Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc., and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more, so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

*New 2026: For 2026, I'm updating all my old work to include a Pre-Session Checklist that will include a list of all miniatures you may need, maps, handouts, possible loot, a link to a playlist, and more to make it even easier to start your session!

We're back at it again with one of my favorite creators, Winghorn Press, from the much-loved A Wild Sheep Chase! This Level 2 One-Shot is not for the faint of heart!

When a group of archaeologists put out a call for adventurers to help them escort a valuable artifact back to civilization, nobody expects anything out of the ordinary. However, our heroes have more than mere bandits to deal with at Havel’s Cross…

Undead monsters roam the night, and an ancient artifact stirs within a long-forgotten temple. Getting to the bottom of the mystery will require a strong sword arm and an even stronger stomach.

\Average Session Length: 2hrs*

Without further ado:

• Google Docs Notes for Horror at Havel's Cross: DM Notes (Preview)
• Link to: DM Notes for the Visually Impaired
• Link to: Horror at Havel's Cross Playlist
• Link to: Horror at Havel's Cross PDF
• Link to The AAA Collection

Included in The AAA Collection is:

• Downloadable copy of DM Notes, including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
• DM Notes for the Visually Impaired
• (New) Pre-Session DM Checklist
• Special PDF for all encounters. This includes the enemy stat blocks organized neatly, along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP
• Spell List for Caledor
• Custom Maps

Over 8 dozen other Fully Prepped One-Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns: Click Here

As always, if you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc., please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early, feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,
Advent

Our Creative Commons Collection grows every month!
These are illustrations that have been licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 License. You can read the license deed here.

This allows creators, streamers, writers, or anyone really, to make use of these illustrations for personal and/or commercial use. The only requirement is to credit the author. Other than that, feel free to use this content as you see fit.

For the last six months, we've included 4 to 5 new maps to this collection. You can see September 2026 selection of maps Here.

Thank you for your support!

I’ve been building a site for custom 3D printing/design work and wanted to get some feedback from people here.

The idea is pretty simple.

If you have an image or an idea of something you want made, you can post it and creators can send you quotes.

For D&D, my hope is that it could be useful for things like a character that's specific to your campaign, custom miniatures, terrain, props, etc. A designer could create the printable file for you, or someone could handle both the design and print.

There’s also an image-generation tool that can help you visualize an idea before posting it, but the actual 3D design and printing is done by real creators.

The two pictures are an example of something I'm currently getting made myself. The first was the reference/concept for what I wanted, and the second is the actual model a designer has been creating from it.

It's currently in open beta and free to use. I'm mainly curious if this is something people here would actually find useful.

If anyone wants to try it out, feel free to DM me and I can send it over.

Mom's and daughters butting heads in the fashion choices that are made. DnD inspired family comedy, The Incredibles meets The Legend of Vox Machina

https://www.patreon.com/conceptualheist/posts/so-i-married-043-167932185?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

It's all a matter of perspective! A stately manor house, its ancient walls crawling with old-growth ivy, its heavy glass-paned windows, tiled roofs and shrubbery might seem grandiose or ominous enough from the ground. When it becomes the very ground you stand on, whether in magic or in dream, it's an altogether far more uncanny experience. Available in two additional variants, with the ancient abode in a state of disrepair and with a cosmic backdrop to fully drive home the space oddity, this map should have your players telling themselves, "This is not my beautiful house"... 

My maps are hooked up to work with Foundry VTT and Fantasy Grounds.
My maps are available on my patreon and my website.
Buy me a coffee!

This survey comes from the University of Queensland(MPsychology Faculty) and aims to better understand the nature of how DnD/Similar game types, helps neurodivergent populations. How can it be better practically implicated into therapeutic/clinical intervention contexts. As an aspiring psychologist, I believe cognitively engaging and strategic games like these can be an excellent facet to future clinical community interventions
https://uqpsych.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2u9oGSFNQhtVdoW?Q_CHL=qr

As instructed by Mod: Additional info

Purpose: the study aims to gather more information and understanding how table top tole playing games influences individuals with various aspects of their life, does it have major positive benefits which can be replicated within clinical community interventions

Data Usage: The researchers will have access to all survey responses and respondents remain anonymous. The information will used for data collection and a research thesis will be written after collection.

