D&D 5E The Bible Is A New 5E Setting

The Adventurer’s Guide to the Bible is a 5E setting and adventure set in the first century AD.

The 350-page book, created by Bible enthusiasts, included four new lineages, a range of subclasses, and an adventure for character levels 1-10, along with a full first-century AD setting with locations like the Library of Alexandria and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, NPCs, and monsters such as giants, seraph serpents, angels, and demons. The adventure itself involves a search for three missing Magi.

It's $25 for a PDF, or $39 for a hardcover.

The Adventurer's Guide to the Bible for 5E

A fifth edition campaign setting with new rule options for players and GMs, and a full adventure for characters of levels 1 - 10.

www.kickstarter.com

Cleopatra is dead. Rome and Parthia struggle for control of the Fertile Crescent in a bid for world domination, while local politics in the Middle Kingdoms become increasingly divisive. The prophecies of the so-called “Messiah” have long been forgotten, and an ancient Evil lurks in the shadows, corrupting the hearts of humankind. Three of the wisest mystics known as the “Magi” travelled to Bethlehem following a star they believed to be a sign. They never returned. Hope grows dim as the world descends into darkness. What we need are answers... and those brave enough to seek them.

This isn’t the first biblical era setting for D&D, although it might be for 5E. Green Ronin released Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era for 3E over a decade ago.

 

[HammerMan]

Formally speaking, Aslan is not an allegory, a point Lewis stressed very hard while he was alive. Probably worth noting, since he was a professor of literature at both Oxford and Cambridge, and very specifically was an expert on the use of allegory in Medieval and Renaissance literature. Allegory requires a physical entity that represents an abstract concept in the story. Aslan doesn't represent anything; in-story, he literally is Jesus, just as he appears in a parallel universe. It's speculative Christian fiction, not allegory.

I'm not sure the fine line there really matters...

 

[Weiley31]

• There could be a Reborn lineage: people tend to not stay dead in the original material.
• A divinely touched lineage for the various prophet visited by an Angel could be pertinent, something like a refluffed Aasimar.
• Strangely, I'd make Magi a lineage, kinda like a high elf setting equivalent. Wisefolk from a unknown land shrouded in mystery.

I mean, we do have the actual Ravensloft Reborn Lineage, the actual Aasimar, and the High Elf race to still do all three of those if one wanted to. I'd allow it.

 

[Bedrockgames]

This is definitely an intriguing idea. I am not a 5E player though, so I don't know if the system is a big selling point for me. I remember Testament coming out and thinking that was interesting as well. For a long time I wanted to make a game about the early Jesus movement (never going to do it, but it was an idea I always thought would be cool----especially with the players doing things like tracking down gospels and stuff, it seemed like there was gameable content there even if you fully embraced the stuff that would make traditional D&D-style adventures difficult). Since this one is set, it appears, before Jesus, I am curious how it expects that to be played out (in a long enough campaign, especially if time elapses, it is going to come up).

 

[Weiley31]

Spartans! Tonight we dine on five loaves of bread and two fishes.

Cue the Zack Snyder slow-mo scenes where you see Spartans like doing epic tearing of bread and passing with the occasional scene of them dunking the bread into the goblets of wine that Jesus just turned the water into as he was passing by. Whilst two Spartans are just high-fiving each other as it happens.

Also don't forget the music.

 

[ART!]

The below text is in one of their updates. I gotta say, pretty bold move to ask your KS backers to help finish your project for you.

Pretty common practice.

Is it common to have backers be representation and cultural sensitivity readers? I don't see anything in the kickstarter's text about them having their own representation and sensitivity person/people, so it seems dicey to rely on random strangers of unknown background do that for you. Of course, there may be aspects of that I'm not thinking of or noticing.

I (who am not a Christian) backed this. Given the authors are pastors etc and they come from a particular worldview, the product is obviously going to share that worldview. But on the other hand, so does any product that draws inspiration from real-world history or themes. I bought The Islands of Sina Una a while back, for instance, and one of the flaws in that otherwise excellent product is that the picture it draws of fantasy pre-colonial Philippines is so perfectly idyllic and peaceful that there's very little conflict, danger, or drama for PCs to get involved in!

As for the product itself, I'm not a massive fan of the anachronistic cover art, but the way the developers have answered questions in the kickstarter comments indicates that there's a lot of serious thought and reseach put into it. I have a considerable amount of faith (hah!) that this will turn out to be a pretty useful sourcebook on first-century Palestine and neighbouring areas, even if for home games people might want to prefer to re-insert clerics of non-Abrahamic pantheons etc. But who doesn't mess with written settings in their home games, after all?

And as i posted in the Satanic Panic thread on the other board - for D&D players, this is what victory looks like. The best kind of victory - where rather than being brutally beaten down, the opposing side drops their weapons and joins you because your side is more fun. The satanic panic was the best part of 30-40 years ago, nobody takes it seriously any more - and now we have a bunch of pastors, Christian youth camp leaders etc, enthusiastically putting together a D&D setting of their own. Good for them. And, if it brings more people into the hobby - good for us too.

These are uncannily close to my own feelings on the subject, so thanks!

I kind of wonder if it'll have all the infanticide, incest, slavery, rape, and genocide that all of human history has ...

I fixed that for you. The OT especially is uncannily frank about such things, unlike most history texts.

 

[Weiley31]

Well, I have a habit of combing different 5E settings to create certain things or enhance em. So I think this, combined with this, would make the ultimate 5E DND Bible setting/Adventures.

Inferno - Dante's Guide to Hell for 5e

Inferno is the first original Dantesque Campaign Setting for the 5th Edition of the most important RPG ever created.

www.kickstarter.com

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I mean, we do have the actual Ravensloft Reborn Lineage, the actual Aasimar, and the High Elf race to still do all three of those if one wanted to. I'd allow it.

Yup,

that would be my way of thinking, also. A slight refluff, and voilà!

 

[Hex08]

I fixed that for you. The OT especially is uncannily frank about such things, like many religious texts

I hope you don't mind that I fixed yours as well . The OT isn't a history text, it's a religious one. I'm not knocking the Christian Bible here, but its historical accuracy is dubious at best.

 

[Morrus]

Is it common to have backers be representation and cultural sensitivity readers?

No, usually you hire specialists. That’s a very different thing to public playtesting. It’s more akin to editing than playtesting.

 

[RealAlHazred]

I'm a little leery about this. But then again, I was cautious about Testament for 3.5E, and I am a history buff. But Testament turned out to be a really good setting, with loads of carefully researched historical detail allowing play in a variety of ancient Middle Eastern settings: Mesopotamian, Sumerian, Babylonian, Hittite, Jewish, etc. up to early Christian. They didn't go enough into Gnosticism to really scratch my "eastern Mediterranean early era" itch, but it was really good. The books are pretty easy to convert to 5E, and can usually be found for good prices online.