User:Banyan
From D&D Wiki
I didn't start getting into D&D until high school, but I attached to it pretty quickly as a natural extension of my love of the fantasy genre and creative work. While in high school I was primarily a player, but in college I became primarily a DM, and started really fleshing out the campaign world I had begun in high school and running campaigns in it.
I work in a game store, so I have practically all SRD supplements at my fingertips and a good deal of time.
Objectives
Generally I don't think players and DM's need more feats, classes, monsters, and so on. There are so many of those types of things included in the ridiculously expansive WotC library of supplements. What I'm trying to do is find ways of using this D&D material to have people play fantasy games that are re-envisioned to include types of fantasy not specifically intended by these core rulebooks. Age of Titans I think is an example of this, where players can play in a game that might include traditional monotheistic elements or Native American elements and includes archetypal concepts like a flat earth while still retaining the option to use anything included in any of the official supplements or on the wiki. What Age of Titans doesn't have is a list of deities and a lot of campaign specific prestige classes and that sort of thing, and generally I'm happy with that. Obviously some of it is needed to get the right campaign feel in places, but mostly I'm about finding ways to get experienced players and DM's to try a new type of game, and not just a prestige class unique to one campaign setting.
Projects
Age of Titans
The Age of Titans (DnD Campaign Setting) is my primary focus. For a while I felt that it was mostly finished, but I have since started really seriously expanding it into a complete setting. There are currently at least 8 articles on this site dealing specifically with the Age of Titans setting and its variant rules and so on, and at least 8 articles that have 'red' links, not currently filled in.
Nintendo World
Nintendo World (DnD Campaign Setting) is the setting I work on when I've had a few. I created it as a joke and have really no emotional attachment to it, so I welcome anyone and everyone to just add whatever ridiculous crap they want to. It's pretty funny to see just how those video games translate into DnD rules.
Variant Rules
I created the variant rule Expanded Religions (DnD Variant Rule) which is technically part of the Age of Titans setting, but I did make up that variant before the setting, and it can definitely be used in its own right in any setting. I made this after noticing that most of my players would just say they had no religion mainly because they didn't want to follow one particular deity. I wanted them to have more options at hand that would allow religion to become an important part of their character in any way they want.
I also wrote Beneficial Drugs (DnD Variant Rule) which is perhaps better called "Beneficial Poisons" because that's all they really are is poison that grants a benefit as well as having the usual poison cost. That's basically what drugs are in the real world, and I wanted the characters to have a reason to have their wizard smoking a pipe or their barbarian snorting red powder, to give the game a bit more grit. You don't need to read much that I've created to realize that I'm not a fan of censoring the unpleasant.
My latest variant rule is Supernatural Languages (DnD Variant Rule) which I'm still on the fence on as to whether or not it's a good idea. I got the idea originally from Harry Potter and the concept of parseltongue. This one, along with the Beneficial Drugs variant needs some play testing. This is my first transformational variant, which I usually avoid so as to keep away from confusion, but I felt like the way languages are handled in D&D needs some serious overhaul to make any sense and still be playable.