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).

 

[Grendel_Khan]

Unless you are using someone else’s books, you’ll need at least the PHB, which retails for $50. In a month of being an RPG hobbyist you might, if you’re really lucky, get to play in four 4-6 hour games. More likely is one 4-6 hour game a month. Far, far more likely is zero games. While you have the same potential 320 hours of entertainment, it’s not practical you’ll actually get anywhere near that and the buy in is 5.5 times higher. So say an average of 5-hour games, you’re looking at $50 for 20 hours of fun, 5 hours of fun, or zero hours of fun.

This kind of calculation really bums me out, and doesn't make a ton of sense to me, either.

-Comparing gaming to most other kinds of entertainment is apples and oranges stuff. Most people aren't watching Netflix with a whole group of friends, and entertainment always varies in cost. A musical is more than a movie ticket is more than a rental. Closest thing to gaming for most people is probably going out for drinks, and that's very expensive, and something tons of people do, and not something that really makes sense to break down on an hourly basis.

-It's not like your PHB or other book bursts into flames after a set amount of time. And really how often do you have a gaming group where everyone is buying all or any of the books? The person GMing is usually bearing the brunt of the expenses, but hopefully the GM enjoys reading those books--requires them to be well-written and engaging, and not just another 100 pages of 5E feats and spells. But also a handful of books can provide literally years of gaming. It's only when people can't come up with their own material and have to buy tons of printed adventures that things get expensive.