D&D 5e-Compatible Kickstarter Round-Up: Adventuring With Pride, Herbarium, Servants of the Lich King, & more!

Image by ScalyDragon from Pixabay

Kickstarter offers a near-infinite stream of new 3rd party Dungeons & Dragons and 5e-Compatible projects ranging from entire game worlds to books focused entirely on picking herbs.

Today I’m going to offer a glimpse at the ten projects that are wrapping up in the next week, viewed through the lens of last week’s essay, “What makes a good Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition official release or 5e-Compatible supplement.”

I’m covering the following 10 projects:

• Adventuring With Pride: A Queero’s Journey! LGBT+ 5E Book – Recommended!
• Adventurer’s Agency – Check this out!
• The Haunted Woods: a D&D 5e adventure – Recommended!
• Herbarium: A Botanical 5e Supplement – Check this out!
• Injuries & Vile Deeds: Injury Systems for 5e – and more!
• Nellie’s Nursery – a 5E DnD Adventure Module
• Potions and Herbalists
• Reign of Discordia 2nd Edition
• Servants of the Lich King: Quests for 5E
• X Marks The Spot: Piratical Resources For Your 5E Game

(It’s pure coincidence that the first four alphabetical entries are my recommendations, since I didn’t even review them in that order!)

I know that every Kickstarter project is a labor of love. I hope if any creators catch my write-ups they’ll appreciate them for what they are: me trying to figure out if their projects are worth backing based on what I value most in D&D! In the future I’ll probably spend less time on projects I don’t recommend, but right now I want to establish a baseline of what works and what doesn’t on Kickstarter.

I’m hoping that if I keep at this for a few weeks I can make it to looking at campaigns as they are announced rather than chasing the ones that are soon to resolve. But, I’ll only keep doing that if it matters to you! Please comment on this post and share it if it’s something you’d like to see more of in the future

Adventuring With Pride: A Queero’s Journey! LGBT+ 5E Book

On Kickstarter! Funding goal of $1220 reached! Kickstarter ends Fri, July 1 2022 11:00 AM UTC +12:00.

Adventuring With Pride: A Queero’s Journey! LGBT+ 5E Book describes itself as “The third installment in the award-winning LGBT+ RPG supplement series for D&D Fifth Edition.”

Kickstarter Pitch: £10 (~$12USD) for a PDF, £25 (~$30USD) for a hardcover plus PDF, £50 (~$60USD) for that plus various add-ons

Adventuring With Pride makes it obvious what you’re getting for your pledge – four abundantly-queer low-level adventures that are great for new players, plus some fun game options. That includes pre-generated characters if you have first-time players or guests at the table.

From the sample pages on the KS, the layouts look clear and easy to read, and they make great use of sidebars and color callouts for specific kinds of information. The entire product looks slickly-produced and friendly.

• Rule Sets: N/A
• Game Worlds & Settings: N/A
• Adventures & Campaigns: Four one-shot adventures
• Creatures: Unclear – it includes encounters, but does not specify if these are using new stat blocks
• Playable Races: “the flamboyant bird-folk of the Flaming Isles, the LaRou”
• Classes & Sub-Classes: “Three subclasses, for the Cleric, Ranger, and Barbarian!”
• Equipment & Items: Over a dozen
• Spells: Unspecified amount
• World-Building, Tools, Maps, & Game-Aids: NPCs, three pre-generated characters.

Final Verdict: I not only backed this, but I went all-in for their two-prior volumes as well! I am always here to support queer content that invites LGBTQ+ people into the world of D&D 5e. While D&D 5e itself is certainly progressive and LGBTQ-inclusive, that’s not the same thing as having adventures that put queer characters and themes at their center.

(Note that you don’t have to pick the “One With Everything!” pledge level – the prior volumes are available as add-ons at check-out.)

Ultimately, I think this is the perfect price-point for the amount of content in this campaign, which is specified clearly on the campaign page. A $12 PDF option for something this slickly-produced coffers a low barrier to entry whether you’re a D&D veteran or just RPG-curious.

