Book of Ebon Tides Holds a Dark Mirror Up to Your D&D World

The concept of other dimensions overlapping the real world captured my imagination decades ago with an RPG called Wraith: The Oblivion and in my D&D setting this holds true. Like the Dungeon Master’s Guide describes the Feywild and Shadowfell exist in parallel to the Material Plane, occupying the same cosmological space but distorted and exaggerated (in my setting they’re combined into a singular Dreaming World to mirror the Waking World or Material Plane). Despite presenting a compelling dynamic with very little exception neither the DMG nor any other official material really explores any of this space. Book of Ebon Tides from Kobold Press, like so many other titles in their library, represents a terrific grab bag of ideas to help make your shadowy fey realm exciting, engaging and unforgettable. Let’s get into it.

Inspirational game material

As always the first thing I do whenever I get a new Kobold Press book is check the credits. My first stop there is Graphic Design, where I see longtime KP Art Director and Lead Graphic Designer Marc Radle so right off the bat I know this book will look clean and sharp and I’ll glean one or two tips for my own design work. Mainstay KP illustrator Bryan Syme is listed with the Interior Artists too, whose style sets the tone or KP material at least for me. Scott Gable takes the Development and Editing reins on this book and of course Wolfgang Baur shows up as Publisher.

If I’m honest I feel like Kobold Press does a far, far better job curating a setting or stylistic sourcebook than official D&D stuff. Their work feels a lot more useful and not for nothing a superior demonstration of what D&D aimed to accomplish in the earlier days of the current edition. In Book of Ebon Tides’ case this means Dungeon Masters and players alike interested in exploring a shadowy fey realm with lavish depth can find the ideal mix of unique mechanics and rich storytelling inspiration inside.

That lavish depth I mentioned is no joke. After merely thumbing through Book of Ebon Tides’ 252 pages I cannot wait to revisit the Dreaming World in my own games with tons of fresh ideas. There’s a lot to go over but truthfully one of my favorite things in the whole book are Umbral Humans. This is not due to any nifty traits this playable race possesses — although they do have those! — but frankly because presenting anything new or different about humans isn’t something I see very often. Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount and Mythic Odysseys of Theros touch on this and oddly enough Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide does the most work providing anything interesting for humans in D&D. In my mind humans are sort of the barometer by which we can measure the dynamics of a setting’s societies so it is refreshing to see this most relatable of D&D races get some attention.

Inside Book of Ebon Tides

The book is divided into ten chapters along with an introduction, three appendices and a collection of Tactical Maps for the Shadow Realm. I’ve stated many times and this is no different — the kind of thematic setting sourcebooks produced by Kobold Press hit on all the right notes for me. There’s lots of imaginative ideas to get my own creative wheels spinning, options for players to create characters who fit perfectly with the tone of the setting and lots of useful, actionable mechanics wonderfully blending the storytelling potential with the game aspect of D&D. At a glance I thought Book of Ebon Tides leaned much more heavily into the setting guide aspect than the player options but this has a lot to do with the more flavorful and less descriptive chapter names and the less detailed table of contents.

Races

All of the races follow the original 5E D&D race structure and each entry includes a bit of lore to inspire your own creativity both as a player or GM. There’s also several sidebars throughout the chapter with more insights into various races. Terrific stuff that builds on lots of the great material they’ve produced in the past, as expected from KP material. I like how many of the traits interact with darkness and light in some way and all of the races include connections to elements of the Shadow Realm explored elsewhere in the book.

