D&D 5E Dread Metrol From Keith Baker Is Here!

Eberron-creator Keith Baker's Ravenloft/Eberron crossover book is now available on DMsGuild! Metrol is a dark city besieged by nightmares. This 112-page book contains details on the city, plus a starter adventure.

Dread Metrol: Into the Mists - An Eberron / Ravenloft Crossover - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

Dread Metrol: Into the Mists - An Eberron / Ravenloft Crossover - Join Eberron setting creator Keith Baker for a journey through the Mists and into the domain of Dread Metrol. Explore o

www.dmsguild.com

Join Eberron setting creator Keith Baker for a journey through the Mists and into the domain of Dread Metrol. Explore one of the greatest cities of Khorvaire—a city now besieged by nightmares.

In this book, Keith creates a bridge between the settings of Eberron and Ravenloft. Trapped in an endless war, Metrol has become a harsh realm where familiar elements take dark turns. In this besieged city, House Cannith crafts soldiers from flesh and steel, House Vadalis supports the wererat secret police... and in the shadows, far more sinister secrets await.

Dread Metrol: Into The Mists provides everything you need to dive into the darkness and explore the city of Metrol, including a starter adventure plus a host of ideas for creating adventures and characters that are deeply tied to the setting. This book can be used to incorporate Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft into Eberron, or you can use it as a standalone setting (no familiarity with Ravenloft required!).

What's Inside?

• Dozens of pages of new lore on Dread Metrol, including its history, districts, Vermishards, and factions.
• Statistics for Queen Dannel, ruler of this dark domain.
• Plot hooks and tables galore to inspire new adventures.
• The Mastermaker, a new artificer archetype who specializes in rebuilding their own body.
• "The Mourning After," an adventure by Andrew Bishkinskyi that takes characters from 1st to 4th level; this can be used as the start of an Eberron campaign, or tied through the Mists to an ongoing campaign in any world.
• High-resolution copies of the maps used in "The Mourning After."
• Companion 32-page "Player Edition" PDF, allowing DMs to share the setting of Dread Metrol with players—without revealing its deepest secrets.
• ...and more!

 

[Vaalingrade]

Not going for verisimilitude then?

Welp. Now I'm obligated to buy the book.

 

[tetrasodium]

I read through the 32(?) page player's book then skimmed the longer dm side before starting on reading through the adventure. Got to say that this adventure is really well done with a lot of great things for the DM's sanity & ease of use now that I'm mostly through it. Doing my best to avoid spoilers.. for example:

• Every NPC has a bolded section for What do they want and What do they want.
• There is at least one point where it says that something is deliberately vague so the gm can slot in something linked more closely to the PCs for reasons
• It mentions numerous times when a given npc is important & how they can be replaced if killed or something
• It makes clear when some event is important enough for a later one to just be described rather than launching straight into initiative
• The scarcity of equipment is a good thing that is really played up through the adventure
• After 4 years of undead siege, metrol is a dark place well into dark fantasy & body horror as it notes in an early sidebar. VRGTR may have claimed there were areas where dark fantasy & body horror were a thing, this oozes & skitters them from every pore while whispering desperation in the dark to make the unthinkable seem a real quandary

 

[This Effin’ GM]

I don't care what setting you are in. If the GM makes mention of a toilet, it is automatically a war against mimics, completely regardless of the existence of said mimics.

Someone spent too much time in the Lair of the Dung Monster in Rappan Athuk

 

[ChaosOS]

 

[ChaosOS]

FYI a bit of errata went out, minor typos + a few buffs to Battlemaster

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

FYI a bit of errata went out, minor typos + a few buffs to Battlemaster

Needed for one (damage upgrade from 1d8 to 1d10, then 2d10). The added boost makes it a strong competitor for the armorer subclass IMHO. It also seem (but I didn't run the numbers) to make it more attractive to attack than to cast a booming/green flame blade cantrip, "wasting" the extra attack in the build.

The second boost, getting an extra property at level 3, is very strong. Basically you get to use you SAD bonus to attack, with a weapon doing 1d10 base damage that can be either finesse, thrown, or reach. It makes it a very tempting 3-level dip for a rogue (or take a small dip in rogue for a mastermaker] so you can add sneak attack damage (with finesse, as you wouldn't use it ever as a single class mastermaker since your INT bonus is certainly better), thrown is great since you can infuse it with returning weapon (or more exactly, MUST infuse...) and reach is cool too if you're going Sentinel. You're basically fighting with a halberd that allows a shield to go with that. It's definitely strong and frontload the class a lot. At 9th level you get an extra infusion slot and your fist count as a shield, so you free a hand... for dual wielding with a hand axe, maybe, since the mastermaker doesn't have a strong use for his bonus action? It would make him need STR though, but still interesting.

All in all, I retract my earlier criticism of KB's artificer being low-powered. This one sounds very good, especially if you're digging the Grendizer reenactment of attacking your literally throwing a rocket punch at your enemies.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

Anyone else getting strong Falkovnia vibes from Dread Metrol?

 

[tetrasodium]

Anyone else getting strong Falkovnia vibes from Dread Metrol?

Maye if falkovnia were actually dark desperate & disturbing rather than just saying "Falkovnia is a land besieged" & leaving it to the reader to basically fill in how it differs from FR. Having the player & gm sections does a nice job of really conveying the desperation so the players can understand & be aware of what level of desperation their characters feel/experience without needing to spend a few campaigns painting a picture too.

Comparing the two is bit like comparing the happy fun zootopia with a problem & the dark zootopia zootopia that could have been based on the various unfinished scenes & early drafts

 

[This Effin’ GM]

Maye if falkovnia were actually dark desperate & disturbing rather than just saying "Falkovnia is a land besieged" & leaving it to the reader to basically fill in how it differs from FR. Having the player & gm sections does a nice job of really conveying the desperation so the players can understand & be aware of what level of desperation their characters feel/experience without needing to spend a few campaigns painting a picture too,

Yeah I’m not saying that the player added stuff isn’t nice, but back to Dread Metrol/Falkovnia: there’s years a of lore, including an adventure set in Falkovnia and I’m just saying they sort of fill a similar niche. the horrors of a siege, a tyrant who will win at all costs, press gangs, never ending horde coming from the mists. Almost like if you took Falkovnia and lamordia and jammed it into one domain.

 

[tetrasodium]

Yeah I’m not saying that the player added stuff isn’t nice, but back to Dread Metrol/Falkovnia: there’s years a of lore, including an adventure set in Falkovnia and I’m just saying they sort of fill a similar niche. the horrors of a siege, a tyrant who will win at all costs, press gangs, never ending horde coming from the mists. Almost like if you took Falkovnia and lamordia and jammed it into one domain.

Yea falkovnia could have been so much more I agree, vgtr is just too brief & FR is too tightly integrated with the base classes to bring any sense of its desperation & a gm can't exactly expect players to dig through all of that stuff you reference.