Adventurer’s Agency

On Kickstarter! Funding goal of $3,000 reached! Kickstarter ends Fri, July 1 2022 9:00 AM UTC +12:00.

Adventurer’s Agency gives a comforting pitch for its benefits:”Life is stressful. Game night shouldn’t be. Welcome to a 5E campaign setting where player absence is built into the story.”

Kickstarter Pitch: $25 for a digital PDF, $55 for a physical book + PDF, $59 for that plus extras. As an add-on and at the higher pledge levels, a PDF with 6 one-shot adventures, plus another add-on with 12 adventures.

This is a brilliantly designed Kickstarter campaign that understands how to put the “what’s in it for me” sales pitch front and center. The page includes a pledge rewards chart! The pledge levels are obvious and so is the hook:

Adventurer’s Agency is a campaign setting designed from the ground-up for running linked one-shot campaigns. Think monster-of-the-week but with an overarching story. Did a player or two cancel last second? No worries! There’s always a rotating cast of characters taking on contracts at the Adventurer’s Agency. If a player cancels, you don’t need to come up with an off-the-cuff explanation for their absence because that’s just part of life at the Adventurer’s Agency!

Later, an update expands on this:

This framework creates a system where every game night, players take on a new contract in a self contained monster-of-the-week format. … Since players who miss a session may still feel left out, the book also includes a system for generating contracts and outcomes for these players.

This sounds like a near neighbor to the official Dungeons & Dragons 5e Acquisitions Incorporated book, which happens to be one of my favorites in the entire line.

Adventurer’s Agency says it offers a campaign setting, but it’s one you could easily reskin to work in any world – or, even any adventure, with the right planning. It’s more like a framework for how to run a low-stress campaign where weekly attendance is not compulsory.

• Rule Sets: “Mechanics for ley lines, passage stones, and guilds.”
• Game Worlds & Settings: The world of Prataea, “A complete campaign setting full of rich lore, political intrigue, new monsters, and a slew of new character options”
• Adventures & Campaigns: “a linked one-shot campaign” plus the option PDFs of 6 or 12 one-shot adventures (a total of 18!)
• Creatures: An update specifies there are 27 creatures +3 from a stretch goal. Several of these are humanoid Guild members, so it’s not all fantastical monsters (which could be a plus or a minus for you).
• Playable Races: At least one, a horned Centauran that looks like a Centaur/Tiefling blend.
• Classes & Sub-Classes: An unspecified amount.
• Equipment & Items: An unspecified amount.
• Spells: “Boosted and Diminished” spells, plus how they relate to ley lines.
• World-Building, Tools, Maps, & Game-Aids: Maps, magnetic map tiles, a Deck of Fate, and a GM screen

Final Verdict: This is a textbook example of a strong indie Kickstarter campaign. While the Detail Demon inside of me wishes it enumerated the creatures, equipment, and spells it will contain, the campaign makes it obvious that the main selling point is a game world where players can come and go and the story can still progress.

While they don’t exactly explain how that will work, there’s enough solid art and layout here to make picking this up at $25 for its many features worth it even if it doesn’t quite hit the mark. The contract system alone might be worth it to a DM who doesn’t want to invent that sort of thing from scratch. Plus, a campaign with 18 optional adventures as an add-on understand that some DMs don’t want any adventures and some DMs want all the adventures.

The Haunted Woods: a D&D 5e adventure

On Kickstarter! Funding goal of $52 reached! Kickstarter ends Sat, July 2 2022 9:59 AM UTC +12:00.

The Haunted Woods: a D&D 5e adventure describes itself as “a short Halloween-y Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition adventure, intended for 5th level players.”

Kickstarter Pitch: €1 (~$2USD) for a PDF. Seriously!

I love a campaign that knows what it is, tells you that clearly, and has an obvious value proposition. Considering that individual monsters and items can be $1-2 to purchase on D&D Beyond and a book like Candlekeep Mysteries with 17 adventures costs $50, even for $5 this would be a great deal.

