion.
Also babas hut as a patron item is basically just the genie warlock's lamp.
@@eewweeppkk Each their own opinions. I personally like games to be fun, escapism, and not too difficult.
Sure some drawbacks are ok, AS LONG AS THEY AREN'T TOO HARSH!
For example: I created a "Homebrew" Item called 'The Pendant of Divinity'. Only Good or Neutral Aligned Clerics or Paladins can use it. It grants you Immunity to: Charmed, Staggered, Paralyzed, Stunned, Fear, Sleep, Necrotic Damage, and Radiant Damage. However, you take twice as much damage from Psychic Damage and when you encounter Fey Creatures you must pass a CR 10 Charisma Check or become "Enamoured" by them which makes it so you can't move and all attacks against them by you are Half-Damage. You of course at the end of each turn make another attempt to break the "Enamoured Condition" and when you succeed then you can move again & your attacks return to normal.
Ran DHoBY a few years ago using AD&D 2e rules (heavily customized.. no THAC0 😲 and high ascending AC) and the players loved the challenge. It was tied into a campaign which included Against the Giants (AD&D) and The Rod of Seven Parts (AD&D). The same players are soon to conclude CoS (5e) and I'm curious to know their opinions on the pros and cons between the two D&D systems.
thanks, Bob! In the early 80s my 23rd Bard and his friends had the Hut of Baba Yaga and we had so many magic items we turned it into a traveling store. Yeah... we were teens
Ah! Bards back when they were triple classed fighter/thief/druids. 😂
The Throne of the Gods would definitely have a settlement around it. Imagine a Lich sending minions to sit on the throne consistently. Or a human kingdom that allows sitting on the throne as a reward for good merits/corrupt bribes. The government would remain even if someone got teleported away, in fact might be a 'good' thing, imagine being forced to do it multiple times until you were teleported [Ignoring the risk of an absolute unit being created].
When I was younger, we ran a campaign in college where we came across that chair.
Everyone got something good like a stat buff or an item. I got my lv10 Dwarf Artificer dropped in front of Lolth, who was not open to a discussion on me opening up a shop to peddle my wears.
So the quill in 1e could instantly transcribe infinite spellscrolls, maps (those were a Big thing), info books (also big), portraits (huge), artworks and other forgeries… it was… very powerful. In 2nd they actually remarked on this because of a notable person using it to basically deck themselves out in the “wanna buy a watch” jacket, but scrolls of wish version.
Wow; when that sponsor message started, with “Have your players gotten too cocky [in their explorations]?” I thought “This could be a lead up to that old Grimtooth book I’ve got on my RPG shelf.”
Grimtooth is awesome; glad to hear it’s still around!
The pen caught my attention because I am already using a similar pen in my campaign inspired by Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge. The quil has the power to rewrite the fabric of reality!
I wonder if Wizardry's creator took inspiration directly from Kuroth's Quill. There's precedent, with the Bard's Tale series having the Wand of Peace (which is pretty blatantly based on the Rod of Seven Parts).
I love magic items that can't be moved. Stone circles, altars holding the relics of multiple saints, ley-line junctions, these are all lots of fun to build plots around, and can send the PCs running hither-and-yon to take advantage of them.
I actually love the 2e concept of Queen Ehlissa's Marvelous Nightmare after learning the lore of 1e. Imagine an extremely powerful sorceress in line to inherit the throne who is coerced to keep the Nightingale for sentimental value, who is slowly made essentially powerless by its possession, allowing someone who sees themselves as more suitable to rise in the ranks or to rule in her stead as she remains a figurehead. The regime changes hands and "her rule" is made increasingly cruel under the guise of a utopia.
Maybe the nightingale did break free and it is benevolent after witnessing the horrors under its imprisonment
Hey @BobWorldBuilder I just came off a conversation on your post yesterday with @andrewtomlinson5237 where we were discussing the AD&D 2nd edition Encyclopedia Magica. And it happens that I found 4 of 6 items in your video today in them (hut, quill, nightinggale, throne) 😊
There are a lot of old nice treasures in them!
Campaign idea: The PC's are investigating a fallen kingdom the downfall of which was precipitated by the ruler's attempt to usurp an existing god's portfolio with themed consequences for the ruler and their nation, but part of the divine privilege is bound to the throne (think Karsus' folly mixed with The Golden Throne from 40K).
