A village divided, its streets turned to battlegrounds, its shrine defiled, and its people trapped between warlords and wolves
From the road, the village looks more like a fortress than a home. The wooden palisade has been hastily reinforced with carts, beams, and sharpened stakes, giving it a jagged, uneven crown. Thin smoke curls into the sky, carrying the smell of ash and metal. Guards in mismatched gear patrol the walls, pausing often to peer into the distance, ...
2025-10-04 22:46:48 +0000 UTC
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Hey friends,
Here is the regional map of all the locations detailed in Just Passing Through. Of course, you're more than welcome to ignore the map and use the villages and towns detailed in JPT however you like. But if you are looking for a bit of continuity, here you go.
It's currently a work in progress. As I release more Just Passing Through content and locations, I'll add them to the map accordingly.
The links to the identified location are below.
A thriving coastal village of bright boats and bustling trade, masking whispered fears of creatures from the sea.
The village unfolds along the rugged coast, its harbor filled with bright, colorful boats bobbing against the tide. The air is thick with salt and the call of gulls, mingled with the shouts of fishmongers and sailors. At the center stands a bustling marketplace, crowded with merchants, travelers, and curious onlookers bartering over crates of fish, bolts...
2025-10-03 17:59:13 +0000 UTC
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Hey friends!
The Just Passing Through Remastered pre-order/backerkit goes live next week. There's not a lot of bells and whistles on this one as I'm mainly focused on fulfilling a couple past projects (which, thankfully, is going extremely well).
If you haven't already seen it, check it out here: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/dmdave-publishing...
2025-10-03 14:34:26 +0000 UTC
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A village of silence and strain, overshadowed by the brooding manor that watches from the hill.
The village sits in uneasy silence, sturdy timber buildings leaning under years of neglect. Roofs sag, walls bear fresh patchwork, and yet there is no market, no forge, no workers calling out offers to trade—only a few haggard figures laboring with grim focus, their determination etched as deeply as the lines on their faces. Dense forests and steep hills rise on all sid...
2025-09-26 19:35:13 +0000 UTC
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Lacking time to create content for your Tabletop RPG game?
Players love going "off mission", exploring side paths, or wandering around your sandbox. Creating everything you need for a village without making it feel too vague or undercooked is impossible. Those detours require de...
2025-09-25 15:32:59 +0000 UTC
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A weary village by forest and sea, where silence lingers heavier than the salt wind and every face bears the weight of unseen affliction
The road opens into a somber settlement pressed between forest and sea, its weathered cottages sagging with disrepair and patched with driftwood and stone. The air carries salt and damp earth, while weary villagers move quietly through the lanes, their clothes hanging loose on lean frames, eyes hollow with exhaustion. Few speak, an...
2025-09-23 16:17:12 +0000 UTC
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A once-fertile village now parched by drought, where resilience clings as tightly as the dust to its fields.
The road ahead dips toward a cluster of cottages and barns, their thatched roofs pale and brittle under the sun’s unrelenting glare. Fields stretch around the village, cracked and dusty, with little more than stubborn stalks clawing at the earth. Even the river beside it has been reduced to a muddy pit. Yet, despite the weary land, the villagers move with p...
2025-09-22 19:43:54 +0000 UTC
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Hey fans,
Quick question: As I'm extending the original Just Passing Through entries, I've budgeted an extra 4 pages for the 20 original villages. On those pages, I'll offer extended adventure descriptions. However, I'm not sure the best way to go about doing this.
Should I...
1) Make one medium-sized adventure covering all four pages?
2) Make four bite-sized adventures covering one page each?
3) Make one small adventure<...
2025-09-19 23:27:07 +0000 UTC
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Hey friends,
Many of you are probably familiar with my Just Passing Through series. If you're not, it's a selection of random villages that you can easily drop into any fantasy TTRPG. Each listing includes a read-aloud text block, notes on the village, demographics, NPCs, map, locations, and adventure hooks. While the adventures here are very popular, Just Passing Through is by far my most successful venture regardless of the format.
For the next Backerkit Campaig...
2025-09-16 14:26:06 +0000 UTC
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Hey friends,
I'm writing a big heist adventure for the Overclock book and need some one word prompts. There's a lot of rooms, so you're allowed up to three.
Here's the rules:
1) Three words per patron, preferably in separate comments.
2) Keep it clean.
3) Nothing too anachronistic. It's an Art Deco punk setting with airships, gangsters, etc.
4) No proper nouns.
5) The words "defenestration" and "mirrors" are...
2025-08-20 14:59:31 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone,
With Arch-hag handily winning (even if you don't count the fact that I put it twice), I think it might be useful to dig into some dark fey adventures using the 2025 Monster Manual. The other runners-up from the previous poll will get their own themes built around them down the road.
Apparently, goblinoids, centaurs, bullywugs, and worgs are now fey? Huh.
Anyways, here are some more fey creatures I can write adventures about for a compilation of fey adventures. ...
2025-08-14 16:43:51 +0000 UTC
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Hey folks,
What vibe would you like to see with the content going forward? Choose below.
2025-08-14 00:40:04 +0000 UTC
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Hey folks,
Back to basics.
Pick the monster you want me to build adventures around between now and next month. These will use the 5e2024 versions, but will be playable with 5e2014.
