Opinion – Page 4 – The Western Howl

“Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide” is not Wizards of the Coast’s typical sourcebook

Stephanie Moschella |‌ ‌Digital Media Manager

Okay in actuality, “Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide” is technically not even a sourcebook. For dungeon masters ⏤ no matter how experienced ⏤ there will be absolutely nothing for them in this book. If you want a general overview of Faerûn and the Sword Coast area itself, then sure, spend $20 or so for this book. But, for people that have access to the internet, it is way easier to look up the information needed than to go searching through 50 pages.

The Sword Coast honestly is an extremely generic setting for a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. It’s good for quick one shots with new and boring players or the Adventurer’s League ⏤ settings I don’t really define as actual D&D campaigns.

There is a lot of lore here, and Wizards of the Coast does make it canon instead of flip flopping with conflicting lore like they did for the past 30 plus years. They retconned and reconstructed a lot of material into one convenient source book, but it still can only really be used in an god-awful traditional setting.

However, WOTC will do anything for a cash grab, so they did cram some new content for character development. Besides the lore on the Sword Coast, other surrounding areas in Faerûn and a few deities, this source book puts a spotlight on class archetypes and new backgrounds.

Not all classes get new archetypes and some only get expanded versions ⏤ which hinders a lot of character builds. However, there’s some interesting ones such as the Purple Dragon Knight fighter, the comprehensive Arcana domain for clerics and a storm related archetype for sorcerers. Bards and druids don’t get any new additions, but unless a player is trying to have sexy times with a dragon as an actual a-s dragon, there’s no point in playing these classes anymore anyways.

Overall Review: For players that want an introduction to the Sword Coast region or D&D hoarders that want to collect all the books, go ahead and buy this. But, it’s pretty meaningless and not really worth the investment, so I would suggest just using online resources. 4/10 would recommend to DM’s and players alike.

Contact the author at smoschella20@mail.wou.edu

The Western Howl

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Dungeon Delving for Dummies: “Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes”

“Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes” is Wizards of the Coast most essential source book

Stephanie Moschella |‌ ‌Digital Media Manager

“Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes” stars our friendly level 30 mad mage — he takes readers through the multiverse that includes realms like Greyhawk, Eberron and more. If dungeon masters have players that are looking to be thrown into some good ol’ political intrigue, there is some rich history here that can help with that. With six chapters that contain a plethora of new lore and dozens of options regarding general gameplay, it tops it off with a large bestiary of new foes to use against players.

The first section of the book focuses on The Blood War, which was fought between demons and devils, each attempting to grab for power. They fought a lot in the lower planes, so if DMs were going to use this in a campaign, there shouldn’t be too much concern regarding players venturing there. Unless players have a pretty sadistic DM….

A large extension to the Tiefling race was added — many subraces, additional abilities and more personality traits can be used by players. Along with multiple race variations to elves, dwarves, halflings, and gnomes, there is also an entirely new race addition — the Gith. Players would be able to play a githyanki or a githzerai depending if they wish to hone their strength or intelligence skills.

Although the race additions and bestiary are helpful, a large portion of the sourcebook is optional information to add into campaigns. It would be useful for newer DM’s and those that want a quick fix to creating lore, but for already ongoing campaigns, it can truthfully be disregarded.

For more modern DM’s, I would not suggest using any of the lore in this book. It dives deeper into why certain races are classified as “evil” compared to others, specifically the drow and duergar. This sourcebook provides a pretty lame excuse for being blatantly racist by deeming it as “world expansion.” From Mordenkainen himself, “dwarves are neurotic.”

Overall Review: Between the name calling and race structured personality traits, this sourcebook typically sits on my bookshelf collecting dust. 5/10 would recommend to players and DM’s alike.

Contact the author at smoschella20@mail.wou.edu

The Western Howl

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Opinion: Self-love doesn’t have to be linear

Learn to like yourself first, and the rest will come later

Natalie‌ ‌Dean‌ ‌|‌ ‌Entertainment‌ ‌Editor‌ ‌

Valentine’s Day used to be simple and relatively stress free. Those were the days, when all we had to do as students was scribble a ‘xoxo’ on some cheap-o cards our parents bought last minute. The biggest stress was making sure everyone’s names were spelled right on the card. As we grow up over the years, we realize that there’s an external pressure to find someone “special” to spend Valentine’s Day with. And if you’re single during the holidays, then the next mission is to take that singleness and to “just love yourself” through it. In a world that puts a lot of pressure on loving yourself fully, right off the bat, what is someone to do if they don’t even like themselves?

Thankfully, you don’t have to love yourself. At least, not right away.

