Dolmenwood Core Books - December Update Flip-through and Review

In which I cover the latest preview PDFs of the Dolmenwood set released to Kickstarter backers as of December 4th. These books are gorgeous already - I can't wait for the final products to be released!
Here's where you can get more information about Dolmenwood:
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Track: "Celebration", Alexander Nakarada
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Track: "Entertainment", Alexander Nakarada
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Track: "Marked", Alexander Nakarada
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Track: "Nomadic Dawn", Alexander Nakarada
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Track: "Norður", Alexander Nakarada
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Track: "Skaga", Alexander Nakarada
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Track: "Traveler", Alexander Nakarada
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[@paavohirn3728]

I really dig how there's room for very different experiences relating to the church.. or almost any faction really. There are the corrupt and power hungry church officials, overly zealous inquisitors, jolly friars and kind-hearted priests. Then you can mix all that up as well by getting rescued from a Drune sacrificial ceremony by a valorous witch-hunter. I especially like how you can let the players' decisions and reaction rolls also define their relationship to a faction (or an individual in a fraction) etc.

[@RedMageGM]

Totally! That flexibility in the factions is such a draw. It helps with tailoring the tone to suit the table.

[@paavohirn3728]

@@RedMageGM Yeah!

[@GateKeeperPat]

I also had the thought of running Dolmenwood with Shadowdark. Thought it’d be easier to convert my 5E players with it. Guessing you had a similar idea

[@windmark8040]

Really hating that I missed this KS. I've got the older stuff, but I'll be picking this up asap!

[@RedMageGM]

I almost missed it myself! I only caught it close to the end of its run on KS.

[@JamesQification]

just printing my pdfs now! I'm new to the dolmenwood setting, but I'm enjoying it so far. Looking to run it with a different system than OSE, as I don't quite vibe with it. But very awesome nonetheless!

[@_jayo.]

I recommend Shadowdark. Working well for my group so far :)

[@RedMageGM]

I'm going to try the books as written for an a few adventures, but I think I'll wind up going to Shadowdark, as _Jayo said.

[@paavohirn3728]

Yeah. It definitely works as a setting only. I've been moving closer to OSE little by little in the last three years or so and to me the current Dolmenwood version is pretty close to perfection. Enjoy your romp in the woods!

[@paavohirn3728]

You did it! 🤘😁 And if you hadn't I wouldn't have noticed we got the rest of the campaign book! 🍻🥳🥳

[@RedMageGM]

haha yes I did ! I couldn't resist once I saw how amazing this update was.

[@paavohirn3728]

@@RedMageGM Cool! I'll have to check it out as soon as I can! I'll finish watching your video as well. 😁

[@mykediemart]

Backed it for its unique feel, even tho I didn't need another OSR system. Im sure it will all mix well. thanks for the look thru, I haven't DL the updates ...yet

[@RedMageGM]

Get them! :) The campaign book is so incredible.

[@bensdecoypoondummy1189]

Oh MAN this is some dense content... I would absolutely love to run this campaign but it's so daunting. All the regions, factions, lore... idk if my brain can take it all. Also requires a lot of buy-in from the players to really root their characters in the world. I wonder if it would work well with Dragonbane as its core

[@RedMageGM]

It is absolutely daunting - I love it and am determined to run it once the books arrive, but I know it'll be a challenge! I'm not sure! I would imagine it could be moved to pretty much any system, with some notable exceptions. Having only played a tiny bit of Dragonbane, I'm not sure how the vibe would transfer. Certainly the lethality would work; I wonder if magic would.

[@thereluctanthireling]

This is looking better and better with each PDF release.

[@RedMageGM]

I totally agree. As it gets closer and closer to the final product, I'm getting more and more excited for it!

[@Se7enBeatleofDoom]

Reminds me of the comic series fables but a lot more light-hearted tone-wise compared to the fables comics or a wolf among us.

[@RedMageGM]

Yeah, I hadn't thought of that connection, but I see it!

[@jasonGamesMaster]

I might actually play this as written, but i'm not a huge fan of OSE. I'm thinking I'll probably port it to Dragonbane, tbh. Looking forward to getting my physical copies, lol

[@RedMageGM]

Oh Dolmenwood in Dragonbane! Interesting! I like it!

[@jasonGamesMaster]

@@RedMageGM if I actually do it, I'll try to let you know

[@Arnsteel634]

The new races really don’t appeal to me. But the setting is so damn good I would allow them in my game. I want to run it as written.

[@RedMageGM]

Honestly, that was my first reaction too. The grimalkin and the woodgrue have grown on me a bit, but we'll see about the others. I'm still going to run it as written, like you said, at least for a bit to see how it all fits together.

[@BrentARJ]

30:20 Out of curiosity, what books do you think have the best dungeon design advice? Granted there are great theorycrafting blogs like the Alexandrian, or exhaustive dungeon generating/stocking supplements like Castle Oldskull's stuff on DTRPG, but I'm curious what books come to mind that you're measure this against.

[@RedMageGM]

The best dungeon design advice I've seen in books (you're totally right about the blogs, though - the Alexandrian is one of the best!) is in Sersa Victory's Cyclic Dungeon Generation, or Gentle's Dungeon Guide 2 - they give very practical, gameable advice for making your dungeons fun environments for the players. I think Questing Beast's videos on dungeon creation are also really excellent.

[@yxygogo]

Will you do a video for the new campaign book pdf?

[@RedMageGM]

At some point, most likely. I wanted to wait until things were finalized and there's still a little work to be done on a couple of the books. I really want to go through the Ruined Abbey, and talk about the changes from the previous version!

[@fadetoblack1026]

I wonder how feasible it would be to run a Dolmenwood campaign in 5e.

[@RedMageGM]

I suppose it would be doable! The setting material is obviously rich enough. I'm sure you could run a fun campaign in 5e!

[@fadetoblack1026]

@@RedMageGM Yeah, I mean, I know they converted Winter's Daughter to 5e. I wish they'd have more of the Dolmenwood stuff the same treatment.

[@benharder7816]

​@fadetoblack1026 I adapted a lot of the exploration rules from Dolmenwood into 5e Forgotten Realms specific hexcrawling rules. I'd say that aspect of the game is very doable. The thing is that magic rules in Dolmenwood are much more old-school in comparison to 5e. The monster stat blocks also may need more work for conversion.

[@yinyangthang]

No dragons in the game???

[@RedMageGM]

The dragons in dolmenwood are the Wyrms - they're based on the four humors - the Black Bile Wyrm, the Yellow Bile Wyrm, etc.

[@yinyangthang]

Ah, thank you. And vile wyrms they surely must be.@@RedMageGM

[@RedMageGM]

Oh indeed! Vile wyrms indeed. :)