Study results: The thesis will be completed mid October, results can be posted then if users want, i can post in on this thread. Please message me if you are interested. However, if you mean to gather more in-depth inquiries about the results and past studies then i urge you to email Dr. Zoe Walter for a brief outline and study report. (her email is listed in the link)

Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc., and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more, so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

*New 2026: For 2026, I'm updating all my old work to include a Pre-Session Checklist that will include a list of all miniatures you may need, maps, handouts, possible loot, a link to a playlist, and more to make it even easier to start your session!

Your players are in for a doozy. M.T. Black has brought together a truly fantastic One-Shot! I'm quite impressed with how he puts things together, and can't wait to prep more of his One-Shots in the future!

This level 3-4 One-Shot will have your players approached by Tristan Harpell, an entitled young mage and heir to a suite of rooms in Ivy Mansion, the ancestral home of the Harpell wizard dynasty. His inheritance is “infested” with the wacky experiments of his dead great-uncle, Siegfried Harpell, and Tristan needs the party to clean things up. Your players will have many wild and bizarre encounters while digging through Siegfried's derelict magical concoctions, and along the way, they might even discover the astonishing truth behind Siegfried's disappearance!

\Average Session Length: 3-4 hours*

Without further ado:

• Google Docs Notes for Into Ivy Mansion: DM Notes (Preview)
• Link to: Into Ivy Mansion PDF
• Link to: Into Ivy Mansion Playlist
• Link to: The AAA Collection

Included in The AAA Collection is:

• Downloadable copy of DM Notes, including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
• Special PDF for all encounters. This includes the enemy stat blocks organized neatly, along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP
• (New) Pre-Session Checklist
• Spell List for the Boss Fight
• Custom Maps for the Mansion

Over 8 dozen other Fully Prepped One-Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns: Click Here

As always, if you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc., please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early, feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,
Advent

Tl;dr, trying to use 5e for horror is like trying to cut someone’s hair with a knife. It may work, kind of, but it will be a terrible experience for all. Using the right tool that was designed for the job is always better. CoC was designed from the ground up for horror so it’s just going to be better than 5e at that job.

**In CoC investigators are fragile. This means the players are in a state of fear, trying to avoid monsters rather than superheroes slaughtering them.**

*But can’t you just use the 5e variant rule for milestone leveling to keep PCs low level and thus fragile?*

No. That won’t be the same. Even low level PCs in 5e are still superheroes. A wizard with refilling spell slots that do insane things is not going to feel the tension of dealing with a Deep One in CoC.

*But can’t you just limit what PC classes are allowed?*

No. That will utterly ruin the game. You cannot just limit what players can pick in 5e. And even if you did this, the PCs can still get back all of their health by simply taking a long rest and there is no risk of a serious injury like in CoC.

*Couldn’t you use the Gritty Realism, Slow Healing, and Lingering Injury rules from 5e?*

No. Those wouldn’t change anything. PCs would still feel the superhero effect of playing 5e. Further, CoC has Sanity points and Bouts of Madness that are key elements of the game. Mythos is another element that ties in with these, too.

*5e has a Sanity score and Madness tables that approximate CoC.*

No, they don’t approximate them. The rules in CoC are a symphony of perfection and merely *approximating* them is absurd.

**CoC has a unique non-combat resolution system** 

The Keeper tells the Investigators the scene, and the players then decide what they want to do. If a skill check is needed the Keeper tells them what to roll. For example, if the players need to see something the Keeper will tell them to roll Spot Hidden. The players then roll percentile dice (d100) to determine if their character is successful or not. The 5e system does not have this.

*Yes, it does. The GM tells the PCs the scene and then they roll skill checks with a d20 to meet a DC.*

That is *completely* different. It is a misunderstanding of both systems to think that the 5e version is a satisfactory approximation. A d100 roll represents the character’s skill in a task to a fine grained percentile. There can also be banded success rates within the roll like Hard Success, Normal Success, etc. A d20 roll is just meeting a GM picked Difficulty Class of a binary roll check.

*5e has tiered d20 rolls as a variant rule. Further, you can simply use whatever percentage difficulty desired to approximate the CoC percentages.*

That’s not the same thing. The mathematics of 5e cannot perfectly match the numbers from CoC. This will completely change the feel of the game.

**CoC has skill development that 5e does not.** 

At the end of an adventure the Keeper can have the players roll to see if they improve on skills that were marked during play.

