Upcoming Homebrew: Doubling Down on W (Patreon)

Howdy folks! Even as I'm working towards Ex-Aid, the Kamen Rider content is still in play!

But even if you're not into Kamen Rider, I generally design my stuff to slot into any D&D campaign.

So this upcoming homebrew might look familiar, and you'd be right. I did Kamen Rider W about a year ago, and it was one of my best works. But the subclass options for the main characters ultimately felt a bit lacking in places. Specifically, the fact that it requires two players to fully appreciate it. 

While it was certainly "accurate to the source material," I find that sometimes, it's better to capture the spirit of the source material in favor of a stronger subclass identity and tighter features. 

That said, it's a bit of a balancing act, since the ones who would really appreciate this kind of work are the fans of the show, and they tend to prefer show-accurate designs. 

A bit of context for the folks who aren't familiar with Kamen Rider W: the show is centered around Hidari Shotaro. He's a half-boiled detective who slowly gets to the bottom of the illegal distribution of Gaia Memories. These are devices that grant supernatural powers to regular folks, but at the cost of their own humanity. He is aided by his partner Philip, who can magically look up any information from the planet. Kinda like a human version of Google, but without the evil part. 

Shotaro is, by all accounts, a regular human who has to fight mutated superhumans. To even the odds, he and his partner Philip do a soul-bond ritual to don a suit of power that has Philip's brilliant mind and Shotaro's physical tenacity.

So what's this doubling down on W all about? Basically, I'm doing a new subclass to mechanically express Kamen Rider Double, and make the character's fantasy more accessible at the table. 

Does this mean the original subclasses are outdated or unusable? Not at all! They're still a valid way to play as the character. This one is just a more manageable way to play as the character. Granted, my design senses nowadays are much sharper compared to last year (at least I hope it is).

And this W re-do is gonna be in the form of a... Warlock!

I know, my last video/homebrew was also about a Warlock, but seriously, the relationship between Philip and Shotaro just feels like a Patron-Warlock relationship in a lot of places. Granted, it's more of a partnership rather than that of a master-servant deal, but Philip literally asks Shotaro, "Do you have the courage to ride with the devil?"

Seriously, watch the first episode of W, and it'll all make sense. 

But will this actually be a Warlock, though? Right now, I'm leaning towards 'yes', but sometimes the wind blows in a different direction, and I'm downwind of a bad fart.

By the way, you can check out the progress of my current work via my Trello Board! You can even comment and vote on the cards if you have an account!

I hope that gives some context and drum up some interest for my next bit of work. If you wanna see its progress early, consider becoming a member of the channel! The $5 tier already gives you access to any Beta version I release, while the $10 tier lets you influence the design a bit by getting access to its Alpha versions! And both tiers grant free access to all of the shop's items!

Anyway, my wife and I hope you have a great week ahead!