The throne is a conduit through which this divinity flows, but it's unguided without a wielder and most tend to die trying. Could be fun to explore different gods and the pros & cons of the domains
I was going to mentioned the Baba Yaga’s hut adventure until you did haha it was a awesome adventure and probably my favourite in all of 2e just because it was out there and fun.
It’s just weird lol
I'm enjoying this sort of love/hate relationship you're developing with Gary Gygax as you delve more into 1st edition lore. :D
There was another version of Baba Yaga's Hut that appeared in Dragon Magazine #83 (1984), written by Roger Moore -- it was basically a "funhouse dungeon" full of random crazy stuff, including a WWII Russian tank(!). They also gave stats for Baba herself -- a 25th level Magic-User/15th level Illusionist/14th level Druid with various other abilities and resistances.
He is a complicated figure. Not as complicated as that Baba Yaga multiclass though, wow
honestly I juat ignore gygax if he didn't straight up rip off some already existing folklore all his ideas were horrible. *just motions towards the mess that is drow* also man had the audacity to say "girls aren't smart enough to be interested in my game" when he gave all women negative stats in 1st edition. no i think they were smarter than to fall for your misogyny gygax lmao
the group I play with has this gag where we sing "Fireball" everytime the spell comes up, which is a lot even though none of the players have access to it yet, lol 🤣 But that bit with the horn made me cackle
Great video! I always enjoy the humor in these videos. So great =)
Thanks glad you enjoyed it! :)
excellent edition, excellent writing, excellnto contnt! thx
Glad you enjoyed it!
I actually used the throne of the gods in a 2e AD&D adventure, though I was referencing the 1e DMG. The players were attempting to keep its location hidden from a party aligned with a nefarious organization they'd already made enemies of.
One PC kender nudged his pet gerbil through a prismatic barrier trap, resulting in the gerbil's instant death. When he sat up on the throne, he was instantly able to commune with a distant power who opted to grant him one wish as a reward for keeping the throne safe. He wished for his gerbil back.
I like these "Interesting 1e/2e Stuff Revisited" style videos.
OMG! A Battle for control of the Throne of Gods just became the end goal for the faction based campaign I just started! It's based on a celestial alignment that only happens once every one thousand years and each faction is trying to position itself to take advantage of what happens during the said alignment. My problem was i still hadn't figured out exactly WHAT was going to happen. Throw a few WISH spells in with the throne's powers and make it so it only activates during the alignment. Each faction is trying to make sure that they are the ones in control of the throne when the alignment starts, giving them the power to shape the next age. Of course, the throne has to be found first. This is PERFECT! Thanks!
Not only did I get and play that module when it first came out, I was already a DM who loved putting Baba Yaga’s hut in my campaigns. It became sort of the medieval equivalent of The Tardis. 😃
Engagement post.
Random roll of d20 was 13.
Wow, first Ed Greenwood, and now you got Gygax himself!
there is Tolikien incerting his wife on the lore of TLOTR....aaaan there is Gary incerting his wife on the lore of D&D
I think it's fair to say Tolkien had a lot more class.
15:10 Definitely, ever hear of Iggwilv? The demon lord Graz'zt's lover, mother of Iuz the Old, who while calling herself "Tasha" invented the spell Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter?
Baba Yaga was her adoptive mother and mentor, who taught her wizardry. Yeah, that probably counts for something there.
16:48 Pretty sure neither the Machine of Lum the Mad and Heward's Mystic Organ are portable either. Though I would love to see an updated version of both.
While Heward's Organ isn't literally portable, the place you go to get to it does change every so often. I think it's supposed to be in a pocket dimension or something like that.
I modified it into a traveling adventurers’ guild of sorts. Baba yaga may or may not be the guild master in disguise prioritizing certain quests to obtain ingredients for spellcrafting.
I've been holding a list of cantrip based RODS for a couple of years. One of our players passed away before we (Co-DMs) could introduce them to the game world. Most of them we debated over on being overpowering.
