The Delvers Guide to Beast World: A Comprehensive Overview
The Delvers Guide to Beast World is a 5th Edition-compatible campaign setting. It is a love letter to the furry community, where anthropomorphic animals are dominant. This guide offers new species, subclasses, wagon customization rules, and delve into the Dungeon’s influence.
What is the Delvers Guide to Beast World?
The Delvers Guide to Beast World is a comprehensive, 400-page, third-party campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, published by Heartleaf Games. Unlike typical fantasy settings populated by demi-humans, Beast World is inhabited by anthropomorphic animals, alongside humans known as Brethren. Fifteen years ago, an army invaded Beast World, marking a turning point.
This guide serves as a love letter to the furry community, offering a 5E-compatible setting with bipedal, talking animals as the dominant inhabitants. It introduces the concept of “delvers”—adventurers who explore the Dungeon that has spread beneath the Beast World, seeking treasure and adventure.
The guide includes full rules for wagon vehicle encounters and customization, twelve new subclasses, and thirty-two new race options split into distinct species, each with unique homeland options. It provides everything needed to run games, including comprehensive rules for creating customizable delver wagons. These act as mobile bases for player crews, complete with over a hundred wagon attachments and multiple wagon models. The guide also features robust vehicle rules for dynamic mobile encounters, ensuring an immersive and engaging experience.
Core Concepts of the Beast World Setting
The Beast World is a unique campaign setting where anthropomorphic animals, not typical fantasy races, are the dominant inhabitants. Humans, referred to as Brethren, also reside within this world. A central element is the Dungeon, an expansive and mysterious area that has spread underneath the Beast World, becoming a focal point for adventure and exploration.
A key concept is the role of “delvers,” adventurers who brave the dangers of the Dungeon in search of treasure and knowledge. These delvers often travel in caravans using customizable wagons. Wagons serve as mobile homes and fortresses, equipped with various attachments and furnishings to enhance their capabilities. The setting emphasizes the importance of cooperation and community, with caravans gathering to confront the Dungeon’s threats collectively.
Historians, cartographers, and huntmasters support delvers by providing information to unravel the Dungeon’s secrets. The Delvers Guide to Beast World provides the rules to create delver wagons, mobile bases for crews of players, and comes with wagon attachments. This includes robust vehicle rules to run awesome mobile encounters!
Species and Homeland Options
The Delvers Guide to Beast World introduces a diverse array of species, each with unique characteristics and abilities, offering players a departure from traditional fantasy races. These species, including crafty vulpines and gentle ovines, are anthropomorphic animals, forming the core population of the Beast World. The guide provides 33 new species options, allowing for extensive character customization.
Each species features distinct homeland options, further shaping the character’s background and origins. These homelands provide unique cultural and environmental contexts, influencing character traits and skills. This system allows players to create characters deeply rooted in the setting. The guide ensures that each species has traits and advancements that feel unique and flavorful.
These options let players choose from different backgrounds and environments, ensuring diverse character origins. With a focus on customization, the species and homeland system encourages players to create adventurers that are both mechanically distinct and narratively compelling, fostering a deeper connection to the Beast World and its inhabitants.
New Subclasses Available
The Delvers Guide to Beast World enriches the D&D 5th Edition experience by introducing 12 new subclasses, one for each of the standard classes. These subclasses are designed to integrate seamlessly into the Beast World setting, offering players unique ways to engage with its themes and challenges. These subclasses provide distinct abilities and playstyles, ensuring that characters feel both powerful and thematically appropriate.
Each subclass is tailored to the Beast World, incorporating elements of its lore and environment. Players can choose from a variety of options, allowing for diverse character builds and party compositions. These new subclasses provide unique abilities and features that highlight the distinct characteristics of the Beast World. They enhance the existing classes with innovative mechanics and thematic elements.
These subclasses not only expand the mechanical options available to players but also deepen their connection to the setting, allowing them to embody the spirit of the Beast World in their gameplay. This ensures that characters are both mechanically sound and narratively compelling, enriching the overall gaming experience.
Delver Wagons: Customization and Mechanics
Delver Wagons are a central element of gameplay in the Beast World, serving as mobile bases and customizable vehicles for adventuring parties. The Delvers Guide introduces comprehensive rules for creating and personalizing these wagons, allowing players to design their ideal mobile fortress. Each wagon can be customized with a variety of components, fittings, and furnishings, each offering unique benefits.
The customization options are extensive, including attachments that enhance combat capabilities, furnishings that improve living conditions, and components that bolster the wagon’s defenses. Players can modify their wagons to suit their specific needs and playstyles, creating a truly unique and personalized vehicle. The customization options provide a deep and engaging gameplay experience.
The guide includes detailed mechanics for operating and maintaining delver wagons, including rules for movement, repairs, and upgrades. These rules add a layer of strategic depth to the game, challenging players to manage their resources and crew effectively. Managing these aspects allows them to survive and thrive in the dangerous wilderness of the Beast World.
