Dubbing Differences: The Sword in the Stone

Austin's Routine 2022

It's been a while since I've done one of these, and they're always fun to look back on to see how different they each are. Now that I'm in a new house in a new state and I've been here for a year, here's what my days go like week to week.

D&D Mechanics Inspired by Assassin's Creed: Origins

 

I'm back, and yes, I will continue these Assassin's Creed mechanics posts until I can't any longer! Assassin's Creed Origins took quite a change from the previous games in the series. The game plays much more like an RPG, with gear of different rarities, a complex talent tree, and leveling up. It also pairs the freedom to explore an open world with classic dungeon crawlers through Egyptian pyramids. These mechanics gave plenty of inspiration for ways to improve your D&D DMing.

D&D Mechanics Inspired by Assassin's Creed: Syndicate

Let's keep this Assassin's Creed D&D-content train a-rollin'! (No pun intended, given the nature of the base in Assassin's Creed: Syndicate). I didn't think I'd enjoy Syndicate as much as the others, since for me, the less modern the genre, the better; however, I was pleasantly surprised with how fun it was to grappling-spring-hook my way across Victorian England, free children from child labor factories, and build up a fighting-for-freedom gang to help move along my objectives. And despite the combat being a little cartoony and the carriage chases being more comic relief than anything else, I enjoyed the storyline and, as you'll see below, got even more D&D ideas from playing it:

D&D Mechanics Inspired by Assassin's Creed: Unity

I am loving this Assassin's Creed train! Every game is different in fun new ways, and it's so fun to know there's a lot more games to play after my current one! Assassin's Creed: Rogue was okay, but it was similar to Black Flag and not as interesting with not a very likeable protagonist, so I ended up rushing through the storyline. Unity has a fresh new approach to combat and mechanics, and some of them are improved versions of new ones Rogue came up with, so it works well to talk about them here. 

D&D Mechanics Inspired by Assassin's Creed: Black Flag

I'm about 9 years late to the party, but I am absolutely loving Assassin's Creed: Black Flag. I've realized in the past couple years that pirates is one of my all-time favorite genres, and this game doesn't disappoint in the least. Aside from the epic ship battles and the stealth mechanics, I've noticed that some of the controls and mechanics in the game are really inspiring for use in making certain aspects of Dungeons & Dragons more effective and manageable for DMs and players alike.

Artifacts of Argaenothruzil 5e

There aren't a lot of magic items established in Argaenothruzil lore, unfortunately, but these are the ones I gleaned from the existing publications I still have access to.

Devils of Argaenothruzil (Gods part 3)

 

Rauroth

God of Vengeance

Rauroth the Burning One is the god of revenge, fury, lust, and fire. The sun is often called Rauroth's Eye when it is shining particularly hot in the summer or in deserts. He is the patron god of gogs who embrace their fiendish parentage. Rauroth's name is most often invoked as an expletive when in rage, and to lose one's own mind to strong emotions and passions is to worship the Burning One. 

Rauroth is depicted as a red-eyed man engulfed in flames.

Gods of Argaenothruzil 5e (Part 2)

Bezzoan

God of Honor

Bezzoan Iron-Fists is the god of warmth, courage, and righteous triumph in battle. He is the patron god of sailors, particularly those of the sea kingdom of Vingomir, and the first creator of humans. Mortals pray to Bezzoan to preserve their family lines and to protect their homelands, but he mainly acts through inspiring mortals to help themselves, rather than intervening directly. It gives him pleasure to see weakness become strength and for shivering folks to learn to stand strong and resolute. 

Bezzoan is depicted as a black-bearded man with fists made of wrought iron.

Gods of Argaenothruzil 5e (Part 1)

Nine Intelligences came into being at the birth of the cosmos, and they worked together to create the world of Argaenothruzil. They all created races of the world, but disputes over the purpose of these "blood-children" led to a division. Half of the planet was corrupted beyond redemption, and three of the Intelligences became Devils while the other six became Gods. All nine deities continue to influence Argaenothruzil and the progress of its history in various ways.

Races of Argaenothruzil 5e

Though they have more locally divine origins, for the most part, the races of Argaenothruzil resemble those on other worlds in the multiverse. The halflings were made out of clay and the dwarves out of stone by the God of Fortune, Moeki; the elves from trees by Phroella; the gnomes from snow and the genies from sand by Henaeros; and the orcs from lava by D'nethrokash the Destroyer. Humans were created from the dust of the earth by all the gods.

