Please Help: I need a good sourcebook or two on fantasy dwarves Tolkien style

Ralif Redhammer · Apr 15, 2019

It's not a gaming book, but I'd recommend Walsh & Wenzel's Kingdom of the Dwarfs. Filled with all sorts of cultural and historical descriptions, and some great art. The premise of it is that present day (ish, I think the book was published in 1980) archaeologists discover what turns out to be the ruins of a dwarven kingdom during a dig. From there, it tells the rise and fall of the kingdom and its people.

twofalls · Apr 15, 2019

First thank you for all the responses. To answer a few questions, this is for 5e D&D and what I'm looking for is more fluff than crunch. In fact I care little at all for the later. I'm going to be creating a Dwarven culture for the party, and need ideas for that. I will check out some of these source books.

MNblockhead · Apr 15, 2019

Check out the indie film Dwarves of Dragon Mountain (http://filmthreat.com/reviews/dragon-mountain/) for an interesting, familiar but more steam-punk, depiction of Dwarves. It is available for streaming from Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/Dwarves-Drag...agon+mountain&qid=1555368134&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Voadam · Apr 16, 2019

Burok Torn from the Scarred Lands setting is another good one I enjoyed. It is for the Scarred Lands setting and has dwarves with a super strong warrior and rune magic tradition appropriate for a setting with D&D magic. If you want dwarven wizards then I'd look here first.

I don't have their sourcebook on the LE not-Asmodeus/not-Bane worshipping Charduni dwarves The Faithful and the Forsaken so I can't speak as to its quality.

twofalls · Apr 16, 2019

Voadam, thank you for reminding me of this, I own all the Scarred Lands material. That society was Lawful Evil if I recall correctly, and very atypical of most dwarven fantasy settings. I will take a look at it again.

Voadam · Apr 16, 2019

twofalls said:
Voadam, thank you for reminding me of this, I own all the Scarred Lands material. That society was Lawful Evil if I recall correctly, and very atypical of most dwarven fantasy settings. I will take a look at it again.

I liked them enough as a concept to throw their fallen cross-continent empire into my Golarion/Ptolus/Other homebrew setting's history to be part of the past when dwarves and elves ruled most everything.

BookBarbarian · Apr 16, 2019

Cubicle7 just released The Lonely Mountain Region guide for Adventures in Middle-Earth. http://shop.cubicle7store.com/Adventures-in-Middle-earth-Lonely-Mountain-Region-Guide-PDF

I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to adapt to a standard 5e game.

twofalls · Apr 16, 2019

Ralif Redhammer said:
It's not a gaming book, but I'd recommend Walsh & Wenzel's Kingdom of the Dwarfs. Filled with all sorts of cultural and historical descriptions, and some great art. The premise of it is that present day (ish, I think the book was published in 1980) archaeologists discover what turns out to be the ruins of a dwarven kingdom during a dig. From there, it tells the rise and fall of the kingdom and its people.

Purchased a used copy. Thanks.

twofalls · Apr 16, 2019

aco175 said:
Hammer and Helm by Green Ronin, I think. A 3e supplement which I used a few things out of.

Picked up a used copy, thank you.

Ralif Redhammer · Apr 17, 2019

Hope it helps! I only discovered the book relatively recently. Considering how I grew up reading Huygen & Poortvliet's Gnomes, and dwarves are one of my favorites, the book was right up my alley.