There were to be high and low rod of each cantrip. For example with the clean cantrip taken to archmagi levels. The Lower Rod of Cleaning could (for one) clean a 20x20 meter floor (or the remainder up the walls etc) with a brace of tiny (1ft) Fairies wielding brooms and giving a "Ting!" at the start and end of the spell taking effect. If outside it refreshes 15x15m of ground (or 10x10 garden), clearing twigs, rocks, dust and clutter. Both types moved "pests" aside for three meter's height. However a Greater Rod of Cleaning could, to the sound of harps, clean fifty meters square and, if enclosed in a smaller place exceed the walls of where it has been used, making visual but not actual repairs lasting a day. Both, if cast upon a person, would make them clean of debris and contaminants. The High Rod (or greater) makes one clean of body, clothes and worn gear, bug free, hair quaffed, plus up to three more people if within two meters (and if riding, their mounts) at a time. Downsides: Takes half a turn while Annoying Peals of Fairy Chime Music plays and, per person, a two foot tall, blue winged fluttering Fairy holds his nose and taps HIS wand "in places" (smile, lift arms, Oh Myyy...). Save VS Giggles (females save at -2) The Low Rod (or lesser) cleaned the body and hair to their natural state and half of any pests, or cleaned clothes and gear of dirt and debris. Both High an Low Rods had an affinity to Dwarves. Polishing all metals on them.
Well, there's the concept. Run with it! What would you do with Message? Rod of Coordination? Message up to five at once! (200ft )How about Shocking Grasp? Rod of the thunder sheath? (Shocking body?)
Cool video on artifacts
Great timing Bob. I was just looking up magic items for my DCC campaign and ordered the Book of Artifacts POD from Drivethru RPG.
I'd love to see the Throne of the Gods and Baba Yaga's Hut make a return, but Kuroth's Quill is probably overpowered. The Horn of Change... hmm, I could see that being either fun but underpowered (blow it, and get a roll on a Wild Magic table), or horribly overpowered (each blast casting Polymorph/True Polymorph on a random target within range, with the result being also random, and the Horn being considered to be the caster. Granted, this is taking some inspiration from the Wabbajack from the Elder Scrolls series, but it might be fun. Once).
Just so you know baba yaga is actually an aincent slavic goddess of time death life fate knowledge and magic, she is no arbitrary hag, she (and her 2 sisters in some tales) are literally The Fates and Hecate Athena and Hades(and the entire pantheon of death including shepherding the dead on occasion even) and Chronos all in one she should be considered a greater diety actually
Makes the power level on the hut make more sense
@@ConstantChaos1While true in some versions, there are also versions which have it as a title/honorific for a powerful female magic user (in which interpretation, every instance of Baba Yaga is a different entity, for an inversion of the theory that all the Jacks in folklore are the same person. It still weirdly fits with the trope of Ye Olde Florida Man).
Personally, I'd say the power level of the Hut is way too low for the interpretation you're citing, but somewhat high for the interpretation I've just mentioned. Stories vary, and mythology gets complicated.
@@ala5530 I'm talking about the original baba yaga, sure other interpretations have her as weaker but the actual original was a goddess not just a hag
The reason it has things like vision is because it will not allow anyone who is not welcome even see the door to the house and stuff like that, older editions relied on more broad knowledge instead of expressly stating it, and with the dynamics of 1st and 2nd it would be quite powerful but to not give it more abilities in even 3.5, let alone 5e would definitely leave it too weak.
being someone who started in 1st edition I actually remember all of these. I never used any because of the legendary status but hmmm I wonder if I could use any now.
Great Video Bob. I was thinking that quill's power level could hinge on the type of ink used. Gathering the ingredients for a certain type of normal to magical ink could be a whole story to itself.
Awesome Ad&D DM's Guide cover. I haven't seen that version in years. Love that old art on and in those books.
Did you use A.I to create the scenes with Gary Gygax? They looked soo real!
It was all-human intelligence... or lack thereof
The hut of Baba Lysaga also appeared in a novel called Daughter of the Drow. It comes up in Chapter 3 along with a Rhyme you have to say to get it to let you in. One of my favorite parts of that book.
"While the mistress is asleep,
Chicken-legs a watch will keep.
When the mistress wanders off,
Chicken-legs will stand aloft.
When the mistress comes again,
Chicken-legs will let her in.
Stara Baba casts this spell,
Listen, hut, and hearken well."
I am running my own campaign for the Rod of Seven Parts (it has gone on more than 2 years now and I had to write a supplement for Epic levels because they will likely make it past level 20 lol) and part of the adventure took them to the Feywild where the resident Fey Lady wanted the party to get rid of a hag that had parked her hut in a nearby shroom forest that was part of the Fey's domain.
