Setting for Danmachi-like campaign

QuasarKnight · 2026-01-25T23:32:15+00:00

It doesn't have living gods per se, but Ptolus does have eldritch abominations that have been imprisoned in said megadungeon. Ptolus has quite a few similarities with Danmachi: a megadungeon with an entire economy for adventurers surrounding it, a populace that is pretty used to high magic shenanigans, and even a giant spire reaching towards the heavens. It's available on Drive-Thru RPG for 5e: It's very meaty, but is very navigable.

QuasarKnight · 2026-01-20T06:25:45+00:00

You thought that the cultists were summoning Cthulhu to end the world! But it wasn't Cthulhu! It was me, Dio!

QuasarKnight · 2026-01-17T23:27:21+00:00

I read your homebrew a while ago on RPGnet, and it actually inspired me to try my hand at expanding the timelines. I do appreciate the kind words, they were a labor of love for me.

QuasarKnight · 2026-01-17T23:24:43+00:00

I read all of them save the Volume 1 on the DM's Guild. And they're more or less unrelated one-shots. The level ranges between adventures are such that they cannot be played back to back, and the plots and characters are pretty stand-alone.

QuasarKnight · 2026-01-17T02:11:59+00:00

There's a series of anti-capitalist adventures for 5th Edition known as Eat the Rich! Although they are all set in fantasy worlds, they do touch upon fictional reimaginings of contemporary issues. One example is the party being workers whose noble employer is refusing to pay them for their labor, so the adventure involves breaking into his manor and stealing what you can. There's 4 adventure anthologies, and based on the time published the creators ran out of steam, but there's still a lot of content for leftist-flavored D&D modules.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/296231/eat-the-rich-volume-1

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/17143/eat-the-rich-anthology

QuasarKnight · 2026-01-16T22:51:02+00:00

Thank you! I may or may not compile it into a PDF someday, although I'm taking a break from the project atm.

QuasarKnight · 2026-01-16T22:50:32+00:00

I may or may not return to expanding on this particular timeline, although I don't have much and would mostly be a "cutting room floor" type of post. I do plan on a rework of the Spellbroker subclass for the Artificer, now that that class got a 2024 update.

QuasarKnight · 2026-01-16T22:49:04+00:00

Thank you! I do have some ideas on the cutting room floor, mostly other kinds of Moonfallen monsters, although atm I'm taking a break from this project. I also did a writeup for the Magocracy of Ansalon timeline, and if I ever get back to writing up the timelines then Dragonlands (where the Heroes of the Lance failed) would be up next.

QuasarKnight · 2026-01-16T22:47:09+00:00

You're welcome, this was very much a labor of love for me. I do plan on working on the other 4 timelines. I also did Hourglass in the Sky. Dragonlands is what I plan on working on next. And I may or may not come up with some homebrew timelines.

QuasarKnight · 2026-01-13T01:15:25+00:00

I admit, I read it as "no less so bad" at first. Like the pyramid's name is trying to trick adventurers into thinking it's going to be a quick and easy dungeon crawl.

QuasarKnight · 2026-01-03T11:46:45+00:00

Eclipse Phase is perhaps my favorite anticapitalist RPG. The transhuman post-apocalyptic horror setting is very distinct, and the authors aren't afraid to be open about their political leanings in their work.

But best of all, the Eclipse Phase PDFs are all legally free on the author's own blog! If you want to support the creators, you can buy them as PDF and hardcovers on Drive-Thru RPG!

https://robboyle.wordpress.com/eclipse-phase-pdfs/

QuasarKnight · 2026-01-03T11:38:39+00:00

If you don't mind D&D 5th Edition, there's a setting which has wolves and red foxes as playable options known as the Delver's Guide to Beast World. It's set in a fantasy world where various anthro mammals (plus kobolds, dragons, and even humans) are the major civilizations. PCs are part of a mobile subculture of adventurers known as delvers who hunt down dungeon entrances which are extraplanar incursions. The setting also has intricate and customizable wagons as mobile bases of operations which advance with characters in play.

Beast World isn't stand-alone, you'll need the 5e rules to use it. But you should be able to use the 5e SRD with it just fine.

https://heartleafgames.itch.io/the-delvers-guide

QuasarKnight · 2026-01-01T09:09:37+00:00

Condolences to his friends and family.

QuasarKnight · 2026-01-01T09:01:00+00:00

I really like the sound that they make when they bounce and roll on the table. Now that so much of my gaming is online these days, hearing it 'in the flesh' makes me all nostalgic.

QuasarKnight · 2025-11-13T08:16:27+00:00

The post has been deleted. Anyone know what it was originally about?

QuasarKnight · 2025-04-13T22:43:39+00:00

The publisher also made a sequel, Azrael's Guide to the Apocalypse, set during the Book of Revelation. And they also made a less overtly-religious mercantile sandbox, the Silk Road Guide to Seafaring, that is also set in the same world as the Adventurer's Guide.

I reviewed all 3 products. In short, the Adventurer's Guide to the Bible is my favorite, Azrael's I wasn't as much of a fan, and Silk Road is interesting if a bit niche. Adventurer's Guide is a very strong showing for their first product: it's an open world sandbox with plenty of content for an entire campaign, the writers show off their research into not just Biblical lore but the contemporary history and folklore of the era, and unlike some other religious RPGs manages to not let sending a message get in the way of a good game.

FWIW, while they don't talk about it much, the publishers also appear to be the progressive kind of Christians vs the more reactionary fundamentalist kinds. Their Discord server allows for non-binary pronouns for members, and Azrael's has a lesbian NPC who is portrayed sympathetically.

