Best of DMs Guild
Sites like RPGNow and DMs Guild contain a huge amount of content, with more being added all the time. With that much material being produced it can be difficult to find the really good stuff – and for writers like myself, it can be hard to stand out.
One of the things I want Loot The Room to be is somewhere I can collect all the awesome resources I find on these sites. With that in mind, I’m starting a monthly post collating some of the best things I’ve found on DMs Guild. I’m going to limit these posts to 5 or 6 things released recently that I think you should check out. The idea is that I’ll do some of the sifting for you – and hopefully give a little bit of exposure to new products that might not have been seen by many people yet.
With that in mind, lets dive in to what I’ve been looking at this month. (Not all of these products are new, but in future posts I’ll restrict myself to recent books.)
Treasure Hunter Background by Phil Beckwith
A really flavourful background that does a great job of channeling the Indiana Jones archetype that very obviously inspired it. My only quibble is that the Feature provides an in-game mechanical advantage – something that the backgrounds in the PHB avoid doing – but it works so well thematically that I’d be more than happy to allow it as a DM. Really well written, and a great-looking book that’s also Pay What You Want.
Tommy’s Terrific Treasures by Thomas Huff
From treasure hunting to treasures themselves, this short book contains 5 pages of new magical items. Anyone who has seen any of my work will know what a sucker I am for book and film references, and these items absolutely scratch my itch. They’re fun, inventive, and seem well-balanced. I’m definitely going to be dishing some of these out to my players. This is another Pay What You Want title.
Remnant Magic Items by Kyle Carty
More magical items, these time with a twist: all of these treasures are imbued with some element of their former owner’s personality. there are only 6 items here, but they’re packed with flavour and have some interesting effects. Again, Pay What You Want, and well worth checking out.
The Stitched by Mark A. Hart
I’m not familiar with the Haunted Realms, but it sounds like something I could get behind – a setting where the mists of Ravenloft have taken over the Forgotten Realms, blending the two into a post-apocalyptic nightmare. The Stitched is a new player race somewhere between a zombie and a sentient golem that reminds me a little of a the Warforged from Eberron translated into a horror setting. The new backgrounds do a really good job of painting a picture of what life as a sentient construct would be – I particularly like the Soul-Bound background. I haven’t had a chance to playtest this race yet, but I really love it and I’m excited to try it. This one is $1.99, but I’d definitely say it’s worth it.
Bale’s Outfitting Outpost by Jeff C. Stevens
The book that inspired my own travelling merchant, Barnum Rekel (who you’ll be hearing more about very soon). Great as a one-stop shop for your party or a recurring location for when they need to re-equip or sell their loot, this book comes with details of the shop, Bale himself, a list of new items and some fun adventures that can be scaled easily to different party levels. There’s a lot of humour in this book, and Bale is a lot of fun to play. It’s only $1.00, and it’s well worth it.
That’s it for this month. Check back soon for more, and let me know in the comments if you’ve found anything you think is worth sharing. And don’t forget to check out Dark Deeds if you haven’t already!