People who love Dungeons & Dragons put a lot of that love into what they do. Players commission artwork, purchase multiple dice sets and write fanfiction about their own characters. Dungeon Masters fill notebooks with details of their fantasy worlds, draw maps of every corner and put time into designing bad guys who they know will most likely fail in their attempts to rule forever.
Surviving Strangehollow, corrently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, wants to blend that handmade feel with input from some of the tabletop industry’s best and brightest creators. The book is compatible with the current edition of D&D and can also be used with the D&D core books coming out later this year.
What Is Surviving Strangehollow?
Strangehollow takes its inspiration from fantasy that’s a little dark, a little whimiscal but always compelling. Touchpoints include Alice In Wonderland, Grimms’ Fairy Tales, The Last Unicorn, and the film Labrynth. The world has a hazy, dreamlike quality to it and the monsters have an alluring quality…right up to the point of rolling initiative.
The book is in the hands of some of the best and brightest tabletop RPG writers in the industry. Led by industry veteran Shawn Merwin, contributors include Ed Greenwood, Dan Dillon, Elisa Teague, Erin Roberts, James Haeck, Bryan CP Steele, and Dael Kingsmill. These names represent the past, present and future of role playing games.
Surviving Strangehollow For Players
Dungeons & Dragons players love to explore new options for characters. The book includes new subclasses, feats and magic items. These character elements can connect a character to Strangehollow or just be used for unique flavor in any D&D game.
The Mooncursed Sorcerous origin lets players tap into a werewolf curse for their magical power. The Way of the Waking Dream gives monks a chance to see the future and adjust it accordingly. And who doesn’t thrill at the forbidden power of Blood Magic?
There’s also the Skulk, an ancestry that allows players to return from the grave. It can be played as an all new character, but I also like another option. Perhaps its a character from another D&D world that ended up in Strangehollow as a kind of purgatory.
Surviving Strangehollow For Dungeon Masters
The monsters included in the book inject some mystery into any D&D game. Some players read and re-read the Monster Manual so they know every creature’s strength and weakness by heart. It can be very satisfying for a Dungeon Master to include a creature like Glowspine Beetle into an encounter to throw everyone for a loop.
Strangehollow is aliminal space. It can be the setting for a whole campaign or used as a transitional place to go from the normal world to someplace strange. Players that survive a journey through this land could end up in the fae realm, an elemental plane or somewhere even weirder.
Surviving Strangehollow is currently funding on Kickstarter through April 4th, 2024. The book is currently due for an April 2025 release. Backers get access to a limited edition hardcover, Strangehollow inspired dice and more.