The group ventured to and into the hut, I had random rooms behind each door so they never saw all the rooms (I had a certain number before they face off with Baba Yaga). This was before one of my players purchased Foundry for me so I was still using Roll20 but had all the rooms ready and I made Baba Yaga a mythical creature before I knew what the Mythic trait did (She changed shape three times during the battle depending on her hit points!).
In the end they convinced the witch to return the young fey she had imprisoned and pressed into servitude and got her a meeting with the fey Lady of the realm before the party moved on themselves.
It remains one of my group's favorite part of the adventure (along with an ancient white dracolish they fought in a 12 hour session in Stygia).
I would guess Ye’Cind was based on someone named Cindy E., perhaps someone from Gary’s past that he had a crush on or dated, and never quite got over.
I love creating magic items. Just for fun I created a whole set of them for a specific crazy cat wizardess. I took normal magic items and put my own silly twist on them. Necklace of Furballs. The golden orbs become cats when thrown. Wand of Minty Freshness. It looks like a Wand of Frost, but cleans your teeth. Broom of Sweeping. It cleans the house of dust. Unfortunately, I don't remember more and I have misplaced my notebook. I think there was a magic bottle of spices for making the bowl of everlasting porridge taste good.
I also created magic items that were crafted for a specific player's character in mind. In one campaign, there was a guy who played a Kenku who loved digging. I never found out why his character liked to dig, but I created him a Shovel of the Resurrection Man. It had the spell Move Earth permanently cast on it, but it only dug holes. And you could cast the spell Resurrection once per day by hitting your target with the flat of the shovel.
I saw the Throne of the Gods used quite creatively: all it provides is knowledge (at great cost) and can be used repeatedly but the downside is that every time it is used by a new person it teleports itself and the person seated (and only them) to somewhere new and dangerous.
This is an entirely random thought that just popped into my head, but if I were to remake the Throne of the Gods for a modern game, I'd make its power be that when you sit in the throne you are overwhelmed with the sensation that you ARE a god, and you begin having visions of a world of your own creation. The player is encouraged to describe this world to the table. Said world then pops into existence somewhere in the multiverse, and if the players want to go explore it, the player who was sitting on the throne becomes the DM for adventures that take place there.
Maybe the throne also produces a more portable way to access that new realm. Maybe like, a book... with a moving image of the world on the inside or something. :P
In the first set of D&D games I played in the mid-late 70s, one person's dungeon (everyone had a dungeon) had a room near the entrance filled with unique magical doodads. It was represented by a drawing of a large cabinet filled with stuff, and every PC got to select an item from the cabinet. They were all interesting and lent a bit of extra fun to every adventure. Let's see what I can remember...
* A jar of ointment. When rubbed on a limb that limb can be removed, still function normally, and then later re-attached.
* A box of dark powder. When a pinch is thrown into the air the room is thrown into magical darkness that only the holder of the box can see through.
* A steel bladed oriental fighting fan, +3 berzerker.
* An ornate box. When opened a golden butterfly darts out and affixes itself to your helm. Eventually discovered to prevent death three times, turning silver, than copper, then falling off.
There were a lot of pretty random things. None of them overtly evil, but all reasonably... odd. Good times.
i played in homebrew-ish game that took place in "Brorovia". shortly after we pulled a magic axe out of a vampire tree, we encountered what was essentially baba yaga's hut, we didn't go in because we were sketched out. but we found a hut with chicken legs "sitting" there
Oh man, my nostalgia levels are off the charts.
When several members of the design team at TSR Hobbies (before the WotC buyout) were asked their favorite D&D campaign setting, Roger E. Moore answered "Baba Yaga's Hut."
7:38 This horn side effect reminds me of a character from the Wheel of time series. He also gets a magic horn and a magic gambling curse. I wonder if one thing inspired the other or it was just some coincidence.
Fun fact about Baba Yaga's hut: These days, it's apparently a construct, and not immune to spells like, oh, Otto's Irresistible Dance, as far as I can find - so if Baba Yaga is home at the time, you'd best teleport out and hope she can't track you when she comes to... :D
That Kuroth's Quill reminds me of a similar item in a webcomic called The Watch.
It was a quill that had the power to Rewrite a person's story, mostly serving as a Spell of True Resurrection but what ever the wielder wrote down the victim became.
The only stipulation of the Quill was a person's name on a sheet of paper and it was off, anything else the Quill wrote on that paper that person became.