Plus, this has gorgeous illustrations! And, it’s a Level 5 adventure for 1-3 sessions rather than another Level 1 start-up adventure! Start-up adventures are great, but unless you have a constant flow of new campaigns starting at some point you need multiple adventures for higher levels to keep things moving.

There aren’t any add-ons or linked adventures here. Just buy this Halloween-y one-shot or not!

• Rule Sets: N/A
• Game Worlds & Settings: N/A
• Adventures & Campaigns: a one-shot adventure
• Creatures: “7 new Halloween-y monsters”
• Playable Races: N/A
• Classes & Sub-Classes: N/A
• Equipment & Items: 4 new magic items
• Spells:  N/A
• World-Building, Tools, Maps, & Game-Aids: 17 unique illustrations, a table to scale encounters up and down in difficulty.

Final Verdict: Buy it! I did. Whether you run the campaign or just pilfer this for a map or a monster around the spooky season, at $2 it’s worth every cent.

Herbarium: A Botanical 5e Supplement

On Kickstarter! Funding goal of $2,440 reached! Kickstarter ends Sun, July 3 2022 5:06 AM UTC.

Herbarium: A Botanical 5e Supplement describes itself as “A supplement for 5e players inspired by botanical folklore, mythology, and herblore.”

Kickstarter Pitch: Pledge £18 (about $22USD) for a ~100pg PDF. Per a later update, this will include a discount code for a print-on-demand book from DriveThruRPG.

This is one of the loveliest 5e-Compatible projects I’ve seen on Kickstarter recently, but it feels hyper-specific that I can’t decide if it’s worth backing to add to my future campaigns.

The attractive artwork of Herbarium pulls me in immediately, as do sample layout pages that are clearly based on the official Wizards of the Coast D&D 5e standard. The team repeatedly makes it clear that they prioritized custom illustrations for as much of the book as possible.

However, the way it fronts its content explanation with the idea that it offers 5e conversions for “60 real-life plants” isn’t exactly the most-tempting offer. You have to dig much more deeply into the page to understand what else the book includes beyond D&D version of non-sentient plant life.

• Rule Sets: a foraging system
• Game Worlds & Settings: N/A
• Adventures & Campaigns: “adventure seeds with custom-written stories to weave into your campaigns”
• Creatures: “creatures inspired by folkloric spirits and deities”
• Playable Races: N/A
• Classes & Sub-Classes: six new sub-classes and three character backgrounds
• Equipment & Items: unique craftable items
• Spells: “a selection” of brand new spells
• World-Building, Tools, Maps, & Game-Aids: real life plants with magical properties, tools on how to create your own fictional plants, NPCs with quests and side-stories, a digital file of each plant as a printable card

From that breakdown, this actually seems to be a book that’s more useful for players who want to build a herbalist-themed hero rather than DMs obsessed with plants.

Final Verdict: I am so incredibly tempted by this project. I love everything about the artwork and presentation of this book, but the sales pitch is too muddled. $22 USD for a plant encyclopedia that I might reference once or twice is too much, but if it made clear it had 20 or 30 creatures to offer that might change my mind.

Also, I’m confused about if we can order a free POD book just for the cost of shipping and I’d like to know how many stat blocks and spells the book includes. Later in this list we’ll get to a similar book that handles this much more clearly.

Injuries & Vile Deeds: Injury Systems for 5e – and more!

On Kickstarter!  Funding goal of $10,000 reached! Kickstarter ends Fri, July 1 2022 6:30 AM UTC +12:00.

Injuries & Vile Deeds: Injury Systems for 5e describes itself as “Tactical and descriptive Injury systems for PCs and their enemies, plus 200 new character options, terrifying monsters, and villains!”

Kickstarter Pitch: $20 for a digital PDF (plus stretch goals), $40 for a hardcover, $50 for both

I’ve had this Kickstarter campaign bookmarked for a closer look for weeks, because at first glance it ticks all my major boxes – a compelling title, terrific promo art, clear pledge levels.

What exactly do you get with this “injury system”? The campaign offers “nearly 200 new feats, items, spells, subclasses, villainous NPCs, and terrifying monsters. Each new character option and enemy ties in to the Injury systems.”

