An Abridged Guide to Shrines - D&D Expertise Episode 14
Channel: DiceCold
Date: 2022-02-24

Fill your world with shrines to the gods, letting the party learn about the deities and cultures of the world they inhabit. On an unrelated note, the plane of Kamigawa is pretty neat.

Music is “Motherland” by Ketsa courtesy of Freemusicarchive.org

The content of this video is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)



Video transcript:

Hi, I’m Casey Grey - or so it says on my business card - and this is D&D expertise, episode 14.

One of the great joys of D&D is discovery. Players love wandering through the world and learning its secrets and lore. To reward this curiosity you need to present them with things that are interesting and worth discovering. Give them glimpses into cultures past and present that express the multitude of experiences within your world.

One of the best tools for this is to have shrines to different gods scattered throughout the land, some well maintained and others lost to antiquity. When they stumble across one of these sites tell them what aesthetic elements exist to represent the deity it’s dedicated to. 

A shrine to the embodiment of nature might be surrounded by flourishing wild growth, the sweet scent of ripe fruit, and bouquets of blooming flowers. The people cherish its presence as a benevolent power. If the god’s shrine is surrounded by thorny vines and twisted barren trees then perhaps the shrine exists so that offerings can be made in the hopes of mercy from a cruel force that chokes out the light of civilization.

An offering made by the party can bestow a blessing upon them in return. Even an enchanted tool or weapon might be provided to them if they prove their devotion through action or tribute. Dismantling the logging camp that goblins have established could be repaid with a whip that lashes with the thorns of a rosebush and the strength of the wild.

Write moving poetry to the lakeside shine of the moon spirit and receive the gift of a mirror that reveals the truth behind illusion. Poetry seen as crude or demeaning may lead one to find their soul trapped within such a mirror instead.