Hey everyone!
Here's the buckler for February 2023. This is one of the biggest ones that I've done so far since I went pretty nuts with content in February. It includes:
- Dungeons & Lairs #65: Yeti Caverns
- Dungeons & Lairs #66: Undead Wastes
- Dungeons & Lairs #67: Echidna's Island
- Dungeons & Lairs #65: Cerberus' Gate
- Helkara Monstrous Compendium 1
- Helkara Monstrous Compendium 2
- Helkara Monstrous Compendium 3...
2023-03-02 15:52:43 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hey all!
Here is the next batch of settlements for Just Passing Through. This time, I'm focused on mid-sized towns, settlements with 1,000 to 25,000 people. There will be twelve in this one as the spreads are going to be six pages long each.
I aim to have this new book done by the end of the week.
Until then, enjoy the first four spots.
Just Passing Through
If you haven't already, you can grab a copy of the first book, Just Passing Through: 20 Small V...
2023-03-02 15:39:49 +0000 UTC
View Post
Undead Wastes is a Fifth Edition plug-in adventure for four characters with an average party level (APL) of 1, 3, 5, or 8. This document offers a general guideline on scaling the adventure for each level. The party must defend a small village on the edge of a frozen wasteland from droves of the undead.
The following creators made this adventure possible:
- Design and Writing. DMDave, Ninetoes82
- Editing and Layout.
2023-03-02 14:59:13 +0000 UTC
View Post
Download the PDF at the end of the post.
Looking for a way to spice up your fantasy RPG without spending hours prepping? Look no further than Just Passing Through: 20 Small Villages for Any Fantasy RPG, part of DMDave’s No-Time-to-Prep series. This system-agnostic book offers 20 unique village descriptions, each complete with a detailed map, information on the population, leadership, commerce, and organizations of the town. Not only that, but each description...
2023-03-01 23:22:44 +0000 UTC
View Post
Happy March, everyone!
I'm working on some new content for all of us and will have a few more posted today and before the weekend. Before we get started, I wanted to share a new variant of the Just Passing Through settlements series I've been working on. This one is called En Route Encounters.
Here is what it looks like:
2023-03-01 23:13:45 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hey everyone!
I've finished up another 8 critters for the Helkara campaign setting. Many of these critters were a lot of fun to create, particularly the guy in the image above, who I feel I could almost write a whole fiction book series around—imagine him protecting a little kid on adventures, etc. and meeting up with other exciting folks.
Anyways, this list includes the following monsters for your 5e campaigns (and yes, there's a lot of monsters that have "bog" in the title, bl...
2023-02-26 23:33:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hey all!
As we're gearing up for our selection of March adventures which will focus on coastal critters (it's looking like dragon turtles, harpies, sahuagin, pirates, and sea hags, by the way), I figure I'd make some JPT assets to go along with it.
I have a few ideas I want to do but wanted to see what you all were interested in first. I'll try to make 'em all but will definitely make them in order of most wanted to least wanted.
The l...
2023-02-26 04:11:42 +0000 UTC
View Post
Weeeee! I'm writing an adventure for the first time in a while that'll be out in a few weeks. It's about harpies! In an aerie! And it'll be part of our coastal theme.
In the comments below, give me a single word. I'll build one of the rooms in the harpy's aerie based on the word you give.
Usual rules apply:
1) One word per patron
2) Keep it clean
3) No proper nouns
4) The word "defenestration is retired"
5) Nothing too anachronistic
I look forward to your w...
2023-02-25 21:16:51 +0000 UTC
View Post
It's never too early to get a headstart on things, especially now that we're planning books. April will officially be our "desert" month, meaning that we're going to be releasing adventures, monsters, and drop-in villages for desert stuff.
We'll do five different desert adventures for the theme, all of them featured below. Pick the three that you like best. Top five win and get made. The rest get put back on the shelf 'til next time.
2023-02-25 20:25:21 +0000 UTC
View Post
Cerberus’ Gate is a Fifth Edition plug-adventure for four characters with an average party level (APL) of 8, 11, 14, or 17. This document offers a general guideline on scaling the adventure for each level. After being transported to the darkest depths of the Underworld, the characters must navigate its twisting corridors and find Cerberus’ Gate, its fabled entrance.
Download Options:
- Grab the black-and-white and full-color PDFs below.