Self-love is important, but it has recently become the suggested quick-fix solution to people’s problems. If loving yourself was that easy, everyone would be doing it — and nobody would be struggling with the parts of themselves that they hide away. But life is not about loving yourself right away, it is about honoring the process of getting to know yourself and taking realistic baby steps. The saying is true after all: no matter where you go, there you are.

It is not a race, and it takes active practice. Even though it can be difficult to put ourselves first, there are many approaches to personal growth. Some ways that may help is by practicing patience with yourself, and to show acceptance and gratitude to the body that has gotten you through a pandemic. If you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired, hold yourself accountable in the ways you want to change, and work toward those goals.

Instead of being our own worst enemies, what if we tried being as patient with ourselves as we are with others, like we do with our loved ones? If they make a mistake, our first instinct isn’t to tear them down, it is to lovingly encourage them to try again. It is important to recognize when we speak to or treat ourselves poorly, and then try to be more understanding and patient.

This last year has put too many people through the wringer, and it can feel like we’re going through the motions until we fully settle into our new normal. While the dust settles, it is important to know that this type of acceptance and love can’t happen overnight, and it is crucial to ask for support when needed. Love and kindness toward yourself is something that can be worked on anytime — not just because it is a new year, or because it is Valentine’s Day, but because you deserve to feel at ease with yourself all the time.

Contact the author at ndean17@wou.edu

The Western Howl

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Dungeon Delving for Dummies: “Xanathar’s Guide to Everything”

“Xanathar’s Guide to Everything” is Wizard’s of the Coast’s most helpful sourcebook

Stephanie Moschella |‌ ‌Digital Media Manager

“Xanathar’s Guide to Everything” serves as a compendium of everything extra and more. With beautiful artwork scattered throughout and hilarious riffs from the notorious gang leader Xanathar himself, this is an incredibly useful guide for dungeon masters. This sourcebook is split into three chapters: Character Options, Dungeon Master’s Tools and Spells ⏤ alongside extensions on character names and advice for DM’s. Nevertheless, Xanathar and his pet fish, Sylgar, take readers on a wild ride through all the brand new content to play with.

If DM’s have more role-playing than roll-playing players, the character option guide is a massive win. Combat-focused players might find this section a bit underwhelming, however, nobody cares about what they think. There are many revisited and revised class modifications such as the Samurai fighter and the Swashbuckler rogue, along with a completely new subclass, the Horizon Walker ranger. Another win for the four players out there that still play a ranger.

A compelling addition are the racial feats at the end of chapter one ⏤ which cover races such as tieflings and gnomes. There are various supplemental tables that DM’s could use to expand a nonplayable character’s background with a roll of a die or can act as a helping hand for new players.

This sourcebook covers those complicated questions that come up during games, like the rules around waking someone up, exhaustion, seeing someone cast and identifying the spell and what the hell adamantine weapons are. Knowing those little, but important, rules can make a game run smoother and improves the efficiency of the DM. It’s great to know what to do when a player falls off a cliff.

Half of the spells in the original 5th edition handbook sucked, so I always look forward to any new ones that come out. The major additions to the druid, sorcerer and wizard spell lists give a much wider variety for extensive combat play. From Xanathar himself, “danger is everywhere. Always keep one eye open.”

Overall Review: Although not everything is balanced, many things this sourcebook visited can help build an entire campaign. 8/10 would recommend to players and DM’s alike!

Contact the author at smoschella20@mail.wou.edu

The Western Howl

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Student reactions to Trump’s 2nd impeachment after the Capitol attacks

Western students react to Donald Trump’s 2nd impeachment after the attacks on the Capitol

Stephanie Moschella | Digital Media Manager

Do you approve of Trump’s 2nd impeachment after the Capitol attacks?

How many students voted: 79

Students who approved of Trump’s 2nd impeachment: 67 (84.81%)

Students who disapproved of Trump’s 2nd impeachment: 12 (15.19%)

Contact the author at howldigitalmediamanager@mail.wou.edu

The Western Howl

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Opinion: Schools can do more to protect students from active shooters

Public education needs to improve active shooter safety on campus

Sydney Carpenter | News Editor

Gun control is an exhausted conversation that ultimately divides people. The arguments lead to more arguments that lead to people being angry and nothing being accomplished. When all is said and done, neither side is able to persuade the other and we are still left with the issue of school shootings. In 1970, the Center for Homeland Security recorded eight students were killed on campus from gun violence ⏤ a 237.5% difference to 2018’s 27 fatalities. My question is, if we aren’t able to come to any kind of agreement on guns, why do we keep on fighting with each other? Let’s talk about the real issue of protecting students and staff from school shooters.