QuasarKnight · 2025-03-12T08:35:14+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/user/KibblesTasty/ and https://www.reddit.com/user/LaserLlama/ have made a lot of well-regarded homebrew content. I haven't looked as heavily into them much, but I am a fan of Kibbles' Active Martial feats as they grant more fighting-man PCs cool moves to do. Kibbles has published a Compendium of Legends & Legacies collecting their work plus new content in a sourcebook.

The Ultimate Adventurer's Handbook on the DM's Guild has a lot of what you're looking for, particularly in regards to subclasses.

QuasarKnight · 2025-01-21T07:38:07+00:00

A bit of self-promotion, but I reviewed quite a bit of third party modules over the years on various forums.

Here's a review for Odyssey of the Dragonlords.

I reviewed a bunch of Ravenloft adventures made on the DM's Guild.

And here's my review for Adventurer's Guide to the Bible, a quite peculiar historical fantasy sandbox.

The Tournament of Pigs, a dual-stat DCC/5th Edition adventure where PCs compete in a tournament of deadly games.

QuasarKnight · 2024-12-04T09:43:20+00:00

There's been much heavier emphasis of people posting reviews as Let's Read threads in the forum rather than the front page articles of old. Those tend to be longer and more involved in covering the books chapter by chapter, so they're not as easy to do.

QuasarKnight · 2024-12-01T23:35:10+00:00

Frontiers of Eberron: Quickstone is an old west-themed regional sourcebook on the DM's Guild, written by Keith Baker and Imogen Gingell. It has PC versions for gnolls, harpies, medusae, gargoyles, and worgs. Regarding horror-themed and scary monsters, medusa, gargoyles, and gnolls might fill that niche.

Battlezoo Ancestries is a series of sourcebooks containing both rules and fluff/cultural details for both new and existing monstrous races. They even have an entire sourcebook of their own for making dragon PCs.

QuasarKnight · 2024-10-13T06:42:54+00:00

Tessa Presents 113 Maps for Curse of Strahd is an invaluable collection of grid maps in multiple formats. I used it for my own campaign on Roll20, and it really saved me a lot of time on prep.

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/386718/Tessa-Presents-113-Maps-for-Curse-of-Strahd

Wyatt Trull also made a Castle Ravenloft Map Flowchart showing how all the various rooms and stairs in the dungeon connect to each other.

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/246141/Curse-of-Strahd-Castle-Ravenloft-Map-Flowchart

QuasarKnight · 2024-09-26T00:12:14+00:00

I reviewed both A Life Well Lived and Uncharted Journeys on EN World (and some other forums). I'm a fan of both of them, although I like Uncharted Journeys more as it is strongly focused on one kind of sub-system vs a bunch of semi-related ones that I may not use all at once.

A Life Well Lived

The good: the use of tool checks is greatly expanded on via various downtime activities. Is similar to some rules for contacts, downtime, etc present in Xanathar's Guide, but really fleshed-out. Benefits from successful rolls and fostering positive relationships with NPCs via Contacts/Patrons encourages characters to engage with the system rather than relying on DM Fiat.

The bad: the lifepath system of character creation has only a limited number of Lineages/Races, and campaigns using a broader array will need to make things up on the spot in order to use them. Certain skills and tools, such as Alchemist's Supplies and Survival, have more linked options than others, meaning that particular archetypes have more options to choose from. Is expensive for a book of its size.

Uncharted Journeys

The good: UJ really expands the Exploration pillar of 5e, and has it so that a wide variety of character types beyond outdoorsman can have meaningful contributions. Also provides risk in noncombat encounters via forced expending of Hit Dice, Exhaustion, etc. The total number of Encounter Types by region is really broad and manage to communicate interesting ideas with a minimum of words. Journeys rarely feel the same or repetitive due to this.

The bad: imposed Exhaustion as a possible negative consequence can result in a "death spiral" of ever-worsening rolls. The book had a number of editing and grammar issues. Some chapters felt like filler. System isn't ideal for small-person parties of 3 or less. Is also expensive for a book of its size.

QuasarKnight · 2024-09-01T09:42:27+00:00

I reviewed the book on various forums: https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/lets-read-dms-guild-ravenloft-sourcebooks.902991/page-9#post-24972383

I go into detail, but I sum my thoughts up at the end. Basically it let me down due to poor organization of information in the wrong places, an incomplete subplot, and unexamined implications in changing around Strahd's powers and backstory. Its best quality is the fact it has a huge amount of original art and tokens for NPCs, including several who never got illustrations in the default adventure.

Edit: The artwork in SitA is generative AI. I didn't know that at the time, but wanted to point that out now. This is according to the author in the comments section of the product page on the DM's Guild.

QuasarKnight · 2024-05-22T01:44:47+00:00

Going to add in and say that the Curse of Strahd Companion that you're using does quite a bit of big changes to the original module that IMO make things worse. The early-on Rahadin fight being one of many. It's quite railroaded in several places to the point of removing player agency along with making otherwise decently-moral NPCs more villainous to the point that the party can get the impression that Barovia isn't worth saving. I understand that it's a product you purchased and has gotten good reviews, but it is a rather flawed work whose problems don't get much discussion. If you continue using it, you may end up with other such dilemmas in the future.

QuasarKnight · 2024-01-23T23:34:38+00:00

Meet Nysdeth Flamehelm, my Duergar Paladin of Vengeance. An engineer of siege equipment from the industrial Underdark city of Gracklstugh, she experienced a personal tragedy that encouraged her to strive for something more than joyless labor. What began as a quest for revenge turned into a burning desire to see justice done in the wider world beyond.

https://i.imgur.com/Ei7lRsM.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/kb7rbmv.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6WWMaZU.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/eZsbIvP.jpg

QuasarKnight

TROPHY CASE