D&D 5E Auroboros Kickstarter From Warcraft Devs Has Launched

The D&D 5E setting from developers who originally hail from video game studios like Blizzard, and video games like Warcraft and Diablo, has launched on Kickstarter with a bang, as expected. Auroborus: Coils of the Serpent details a realm called Lawbrand, which contains a number of trade cities and factions. Will this one be the 4th in the last month to join the $1M club?

The high-powered team, under the banner of Warchief Gaming, includes Chris Metzen (Blizzard Entertainment, Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, Overwatch), Mike Gilmartin (Blizzard, Eidos, Maxis, Atari), and Ryan Collins (Hearthstone, Marvel Heroes, HeroClix).

The setting contains 5 new races and 4 new subclasses, plus details of 8 trade cities. It also features a new game rule called the Mark of the Serpent which lets you do incredibly powerful magical effects at a cost.

Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent

An epic 5E fantasy campaign setting by Chris Metzen.

www.kickstarter.com

For $25 you can pick up the PDF bundle, or $50 for the hardcover. There are higher tiers with GM screens, world maps, slipcases, and more, with expected delivery in one year (March 2022).

 

[imagineGod]

I am getting this right? Chris Mezten's Kickstarter has smashed through half million Dollars with 5000 backers on the first day alone?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I get all that and I still hope folks get what they want, but I am happy to reiterate: it's his high school campaign world.

No, it's based on it. The campaign clearly says it's been developed based on those original notes. He's had more than 30 years as a professional game designer since then, helping create some of the most popular fantasy games of all time -- at its peak, World of Warcraft had more than 6 million simultaneous subscribers, a number that very few tabletop games will ever approach. It's reasonable to assume that he and the other professional game designers are going to be bringing a lot of polish to the table.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I am getting this right? Chris Mezten's Kickstarter has smashed through half million Dollars with 5000 backers on the first day alone?

For the Kickstarting Horde!

 

[Scribe]

No, it's based on it. The campaign clearly says it's been developed based on those original notes. He's had more than 30 years of a professional game designer since then, helping create some of the most popular fantasy games of all time -- at its peak, World of Warcraft had more than 6 million simultaneous subscribers, a number that very few tabletop games will ever approach. It's reasonable to assume that he and the other professional game designers are going to be bringing a lot of polish to the table.

It was far more than 6 million at its peak.

I've been a Warcraft fan since I was making maps in game 2, or playing the cracked beta in game 3, to raiding in WoW for year after year.

I'll probably pick this up on the back of that hype alone.

 

[Morrus]

You can't trademark common English words. Product identity demands some of these terms get dopey spellings or silly names.

What, like Dungeons or Dragons?

 

[Reynard]

No, it's based on it. The campaign clearly says it's been developed based on those original notes. He's had more than 30 years of a professional game designer since then, helping create some of the most popular fantasy games of all time -- at its peak, World of Warcraft had more than 6 million simultaneous subscribers, a number that very few tabletop games will ever approach. It's reasonable to assume that he and the other professional game designers are going to be bringing a lot of polish to the table.

Sure. Now that I underatand who he is, I understand why it is a big deal. And I expect it to be a highly polished piece of high school worldbuilding. I can tell that by the races alone.

 

[Reynard]

I am getting this right? Chris Mezten's Kickstarter has smashed through half million Dollars with 5000 backers on the first day alone?

View attachment 135893

I'm not even surprised anymore after that tavern book broke a million dollars.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I get all that and I still hope folks get what they want, but I am happy to reiterate: it's his high school campaign world. NO ONE'S high school campaign world was any good. I wouldn't pay money for my own high school campaign world with snazzy art. Lipstick on a pig, and all that. It's crazy to me that people want that, even if they recognize the creator as someone who in the 3 decades AFTER making that thing created stuff they loved. But, again, maybe it will be awesome and they will be happy.

But is that actually true? Like, is it actually his high school campaign world, or is it in fact a version of that that's been developed on and off for decades, and/or wholly revised at some point?

You're looking at it like it's not marketing to say that, and like it's purely a vanity project, when I suspect it's more like this is a setting which incorporates elements of that setting and is using it as a nostalgic marketing appeal to a million DMs who like this dude's work and never got to make their high school campaign world into an official setting.

Like, literally nothing about it that we've seen so far particularly screams "high school", so I'm unconvinced. In fact, what it actually screams to me is "early 20s". The races/classes with the possible exception of the Wraithblade aren't teenager-bait, and in fact Monks and Warlocks didn't even exist when Metzen was a teenager, given he's 47 (I mean, he might have played a Monk in late 1E but I'm VERY skeptical he was running 1E in the 1990s). The races are missing the over-muscled WWE-ish warrior-types and hot-chicks-only races that scream "high school campaign". Plus the tattoo magic deal is more 20s than teens.

I suspect part of the success he's seeing is the pricing, too - I was expecting a more premium pricing on this - I haven't back it but given the quality of the artwork and so on, it looks like it's pretty good for $25.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It was far more than 6 million at its peak.

It was apparently 5.5 million during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, which was the last time Blizzard released figures.

I hadn't previously seen this analysis that said it hit 12 million during Cataclysm, which is kind of a shock (it was my least favorite expansion, by far), but good on Blizzard.

In any case, even at its lowest subscriber points, WoW easily qualifies as one of the most popular fantasy franchises of all time.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What, like Dungeons or Dragons?

Neither "dungeon" nor "dragon" is product identity for a reason. It only works as a trademark when they're conjoined.

In the Warcraft franchise "fel" refers to supernatural energies related to hell. Basically, hellfire, but something Blizzard can own and control, which they'd have a hard time doing with "hellfire."