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Review: Flee, Mortals! The MCDM Monster Book

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Review: Flee, Mortals! The MCDM Monster Book

The Flee, Mortals! The MCDM Monster Book is a Kickstarter funded project launched to provide an alternative to the Wizards of the Coast Monster Manual. The project raised  $2,084,117 USD from 27,009 backers which just shows the power of YouTube in developing a designer profile from which one can launch a commercial product.

Flee Mortal’s is a hefty and beautiful and well made book – purchasers can expect the book to last. With more than 339 stat blocks covering goblins, orcs, hogoblins, dragons, elemental, monstrosity, NPC’s, and a sprinkling of MCDMs own new creatures there is something here for every game master.

Unique (at the time) is that creatures (such as goblins) have been broken down into archetypes such as brutes, support and ambushes which skills to match. This provides the game master with clarify on how these creatures should be used – impacting their placement at the commencement and during combat encounters and aligned skills, brutes up front, and ambushers at the site using ranged weapons and sneaky tactics to target ranged focused player characters.

To complement these specialty creatures a new type of expendable mass creature called a minion has been introduced. These are one-hit one-kill creatures who can be killed on mass if the damage left over from the first minion killed is higher than the hp total of the next minion. This simple mechanic provides the opportunity for player characters to participate in mass battles against hordes as portrayed in comics and movies but this will need explaining in advance to players as this is a deviation from 5e game play expectations, and the last thing game masters will want is players deciding to run away from a horde rather than running head-long into it.

The outstanding addition is other notable feature is the addition of Villain actions to monsters. These complement and add to both lair actions and legendary actions. A villain action can only be used once per combat and their implementation has been masterful. Villains with these actions are now unique. Dragons radiate with power which aligns with the lore of each creature – no doubt this takes more time to design but for a game master these monsters are a joy to play – most villain actions are area effects meaning that they have a dramatic impact on game play experience – your players will not forget these battles.

Spooky Castle MCDM Style

Creature design does lean into the combat pillar of 5e. You will not find creatures with out of combat abilities. This appears to be a distinct design choice – combat (or as MCDM puts it – action orientated monsters) is their jam. If you are looking for monsters that are for out of combat use the game master will need to flesh out these details. Fortunately the lore of each creature supports this.

The art budget for this book can only be described as generous and of the highest quality. The style feels like a combination between Wizards of the Coast and Pathfinder but it would be fair to say its a style that is unique to MCDM and is complementary to each. Layout throughout the book is great.

If you are looking for a monster book to supplement the Monster Manual definitely put this on your list. It is available digitally in PDF as well as for Fantasy Grounds as well as DnDBeyond.

Review: Tome of Beasts 3

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Review: Tome of Beasts 3

Tome of Beasts II (ToB3) is a 2022 Kickstarter which raised USD$767.501 to bring more than 400 new monsters created by both game designers and backer contributors to the 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons game. This is the fourth monster book published by Kobold Press with the others being the Tome of Beasts, Tome of Beasts 2, and the Creature Codex 1 & 2.

Kobold Press is among the best presented of all the 3rd party publishers, with Kobold-In-Chief and business owner Wolfgang Bauer a former Wizards of the Coast and Dragon Magazine Editor and regular guest on the Official Dungeons and Dragons podcast Dragontalk. The books are always well polished in design and publication and this book is no exception. Monsters are of the highest quality art possessing an art style of art which conforms closely to the 5th edition feel established by Wizards of the Coast.

Quickly apparent in this book is that the creatures within are stepped up from the Monsters and creatures in prior products and those in the official books. The majority of monsters and creatures are provided with reactions and bonus actions, many are given area of effect abilities, and as always legendary actions are present for many. This change most likely reflects experience with the 5e system and recognition that rewarding battles come from monsters that have that little bit more. For the Dungeon Masters this is a good thing as its often easier to manage that little bit more than more monsters to track. For players it means that low creature encounter are going to be much more than my turn, your turn scenarios and for experienced players they are going to see and experience something new.

