D&D 5E Humblewood: A New Third-Party Setting on D&D Beyond

Following November's inclusion of Dungeons of Drakkenheim and Lairs of Etharis, another third-party setting has been added to D&D Beyond. From Hit Point Press, Humblewood, a setting which features new birdfolk player races, made a million dollars on Kickstarter back in April 2019. You can buy it from DDB for $39.99

In the world of Everden, nestled between the mighty Crest mountain range and the vast marshes of the Mokk Fields, lies a mystical forest known as Humblewood that hums with the Great Rhythm of nature. Now the fires have come, and the Woods have been thrown into chaos. Even in these dark times, brave heroes can be found within the Wood. Will you answer the call?

Welcome to Humblewood, a campaign setting where you get to adventure as birds and other woodland critters. Come and discover the mystery behind all the forest fires, is it the Bandit Coalition or something even more nefarious? Explore the verdant forest within:

• Embody the Great Rhythm of nature by selecting between 10 new playable Races and 4 new subclasses from within the D&D Beyond character builder
• Empower your characters with 3 new backgrounds, 7 new feats, 10 new spells, and over 20 new magic items
• Expand your DM toolkit with more than 50 new monsters in the D&D Beyond Encounters tool and 11 new maps for use with D&D Beyond Maps

 

[MichaelW]

Having purchased and run Humblewood I am glad to see this happening. I purchased the PDF plus the Foundry VTT module, and we ran characters out of DDB where folks have put the races, feats etc in as homebrew items. Downside for me is that (as far as I can see) there is no discount for anyone who has already purchased Humblewood so I can't really justify to myself buying it again just to have the character options as official content.

 

[Morrus]

Mending bridges? Nah. I really doubt WotC is salty over Tales of the Valiant. It's not going to have a serious impact on sales of D&D. And Kobold made a business decision to create their own version of D&D, I also doubt they are salty towards WotC, although perhaps wary with the OGL issues of last year.

Kobold has put up a few of their titles on Demiplane, which is very D&D Beyond-like (developed by the same guy) . . . so far it's just the Tome of Beasts 1 and 2, but I'm hoping they release more. Ghostfire Games has their Grimhollow campaign on both D&D Beyond and Demiplane, so there's no reason why Kobold can't do it if they want to. I hope they do!

I mean they need to be invited. You can’t just wander along and put your stuff on D&D Beyond. There’s a reason there’s only 3 third party publishers in there, not 3000.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I admit I am a little surprised, but not too much. My opinion is Humblewood is very close to Hasbro's plans D&D to become a brand for all the audiences.

WotC saves the effort to create new PC species, and 3PP find in D&DB the best showcase for their titles.

If I had discarded the idea of Humblewood in D&DB is because I thought WotC wouldn't need more if they create from zero a new IP: Broomburrow (one of the future new planes for Magic: the Gathering in this year).

* Do we bet about toys based in Humblewood PC species by Hasbro? Maybe even a children-friendly cartoon.

 

[Dire Bare]

I mean they need to be invited. You can’t just wander along and put your stuff on D&D Beyond. There’s a reason there’s only 3 third party publishers in there, not 3000.

Well . . . yeah. And that is within the realm of possibility. But WotC hasn't been announcing any of these partnerships very far ahead of them dropping on DDB, so we won't know until we know.

 

[Umbran]

Would Level UP A5E accept one of these invitations, if extended?

Since I have no idea what terms such an invitation would entail, how could I possibly answer that?

Also note that Humblewood is a campaign setting, not a ruleset. The system is bog-standard 5e, with new species and subclasses, but no fundamentally new or highly-variant mechanics.

A5E would be a huge lift to get the alternate rules present and working in the character builder.

 

[Dire Bare]

Downside for me is that (as far as I can see) there is no discount for anyone who has already purchased Humblewood so I can't really justify to myself buying it again just to have the character options as official content.

I understand folks who already own one version would not be keen on paying for another, but . . . that's kinda how it has to work, at least for now.

Paizo worked out a deal with Demiplane where you can get a discount on titles you already own through the Paizo store . . . or perhaps it was the other way around . . . but very few of the RPG apps out there offer any sort of "already owned" discount.

What I would love to see . . . is some sort of industry agreement like the movie industry has with "Movies Anywhere" (formerly UltraViolet). You buy a digital movie on Amazon, and it also unlocks on Vudu and Apple TV, if you link your accounts. Something like that for the RPG industry would be very cool, but getting the entire industry in on the idea might be a herculean task . . .

 

[Reynard]

Paizo worked out a deal with Demiplane where you can get a discount on titles you already own through the Paizo store . . . or perhaps it was the other way around . . . but very few of the RPG apps out there offer any sort of "already owned" discount.

Paizo does the same with Fantasy grounds modules (and I presume other VTTs, but do not know for sure). They are legitimately the most customer friendly RPG company out there. The only thing they could do better is offer PDFs with hardcopy purchase. Currently you only get the PDF if you subscribe.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Humblewood looks like a lot of fun, although I've heard some issues raised about the logic and tone of some of the adventures, which are more murdery than one might expect when playing an adorable owl person.

I'd love to see Hit Point Press' Heckna supported on D&D Beyond, particularly if elements, like spells and monsters, could be purchased piecemeal. They still haven't offered that for Book of Many Things, though, so I'm guessing that feature is being quietly killed off.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I've heard of Humblewood but it never really caught my attention like The Griffon Saddlebag books did.

Ooh, those would be compelling content to add to DDB for sure. (Along with Monster Manual Expanded, WotC, hint hint!)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Does anyone know if the NPC stat blocks use the old or the new style of spellcasting?

EDIT: They use the old slot based style of spellcasting!

The book predates Monsters of the Multiverse.