A 2018 USA Today article entitled “How secure are our schools? Since Columbine they are locked tightly, research shows” states that , “The year of the massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., just 19% of schools said they used security cameras to monitor buildings. By the 2013-14 school year, 75% had the devices up and running.”

This statement proves that schools are upgrading security. Additionally, according to GuardianBooth.com, the number of schools implementing school resource officers has grown from 13% in 1994 to 57% in 2018.

In addition to upgraded security, most schools have implemented lock down procedures. While many schools say that their lock down drills prepare students and teachers for if a gunman were to enter the school, many safety officials argue that existing lock down drill policies are not effective.

According to an interview conducted in 2012 by ABC News, former SWAT officer Greg Crane stated, “most schools tell teachers to lock their doors and sit quietly until help arrives. We don’t recommend just locking a door because locked doors have been defeated before.”

When I read this interview, the first thing that came to my mind was the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. The gunman, a former student of the school, was familiar with the school’s emergency plans and rendered that preparation useless with a flick of a fire alarm. This is an example of school safety needing to adapt to situations like these.

At Western we don’t even have lockdown drills. We have fire drills and earthquake drills — why not active shooter drills? I understand that universities are larger than high schools, but the university could randomize a few buildings each month that could practice. At least the resident halls should practice a lockdown drill once a term as they do with fire drills.

In the emergency procedures pamphlet for Western, there is a whole section dedicated to active shooters, and it lists a procedure known as ALICE ⏤ alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate. In their procedures, the plans reflect a high school lockdown, but their plans constitute half a pamphlet page. The other half of the page is dedicated to how the news of the shooting will be relayed to media outlets. Why are we using half of a page to talk about how the information is going to be conveyed to the media? Why not use the entire page to include or expand on plans in the event of an emergency? We could even have video orientations made available on our portal.

My point is, we exhaust ourselves by fighting with each other over gun control when neither side is going to be swayed. We have come a long way since Columbine, and after the Parkland shooting, new gun legislation in Florida was passed because of students marching for their lives. However, the buildings in which these tragedies happened still need to be secure. If we invest a little more time and energy in preparing the places where they happen, maybe it would help students feel more secure.

Contact the author at scarpenter18@mail.wou.edu

The Western Howl

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Opinion: New Year’s resolutions are meant to fail

Making resolutions is nice, but fixating on our flaws is not

Cora McClain | Editor-in-Chief

Exercise more, eat healthy, keep to a study schedule, read 30 books by the end of the year, etc. — typical resolutions like these permeate throughout little (or long) lists we use for yearly self-improvement. Each year, we look in the mirror and list out all of our flaws and make meaningless lists on how to improve upon those flaws. Jokes have been made time and time again, but New Year’s resolutions usually last about as long as the holiday — one day or less. The way we construct our list of resolutions makes them so breakable.

Our New Year’s resolutions are reflections of our “perfect” selves: the ones who rock climb, the ones who cook, the ones who keep houseplants alive, but they are not ourselves. We create unattainable goals that are pass/fail with no wiggle room. Changing behavior doesn’t happen overnight, and too often we expect to be able to be at the level of our “perfect” selves by Jan. 1. It is simply unattainable, and only adds to a self-deprecating culture in which we don’t hold ourselves accountable.

That being said, I don’t hate goal setting; in fact, I think goal setting is the key to success. I just think that we put way too much pressure on ourselves to force ourselves to change who we are. Good positive change takes time and work, starting small and building towards that big change. Otherwise, forcing a huge change from the get go will only lead to lackluster results. We need to move towards kinder and more attainable goal-setting in order to facilitate change and improvement in our lives.

I have found a lot of clarity in how to create attainable resolutions in Leena Norms’ video on the topic, “Lies you’re told about new years resolutions.” She gives many tips on how to break the New Year’s resolution mold and look at the yearly tradition in a more creative and positive light. While watching her video, I discovered a trend — people aim too high and are far too harsh on themselves by believing New Year’s resolutions have to look a certain way. In reality, you can make anything a resolution, decide anyway to measure it and give yourself as much wiggle room as you need. It doesn’t always have to be “go vegan or go home.”

Contact the author at cmcclain17@mail.wou.edu

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Dungeon Delving for Dummies: “Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide”

Dungeon Delving for Dummies: “Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes”

Opinion: Self-love doesn’t have to be linear

Dungeon Delving for Dummies: “Xanathar’s Guide to Everything”

Student reactions to Trump’s 2nd impeachment after the Capitol attacks

Opinion: Schools can do more to protect students from active shooters

Opinion: New Year’s resolutions are meant to fail

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