Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
[Mini-Let's Read] The World of Aetaltis
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8778627" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/q3y747E.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p></p><p>The other big setting/adventure book for Aetaltis, Defenders of Dunbury Castle, centers on a local territory known as the Scir of Dunbury, Described by a Drive-Thru RPG commentator as “Keep on the Borderlands for the 21st Century,” the major adventure hooks and plots center on Dunbury Castle whose captain is responsible for overseeing the welfare and order of the region. But with a tightening budget, understaffed ranks, a crooked Warden* who is replacing foresters with morally dubious yes-men to serve as a private army, the rising amount of Endrori attacks from unwarded Deeplands entrances, and several other dangers, the good folk of Dunbury Castle can’t do this alone. That’s where the PCs come in!</p><p></p><p>*manager of the foresters, who act as rural law enforcement in the Scir.</p><p></p><p>Like Heroes of Thornwall, Defenders goes for the local hearth fantasy angle in encouraging PCs to form relationships and care about locals by helping them with sidequests via the Goodwill system while also having several adventure-friendly locations to explore. This was intentional; much like how Heroes of Thornwall was inspired by those “cozy starting towns” in RPGs, Defenders of Dunbury Castle is inspired by those times in classic RPGs where the protagonist visited the “starting castle” for an audience with the King to help solve some local trouble or saving the world. While Dunbury Castle doesn’t have a King, it is in need of help, and its proximity to Thornwall is what the book calls a “campaign launchpad.” Not a full setting, but a starting area with enough material for the Dungeon Master to get things going.</p><p></p><p><strong>Dunbury Castle itself</strong> occupies a good count of 60 out of 156 pages, and like Heroes of Thornwall the author does a great job in making the place feel like a real medieval community rather than just a fortress full of soldiers. There’s also quite a level of detail to real-world architecture and terminology. Have you ever wondered what taluses are and how they can be used for defensive benefits against climbing attackers? How about nightingale floors, which actually existed in real world Japan and were used to guard against silent attackers sneaking about? Defenders of Dunbury Castle’s got you covered!</p><p></p><p>There’s also brief talk of running a campaign where PCs are soldiers in a military capacity, with discussions on requisitioning equipment, the typical duties outside of field work,* and discussion of ranks and how many soldiers they can command. Yes, PCs can get additional help this way.</p><p></p><p>*term for when soldiers go out into potentially hostile territory or otherwise out on patrol.</p><p></p><p>There are a lot of adventure opportunities and characters to interact with, and even the “NPCless rooms” have some kind of detail which helps enliven the place and makes it feel more real. Take this text about a medieval fire prevention system in the barracks:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>This section serves a dual purpose: it helps explain features of the castle security versus a common threat, and also a means of showing how people have fun and find ways to blow off stress. It sounds like the kind of thing medieval fantasy villagers would do as a means of livening up an otherwise boring day of drudgery. There are other bits of character flavor here and there in the book, for general communities and for individual NPCs.</p><p></p><p>For example, take this orog cook who works at the local Three Hounds Inn:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Even if PCs aren’t mean enough to get on Mama’s bad side, the information provided still sets a strong mental image of her personality type to the DM in how to roleplay her. And she is also tied to two other characters in the book, another Orog who is one of Dunbury Castle’s “secret weapons” and her father who has sadly transformed into an Ogre who has become a vicious raider. While it’s not necessarily the norm, there are quite a few NPCs like Mama who may seem ordinarily innocuous but tie in to other plots and characters.</p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/2Xr3cv3.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p></p><p>Unlike Heroes of Thornwall there is no big dungeon that serves as the main adventure hook, although the text makes up for that with <strong>smaller encounters and locations in need of adventurers,</strong> and tend to have higher stakes than the minor errands and village drama in Thornwall. Here’s a few:</p><p></p><p>The local fairies who are beloved barbers in the castle are secretly spies for a nearby hidden fey kingdom, using animal messengers to relay information.