Guides to the SHADOWFELL | DMs Guild Review (D&D)

[@symphony10]

Did I miss the google doc for the changes you made?

[@Jorphdan]

You know I'm not sure, I might have dropped the ball on this. I'll see if I forgot to publish it.

[@Jorphdan]

Here ya go! In the description of the video now too. Despair Deck for D&D 5e - drive.google.com/file/d/11nbhf4WwU6iKe844CWp3prt2-90qHIx4/view?usp=sharing

[@symphony10]

@@Jorphdan thank you so much. You are such a huge help and I love your videos keep it up.

[@hp2xp425]

I didn't realize I needed this video until today. There's so little info on Shadowfell in the official 5e materials. Thanks!

[@EppuErvasti]

Perfect timing for this video! Just bought Ulraunt's to support my player's upcoming descent to the Shadowfell and wanted to find a review so I can read the supplement more efficiently. This will be a big help!

[@moonringXD]

Excellent video! Also the Incunabulum from the 4e underdark book are pretty good Shadowfell addition to!

[@EVER_PRINCE]

I’m currently making a campaign setting based on my book where basically a plane that is the embodiment of what you’d get if you took the extremities and intensity of the Feywild with the darkness and undeath of the Shadowfell. And this plane slowly seeps into the mortal plane, bringing with it a bunch of fiends and undead who slowly poison the world around them, and spread the affects of their dark plane. So these are all super helpful

[@ThriftySteve]

Yess! I want to do stuff in the Shadowfell

[@MrNetWraith]

Basic summary of the difference in the books, besides the edition stuff; "Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond" is written for the Nentir Vale setting and references lore from other 4th edition material, whilst Ulraunt's Guide to the Shadowfell, due to the restrictions on DMG content, is written from the assumption of the Forgotten Realms as the base setting, even though it shoehorns a lot of 4e lore into it.

[@Fedes47]

DMs Guild Reviews are very valuable, there's so much stuff on there that goes unnoticed because the search engine doesn't work well, great review!

[@Jorphdan]

There is so much, the rating system doesn't seem to work the best for filtering out what you really want. Remember you can follow certain creators now, so if you like someone's supplement check out the rest of their work!

[@Corundum_Rolls]

Thank you for this video. I like throwing new things at my players that they cannot google on their phone.

[@criticalmasterpiece6706]

Nice "Reading Rainbow" nod at the end. Made me smile.

[@Jorphdan]

;)

[@connors7078]

Great timing. I was just looking for Shadowfell suplements. I had considered Ulraunt's. I knew there was a Heroes of Shadow for 4E, but did not know that the Shadowfell book came out. I might have to get that for the Despair Deck :)

[@CONTINGENCY_sys]

4e actually had more beyond a box set too that goes with Gloom and beyond you'd enjoy. I use Both. The shadow fell effects all. Both the fallen Netherese seeking magic power and the elves fey alternative can exist. Players options: Heroes of Shadow was the 4e book. 4e was super easy to use as info and resource beyond just its core mechanics (which could easily be swapped for more traditional play and the powers used as bonuses instead of only action selection).

[@CONTINGENCY_sys]

Also 4e Manuel of the planes, The Planes above/Planes below in 4e was great resources as well.

[@CONTINGENCY_sys]

There was a fun underlining card system in 4e that you can use as DMs for tools to inspire or just to draw random for effects. I think of them as roll random chart replacements. irl.

[@lamao6638]

I think art style of the book, especially maps of cities and some locations need a praise :) Inkarnate is trully wonderful tool!

[@Kakkarot211]

I got both of these :) really excited to use em

[@xytek]

Holy Crap.. i literally am using BOTH of those with my current Shadowfell ARC. Great Minds!

[@cetx]

Great reviews. I hadn't thought much about Shadowfell until now, and now I kinda want to run a game there...

[@cfoscoop]

Would love to see a review of some Feywild material as well if you've had any experience with them, I'm maybe running a shadowfell vs. feywild campaign at some point in the future and there seems to be not much content for the Fey stuff.

[@moonringXD]

Are you going to do more 4e book review? If so could you talk about high imaskar please!

[@copeseticme]

Great video. You’re rocking out already this new year!

[@philurbaniak1811]

Right up my street, cheers for the tips! 👍

[@MrNetWraith]

One major lore issue barely five minutes in; Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond is written for the 4e Core or "Nentir Vale" setting, which is a very different setting to the Forgotten Realms. Whilst 4th edition Realmslore does have the shadar-kai as descendants of the Fallen Netherese, their origins in the Nentir Vale are separate. There, they are descendants of humans who so feared death that they made a pact with the Raven Queen for immortality, gaining incredible longevity at the cost of needing constant emotional stimulation; if they allow themselves to grow too apathetic or ennui-riddled, they fade away into nothing. The 4e shadar-kai lore is built around a massive article in an early issue of 4e's run of Dragon Magazine, which was later reprinted into the 2009 "Dragon Magazine Annual" hardcover book, and they are completely different creatures to their 5e counterparts.

[@salomonmartinez3516]

Shadow fell reminds me of "Dark City", the sci-fi movie with Kruger Sutherland. I like d20 ultramodern, and modern, counterparts to dnd locales.

[@O4C209]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have a PC in my game that is a Hexblade Warlock for the Raven Queen, and her blade sometimes, for as of now unknown reasons, transports her to the Shadowfell. This will be so helpful. Thank you! Now can you also do one for Mt Celestia and Jazirian for my Aasimar? And I suppose also a Netheril one for when my group inevitably reset time. Thanks again.

[@jacobwillis7596]

I never really understood why the shadowfel is so evil. It’s a reflection like the feywild but the feywild is good and evil with a bright motif. The shadowfel is obviously dark but less mixed. Also if there’s so many gods of death on the plane what’s with all the undead?