Wagon Encounters and Combat
The Delvers Guide to Beast World introduces a dynamic system for wagon encounters and combat, bringing a new dimension to 5th Edition gameplay. These encounters are designed to be engaging and challenging, forcing players to utilize their wagon’s capabilities and their crew’s skills to survive. The rules provide a framework for resolving conflicts involving wagons.
The guide includes rules for movement, positioning, and combat maneuvers specific to wagons. These rules add a layer of strategic depth to combat, requiring players to consider their wagon’s size, speed, and terrain. Wagon combat can involve ramming attacks, ranged bombardments, and boarding actions, all adding excitement and complexity to engagements.
Furthermore, the book offers a variety of wagon-specific monsters and threats, tailored to challenge even the most well-equipped delver crews. These creatures include rampaging beasts, cunning raiders, and environmental hazards, keeping players on their toes. The encounters are designed to be diverse, offering a mix of combat, exploration, and problem-solving opportunities, enhancing the gaming experience.
The Dungeon’s Influence on the Beast World
The Dungeon’s influence on the Beast World is profound and far-reaching, shaping its landscape, cultures, and the very lives of its inhabitants. Fifteen years ago, an army from a mysterious Dungeon invaded the Beast World, forever changing its destiny. This cataclysmic event marked the beginning of a new era, where the creeping tendrils of the Dungeon began to spread beneath the surface.
The Dungeon’s presence has led to the emergence of intrepid delving crews who seek out its depths for treasure and adventure. These delvers brave the perils of the Dungeon to uncover its secrets and reclaim lost artifacts. The Dungeon has also warped the environment, creating strange and dangerous landscapes filled with mutated creatures and arcane energies.
Moreover, the Dungeon has become a focal point of conflict, drawing various factions and organizations seeking to exploit its power. Historians, cartographers, and huntmasters work alongside delvers to unravel the Dungeon’s mysteries. The Dungeon’s influence is a constant reminder of the ever-present threat and the endless possibilities it holds.
Tools and Resources for Delvers
The Delvers Guide to Beast World provides a comprehensive toolkit for adventurers venturing into this unique setting. It features a 400-page campaign setting and expansion compatible with 5e games. The guide includes 33 new race options, split into species, each with distinct homeland options, enabling players to create diverse and compelling characters.
Delvers gain access to 12 new subclasses, one for each standard class, offering fresh perspectives on familiar roles. Full rules for wagon vehicle encounters and customization are provided, allowing players to build and modify their mobile fortresses. Two new equipment types encompass 197 components, fittings, and furnishings for customizing wagons, ensuring crews are well-equipped for any situation.
For those seeking additional support, the Deck of Delvers: Champions provides inspiration and guidance. The guide also includes monsters, spells, magic items, and maps specific to the Beast World. Purchasing the digital edition grants access to the full PDF of The Delvers Guide to Beast World, ensuring delvers have all the necessary resources at their fingertips.
Foundry VTT Integration
The Delvers Guide to Beast World offers seamless integration with Foundry Virtual Tabletop, enhancing the online play experience. A dedicated Foundry VTT module, created by Heartleaf Games, brings the Beast World to life with tailored content packs and features. These packs include actor and item sheets, ensuring characters and equipment are accurately represented within the virtual environment.
The module supports Foundry VTT versions 11 and 12, with regular updates to maintain compatibility and incorporate new features. Wagon character sheets, an alternate sheet type on top of Player Character sheets, allow players to manage their mobile fortresses effectively. Dragging actors onto the wagon sheet adds them to the crew, with features like “Impeccable Draught” automatically assigning draught beasts.
Wagon-specific items, such as attachments and furnishings, are easily managed within the Foundry VTT interface. Custom icons can be assigned to these items, updating the wagon schematic for visual clarity. The Foundry VTT integration streamlines gameplay, providing delvers with the tools they need to explore the Beast World collaboratively.
Community and Support
The Delvers Guide to Beast World boasts a vibrant community and comprehensive support system to aid players and game masters. Heartleaf Games actively fosters a welcoming environment where fans can connect, share experiences, and provide feedback. The easiest way to engage with the community is through the official Discord server, a hub for discussions, questions, and collaborative world-building.
Players can find assistance, report bugs, and suggest improvements through various channels. The Discord server also hosts events, game sessions, and Q&A sessions with the creators. Additionally, online forums and social media groups provide platforms for players to share their delver stories and artwork.
Heartleaf Games is committed to providing ongoing support for the Delvers Guide to Beast World. Regular updates and patches address issues, incorporate community feedback, and expand the setting. Comprehensive documentation, including a PDF version of the guide, is readily available. The community and support network ensures that delvers have the resources and assistance they need to thrive in the Beast World.