</p><p></p><p>The court mage’s apprentice has secretly pledged herself to Endroren and is building up from animal sacrifices to humanoid ones in her quest for power.</p><p></p><p>One of the castle towers is haunted by a nobleman bound to the place by a night hag’s curse, and there are several ways to put his spirit to rest. The night hag responsible can also be encountered in the Scir, and while using it risks corruption her coven has a bubbling pot that can see through the eyes of spiders which can be used to determine future adventure hooks.</p><p></p><p>There’s the lair of Brightburn, a copper dragon who is not a villain to be slain, but actually on the run from an evil green dragon and her Endroren minions. PCs who aid her can get a unique magical harp from her hoard, and if they’re in a tight spot she may swoop in to give a helping claw.</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> To me, this is where Aetaltis’ strengths lie. Not so much in the big picture of the setting or the “ode to classic fantasy,” but more in how the adventures do a stellar job of making a realized, interconnected world players can immerse themselves in. While Defenders of Dunbury Castle is more a broad blueprint than a whole campaign, there’s enough sidequests and opposition to make the realm more than just a campaign launchpad for 1st-level heroes to start in, leave, then forget about.</p><p></p><p>If I had to give any criticisms, I’d say that between this and Heroes of Thornwall, the book contradicts itself by mentioning NPCs who have classes that otherwise don’t exist in the setting. Notably bard, which shows up a couple of times. There’s no in-game explanation for their unique talents, either.</p><p></p><p>I don't know if I'm going to cover the Adventurer's Guide to Aetaltis. From what I skimmed a lot of it repeats information from the two other corebooks but from an in-character perspective. The remaining adventure, the Forgotten Gate, is much shorter than the other two and is a straightforward dungeon crawl.</p><p></p><p>The collection of short stories, Champions of Aetaltis, isn't an RPG sourcebook so I don't intend on covering it in this thread. It could be good, but at the moment I'm more interested in covering the World of Aetaltis as a D&D setting to run adventures in.</p><p></p><p><strong>Final Thoughts to come later, as I'm posting this late at night.</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 8778627, member: 6750502"] [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/q3y747E.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER] The other big setting/adventure book for Aetaltis, Defenders of Dunbury Castle, centers on a local territory known as the Scir of Dunbury, Described by a Drive-Thru RPG commentator as “Keep on the Borderlands for the 21st Century,” the major adventure hooks and plots center on Dunbury Castle whose captain is responsible for overseeing the welfare and order of the region. But with a tightening budget, understaffed ranks, a crooked Warden* who is replacing foresters with morally dubious yes-men to serve as a private army, the rising amount of Endrori attacks from unwarded Deeplands entrances, and several other dangers, the good folk of Dunbury Castle can’t do this alone. That’s where the PCs come in! *manager of the foresters, who act as rural law enforcement in the Scir. Like Heroes of Thornwall, Defenders goes for the local hearth fantasy angle in encouraging PCs to form relationships and care about locals by helping them with sidequests via the Goodwill system while also having several adventure-friendly locations to explore. This was intentional; much like how Heroes of Thornwall was inspired by those “cozy starting towns” in RPGs, Defenders of Dunbury Castle is inspired by those times in classic RPGs where the protagonist visited the “starting castle” for an audience with the King to help solve some local trouble or saving the world. While Dunbury Castle doesn’t have a King, it is in need of help, and its proximity to Thornwall is what the book calls a “campaign launchpad.” Not a full setting, but a starting area with enough material for the Dungeon Master to get things going. [B]Dunbury Castle itself[/B] occupies a good count of 60 out of 156 pages, and like Heroes of Thornwall the author does a great job in making the place feel like a real medieval community rather than just a fortress full of soldiers. There’s also quite a level of detail to real-world architecture and terminology. Have you ever wondered what taluses are and how they can be used for defensive benefits