Uh… sure? Updates share some sample spells, and they’re all extremely unbalanced.

• Rule Sets: An injury system that includes “rules for cinematic, tactical encounters”
• Game Worlds & Settings: N/A
• Adventures & Campaigns: N/A
• Creatures: An unspecified amount.
• Playable Races: N/A
• Classes & Sub-Classes: An unspecified amount.
• Equipment & Items: An unspecified amount.
• Spells: An unspecified amount.
• World-Building, Tools, Maps, & Game-Aids: Unknown.

Final Verdict: This is the kind of campaign that is designed to thrill a gamemaster who is looking for this specific thing – a catalog of injuries and combat hooks to take advantage of them. Some DMs and players really love specificity in the descriptions of the wounds they inflict and receive. The idea of monsters who take specific actions based on wounds or spells based on bloodcraft is tantalizing.

However, as someone who is perfectly happy making my own d1,000 table of wounds, I’m not sure what’s in it for me with this campaign. Having “nearly 200” player options sounds cool, but without quantifying what they are or giving examples it’s hard to know if these are substantial game rules or just “Feat: Plant Knowledge – You know about plants.”

Also, the unbalanced sample spells make me hesitant. Yeah, everything needs a playtest, but if every example you show in your campaign is obviously unbalanced compared to official D&D that speaks to pervasive problems with your project that needed to be addressed prior to launching a campaign.

Nellie’s Nursery – a 5E DnD Adventure Module

On Kickstarter! Funding goal of $400 reached! Kickstarter ends Thu, June 30 2022 11:58 PM UTC +12:00.

Nellie’s Nursery – a 5E DnD Adventure Module describes itself as “The ghost of a child with supernatural powers still haunts the halls of her disturbing life sized dollhouse.”

Kickstarter Pitch: Pledge $4 for the PDF adventure or $6 to include digital maps.

Nellie’s Nursery is intended to be a “Pick Up and Play Adventure” for a Level 1-4 party that requires little prep work. All of its decision points are laid out plainly, which makes it a solid “training wheels” session for either a new DM or one that needs quick filler for a group with zero prep time.

As much as I appreciate a clearly-outlined adventure, I find that the massive blocks of “If this then do that” text on each page of their sample adventure make it harder to quickly scan through rather than easier. It feels like they ought to be sidebars or that the headings need less weight.

Also, either you’re a fan of the stock photography approach to the creatures and settings or you’re not. (I’m not, but your mileage may vary.)

• Rule Sets: N/A
• Game Worlds & Settings: N/A
• Adventures & Campaigns: one adventure
• Creatures: An unspecified number are included
• Playable Races: N/A
• Classes & Sub-Classes: N/A
• Equipment & Items: Unclear
• Spells: N/A
• World-Building, Tools, Maps, & Game-Aids: Digital maps for the adventure.

Final Verdict: This isn’t something I need for my group, but I think if you’re the kind of DM who needs quick low-level filler or you’re a player who wants to dabble in DM-ing this could work for you. However, this is actually more expensive for a single adventure than the adventures in Candlekeep, which come out to $3 each if you pay full retail.

As much as the layout fights my eyes, the big, bold, clear text makes it friendly to players of all ages and experiences.

Potions and Herbalists

On Kickstarter! Funding goal of $105 reached! Kickstarter ends Sat, July 2 2022 4:09 AM UTC +12:00.

Potions and Herbalists describes itself as “Add the magic of new potions and their rare ingredients to your games! For use with DnD 5E, Pathfinder, and other Fantasy RPGs.”

Kickstarter Pitch: €5 (~$6USD) for a PDF (and a print-on-demand code), €26 (~$28USD) for a collection of past campaign PDFs

I love a low-price point campaign with an obvious offer. This is 32 pages for $6 packed with potions, complete with lore and brewing instructions, plus gorgeous penciled illustrations.