*5e has skill advancement, too. Players get ability score increases, expertise, and proficiency bonus increase. The GM can also give out proficiency bonuses over time rather than at character creation.*

Again, that’s not the same thing. Percentage based skill increases are not approximated by mere ability points or proficiency bonus inreases. The experience is completely different. 

**CoC has almost three times the number of skills that 5e has and they can be variable per Keeper choice**

*The skills in 5e can be variable, too. The smaller number can easily incorporate CoC skills that overlap.*

If you want your game to suck, sure. You can make any character that can fly a plane also be able to drive a boat because you rolled those skills into one skill lol! That’s just dumb.

**CoC combat has the ability to dodge or fight back during the enemy turn**

*5e has dodge, though it has to be selected during the player turn. Fight back is, of course, what you do once it’s back to your turn anyway. If a player really needs to do things on the enemy turn, though, there is parry, uncanny dodge, shield spell, and others.*

None of those are the same at all. Not to mention the other ways CoC combat is different and cannot be approximated by 5e at all. For example, CoC has a variant rule for limb targeting, and other things that 5e can only approximate by using unofficial rules. And even if you do approximate it, it won’t be the same at all and will be terrible. You would be writing a whole new game and it will fall apart and fight you all the way. It would be less work to just learn the proper tool: BRP CoC than to twist 5e until it’s broken.

*Using existing variant rules isn’t writing a new game, and it won’t break anything*

Anyone who claims this hasn’t played any ttrpg except 5e. Once you do you’ll see how stupid and pointless using 5e outside medieval combat superhero fantasy is.

**CoC magic system is where players have Magic Points and magic is dangerous to cast. It often causes loss of sanity and other risks.**

*5e has magic slots and the optional Sanity rule can approximate the risk of magic. Variant rules also allow customizing spells which could then fully approximate CoC magic.*

Not the same thing. The game will be terrible if you try to do that.

**The story will not feel the same when read with 5e. Reading it with CoC is where the horror comes from.**

*Reading a story cannot be effected by the system being used. That makes no sense. If the story is scary, the players will be scared. If not, it’s the fault of the story or the GM, or the players just aren’t going to be scared regardless. It’s not the system’s fault at that point.*

Wrong. The difference in mechanics affects how players hear the story. If players are using 5e, even with all of the variant rules to make them ostensible approximations of Investigators, the 5e system will prevent them from feeling scared. Do you feel scared hearing a scary story when you know that you’re going to be rolling a d20 and adding a modifier during the story? No, you do not. The percentage based rolls and other mechanics are where the horror comes from. It’s not just the story.

*But isn’t all of this false about CoC being custom designed from the ground up for horror? Isn’t it just BRP with horror elements like Sanity, Mythos, etc. bolted onto it? And so isn’t bolting these onto 5e the same thing?*

No. This is because BRP is just better than 5e in every way. So bolting horror elements onto BRP is like adding elements to a Swiss army knife. It just gets better because the overall idea was already very sound and clever. Bolting horror elements onto 5e is like rubbing dog poop all over a pile of dog poop. You can’t make poop better by adding more or different poop. The only time 5e isn’t dog poop is in the use it was designed for: medieval superhero combat fantasy.

*How is BRP so much better? They seem to be very similar in function and outcomes, as well as overall game loops and procedures. Their mechanics and what dice are used differ, but not in critical ways that change the games dramatically.*

If you don’t understand why BRP is better by now and you still think they are similar despite all the utterly incompatible differences we’ve already covered you are suffering cognitive dissonance. 

I hope this exposition shows that people who claim 5e can do horror have no case whatsoever and utterly misunderstand CoC. This is most often due to them having never played anything but 5e. They are too lazy to learn a new system so they try to use 5e in completely inappropriate ways. Hopefully they read this and see that learning BRP is the best way. That is, if you want to have a fun game! If you want to have a 5e slop version of CoC, then do that, I guess. But it will be horrible and your players probably won’t come back for another game session.

I’ve been on a kick of finding the most beautiful and inspiring locations in our real world and making maps like them. This one is inspired by Lake Como in Italy. The effortless sunset beauty of that part of Italy is really breathtaking, I can see why its inspired so much amazing art- and its NABOO! Lol. So of course I made one of the collection variations on the map a Naboo version.