Vote for the three monsters you like best. Top 4 monsters win!
Thanks!
2025-08-13 22:09:59 +0000 UTC
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One hundred and fifty years ago, fifteen royal martyrs chose to bleed their necks to seal a slavering aberration in a tomb far beneath the earth. Fourteen of these saints succeeded. The fifteenth—a man named Halwen—was spared by a faulty blade and fled the tomb, declaring it a divine miracle.
He was wrong.
The creature, malformed and eternal, remains trapped—but only barely. Halwen’s bloodline carries the cost of his escape: a hereditary compulsion, the haunt of unfinishe...
2025-07-26 20:40:14 +0000 UTC
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One hundred and fifty years ago, fifteen royal martyrs chose to bleed their necks to seal a slavering aberration in a tomb far beneath the earth. Fourteen of these saints succeeded. The fifteenth—a man named Halwen—was spared by a faulty blade and fled the tomb, declaring it a divine miracle.
He was wrong.
The creature, malformed and eternal, remains trapped—but only barely. Halwen’s bloodline carries the cost of his escape: a hereditary compulsion, the haunt of unfinishe...
2025-07-26 20:40:08 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone,
Most of you want to see a mid-level adventure. So I have some potential titles below. Pick the one that sounds coolest.
Note: I have zero idea what they're about other than I'll probably have a single village serve as their jump-off point, so feel free to come up with ideas in the comments below.
2025-07-13 21:13:34 +0000 UTC
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Hey friends,
I've been working on the Backerkit/Kickstarter campaign stuff, so that's why I've been quiet. But I can still hammer out a few things this month. Trouble is: I've got some crazy writer's block right now.
So the big questions right now is: what do you need?
2025-07-13 19:44:24 +0000 UTC
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Do you all want to build and run cults or find and destroy them?
2025-07-06 00:35:38 +0000 UTC
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Hey friends,
I'm wrapping up MEKBORG this week, so my attention is back on 5e/content for the Patreon. I'm working on some cult concepts with microadventures to drop in. Before I begin, I was hoping you all could help me pick a cool name for the first cult.
Vote below.
2025-07-05 16:22:24 +0000 UTC
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Hey friends!
Just getting back from a pretty unsuccessful exhibition at Origins. The main thing I noticed is that 5e physical products just don’t do as well as they used to.
But do not panic! I will continue making 5e fantasy (or fantasy adjacent as my stuff here tends to be) content and conversions for all paid subscribers.
Starting soon, free versions of my content will be geared toward OSR with 5e conversions and VTT packs dropping at the same time.
OSR means O...
2025-06-23 19:51:07 +0000 UTC
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Hey fam,
If you wish to read a long-winded post on my content creation methods going forward, keep reading. Otherwise, skip down to "ON TO THE POLL!"
As time goes on and the new "edition" (5.5... 5.25... whatever the fuck) spreads, it's occurred to me that I need to update things a bit. While I will continue to have the immense 5e library here and still make content that will work for it, I need to consolidate and focus on the "non-D&D" brands that have done w...
2025-06-19 04:03:53 +0000 UTC
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Hey friends,
I've had a bit of writers block lately (also, I've been working on finishing up some of the crowdfunding things which I'm happy to say are going smoothly), so I was hoping that you could help out by voting on a Dungeons & Lairs theme.
Below is a list of monsters I haven't really done adventures for yet. Pick the one you like best.
2025-06-12 16:46:12 +0000 UTC
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Hey friends,
For Broadsword #27, I'm penning a big chonky adventure set in a megadungeon designed by Tim Hartin. I just need to know what level we should start it at.
Choose below!
2025-05-31 21:22:02 +0000 UTC
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Hey friends,
I'm writing a tournament module for Origins. It'll come out after we appear at Origins this year. In the meantime, I need some one-word prompts for it.
In the comments, leave a single word. I'll create a section of the dungeon based on that word.
Rules:
Hey friends,
I'm getting ready to start prepping Dungeons/Lairs compilations for the next Backerkit, something easy to do while I catch up on some content before Negative Energy Plane.
In the meantime, I wanna keep y'all fed. Below are some content things I can do. Vote for as many as you like. I'll try to give each attention based on the spread.
2025-05-25 17:25:55 +0000 UTC
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Hey fans,
I've decided to pause Ooze as the next major book and instead do a D/L collection.
However, I'm not sure what format to do it in?
To clarify, it'd be
Weigh in below.
2025-05-24 22:38:22 +0000 UTC
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Hey all,
I'm writing an ooze-themed adventure soon, so I'll need some prompts for it.
In the comments below, leave a single word. I'll use your word to create part of the dungeon.
Rules:
2025-05-12 20:01:39 +0000 UTC
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Hey friends!
I'm jumping into July's book now with Ooze-centric adventures.
But what wonderful Ooze will focus on?
Below are all the oozes that have come out for Fifth Edition's main books (it's a short list), plus one I created for Negative Energy Plane. Pick the one you like best.
2025-05-12 14:56:01 +0000 UTC
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Hey fans,
I'm cooking up one more one-shot before the end of this month called CRYPT THING. It's a trap heavy, tournament-style dungeon.
In the comments, leave a single word. I'll transform one of the rooms there using your word. There are 24 rooms in all, and I plan to knock it out tomorrow.
A few rules:
