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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8940435" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/RSx8NKg.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><a href="https://thedelversguide.com/" target="_blank">Official Website.</a><a href="https://heartleafgames.itch.io/the-delvers-guide" target="_blank">Itch.io Store Page</a>The furry fandom is a popular and well-enduring community that has existed for decades. Untied to any one specific property, furries have delved deeply into creating their own worlds and characters in addition to celebrating existing ones. Even in tabletop there have been worlds centering around people with animalistic qualities, such as Albedo and Ironclaw.In regards to Dungeons & Dragons, anthropomorphic animals have been around the game’s earliest incarnations, but typically took on the roles of hostile monsters, often low-level cannon fodder or non-magical brutes. While more recent Editions of D&D and spinoff clones have made playable options, the concept of a fur-centric setting in the vein of Ironclaw is overall pretty rare, and existing furry races such as kenku or tabaxi don’t have as much staying power in the game’s conception in comparison to dwarves or elves.The Delver’s Guide to Beast World was made as a love letter to the furry community, a 5th Edition-compatible setting where bipedal talking animals, from crafty and playful vulpines to patient and gentle ovines, are the dominant peoples of the world. The concept of adventurers, or more popularly known as delvers, are a recent concept created in response to a mysterious phenomenon of an extraplanar Dungeon appearing across the land. Delving crews stay on the move in tricked-out wagons to find and explore new Dungeon incursions.The book’s introduction opens up with a “Dear Reader” introduction by the author, followed by FAQ and Primers on Beast World to set up some ground rules. To briefly discuss some of them:Walking animal-like people are known as Beasts, and non-sentient creatures are called animals or “quiet-minded beasts.” Quiet-minded beasts are more or less treated as animals are in the real world. Beasts can reproduce with each other, although their children take on the physical form of one of the parents and not both. The overall technology levels are around the Renaissance, the setting is “high magic” in that spells and magical items are commonly used in most population centers, and the creation of the world was pretty recent, taking place 1365 years ago. Humans exist in the setting, but they are more colloquially known as Brethren and come from another plane of existence known as the Broken World. Fifteen years ago the Brethren governments invaded and failed to take over the Beast World. There is a pantheon of gods, although the most popular one is Pirhoua, the “Beast Mother” who is credited as granting intelligence to the Beasts of the world. The known world is a single continent surrounded by seas with some outlying islands, and it’s unknown whether the world is flat or a globe.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/f8JcHXK.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Chapter 1: Delvers and the DungeonThe first chapter covers the Dungeon and society’s response to it. The Dungeon’s incursions into the Beast World are recent, taking place shortly after the Pilgrimage which is when the survivors of humanity fled the Broken World and settled in the Beast World. Formed from veterans of the recent war, academics interested in studying its workings, and people seeking to get rich and famous from treasure hunting, delvers were drawn from many walks of life. It wasn’t long before their mutual experiences created a distinct subculture and even service industry revolving around “dungeon-delving.” A group of delvers is often known as a crew, commonly sharing a wagon, and multiple wagons and hangers-on make up a caravan. Caravans include delvers and those who support them such as artisans and merchants. The largest caravan is known as Littfeld, which is effectively a mobile town. Caravans serve as a safe haven for delvers on the road, and wagons rarely remain simple for long, becoming enhanced with magical reinforcements and machinery for a variety of needs. Delvers often like to brag about and compare their wagon features in a manner similar to drag racers showing off their rides.Beyond just the people who directly explore the dungeon, there are supplemental occupations and subcultures who interact with delvers. Scouts are people who collect rumors, conduct research, and search for leads of Dungeon appearances to point Delvers in the right direction. Dungeoneers are a disorganized subculture who believe that the Dungeon is a living creature, and in understanding its behavior can learn more about its essential nature: some dungeoneers believe that establishing communication can open up negotiation with the Dungeon in negating its dangers, to use for their own purposes, or merely for education’s sake.The strange treasures and odd life forms that come out of the Dungeon, along with the power and talents of Delvers, means that the political powers of the world have taken an interest in them both. Centers of learning are always in need of samples for research, nobles want unique items to show off in their collections, and towns appreciate the appearance of Delvers to keep them safe from dangers, Dungeon-related and otherwise. However, the newness of the subculture means that it doesn’t have the staying power of generations-long dynasties, and the danger of the occupation means that there are precious few true “delver veterans.”<img src="https://i.imgur.com/RAkesKK.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Dungeon’s true nature is a mystery of the setting, something for the DM to develop for their own games. Beyond this, the Dungeon has some common features: first off it doesn’t abide by the logic of a place meant to be lived in, being closer to the logic of a weird dream or obstacle course for adventurers to overcome than an architect thinking of how its monstrous inhabitants can live and move around in long-term. Basically, think of the dungeons that you see in a lot of video games. Monsters in the Dungeon aren’t willful creatures or sentient, even if they can speak and adopt tactics, as their natures are driven by instinct.This chapter ends with a brief table of “wealth by level” for PCs, listing the average amount of gold pieces per dungeon delve and total savings per PC delver. This is done for a purpose, as the Delver’s Guide introduces wagons as a new scaling piece of mobile base/equipment for PCs to spend money on, and the wealth per level guidelines were made in line with this.The chapter ends with 50 leads for potential Dungeon sightings, all sorted by common terrain types.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/KvIlJjR.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Chapter 2: LittfeldThis and the next five chapters cover the major regions of Beast World. While mobile, Littfeld is special enough to have its own entry. Being the largest caravan of delvers, it is effectively a mobile town of around 200 people that makes a year-round trip around the major continent of the Beast World. Around half of its population are delvers, but the remaining 50% have never stepped foot inside the Dungeon and are made of family members, loved ones, and workers who help supplement the delving life. The caravan culture makes use of pictogram symbols that are woven into clothes and equipment, their colors and shape telling something about the wearer. One of the appendices in the back of the book has a detailed list of pictograms and how to make one’s own. Here are a few examples:<img src="https://i.imgur.com/yiLaGNx.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />There’s an informal tax system known as the “spoils due” that is ten percent of money made on each delve, discounting magic items but does include anything of value that can be sold. In exchange, the spoils are used to pay for upkeep on magical maintenance, labor unrelated to delving, and other things that keep the wheels of Littfeld turning so that delvers can focus on what they do best.To better reinforce the tight-knit community feel, several NPCs with names, pictures, backstories, and personality traits are provided to serve as shopkeepers and important figures. We’ll cover a few of them here. Chief Cullen McGuire is the leader of Littfeld, a happy wolf who doesn’t take life too seriously and is the name and fursona of the main author. Holly is a wolf bartender of Holly’s, a popular gathering point for people to swap tales, gather information, and make deals. Shaman Eunice is an elderly Brethren who sells curios from the Broken World, which are of advanced technology on par with our world’s 1990s. Hugo’s Lifesavers is manned by a fox who sells common adventuring goods. And Lucas and Grier are a rabbit and bear married couple who make regular clothes and specialized garments for adventurers, and often argue over how stylish or practical to make the latter clothes.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/KuW8aiY.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />All of the above shops have frequencies indicating how often they show up in Littfeld, and some have rotating goods of availability depending on when and where the caravan is located. While Hugo’s Lifesavers covers whatever you can find in the PHB, most other shops have unique items with their own prices and entries.Thoughts So Far: The Delver’s Guide to Beast World is off to a strong start. While its major selling point is D&D But With Furries, the setting has several unique points to make it stand on its own. Providing a built-in niche for the concept of adventurers is something I like, and making them part of a larger community in the form of caravans is a nice touch. Littfeld in particular is well-fleshed out, and in giving shopkeepers a face and also being mobile helps foster a connection with the economy/service side of adventuring no matter where the PCs go. Supplementary stuff in the form of custom wagons, pictos, scouts, and dungeoneers makes the delver culture feel both real and a growing yet haphazard one, highlighting the fact that it takes some very interesting and eccentric people to willingly journey into monster-filled dungeons.Join us next time as we cover the Kingdom of Allemance, our first major country in the Beast World!</blockquote>

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