Mini-Dungeon Monthly: RPG zine for D&D 5th Edition
Created by AAW Games
The new monthly RPG zine from AAW Games. Each issue features five brand-new Mini-Dungeon adventures for D&D 5th Edition #zinequest
Latest Updates from Our Project:
5% of surveys have already been sent to backers! Complete your survey and download issue #1!
about 5 years ago
– Sat, Feb 16, 2019 at 01:49:22 AM
We just sent out a smoke test to 5% of backers to make sure BackerKit surveys are working correctly. If you receive a survey tonight, please complete it as soon as possible so we can send out surveys to the other 95% of backers.
The sooner you complete your survey, the sooner you'll get the very first issue of Mini-Dungeon Monthly!
Thanks again for all your support and making this zine possible.
Jonathan G. Nelson
AAW Games
This Kickstarter is about to end and we have a HUGE announcement...
about 5 years ago
– Sat, Feb 16, 2019 at 01:47:58 AM
Huge News as this Kickstarter comes to an end at 10:07 am PST!
To say thank you for backing this project and as a giant last stretch goal we hope to add none other than legendary fantasy artist Larry Elmore to the cover of a future issue of Mini-Dungeon Monthly. Of course, a stretch goal is involved and we MUST hit $20k before the project ends in order to add Larry to this wild ride.
LARRY ELMORE!? How can I make this possible?
1. Spread the word (share the project before it ends).
2. Increase your pledge level (or select an add-on and increase your pledge)
Join us online!
Thank you for all your support on this Kickstarter and believing in AAW Games. We're super excited to bring you Mini-Dungeon Monthly and will be fulfilling the first issue soon after this Kickstarter concludes, so stay tuned! If you'd like to join us for the final party please hop into the comments to celebrate and share your ideas and feedback. We are online now!
Sincerely,
Jonathan G. Nelson
AAW Games
60 hours to go and I'm digging my way out of the snow!
about 5 years ago
– Tue, Feb 12, 2019 at 10:14:43 PM
Project Update / Featured Preview: Umbravania / Three Days Left!
about 5 years ago
– Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 11:07:24 PM
Good morning everyone!
My personal apology for the lack of updates, we've been digging ourselves out of quite a bit of snow here in Snoqualmie, WA. Three snowstorms in a row have left us fairly deep in the cold, powdery stuff so there's been a lot of time spent shoveling, stocking up, and keeping the fires going here at home. On top of that, kids have been home and missing some school, although I can't say they're missing it!
Now that I'm back at the helm I figured I best send out an update as there are only THREE DAYS left to go before this awesome Kickstarter comes to a close. Thank you all for making this zine a reality.
Project Update on Issue #1
Just to let you know where we are as a team: issue #1 of Mini-Dungeon Monthly is complete. We've compiled the files and uploaded to DriveThruRPG.com where we await approval of our print files. Once approved we'll do a print proof to double check that everything is in order and printing correctly. When this is confirmed we can trigger print codes for all of you. So, the timeline for PDF fulfillment of the first issue will literally be as soon as this project concludes with print files to be available within 1-2 weeks after that- pending you completing your BackerKit surveys.
Issues #2 and #3
I've already written two Mini-Dungeons for issue #2- Roots of the Yggdrasil and Malice on Jade Mountain, I'm also working on a new "Survive" themed adventure for issue #3: Survive: In an Elemental Centrifuge.
I hope you're all ready for some very exciting adventures coming soon in Mini-Dungeon Monthly!
Something Exciting!
Oh, and if you haven't already done so please check out our Twitter page for something interesting and remember to share this project with all your 5E friends and fans, the more who pledge = the more stretch goals we unlock. Speaking of stretch goals, here's a recap of what's been unlocked thus far (and what's ahead):
BACKERS! Make sure you snag your LICH T-SHIRT at cost by using the code and link below at the 10k Stretch Goal listed. This is a limited print T-shirt which means when they're sold out, they're gone for good!
Featured Preview: Umbravania (Series)
by Justin Andrew Mason
This place is a dark land of gothic horror. It exists in between the tides of time, beneath the shadows, and apart from the ordinary. The mysterious fog that links the normal world with the terrors herein is a mystery, but you know with incontrovertible certainty that you have come to a place of tilted reality.
This series of non-linear Mini-Dungeons riffs off of well-known classic horror themes and applies a new twist to those beloved tales. Each is a stand-alone adventure, but as a whole they bear witness to the denizens and locales of the weird and eerie realm known as Umbravania.
The first installment in the series, “The Whispers in the Hollow” delves beneath the roots of the soul, where dark secrets lurk between incoherent thoughts and fear swells from the unknowable.
While experimenting with antediluvian occult rituals, a dark magician accidentally summons something ancient. Devil nor demon, but a primordial entity – something from before when the stars were wrought from cosmic fire.
Now beckoning tongues never intended for mortal perception wrack the magician and denizens from a nearby village with lingering confusion and madness.