The question is: how many potions does your campaign really need? That’s up to you and your players. Personally, my answer is “ALL OF THEM.” I find that the situational, limited-time, single-use nature of potions makes for a fun player reward that doesn’t tend to break the game too badly even when they get used at unexpected moments.

Also, this campaign explains the print-on-demand discount code perfectly in a way that makes the value of the discount obvious:

All backers will receive codes to purchase a physical version of Potions and Herbalists book and cards via DrivethruRPG. These codes are at cost, which means that you pay later to DrivethruRPG only for the manufacturing and shipping costs (I don’t make extra funds). I’ll be creating multiple versions of the book as with my previous campaigns, from softcover to hardcover, economical or premium color.

Yet, I come back to the same question: how many potions? From the sample layout page, it looks like it could just be one potion per spread, which means less than 16 in the completed book, plus at least two ingredients per potion.

• Rule Sets: N/A
• Game Worlds & Settings: N/A
• Adventures & Campaigns: N/A
• Creatures: N/A
• Playable Races: N/A
• Classes & Sub-Classes: N/A
• Equipment & Items: Unspecified, but seems like as many as 16 potions and 32 ingredients.
• Spells: N/A
• World-Building, Tools, Maps, & Game-Aids: “Flavour text on each ingredient and where to find it. Lore about the world of Herbalism and the master herbalists.”

Final Verdict: I was on the fence on this one. I love everything about the clarity of the campaign pitch, the purpose of the supplement, and the illustration style, but it feels weird that they don’t specify how many potions the book will include when that is the singular draw. Looking through the updates, it’s a lot of detail about herbalist shops and bags, which means even less spreads for the potions themselves.

Also, with potions and magical items, often they can be carbon-copies of each other simply with different spell-effects attached. It would be beneficial to see these potions are more intricate than simple “spell juice.”

Ultimately, my curiosity and my love of pencil sketches got the best of me and I backed it. I guess I’ll have to report back with my findings once it’s released.

Reign of Discordia 2nd Edition

On Kickstarter! Funding goal of $1,000 reached! Kickstarter ends Fri, July 1 2022 4:29 AM UTC +12:00.

Reign of Discordia 2nd Edition describes itself as “Interstellar Adventure in the Ruins of Empire (for the 5E and White Star game systems).”

Kickstarter Pitch: $20 for a 5e-Compatible PDF, $45 for the PDF plus a print-on-demand copy.

Reign of Discordia is a self-contained sci-fi world, which means it’s likely not something you’ll insert into your own D&D campaign unless you already have a sci-fi setting or you introduce your players to wild shifts in genre and tone (which is awesome).

This project fails one of my basic tests of any genre of Kickstarter, which is “how many pages” and “how much for a printed book.” One stretch goal talks about “2o extra pages,” but they never mention the length of the actual book.

Also, the print-on-demand goal says you’ll be offered a hard copy of the book “at the base price to print and ship,” which is a phrase that has no meaning. I assume “base price” means the creator forgoes their cut and offers the book just at the cost of printing, but if you’re already paying $45 it feels like they should at least offer you a ballpark on that. Without knowing how long the book will be you can’t even search DriveThruRPG for comparable titles.

• Rule Sets: “New mechanics for space battles including one that is “quick and dirty” and another that is more tactical in nature and takes place on a hex mat.”
• Game Worlds & Settings: Yes! That’s the main focus of this book.
• Adventures & Campaigns: “A brand new Reign of Discordia adventure.”
• Creatures: Not specified, but clearly it contains some because this can’t use core D&D 5e fantasy creatures!
• Playable Races: “All of the playable alien species from the original setting” plus “New playable species that were previously merely hinted at.”
• Classes & Sub-Classes: Unclear
• Equipment & Items: Yes, but amount unspecificed
• Spells: Unclear if spells exist.
• World-Building, Tools, Maps, & Game-Aids: Unclear

Final Verdict: Unfortunately, this Kickstarter doesn’t make a compelling case for what might be a really cool sci-fi world. This project has a “bringing my homebrew campaign to you” feeling to it, especially since it’s the first KS of its creator (even one who has worked with Wizards of the Coast). While they offer a few live-play videos as evidence, a first time project for a whole new game world needs more art and specific details about what it offers.