In terms of content mix there is a very good showing of monsters across popular categories including Beasts, Devils, Dragons, Drakes, Fey, Fiends, Giants, Golems, Hags, Kobolds, Plants, Oozes, Undead and NPCs. Dungeons Masters looking for creatures suited to particular terrain will be satisfied with good coverage including many creatures suited for Spelljammer, Planar, Fey, and Underwater adventures covered. A very good spread of challenge ratings awaits.

In keeping with prior monster books the Tome of Beasts 3 contains monsters which are aligned to Kobold Press’ Midgard campaign setting. Fey, Devils, blood-magic, and void-touched creatures are all present along with a new addition to the Ahu-Nixta which is a monster type I would describe as a cross between a Dalek and the three legged tripod from The War of the Worlds.

Overall the Tome of Beasts 3 is an excellent monster book.

So where does this book sit among the others produced by Kobold Press. If a new starter I would suggest the original Tome of Beasts as it contains a good amount of Kobold Press monster law which will help you appreciate the creatures in this book a little more. I would then suggest any of the others with Tome of Beasts 3 being the book that has monsters with that little bit more mechanically (bonus actions and reactions).

Again Kobold Press has delivered a masterful publication full of creatures that you will consider using and once again cursing yourself that most of us will probably never have time to run them all to scare and delight your players.

 

 

Dungeondraft Asset Resources

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Dungeondraft Asset Resources

So you have read our Dungeondraft review and bought the software played with it and decided that you want more assets to place in your maps. There are many assets available for Dungeondraft both free and paid for so here is a list to get you going on your map making journey.

Free Assets for Dungeondraft

This self-hosted website is usually the first port of call for those seeking additional assets for Dungeondraft. Here you will find assets for traditional fantasy landscapes, materials for buildings and assets for  including cliffs, modern, tanks, and cyberpunk settings. There isn’t a singular art style but many of the pieces blend well with paid sets.

Paid Assets for Dungeondraft

This well well established Patreon venture offers a very wide selection of assets with a fantasy focus. Budding cartographers are given thousands of asset and brushes with which they can make a huge arrange of maps. In addition the patron makes available tokens for your VTT – virtual table top choice (at Technical RPG we prefer Review: Fantasy Grounds Unity as it provide the best toolset available for game maters).

Forgotten Adventures makes all their historical assets available which is not the case for other Dungeondraft Asset creators

Tom Cartos is another well established map maker who has added asset to his Dungeondraft portfolio of products. Sporting a semi-realistic mapping style this collection pairs reasonable well with the mapping style of Forgotten adventures.

2-Minute tabletop is a more cartoon styled Dungeondraft which has a very appealing yet largely standalone art style. Updates are very regular but unlike other Patreons the Dungondraft asset library you will have access to is limited to a time period based on when you join. You can obtain older Dungeondraft assets from the dedicated 2-Minutetabletop website which is also useful if you do not with or cannot join Patreon and just want to obtain a particular asset set.

Ventatus maps is a popular Patreon source for Dungeondraft. This art-style is a very nice fusion between cartoon and realistic which an almost pastel like texture. Its very appealing but not as able to be integrated with other artstyles. A Patreon membership provides you with access to a very large and useable colleciton of Dungeondraft assets which will keep you busy and creative for weeks.

A comparatively newer Patreon site but none-the-less appealing source of Dungeondraft assets. The Mad Cartographer has a very nice ocean water set of symbols and a growing catalogue of assets that can help flesh out interesting places in towns.

The Mad Cartographer provides you with access to their Dungeondraft back catalogue so joining provides you with a lot of material to get started with.

A personal favorite that gently leans into a sometime watercolour but oddly vibrant cartoon-ish mapping style that I find instantly appealing. The variety of assets produced will allow you to create very interesting maps every time. I very much appreciate that all the assets are incorporated into very large and inspiring maps to that really provide you with a sense of what you can accomplish with both this map set and Dungeondraft in general.

