A Closer Look at the Core Book
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Apr 15, 2025 at 09:53:31 AM
Hello friends!
After a whirlwind end to the campaign last week we took a few days for some much needed R&R, but now we’re back at it — and diving into making the books! Today I wanted to share a chapter breakdown of the core rulebook, to give you an idea of what you can expect. We’ll dive into the setting guide in a future update.
Just a quick note before we dive in, the Pledge Manager will be open in a few weeks but there’s nothing you need to do right now. We’ll be in touch as soon as it's open. Now, on to the corebook!
Beyond the Woods Core Rulebook
The corebook has everything you need to play Beyond the Woods, or to run hexcrawl campaigns in your preferred setting. Here’s what’s inside:
- 1. The Known World: An introduction to the world of Beyond the Woods and the lands of Tír Nascath. Gives insight into what to expect from the game, changes to 5th edition, and information on exactly what your character knows about the world when they leave Céad Darach.
- 2. Character Creation: This chapter guides you through character creation, using a new Lifepath system to generate your Ability Score bonuses, gain proficiencies with various skills and tools, learn about your childhood, discover your role in Céad Darach, and build a life and history for your character within the city.
- 3. Species: Details on each of the five Species (Aos Sí, Baloran, Changeling, Daoine, and Púca) including physical description, their place in the world, their relationship with their origin and those around them, and then the mechanical bonuses (or penalties) they receive.
- 4. Classes: This chapter describes each of the six new Classes — Channeller, Draoi, Hunter, Mage, Storyteller, and Warrior. It details the life of each class, their purpose within Céad Darach, why they would leave, and then explains the various class features and subclasses (three for each class thanks to you!).
- 5. Rules: New rules for exploration, survival, encumbrance, hexcrawling, and anything else you need. This chapter is very close to what you’ll find in the Quick Start, but includes some new mechanics we haven’t shared yet, including Luck and Heroic Sacrifice.
- 6. Talents: This chapter includes dozens of Talents to customise your character. Talents are a little like Feats, but mechanically weaker — but you get them more often. They offer a lot of flavour and variety to help make your characters feel different.
- 7. Equipment: Contains all the equipment you’ll need to (hopefully) survive your trip beyond the woods! Includes tonnes of new adventuring gear (or new rules for existing gear), such as hunting traps, healing salves, iron filings, noise traps, and more. This chapter also includes information on how commerce and trade works within the city, the price of food, and the cost of mounts and how much they can carry.
- 8. Bastions and Outposts: Eventually you will get so far from Céad Darach that returning to the city could take months. This chapter gives you new rules for establishing bastions and beyond the city. These can be isolated ruins that you’ve secured as a safe place to rest, or a long-forgotten village that you are rebuilding. You can build up these bastions, add new features, and even bring settlers from Céad Darach to help you establish a new home.
- 9. Magic: Much of the ancient magic of the world has been forgotten or lost. This chapter gives spell lists for each of the spellcasting classes, lists Rare spells that can be found in the world, and Lost spells that have been forgotten forever. This chapter also includes a collection of brand new spells unique to Beyond the Woods.
- 10. The Unknown World: This chapter is for GM’s eyes only! It gives advice on running the game, the themes and tone of the world, and secret knowledge about the past and current state of Tír Nascath. This chapter also includes dozens of encounters for GMs to use as their players explore the world.
So that's what you can expect from the Beyond the Woods Core Rulebook. What are you most excited about? We’d love to hear from you. And if you want to join the discussion, be sure to join the Discord to chat with other backers — and me!
Thanks again for all your support. We’ll be back next week with another update. In the meantime, check out some of these awesome projects from some of our friends.
Sláinte
- Emmet
The Planar Codex
Following a successful Kickstarter, our good friends at Daggerwood Games have just released The Planar Codex for 5e. I’ve known the team behind this for years and worked with them on dozens of projects, so I know for a fact that they do good work. Definitely pick it up if you’re planning a planar campaign!
The Planar Codex for 5e D&D features 108 new subclasses, 18 new species, 36 new spells, and 54 new feats, each themed around one of nine familiar planes of existence like the Iron Hells, the Immutable City of Cogs, the Bright Wylds, the Scintillating Fey Courts, and the Shadowscape.
Everything you find in this book is rigorously mechanically checked and balanced alongside existing 5e options to make sure they can drop into your game without disturbing the balance, all while introducing new approaches and mechanics to allow each option to feel unique and representative of the planes that inspired them.
Want to play a hulking hell-forged war machine who grinds their enemies beneath their iron-shod heel? Try a shackle soul Ironmonger from the Iron Hells.
Want to play a sentient fungus golem who uses clockwork and ingenuity to create mechanical familiars? Try a sybinid Mechanist rogue from the Immutable City of Cogs.
The planes are more vast than you realize. Pick up a copy of The Planar Codex so you don't have to face them unprepared!
- PDF (available now): https://www.daggerwood.com/product-page/the-planar-codex-pdf
- Hardcover Premium Edition (pre-order): https://www.daggerwood.com/product-page/the-planar-codex
- DrivethruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/516182/the-planar-codex-5e
Fae: The Wild Hunt
The Kickstarter for Fae: The Wild Hunt — 10th Anniversary Special Edition brings to life 350 pages of dark epic fantasy bound up in a foiled dust jacket and hardcover boards, sprayed edges, colour end papers, chapter art, slip case and a brand new map.
Fae: The Wild Hunt is the first book in the completed Riven Wyrde Saga by award winning author Graham Austin-King, an epic fantasy set in a world torn apart by war, where ancient knowledge of the fae has been lost to myth.
A coming of age story packed with dark magic, fierce battles and political intrigue, Fae: The Wild Hunt is perfect for fans of Patrick Rothfuss, Peter V. Brett, and Brandon Sanderson.