But other races exist that are unique to Argaenothruzil, and others have variations due to Argaenothruzil's unique cultures and climate that will be listed here as well. The races and their changes, if any, are listed in alphabetical order below. The more unique races to Argaenothruzil have more details.

Argaenothruzil 5e

I've been thinking a lot about different D&D settings lately and what makes them unique. Dark Sun is a post-apocalyptic setting where magic is destructive and halflings have become cannibalistic; Theros is based on Greek mythology where destiny determines your path, the gods are close to mortals and directly affect the world, and heroes adventure for glory itself; Spelljammer is basically D&D in space; Planescape jumps all over the planes of existence; Ravenloft is Gothic horror; Rokugan is Asian wuxia; I'm not really sure what Eberron is, something about noir and robots?

Anyway, with the release of Chris Metzen's Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent campaign that's literally just his own homebrew setting he made as a teenager in published form, I've thought about my own first setting I roleplayed in before I even knew about D&D: Argaenothruzil.

Heroes III Map: "The Darkening"

Every few years, I get on a Heroes of Might and Magic III kick. It's one of my favorite PC games of all time. Playing it is comfy, like the first afternoon of summer vacation in 2001. I remember being on such a kick my first year of marriage when my wife left for a couple of weeks and I had no work or school to do. I remember my entire family getting sick as a dog one February and playing the crap out of it. It's just such a great game, has beautifully nostalgic music, and an incredible map editor. A game that's easy to play but hard to master. I want the "End Campaign" music played at my funera—ahem. Anyway...

Abelhawk's Warcraft III Easter Eggs: Complete Edition

 It's been a fruitful six years since I first started my Warcraft III Easter Egg series. Since that first video went "viral" within that specific audience, I've been able to monetize my YouTube channel, assemble a fun and fulfilling community of Warcraft III enthusiasts, meet an actual Warcraft III developer and collaborate with him, and learn so much about this game that I love so much. I'm so glad I was poking around in the Warcraft III files and found these Easter eggs in the first place. The world needed to see them, and I feel blessed to be the one to be able to fill that niche.

Today, on the six-year anniversary of my first video I posted, I present to you the Complete Edition of my Warcraft III Easter eggs series. Not only does it fix the mistakes I made the first time through and have a much better voiceover for everything, it showcases several never-before-seen Easter eggs and shows a few interesting (and disappointing) changes that Warcraft III Reforged made. Enjoy!

Story: Chatter, Chatter

 As you can probably tell, I've been rooting through old document folders on my computer and sorting through all the ones I haven't posted on the blog yet. This was an experience I had in Scout Camp when I was about 15 or so, and exhibits the indifferent cruelty of youth and the carelessness of boyhood. I made this for a college writing assignment, but this experience had also led to me making an OHRRPG related to this (with Bunky as a boss and everything), which makes me realize I should really make a post about that as well sometime.

Runebook: The Advent of Thebis the Wise

 Another bit of prose that I'm surprised I never posted on here before. I can't remember where I came up with the name "Thebis the Wise," but it always had a nice ring to it. I came up with some basic ideas for a storyline that involved a fictional version of myself getting sucked into a fantasy world and transforming into Thebis the Wise, a prophesied savior of a realm called Brugixia who looked like me except older and with white or gray hair. I remember making a few comics about my Thebis persona and even some Warcraft 3 maps, but I never got too far with it. 

Moon Town: Leonard's Rescue Adventure

 I should probably write a whole post about Moon Town someday, but who knows if I'll get around to it. The short version is that it was probably the most complete Heroes of Might and Magic III map I ever made, and one very dear to my heart. The level was laid out with houses made of rock and told the story of two rivals, Daniel and Leonard. This was apparently a bit of supplemental fiction I wrote in the Moon Town universe from Leonard's point of view. It's pretty funny to see me try to fit in game mechanic references, and to fall into the same trap of talking way too much about food. No idea where the story was going, but I remember enjoying writing it all that time ago, and it may as well see the light of day now.

Poem: Coding Virelai

 Ballades are my preferred poem structure, but I found this one that I made in 2018 about the difficulty of transitioning to a coding career from an editing one. It seems especially poignant now that I've been in the coding career field for a while now and just frankly... don't like it at all.