against climbing attackers? How about nightingale floors, which actually existed in real world Japan and were used to guard against silent attackers sneaking about? Defenders of Dunbury Castle’s got you covered! There’s also brief talk of running a campaign where PCs are soldiers in a military capacity, with discussions on requisitioning equipment, the typical duties outside of field work,* and discussion of ranks and how many soldiers they can command. Yes, PCs can get additional help this way. *term for when soldiers go out into potentially hostile territory or otherwise out on patrol. There are a lot of adventure opportunities and characters to interact with, and even the “NPCless rooms” have some kind of detail which helps enliven the place and makes it feel more real. Take this text about a medieval fire prevention system in the barracks: This section serves a dual purpose: it helps explain features of the castle security versus a common threat, and also a means of showing how people have fun and find ways to blow off stress. It sounds like the kind of thing medieval fantasy villagers would do as a means of livening up an otherwise boring day of drudgery. There are other bits of character flavor here and there in the book, for general communities and for individual NPCs. For example, take this orog cook who works at the local Three Hounds Inn: Even if PCs aren’t mean enough to get on Mama’s bad side, the information provided still sets a strong mental image of her personality type to the DM in how to roleplay her. And she is also tied to two other characters in the book, another Orog who is one of Dunbury Castle’s “secret weapons” and her father who has sadly transformed into an Ogre who has become a vicious raider. While it’s not necessarily the norm, there are quite a few NPCs like Mama who may seem ordinarily innocuous but tie in to other plots and characters. [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/2Xr3cv3.png[/IMG][/CENTER] Unlike Heroes of Thornwall there is no big dungeon that serves as the main adventure hook, although the text makes up for that with [B]smaller encounters and locations in need of adventurers,[/B] and tend to have higher stakes than the minor errands and village drama in Thornwall. Here’s a few: The local fairies who are beloved barbers in the castle are secretly spies for a nearby hidden fey kingdom, using animal messengers to relay information. The court mage’s apprentice has secretly pledged herself to Endroren and is building up from animal sacrifices to humanoid ones in her quest for power. One of the castle towers is haunted by a nobleman bound to the place by a night hag’s curse, and there are several ways to put his spirit to rest. The night hag responsible can also be encountered in the Scir, and while using it risks corruption her coven has a bubbling pot that can see through the eyes of spiders which can be used to determine future adventure hooks. There’s the lair of Brightburn, a copper dragon who is not a villain to be slain, but actually on the run from an evil green dragon and her Endroren minions. PCs who aid her can get a unique magical harp from her hoard, and if they’re in a tight spot she may swoop in to give a helping claw. [B]Thoughts So Far:[/B] To me, this is where Aetaltis’ strengths lie. Not so much in the big picture of the setting or the “ode to classic fantasy,” but more in how the adventures do a stellar job of making a realized, interconnected world players can immerse themselves in. While Defenders of Dunbury Castle is more a broad blueprint than a whole campaign, there’s enough sidequests and opposition to make the realm more than just a campaign launchpad for 1st-level heroes to start in, leave, then forget about. If I had to give any criticisms, I’d say that between this and Heroes of Thornwall, the book contradicts itself by mentioning NPCs who have classes that otherwise don’t exist in the setting. Notably bard, which shows up a couple of times. There’s no in-game explanation for their unique talents, either. I don't know if I'm going to cover the Adventurer's Guide to Aetaltis. From what I skimmed a lot of it repeats information from the two other corebooks but from an in-character perspective. The remaining adventure, the Forgotten Gate, is much shorter than the other two and is a straightforward dungeon crawl. The collection of short stories, Champions of Aetaltis, isn't an RPG sourcebook so I don't intend on covering it in this thread. It could be good, but at the moment I'm more interested in covering the World of Aetaltis as a D&D setting to run adventures in. [B]Final Thoughts to come later, as I'm posting this late at night.[/B] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
[Mini-Let's Read] The World of Aetaltis
Top