[@christopherthr]

That’s exactly why I don’t use any of the official lore or pre-written material about the Shadowfell, because it just doesn’t make sense to me. Some of that is because I feel like the Feywild and the Shadowfell are, in some ways, trying to take the same spot. Fairy lore and related literature that the Feywild is inspired by imagines the realm of Faerie as itself kind of a dark reflection of our world. It’s a world of permanent twilight and it’s full of magic and magical creatures, yes, but not in a good way. All of the inhabitants are tricksy and cunning, speaking or interacting with them is a minefield, and they will tempt you with easy solutions to your problems as ways to snare you. If you play the Feywild in that way, one almost doesn’t need the Shadowfell. Maybe the Shadowfell is also inspired by something (or maybe not and someone just said “Why don’t we have a plane of shadow?” in the WotC writer’s room one day), but I don’t really get the point of it. It’s a “dark reflection” of the material realm but the Feywild is also a twilight realm? And they’re both kind of evil? The way I do it in my own homebrew setting is that the Feywild is a realm of light, overabundance (in a bad way), and air and water. It’s the source of chaotic good creatures. The Shadowfell is a realm of darkness, simplicity and meagerness, and earth and fire. It’s the source of lawful evil creatures (such as beholders). I like this because both have good and bad points to them; I can imagine why creatures would either choose to live in each or thrive in each biologically. Neither of them are inherently “evil”, and they complement each other rather than overlapping.

[@Jorphdan]

Use code HERALDJORPHDAN5 for 5% off $5 digital community-created content - www.dmsguild.com/index.php?affiliate_id=728035

[@kenscott1082]

Can you let me know where you found the external maps? You showed them outside of the pdf you were detailing.

[@chuckallerston9997]

I'm using an identical floating city of Nethril for a campaign that has taken me to great heights yrs of prep😀

[@JacopoSkydweller]

Are those hexagons on your back wall sound dampeners? That's super legit/creative/simple wall decor/low cost ish? Tell me more please, where did you get them/did you make them? What are they made of?

[@Jorphdan]

They are sound dampeners! I found them on Amazon and yes they were pretty affordable. Here's a link (affiliate) - amzn.to/3nG032T

[@JacopoSkydweller]

@@Jorphdan My man, thanks! Real interested in Shadowfell from our last campaign. Basically it was worked as the Catholics Purgatory, less evil death and more neutral/grey/not a great place to be but it's not the worst per say either. Had an epic DOOM style arena battle against a Goristro, complete with DOOM eternal music, my Dwarf Paladin/Shadow-Sorc multiclass. He was heavily inspired by Doom-Guy and WH40K Grey Knight Space Marines. Was badass.

[@oysterstu4822]

Saturday upload 😍

[@gabrielballiet9282]

is there a hard copy version of Ulraunt's Guide to the Planes: The Shadowfell?

[@Jorphdan]

You'll have to check the DMs Guild. It may be print on demand; if not check there with the creator and maybe they can ask for it to be included.

[@simonfernandes6809]

It's 2023. I'm sitting with my hardcover PoD version of Ulraunt's Guide to the Shadowfell.

[@gabrielballiet9282]

Thank you for the reply!@@simonfernandes6809

[@Malisteen]

The 4e Shadowfell book is fantastic, but its hard to run in canon compliant 5e because so much of it revolves around Shadar-Kai and the Raven Queen. While there are 5e versions of these, they are wildly different in history, characterization, behavior, prominance, motivation, and even their basic nature. Apart from their names, they share basically nothing.

[@ThriftySteve]

Wait... isn't the Raven Queen in the Shadowfell? In the Fortress of Memories?

[@johnjones6115]

Yes, although the specifics vary from edition to edition.

[@qwerty098cool1]

@John John Raven Queen has only existed since 4e when she was created.

[@johnjones6115]

@@qwerty098cool1 and her backstory changed between 4e and 5e.

[@JamiesonHorton]

Great video! I'm very tempted to purchase both manuals, as I love gothic horror. That said, having run Curse of Strahd, and currently running Descent into Avernus, the feeling of "sameness" throughout these adventure modules gets a bit... boring? For my group, it takes us nearly a year to get through each adventure, and, while epic, the constant gray dilapidated horror world and crimson-skied hellscape get a bit dull night after night, y'know? I mean, unless I'm running things poorly (which is likely lol), I feel like adventures that take place on different planes are perhaps best run for shorter lengths of time, in favor of greater variation. Maybe what I'm describing is basically a Planescape campaign (which I've never played), where the player characters need to plane shift and/or jump through portals and into color pools to fetchquest items such as blood from Tiamat in the Nine Hells, the Book of Vile Darkness from the Shadowfell, the Hammer of Thunderbolts from Arcadia... I don't know... just random thoughts. What do you think?

[@Iulian111]

It's a shame "Ulraunt's Guide to the Planes: Shadowfell" isn't print on demand. DMsGuild must fix that.

[@Jorphdan]

Apparently there's a limited amount of titles that can be print on demand. So don't blame the author, I imagine he petitioned to be in that group. But in the end DM's guild chooses whoever they choose.

[@Iulian111]

@@Jorphdan I know. I don't blame the author. I blame DMsGuild. This one is one of the best supplements one can find on DMsGuild and it's a shame it's not POD, especially since the author stated that the team plans to make multiple guides for different Planes.

[@jimheston423]

This would be so useful as a hardback. I have been requesting on its comments on DMsG for POD...

[@michaelthomas1916]

I'll be considering these supplments in the coming weeks. My PCs may end up venturing into the Shadowfell at some point or at least having to traverse an extended rift/overlap area.

[@TheMustardTiger99]

I highly prefer physical stuff to prep, but 70$ is insane.