It's in the hands of the Ultimate Evil's secretary, who uses it to keep the Villainous Hordes inline or to punish beings for not serving her Dark Master properly.
She also has a thing about turning the most Powerful Brutes into cute powerless little girls, all the while having a air of a Disgruntled HR Representative.
"ah, looks like Piers has lost the horn. Time to bring him home and help him deliver the bad news."
As you probably remember, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden also has a throne that works as a magic wand but can't be brought along. However, it works better for a specific campaign than in the DMG magic items section so I understand it was discontinued.
It's always been my thought that the Deck of Many Things is a device used by DMs toward the end of a campaign that no one wants to end yet and the DM can't think of anything else.
I have a "Hag-Like" NPC(Giant Eldritch Fey/Horror) that I think would have an interesting interaction with Baba Yaga.
"Oh, your hut? I kept it clean for your return. Found your mortar too, but not the Pestle. Such a friendly hut, I will miss the little ankle biter..."
That Throne sounds like a great goal for a campaign. Make every pc with a specific problem they can't solve on their own, get to the Throne... only one gets to make a request
I can see the Throne of the Gods being used in a campaign with an underground dwarven kingdom. Sounds awesome for a king.
The Recorder of Ye'Cind appeared in the Reverse Dungeon adventure, in the possession of a mindflayer who was deafened by it. I ported the dungeon, monsters, magic and all, to my last campaign, and the party was happy to have lived and gotten ahold of the Recorder
Baba the Yaga's hut!
Throne of the Gods is a great artifact for a fallen paladin's quest to get back on track. Send him out on a solo, have him sit in the throne, and let him see the price of pride and hubris; i.e. lower stats et al. If he follows his teachings for X amount of time, return his abilities and give him a boost to a stat, if he fails, give him a penalty to his stats.
What I really miss is people trying to craft their own magic items. (Gary wasn't a fan of wizards being too broken as they got to higher levels so you had to give up XP and that meant levels to craft magic items.)
I love the 4th wall break with that bit.
Dungeon Magazine #83 (March 1984) had a full High level adventure titled, "The Dancing Hut". It had maps of the hut's interior that included a museum which had a WW2 era Soviet tank! It also had a stat block for Baba Yaga.
8:02 hosting a one shot with a character that is basically straight out of the binding of isaac. they decided to start with a homebrew item in which you get an actual bible, flip open to a random page, read a random verse and the DM decides an effect based on what the verse it and its context. It has 1 charge that recharges every month, but im hoping it has funny effects
I have a character that has Kuroths Quill. He used it to great effect for copying maps and anything else he wanted to make a copy of. And being that he is a fighter/thief, he also used it for nefarious things.
He had a Manual of Pursuant Skill At Arms and A Manual of Stealthy Pilfering that he collected. So he decided to read them but had another plan.
He had 2 books made of fine quality. And when he read each Manual he had Kuroths Quill copy the Manual into the book. I had no illusions that they would be magical but they would be perfect copies. Then I had a mage cast Nystuls Magic Aura on them and sold them for some big coin.
He also did the same thing with scrolls. Getting some good parchment and making copies of the scrolls he had. Putting them in scroll tubes with mystic runes on them for greater authenticity. And of course having that mage cast Nystuls Magic Aura on them.
Worked like a charm.
Cool video Bob. I love the idea of magic items that can't be moved. They could lead to ancient rulers or civilizations building their keeps on them, or the party trying to do the same.
Yo! What!?! Grimtooth is back around granting us with traps? My most prized DM implement is my Grimtooth's Ultimate Traps Collection book!
One thing to remember about the 1E version of Kuroth's Quill, is that it accurately draws maps, a major necessity in old school games, where an accurate map could make the difference between life and death in a dungeon.
Does everybody know that Vecna is an anagram for Vance.. Jack Vance the author that inspired Gary Gygax?
Thank you for the mention of Kuroth's Quill, I'm planning on using it for a future campaign
Thanks man very cool.
Glad you liked it!
Babba Yagga's hut is very important in the Pathfinder Adventure Path "Reign of Winter". My party didn't end up in Toyko but did land some strange places.
The throne sounds like a great surprise for an upcoming campaign!
I play 5 torches deep with my kids. Yr 10&7. They needed to search through the hut, but not until after one of the funnest chase scenes I have ever played.
