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.

 

[LongTimeLurker]

Adventure #1: PCs are hired by some local merchants to beat down a rabble rouser causing problems at the Temp!e.

Adventure #2: PCs are hired by the parents of some boys who were killed by bears belonging to a vengeful druid named Elisha.

 

[dave2008]

A population that is more strictly Bible-oriented will maintain the biblical outlook, which is mainly only humans and one infinite Divinity, where angels are little more than the interaction between the two.

Sorry, I didn't get past this paragraph in your response. This is most likely an inaccurate assumption and the biggest problem with the scholarly approach. We do not know what people of the time and place thought. You are making a huge leap to think the scholarly biblical approach was the generally understood interpretation of the time and place. If fact, IMO one needs only look around slightly to see how inaccurate that assumption that is. What we find out about the past in archeology and historical texts is simply inaccurate on how people actually lived and more importantly what they believed.

 

[Yaarel]

Sorry, I didn't get past this paragraph in your response. This is most likely an inaccurate assumption and the biggest problem with the scholarly approach. We do not know what people of the time and place thought. You are making a huge leap to think the scholarly biblical approach was the generally understood interpretation of the time and place. If fact, IMO one needs only look around slightly to see how inaccurate that assumption that is. What we find out about the past in archeology and historical texts is simply inaccurate on how people actually lived and more importantly what they believed.

We do know what the peoples of the time thought because they wrote stuff down.

There is a good sense of before, after, and during the 1st century.

The wildcard is the Kings James Version translation, written in the 1600s, long after the events in question, that many English-speakers today are familiar with.

 

[dave2008]

We do know what the peoples of the time thought because they wrote stuff down.

Your hubris is not surprising. We don't know and assuming we do based on a few writings is extremely problematic IMO.

 

[Yaarel]

Your hubris is not surprising. We don't know and assuming we do based on a few writings is extremely problematic IMO.

As long as one is treating the texts cautiously and critically, including noting that they are written by elites, the texts are highly useful to archeology, and often illuminate the usage of the material cultures that we recover.

Documents like Josephus, Plinius, Early Rabbinic texts, the New Testament, Dead Sea Scrolls, and many other documents remain useful for archeological reconstructions.

 

[dave2008]

As long as one is treating the texts cautiously and critically, including noting that they are written by elites, the texts are highly useful to archeology, and often illuminate the usage of the material cultures that we recover.

Documents like Josephus, Plinius, Early Rabbinic texts, the New Testament, Dead Sea Scrolls, and many other documents remain useful for archeological reconstructions.

I agree, but we can't make assumptions that they tell us what people actually thought, felt, and believed in a particular time and place.

 

[Yaarel]

I agree, but we can't make assumptions that they tell us what people actually thought, felt, and believed in a particular time and place.

They actually wrote down what they thought, felt, and believed, during the particular time and place.

 

[dave2008]

They actually wrote down what they thought, felt, and believed, during the particular time and place.

An infinitesimally small number of people. Such a small portion that, though not archeologically irrelevant, it is statistically irrelevant

 

[LongTimeLurker]

Adventure #3: PCs are hired by by a concerned cleric of a local faith. He's worried about his lost brother who's been wandering in the nearby desert for at least 40 days.

Adventure #4: PCs are hired by a local king, say Doreh the First, to hunt down a doppleganger masquerading as a child.

 

[LongTimeLurker]

Adventure #6: PCs are tasked by a destitue farmer to find the scoundrel who drove his herd of pigs into the sea and to extract vengence!

Adventure #7: PCs are hired by a well-to-do fruit merchant who wants them to track down the scofflaws using drudical magic to wither his immature fig trees.