- Get the Fo...
2023-02-25 16:56:47 +0000 UTC
View Post
Echidna’s Island is a Fifth Edition plug-in adventure for four characters with an average party level (APL) of 8, 11, 14, or 17.
This document only has information for the 8th-level version of the adventure. Grab the full version when you become a DMDave patron.
Echidna, the mother of monsters, lives in a secluded cavern below a swampy island, her offspring wreaking havoc in the larger world. The characters are tasked with finding clues to reach h...
2023-02-25 16:42:57 +0000 UTC
View Post
Echidna’s Island is a Fifth Edition plug-in adventure for four characters with an average party level (APL) of 8, 11, 14, or 17. This document offers a general guideline on scaling the adventure for each level. Echidna, the mother of monsters, lives in a secluded cavern below a swampy island, her offspring wreaking havoc in the larger world. The characters are tasked with finding clues to reach her lair and survive the maddening swamp.
Download Option...
2023-02-25 16:38:48 +0000 UTC
View Post
Echidna’s Island is a Fifth Edition plug-in adventure for four characters with an average party level (APL) of 8, 11, 14, or 17. This document offers a general guideline on scaling the adventure for each level. Echidna, the mother of monsters, lives in a secluded cavern below a swampy island, her offspring wreaking havoc in the larger world. The characters are tasked with finding clues to reach her lair and survive the maddening swamp.
Download Option...
2023-02-25 16:34:37 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hey all!
I just finished up the "meat" for the villages book, so next, I'll probably tinker with some villains since that was the second most requested book for "drop-in" content. I was going to just use some randomly generated stuff, but thought it might be more fun to put it out to all of you.
In the comments below, give me a three-word prompt for a fantasy villain. I'll then hand those over to our friend Rick Hershey to create art for while I come up with information about the ...
2023-02-24 16:54:57 +0000 UTC
View Post
All righty, folks!
Here's the second chunk of small villages that will appear in the first book of the drop-in settlements series, Just Passing Through - 20 Small Medieval Villages. These haven't been proofed yet, so there are bound to be a few typos. Regardless, I wanted to get them out to you all because I'm having a lot of fun making these. I tried spicing it up a bit, tossing in a couple that are mostly farms, some that are in the mountains, one by a swamp, and even one sec...
2023-02-24 01:59:11 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hey folks!
We're amping up for a big book push this year, and a big part of it will be converting Dungeons & Lairs into printed books. These 72-page color books will feature probably 5-6 Dungeons/Lairs adventures with a common theme. Likely, I'll toss in one or two new adventures to shake things up.
Since terrain seems so popular with Just Passing Through, likely I'll focus on that again with this. We've already got a Coastal book coming, so I omitted that from the poll. But w...
2023-02-23 19:35:01 +0000 UTC
View Post
Okay, so the settlements are a big hit!
Which is awesome. And naturally, this means I need to make more. I've got 12-14 more of this Small Village series coming (I'd like to get a total of 20 for the first book release). From there, I'll make another set of useful settlements with a different theme.
Below, I've listed a number of themes based on terrain, size, and humanoid.
- If terrain type wins, I'll first work my way through all the terrai...
2023-02-23 03:03:23 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hey all!
We've been keeping this under wraps for a few months, but our good friend Bob Carnicon (Bob the Tree on Discord) will be coming on full-time starting in March. His last day at his current gig is Friday.
Once he's on, he's going to help me out with our upcoming convention schedule as well as getting all the Foundry Packs fixed. Plus, he'll be able to knock out some of my daily tasks so I can focus on getting new books out and trying out some more new content.
If you ...
2023-02-22 22:01:17 +0000 UTC
View Post
All righty, folks!
Here's a more fully realized version of what I posted yesterday, this time featuring 6 different villages all with different themes and calamities. I still need to clean them up a bit and do some proofing, but they'll at least get you started.
I'm trying to keep them to a tight 4 pages so I can fit 15 to 20 of them into a single book, but the areas I focused on most were the adventure hooks.
Let me know what you think!
2023-02-22 15:36:55 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hey everyone!
Last night I sent out that poll, and you all responded pretty quickly. I've since put together a quick mock-up of the "drop-in" village idea that I had. My goal is to create a book with maybe 15-20 of these, each with a different vibe but all more or less in the same format as what's presented here.