• Bearfolk. A KP classic this entry also includes the Shadowborn Bearfolk option.
• Darakhul. Another KP staple these are basically civilized ghouls with a complex society and also include options for darakhul with more uncommon heritages like bearfolk and goblins.
• Shadow Fey. As you might expect this is the most abundant race in KP’s Shadow Realm.
• Lunar Elf. A great example of theme and tone these elves aren’t going to blow your mind with their traits but the descriptive flair brings a lot to the table.
• Sable Elf. Fantasy aficionados and D&D nerds really love elves, don’t we? Unlike their other counterparts in the Shadow Realm these elves chose not to engage with fey court machinations and remain more of a traditional elf with deep ties to more natural magics.
• Shadow Goblins. Connecting goblins to fey stuff always made sense to me. I love their Stink Eye trait!
• Umbral Humans. I already mentioned why I dig this but they also include a subrace of Changelings representing mortals who were stolen from the Material Plane and brought to the Shadow Realm, a very cool nod to our own real world folklore regarding fey. There’s also The Gifted, who are Umbral Humans deeply affected by the dark nature of the Shadow Realm.
• Quickstep. If I’m honest this feels out of place in the sense nothing about them intrigues me or feels like it has a purpose.
• Ratatosk. I’m not all gaga about anthropomorphic animal creatures but I’ve always kinda liked these squirrelly humanoids because of KP’s Midgard setting’s incorporation of Norse mythological elements. This iteration includes two subraces as well.
• Spiritfarer Erina. In contrast to the ratatosk I have never felt excited about the hedgehog people of Midgard. I just don’t get it.
• Stygian Shade. Coming in with the strong flavor! These entities born of the River Styx flowing through the Shadow Realm are extremely creepy and off-putting both mechanically and narratively. Not exactly my cup of tea but I am certain many people will love this. On the other hand I’d like to pair this up with our own Stygian Shadow Ranger Archetype.
• Sublime Ravenfolk. I really like how this take on basically kenku plays with their relationship to sound along with incorporating the Shadow Realm themes in the book.
• Unbound Satarre. I’m not familiar with this race from previous KP sources but the way they’re presented as planar travelers intrigues me. Since the sort of default relatable D&D race of humans are adapted to the Shadow Realm setting I feel like it could be a lot of fun to utilize these strange reptilian entities as your point-of-view reference.
• Wyrd Gnome. Another setting flavored take on a well-established D&D race nothing really leaps out at me as too exciting, but I do have a fondness for gnomes in general.

Subclasses

I’ve got to be honest and say I’m a bit shocked at the organization of this book, which really struck me in this chapter, and also the lack of subclass options for all the classes. No Martial Archetypes, Sacred Oaths or Ranger Archetypes feels incredibly weird from a KP source since they’ve got such a huge wealth of material from which to draw. On a side note I’d love to look at a digital version of the text and see how many times the word “shadow” appears in this book. Not throwing any shade but wow, they definitely stay on theme. I was also surprised to see none of the spellcasting subclasses include KP specific spells and the Sorcerous Origin point to Deep Magic: Illumination Magic rather than include existing spells they’ve created especially since they do include a large number of spells inside already.

• Primal Paths for Barbarians. Shadow Gnawer
• Bard Colleges for Bards. College of Shadow
• Divine Domains for Clerics. Keeper Domain, Shadow Domain
• Druid Circles for Druids. Circle of Shadows
• Monastic Traditions for Monks. Way of the Prophet
• Roguish Archetypes for Rogues. Umbral Binder
• Sorcerous Origins for Sorcerers. Light Weaver
• Otherworldly Patrons for Warlocks. Mother of Sorrows
• Arcane Traditions for Wizards. Shadow

Magic and Spells

There are plenty of cool new spells in Book of Ebon Tides but what I like a whole lot more is the stuff about how magic works differently in this Shadow Realm. This is an excellent illustration of what I touched on earlier about blending compelling narrative elements with mechanical components.

For starters the book lists a bunch of D&D spells and some mechanical differences, which goes a long way towards evoking the themes this book aims to help players bring to life in their games. I love this stuff. One great example is the daylight spell functions like dispel magic against any spell with the shadow tag. There’s even terrific guidance for players for making the magic come alive during play.

There are a lot of new spells in here spread across all the levels, which is yet another way to define a setting and whatever tone and themes it represents. As you might suspect there’s plenty of shadowy spells but these are contrasted with a few light-based magics. While it’s neither of those things nor very powerful the standout for me is pratfall. Not only is this a fun low-level spell but it’s designed with a selection menu style I always appreciate in character options. (Something you’ll find in a lot of Nerdarchy’s game content as well).

And All the Rest

The remainder of Book of Ebon Tides is mostly a hodge podge of material and I enjoyed going through this part the most. Every page is packed with cool ideas for ways to make your Shadow Realm exciting and memorable. There is an assumed actual setting baked in but I never pay much mind to those things. Cobbling together my own setting is so much fun and that being said my takeaway from this book means my Dreaming World got way more interesting.

