Critical Role's Daggerheart is shaking up the TTRPG licensing world and we've got legal insight you won't find in your average rules breakdown. Inverlyst is joined by returning guest Noah Downs (a.k.a. @MyLawyerFriend) to unpack the Community Gaming License (CGL), its potential legal pitfalls, and whether it's truly the heir (or foil) to the OGL. We dig into fan content protections, revocability risks, VTT carve-outs, and what creators should know before building under this framework.

Oh, and there’s toothpick sponsorship. You’ve been warned.

BEHOLD THE RELEVANT LINKS

✦ Patreon: patreon.com/goblinsgrowlers

✦ Discord: bit.ly/goblindiscord

✦ Nerd Immersion Episode: youtube.com/watch?v=d4NidxlgMmk

“What do you get when you mix a thousand-legged centipede, a skeleton butler, and an emotionally resilient owlbear cub? A Paul Hughes interview, of course.”

In this special episode of GGP, Inver and Josh are joined by Pets & Sidekicks co-creator Paul Hughes, longtime EN World writer and TTRPG monster crafter. Together, they delve into:

✦ The design philosophy behind scalable companions in Advanced 5E

✦ Balancing action economy with adorable, devastating pets

✦ The evolution of owlbears, undead stealth features, and companion mechanics

✦ Narrative tips for GMs and players using sentient sidekicks

✦ A few spicy skeleton jokes (because, obviously)

Whether you’re a game designer, monster-crafting aficionado, or just really into fantasy fur babies, there’s something here to chew on.

For you CR crunchers out there, Paul promises a future Deep Dive on CR calculations, action economy balancing, and high-level companion builds. Get ready.

🎙️ Audio Note: The sound quality in this one had a bit of a rough roll, but we promise the content is still legendary. Blame neither Paul nor Scott. All honor to our audio wizard.

And now, for the RELEVANT LINKS:

✦ Support Pets & Sidekicks on Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/enworld/companions-compendium

✦ Peek behind the curtain at Paul’s mad genius: blogofholding.com

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And, you know, if you really love us... feel free to:

✧ Join our community Discord Server (http://bit.ly/goblinDiscord)!

✧ Listen to our sister show Quid Pro Roll (https://quidproroll.podbean.com/)!

✧ Find bonus episodes, early drops, and Deep Dives through our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/goblinsgrowlers)!

Telephone, Telegraph, Tell a Friend about the Goblins and Growlers Podcast.

→ Bonus episodes and early access on Patreon (http://patreon.com/goblinsgrowlers) → Subscribe to our monthly gaming newsletter (https://goblinsandgrowlers.beehiiv.com/subscribe) → Join the Goblins and Growlers Discord (http://bit.ly/goblindiscord)

Jess Lanzillo got a new opportunity with White Wolf and Todd Kenreck got the boot. Both are gone from D&D for very different reasons, but it raises the question of what's going on over there? Why's the old guard looking to get out (Lanzillo) and why are they eliminating one of the main faces of their 2024* relaunch (Kenreck)? Couple that with Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford heading to Darrington Press and it paints the picture of rebooted or more corporatized internals for D&D going forward, especially with their move toward a franchise model.

Check us out on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/goblinsgrowlers) for bonus Deep Dive videos along with early access to the video and audio of the podcast.

LISTEN, RATE, AND SUBSCRIBE!

If you like the show, please tell a friend about it. And if you want to tell more people, then please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and/or your podcatcher of choice. You can find and/or support us at all the places below:

https://patreon.com/goblinsgrowlers

https://facebook.com/GoblinsAndGrowlers

https://goblinsandgrowlers.podbean.com (and basically any other podcatcher) https://quidproroll.podbean.com (our sister podcast, the best narrative play)