Review: Grim Hollow The Monster Grimoire

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Review: Grim Hollow The Monster Grimoire

Grim Hollow: The Monster Grimoire is a Kickstarter product created by Melbourne Australian company Ghostfire Gaming for the 5e rule set. So did Ghostfire produce a product worth of Down Under Thunder Acclimation or does this product fizzle and fail?

To start this book is designed to support Ghostfire’ Campaign Setting Grim Hollow which was also a very successful Kickstarter product. This connection has resulted in many of the Monsters being more akin to NPC’s than Monsters but there are many unique and interesting entries with more than 400 entries to sate the desires of Game Masters.

Thematically the Monsters on on point. All come lore to support their integration into the Grim Hollow World but their lore is flexible enough that a Game Master can easily take the resource and drop it into their own home-brew campaign. In many cases the lore is very suitable for the creation of a themed one shot or singular combat encounter.

As part of the lore of each creates the Ghostfire Gaming team has provided DC checks that Players can make that allows the Character knowledge (instead of Player knowledge) be make available to the Players. While this is a nice touch Game Masters should be vary of having critical knowledge locked behind a skill check. It is usually more effective to supply a limited amount of knowledge to a player beforehand to support the horror game play this title and Grim World is supposed to support.

Horror comes from anticipation of dread, or fear of consequence should the wrong action be made. For Players having to think and make a decision knowing they only have limited or perhaps wrong knowledge makes for a more tense playing experience. Monsters that support the horror will provide a more memorable experience.

In terms of Monsters mechanical development is on the whole very good. Most have one or more actions that provide a sense of identify to the creates without placing undue additional workload on the Game Master or Player. Additive workload is the bane of efficient role playing sessions (5e’s Twilight Cleric is an excellent example). Stat blocks are clean, efficient, and easy to peruse and aren’t allowed to stray across pages which is fundamental must do.

Artwork is good but all appears to have applied a watercolour effect that makes the images de-saturated. It is likely that is consistent with the Ghostfire art pallet and the Grimdark atmosphere that Grim Hollow campaign setting is supposed to be. Art is always a subjective critique but an 428 pages of de-saturated artwork is a bit much for me.

The Best Bit is Not the Monsters

Monsters, lore and creativity aside the reason Game Masters should purchase this book is Chapter 3: Mastering Intelligent Monsters. This 6 page section contains without doubt some of the best advice for 5e Game Masters you will ever find for running Monsters.

It does a thorough job of explaining some key 5e rules in combat that are often overlooked but  it contains advice that allows a Game Master to run intelligent Monsters in a manner which makes for a more challenging combat experience for Players for a given CR in a way that that avoids pitting the Game Master as adversarial to the Players Characters.

This is pivotal advice and for those that have been listing to the 2020-2022 year of the Podcast Mastering Dungeons will be very familiar as the book sounds like Shawn Merwin and Teos Abadia during a typical episode.

In all this is a solid title if you are looking for Monsters that align with a horror genre. If you would prefer a Monster book that is more diverse (not just horror) then one of Kobold Press’s monster books may be more aligned to your needs.

Review: Vault of Magic for 5th Edition

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Review: Vault of Magic for 5th Edition

Vault of Magic for 5th Edition is a 2021 Kickstarter which raised USD$474,240 to bring more than 1,000 new magical items created by both game designers and select guests to the 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons game. This is the first magic items book by Kobold Press which is a prolific 5th edition publisher responsible for the Monster books Tome of Beasts 2 and the Creature Codex.

Kobold Press books contain the highest quality art of all their publications possessing an art style of art which conforms closely to the 5th edition feel established by Wizards of the Coast. Lets find out if this conjuration is worthy of adoration or have they published an illusion you should avoid?

After opening up the well illustrated cover you can soon learn that a plethora of Dungeons and Dragons Social media contributors have contributed to this book including YouTubers Professor Dungeonmaster and Nerdarchy, author Patrick Rothfuss, the Lazy Dungeon Master – Mike Shea, and a touch of Hollywood with Deborah Ann Woll. Each has their contribution listed which is a small nice touch. Unlike other Kickstarter publications by Kobold Press backers were not invited to propose items.

