Top 5 Official Campaign Settings for 5E D&D
Here at Nerdarchy we love our fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. The system is fluid and elegant, allowing for play in a variety of different settings. But maybe you’re new to the RPG hobby and you’re just not sure where to start when it comes to a campaign setting. While we tend to like our own homebrew settings, building an entire world can be a daunting task — especially for someone who’s just picked up a book and a set of dice for the first time. But don’t let your knickers get in knots; we’re here to help.
A Mysterious Message Brings Adventurers Through the Mists to the House of Lament from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Salutations, nerds! We’ve got one more bit of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft to cover before moving on to other fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons things and that is the House of Lament. For most of the rest of this book, the name of the game has been picking through each individual section for a detailed preview. Since House of Lament is an adventure it’s not possible to do this without huge spoilers so instead I’ll deep dive without being too explicit.
Myriad Entities Become Travelers in the Mists in 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Salutations, nerds! I’m delving back into the Mists to talk about some of the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons individuals who willfully brave them. These residents of the Domains of Dread aren’t stuck inside individual domains. Rather they’re the ones who wander between. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft talks about how other travelers in the Mist should be otherwise remarkable to keep the fact of the players’ characters crossing between domains feeling special. There is even information presented for playing a 5E D&D character who belongs to one of these groups. Let’s dive into the options for travelers the Mists, shall we?
Curses Come With Dramatic Significance in 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
We’ve been delving deep into Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft since this fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons book released and at this point not only read it cover to cover but spent a great deal of time thinking about the content to share useful insights on all the material inside. The book devotes significant space to guidance for running horror adventures for 5E D&D and does a terrific job doing so for Dungeon Masters and the rest of the players in any given game. One of those areas of guidance deals with curses so let’s get into it.
Life Sucks By It’s Very Nature in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft for 5E D&D
Ravenloft sucks! Or rather, I suppose I should say life in Ravenloft would suck. Now that I’ve got your attention let me explain myself. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is the official guide for twisting your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons games with horror. When I say life in Ravenloft sucks, I’m specifically talking about how it sucks for the townspeople, the nobodies, the people with whom the main characters interact.
Creating Domains of Dread for 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Wizards of the Coast really hit their stride when it comes to campaign setting guides for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is the latest in line to provide resources along a wide spectrum for players to engage with the material as it best matches their play style. I like to think the arrangement of content in these sorts of books holds as much meaning as the information itself and when it comes to creating domains of dread the book cleverly places the material just a page flip away from the juicy new 5E D&D character options. Let’s get into it.
Fear and Horror Emanate from Haunted Traps in 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Salutations, nerds! Today I’m going to be taking a closer look at the Haunted Traps section of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Long story short, normal traps were put in place on purpose by a person for a reason. Haunted traps by contrast aren’t set with purpose and instead manifest like a stain. This is a recurrent theme in a lot of horror works, it turns out, and now it’s represented in 5E D&D too.
Experience the Horror Firsthand with Survivors in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft offers a menagerie of tools to help Dungeon Masters and players of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons sink their teeth into genres of horror. We’ve already written about preparing horror games, running horror games with atmosphere and pacing to enhance the experience of your 5E D&D group. However, if you really want to sell the horror flavor and show players how grim and unforgiving the world can be then Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft suggests the use of survivors.
Dark Gifts Await 5E D&D’s Haunted Heroes with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
The Mists of Ravenloft swallow adventurers from across the multiverse to pit them against whatever horrors the Dark Powers conjure. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft describes these Domains of Dread and the Darklords who both rule them and remain imprisoned by their own nightmare realms. The fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Haunted Heroes facing such horrors can gain an edge though. Whether their origins lie in the same tales of terror or the Dark Powers of Ravenloft grant a Dark Gift these 5E D&D characters forge ties to the grim and haunted domains and gain a double-edged connection to these genres of horror. Let’s get into it.
Transform your 5E D&D Characters Through Lineages from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Salutations, nerds! Today I’m looking at the Lineages for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons found in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. I’ve got a player in a weekly game I’m in who went with one of these lineages for their character. They didn’t tell any of us up front so we played several sessions assuming the character was human until he opened his entire head and bit a minion’s face off. I can already tell this is going to be a fun one.
Manage Fear and Stress in 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft brings the trappings of horror to your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons games. To aid Dungeon Masters with running horror with their own groups the book offers a step-by-step walkthrough of how to run a 5E D&D horror game. Thus far, we’ve talked about preparing for a horror game and running a horror game with atmosphere and skillful pacing using the steps in Van Ricthen’s Guide to Ravenloft as a framework. But what about after the horror is over? Fear and stress are staples of the horror genre. They’re the proverbial nuts and bolts of how it works. Experiencing fear and stress can leave players… well, stressed and fearful. Thankfully, Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft offers some advice for this as well.
Creating a Darklord to Terrorize 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Salutations, nerds! We’re elbows deep in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft and today I’m going to create a Dark Lord for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons, by which I mean going over this section of the book and also following the instructions to do so because it sounds like a lot of fun to me.
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft Reveals Other Domains of Dread from The Land of Mists
I enjoy the way each fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons book leans into the modular nature of the game in different ways. Aside from satisfying fans of the classic D&D horror fantasy setting Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft terrifically illustrates how a core chunk of material can fuel innumerable content for games. The other Domains of Dread presented in the book focus a dark lens on the core of 5E D&D for all the tools a Dungeon Master needs to unleash the horrors of Ravenloft. Let’s get into it.
Discover Your 5E D&D Character’s Horror Background with Van Richten’s Guide Backgrounds
Salutations, nerds! Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft sets up backgrounds a little bit differently from other fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons books. There are two in particular with suggested characteristics but as far as background features go there’s a list of those you can use for pretty much any other set. I like this. As someone who generally uses custom backgrounds anyway simply having the background feature to choose from is cutting out the middle man so to speak. Let’s take a look at what Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft reveals about backgrounds in this 5E D&D horror campaign setting.
Running Horror with Atmosphere and Accessibility in 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is Wizards of the Coast’s newest setting book for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons and it’s arguably the best release we’ve had so far. Much how Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything officially sanctioned many flavor customizations Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft contains several sections empowering Dungeon Masters and players to make 5E D&D their own. Among these options chapter 4’s Running Horror Games section provides guidance for preparation, during the session and afterward. This horror guide was phenomenal and easily makes the book worth picking up. I loved this section so much I made a whole video about how Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft completely changed how I run D&D forever.
- 1
- 2