From what the campaign page describes (and even after digging into the updates), it’s hard to understand if this will even be playable without heavy modification for your table. I think if you love sci-fi settings you could take a chance for $20 – but that’s a lot of money to wager on a random roll for success.

Servants of the Lich King: Quests for 5E

On Kickstarter! Funding goal $2,440 reached! Kickstarter ends Sun, July 3 2022 10:43 AM UTC +12:00.

Servants of the Lich King: Quests for 5E describes itself as a “Digital book of 10 adventures compatible with fifth edition!”

Kickstarter Pitch: £10 (~$13) for a digital PDF, plus stretch goals.

This campaign plainly states what it contains – 10 adventures totaling about 60 pages, mostly for Levels 1-4, with a handful for Levels 5-8. There’s an optional overarching story to link them. Each adventure will be its own printable PDF that includes gridded maps and pages in a familiar D&D 5e layout.

• Rule Sets: N/A
• Game Worlds & Settings: N/A
• Adventures & Campaigns: 10 adventures (plus 1 from stretch goals)
• Creatures: Unclear
• Playable Races: N/A
• Classes & Sub-Classes: N/A
• Equipment & Items: N/A
• Spells: N/A
• World-Building, Tools, Maps, & Game-Aids: N/A

Final Verdict: 10 adventures at $1 each beats the going rate of adventures from official D&D books as well as Adventurer’s League. However, this sales pitch would be stronger with a sample adventure to download, even if that was just the first page of story hooks. The sample pages are too small to read text from, so while we can see they are well-organized it’s impossible to get a feel for the writing.

Plus, the campaign doesn’t actually specify how many adventures will fall into each level range or where you can source the necessary creatures. Are they all in the Monstrous Manual? Does this include stat blocks?

I’m always sad to come away with questions like these from checking out an affordable, accessible project like this one. I was excited at first, but the sales pitch basically comes down to “It’s 10 Adventures” without much more to say for itself.

X Marks The Spot: Piratical Resources For Your 5E Game

On Kickstarter! Funding goal of $610 reached! Kickstarter ends Tue, July 5 2022 10:00 AM UTC +12:00.

X Marks The Spot: Piratical Resources For Your 5E Game describes itself as “Adventure on the high seas with these nautical resources for DnD 5E.”

Kickstarter Pitch: £7 (~$9USD) for a PDF, £20 (~$25USD) for a softcover + PDF, £90 ($110USD) for PDFs of all 17 of their KS projects.

This book easily passes the affordability test, and I know this creator from some of their past projects, but… what is it?

As far as I can tell, this is a 28-page book of a single adventure with a pair of locations and a set of already-published seafaring themed adventure hooks.

• Rule Sets: N/A
• Game Worlds & Settings: Two adventure locations
• Adventures & Campaigns: One adventure
• Creatures: N/A
• Playable Races: N/A
• Classes & Sub-Classes: N/A
• Equipment & Items: 7 new magical items
• Spells: N/A
• World-Building, Tools, Maps, & Game-Aids: “20 plot hooks and chance aquatic encounter seeds, from stowaways to pirates to krakens and ghost ships.”

Final Verdict: Do you want to pay $7 for an adventure, two maps, and 7 items? That’s what this comes down to, and it’s a lot more expensive than the going rate for a one-off official D&D adventure from an official book or Adventurer’s Guild.

I’m always skeptical of a book that promises “adventure hooks.” That can mean anything from several pages of introductions packed with NPCs with their own sinister motivations to a single sentence like “the players take a sightseeing boat trip.” Ultimately, my style of DM-ing doesn’t require much assistance when it comes to story motivations, so it’s hard for me to see the value in these sorts of prompts when they don’t come with multiple full adventure proposals attached.

I don’t see any nautical resources here despite the project tile, and there are a lot of Kickstarters with guidance on seafaring campaigns and ship-to-ship combat. Without a bold hook to reel us in on this one, I think it’s worth saving the $7 for the next oceanic offering.