Then after they left the hut with what they needed my youngest was determined that she will steal the hut lol so they came back and stole the hut. But not before an encounter with baba yaga
Oh, I am totally using Baba Yaga's hut in an adventure, but I think she might be home...😈 I remember her from the fairytales. I loved that this scary, powerful woman would help out a girl who was polite and kind. Most scary characters in fairytales were dangerous and had to be run from or defeated. Not Baba Yaga. She acted more like a mentor if you behaved yourself.
Ive owned, dungeon mastered, and played the dancing hut a multitude of times. It was a ridiculous surreal module with outrageously difficult encounters (several minor deaths, baba yaga herself, and a trap she had set up to cheat death and make all dying on earth cease for her own vengeful purposes. The players enter another dimension inside the hut and experience multiple realities in its many layers. In a dozen playthroughs i believe we beat the adventure maybe once or twice. Without coaching most parties wont make it. Its literally a death trap. Lol
Such an amazing fun time was had repeatedly trying not to be unalived in that mess of crazy. 😊🎉 I highly recommend you take a big party of strong players and expect it to end poorly going into it. Have fun!
I like the Head of Vecna. It's a mummified head and the magical tome/instructions that go with it say that you need to cut off your head and quickly place the head of Vecna in it's place to gain the benefits. Essentially the characters all kill themselves trying to place some old mummifed had on a fresh corpse. Good family fun!
Great stuff 👍
Thank you!
I did an Alan Wake style campaign once upon a time using Kuroth's Quill so the bard, who had made himself into something of an author and chronicler of adventures, could really shine in a campaign that he inadvertently wrote the party into a horror story. As a campaign hook/mcguffin it's fine.
The Bloodstone of Fistandantilus in the hardback Dragonlance adventures, pg 97 was insanely powered...you pretty much turned to evil but if you succeded you sucked the soul out of your victim...plus you you replace any attribute score of yours with the victims if it was higher than yours...so if your strength was an 8 and the victim had a 20..pow you now have a 20.
Oh...and you also automatically became the same level as the victim if they were higher...so if a 1st lev character got it and used it on say a 26th level archmage...congratulations you are now a 26th level character...
All this was dependent on a contested roll....but still...absolutely insane...its how Rasitlin was able to challenge Takhisis
that flute is actually like a magic item i made. though mine is also sentient but mine is a siren witch (basically just a siren mage) that was extracted and fused in full essence to a flute blade (its a blade that was crafted to function as a flute also). she teaches you how to play the flute in a manner to cast spells and give the blade special effects and the more you bond and aid her the stronger the effects and spells it teaches you are. i actually like to create a unique magic item that fits each person in a dnd group that is unique to them because i actually like to do more personal touches on alot of things for the group
The evolution of this channel is amazing and something to behold! 👏🏻
Awesome job, Bob!
If I am not mistaken there might be a hut on chicken legs in one of the monster manuals for 5e.
I think Baba Yaga's Hut first showed up as a "dungeon crawl" in Dragon #83 as an adventure in there (by Roger Moore I think). Had great fun running that with friends in middle school.
I just had a thought concerning the use of The Throne of the Gods. In a historical/semi-historical campaign, you could say there are in fact 3 (possibly more, dependant upon how many pantheons you need) such throne’s throughout Europe. One in Norway, one in Greece and one in Rome(?). Sitting in the each throne grants they who sit upon it, abilities similar to what is said the throne of that particular king god (in this case, Odin, Zeus or Jupiter).
in fact, I used my own version of the hut in a custom rpg system about a year ago, it was not babayaga's hut to say, but it was part of a bossfight after chassing my players through the blue pines forest of siniygrad, the city cursed to live in everlasting night
In Hawaiian mythology, Pele was the creator of the islands, so being a volcano goddess isn’t _all_ bad.
Also, despite Joramy being a Strife Goddess, she's statted as Neutral Good
Two more artifacts that can't be taken with the party ( @16:45 ) included - Heward's Mystical Organ and the Machine of Lum the Mad. The first being a literal pipe organ with all the bits and pieces, and the second weighing in at 5500 pounds and delicate to the point of breaking if moved (as stated: any serious jolt will set it off and destroy 1-4 functions of the artifact which can never be restored.)
I like the Throne of the Gods, conceptually. A thing you can journey to, *proabbly* receive a boon, but not abuse or take with you to give to all your friends.
Fun throw back! Thanks Bob\Gary!
This was a lot of fun and the first time I've heard of the Horn of Change! (It may become a new favorite.)