The reason I put equal weight to both narrative and mechanical components is their symbiotic relationship, at least the way I approach RPGs. I flipped to a random page for an example and here’s a perfect one. In the book’s Shadow Realm the dark, heavy clouds oppress the spirit of those beneath them. This is great DM stuff to guide your descriptions. But the book takes it a step further. Creatures under such clouds must succeed on Wisdom or Charisma saving throws in order to muster the wherewithal to do anything besides plod along at a standard walking pace. The text even calls out one of my favorite spells — calm emotions – as a way to negate this effect.

There’s tons of little things like this throughout the book and I’m very much here for it. Consequences of lingering too long in this shadowy place, a new condition called Despondent, the network of Shadow Roads, traveling the River Styx, notable landmarks…page after page overflowing with fantastic ideas and concepts.

Finally — Fey Courts!

The concept of Fey Courts is nothing new either in D&D and certainly our own real world folklore. But I can honestly say this is the first time I’ve seen a game resource really delve into what this means. Most definitely the largest section of Book of Ebon Tides this stuff is amazing and it goes far beyond the basic duality of light and dark, summer and winter, Seelie and Unseelie aspects of fey courts. How far beyond? The book explains what a fey court is generally and there’s 15 distinct fey courts described. Each includes an area map of the actual courtly lands themselves, prominent locations within the court, its ruler and important people, population, gods, trade goods, a crest and in many cases sidebars with additional material and tables.

Then KP outdoes themselves with even more material for the realms outside these courts. These include places like the city of goblins where the Crow Prince reigns, a city of revels, special groves kept by wardens of the realm, an entire city fallen into shadow and several others. I can’t stress enough how great this hefty section of the book feels to me.

I’m extremely finicky about setting sourcebooks and I could not help but come away from this part with a lot of inspiration for my games. I’ve had tremendous fun with players exploring the lighter side of the Dreaming World including fey court intrigue but now I want to whisk them away to the darker side and see how things go when my somewhat cartoony take on this dimension gets a little shadowy.

A Grand, Strange Domain of Fey Magic and Hungry Shadows

Of course Book of Ebon Tides contains a whole bunch of Kobold Press monsters curated for the thematic setting so all those dark places the adventurers explore conceal great new monsters to overcome too. KP’s reputation for interesting, exciting D&D monsters is well established and like all the best D&D monsters include just enough juicy descriptive text to inspire adventure ideas and story hooks for players.

Rounding out the book you’ll discover a horde of new magic items too. These are followed up by a few appendices and next to the stuff about fey courts this was the highlight for me. Rolling on random tables provides immense joy and there’s so many great ones on which to roll in Book of Ebon Tides. This means everything from descriptive embellishments to shadow goblin pranks to fey court fashions and so many more.

“Gilded Shadow. Your shadow is not black and gray but gold and silver. Your Dexterity (Stealth) checks are all at disadvantage.”

Sure, there’s a mechanical drawback here but depending on your playstyle this might not be much of a concern. In my game experiences I certainly wouldn’t care and I’d get a lot more back from a character’s unusual shadow than would be lost because of the Stealth penalty. One reason in particular I appreciate random roll tables is they serve as a reminder of the game aspect of D&D. You roll on a table, share the result with the rest of the group and everyone understands whatever the outcome it’s origin was the dice roll — not anyone’s explicit decision. I very much like this.

Even with the deep well of excellent stuff contained in Book of Ebon Tides to inspire your adventures, one last appendix in the book presents a variety of encounters. These aren’t Nerdarchy’s Out of the Box style encounters but each succinct scenario can absolutely get the ball rolling for something interesting to happen. (Unless the players in your game are incredibly unresponsive to stimuli.) If a courtly fey knight galloping down the road holding its head in its hand and approaching to parley with the party doesn’t engage the group then I don’t know what to tell you.

Check out Book of Ebon Tides to get your own copy and help support Nerdarchy here.

*Featured image — The Book of Ebon Tides plunges you into the machinations of the various powers of shadow, providing everything you need to propel your adventures in the Shadow Realm.

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