Here is a series of diagrams I made while I was making the D&D 5e Masonry profession stuff. It’s basically a helpful guide to help describe parts of buildings, windows, and doors for us non-architects out there. Use these to narrate your dungeon using accurate descriptors, or be inspired to decorate the dungeon with these new terms! You could make corbels that are shaped like owlbears, or socles carved like dragon’s claws. Especially useful to describe where secrets can be hidden, like the lintel of a door or pilaster of a wall. I recall needing to look up the term “lintel” when there was a secret lever built into one in the Shrine of Tamoachan, so there’s definitely a use for it.
Keep in mind that some of these parts can be used for other objects, particularly furniture. For instance, a table can have an entablature and cornice, just like a roof can. A pediment can exist above a door or window. A reliquary can have crockets and pinnacles like a cathedral.
I learned a lot about architecture while researching stuff for Mason’s Tools, and wanted to share it with you guys! Remember that a wide breadth of knowledge can help you become a better overall DM!
Gothic Cathedral
Hellenistic Temple
Crenellated Wall
Interior Wall
Doors and Windows
Roofs and Domes
Arches and Vaults
Architectural Patterns
Other Decorative Terms:
Urn: Yes they put them on buildings, not just in dungeons.
Festoon: A wreath or garland hanging from two points. If it depicts cloth it is known as a swag. So yea.
Dentils: Originating as the ends of rafters, these became decoration that is repeated below a roof’s cornice. Their name means “teeth.”
Acanthus: This is the leaf that you find in a lot of architecture, especially as the capitals of Corinthian columns.
Diapering: Weird name, but basically anything that is a repeated pattern usually based on a grid that breaks up an otherwise flat space. Apparently the name comes from the Greek dia (cross/diagonal) and aspros (white)
Fleur-de-lis: If you weren’t familiar with it already, that’s what this is called:
Well that about wraps it up for today. Hope everyone was able to learn something today!
1. *drops to 0hp* “I’m dead.” “You’re not dead yet”
2. rolling a bad perception roll and your dm is just like “you don’t have a fucking clue where you are. a room maybe?”
3. when the dm is narrating a scene for another character and your character isn’t even there so when you make a smartass comment about what’s happening the dm shouts “You’re nothere”
Have your character regularly mention events from their past. All of them are episodes of The Rugrats. See how long it takes for people to figure it out.
Context: Our D&D Party has ended up separated in different dimensions and our characters are only just figuring out what’s going on. After figuring out we can affect objects in each others dimensions my friend playing the barbarian Hognar thinks he can get a message to me by writing something on the wall. Unfortunately he’s decided that whenever Hognar has an idea a roll must be made to see if Hognar is smart enough to understand that idea properly.
Hognar (after a laugh inducing intelligence roll): “Ok, can I dip my fingers into the wound on that dead guard we found and use that to right a message?”
Me: “You’re going to use blood?!”
DM: “Yes you can!”
Hognar: “Alright, I use the blood to draw a smiley face on the wall as a friendly message to Tomran (my character) to show his friends are nearby.”
DM: “Tomran, you see a bloody, dripping, smiley face appear on the wall seemingly out of nowhere.”
Me: “I take one look at it and run out of the room screaming about murderous ghosts.”
Also I know halflings can’t in canon have babies w/ like any race that won’t just produce a halfling (Dragons/dryads/celestials/fiends can, but that’s just making aasimar/tieflings/sorcerers)
But consider: Halflings are like the CORGIS of fantasy races, so if another race has a kid with a halfling, they just look like a half sized version of the other parent
GIVE ME VISUALS YOU COWARDS.
G*d you’re so right
I’m so running with this. Imagine… Tabaxi Halflings trying to pass themselves off as a large cat.
“What do you mean ‘too big’? I’m a Maine Coon, clearly”
lmao my current character is half halfing and half orc. She’s two and a half feet of rage and is always ready to throw down. Her last name is Kneecrusher, bc that’s all she can reach.
Non-Boring Environments that need Fantasy Representation
Tropical Rainforests
Scrubland/Dry Forests. For extra effect make them the sort that burn very often; some native plants never germinate until after a fire, and some animals not only rely on fire to smoke out prey, but may even start them themselves.
Savannas/Tropical Grasslands
Temperate Rainforests. I almost didn’t include this bc New Zealand is covered in them, and that’s where they filmed Lord of the Rings. But tbh, no one really knows about them, so it belongs here
Taiga Forests
Barren Tundra, perfect for some extreme seasonal dichotomy
Polar Ice Sheets
Desert-Grasslands (arguably the same as Scrubland but Australia’s good at adding its own twists)
Barren Desert
If you like Cacti, look at American Deserts like the Sonoran
Salt Flats
Soda Lakes and Alkaline Lakes
Madagascar’s Karst Limestone Formations
Madagascar’s Spiny Forests
Madagascar’s Baobab Forests
Madagascar’s Subhumid Forests (Madagascar is cool as hell ok)
Danxia Landforms
Badlands/Mountainous Deserts
Steppes and Highland Prairies
Flood Basalts
Newly-Formed Islands, still rife with Volcanic activity
Now for Underwater Environments, sure Coral Reefs are cool.
But there are SO MANY other kinds of environments for aquatic settings, it’s unbelievable:
Seaside Cliffs
Archipelagos. Not just Tropical Island chains like Polynesia (Moana anyone?) but also Coldwater Archipelagos like the Aleutians.
Tidal Flats
Bayous/Cypress Swamps
Tropical River Basins, AKA Seasonally Flooded Rainforests
Mangrove Swamps/Deltas/Beaches
Kelp Forests
The Open Ocean
Coastal Seabeds
Rocky Beaches with Tidepools
And there are a LOT more I could name but this post is already obscenely long as is, if you’d like to toss in your own go right ahead, but my point is if you limit yourself to European Deciduous Forests you’re a wimp.
Verliese Und Drachen 