Are the adventurers bold enough to brave the unknowable whispers and delve into the magician’s dark lair? Can their minds withstand insanity as it steals deeper into their psyche? If they falter, who knows what terrible fate awaits them?
If you'd like to increase your pledge level or snag any add-ons, don't wait! This project end in just THREE DAYS!
To include an add-on item as part of your pledge, do the following steps:
1. Click on the “Manage Your Pledge” button.
2. Click the “Change Your Pledge” button.
3. Adjust the amount of your pledge by adding the funds to cover the cost of the add-on item you want to include.
4. Click on the "Continue" button after adding funds, and then click the “Confirm” button.
That’s all you need to do! When the campaign ends we will send a survey out to all backers where you will have the option to indicate which add-on item you provided additional funds to receive.
I'd like to thank you for backing this project and supporting the #ZineQuest Initiative. Kickstarter Games' priority in February is being a catalyst to spark some wildfires of creativity which will burn the tavern down and expose all the wild and imaginative things writers and creators have dreamt up. AAW Games is happy to be a part of this.
Writing
I did a lot of writing in the early days, frequently locking myself in a closet with a typewriter or notebook, in order to pound out an adventure over the weekend, sending them to the rest of the team to edit, layout, and release within just a few short days so we could keep up with our self-imposed schedule of insanity, releasing one brand-new, full-length adventure, every single week. Yeah, crazy, right?
(JGN- I know, typewriter. You're wondering if I'm insane. Short answer? Yes. Long answer? I wanted to disconnect from computers and just connect with creativity directly through pen to paper or key to paper, there's something more tactile and real about writing in this way, call me crazy if you'd like. Creative people are weird and eccentric, right?)
I wrote most of the content for my company from 2010-2014 but eventually, I ran out of time and had to make a decision to either fall behind in our release schedule or accept the role of publisher, I decided on the latter. While it really is great running the company, and making sure all these creative projects come together, playing publisher took away the very spark that got me started in the first place, writing!
Now, after all these years I am finally returning to my roots.
Returning to my Roots
It all started with a home game I've been running for D&D 5th Edition, it's a planar adventure the likes of which you've probably never played or even dreamt of playing. Take everything you know about tabletop RPGs and the way things work, then flip them on their heads. My players were baffled, amazed, and simply astounded at the crazy and wild ride I took them on.
Many of the locations I wrote up came to life for me so I translated these into Mini-Dungeons, the first of which appears in issue #1 with a new monster and as the featured cover art with a roc hatchling, quite fitting and ironic considering the symbolism involved. The adventure itself is described in some detail, below.
A Roc’s nest you say? Atop a tree in the forest? Now, an egg or hatchling would fetch a fair price at market but what if ye raised and trained a chick from birth? Imagine the possibilities!
Two demon slayers, ye heard right, demon slayers, hailing from the Nine Hells they said they were! All decked out with sigil covered swords and such. Serves those blokes right that a bird the size of a building dun snatched them up, takin’ em back to ‘er nest in the forest. Know anyone who can climb?
Yes, a roc's nest, that means eggs, hatchlings and a mama, a very angry mama if there are adventurers invading her nest and quite possibly a papa roc off searching for some food for his chicks as well. Rocs are gargantuan creatures, so quite obviously, the chicks are huge, hungry, and ready to consume some hearty adventurers.
The best part about writing this adventure was the wide range of levels I was able to incorporate. Since you could encounter just a couple hatchlings up to five as well as one roc parent or both meant I could gear this adventure for characters of 10th-12th, 12th-14th, or 16th-20th level.
Before my gaming group arrived here they had been exploring the literal emotional wasteland that is the Grey Waste, on the first layer known as Oinos. After a lot of wild scenarios involving a Blood War battlefield, the River Styx, a night hag, and even the Realm of the Dead itself, the party found themselves plummeting to their deaths in Niflheim, the second layer of the wastes. Luckily, a polymorphing temporary ally of the party was able to save them and land safely in a roc's nest. A roc's nest!? Are you crazy!?
So that's how it all began in our group but the adventure I wrote allows for you to drop this roc's nest into any adventure or ongoing campaign quite easily. You just need a massive tree with great limbs to hoist and hold the mighty nest of these gargantuan beauties up in the air! The party might be coming to the nest to retrieve an item brought there by one of the rocs whilst transporting food in the form of slain humanoids or perhaps the adventurers are simply curious about what awaits them up in that nest in the tallest tree in the forest, or they've come to try and capture an egg for themselves, just think about the possibilities for someone who befriends and trains a roc hatchling!
There's much to do inside and outside the nest, dangerous critters to avoid, slippery or unsafe branches to cross, dangerous new monsters (with stats to accompany the adventure), and wonderful treasure to plunder from the unfortunate souls whose dissected corpses now litter the nest.
I don't want to give too much more away here but needless to say, I think you'll enjoy this adventure.
What else am I writing?
Next time I'll tell you about something I'm writing for issue #2 called Roots of the Yggdrasil where the adventurers must sneak past Níðhöggr at the base of the Yggdrasil, but that's a story for another day.