Beyond the introduction you encounter the Table of Contents which includes:

  • Armor & Weapons
  • Potions & Scrolls, Rings, Rods, Staves & Wands
  • Wonderous Items
  • Fabled Magic Items – magical items whose power unlocks as the character raises in level.
  • Appendix: Item Tables

As you delve into the text of the many many items within you can’t help but be drawn into the text and the promises of adventure and fun. Item after items contains features and flares that drive the story narrative forward for the Player embed memories as they use the item.

As an example: the Survival Knife provides no mechanical bonuses to hit but “you can use an action to transform it into a crowbar, a fishing rod, a hunting trap, or a hatchet”; while the a Fezz wonderous item (yes – the headwear of choice of the 11th Doctor) comes in threes and when worn they can cast Alter Self which makes all the three wearers of the fezzes in range affected simultaneously affected, making each wearer appear identical to the other.

Every Wonder what the Saddle for Calvary Casters can do for you?

This sharp focus on magical properties that provide opportunities for Players to engage in creative hi-jinks is what sets the book apart. Many items are low powered in a game mechanic (+1 sense) but high powered in being able to be dropped into a game regardless of character level. This is a huge feature and not to be understated.

Many items are accompanied by illustrations in a style which mimics the official art and the text and layout is perfect.

The last element of this book is the provision of random magic item tables that correspond to the Magic Item tables in the Dungeon Master Guide. A nice feature of the tables is the inclusion of the magic items in the 5e Open Gaming license.

Vault of Magic is available in multiple formats including hardback, PDF, and in VTT format for Fantasy Grounds, Roll 20, and Shard Tabletop. However if you can purchase a hard copy of this book as its the type of book that a DM should have at hand to pick up and by thrilled and inspired.

 

Review: Big Pockets Battlemaps

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Review: Big Pockets Battlemaps

Big Pockets Battlemaps are the creation of AJ Pickett a New Zealander who is behind a well regarded and detailed lore focused Dungeons and Dragons lore focused YouTube channel.

Like so many creators AJ Pickett has funded the initial production run of battlemaps through a 2021 Kickstarter raising approximately $29,000 USD from backers.

What makes these battlemaps and a few additional products funded is that they are made from silicone – yes the same material used breast implants – instead of with a plastic polymer.

With the first wave of products released to backers and a probably on their way to many gaming shops, its time to see if it is a great product, or if AJ Pickett cleaved into his idea factory and released a boob product (pun intended)?

But first, what is silicone? Silicone is an elastomer which means the molecules are made up of chains of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms. Silicone has several favorable properties including flexibility, good chemical resistance, and stability at both high and low temperatures. For most of use our exposure to silicone products is in the kitchen with silicon being used to make over mitts and baking trays.

The properties work very well and the battlemaps AJ Pickett has produced are flexible enough to be folded and placed in a backpack (no cardboard tube required) and they much easier to transport which is handy if you play somewhere else like a convention.

This is fantastic! But silicone does have a weakness that does need to be raised for those hobbyist that would like to use one of these maps as a miniature painting protection layer on their desktop which is that silicone is susceptible to irreparable damage from cyanoacrylate which is found in superglue which is often used to put models together. AJ Pickett also warns that red pigment permanent marker pens should be avoided as these may stain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In use the battlemap is flawless with the added benefit being that it can bend and flex over the edge of a table if the playing surface is not large enough. Even better it doesn’t feel fragile like traditional plastic sheets and you can even use it for mock pizza throwing practice.

Creases quickly smooth out, and the mats texture makes it less likely that tokens will slide  all over the place if the table accidentally bumped. This is a godsend and you can use the mat for playing cards.

Its quick and clean to wipe and reuse. I tried damp paper towel to soaking cloth and works like a treat. Zero issues

In addition to the standard battlemap with a 1″ grid and 1″hex on the opposite side they offer a semi-translucent model. In practice it works but its like deep frosted glass. You get the idea but its not highly detailed. They also make initiative trackers and player sheets. The initiative tracker is very useful.

This is a product that does what it is intended do very well – highly recommended.

