The co-creator of popular franchises like Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft has announced a new campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons. Last year, Chris Metzen, formerly the Senior Vice President, Story and Franchise Development of Blizzard Entertainment, launched his own tabletop company Warchief Gaming, with the intent to produce tabletop RPG projects. This week, Warchief Gaming announced its first project – a campaign setting book for the new project Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent, which is based off of Metzen’s home campaign. The new book, Worldbook: Lawbrand, will be a Dungeons & Dragons 5E sourcebook with new subclasses and a new system that allows players to tap into the universal power of the Auroboros by tapping into magical tattoos.
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Metzen discussed the project in an interview with Dicebreaker and explained the basic setting of Lawbrand and the new character options. Lawbrand is a series of densely populated urbanised trade cities. One unique aspect of Lawbrand is that bands are a “big deal” in the campaign setting, a result of the need for self-expression in the face of social pressures. Additionally, players can choose to obtain a sigil, a magic tattoo that allows them to tap into the Auroboros, the World Serpent that coils its way through reality. These sigils allow players to access the Coils of the Serpent, a new mechanic totally separate from class levels. The Coils of the Serpent allow players to use immensely destructive powers or perform miracles, but at the risk of madness or death.
The book will also come with several new subclasses, including a Rogue subclass with vampiric abilities, and a Fighter subclass with the ability to morph their bodies into animal parts. There’s also a new warlock subcalss that can suck souls into magic tattoos, or a monk subclass that creates a “sphere of influence” that grows over time.
Warchief Gaming will be running a Kickstarter for Worldbook: Lawbrand that will launch on April 20th. This is the first in a planned line of books set in the same world, which will include adventures and additional campaign setting books.
