Actor Joe Manganiello has joined a new Dungeons & Dragons project by the creators of the original Ravenloft adventure. Earlier this week, the Justice League star and D&D enthusiast announced that he had joined the team of Skyraiders of Abarax, a new Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting created by Tracy and Laura Hickman. The Hickmans are seminal D&D designers, having created the first Ravenloft adventure that introduced the infamous Strahd von Barovich to D&D canon as well as the Dragonlance universe popularized in a series of novels written by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. The Kickstarter for Skyraiders of Abarax launched today and has nearly doubled its initial $60,000 goal as of press time. Manganiello is joining the team as a creative consultant, shaping the world with an eye toward play and character.
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Skyraiders of Abarax offers up a 5E experience with several unique additions. Classes have been replaced with professions, alignment has been replaced with a more dynamic “ethos” system that allows for character growth, and character races have been replaced with an ancestry and culture system. The project will also use a “Living Tome” system, a downloadable app that offers several augmented reality features (such as a soundtrack and environmental system that changes based on the state of the campaign) as well as cooperative mini-games that can be played on mobile devices, and dynamic and random events with secrets that can be passed along to different players in secrets. One example shown in the Kickstarter is the DM randomly choosing a player to be possessed by a wraith, which that player is informed via their own app.
Other creators involved with Skyraiders of Abarax include Dragonlance veterans Larry Elmore, Karl Pruesser, and Matt Stawicki.
Backers of Skyraiders of Abarax can receive a digital copy of the Skyraider’s Almanac and the Skyraider’s Handbook for a $30 pledge, or a physical copy of one of the two books for $50. Both books are available with a $100 pledge. Special Collector’s Editions are also available for higher level pledges. The Kickstarter for Skyraiders of Abarax will run through November 16th.