The Most Interesting Unofficial 5e monsters

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The Most Interesting Unofficial 5e monsters

There are many iconic monsters in Dungeons and Dragons mindflayers, beholders, rust monster, gelatinous cube and the oddity that is the flumph. Tried and tested they bring fear, flavour and fun to your gaming table but some of the most memorable gaming experiences for both Dungeon Masters and players is to experience a monster or adversary they have not seen before.

The following monsters from third-party 5e creators are some of the best either mechanically or thermatically you can bring to your gaming table.

Ahu-Nixi (Kobold Press)

These physically weak aliens live within in mechanical battle suits fitted with chainsaws, spinning blades and ray weapons. If you are looking for a creature which could fit in a setting containing gith, githyanki, mindflayers these are an excellent choice. The artwork alone will be bring pause to your player characters and if you have access to chainsaw sounds to play at the table it really brings the Ahu-Nixi to life.

Variations of this creature can be found in the Creature Codex and Tome of Beasts 2.

Eonic Drifter (Kobold Press)

These time shifting humanoid savants provide an interesting role playing experience for Dungeon Masters to put in play. Their ability to pull reflections of themselves from the future or past provides the opportunity for a creative Dungeon Master to expand on this by bringing versions of the creature forward or backwards in time to scupper Player Character assumptions. Their interest in magical items makes them a potential competitor in the race for artefacts.

Variations of this creature can be found in Tome of Beasts and Tome of Beasts 2.

Origami Warrior (Necromancer Games)

Origami Warriors are an interesting low level foe in that they can be laid flat and sneak into a city and then released, or hidden behind paintings or rugs in a treasure room and surprise the party at the moment at which they are smug about their success.

They make an excellent side-kick, and portable horde army that isn’t comprised of zombies. The origami warrior is found in Fifth Edition Foes by Necromancer Games.

 

 

 

Picnic Hag (Nerdarchy)

Published by the ZZ-Tops of the Dungeons and Dragons community – Nerdarchy. The Picnic Hag brings the antagonist from the fable Hansel and Gretel to the gaming table.

This hag differs from other in that it doesn’t rely on its inherent magic instead the Picnic Hag can use the actions of the adventurer it has just swallowed. Image this hag swiging its large spoon at you an intent on using your parties Paladin’s smite ability!

This hungry hag is published in their Out of the Box Kickstarter book.

Hill Goblin Alchemist (Nord Games)

Nord Games really loves developing creatures with a little extra flavor and the Hill Goblin Alchemist is certainly fits the bill. Ladden with mind-altering potions with random effects that either hinder or hurt the party of benefits his goblin tribe this little critter can add a little random spice to your next Lost Mines of Phandelver play-through.

The Hill Goblin is hiding within Nord Games Ultimate Bestiary – Revenge of the Horde.

 

Review: Spectacular Settlements

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Review: Spectacular Settlements

Spectacular Settlement was marketed by Nord Games as “the ultimate guide to creating compelling locations for your adventures and campaigns….. devoted to various settlement types, from the smallest trading posts, to massive capital cities. Within these chapters are all the steps needed to craft a settlement with both depth and originality”.

So how did this Kickstarter project that raised more than USD$100,000 from more than 2,700 backers turn out?

In a nutshell: If you like the idea of designing your own custom villages, towns, cities, and fortresses and would like a toolkit of great ideas and a structure to build them around, this book is for you. It is purely focused toward the Dungeon Master looking to build and create their own world and at 482 pages – it is a hefty tome.

Spectacular Settlements gives you plenty of thinking material to allow you to conceptualise your location and breaks your locations into four key features:

    1. Basic Information. creation of broad or fundamental details about your settlement.
    2. Community. creating details about the people that live here and certain aspects of society.
    3. Points of Interest. Identifying key locations are in your settlement, including shops, services and places of worship.
    4. Extra Intrigue. An optional element additional flavour to the settlement.

