"Greetings, foundlings, and salutations! You have decided to enter the mystical halls of the ’Brews, where you might learn some most astonishing mysteries and solve the most tangled of puzzles. Your task is to present us with something we haven't seen before, and have it make us look upon it with delight. You have but a few tendays to create your product and show it to us, so we suggest you get to work!"
- Meyonmon Merridith, Ex-Candlekeep Scholar
Greetings all and welcome! Drawing inspiration from the previous Competition of the Finest 'Brews thread series, this thread seeks to invite everyone to create special pieces of homebrew. Similar to the previous thread, entries will be divided into different categories - those focused on expanding a DM's toolkit, those focused on giving PCs more options, and those focused on fleshing out the world the adventures take place in.
Unlike the Competition of the Finest Brews, Merridith's Brewing Challenges are meant to be collaborative. The goal is to help build up each others' entries to fulfill the challenges as faithfully and satisfactory as possible. Additionally, the challenges for each category will not be limited to just thematic ones, where some may instead feature mechanical restrictions as well.
More details are outlined below
Timeframe
Nothing stays on the front page for very long. The challenges will last for 1 week. Challenge Set #1 is beginning on Saturday November 1st and will therefor last until midnight of Saturday November 8th.
Challenge Categories
There are three categories. These are so that people with skill in creating, say, monsters, don't end up stuck having to make dungeons. You are encouraged to submit as many entries as you feel inspired to.
Dungeon Master Challenges: Things that provide tools for DMs to make encounters more interesting and rewards more enticing - such as dungeons/encounters, magic items, monsters, random tables, or even optional rules/mechanics.
Player Character Challenges: Things that help a player will build and develop their character - such as homebrew classes, subclasses, spells, feats, backgrounds or race/lineage/species options.
Quest Challenges: Things that drive the characters' exploration and interaction with the world, prompting them to explore its social structure, environment, and underlying lore - such as NPCs, groups/guilds, puzzles, terrain, traps/hazards, or even institutions like shops or taverns
For the first entry, our category themes are:
Dungeon Master Challenge: Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
For this challenge, play with mechanics that work best when one or more creatures are working together. This could be monster traits similar to Pack Tactics or special sets of magic items that get more powerful when combined with one another or really anything you can imagine.
Player Character Challenge: A New Type of Shield
In the 2014 rules, details surrounding Damage Thresholds were outlined only in the DMG and usually restricted to objects and structures. Now, within the 2024 Player's Handbook, the rules for Damage Thresholds are outlined and can explicitly be applied to creatures as well as objects. For this challenge, design options for players that will allow them to benefit from this mechanic.
Quest Challenge: Break the Meta
Whether it be a Rogue with high passive Perception or equipped with a 10-foot pole, players (and by extension characters in the world) may start to feel a little comfortable with avoiding the many hazards of dungeoneering. For this challenge, come up with traps, puzzles, and other things to populate a dungeon that challenge classic ways of avoiding or overcoming them.
?Future Challenges?
After the first challenge period is completed, if there is enough interest in continuing on there will be a brief voting period to decided what each of the next challenge categories will be. At that point, anyone who submitted at least one 'brew for a category will get to suggest a challenge for that category, which will then be voted on.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Four-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Unlike the Competition of the Finest Brews, Merridith's Brewing Challenges are meant to be collaborative. The goal is to help build up each others' entries to fulfill the challenges as faithfully and satisfactory as possible.
Unlike the Competition of the Finest Brews, Merridith's Brewing Challenges are meant to be collaborative. The goal is to help build up each others' entries to fulfill the challenges as faithfully and satisfactory as possible.
Could you elaborate?
There will not be a competition to crown the "best" entry of a group. Instead, the goal is to take the ideas that people submit and run with them, build off of them. Thats really it. Just wanted to highlight that this spin off does not have a competitive goal.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Four-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
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Timeframe
Nothing stays on the front page for very long. The challenges will last for 1 week. Challenge Set #1 is beginning on Saturday November 1st and will therefor last until midnight of Saturday November 8th.
Challenge Categories
There are three categories. These are so that people with skill in creating, say, monsters, don't end up stuck having to make dungeons. You are encouraged to submit as many entries as you feel inspired to.
For the first entry, our category themes are:
Dungeon Master Challenge: Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
For this challenge, play with mechanics that work best when one or more creatures are working together. This could be monster traits similar to Pack Tactics or special sets of magic items that get more powerful when combined with one another or really anything you can imagine.
Player Character Challenge: A New Type of Shield
In the 2014 rules, details surrounding Damage Thresholds were outlined only in the DMG and usually restricted to objects and structures. Now, within the 2024 Player's Handbook, the rules for Damage Thresholds are outlined and can explicitly be applied to creatures as well as objects. For this challenge, design options for players that will allow them to benefit from this mechanic.
Quest Challenge: Break the Meta
Whether it be a Rogue with high passive Perception or equipped with a 10-foot pole, players (and by extension characters in the world) may start to feel a little comfortable with avoiding the many hazards of dungeoneering. For this challenge, come up with traps, puzzles, and other things to populate a dungeon that challenge classic ways of avoiding or overcoming them.
?Future Challenges?
After the first challenge period is completed, if there is enough interest in continuing on there will be a brief voting period to decided what each of the next challenge categories will be. At that point, anyone who submitted at least one 'brew for a category will get to suggest a challenge for that category, which will then be voted on.
Four-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Could you elaborate?
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXIX?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
There will not be a competition to crown the "best" entry of a group. Instead, the goal is to take the ideas that people submit and run with them, build off of them. Thats really it. Just wanted to highlight that this spin off does not have a competitive goal.
Four-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!