Take a look and tell me what you think in the comments. Let me know if you feel there's anything else that I should add to it, etc.
I'll probably try to keep it to ...
2023-02-21 19:13:34 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hey folks!
Originally, we were going to do a Norse theme for March/April Dungeons & Lairs with new monsters, but I've since decided to go back to the original purpose of Dungeons & Lairs—create drop-in adventures usable for any campaign.
Instead of focusing on themes immediately, I want to focus on terrain types first. We just did one for the arctic. This time, I want to do one for coastal creatures.
I've picked out a number of popular coastal mons...
2023-02-21 17:33:42 +0000 UTC
View Post
The good news: Helkara is up and running and I'm pretty proud of the first book that I wrote, edited, and published all in the span of a couple of weeks. However, the reception has been somewhat lukewarm.
Of course, I know why—you all have your own worlds! I've built my following on content that's easy to drop into your worlds. Therefore, when I try to create my own world and share it, it always does only kinda so-so. And that's fine.
(I recognize this is probably, like...
2023-02-21 07:36:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hey all!
Since the last post was somewhat confusing, I've tied together all the monster packs into one post for the month. So this includes all 32 monsters that I've made for Helkara. Grab 'em now, as they won't be available for initiates when the next pack drops (but they will be in next month's bucklers for Devotees+).
Naturally, these will all be in a book very soon.
Monsters in italics are new monsters in this series.
Compendium 1
- Abyss...
2023-02-20 19:41:17 +0000 UTC
View Post
Download the preview at the end of the page.
This is just a preview of the Helkara Campaign Sourcebook. This 64-page softcover book contains all the information that you need to run a campaign in the grim fantasy world of Helkara.
Here's how to get the full book:
Become a DMDave High Priest: $25.00/month
Become a High Priest tier patron and get acces...
2023-02-19 23:15:51 +0000 UTC
View Post
Download the PDF below.
If you want to pre-order a physical copy, check out the brand new DMDave store. Hardcover copies will arrive March 2023 (probably sooner, honestly) to the US, EU, Australia/NZ, Canada, and Mexico.
Pre-order the physical copy now!&nb...
2023-02-19 22:58:33 +0000 UTC
View Post
I know this is going to sound absolutely insane, but I'm actually super far ahead on writing books for Helkara right now. Here's the current status:
- HELK1 - Campaign Sourcebook - Proofed onto Formatting
- HELK2 - Campaign Guidebook - Drafted and in Proofing
- HELK3 - Player's Companion - 75% Drafted
- HELK4 - Monster Book - 75% Drafted, waiting on art
Pretty wild, considering that I started developing Helkara on January 25th of this year. I've alre...
2023-02-17 03:31:25 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hey all!
The Helkara Campaign Guide is officially drafted and the first book is just about to finish up in proofers. That means I'm going to start thinking about the third book in the series, the player's guide. All of these books will have 64 pages and about 20,000 words, so I need to figure out what the most important bits are that you want to see. Of course, I can always just rewrite the whole SRD to make it fit with Helkara.
When it comes to this new campaign setting, which of...
2023-02-15 22:26:25 +0000 UTC
View Post
Undead Wastes is a Fifth Edition plug-in adventure for four characters with an average party level (APL) of 1, 3, 5, or 8. This document offers a general guideline on scaling the adventure for each level. The party must defend a small village on the edge of a frozen wasteland from droves of the undead.
The following creators made this adventure possible:
- Design and Writing. DMDave, Ninetoes82
- Editing and Layout.
2023-02-15 18:48:34 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hey all!
In our latest poll, the magic book is leading by quite a bit. And since Zalto the Undying King is the guy leading that poll, you can expect our first magic book to be about necromancy and undeath.
Ta-da!
Next up on the list, it looks like it's a tie between an adventure boo...
2023-02-14 04:38:27 +0000 UTC
View Post
One more quick poll!
Before I start writing the Helkara Gamemaster's Guide, I want to know which of the following options you're most interested in. Keep in mind, with our current production rate, we can probably do both eventually.
Gamemaster's Guide - Basically a redux of the 5e DMG, but with a bit of tweaking to better fit to the world of Helkara. It'll include Helkaran-specific hazards, traps, downtime activities, etc. More general purpose than just the campai...
2023-02-12 18:15:55 +0000 UTC
View Post