As an example I was able to use the ideas in the Villages section to create:

Village of Therlamere:

    • Medium: up to 60 standing structures
    • Dilapidated: Village is in a state of disrepair
    • Located adjacent to a vast swamp
    • The villagers harvest a flatworm from the pith of swamp trees which is a delicacy in the nearest town
    • The harvest in recent years has been poor resulting the wealth of the village decreasing. Some say that a hag as taken nest in the swamp and is reducing the harvest but not have seen her
    • The majority of the population is human, and they are unfriendly due to the woe that has worn down their community
    • The hall which functions as the local Inn burnt down last year so the community have no place to gather and no resources of spirit to build a new one

Nord Games provides examples of each community type you can use in your game. As the community increases in size the complexity of offerings and number of features increases with having examples makes it easier to see how your ideas can play out and be structured.

For those unacquainted with Nord Games although they are incorporated in the US they are also strongly British. This heritage is reflected in the information provided about fortress design and construction and is a nice touch.

Art and layout are both excellent, as is readability – Nord Games sets a high bar when it comes to quality.

My only negative observation is that the PDF version doesn’t do it credit – if you can purchase a hard copy as it is the kind of book that you will enjoy best if you can flip forwards and backwards whilst creating.

This book was designed towards 5e Dungeon and Dragons however it is in the main system agnostics and is suitable for any fantasy campaign.

Review: Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

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Review: Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft (VRGtR) for 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons is Wizards of the Coasts May 2021 source book. The book is both an offering and homage to the genre of horror. It offers material for both Players and Dungeons Masters along with contents for those who just like reading fantasy tomes and neither want (or can’t) Play or Dungeon Master at all (well get to this in a moment).

Originally Ravenloft was just the name of the ancestral castle home of the Vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich the principal villain of the 5th edition Curse of Strahd Campaign setting. But the word Ravenloft is so memorable that it became the name that the creators of the original adventure (Tracy and Laura Hickman’s) friends referred to this adventure that the Hickman’s ran every Halloween, was the name of the adventure when officially published  as the module I6- Ravenloft, before being expanded as the Ravenloft campaign setting for the 2nd edition of the game.

VRGtR does two things. It firstly aggregates a large varied and diverse setting into a single book and presents with less mechanics (notably few stat blocks for NPCs), and is the first 5th edition book that harks back to the business model that ultimately resulted in the financial collapse of TSR – being the book that is hook-line-and sinker focused towards lonely fun and not for use at the gaming table.

“Lonely fun…”

What’s this lonely fun? Avid blogger DMDave writes about lonely fun in this article and speaks in depth about lonely fun and its contribution to the financial fall of TSR in Tabletop Babble Podcast episode 133. At its core a lonely fun is a role-playing product book or product that isn’t primarily designed to be played but read and re-read between gaming sessions, provoking thought and being fantasied by the reader – alone. Lonely fun is an entertainment product for one.

Even Mike Shea (also know as Sly Flourish) who normally only uses DnD Beyond stated in his podcast that he thought this was so interesting that he was actually going to buy a physical copy and lie down on this couch to read it. Let me tell you that Mike won’t be the only one – its a great book for one, and the need to read might just be the unspoken Domain of Dread created by the Wizards of the Coasts marketing Department.

Lets hope the Marketing Department of Wizards of the Coasts doesn’t repeat the mistakes of TSR and produce so much lonely fun products that it over saturates the market and they go bankrupt having amassed piles of product they can’t sell. Quality, not quantity has been a defining feature for 5th edition business smarts and lets hope the marketing team realises that a cockatrice that can petrify people into gold statues is only flesh and blood on inside and doesn’t decide to cut it open in an effort to get it all the gold at once.

Now…back to the book:

For Players: The book contains a small amount of material for players. New lineages (races) – comprising of partial vampires – dhampirs, the Hexblood which is essentially a being forged from a deal or constituted from an event, reborn souls – life after death possibly after being  assembled like Frankenstein.

Players are also offered Dark Gifts, which is much like a feat but comes with a chance for an in game sting in the tail (curse) along with new backgrounds and two new subclass options – College of Spirits for Bards, and The Undead for Warlock. These too are aligned to the horror genre.

For Dungeon Masters: The book offers much, much more but ultimately…. its just a framework for thinking about the types of horror and how to create this feeling in your game. The writers have very much provided you with the equivalent of a box that you have to fill yourself with your own sand. It is however a carefully crafted box.

There are other reviews that can provide you with a detailed breakdown of the components of the book but unless you are a Player that just wants to see the Player material the decision on whether to purchase VRGtR comes down too:

  • Do I want to create my own horror adventures using a well crafted and well explained mini-world that I will enjoy fleshing out myself?, or
  • Do I just love reading about fantastic worlds and places between game sessions and thinking and fantasize about what could be?

If you answered Yes to either of these then is definitely a purchase for you its a very well written book full of great gaming tips, locations, mini-adventure to help you understand how to run a horror adventure, and a few choice monsters to add to your game.

And certainly many fond hours of lonely fun – but best not read it on your own in the dark!

Review: Humblewood 5e Campaign Setting

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Review: Humblewood 5e Campaign Setting

Humblewood is a 5e campaign setting development by Hit Point Press and launched as a Kickstarter project which attracted more than 14,000 backers and generated more than $1 million USD in pledges. While the funding was for more than just the campaign setting alone how successful is this campaign setting for those with the love of all things avian and forest?

The campaign setting much you would expect including:

  • Custom lineages for forest folk including birds (subdivided into crows, chickens, pigeons, raptors, and owls), deer, hedgehog, field mouse, racoons, and fox. Characteristics fall along the tropes prescribed to such species in real life but birds can only glide
  • New class options: Bard (college of the road), Cleric (community and night domains), Fighter (Scofflaw – a scrappy dirty tricks fighter)
  • Backgrounds (bandit defector), Grounded (for birds that don’t like heights), and Wind-touched
  • Feats – aligned to improved gliding, or forest dwellings
  • A small number of spells for Bards, Clerics, Druids, Paladins, Ranger, Sorcerer, Warlock and Wizard classes

In terms of world building and establishing a setting the book provides a pantheon for the gods, languages, basic tale of world creation, and more recent history and the state of the world today.

“As a campaign setting it is a boring cutie-pie filled place that reeks with egalitarian notions of high piety.”

However the campaign world that exits in Humblewood is very sparse and the environment feels very much like Emmet from the first Lego Movie where he is singing “Everything is Awesome“.

It’s a very tranquil, happy joy, joy kind of place with only a few very vague reference to a nebulous Bandit Coalition (that lacks any goal(s) but is somehow organised) and an extensional vague threat from fire elementals. As a campaign setting it is a boring cutie-pie filled place that reeks with egalitarian notions of high piety. There are no petty squabbles, no cults, and no major ideological conflicts. There are cats – they do like to eat Humblefolk – but they are dumb – just apex predators and not protagonists with goals.

As a traditional campaign setting Humblewood fails miserably but it does have a path of redemption. The majority of the book’s page count comprises a single multi-part adventure. The adventure covers levels 1 to 5 which is where the majority of 5e adventures take place.

“…CAN provide a good experience for a short to medium specific themed campaign experience.”

If instead you look at Humblewood not as a traditional campaign setting but as a single adventure with custom races and other customisation that follow a theme – it then makes sense – and can provide a good experience for a short to medium specific themed campaign experience.

In terms of production quality Humblewood is really well assembled. Art is fantastic and scattered throughout the booking including both small and large art pieces which are on par with Wizards of the Coast products.

Cartography is excellent and much better than Wizards of the Coasts black and white maps.

Page layout is good but not excellent. There is something in the way the text is displayed, font choices, or colour scheme that makes the text difficult to concentrate on (in the PDF version). It would be unfair to say effort has not been made – I just find the design choices difficult to read.

As Humblewood markets itself as a campaign setting it will be marked from the perspective of a Game Master looking for a well developed world in which they can either run their own adventure. If it was being marketed as an adventure with tools to build themed characters it would receive slightly better marks.

If you really want a bird and forest animal themed adventure that isn’t a campaign setting but a detailed specific bird and forest creature themed adventure then you can consider this as a purchase.

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